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Out of all the bad picks, leave it to the GOP to put in the worse one. Traitor trump tells GOP to poop, they ask how deep. And boy does it get deep. They're creating a Santos sanctioned resume and praise for Jordan. What a bunch of worthless POS.
Pence: Jim Jordan would be an outstanding speaker
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 14, 2023
Collins: It's interesting to hear you say that given he was someone who sent a text to the chief of staff on January 5th that outlined for you to violate the constitution pic.twitter.com/tuDo3GuNsh
Surprising. A trump installed judge in Texas. Big win for democracy and voters. Maybe there's hope yet.
Federal Judge Strikes Down Galveston County, Texas Commissioners Court Districts for Violating Voting Rights Act
By Rachel Selzer
October 13, 2023
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/federal-judge-strikes-down-galveston-county-texas-commissioners-court-districts-for-violating-voting-rights-act
Throughout his opinion, Brown chronicled how the 2021 decennial redistricting process marked the first time in nearly four decades that Galveston County was free to alter its redistricting plans without federal oversight as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder.
Prior to the 2021 redistricting process, the county was subject to federal preclearance requirements under Section 5 of the VRA. As a jurisdiction with a sordid history of racial discrimination, the county was required to submit proposed changes to its redistricting plans and voting laws to the DOJ or a federal court for approval. Brown noted that on six separate occasions between 1976 and 2012, the DOJ objected to various Galveston County redistricting and election proposals. “Although Galveston County is no longer subject to preclearance, the defendants still must comply with the edicts of [Section 2],” the opinion reads.
Brown also described the significance of Precinct 3’s rich history of coalition-based minority electoral power against the backdrop “of ongoing discrimination affecting Black and Latino voting participation.” The opinion underscored how both past and present “discrimination against minorities in Galveston County harms their ability to participate equally in the electoral process” and perpetuates “[r]acial and ethnic disparities in education, income, housing, and public health.”
In addition to concluding that the plaintiffs satisfied all of the factors needed to prevail on a Section 2 claim, Brown highlighted how the commissioners court rushed the 2021 redistricting process and failed to consider any meaningful input from the public or from Precinct 3’s former Black representative, Stephen D. Holmes. Commissioner Holmes had represented Precinct 3 since 1999 and was the court’s only Black member at the time of the 2021 redistricting process. “[I]t is stunning how completely the county extinguished the Black and Latino communities’ voice on its commissioners court during 2021’s redistricting,” Brown wrote.
Towards the end of the opinion, Brown rebuffed the Republican commissioners’ arguments calling into question the constitutionality of Section 2 of the VRA, reminding them that a “five-justice majority” of the Supreme Court recently upheld Section 2 in Allen v. Milligan.
Brown emphatically concluded:
This is not a typical redistricting case. What happened here was stark and jarring. The commissioners court transformed Precinct 3 from the precinct with the highest percentage of Black and Latino residents to that with the lowest percentage.
Acknowledging that “Galveston County’s 2024 elections are imminent,” Brown ordered the commissioners court to submit a remedial plan that complies with Section 2 of the VRA and contains at least one majority-minority precinct by Oct. 20, 2023. The order states that if the “defendants fail or prefer not to submit a revised plan,” then they must implement a plan submitted by one of the plaintiffs’ experts by Nov. 1, 2023 for use in “all future elections until the commissioners court adopts a different plan.”
Philip Obaji Jr., an international journalist and correspondent for the Daily Beast, has been doing research and reporting on the Wagner Group in Africa for over two years now. At an International Center for Journalists sponsored event, some of his research was discussed.
What ICFJ Fellow Philip Obaji Jr. is Uncovering About the Wagner Group’s Activities in Africa
By: ICFJ | 09/27/2023
https://www.icfj.org/news/what-icfj-fellow-philip-obaji-jr-uncovering-about-wagner-groups-activities-africa
He can be followed at
https://twitter.com/PhilipObaji
Another one that's doing studies and investigations on the devastation Putin's mercenaries are doing over there. Reeking havoc, viciously killing, raping, and plundering, along with financing Putin's war on Ukraine (and the world). Including training Hamas. The actions of Wagner that get impaled upon the innocent and how they train are horridly similar to what Hamas just did.
https://twitter.com/alleyesonwagner
Good ol Malcom. I like him.
Putin, Wagner same dif. Goals, results, benefactors the same. I've got confidence in "Proof of connection will come soon enough. They can’t help themselves."
Better late than never I guess. Stating the obvious they can talk the talk, let's see how much walking the walk happens.
PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] urges the international community no longer to recognize Putin’s legitimacy as president beyond 2024
https://pace.coe.int/en/news/9254/pace-urges-the-international-community-no-longer-to-recognise-putin-s-legitimacy-as-president-beyond-2024
13/10/2023
Session
Pieter OMTZIGT (Netherlands, EPP/CD)
The Assembly today called on the member States of the Council of Europe “to recognize Vladimir Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term and to cease all contact with him, except for humanitarian contact and in the pursuit of peace.”
The Assembly emphasised that Vladimir Putin has held power as President or Prime Minister since 2000. Amendments to the Russian Constitution in July 2020 extended his potential presidency until 2036, raising concerns about the lack of checks and balances. This, coupled with growing repression against internal opponents and Russia's actions in Ukraine, underscores the cost of unchecked presidential power.
“The overwhelming power of the President resulting from the extremely long term in office combined with the lack of any checks and balances such as a strong parliament, an independent judiciary, free media and a vibrant civil society has turned the Russian Federation into a de facto dictatorship,” the parliamentarians said.
Unanimously adopting a resolution based on the report by Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, EPP/CD), the Assembly recalled the findings of the Council of Europe Venice Commission that “term limit waiver for the incumbent President violates both the Russian constitution and international legal principles.”
The Assembly pointed to the Russian aggression against Ukraine and its consequences as evidence that dictatorships “constitute a threat to the international peace and security and to the territorial integrity and political independence of their neighbours”, as defined in Article 2 of the UN Charter. Consequently, the parliamentarians asserted that restoring democracy in Russia is not only in the best interest of the Russian people but also of Europe and the entire world.
Lastly, the Assembly reaffirmed its support for the establishment of an ad hoc international criminal tribunal “to hold to account the Russian leadership, including Vladimir Putin”, accountable for their actions, starting with the unlawful annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas region, and the downing of flight MH17.
Far-right Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has won the Republican nomination for House Speaker, 124-81, against Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA).
— The Recount (@therecount) October 13, 2023
It's unclear if Jordan would get the 217 votes needed to be elected Speaker in a full House vote. https://t.co/RkCUsmOZhX
This will end well. Jordan is well qualified; to run and create chaos, back up and support molesters, help with insurrections, continuing to be the least effective in congress, destroy democracy, and follow traitor trump's orders. Good things for the American people? Not so much.
?“I'm going to support Jim Jordan … I think he's got the votes, but we'll see ... I think everybody has the right to run; I think Jim's better prepared in the process to be Speaker.”
— The Recount (@therecount) October 13, 2023
— Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), after GOP Speaker candidates' closed-door meeting pic.twitter.com/WE81t6pWKG
'Dehumanization, Lack of Empathy for Palestinians Is Alarming—and Dangerous'
BY KHALED ELGINDY ON 10/13/23 AT 11:32 AM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/dehumanization-lack-empathy-palestinians-alarming-dangerous-1834549
The scale and brutality of Hamas's grisly attack on Israel last Saturday, in which at least 1,300 Israeli men, women, and children were brutally murdered, has understandably triggered a massive outpouring of sympathy and solidarity with Israel from around the world, particularly in the United States, Europe and other western nations.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are also dying in disturbingly large numbers. In response to the mass terror attack, Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza, the most devastating the besieged enclave has ever seen. Already, 1,799 Palestinians have been killed, including 583 children, and 6,000 injured. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving over 423,000 internally displaced.
And yet, there has been no similar outpouring of sympathy for Palestinians. In fact, the U.S. and European powers have resisted formal calls for a ceasefire or even expressions of concern for Palestinian civilians, effectively giving Israel a greenlight to conduct its military operation as it sees fit. Even Israel's decision to cut all water, food, fuel and medical supplies to Gaza—considered a grave war crime under international law and something western officials have elsewhere decried as "acts of pure terror"—elicited no protests from western governments and even occasional defenses.
Even public displays of sympathy or solidarity with Palestinian victims are considered beyond the pale, widely condemned by elected U.S. officials as "cold-hearted" or even pro-terrorist. In the zero-sum environment of U.S. politics, only Israeli victims are worthy of being acknowledged.
The message is clear—the lives, suffering and humanity of Palestinians are less worthy than the lives, suffering and humanity of Israelis. This basic inability of U.S. and other western officials to express empathy with Palestinians or acknowledge their suffering is both alarming and dangerous given what Israel is capable of and already carrying out on the ground.
President Biden in particular, whose sincere and heartfelt solidarity with Israelis has been palpable, has been conspicuous in his inability to express any sort of empathy toward Palestinians—something even George W. Bush managed to do during the worst days of the Second Intifada. More alarming still is the dehumanizing and even genocidal rhetoric from Republican leaders to "level the place" or referring to Palestinians "savages" that "have to be eradicated." The facts that the attacks occurred in the context of the deep structural violence of a suffocating 16-year-old blockade and 56 years of Israeli military occupation, and all the indignities and deprivations they entail, are dismissed as irrelevant at best or moral equivocation at worst.
Indeed, we are told that there is no "moral equivalence" when it comes to the killing of innocents and the basic right to self-defense. While this is certainly true in principle, determinations of what is or is not considered "moral" are usually based less on the actions of the parties than on their identities. Thus, in Biden's words, "terrorists...purposefully target civilians," while democracies like the U.S. and Israel "uphold the laws of war." In other words, Israelis, in contrast to Palestinians, are incapable of committing atrocities by virtue of who they are—an idea that is both ahistorical and fundamentally racist. Moreover, self-defense is not unlimited—as we know from Israel's own record during this and previous conflicts, including indiscriminate bombings, reckless disregard for civilians, the use of prohibited weapons and other war crimes.
The current environment is especially ripe for atrocities given the unprecedented intensity of Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza and the inflammatory rhetoric of an Israeli political and military leadership motivated by a combination of trauma, humiliation and a stated desire for "vengeance." When the Israeli defense minister refers to two million Palestinians in Gaza as "human animals," anything and everything becomes possible. Likewise, threats by Israel's leaders to turn Gaza into a "deserted island" or that "Gaza will be city of tents," should be taken seriously, particularly when Israel has both the means and the motive to deliver.
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza as a result of sustained retaliatory air strikes by Israel after a large-scale attack by Hamas.
AHMAD HASABALLAH/GETTY IMAGES
The lack of outrage over the recent Israeli order for the entire population of northern Gaza, more than a million people, to evacuate south of the strip, which many view as a step toward mass expulsion and a prelude to deliver on the promise to "flatten" Gaza, affirms the status of Palestinians as a "lesser than" set of humans.
American and European officials who see themselves as champions of liberal and egalitarian values will no doubt chafe at the suggestion that they place greater value on some lives over others. But how else are we to explain U.S. and EU indifference to Israel's use of starvation as a weapon, or their ability to countenance the violent deaths of 500 children under the anonymized banner of "collateral damage"? Or to a 16-year blockade that, according to the United Nations, has already made Gaza "unlivable"? Or the ease with which inflammatory—and false—claims of decapitated babies and mass rapes were uncritically spread by U.S. and western media and officials, including the president himself.
Khaled Elgindy
Compassion and empathy are not zero-sum commodities, however. It is possible to grieve and honor the hundreds of Israeli women, children and men killed or injured in last Saturday's brutal attack without simultaneously devaluing the lives, suffering and basic humanity of Palestinians. In fact, any effective response to the current crisis would demand that we do so.
Khaled Elgindy is the director of the Middle East Institute's Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs and an adjunct professor in Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
An Alabama woman was imprisoned for ‘endangering’ her fetus. She gave birth in a jail shower
Exclusive: Ashley Caswell, one of a growing number of jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, is suing officials after she was denied care
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/13/alabama-pregnant-woman-jail-lawsuit
Sam Levin in Los Angeles
@SamTLevin
Fri 13 Oct 2023 14.00 EDT
In March 2021, sheriffs in Etowah county, Alabama, arrested Ashley Caswell on accusations that she’d tested positive for methamphetamine while pregnant and was “endangering” her fetus.
Caswell, who was two months pregnant at the time, became one of a growing number of women imprisoned in the county in the name of protecting their “unborn children”.
But over the next seven months of incarceration for “chemical endangerment” in the Etowah county detention center (ECDC), Caswell was denied regular access to prenatal visits, even as officials were aware her pregnancy was high-risk due to her hypertension and abnormal pap smears, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday against the county and the sheriff’s department. She was also denied her prescribed psychiatric medication and slept on a thin mat on the concrete floor of the detention center for her entire pregnancy.
In October, when her water broke and she pleaded to be taken to a hospital, her lawyer says, officials told her to “sleep it off” and “wait until Monday” to deliver – two days away.
During nearly 12 hours of labor, staff gave her only Tylenol for her pain, the suit says, allegedly telling her to “stop screaming”, to “deal with the pain” and that she was “not in full labor”. Caswell lost amniotic fluid and blood and was alone and standing up in a jail shower when she ultimately delivered her child, according to the complaint and her medical records. She nearly bled to death, her lawyers say.
After she was taken to a hospital, she was diagnosed with placental abruption, a condition in which the fetus separates from the wall of the uterus and is deprived of oxygen, meaning there was a risk of stillbirth. The baby survived, but Caswell was immediately separated from her newborn.
“Giving birth to my son without any medical help in the jail shower was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. My body was falling apart, and no one would listen to me. No one cared,” Caswell said in a statement. “I thought I’d lose my baby, my life, and never see my other kids again.”
The lawsuit, filed by the non-profit groups Pregnancy Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center, is the first case to challenge the conditions for jailed pregnant women in Etowah county, which advocates say is ramping up its prosecutions. Data suggests the county is the national leader in arresting women under the guise of protecting their fetuses.
“The sheer level of callousness here and complete disregard for human suffering is part of a broader scheme to criminalize and incarcerate as many pregnant women as possible in a way that is unprecedented across the country,” said Emma Roth, senior staff attorney at Pregnancy Justice.
Caswell’s experience, advocates say, shines a light on the life-threatening mistreatment and neglect that pregnant women can face behind bars. And, they argue, it exposes the consequences of the “fetal personhood movement”, which seeks to legally define fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as people. The concept, enshrined in expanding anti-abortion laws, has led to increased surveillance and criminalization of pregnant people, with women punished for the outcomes of their pregnancies or other actions that police claim endangered their fetuses.
After Caswell delivered her baby alone and lost consciousness, staff still refused to render aid and instead took photos of her baby without her consent, her lawyers allege. When she returned to the jail from the hospital, staff denied her access to her prescribed breast pump and ibuprofen.
“Etowah county claims they prosecute women to protect their fetus, or what they refer to as the ‘unborn child’, from harm. This case shows they’re doing precisely the opposite,” said Roth, who said the abuses Caswell endured were tantamount to “torture”. “Once [women like Caswell are] in jail, they’re deprived of the most basic prenatal care and humane living conditions.”
Caswell, who has faced several chemical endangerment charges over the years, is now in state prison, serving a 15-year sentence. She was convicted of a “Class C” felony endangerment, which doesn’t require evidence that the fetus was harmed, but merely exposed to substances.
Pregnancy Justice reported this year that Alabama had the highest number of pregnancy criminalization cases in the country from 2006 to 2022, the year Roe v Wade was overturned. The group logged 649 cases in which women in the state were arrested or faced other criminal consequences in the name of protecting their fetuses or to punish actions that authorities said endangered their pregnancies. Etowah county has the highest rate of these arrests in the state, the Alabama news site AL.com recently reported, citing 257 arrests of pregnant women and new mothers from 2015 to 2023.
A ‘help’ sign is posted in the window of a correctional facility in Atmore, Alabama.
Incarcerated people use TikTok videos to expose Alabama’s prison conditions
Read more
The suit also cites past cases of alleged neglect of pregnant women in the ECDC jail. In 2019, staff refused to take a woman to the hospital for five days after her water broke prematurely, and she later lost her baby, the complaint says. And in 2020, another woman was allegedly forced to give birth alone without medical assistance or pain medication.
Etowah county faced national scrutiny last year when a 23-year-old woman was arrested during a traffic stop after she disclosed to officers that she’d smoked marijuana two days earlier, the day she learned she was pregnant. And a separate lawsuit last year alleged that Etowah county had arrested a woman for “chemical endangerment”, alleging she was exposing her fetus to drugs, only to discover she wasn’t pregnant.
The prosecutions fall under an Alabama law adopted in 2006 with the intent to protect children from the hazards of meth labs.
Women across the country have increasingly been jailed for pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriages and stillbirths.
The crackdown has occurred despite research showing that policies that punish drug use during pregnancy can result in worse birth outcomes in part because people avoid getting addiction treatment and prenatal care out of fear of arrest. Physician experts have also testified that these prosecutions can be rooted in “medical misinformation”, with law enforcement linking certain pregnancy outcomes to drug exposure without evidence.
The Etowah county sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
There is no reason to support Hamas.
There’s a pervasive censoriousness right now—conservatives denouncing liberals, liberals denouncing leftists, leftists denouncing other leftists—that’s immediately familiar from the days and weeks after 9/11. Somehow, the upshot of all the denunciations and condemnations is the right’s unchallenged hold over the discourse, and, more importantly, the ultimate facts on the ground.
“They’re already dead,” I recall a campus antiwar activist saying to me on the night Bush announced that the US had begun bombing Iraq. He was right; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were about to die in Bush’s folly, their fates already decided. At the time I understood and somewhat appreciated what the activist was saying, but I also was parochial enough to wonder whether he even cared about the Americans at Ground Zero who were literally already dead (never mind that Iraq had nothing to do with what happened to them). Today, though, his words echo in my head as I think about the Palestinians in Gaza, and the agony of knowing that they’re already dead no matter what any of us feel or think or say.
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 13, 2023
Reuters reports that its sources say that Saudi Arabia has decided to put its plan on establishing diplomatic relations with Israel on ice due to the fighting in Gaza pic.twitter.com/MgYRaW0pKR
Exactly what Putin was after. Attention given to that mess, with US money and arms having to replace Israel's armament as they use up the stock on Hamas and the Palestinian people.
Why isn't there a global outcry now that it's evident neighboring countries are reluctant to accept Palestinian refugees? Europe has taken in over 8 million Ukrainian refugees since the onset of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) October 13, 2023
Wisconsin Republicans Walk Back Efforts to Impeach Newly Elected State Supreme Court Justice Protasiewicz
By Paige Anderholm
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/wisconsin-republicans-walk-back-efforts-to-impeach-newly-elected-state-supreme-court-justice-protasiewicz/
October 12, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Oct. 12, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and fellow Republicans indicated that they would walk back their impeachment crusade against liberal state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
This comes after last week when former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser advised Vos that there should be “no effort to impeach” Protasiewicz over her refusal to recuse herself from an ongoing legal challenge to the state’s legislative maps.
Today, in what appears to be an attempt to retract his threats, Vos clarified that any impeachment inquiries going forward would rest on what the justice does while “in office.”
In September, Vos formed a secret panel — led by Prosser — of three conservative former state Supreme Court justices to review the possibility of impeachment. A legal filing in a lawsuit against the secret nature of the panel revealed that Prosser was joined by former Justices Jon Wilcox and Patience Roggensack, the now-retired Supreme Court justice whom Protasiewicz succeeded after winning in April. Yesterday, Wilcox confirmed that he also does not favor impeachment. Roggensack, who has not weighed in publicly yet, rejected a call to implement stricter recusal standards in 2017. Additionally, while on the bench, Prosser and Roggensack supported a rule allowing justices to sit on cases that involved previous campaign donors.
Since her election in April, the state’s Republicans have been threatening to impeach the newly elected Protasiewicz if she does not recuse herself from a redistricting lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s legislative maps.
The calls have focused on political statements that Protasiewicz made while campaigning earlier this year. Specifically, she has referred to the maps as “rigged.” Republicans argued this constituted a predetermination of how the justice would rule on a case challenging the maps. In September, a state judiciary disciplinary panel rejected multiple complaints filed by Republicans alleging the statements violated ethics rules.
Republican lawmakers have also taken issue with the financial contributions made by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to her campaign. Neither issue, however, violates the state constitution or statute. Jay Heck, the director of the nonpartisan group Common Cause of Wisconsin, called the Republicans’ “selective outrage” hypocritical. All but one of the sitting justices have accepted contributions from a party at the national, state or county level.
As Prosser referenced, impeachment is permitted under Wisconsin statute only for corrupt conduct in office or for the commission of a crime. It takes a simple majority in the state Assembly to impeach and a two-thirds majority in the state Senate to convict. However, on Tuesday of this week, state Sen. Duey Stroebel became the first Republican in the Wisconsin Senate to explicitly oppose impeaching Protasiewicz and state Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R) followed suit on Wednesday.
The Senate Republicans now lack the necessary supermajority to convict and remove Protasiewicz should Vos and Assembly Republicans make good on their threats to impeach.
Last Friday, just after Prosser advised Vos on the panel’s findings, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear a legal challenge to the Republican-drawn maps. The petitioners in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission allege that the Wisconsin state Assembly and Senate maps are extreme partisan gerrymanders that unduly favor Republicans in violation of the state constitution.
The petition notes that for the past two decades, Wisconsin’s legislative plans have been among the most gerrymandered in the country: “In 2012, Republicans won 48.6% of the statewide vote, which yielded a remarkable 60 assembly seats…When Democrats received roughly the same vote share, they carried 36 assembly seats… From the 2012 through the 2020 elections, Republicans never fell below 60 seats—winning up to 64, or nearly two-thirds of the seats. In 2018, Republicans won 63 seats with just 44.8% of the vote.”
In agreeing to hear the case, Protasiewicz also denied the Wisconsin Legislature’s motion for recusal. In the order, the newly elected justice argued, “Recusal decisions are controlled by the law. They are not a matter of personal preference… As Justice Prosser has warned, unjustified recusal can affect the integrity of the judicial branch.”
Vos’ backtracking is a shift from earlier in the week. Just three days ago, in a statement responding to Protasiewicz’s decision not to recuse herself, Vos said he felt she should have, and warned that “the United States Supreme Court will have the last word here.”
With a resounding 11-point margin of victory, Protasiewicz’s election in April is viewed as a referendum on the future of Wisconsin.
Some of the comments on the matter;
He can now call himself David Duke without the votes.
Man, Jim Jordan’s people circulated Scalise’s bar tabs from Capital Grille and he tapped out quick!
Of all the malfeasances, a bar tab wins
First round TKO to a man who has even less votes.
Steve Scalise's Speaker run lasted approximately .2 Scarramuccis
For our friends who use the metric system, it's roughly .003 Liz Trusses
They're playing maga 3d chess. LOL
"Cover! Cover!" – evidence appeared that Russian-speaking instructors within the Hamas terrorist organization gave orders and coordinated the actions of mercenaries during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) October 12, 2023
The order in Russian "Прикрывайте! Прикрывайте!" ("Cover! Cover!")… pic.twitter.com/jgOHqSXXuY
Interesting story. Her daughters won't explain why she couldn't afford insurance. She supposedly has a 9000 sq ft house worth $2 mil and has made millions off of endorsements, advertising gigs, and even has been paid political monies with her notoriety. She spoke out against the ACA, was anti-VAX, and lobbied against Dianne Feinstein and the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. Question's asked if the daughters were just grifting wanting the money when she dies (which I gather is close doing). Covid involvement? Daughters aren't talking except to crowdfund. Sad story whatever the story is.
Mary Lou Retton’s lack of insurance raises questions as crowdfunding reaches $375,000
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/11/mary-lou-rettons-lack-of-insurance-raises-questions-as-crowdfunding-passes-250000/
By MARTHA ROSS | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: October 11, 2023 at 1:08 p.m. | UPDATED: October 12, 2023 at 11:40 a.m.
News broke Tuesday that Olympian champion gymnast Mary Lou Retton is in an ICU unit at a Texas hospital, “fighting for her life” with a rare form of pneumonia, sparking alarm among sports fans all over the United States. But fans were just as dismayed to learn from her daughters that Retton, a highly decorated public figure who supposedly earned millions from endorsement deals over the years, has no health insurance.
Because of this lack of health insurance, the oldest of Retton’s four daughters said the family had to start a crowdfunding campaign to help cover the hospital bill. As of Wednesday night, the Spotfund campaign for Retton, a star gold medalist at the 1984 Olympics, had blown well past its original goal of $50,000, reaching $375,000 and growing.
“My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life,” Retton’s daughter McKenna Kelley wrote on Spotfund. Kelley also said her mother is not able to breathe on her own and had been in the ICU for more than a week.
“Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details,” Kelley said. “However, I will disclose that she not insured.”
Among people on social media, the idea that Retton’s family needs to ask strangers to pay for what’s expected to be an enormous hospital bill has incited a range of questions and reactions. At the top of the list: Why doesn’t Retton have health insurance? And, what kind of country is the United States if even a legendary sports figure like Retton can’t pay for an emergency hospital stay?
Thus far, Retton’s daughters are not providing many details “out of respect for her and her privacy.” The New York Times reported that Kelley, who was a gymnast at Louisiana State University, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Tuesday. In an update Wednesday, Kelley wrote on Instagram that her mother remains in the intensive care unit, “continues to fight” and is “getting incredible medical care!”
With a dearth of information, the internet has been left to speculate on whether Retton, 55, chose to forego health insurance, or if she somehow lost coverage or wasn’t able to obtain coverage. People online also noted she had recently been living in a Houston mansion, citing a May 2022 report that she was selling her “luxury” 9,000-square-foot Houston home, which boasted six bedrooms, six bathrooms and a swimming pool.
In a thread on X, Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist with a large social media following, agreed that the situation “doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m not sure if she’s still wealthy. Something must have happened. Or else they wouldn’t be crowdfunding for her medical bills,” Feigl-Ding said. He agreed with many others in saying, “It’s sad a former Olympic champion who is famous like this now has to beg and crowdfund for medical care. I’m not sure if she is still a millionaire like some claim — people’s situations can quickly change.”
Since Kelley started the Spotfund campaign, nearly 6,700 people have donated varying amounts of money, from $10 to $50,000. Spotfund allows people to provide text messages along with their donations, and the site shows there has been an outpouring of support for Retton, with words of encouragement from thousands.
Forbes reported that crowdfunding for medical expenses has become a common occurrence in the 2020s, with many people turning to websites like GoFundMe and Spotfund to seek help in covering the costs of medical emergencies or even basic care.
A 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation study shows that roughly 10.2% of Americans under the age of 65 don’t have health insurance. The study said that the number of uninsured in the United States actually decreased by about 1.5 million people from 2019 to 2021, mainly due to policies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The policies were designed to help low-income people gain and maintain coverage during the pandemic, and they included enhanced subsidies in the marketplace and the requirement that states maintain continuous enrollment for people on Medicaid, which provides insurance to low-income people.
Most of America’s uninsured are people in low-income families in which at least one family member is working, the study said. Generally, people of color are at higher risk of being uninsured. Some 64 percent of adults surveyed said they don’t get insurance because the cost of coverage is too high, even with policy efforts to make coverage more affordable.
Whatever is going on with Retton’s health insurance, she definitely has many pulling for her. In 1984, she became “America’s newest darling” by winning five medals at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, including a gold that made her the first American to win an Olympic individual all-round event, the Washington Post reported.
Her victories landed her a spot on the Wheaties cereal box and raised the popularity of gymnastics — a sport once dominated by Eastern Europeans — in the United States. She also campaigned for Ronald Reagan’s re-election in 1984, served as an adviser to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness during the George H.W. Bush administration and delivered the Pledge of Allegiance with fellow former gymnast and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug on the second night of the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Retton also has appeared on “Dancing With the Stars,” a Dairy Queen commercial and an advertisement for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, which the company uploaded to YouTube last week, the Washington Post said.
Sasha Farber, her partner on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2018, offered an update on Retton’s condition after Tuesday’s episode, telling Entertainment Tonight: “She’s fighting.” Farber also said he had been able to talk to her. “She kind of wants to give up, but I’m sending her videos of her dancing and I’m telling her, ‘There’s only one Mary Lou Retton. You’ve got this!'”
Just before Retton was eliminated from “Dancing With the Stars,” she revealed that she had split from Shannon Kelley, her husband of 27 years. The retired gymnast said the divorce had occurred months earlier. Kelley is a former football quarterback turned college coach, who last worked as an assistant coach at Houston Christian University.
“I’m on a really good path, and I’m happy with my life,” Retton told People at the time. “I’m really excited for what this new chapter is going to bring instead of being that scared person that I was a couple of months ago. I really have done a full turnaround.”
But as much as many people have been honoring Retton and fondly remembering her at the 1984 Olympics, her “America’s sweetheart” reputation isn’t universally observed. Some gymnastics fans point out that there’s an asterisk by her victory in the history books, given that the Soviet Union, then the most dominant force in women’s gymnastics, boycotted the Los Angeles games, as the New York Times reported.
More recently, Retton angered many in the women’s gymnastics community when she worked to counter a congressional bill, introduced by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which was designed to protect young athletes from sexual predators, according to The Medal Count blog, which covers women’s gymnastics.
Feinstein introduced the bill after Larry Nassar, the longtime team doctor for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, was charged in 2016 with sexually assaulting at least 265 young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment. His victims included a number of high-profile female gymnasts.
A year later, Retton joined officials from USA Gymnastics to unsuccessfully lobby Feinstein against passing the bill, also known as the Safe Sport Act, which would make it mandatory for national governing bodies of Olympics sports, such as USA Gymnastics, to report sexual assault to the police, the New York Times reported in 2017. Retton, “the smiling, bubbly sweetheart from the 1984 Games,” was brought along for PR purposes, the New York Times said, to let Feinstein know that the federation’s policies were solid and that gymnastics “was a happy, safe place.” Through bipartisan support, the bill eventually became law, signed by Donald Trump in 2018.
One of the most densely populated areas on earth made that way by decades of Israel's own policies of cruel and brutal oppression. War crimes and terrorism in other parts of the geopolitical spectrum. Of course won't be as populated (by Palestinians) after a few years of wiping them out trying to get control of Hamas.
U.N. Asks for Order to Be Rescinded, Warning of Crisis
LIVE
Updated
Oct. 13, 2023, 7:31 a.m. ET5 minutes ago
5 minutes ago
Israel-Hamas War
Panic Grips Gaza as Israel Calls for 1.1 Million People to Evacuate
The Israeli military demanded that Palestinians in northern Gaza move to the south as its troops mass on the border. The U.N. warned that the forced relocation would have “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/13/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-evacuation
And right on cue;
Russia-Ukraine war live: Fighting intensifying around Avdiivka, officials say, as Russia launches biggest offensive in months
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/13/russia-ukraine-war-live-fighting-intensifying-around-avdiivka-officials-say-as-russia-launches-biggest-offensive-in-months
Just what Putin (and Hamas and Iran) wanted. Might be only real way out of this is in the end a peace agreement with Israel recognizing a Palestinian State and give back some land and give them their freedom. You just can't treat any group of people like Israel brutally has for such a long time and not expect some evil hell spewing from it. Now what are they going to do, flatten Gaza like Russia is doing with Ukraine no matter how many civilians it maims and kills. Boots on the ground not going to be much better. We've got plenty of view on what the Israeli military has done with Palestinians, that's what brought to this today.
And then what, after Israel kills all Hamas including half the population, demolishing half the structures and homes? Cruelly oppress even more, take all their homes, businesses, and land and shove them all out to the sea with weights on, chain them all up and enslave them, sell their children? There will always be resistance with that and to even to have a handle on it, will have to be a country like Russia, North Korea with freedom a dirty word.
Just one big mess that's going to be hard to get out of and there will have to be some recognition and support for the human rights of Palestinians after Hamas.
Many more of these all over the world.
“Celebrations” in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/3mov6ctMmN
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 7, 2023
Hamas supporters gather on the streets of Berlin, Germany to celebrate the attack against Israel pic.twitter.com/GyOIFyHGS6
Hamas supporters celebrating yesterday's attack on Israel by partying and firing off fireworks on the streets of Sydney, Australia
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
🇦🇺🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/1aToWkr8Ft
Hamas supporters celebrating on the streets of Canada last night.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
This type of images can be seen repeated in many cities in Western Europe and North America.
🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/vbs64tqTjb
A column of cars with Hamas supporters driving through the city of Malmo, Sweden to celebrate yesterday's attack against Israel pic.twitter.com/LKtgsh52rM
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Pro-Hamas rally in Birmingham, UK.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Birmingham has been named "super-diverse" with 51.4% of inhabitants from an ethnic minority.
The city is 34% Christian, 29.9% Muslim, 0.1% Jewish and 24% have no religious affiliation according to the 2021 census.pic.twitter.com/LQNeRMmzUg
Hamas supporters out on the streets of Manchester, England to celebrate the attack against Israel pic.twitter.com/eHd3laejNe
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Banners displayed by fans of Glasgow based Scottish football team Celtic FC. pic.twitter.com/NKwEs6vFwL
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Hamas supporters gather at Times Square in New York City to celebrate y-day's attack against Israel
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
"Resistence is justified," - they shout
They clearly have no problems with the massacres on hundreds of civilians, including small children
Via @Julio_Rosas11 (follow for more) pic.twitter.com/3TeYJPWq7x
Pro-Hamas protest in Montreal, Canada. pic.twitter.com/FB0jw9er9f
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Pro-Hamas demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark. pic.twitter.com/Rhw6afq3LA
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Not sure, I think it's work in progress. I know they were backtracking what they were allowing when about 10 countries were refusing to compete or play with the Russian team and many people around the world were going to boycott and not watch or advertise. So I'm pretty sure that would still happen no matter what flag the Russians are under. If the Russians were allowed, might as well get a Hamas team together. bob (bring own babies)
IOC Executive Board suspends Russian Olympic Committee with immediate effect.
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) October 12, 2023
IOC statement: pic.twitter.com/vS7YoT1MLx
This is going to be a humanitarian crisis and suffering of unimaginable proportions. 👇 https://t.co/DmAJ5qj2P9
— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) October 12, 2023
Tax the poor and give those taxes to the rich while screaming bloody murder about student loan forgiveness. The report includes a full list of each school accepting vouchers this year, how many voucher students they have and what percentage of the school’s total enrollment are voucher students.
Arkansas LEARNS report: 95% of voucher students did not attend public school last year
NEWS & ANALYSISBY David Ramsey ONOctober 11, 20231:30 pm
https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2023/10/11/arkansas-learns-report-95-of-voucher-students-did-not-attend-public-school-last-year
There’s lots to peruse, but for now let’s highlight a handful of the schools with the most voucher students (again, these seven have around 30% of the total students in the voucher program):
The priciest on this list are Episcopal and Pulaski Academy. Little Rock Christian charges $11,895 to $13,980 in annual tuition depending on grade level; Central Arkansas Christian charges $9,093 to $10,755; Shiloh charges between $8,550 to $10,400 annually depending on grade, campus and church membership; Baptist Preparatory charges $8,422 to $12,092; and Christ the King charges $5,800 to $10,282.
Shiloh has campuses in Rogers and Springdale, but the rest of these schools are in the Little Rock area. That tracks with the broader numbers, with participating schools heavily concentrated in wealthier, more urban areas (see the map up top showing geographic concentration of voucher participants).
We said this all along. #VouchersEqualWelfare for the rich and well connected! pic.twitter.com/hB0uhgZpa7
— ThePurplePatriot 🟦 (@1PurplePatriot) October 11, 2023
95% of voucher recipients keeping kids out of public schools is the goal of this policy. Rightwing extremists like Sarah Sanders are using school vouchers as one of their many ways to break the public education system.
Don't see how terrorizing and killing women, children, and depriving civilians of food, water, power going to get anywhere with Hamas. That's not defending, that's just putting Israelis down to the same level as Hamas.
Russia’s attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 19, 2022
Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming - these are acts of pure terror.
And we have to call it as such. https://t.co/3WY743k1iH
Gaza health ministry says 447 children and 248 women killed in Israeli strikes
We reported earlier that the Gaza health ministry said 1,400 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli strikes since Saturday. The ministry has now provided more details:
447 children and 248 women are among the 1,417 killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, it said.
In other words, go suck an egg.
Fani Willis Accuses 'Ignorant' Jim Jordan Of Obstruction In Brutal Take Down
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/fani-willis-accuses-ignorant-jim-jordan-of-obstruction-in-brutal-take-down
Jim Jordan is having a rough day after losing the Speaker vote, and Fani Willis just made it much worse
Troy Matthews2 hours ago
Fulton County DA Fani Willis absolutely annihilated Rep. Jim Jordan in a letter to his office Wednesday, accusing him of abusing his power and obstructing her investigation into Donald Trump's election interference in Georgia.
Willis begins the letter by calling Jordan "ignorant" of both the United States and Georgia Constitutions, which she deems a "charitable explanation" for the language of his letter to her dated September 27th (read below).
"A more troubling explanation," Willis continues, "is that you are abusing your authority...to obstruct and interfere with a Georgia criminal prosecution."
She then cites evidence of this obstruction by quoting Jordan on Mark Levin's show saying, "we're trying to stop this stuff," in regards to Willis' investigation.
Willis then suggests that were Jordan not protected by the Speech and Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution, this type of obstruction could lead to his prosecution.
Jordan said her previous letter to his office dated September 7th had reinforced the opinion of the Judiciary Committee that her prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference was "geared more toward advancing a political cause" as well as her own "notoriety".
Willis previously argued that Jordan's attempted interference was a violation of Georgia's state sovereignty, as the federal government does not have power to regulate purely state matters.
In that same letter, Willis suggested Jordan educate himself on Georgia RICO statutes by purchasing the book RICO State-by-State, which she said he could purchase for the non-bar member price of $249, a brutal troll of Jordan for not having been admitted to the bar.
Read Fani Willis' October 11th letter here:
Read Jim Jordan's letter from September 27th here:
An opinion with some facts and some errors.
Lives in The United States of America Author has 188 answers and 200.8K answer views3y
https://www.quora.com/Is-Israel-Americas-greatest-ally
No Israel is certainly not America’s greatest ally. Unfortunately, many conservatives make the mistake of assuming it is. Indeed, anyone who values America should be extremely concerned about it’s close alliance with Israel.
I have recently gotten into an exchange with a zionist on this website, and he has raised concerns I have had with conservatism in general. Many modern conservatives dogmatically support Israel, with almost no understanding of it’s true nature. When someone dares to step out of line, and criticizes the many offenses of the Israeli government (against American national security), they are immediately labeled as an antisemite.
Being an America first conservative, and a Zionist are mutually exclusive. Indeed, America’s steadfast support of Israel has a lot to do with our problems in the Middle East. After all, Bin-Ladin’s manifesto stated that it was one of his main motivations. Does this mean we should bend over to terrorists? Absolutely not. But I think it is important to mention, that our relations with the Middle East before 1948 were pretty good.
Nonetheless, the deterioration of our relations with the Middle East is solidly in the past; and I highly doubt there is much we can do to improve it.
Regardless, Israel is undoubtedly abusing our close relationship with them. In 2007, the Snowden/NSA document outlines Israel as the greatest espionage threat, above both Russia and China. Our greatest ally seems to be spying on us more than our greatest enemies. In fact, Israel has sold more than $4 billion dollars worth of military tech to China, much of it being of US origin. Israel is currently China’s second largest foreign arms supplier. China uses them to get their hands on American military technology, which would be out of reach normally. America passed exclusive American tech to Israel, under the expectation that they would use it against our enemies in the Middle East, not pass it to our enemies in the Pacific. As an American, I find this truly horrifying. Especially given recent developments in the COVID-19 outbreak, pinning most of the blame on China’s incompetence and deception.
Israel has lied to us, deceived us, and gone directly against us too many times, for our relationship with them to be called anything other than parasitic. And, after decades of asking Israel to cease these action, they still continue.
Any America conservative, patriot, or nationalist should be extremely concerned about Israel’s actions. Donald Trump’s America first agenda is being directly sabotaged by a foreign power, masquerading as a close ally.
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Related questions
Who is America's closest ally, Israel or the UK?
If USA is Israel's biggest ally, who is Palestine's biggest ally?
Why does the US support Israel? What benefit does the US get out of this alliance?
Why is Israel so important to the US?
Why does the United States seem to care so much about Israel? I understand that it's somewhat important to some people to have an ally in the Middle East, but why Israel?
Profile photo for Danny Dhillon
Danny Dhillon
Studied at University of California, BerkeleyUpdated 4y
Related
Why is the US allied with Israel?
Just checked back in here and the original question I answered was “Why is the US allied with Israel?”
AIPAC
A large Jewish population in the US who are pro Israeli.
Religious conservatives in the US see Jews possessing Israel as vital to the return of Christ. I'm not joking.
USSR switched from supporting Israel in the early/mid 50s to supporting the Arab states. This led to America going from supporting the Arab states to supporting Israel.
They have a democratically elected government. Historically, democracies tend to have friendly relationships with other democracies.
They're a pretty stable country. Israel is one of only a handful of countries in the Middle East that didn't change it's government type faster than the US changed aircraft carrier designs. Reliable friends lead to long last relationships and alliances.
They're victims. In the 20th century alone, they experienced the Holocaust and then they were repeatedly attacked on all sides as well as the fact that they were subject to multiple suicide bombing attacks. I think this appeals to Americans' sense of right and wrong and trying to help victims.... Victims who don't hijack airlines, kill olympians or commit suicide bombings.
They have a habit of winning against overwhelming odds. There's something admirable about that which I think appeals to Americans in our core.
They spend the money we give them buying up American weapons.
The security apparatus in both countries have a long history of working together. It generates a positive cycle.
People in Israel don't regularly march down the street in massive protests shouting "Death to America"
The natural gas field they found recently will conveniently ensure that they are allies with the US for a while.
I'm sure there are a dozen more reasons and this list is no-where near being all-encompassing.
There is one final thing that I want to mention: It's not an official reason for me, but a lot of people I've spoken to or have heard debate this issue bring up the fact that when the WTC came down, people in the Palestinian Territories celebrated. It's surprising how many different places I've heard this from. I think when an image like that is burned into so many minds, the thought of "My enemies' enemy is my friend" starts to bubble up.
With all that money and military hardware they buy with our donations;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Israel_relations
Military cooperation
China and Israel have developed close strategic military links with each other. Bilateral military relations have evolved from an initial Chinese policy of secret non-official ties to a close strategic partnership with the modern and militarily powerful Israel.[11] Israel and China began extensive military cooperation as early as the 1980s, even though no formal diplomatic relations existed.[61][62][63]
Israel has provided China with military assistance, expertise and technology. According to a report from the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission, "Israel ranks second only to Russia as a weapons system provider to China and as a conduit for sophisticated cutting edge military technology, followed by France and Germany."
I agree, and what Israel has done should have already been condemned by the entire international community. But here we are with what's been created, Israel will never give back the land and life that they stole and militants will never stop fighting the oppression, who as a result have turned to terrorism for fighting 100's of billions supported Israeli military, then turn to other terrorist like Russia and Iran for support. Evil is evil does.
'Where do we go?' - Nowhere safe in Gaza as Israeli strikes intensify
Published
22 hours ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67065341
Media caption,
Watch: Hiding at home, blinded and choked by dust - a video diary from Gaza
By Rushdi Abu Alouf
BBC News, Gaza City
"Where do we go? Is there a safe place left in this neighbourhood, which was so quiet and beautiful?" residents of an apartment block in Rimal asked me, with heavy sarcasm.
I had just spent the most difficult seven hours of my life inside there, as Israeli warplanes carried another wave of air strikes in retaliation for the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented assault on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The Israeli strikes also caused significant damage to dozens of residential buildings, the offices of telecommunications companies, and faculty buildings of the Islamic University of Gaza.
Terrifying explosions shook the area throughout Monday night. Children were screaming and nobody had a moment's sleep.
It was a night that the residents of Rimal - Gaza City's wealthiest neighbourhood and usually its quietest - will not forget for a long time.
As dawn broke on Tuesday, the intensity of the strikes decreased and people discovered the extent of the destruction. The south-western neighbourhood's infrastructure was severely damaged and most roads leading to it were cut off.
As I drove around it felt as if there had been an earthquake. There was rubble, shattered glass and severed wiring everywhere. Such was the devastation that I did not recognise some of the buildings that I passed.
Media caption,
Drone footage shows Gaza neighbourhoods flattened
"I lost everything. My apartment, where my five children lived, was here in this building. My grocery shop below the building was destroyed," Mohammed Abu al-Kass told me while carrying his daughter Shahd in the street.
"Where do we go? We have become homeless. There is no shelter for us anymore or work."
"Are my house and my grocery shop a military target, Israel?" he added, accusing the Israeli military of lying when it says it does not target civilians.
The Palestinian health ministry said that about 300 people, two thirds of them civilians, were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Monday. It was the deadliest day there for many years.
At least 15 people were killed in the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp, north-east of Gaza City, in the afternoon. The Israeli military said it targeted the home of a Hamas commander. But many people at a nearby market or in neighbouring houses were killed.
Media caption,
Watch: Footage from BBC Arabic inside the Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli airstrike
Humanitarian crisis deepens
The overall death toll in Gaza since Saturday now stands at 900, including 260 children, according to the health ministry. Another 4,500 people have been injured.
The already dire humanitarian crisis in this tiny, overcrowded territory also deepens.
Its 2.2 million residents are running out of food, fuel, electricity and water, after Israel's government ordered a "complete siege" and cut off all of Gaza's supplies in response to Hamas's attack.
Saturday's unexpected assault has killed 1,000 people on the Israeli side, and between 100 and 150 hostages have been taken across the border into Gaza by the militants.
"Can you imagine that we are living without power or water in the 21st Century? My baby has run out of nappies and there is only half a bottle of milk left," said Waad al-Mughrabi as she looked at the destroyed building next to her home in Rimal.
"Was it my child who attacked Israel?"
Outside Gaza's largest supermarket, which had opened for the first time since Saturday, dozens of people were queuing in front of a small back door. They were hoping to buy whatever provisions they could, fearful that the fighting will last a long time.
Most of Gaza's fresh vegetables and fruits are grown in the south of the territory, and the severe fuel shortage means that transporting them to the north will become increasingly difficult.
A resident of Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood sits down on debris left after a night of Israeli air strikes (10 October 2023)
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA
Image caption,
The UN says 200,000 people in Gaza have fled their homes out of fear or because they have been destroyed
So far, there have been no deliveries of food or other essential goods from Egypt, which has maintained a tight blockade of Gaza for security reasons, along with Israel, since Hamas took over the territory in 2007.
People have also been unable to flee Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Only 400 a day are usually allowed in or out, but Israeli air strikes on Monday and Tuesday hit an entry gate on the Palestinian side, stopping any crossings, the Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza said.
That has forced most of the 200,000 people who have fled their homes to take shelter in UN-run schools. Some have fled in fear, while others have seen their homes destroyed by air strikes.
Some Gazans are choosing to shelter in basements, but they risk being trapped inside if the building above collapses. About 30 families were trapped in one basement alone on Monday night.
"In previous wars, this part of the city was a safe haven for residents of areas on the border [with Israel]," said Rimal resident Mohammed al-Mughrabi.
The Israeli strikes on Monday night showed that nowhere is safe anymore.
How Much Aid Does the U.S. Give to Israel?
The United States has given Israel more aid than any other nation since World War II, granting it more than $260 billion.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2023-10-10/how-much-aid-does-the-u-s-give-to-israel
By Christopher Wolf
Oct. 10, 2023, at 3:48 p.m.
U.S. Aid to Israel, by the Numbers
A supporter of Israel holds an Israeli flag in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2023 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an assault on Israel. Israel, reeling from the deadliest attack on its territory in half a century, formally declared war on Hamas Sunday as the conflict's death toll surged close to 1,000 after the Palestinian militant group launched a massive surprise assault from Gaza. (Photo by Julia Nikhinson / AFP) (Photo by JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP via Getty Images)
A supporter of Israel holds an Israeli flag in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, on Oct. 8.(JULIA NIKHINSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Calls for more aid to Israel came quickly in the wake of a terrorist attack by Hamas on the country this weekend, and President Biden has said military assistance is on its way. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy's newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, has already been dispatched to the region, and more aid in the form of equipment, resources and munitions is expected to arrive in coming days.
READ: Why Did Hamas Attack Israel?
The U.S. commitment to aiding Israel has long-standing roots. The United States has given Israel more than $260 billion in combined military and economic aid since World War II, plus about $10 billion more in contributions for missile defense systems like the Iron Dome, a U.S. News analysis finds. That’s the most granted to any country throughout that time frame, and around $100 billion more than Egypt, the second-highest recipient historically.
For nearly three decades – from fiscal years 1974 to 2002 – Israel was the top recipient of U.S. aid, the longest-standing duration for a top aid recipient dating back to 1946, according to figures from ForeignAssistance.gov. While 2003 to 2020 saw the most aid going to either Iraq or Afghanistan, Israel nevertheless remained a top three aid recipient throughout that time.
In 2021, U.S. obligations to Israel amounted to $3.31 billion, a figure that saw Israel returning to the top spot among aid recipients that year. But in 2022, the U.S. committed $12 billion to Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, far exceeding Israel’s $3.18 billion that year. While some figures are still considered “partial,” total U.S. aid globally for 2022 currently adds up to more than $60 billion, a level not seen since 1951.
On Monday, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters additional funds from Congress would be necessary to aid both Israel and Ukraine simultaneously. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is essentially paralyzed until it selects a new Speaker of the House following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.
Almost all U.S. aid to Israel recently has been military aid rather than economic aid, in the form of Foreign Military Financing grants – U.S. grants and loans to Israel for acquiring U.S. military equipment and services. Israel is typically allowed first access in the region to U.S. defense technology to stay ahead of neighboring militaries, a concept summarized as a “qualitative military edge” by the Congressional Research Service in a report on foreign aid to the country.
The CRS estimates that U.S. military aid reflects 16% of Israel’s total defense budget. The non-partisan data center, USAFacts, points out those totals don’t include funds for Israel’s missile defense systems, which to date have amounted to about $10 billion more in U.S. contributions, according to the CRS report.
EXPLAINER: The Israel-Hamas War
The Israel Defense Forces credits one such missile defense system, the Iron Dome, for intercepting 90% of missiles fired into its territory in 2021, but Saturday’s attack saw hundreds of missiles rapidly fired, which may have overwhelmed the system. The Iron Dome, which focuses on short-range aerial attacks, was originally developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems but since 2014 has been co-produced with the United States through a partnership with Raytheon, according to the CRS.
The two companies also developed David’s Sling together, a system to counter “long-range rockets and slower-flying cruise missiles,” and in 2020 teamed up in a joint venture, Raytheon Rafael Area Protection Systems. Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing form another U.S.-Israel missile defense partnership, together developing the Arrow systems which cover short-range (Arrow), long-range (Arrow II) and high-altitude (Arrow III) aerial attacks.
Israel’s military expenditures are significant when compared to its gross domestic product. In 2022, Israel spent 4.5% of its GDP on its military, according to the World Bank, almost double the global average, and tying other nations at No. 8 for highest military spending when compared as a ratio to GDP. Israel saw that rate peak at 30.5% in 1975, but it has slowly been descending since. For comparison, Ukraine saw the highest share in 2022, with more than one-third (33.5%) of its GDP associated with military expenditures in its ongoing defense against Russia.
Due to its compulsory service at the age of 18 – which requires conscripted men to serve for at least 32 months and conscripted women to serve at least 24 months – Israel has a larger portion of its “economically active population” in the armed forces compared to other countries. At 4.4% in 2020, Israel was well above the global average of 0.8%, tying other nations at No. 6 for the highest share of citizens in the military.
Having to prepare for regular attacks may lead Israelis to take terrorism more seriously compared to others. Earlier this year, as part of the survey that drives the Best Countries rankings, respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statement “Terrorism is the most important global issue to solve.” Among Israeli survey takers, 44% strongly agreed with the statement, and 83.5% agreed to any extent. Meanwhile, the global response saw 30% agreeing strongly and 79.5% agreeing to any extent.
* Dollar amounts sourced from ForeignAssistance.gov are adjusted for inflation, and expressed in constant 2021 dollars as reported by USAID. Missile defense funding as reported by the Congressional Research Service is expressed in current dollars.
Exactly. Palestinians placed Hamas over the PLO due to decades of oppression, human rights violations (including raping and pillaging), and stealing their land and homes. Many years ago I did some university studies with a couple of Palestinians that made it over to the US. One of them was raped and brother killed by the Israeli army and it was common occurrence. Living under the oppression created Hamas and the many young men (and women) that joined them. There is a lot of anger and hatred caused by the abuse, years of pain and suffering, and Israelis occupation, why you see Palestinians cheering the bloodshed. Not right, but reasons how Hamas evolved and feelings of the Palestinians.
Don't get me wrong, Hamas is a terrorist group and should be eliminated, and it's the citizens on both sides that suffer 95% of the horror. But with elimination of them, reparations and acknowledgment has to be addressed or it will just continue creating militants against Israel no matter the name.
Plus we have Putin's fingerprints all over this, definitely fully involved. This is all part of Putin's war on Ukraine.
Another note is that Bibi is as big of criminal and corrupt as traitor trump. Just smarter, less emotionally and mentally disabled, but definitely has the meanness.
ISRAEL’S OCCUPATION: 50 YEARS OF DISPOSSESSION
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupation-50-years-of-dispossession/
For half a century, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there.
Since the occupation first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights.
Israel’s military rule disrupts every aspect of daily life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It continues to affect whether, when and how Palestinians can travel to work or school, go abroad, visit their relatives, earn a living, attend a protest, access their farmland, or even access electricity or a clean water supply. It means daily humiliation, fear and oppression. People’s entire lives are effectively held hostage by Israel.
Israel has also adopted a complex web of military laws to crush dissent against its policies, and senior government officials have branded Israelis advocating for Palestinian rights as “traitors”.
THE WORST THING IS THE SENSE OF BEING A STRANGER IN YOUR OWN LAND AND FEELING THAT NOT A SINGLE PART OF IT IS YOURS.
Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian lawyer and writer
TELL YOUR GOVERNMENT: BAN SETTLEMENT PRODUCTS AND STOP YOUR COMPANIES FROM OPERATING IN SETTLEMENTS
For the last 50 years, Israel has been forcing thousands of Palestinians off their land, occupying and illegally using it to create settlements that exclusively house Jewish Israeli settlers.
Entire Palestinian communities have been displaced by these settlements. Their homes and livelihoods have been destroyed, they’ve had restrictions enforced on their movement, access to their own water, land and other natural resources. The communities have also been violently attacked by the Israeli military and settlers. We must act now.
We want governments to stop enabling the economy that keeps these illegal settlements growing and fuels the suffering of Palestinians: and you can help.
The issue is not just about Israel taking Palestinian land and resources illegally. Governments around the world are letting goods produced in these settlements into their markets, and are allowing companies in their countries to operate in settlements. All of this helps the illegal settlements profit and thrive.
Call on your government now to ban Israeli settlement goods from entering your markets, and to stop companies based in your country operating in settlements or trading in their goods – and help put an end to the cycle of violations suffered by Palestinians living under Israel’s occupation.
Beg the Dems for the five? I think they're all in for Jeffries. lol
"Under the extreme MAGA Republican majority, the House of Representatives has become engulfed in unprecedented chaos and dysfunction. It’s time to get back to the business of the American people," Jeffries said in a statement following the candidate forum.
"It’s time for traditional Republicans to permanently break with MAGA extremism and join House Democrats to form an enlightened, bipartisan coalition," his statement read, pointing at Democrats's role in providing a majority of the votes needed to pass a spending bill to avert a government shutdown earlier this month.
Republicans to introduce resolution to ‘rid the House of George Santos’
New York lawmakers aim to expel the accused fraudster, who faces new charges under a superseding federal indictment
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/11/george-santos-republican-resolution-expel-house
Martin Pengelly in Washington
@MartinPengelly
Wed 11 Oct 2023 13.08 EDT
New York Republicans in the US House will introduce a resolution to expel George Santos, the serial fabulist and accused fraudster who faces new charges under a superseding federal indictment.
“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” the GOP congressman Anthony D’Esposito said in a post on social media.
D’Esposito said the resolution would be co-sponsored by Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams – all House Republicans from New York.
Santos won his own New York seat last year, in midterm elections that saw the House swing to Republican control in no small part due to success in the Empire state.
Santos’s resume swiftly unraveled, as news outlets reported allegations of wrongdoing beyond the mere “embellishment” to which he admitted, even bringing into question his actual name.
Santos remained defiant and party leaders, beholden to a narrow majority, chose not to act against him.
That stance endured even after Santos pleaded not guilty in New York in May to multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements.
Last week, Santos’s former campaign treasurer pleaded guilty to fraud.
Then, on Tuesday, a superseding indictment introduced 10 new charges against Santos relating to allegedly stealing donors’ identities and charging thousands of dollars to their credit cards.
Santos, who first told reporters he had “no clue what you guys are talking about”, now faces 23 criminal charges.
As reported by CNN, on Wednesday he told reporters: “I’m pretty much denying every last bit of charges.”
He also said he would not resign and still intended to run for re-election.
The same morning, Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, a watchdog group, said Santos was the only member of the current Congress who has not yet filed a mandatory personal financial disclosure. Penalties can include fines and civil or criminal penalties.
Only five House members have ever been expelled – three for fighting for the Confederacy in the civil war and two after being convicted of crimes including fraud and bribery.
Kevin McCarthy, the speaker ejected by hard-liners last week, had resisted attempts to add Santos to that list, instead referring him to the House ethics committee.
House Dems Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) on GOP resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY):
— The Recount (@therecount) October 11, 2023
“When resolutions came up, [GOP] voted to table it, and they have to live with that ... And now I understand that some of them might want a redo … That’s not where we are.” pic.twitter.com/z8DMZHsQHJ
Best option for Ukraine https://t.co/SsILrH2IdL
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) October 11, 2023
Researchers have uncovered a propaganda network of 67 accounts on the X social platform that are coordinating a campaign of posting false, inflammatory content related to the Israel-Hamas war. https://t.co/2ZosGKggfR
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 10, 2023
If this is Karma, it needs to step up a bit. Not even enough.
Tommy Tumbleville pic.twitter.com/aMc5hrWxKb
— Brett Meiselas (@BMeiselas) October 11, 2023
Bakhmut (population 73,212)
— Sergey Mohov 🇺🇦 (@krides) October 11, 2023
Mariupol (population 446,103)
Nova Kakhovka (population 45,422)
Severodonetsk (population 106,513) pic.twitter.com/xmwo1NCpMM
Republicans’ temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry, received 90 percent of his campaign cash this year from lobbyists and industries he regulates — and only $856 from small donors.https://t.co/qLA0BbECHm
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) October 10, 2023
That's what terrorist do. Russia (a state sponsor of terrorism) has been doing this on a much greater scale every day for over a year now. What's the difference, blowing up babies and children into a hundred pieces or raping them before killing or just cutting them in only two pieces for a terror video. On the other side some say;
WARNING: DO NOT WATCH HOSTAGE VIDEOS. DO NOT TRANSMIT HOSTAGE VIDEOS. DO NOT POST VIDEOS OF THE DEAD. DO NOT DESCRIBE EXECUTION VIDEOS. This is INTEGRAL to the Hamas is Information Terror strategy. Pass it on! https://t.co/K5jbSvdsOY
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) October 10, 2023
The purpose of the military (Tuberville) and diplomatic (Paul) obstructions was exactly this: to leave the Biden admin looking unprepared in a crisis, deluding the public into believing that a strongman is needed to restore US power and influence. https://t.co/Mowbfm6X2P
— Ruth Ben-Ghiat (@ruthbenghiat) October 8, 2023
You definitely could count on them to continue to attack the constitution. Odds at bookies can change by the hour, but this is what some are giving a day or so ago.
Kevin McCarthy's Most Likely Replacement, According to Bookmakers
BY JAMES BICKERTON ON 10/7/23 AT 10:51 AM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/kevin-mccarthys-most-likely-replacement-according-bookmakers-1832854
According to odds from Betfair, a major British bookies, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is most likely to become the next speaker, with odds of 8/11. This means you'd win $8 if you bet $11 on Scalise being chosen as the next speaker, and then he is.
He is followed by Kevin Hern, chair of the Republican Study Committee, with odds of 9/2 then Jordan, whom Trump has endorsed, on 8/1.
These are followed by Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik, Patrick McHenry and Tom Emmer, on 10/1, 14/1 and 14/1 respectively.
Betfair spokesperson Sam Rosbottom told Newsweek: "Steve Scalise is the 8/11 odds-on favourite to succeed Kevin McCarthy after the latter became the first speaker of the House of Representatives in history to be removed. Kevin Hern follows behind Scalise at 9/2, with Jim Jordan 8/1 and Elise Stefanik 10/1 to be voted in."
Betfair also offers odds of 20/1 on Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the House Democratic Caucus, becoming the next speaker, along with 25/1 for Trump.