Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 30,091]

Holocaust Survivor on Israel & Zionism

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

When Trump wins by landslide who are going to celebrate wildly in Greece ?
The left and the communist party.
I don't mean they will jump into the fountains but I mean celebrations at home with three tier cakes, champagne.

Possibilitities open:

- IMF-EU throw Greece out and it becomes communist state.
- Trump encourages Erdogan to attack Greece, leading to Greek disaster and communist state again.
- Trump encourages the Greek right to absolve Golden dawn - the immigrants form jihad defense units in response - civil war.

I cannot give a probability index to the above.
If anyone can give a probability index - bookie prices please try.
But these are the wet dreams of any leftie.

I expect it's similar everywhere else.

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

14 hours ago, Vesper said:

Holocaust Survivor on Israel & Zionism

 

He speaks the truth from experience - the Zionists are acting just like the nazis

[Vesper 30,091]

U.S. troops killed, wounded in Jordan attack blamed on Iranian proxies

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/28/americans-killed-drone-jordan/

Three U.S. troops were killed and at least 34 injured in a militant drone attack Sunday in Jordan, officials said, marking the first deadly military action against American service members since the war in Gaza triggered a steep rise in violence throughout the Middle East..

President Biden blamed the attack on groups supported by Iran, and the incident raised immediate questions about when, where and how forcefully the Pentagon might respond. In a statement, he said the United States will “hold those throughout the Middle East. responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”

As the number of attacks on deployed American personnel has surged to more than 160 since October, the Pentagon has carried out selective retaliatory strikes against Iranian proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. But to the frustration of many in Washington, those actions have failed to deter the groups perpetrating the violence, and the president’s critics seized on this development to intensify their demands for more aggressive countermeasures.

Sunday’s attack targeted a facility known as Tower 22. The base, which houses about 350 U.S. troops, is located in northeast Jordan along the country’s shared borders with Syria and Iraq. A U.S. defense official said the one-way drone struck the base’s living quarters, causing injuries that ranged cuts and bruises to brain trauma.

It was not immediately clear from which country the attack was launched, said the official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the incident. Military commanders are working to determine that information and, crucially, why U.S. air defenses failed to intercept the drone.

Some of the wounded personnel required medical evacuation, the official said. The identities of those slain were not disclosed, pending family notifications. Biden, in his statement, called them “patriots in the highest sense.”

Sunday’s bloodshed spotlighted Jordan’s attempt to walk a tenuous line as many in the Arab world, outraged by Israel’s punishing assault on Gaza, have faulted the United States for its unconditional backing of the Jewish state despite the war’s enormous civilian toll. The kingdom has continued to partner with the United States on counterterrorism while looking to avoid the wrath of Iran and other regional neighbors. On Sunday, despite the U.S. government’s disclosure about where the attack occurred, Jordanian officials claimed it was another U.S. base in the region — one located on the Syrian side of the border — that was targeted.

The defense official characterized operations at Tower 22 vaguely, saying the Americans deployed there are on an advise-and-assist mission.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes Kataib Hezbollah, Nujaba and other Iranian-backed militants, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a senior official with the organization who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity in accordance with its rules.

“As we said before, if the U.S. keeps supporting Israel, there will escalations. All the U.S. interests in the region are legitimate targets and we don’t care about U.S. threats to respond, we know the direction we are taking and martyrdom is our prize,” the Islamic Resistance in Iraq official said.

The group is a front for Iran-backed militias there. Its forces began targeting U.S. interests in 2018, after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran.

There are about 2,500 U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and another 900 in Syria. They have been focused on preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State, the terrorist network that took over large swaths of both countries until a U.S.-led military campaign left the group decimated. Last week, amid deepening strain between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, the Pentagon signaled its openness to reducing the American military presence there.

Friction between the two countries has worsened in recent weeks, as U.S. forces have fought back against the rise in Iranian proxy attacks. On Jan. 4, the Biden administration launched a rare retaliatory strike on a base belonging to a militia in central Baghdad, killing the group’s commander. American officials said at the time that it was hoped the strike would serve as a deterrent against further hostility toward U.S. troops. Instead, the attacks have grown more ambitious.

Iran hawks in Congress leveraged Sunday’s attack to amplify their criticism of Biden and his management of the Gaza-related spillover violence that has left much of the Middle East on edge. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) implored the administration to impose “serious crippling costs” on Iran and its proxies.

“The time to start taking this aggression seriously,” McConnell said, “was long before more brave Americans lost their lives.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the president’s strategy for deterring escalation had “failed miserably.” He called for striking “targets of significance inside Iran” — a prospect that many national security experts fear would draw the United States into a cataclysmic war.

“The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force,” Graham said. “Until they pay a price with their infrastructure and their personnel, the attacks on U.S. troops will continue.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A total of five U.S. troops have died since violence in the Middle East widened with Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Two Navy SEALs were lost in an accident earlier this month while on a mission to interdict Iranian weapons components bound for Yemen, where militants continue to target commercial and military vessels off the Arabian Peninsula.

As the SEALs attempted to board a boat suspected of carrying illicit arms, one of them slipped and fell from a ladder and the other jumped into the strong waves to help, officials have said. They were declared dead days later following an expansive search mission.

Edited January 28, 2024 by Vesper

[Vesper 30,091]

MR. FISH.......

SLAUGHTERHOUSE

[Vesper 30,091]

[Vesper 30,091]

THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG

[KEVINAA 129]

 

 

Just some last 24 hours news in tweets.

 

 

[MoroccanBlue 5,375]

buT dO yOU CoNDeMn oCtOBeR 7th??????

Israeli special forces disguised as doctors kill three militants at West Bank hospital

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

6 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

buT dO yOU CoNDeMn oCtOBeR 7th??????

Israeli special forces disguised as doctors kill three militants at West Bank hospital

Imagine the global outrage if some Palestinians disguised themselves as Hasidic jews and went into a Tel Aviv hospital to murder 3 Israeli soldiers....

 

[Vesper 30,091]

Joe Biden issues executive order against Israeli settlers in West Bank

Financial sanctions and visa bans imposed on four individuals as US frustration with Israel grows

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/joe-biden-expected-issue-order-israeli-settlers-west-bank-palestinians

Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians, amid fast-growing frustration in Washington at Israel’s trajectory in the midst of its war in Gaza.

The order initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four individuals, and US officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war. According to at least one report before the executive order, options included the potential to sanction officials.

 

 

Israel’s campaign in Gaza ‘plausibly’ amounts to genocide, US court finds

Palestinian authorities say some Palestinians have been killed, and rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing evacuations.

In the order, Biden said that extremist settler violence in the West Bank had “reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region”.

He said: “These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom.

“They also undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional destabilisation across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests.”

Biden has been facing growing criticism for his administration’s strong support of Israel as casualties mount in the conflict, which began when Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, attacked Israel on 7 October.

The order is a rare step against the US’s closest ally in the Middle East as Biden has pressed Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to show greater restraint in its military operations aimed at rooting out Hamas.

Biden and other senior US officials have warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, which Palestinian authorities and activists say has intensified since the Gaza war started.

The Biden administration had also considered moves targeting two far-right Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to a report on the Axios website.

Last month a US visa ban was announced for any Israeli settlers implicated in attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The new order will give the Treasury department the authority to impose financial sanctions on settlers engaged in violence, but is not meant to target US citizens. A substantial number of the settlers in the West Bank hold US citizenship and they would be prohibited under US law from transacting with the sanctioned individuals.

Israel is facing growing international discontent over its repeated refusal to contemplate the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, amid growing warnings that countries including the US and the UK may be considering unilateral recognition of statehood.

After comments by the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, last week that the UK might consider recognition on the day after the war in Gaza ends, US officials have indicated that the state department has been ordered to examine options for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel.

The state department’s spokesperson, Matthew Miller, declined to give details on its internal work on the issue but told a news briefing that the effort had been an objective of Biden’s administration.

The US and the UK, among other states, have long held up the goal of a Palestinian state as part of a negotiated peace process but recent moves in the midst of the Gaza war have highlighted the increasing sense of international frustration with Netanyahu, who has long worked to prevent a Palestinian state.

The Israeli prime minister has in recent weeks spoken of an extended period of military security control by Israel in Gaza while rejecting a role for any revitalised Palestinian Authority.

Washington and London appear to have indicated a change in emphasis in the sequencing of a recognition of a Palestinian state, which in the past was seen as the final step.

Miller told a state department briefing that the US was “actively pursuing the establishment as an independent Palestinian state, with real security guarantees for Israel, because we do believe that is the best way to bring about lasting peace and security for Israel, for Palestinians and for the region”.

He added: “There are any number of ways that you could go about accomplishing that. There are a number of sequencing of events that you can carry out to accomplish that objective. And we look at a wide range of options and we discuss those with partners in the region as well as other partners inside the United States government.”

Lord Cameron said the issue of recognising a Palestinian state would be part of a diplomatic process in which the Palestinian people would have to be shown “irreversible progress”.

Axios reported on Wednesday that the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had asked the state department to conduct a review and present policy options on possible US and international recognition of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza.

The executive order comes as Biden was due to visit Michigan on Thursday to rally support from union members in a key presidential battleground state. The Democratic president has faced sharp criticism from Arab and Muslim leaders over his handling of the war with Hamas, and the shadow of the conflict has some Democrats worrying that it could have a major effect on the outcome of the November election.

[Vesper 30,091]

Former Whitehall mandarin led Premier League ‘Stasi’ which banned gender-critical Newcastle fan

https://web.archive.org/web/20240203203445/https://news.yahoo.com/web/20240203203445/https://news.yahoo.com/former-whitehall-mandarin-led-premier-201357426.html

The Premier League “Stasi” unit which carried out an investigation that led to a gender-critical Newcastle United fan being banned was presided over by a former Whitehall mandarin fined over partygate.

A special unit set up to root out racism in the game was used to trawl through social media comments about transgender issues made by Linzi Smith, a loyal supporter of the club, despite them having nothing to do with football.

The 11-page Online Investigation and Target Profile produced by the Premier League investigation unit led to the club revoking her membership in November and banning her from games until 2026.

Now, this publication has learnt that Helen MacNamara, who was fined by the police in the partygate scandal, was until recently the Premier League executive responsible for the very policies now at the centre of Ms Smith’s legal battle.

Ms Smith is taking legal action to overturn her ban from Newcastle United, arguing that her right to exercise gender-critical views – the opinion that transgender women are not women – is protected in law, and that the Premier League’s trawl of her personal social media account constituted a breach of data protection laws.

As director of policy and corporate responsibility for the Premier League from 2021 until last year, Ms MacNamara was second in command to the chief executive and responsible for the top-flight league’s privacy policy, including “legal and regulatory matters” and “data protection”.

She also helped implement a new equality, diversity and inclusion standard in the Premier League, introduced in 2021, which is “mandatory and requires clubs to demonstrably embed and develop equality, diversity and inclusion across all areas”.

The former deputy cabinet secretary was fined £50 by police for attending a “raucous” lockdown party in June 2020 at which her karaoke machine was used and there was a drunken brawl, The Telegraph previously disclosed.

The latest revelation has sparked pressure from campaigners for Ms MacNamara and the Premier League to clarify whether or not the “shadowy intelligence agency” is quietly investigating other fans too.

The investigation unit, which does not have an official name, is part of the league’s legal department and based at its headquarters in Paddington, west London. It was set up in 2019 to monitor abuse, in particular racist abuse, directed at players.

Ms Smith, 34, was shocked to discover that the Premier League had compiled a dossier detailing where she lives, works and walked her dog. There was never any suggestion she had made any offensive comments at the stadium or during a match.

The 11-page document, compiled last July, was marked confidential and included data on “associated aliases” and “vulnerabilities”.

Ms Smith has accused the Premier League unit of behaving “like the Stasi” in carrying out the “covert” investigation.

She was interviewed under caution by police after the dossier was handed to officers by Newcastle United. Officers took just two hours to inform her that she had not committed any crime, but the club sanctioned her and she lost an appeal against it.

Newcastle United began prying into the personal life of Ms Smith, who lives in Newcastle and runs a tea shop with her mother, after receiving a complaint from a fan who said they supported LGBTQ+ organisations and accused her of discrimination against trans people.

The complainant included screenshots of tweets Ms Smith had posted in which she said that trans ideology is “based off a Nazi right” and suggested that some transgender people were suffering from mental illness.

The complainant said: “If I were trans, I would feel extremely unsafe… had I had to share a space with someone so openly transphobic.”

Internal emails discussing her case – which Ms Smith obtained by submitting a subject access request to the club – detailed a four-month investigation that culminated in her being banned.

Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union which is representing Ms Smith, who has complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that the stadium Stasi was presided over by Helen MacNamara. The woke mind virus escaped from a policy lab in Whitehall and is now infecting every part of our society.”

The union said “we believe that hundreds – perhaps thousands – of fans of Premier League clubs have also been investigated by this shadowy intelligence agency” for potential “wrongthink”.

The Premier League and Ms MacNamara have been contacted for comment.

[Vesper 30,091]

Florida man bludgeons father to death after learning he got 'the vaccine:' Investigators

https://wchstv.com/news/nation-world/florida-man-bludgeons-father-to-death-after-learning-he-got-the-vaccine-investigators-brian-mcgann-jr-first-degree-murder-911-caller-drugs-conspiracy-theorist-beating-wellington-palm-beach-county

WELLINGTON, Fla. (WPEC) — A Florida man accused of brutally beating and killing his father was upset after learning his dad received "the vaccine," investigators say.

The 911 caller, who is a friend of the family, described the suspect, Brian Mcgann Jr., as a "delusional conspiracy theorist."

WPEC asked the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) what type of vaccine caused the 44-year-old man to become upset with his father.

The caller told investigators Mcgann Jr. had also recently started "using cocaine."

According to the arrest report, the woman who placed the 911 call said she could hear the suspect's father, Brian Mcgann Sr., screaming "Stop you are killing me."

The report from PBSO said the call came in around 11:15 p.m. Sunday when deputies responded to the report of a domestic disturbance on Golden Rod Road.

Deputies arrived to find Mcgann Sr. had been attacked and was lying unresponsive on the floor of the living room. The elder Mcgann's face was extremely swollen, battered, and bruised had suffered significant injuries to his face, deputies reported, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Deputies tracked down the suspect, Mcgann Jr., after following a blood trail from a rear window of the home to a fence, which led them to conclude he had jumped into a neighbor's yard to avoid arrest.

The suspect's hands were swollen, and he was covered in blood, the report stated, leading investigators to conclude he was the man who killed his father.

PBSO interviewed the woman who made the 911 call and told deputies that she had been a family friend of the Mcgann's for years, the sheriff's office said.

She told deputies the younger Mcgann appeared to be intoxicated and paranoid.

The caller said Mcgann Jr. called her at around 12:58 p.m. and they had a three-hour phone conversation, according to the complaint.

The woman said Mcgann Jr. called her back at 10:30 p.m. and asked her to pack her belongings and leave the residence because "He was going to be dead." The arrest report said she found the request strange because she lives in Middleburg, Florida.

At 11:07 p.m. Mcgann Jr. placed another phone call to the woman who said he was pulling into his father's residence, the report said.

The woman claimed Mcgann Jr. called her again at 11:10 p.m. and she could hear him screaming at his father. The report continues, that the altercation continued to get extremely violent and chaotic.

She heard Mcgann say, "He is under my foot."

In the report, the caller said she immediately dialed 911.

[Fernando 6,585]

Another reason why people won't vote for Biden and will for Trump: 

 

Men these elections are playing right into Trump hand with the immigration. Sigh. 

It sucks because many migrants that come here are good hard working people. Just a few bad rotten apple that are there. Should not penalize the whole community for these rotten apples. 

[Vesper 30,091]

8 hours ago, Fernando said:

Another reason why people won't vote for Biden and will for Trump: 

 

Men these elections are playing right into Trump hand with the immigration. Sigh. 

It sucks because many migrants that come here are good hard working people. Just a few bad rotten apple that are there. Should not penalize the whole community for these rotten apples. 

The Republicans are the ultimate hypocrites.

They had complete control (Senate, House, and POTUS) for half of Trump's terms and passed fuckall for immigration.

As soon as Biden gets in, they double, treble down with the attacks:

They rant and scream that the border is out of control, that it is all Biden's fault, and that it is endangering Americans and rupturing national security.

 

Well, they appoint some of the most hardcore RW Republican Senators to negotiate a bill.

And the Democrats caved in and  basically gave the RW almsot EVERYTHING thery wanted.

It is the most hardcore immigration crackdown in 50 years.

Some of the farthest left Dems hate it, BUT enough to pass it were willing to support it.

Biden said he will use his new powers from the bill to close down the border in all the key areas starting the minute he signs it into law.

 

So....... what happens?

Trump tells the House and the Senate to vote it down, because he wants the issue to continue so he can bash Biden and the Dems with it, plus use it to deflect from his 91 criminal indictments.

In other words (and using THE REPUBS' OWN WORDS)... they are willing to absolutely put the American people and national security completely at risk just to deflect from Trump's massive leagal issues and also to use the immigration issue to smashup Biden and the Dems with.

They do not actually give a shit about the border, they just want it as a poltical weapon to power grab with.

Rank (and dangerous) hypocrisy.

They also (because the funding for it was in the bill) are fucking over Ukraine (the Putin-loving wing of the Repubs love that) and and Israel (the Israel blocking of funding part does not piss me off at all, I vehemently oppose giving them billions for their genocidal attempts) funding of those 2 wars.

 

Edited February 8, 2024 by Vesper