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Wouldn't like to have any of these lives ... 'Literally burning down': Questions raised after fires at major Trump backer's business
Sky Palma
April 19, 2024 10:35AM ET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 12: Hedge fund manager John Paulson attends US President Donald Trump's speech at the Economic Club of New York on November 12, 2019 in New York City. Trump, speaking to business leaders and others in the financial community, spoke about the state of the U.S. economy and the prolonged trade talks with China. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
John Paulson, an American hedge fund billionaire, "one of the most prominent names in high finance" and a major backer of Donald Trump, saw one of his luxury car dealerships in Puerto Rico go up in flames this past weekend — for the second time in five months.
And lawyers for Paulson's former business partner, Fahad Ghaffar, are suggesting that there's something sinister behind the fires.
“Since [Ghaffar] was displaced in August last year, there have been two unprecedented fires at Porsche and Ferrari, and the business appears to literally be burning down,” his attorney, Marty Russo, told The Daily Beast.
“It’s very concerning because Mr. Ghaffar invested $17 million for a convertible note which he has been forced to pursue in an ongoing federal securities fraud claim against John Paulson and PRV Holdings,” he added.
Paulson said that a criminal investigation of the fires has been launched and he and his people were “actively collaborating with law enforcement agencies in their investigation as to the cause of the fire.”
As The Daily Beast points out, Ghaffar and Paulson are locked in a legal battle over Paulson's business empire involving three federal cases and three state-level ones.
Ghaffar claims Paulson "ousted him from the auto dealership in August and failed to deliver his promised 50 percent stake. He also claims in a separate suit that Paulson booted him from his hotel business, in which Ghaffar had invested millions of his own money, after learning that his business manager stood to make more from the investment than he did," The Beast's report stated.
Paulson says Ghaffar defrauded him out of $200 million "by running up personal expenses on his business accounts and doling out lucrative contracts to friends and family members."
Paulson, who has raised around $50 million for Donald Trump, said through his attorneys that Ghaffar’s suits are “a sham designed solely to divert attention from his numerous criminal schemes detailed in Paulson’s complaint.”
Despite the legal battle with his former business partner and a contentious divorce case with his estranged wife, who accuses him of hiding over a billion dollars from her during their marriage, he still has time to host another fundraiser for Trump at his Palm Beach home this month.
https://www.rawstory.com/john-paulson/
Sweet dreams!
That meant you. Going on 6 pm here, chow time so will light the gas under the pot with the water and the metal
colander full of vegetables on top. And in half hour eat. Then relax and early bed as am up 3 am these days.
Not to bad once you get used to being careful with it, but the gum gets sore after awhile so the nuisance denture-
glue-reglue has to come into play too. It's a bugger, but little to put up with compared to millions. Bed time, eh. Cu
Yep, open faced works without the bottom denture pretty well too. Another small nuisance is that the chewing is not as deliciously pleasingly easy either as have to be careful not to gouge the bottom gum too hard with the 3-4 far left upper teeth still left there. Not sure but i think one of them fell out.
Mouthwatering now .. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Philly+Cheesesteak .
Those tend to be a bit doughy for me sometimes.
Ok, when i get a fortnight without doing too much on the pokies i will buy some good ham and salamis. And that special cave-like bread, which costs about twice the ordinary wholemeal loaves i go through. It is tastier though. Love it. Because of my lousy bottom denture a better way for me to eat all of it is to not make the sandwiches up so can get the ingredients into the mouth independently, still to be together for the chew. Missing the bite does take a lot away from the sandwich, but can you imagine an adhesive job only lasting two beautifully delicious bites. That reeeeeealy sucks.
Oh saw that earlier. LOL You guys played it well. The hamburger (beef is a vegetable,
lol, those wonderful little children) winner i remember was an unpopular choice here.
Yep, the point that those children may likely be more open to climate
change action than too many adults today are was a good one too.
Good mention. Talking of threats, by lost and lonely -- Trump warns 'Obama, Bush and Biden in big trouble' if his legal troubles don't vanish
Travis Gettys
April 19, 2024 10:13AM ET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 18: Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for his criminal trial as jury selection continues at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images)
Donald Trump rattled off a series of social media posts demanding presidential immunity and threatening his predecessors before heading into the fourth day of his criminal trial Friday.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in Trump's appeal of his Washington, D.C., election subversion case, in which he claims to have broad immunity as a former president, and he issued what sounded like a threat to prosecute his immediate predecessors and his chief Democratic rival Joe Biden.
"If a President does not have Immunity, the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, 'if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,' even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many Traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity."
"Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in BIG TROUBLE. If a President doesn’t have IMMUNITY, he/she will be nothing more than a 'Ceremonial' President, rarely having the courage to do what has to be done for our Country," the former president added. "This is not what the Founders had in mind! Protect Presidential Immunity. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump has previously threatened to have Biden indicted if he wins a second term in the White House, although presidents don't have that authority, and has often called for the jailing of his political opponents dating back to his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-white-house/
"If immunity is not granted to a president, every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party," Trump posted in all-caps. "Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function."
Trump has been indicted by grand juries on 91 felony counts in four jurisdictions, including Manhattan, where he faces 34 charges related to the alleged falsification of business records to conceal his hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
"Without Presidential Immunity, the Presidency will lose its power and prestige, and under some Leaders, have no power at all," Trump posted minutes before entering the courtroom. "The Presidency will be consumed by the other Branches of Government. THAT IS NOT WHAT OUR FOUNDERS WANTED!"
Few links -- https://www.rawstory.com/trump-threats-2667818635/
Just saw them now thanks to nmm's mention. Good job.
LOL You are a hound dog. Will do after a bit.
LOL The snack stuff is what i miss having handy sometimes. Don't not have it for any special reason just seldom get around to buying it. Pb&j was a favorite as a kid, and you putting those healthy seeds on it sounds a good idea. It would give it more bulk, so more satisfying. Trouble with a sandwich often is that it disappears too fast. Today couple of hours after the porridge and fruit it was eggs time and did something different. Chopped up some iceberg lettuce leaves, thin slices of a Tasty (which doesn't much live up to it's name) cheddar off a block. And two eggs no milk just sloppy forked to break the yolks. Salt and peppered, to make two sandwiches. Settling down here i thought eat one now, and another 20 mins layer. No way, maybe i stretched them to 10 mins.
That is interesting. And the point that children though wrong may be on a right future
track as even bacon is being made with a vegetable base these days, is a good one.
Only evening meal stuff is like being in the kitchen. Any others take barely minutes. Yep, eating healthily has been my one consistent self-preservation positive. Never had a weight problem, which is lucky too. Getting the vegies into the colander today took half hour. That's basically 4 days.
I know. The starter button went south then the trouble in finding where exactly to put a lighter thing became too much of a hassle. I think it must have something to do with a fact that i enjoy eating so much better than spending time cooking. I know you're gonna say many super recipes (sod, didn't even spell that right, had a pi there, pumpkin this time please) don't take long to prepare, and my answer is i steam vegies to last 3-4 days, and with some rice some days (again no prep there 3-4 days) and extra sauce in pan broiling chops or chicken legs i have days where the only prep is to warm in a microwave. And always tasty. Head is just other places, is all. Oh, and spaghetti too. Those are evening meals. Breakfast comes in two lots usually, porridge with fruit. Later eggs however prepared and toast. Mushrooms, tomatoes, off and on with them. I do eat healthily. One plus.
I guess it really is time i learned to use the oven again, eh. Yep, that is how slack i am at that.
I know .. should .. might .. maybe .. is just that my simple regime is so easy, and pretty darn tasty too.
And, even worse for some, some of us have become too good at getting along to places we shouldn't go so much.
Israel Is Facing an Iraq-like Quagmire
"The War Games of Israel and Iran
"‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas
"How Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel "
Six months in, there’s still no plan for after the war, U.S. officials say.
April 9, 2024, 4:20 PM
By Michael Hirsh, a columnist for Foreign Policy.
Palestinians start to return to their homes amid destruction after Israel’s withdrawal in Khan Younis, Gaza, on April 7. Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu via Getty Images
Almost from the moment of “Israel’s 9/11”—even as U.S. President Joe Biden flew .. https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1206832708/biden-israel-trip-mideast-peace .. to Israel after the Oct. 7 catastrophe to show his complete support—the Biden administration began warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government not to make the same mistakes the United States did after its own 9/11.
In other words, don’t get bogged down in an endless quagmire with no way out. Don’t create more terrorists by using brutal tactics. Don’t do what we did by invading and occupying Iraq. “Justice must be done. But I caution this—while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” Biden said during that visit last October. “After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
Six months in, it’s safe to say that advice didn’t take. Israel—still very much consumed by rage—is clearly getting pulled into an Iraq-like quagmire in Gaza. Like the Baath Party in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, much of Hamas’ leadership is gradually being destroyed .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/05/20/iraqis-killing-former-baath-party-members/23a5fd36-e6eb-4cc6-bec4-87fca79bc571/ . In fact, U.S. officials say Israeli tactics have been more effective than they thought, especially in penetrating the tunnel network with a minimum of Israeli casualties. But Israel has not even begun to contemplate a viable way out. And as in Iraq, there are already signs of a rising insurgency, and a new generation of militants, that could bedevil Israel for years.
Indeed, despite the very public criticism of Israel’s scorched-earth military campaign in recent weeks, U.S. officials say that what irks them even more than the ongoing humanitarian disaster is Israel’s complete failure to consider what it’s going to do in Gaza even one day after.
“If there’s one extreme frustration with the Israeli side, it is the lack of any credible phase four plan,” a senior Biden administration official said in an interview, referring to the post-conflict phase when some form of governance is restored to the Gaza Strip. (Phase one was the air bombardment after Oct. 7; phase two, the ground invasion; and phase three will be mop-up.)
The Israeli government hasn’t moved beyond the idea of organizing .. https://www.timesofisrael.com/relying-on-local-clans-to-run-postwar-gaza-should-be-off-the-table-experts-warn/ .. local clans to run things and is completely rejecting the idea of a “reconstituted” Palestinian Authority (PA) to take over Gaza. Even the more moderate opposition leader, Benny Gantz—Netanyahu’s most likely successor as prime minister—doesn’t want to bring in the PA, the official added, and plans have remained stuck at vague concepts of a transitional council composed of unknown potential members.
“The Arabs are ready to help, but they’re not just going to glom onto some new [Palestinian] creation if it’s not defined,” the official said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talks to media before departing at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on March 22. Evelyn Hockstein/AFP via Getty Images
For months, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has flown back and forth around the region to orchestrate what could be a promising future regional peace structure for Israel. This includes the once-unimaginable possibility of recognition by Saudi Arabia and virtually every other Arab state. All the Israelis would likely have to do in return, after disposing of Hamas’s leadership and military structure (which the other Arab regimes have little use for), would be to show a willingness to discuss some possibility of Palestinian statehood or autonomy. And even in the event of Palestinian statehood, all parties know that statehood would never mean total sovereignty in terms of military capability. Any new “Palestine” would be a rump state.
Yet the Israelis, still traumatized by Oct. 7, aren’t discussing any of this—not even conceptually, according to Biden administration officials and other observers. One problem, as officials in the Biden administration acknowledge, is that after the horrors of the Hamas attack, even moderate Israelis can’t yet stomach the idea of handing the Palestinians a state or even an autonomous entity, and Netanyahu can’t keep his fragile right-wing coalition together unless he continues to robustly oppose the idea.
The Americans haven’t helped much with their own signaling. While Biden in recent weeks has hammered Netanyahu in public over the humanitarian disaster, the U.S. president hasn’t pushed a political solution in a very visible way. After Israeli accusations .. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-report-says-israel-coerced-some-agency-employees-falsely-admit-hamas-links-2024-03-08/ .. that some United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff might be connected to the Oct. 7 attacks, Biden even agreed to defund the UNRWA through March 2025, although that group is the only organized non-Hamas bureaucracy operating in Gaza. With about 13,000 employees in Gaza, most of them Palestinian, UNRWA operates health clinics, infrastructure projects, schools, and aid programs, and more than 1 million Palestinian refugees are still sheltering in its facilities.
Palestinians wave identity cards as they gather to receive flour rations outside a warehouse of the UNRWA in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 12, 2023. Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
The partial crippling of UNRWA in turn has worsened the humanitarian crisis as the few truck convoys that do get through tend to get mobbed, with food and assistance distributed unevenly. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, or 87 percent of the population, depend on the UNRWA for sustenance.
“The failure to distribute aid is actually the biggest bottleneck at the moment,” said Michael Koplow of the Israel Policy Forum in Washington. Koplow points to the chaos and violence by armed gangs—and in some cases shootouts between returning Hamas militants and PA or Fatah gunmen—that have arisen in the north and in the area of Khan Younis as the Israelis withdraw, thus exacerbating a crisis begun by the Israeli blockade. “There are no more functioning institutions, and no plan has been set forth for replacing any of them,” he said in a phone interview.
Privately, most Israeli security officials recognize that their government is being unrealistic both about the humanitarian crisis and their ability to contain it, as well as postwar governance. “Israeli security officials are clear eyed on the fact that neither local clans, nor municipal officials can be expected to meet on their own the daunting tasks of governing and rehabilitating the Strip,” Nimrod Novik, a former senior advisor to the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, said in an email. “These tasks require massive outside support. However, outsiders—first and foremost key regional players [such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states]—refuse to engage (beyond short-term humanitarian assistance) unless it is all done in coordination with the PA.”
Congressional supporters of Israel echo these concerns, saying that the Israeli failures carry too many memories of the way the U.S. invaded Iraq without any kind of credible plan for governance after “de-Baathification”—the term used for the U.S. process .. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/middle-east/iraq-united-states-orders-disorder .. of removing key elements of Hussein’s regime from Iraqi governance. “I’m deeply worried about what happens in Gaza after the war ends,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview. “My chief worry is that this campaign is going to end up with anti-Israel sentiment being stronger, not weaker. … We have to see a viable plan for who controls and runs Gaza.”
A woman washes clothes outside tents at a camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in a school run by the UNRWA in Rafah on March 13. Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
On Capitol Hill, congressional oversight of aid to Israel—once as routine as a traffic cop lazily waving through a never-ending motorcade—has suddenly become a serious business. But almost all efforts are now focused on making aid and support to Israel conditional on the opening up of humanitarian corridors rather than plans for after the war. A few key examples: An $18 billion sale .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/us/politics/biden-israel-weapons-deal.html#:~:text=The%20Biden%20administration%20is%20pressing,its%20military%20offensive%20in%20Gaza. .. of F-15s to Israel, along with other major military aid packages, will not just sashay through the congressional notification process as usually happens, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has led a campaign in the Senate to apply new tough standards to military aid. “We will use all the tools in our toolbox to discourage the Biden administration from going down that path,” Van Hollen said in an interview.
Van Hollen also said the administration has promised the senators a full briefing before a May 8 deadline .. https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-van-hollen-colleagues-request-briefing-on-implementation-of-national-security-memorandum-20#:~:text=The%20first%20report%20is%20due,armed%20conflict%20since%20January%202023. for accountability under the president’s national security memo .. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/02/08/national-security-memorandum-on-safeguards-and-accountability-with-respect-to-transferred-defense-articles-and-defense-services/ .. from February. That memo, prompted by a threatened Van Hollen amendment to a spending bill, requires a pledge by Israel that any future U.S. aid will be used in accordance with international law and humanitarian standards, to be followed by a 45-day assessment period by the State Department. “The whole purpose is to keep the spotlight on this,” Van Hollen said, adding: “I would hope the Biden administration would want to avoid a big fight in the Senate about sending more offensive weapons to the Netanyahu government.”
Read More
How Will This War End? How Can the Next One be Prevented?
FP asks experts two questions about the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.
Roundup | Zaha Hassan, Daniel C. Kurtzer, Omar M. Dajani, Diana Buttu,
Peter R. Mansoor, Daniel Levy, Ehud Olmert, Eugene Kontorovich, Elliott Abrams
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/07/israel-hamas-gaza-palestine-how-war-end-peace/
Is This a Revolution? Or Are People Just Very Ticked Off?
In a new book, Fareed Zakaria explores how much the times are a-changin’.
At risk, he says, is the entire global system.
Review | Michael Hirsh
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/25/fareed-zakaria-age-of-revolutions-review/
The Problem Isn’t Just Netanyahu. It’s Israeli Society.
Despite blaming the prime minister, a large majority of Jewish Israeli citizens
support his destructive policies in Gaza and beyond.
Argument | Mairav Zonszein
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/04/02/netanyahu-gaza-palestinians-war-israeli-society/
But here, too, the issue of post-conflict Gaza remains an afterthought, and in any case, there is not nearly enough congressional support for a full-on stoppage of military aid. Nor is Biden likely to support such a move, despite political pressure from progressive elements in his party seven months before the U.S. presidential election. True, perhaps never before has the defense of Israel, a constant in U.S. politics, been so toxic. But neither has any U.S. president been as passionately committed to Israel as Biden.
Murphy warned that, as a result, U.S. leverage on Israel will remain limited. “I think we have to be sober-minded about the ability of U.S. policy to influence Netanyahu’s decision-making,” he said. “This campaign is not dependent on U.S. aid. Israel is not Ukraine. They have the resources to continue this campaign with or without the United States.”
In the past, Israel has rarely moved on a political solution to the Palestinian issue without intense pressure from Washington. Today’s U.S.-Israel tensions are probably the worst since the George H.W. Bush administration more than three decades ago. At that time, then-Secretary of State James Baker threatened .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/02/25/baker-bars-israeli-loan-aid-unless-settlements-are-halted/e7311eea-e6d3-493b-8880-a3b98e0830a1/ .. to withhold loan guarantees from Israel unless it stopped building settlements on the West Bank as a prelude to entering into serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
[Insert: Yep. The Greater Israel Zionist agenda will be full bloodshed ahead despite America's, or anyone else's position.]
That American pressure ultimately laid the groundwork for the Oslo peace process, which led to repeated failures by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to come to terms for statehood. That in turn gave rise to another intifada and ultimately the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. All in all, the nearly two-decade-long Oslo ordeal left many Israelis dubious of U.S.-led peace efforts. And that was before Oct. 7. It is likely to be doubly true today.
All signs point to a long and bloody quagmire ahead. Israel is indeed confronting its own 9/11— in more ways than one.
Michael Hirsh is a columnist for Foreign Policy. He is the author of two books: Capital Offense: How Washington’s Wise Men Turned America’s Future Over to Wall Street and At War With Ourselves: Why America Is Squandering Its Chance to Build a Better World. Twitter: @michaelphirsh
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/04/09/israel-iraq-gaza-quagmire-9-11-us-policy/
LOL Even if i had a good set of teeth no. Would gladly share some though
even without the good set of teeth. Will go down and chop some now.
YUM. Will prepare to steam another batch of vegetables soon. Still have a
chicken leg with plenty of the sauce from the two cooked two days ago.
Yep. Guess in all times because somebody has something someone else wants enough to try to take it by force.
Fighting everywhere, i guess, 200, 000 - 300,000 years ..
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/origin-humans-early-societies/a/where-did-humans-come-from .
That's right. Cantlay could easily win it for you. Young still about too.
Agree. Heh, reckon you picked 5000 years just because it was way back closer to the Stone Age, then the cat in me dragged in
3000 to 2000 BC – First domestication of the dromedaries in Somalia and southern Arabia
3000 to 2300 BC – First Kingdom of Ebla
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Middle_Eastern_history#3rd_millennium_BC
Ebla (Sumerian: ???? eb2-la,[1] Arabic: ????, modern: ?? ?????, Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center throughout the 3rd millennium BC and in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Its discovery proved the Levant was a center of ancient, centralized civilization equal to Egypt and Mesopotamia and ruled out the view that the latter two were the only important centers in the Near East during the Early Bronze Age. The first Eblaite kingdom has been described as the first recorded world power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla
You'd think after all this time we should have grown out of it ...
Do you keep up with current events? Whether you read a newspaper on a regular basis or watch the evening news, it's important to keep up with things going on in the world around you. Part of the responsibility of being a citizen of the world is being aware of the changes constantly taking place around the world.
If you watch the news, one of the harsh realities of the world is the number of wars that are ongoing around the globe. Despite all our societal advances, conflicts still arise between groups of people, and war is still used as a method to resolve those conflicts.
Looking back, you might WONDER when and how wars ever got started in the first place. Although there's no way we'll ever know exactly when violence first became a solution to a perceived problem, it's not hard to imagine situations that may have led to one man taking up arms against another.
When the first humans roamed Earth, life was harsh and obtaining food and shelter was hard work. Humans learned that it is more efficient to divide work among a group, and to trade resources with other groups.
Conflicts arose between groups of people over resources of the land: food, materials, and shelter, to name a few. Did one prehistoric group of people decide they wanted the cave another prehistoric group had found first and take it by force? No one will ever know, but it's easy to imagine how the first fights might have broken out.
Individual or small group instances of violence are different than full-blown wars. We get our English word "war" from the High German ("werran") and Old English ("werre") words that mean "confusion" or "to confuse." If you read firsthand accounts from soldiers who have taken part in wars, you'll recognize how accurate a description that is of what takes place in a war.
For a war to occur there needs to be a large-scale organization of people and weapons directed with a purpose. As a result, the first wars didn't come about until the first societies and civilizations were formed.
Researchers believe the first wars took place long before recorded history. Archeologists, for example, have found evidence of what they believe may have been the first prehistoric war along the Nile River near the Egypt-Sudan border.
At a site known as Cemetery 117, archeologists have uncovered a large group of bodies with arrowheads lodged in their bones, which leads experts to believe they were the victims of a large battle. The remains have been dated to the Mesolithic era, over 13,000 years ago.
Historians believe the first war in recorded history took place in Mesopotamia in 2,700 B.C. between the forces of Sumer and Elam. Enembaragesi, the King of Kish, led the Sumerians to victory over the Elamites in that war. Although we don't know much about what led to this war, some experts believe it was likely the result of societies beginning to compete for limited resources as agriculture began to replace hunting and gathering.
The war between Sumer and Elam was likely merely the first of a nearly-constant series of ongoing conflicts in the region. As the tools and methods of war were developed and honed, it became easier and easier to fall into the patterns of war rather than seeking peace. Given war's long history in our world, it's no surprise that we still haven't figured out how to avoid it in today's modern world.
So why do wars occur? There are many reasons groups of people go to war with other groups. Major conflicts are often a result of clashes in religion or culture, disputes over territory or other resources, acts of revenge, or to make radical changes in a nation's government.
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-long-have-there-been-wars
Fell asleep at my table here. 1:15 pm after getting up about 3 am. Big, stay at home 'cuz have been a gambling dick again, Saturday. LOL
Hope he does well .. "That's a cool one for me," Russell said. "It's a cool record,
and hopefully it will get broken." .. he's obviously a generous young fella too.
I agree. Would be a terrible way to go. Hope Azzarello is still alive, then maybe he'd rather be dead. Others
A climate activist died after lighting himself on fire. His intentions remain unclear
April 26, 20224:26 PM ET
By Sam Brasch
On Earth Day, Colorado climate activist Alan Bruce lit himself on fire outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
He died of his injuries the next day. His friends and family say his intentions remain unclear.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/26/1094870301/a-climate-activist-died-after-lighting-himself-on-fire-his-intentions-remain-unc
Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past
By Emily Davies, Peter Hermann and Dan Lamothe
Updated February 27, 2024 at 2:07 p.m. EST|Published February 26, 2024 at 8:10 a.m. EST
[...]Twelve minutes later, Bushnell, who was a senior airman in the U.S. Air Force, doused himself with a liquid and set himself on fire. He had posted a video online saying he did not want to be “complicit in genocide.” He shouted “Free Palestine” as he burned.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/26/israeli-embassy-airman-fire-death-gaza/
livefree_ordie, Told you before you would feel freer and happier if you developed an ounce of consideration for others
around you. It sure as hell never was what any other than a cabbage would consider calling common knowledge.
Was going to say it at least is good to be off the bottom, went to check yours
and OOPs ..https://fantasygolf.pgatour.com/leagues/156 .. huge surprise.
Just now realized the situation. Next step, have to get the winner. That's a must.
Looks like he invested many, many hours over years convincing himself he had a conspiracy outline which connected about every dot he could manage to connect. A worldwide non-partisan conspiracy which made even QAnon's sex-trafficking cannibalistic child molester cabal's war against Trump look tame. Powerful parties which ordinary people like us see as opposing each other are actually working together. Democrats and Trump are working together. And he obviously believed his picture was so important to the world that he should sacrifice himself to help the innocents among us to take his beliefs seriously. Maybe a Jesus-complex helped him too, to make such a sacrifice. Maybe he had a secret belief that death offered him countless rewards, as so many Christians, Muslims and other believers believe. Sam Azzarello obviously had too much invested to seek help.
.
No cut in this one
The War Games of Israel and Iran
"‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas
"How Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel
[...]Supporting Hamas rule in Gaza, those critics say, allowed Netanyahu to confine the Palestinian Authority
to the West Bank and weaken it, dividing the Palestinians into two mutually antagonistic blocs.
"Ehud Barak blames Binyamin Netanyahu for “the greatest failure in Israel’s history”
Israel says it kills second Hamas commander in refugee camp, first evacuees leave Gaza
See also: Vengeance Is Not a Policy"""
While Netanyahu and the Islamic Republic exchange ballistic “messages,” the question
of Palestine demands the moral and strategic courage of actual statesmen.
By David Remnick
April 19, 2024
“What stands between Iranians and a better future is not Israel or America but their own leadership,” the Iranian American analyst Karim Sadjadpour said. Photograph by Vahid Salemi / AP
Not long before Israel launched a decidedly limited attack on an Iranian airbase near the city of Isfahan on Friday morning, Nahum Barnea, a well-connected columnist for the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, called on a source who, he told me, “is way up in the government, one of the people who ordered the strike.” By way of explaining the strategic and tactical rationale of what was about to happen, the source resorted to a common frame of reference: the story of King Saul’s robe.
In the Book of Samuel, Chapter 24, Saul and his soldiers are hunting David, the man who will eventually replace him. Along the way, Saul pauses near a cave and goes in “to relieve himself.” David, who happens to be hiding in the very same cave, sneaks up on the urinating sovereign, takes out a knife and, rather than kill him, stealthily slices off a piece of Saul’s robe. Later, when they encounter each other openly, David bows to Saul and asks why the king is pursuing him. Saul sees the patch of his robe in David’s grip and realizes that, while David means him no immediate harm, he is vulnerable.
There is no way to know whether another volley will be coming in the short term, but what is clear is that the decades-long shadow war between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran is no longer confined to the shadows. A line was crossed when Israel carried out a lethal air strike on Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a leading commander in Iran’s Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and six of his associates, who were meeting in a consular building in Damascus. That strike, as precise as it was deadly, was followed by Iran’s massive launch of drones and ballistic missiles on Israeli territory—an attack that was thoroughly repelled by a coördinated effort involving Israel, the United States, Britain, Jordan, the U.A.E., and Saudi Arabia.
By deploying such a relatively mild response near Isfahan, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seemingly attempted to thread a kind of political needle, at once mollifying the Biden Administration and the Sunni Arab leaders to avoid a regional escalation and yet satisfying his domestic political allies who demanded that he “do something.” Indeed, the Iranian leadership decided to absorb the latest attack with theatrical cool. State television showed “life as usual” footage in the area and insisted that the regime’s nuclear and military sites in the region were undamaged.
On Friday, I spoke to Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian American analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who was travelling in Dubai. When I relayed the Israeli official’s comparison of the attack to the strategic subtlety on display in the Book of Samuel, Sadjadpour laughed and said, “That’s about right. That actually captures it. It’s a clear Israeli signal to Iran that they have the ability to penetrate Iranian airspace and strike at will.” Israel, Sadjadpour went on, had already demonstrated this in various ways—most notably, with the assassination of the chief Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was shot to death in his car four years ago in the city of Absard. The weapon used to carry out the operation is believed to have been a satellite-operated machine gun imported, piece by piece, into Iran.
“In my view, these two countries are unnatural adversaries,” Sadjadpour told me. “This isn’t like Russia-Ukraine or China-Taiwan or Israel-Palestine with their territorial, bilateral disputes. This is not a conflict that is geopolitical but ideological.” Since the Islamic Revolution, in 1979, he said, the three ideological pillars of the Islamic regime have been opposition to Israel, opposition to the United States, and the wearing of the hijab: “If you were to ask Israeli leaders, civilian or military, ‘What would be your ideal outcome or relationship with Iran?’ they would say, ‘We would love to restore relations with an Iranian government, though not with the Islamic Republic.’ But the Iranian leaders want to abolish Israel. For Iran, this is a war of choice. For Israel, this is a war of necessity.”
In Sadjadpour’s view, which is echoed by polling results in Iran, there is a distinct gulf between the mullahs and the general population. “The Iranian government is more dedicated to abolishing one nation than advancing its own,” he said. “You never hear an Iranian leader saying, ‘Long live Iran!’ You hear, ‘Death to Israel!’ There is a difference between being anti-Israel and being pro-Palestine. They don’t do anything to improve Palestinian welfare. The resources are dedicated to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.” He noted a Persian expression: “The bowl is hotter than the soup. Meaning, that people question why the Iranian leaders are more anti-Israel—not pro-Palestinian, but anti-Israel—than most Arab countries. They ask, ‘Why are we forsaking our own national interests for this cause?’ What stands between Iranians and a better future is not Israel or America but their own leadership. You hear examples of this in the anti-regime protest slogans. People chant, ‘Our enemy is right here! They lie that it’s America!’ ”
The constituency that seems the most vexed by Israel’s limited strike near Isfahan resides not in Tehran but in Jerusalem. The ultraconservatives in Netanyahu’s cabinet and in the Knesset have spoken out loudly and often in favor of something dramatic, even an assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities or its civilian population.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national-security minister and a notoriously reactionary religious nationalist, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the strike on the Iranian base was dardale—like a weak kick easily blocked by the goalie. (Anshel Pfeffer helpfully pointed out .. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-19/ty-article/.premium/israels-muted-strike-on-isfahan-shows-netanyahu-has-no-strategy-on-iran-as-well-as-gaza/0000018e-f623-df38-abbf-feab83690000 .. in the liberal Haaretz that “this might have been Ben-Gvir’s son Shovael, an amateur soccer player who runs his father’s social media accounts.”) Ben-Gvir and his far-right compatriots are sure to use this event as evidence of weakness, both in the conflict with Iran and in the prosecution of the war in Gaza. For them, the deaths of thirty-three thousand Gazans is insufficient, thousands short of “complete victory.” Indeed, many in Ben-Gvir’s camp have talked openly about reëstablishing Jewish settlements in Gaza and evicting Palestinians entirely.
Sadly, if predictably, the Netanyahu government seems not to have considered a more strategic and morally courageous path, one built upon its impressive deflection of Iran’s massive drone attack with the following goals in mind: a ceasefire in Gaza; a settlement regarding the Lebanon border; the return of the Israeli hostages; additional agreements and alliances with the Sunni Arab states; and forward movement, despite everything, toward a secure and just arrangement with the Palestinians.
That kind of political will or imagination is not only beyond Netanyahu. It does not take into account what he values most—his own future, his intense desire to stay in office and out of court. And yet, as horrific as Netanyahu’s leadership is, it is a mistake, an incomplete assessment, to put the focus, and the onus, completely on him.
“It is true: the Israeli government has no interest in ending the war in Gaza anytime soon, much less in declaring the revival of the peace process,” Aluf Benn, the editor of Haaretz, told me. “But what’s also important to notice is that no one—not the Sunni Arab powers, not the West, not even Iran itself—was trying to extract anything from Israel on the question of Gaza and the Palestinians. The Arab states did not condition their participation in the regional air defenses on a withdrawal from Gaza or any other Palestinian demand. Neither did Iran. The same is true of Biden. It was totally de-linked from the Palestinian issue. None of them said, ‘We won’t defend you unless you withdraw from Gaza or release Palestinians from prisons.’ Based on what we know now, no one tried to extract anything from Israel.”
Perhaps there is something ugly about trying to search for a hopeful historic parallel after all the cruelty that’s been committed from October 7th onward. And yet such an example comes not from a Biblical episode but from a diplomatic one. Following the first intifada, which erupted in 1987, the United States began to bring together leaders from the Middle East and the rest of the world to collaborate on a peace process. This did not involve an assemblage of saints. But it did lead to the Madrid Conference, in 1991, and that event ultimately led to the Oslo peace accords. That process, after years of elevating expectations, ended in ruins. We can debate the reasons forever. We can go on shedding blood and deepening hatreds forever. But what is the choice? Is there any sane path other than beginning again? ♦
David Remnick has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998 and a staff writer since 1992. He is the
author of seven books; the most recent is “Holding the Note,” a collection of his profiles of musicians.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-war-games-of-israel-and-iran?_sp=6a3f5c34-98ac-4739-bbc9-b7b211e8b5e6.1713563068115
About bloody time - Ukraine Aid Bill Clears Critical Hurdle in the House as Democrats Supply the Votes
"Putin's irrationality meant no one could have prevented war: Canada's envoy to Ukraine"
Democrats stepped in to support bringing the aid package to the floor, in a remarkable breach of custom on a key vote that paved the way for its passage.
A bipartisan effort, with more Democratic than Republican support, pushed the legislation past Republican opposition so it could be considered on the floor.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
By Annie Karni
Reporting from the Capitol
April 19, 2024Updated 2:58 p.m. ET
The House took a critical step on Friday toward approving a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, as Democrats supplied the crucial votes to push the legislation past Republican opposition so that it could be considered on the floor.
The 316-to-94 vote cleared the way for the House to bring up the aid package, teeing up separate votes on Saturday on each of its parts. But passage of those measures, each attracting bipartisan support from different coalitions, was not in doubt, making Friday’s action the key indicator that the legislation is all but certain to prevail.
Should that happen in votes set for Saturday afternoon, the Senate was expected to quickly pass the measure, and President Biden has said he would sign it into law.
On Friday, the rule for considering the bill — historically a straight party-line vote — passed with more Democratic than Republican support, but it also won a majority of G.O.P. votes, making it clear that despite a pocket of deep resistance from the far right, there is broad bipartisan backing for the $95.3 billion package.
The vote was an enormous victory in the long effort to fund Ukraine as it battles Russian aggression, a major priority of President Biden. It was a triumph against the forces of isolationism within the G.O.P. and a major moment of consensus in a Congress that for the past year has been mostly defined by its dysfunction.
But it came only after Speaker Mike Johnson put his job on the line by turning to Democrats in a significant breach of custom in the House, further imperiling his position even as he paved the way for the legislation to be voted on and approved.
On the House floor, Democrats held back their votes until it was clear there was not enough Republican support for the measure to pass without their backing, and then their “yes” votes began pouring in. Ultimately, 165 Democrats voted for the measure, more than the 151 Republicans who supported it.
“Democrats, once again, will be the adults in the room, and I’m so glad Republicans finally realize the gravity of the situation and the urgency with which we must act,” said Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee. “But you don’t get an award around here for doing your damn job.”
Mr. McGovern blamed a “MAGA minority that doesn’t want to compromise” for the long delay on approving aid to Ukraine. But he said that Democrats were providing the votes because “so much more is at stake here than petty partisanship.”
Representative Thomas Massie seen onscreen speaking during the rules debate on Friday morning. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
It was the second time during this Congress that Republicans have had to rely on Democratic votes in the House to even bring to the floor legislation to address a critical issue. They did so last year to allow for a vote to suspend the debt ceiling bill and avoid a catastrophic federal default. On that vote, 29 Republicans voted to oppose the rule. On Friday, 55 Republicans voted against their own speaker’s agenda.
After the vote, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona became the third Republican to say he would support a bid to oust Mr. Johnson from his post. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, has already filed a resolution calling for Mr. Johnson’s removal but has not yet sought a vote on it.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said Mr. Johnson had not directly asked him for Democratic votes to pass the rule on Friday, but it was obvious that the measure was going to require substantial backing from his ranks to pass. He added that a majority of Democrats would also support the elements of the aid package on Saturday.
Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the rule on Friday, including many progressives who oppose unfettered aid to Israel because of how it has conducted its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, where health officials say more than 33,000 people have been killed and the population is facing a hunger crisis .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/world/middleeast/gaza-famine-hunger-crisis.html .
The top Democrat repeatedly refused to signal whether members of his party would vote to save Mr. Johnson’s job should Republicans attempt to remove him, something Mr. Jeffries had previously said was a distinct possibility, saying that conversation would happen “at the appropriate time.”
“I think what the American people care about right now is meeting their needs in a very dangerous world of standing by our democratic allies,” Mr. Jeffries said. “That will be the ultimate test by which Speaker Johnson, myself and all of our colleagues in the House on both sides of the aisle will be judged.”
Many Republicans spoke in favor of the legislation to send aid to Ukraine and Israel. Representative Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the rules panel, said he wanted the Biden administration to provide more information about how previous foreign aid funding was used and what its long-term goals were for ending the conflict in Ukraine.
He said Republicans would continue to push for accountability, but conceded that, “today we are at an inflection point.”
“Lack of aid now could cost us much more dearly later,” he said, “and I don’t want that to become a reality.”
But the far-right flank of the Republican conference, which has wielded outsized power in a tiny majority, spoke out to oppose the bill.
“I’m concerned that the speaker’s cut a deal with the Democrats to fund foreign wars rather than secure our border,” said Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation who has threatened to vote to oust Mr. Johnson because of it.
In order to steer around opposition from members of his own party, Mr. Johnson broke down the package into three pieces, adding a fourth bill to sweeten the deal for conservatives.
The rule was critical to Mr. Johnson’s strategy, because it allows separate votes .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/us/politics/house-israel-ukraine-aid-package-explainer.html .. on aid to Israel and aid to Ukraine, which are supported by different coalitions, but then folds them together without requiring lawmakers to cast an up-or-down vote on the entire bill.
That made the rule the only all-or-nothing vote that lawmakers would face on the foreign aid package, in many ways making it more important than any of the votes on the individual pieces of the plan. The measure also includes a package of sweeteners including a bill to require the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or ban the app in the United States.
“This was all precooked,” Representative Chip Roy, a hard-right Republican from Texas, fumed as he rose to oppose the rule. “It’s why President Biden and Chuck Schumer are praising it.”
Friday’s vote came after Republicans on the House Rules Committee were also forced late Thursday night to rely on Democratic votes to move the legislation out of the committee and onto the House floor. The far-right lawmakers who tried to block the rule in the committee — Mr. Massie, Mr. Roy and Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina — opposed it because it would not allow a vote on severe border security provisions they have said should be prioritized over aiding Ukraine.
Under the rule approved on Friday, Republicans will have two chances to zero out or limit the funding for Ukraine. Those efforts are expected to fail.
Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership. More about Annie Karni
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/us/politics/congress-vote-ukraine-bill-house.html
Shucks if.
Poor guy lost himself awhile ago -- Max Azzarello posted anti-establishment conspiracies online. He set himself on fire outside Trump’s trial moments later
The man was later identified by the New York Police Department as 37-year-old Max Azzarello from St Augustine Florida
Mike Bedigan
20 minutes ago
VIDEO - Police gather after man sets himself on fire outside Trump courthouse
Evening Headlines
Prior to the shocking incident outside the New York courthouse, the man who set himself on fire was unknown to police.
Max Azzarello, 37, had recently started posting anti establishment “conspiracy theories” online, including a lengthy article on Substack which blasted corrupt politicians, billionaires and even made reference to The Simpsons.
The manifesto-style document warnedof an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
At 1.30pm local time he entered a park outside the New York courthouse, where Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial is taking place, and set himself on fire. The horrific incident lasted several minutes before the flames were extinguished by police officers and court staff.
Here’s what we know:
Who is the victim?
In his lengthy post Mr Azzarello described himself as an “investigative researcher”.
https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/04/19/20/SEI200634773.jpg?quality=75&width=640&auto=webp
Maxwell Azzarello reportedly threw pamphlets in the park before self-immolating on Friday (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Police said that Mr Azzarello’s drivers license showed he was born in 1987 and was a native of St Augustine, Florida. A registered Democrat, he attended University of North Carolina from 2005 to 2009, according to public records and his LinkedIn page.
He is believed to have arrived in New York at some point between April 13 and April 19, though family members who spoke to police said they were unaware that he was in the city.
Mr Azzarello was unknown to police prior to the incident and did not have a criminal history in New York, police said.
Following the incident Ms Azzarello was described as being in a “very critical condition”, but alive, and being treated at Manhattan’s Weill Cornell Medicine Burn Center.
His beliefs
Mr Azzarello had a long history of posting conspiracy theories and railing against the rich and powerful, according to NYPD officials, who had begun to comb through his social media profiles.
His lengthy Substack post called out a range of people, social media companies and institutions. He also labelled the Covid-19 pandemic as an “economic doomsday device”.
In the document Mr Azzarello said that the act of self-immolation was “an extreme act of protest” over a “totalitarian con” and warned of an impending “apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
“To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you. But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict,” he wrote.
Elsewhere in the lengthy and somewhat rambling post, Azzarello also made reference to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, cryptocurrency, and episodes of The Simpsons.
At one point he comapred himself to Lisa Simpson in the episode Lisa the Iconoclast, writing that he had been “desperately trying to get friends, family, and the public to believe the proof of a totalitarian con I’m trying to show them.
A fire extinguisher remains on the scene outside the park where Max Azzarello self-immolated on Friday (AFP via Getty Images)
“They’ve turned away with hostility, apathy, disbelief, and partisanship.”
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters at a press conference. “The pamphlets [thrown by Mr Azzarello seconds before the incident] seem to be propaganda-based almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlets.
“Some information in regards to Ponzi schemes, and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are front for the mob. So a little bit of a conspiracy theory going on here.”
The incident
Police said that Mr Azzarello had not breached any security protocols before the incident, as the park – Collect Pond Park – was open to the public at the time.
Witnesses described how he had walked into the park alone, taken off his jacket and poured gas over his head before lighting himself up.
Seconds before setting himself on fire, he tossed a stack of colorful pamphlets into the air, which are believed to link back to his online Substack post.
A man who witnessed the shocking incident, which occurred mere minutes after the final jurors were selected in the former president’s criminal case, an identified himself as Dave, was visibily shaken.
“Papers clattered on the ground and that caught our attention well my attention anyway and I kinda wondered ‘well what are those papers’,” Dave told The Independent’s Alex Woodward. “But then he pulled out a can and poured it over himself.”
Dave said people around him were “horrified” and became screaming. The incident happened so quickly, nobody was able to stop it.
A few links - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/man-fire-trump-max-azzarello-b2531705.html
That Sam's conspiracy theory leaves little out. As in many there is probably some truth in it. Dragging in The Simpson's feels a bit much.
??? No idea. I can't ever watch.