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Move On There!

On Sunday, August 11, the Israel Defense Force yet again ordered displaced Gazans to move on [click].

You know the drill by now: When the IDF suggests a place for dispossessed Gazans to move on to, like clockwork that new place is bombed, and Israel issues a statement claiming hamas fighters, or a Hamas tummel, or a Hamas earthworm was there!

We all know Netanyahu is guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Anyone in his government that condones what is happening in Gaza as well as the West Bank is likewise a criminal. But it’s time, I think, to apportion the guilt equitably and where it belongs.

Every general who receives orders to continue the offensive in Gaza and decides to follow them rather than reject them as the immoral filth they are is culpable. And from those generals on down to the lowest buck private, every member of the Israel Defense Forces who carries out those orders is culpable.

Remember, all members of the military have an obligation to disobey illegal orders.

If a country ratifies an international treaty or convention, that treaty or convention becomes the law of the land.

So, if a prime minister, or a field marshal, or a master sergeant issues an order that violates, say, the Fourth Geneva Convention, that order is illegal.

Israel ratified the Geneva Conventions on July 6, 1951.

They are, therefore, Israeli law.

Upon joining the IDF, every servicemember is issued a copy of the Israel Defense Forces: Ruach Tzahal - Code of Ethics [click]. If a servicemember is unfamiliar with the Geneva Conventions per se, he nonetheless has a clear understanding of his responsibilities, including the duty to disobey and report illegal orders.

In other words,every bombadier, every tank driver, every rifleman deployed in Gaza knows what he ought to do and knows what he is doing. And, if he cannot see the casm between the two, he is morally bankrupt.

He is also guilty of violating the Ruach Tzahal and of war crimes.

Links
Israel keeps up strikes in Gaza as fears of wider war grow [Opens in a new window]

…None of this was authorized at any level, nor could it have been authorized. Any soldier who was ordered to do any of this should have immediately understood that the order was illegal and would have been obligated to disobey and report the abuse.

This same rule would apply in the case of any clear law-of-war violation. In combat, commanders must make difficult decisions to launch strikes that risk civilian casualties. The law of war does not require that commanders avoid any risk of civilian casualties, but it does mandate that strikes meet the tests of necessity and proportionality, meaning the value of destroying the target outweighs the risk of civilian casualties. When a commander makes a judgment call that destroying a particular target is worth the risk of collateral damage and his judgment is reasonable, his subordinates have to carry out the order, although they themselves might have made a different judgment.

Still, certain strikes might be palpably illegal. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits a wide array of attacks against protected persons. For example, attacks targeting civilians are explicitly prohibited under Article 27. So are attacks on hospitals, pursuant to Article 18. Reprisal attacks are also barred under Article 33, so if a commander orders his soldiers to harm the relatives of a terrorist or to destroy their property in retaliation for attacks on U.S. troops, that would be clearly illegal. His subordinates would be required to disobey the order. Recall that My Lai was a reprisal attack: Members of the unit later said the motivation was revenge for the recent killing of a popular sergeant by enemy forces.

When Can a Soldier Disobey an Order? [opens in a new window]
The Obligations of Israel and the Palestinian Authority under International Law (from 2001)[opens in a new window]

Trump's end? The campaign leak, Russia/Ukraine, Venezuela & Musk in trouble

Sanders to Trump: You lose support every time you talk about healthcare – so 'go for it'

As Sen. Sanders points out, the U.S. is the outlier. Most other countries in the world have a living wage, affordable or no-cost healthcare, paid family leave, and other policies Trump is trying to label "radical." It won't work. America is ready to join the civilized world. You tell 'em, Bernie!

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It’s Sunday

Frank Sinatra and Tony Mottola bring us this beautiful song.
Have a peaceful and quiet day.

Kamala's on fire! Vance getting fired? | The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

It's Saturday!

After an eventful week, it's time to relax...for a while.

Happy Hump Day

Here's Engelbert with his 2021 remake of his 1988 classic "One World."

Though I have no idea what Enge's politics are, I do know from listening to him talk that he believes in love and peace. I believe in those things too.

Speaking at LBJ Library, Pres. Biden issues announcement on Supreme Court reform

Glenn Kirschner on Pres. Biden's proposed SCOTUS reforms

We Are Not Going Back!

Vice President Kamala Harris

Come Saturday Morning

It's been quite a week! Take a breether, relax, regroup and recharge body and mind for whatever next week may have in store.

DA Bragg Urges NY Judge to REJECT Trump's Attempt to Toss his 34 Convict...

Words Have Consequences

Violence, killing, war - these are not matters to be spoken of lightly. Yet Trump and his MAGA cult members routinely speak of some people needing to be killed and of the need for a civil war to protect their values (perverted as those are) and what they perceive as their liberties and way of life.

And yet, words have consequences. Beyond January Sixth and its ongoing ramifications, Trump's violent rhetoric has the predictable result of inciting terrorism. Yesterday an unnamed man was arrested and held in Las Begas after a months-long spree of harassing and threatening the lives of judges, D.A.s and others in the justice system nationwide who have been involved in legal cases, civil and criminal, against Trump.

The fellon that MAGA proclaimed to be their presidential nominee does not just have a decades-long record of criminal and dangerous behavior behind him, he represents a clear and present danger to our nation in the here and now. For all his painfully obvious mental deterioration, he knows all too well what he is doing when he calls for real, physical violence.

In April, Trump lost an appeal seeking to suspend a series of law suits that seek to hold him liable for January Sixth. Curiously, these suits attract little if any attention from the corporate media, though presumably they are ongoing. Incitement to violence is also a crime. I am no clairvoyant, yet it is not difficult for me to see more indictments, stemming from the actions of his cult members like the one in Las Vegas, in Trumps not so distant future.

Links
Rolling Stone: Trump Allies Sure Are Talking A Lot About Civil War (Opens in a new browser window)
Talking Feds [YouTube channel]: Pro-Trump LUNATIC Arrested for Threatening Judges (opens in a new browser window)

Those people…The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.

Fred C. Trump III with then Pres. Donald Trump in the Oval Office, 2018

Just when you think you've heard the worst about Donald Trump, something worse comes up.

In a forthcoming book by his nephew, Fred C. Trump III, the former president and wannabe dictator is quoted as telling Fred that he should let his disabled son die and then move down to Florida.

Now maybe I'm biased, seeing that I myself am disabled, but I take exception to that attitude. It reminds me of something a doctor - a doctor mind you - told my recently widowed mother when I was lying comatose in his hospital and not expected to recover: "Throw her in a custodial care facility till she dies of pneumonia. You're young. You can have other children."

Trump's attitude does not surprise me. We've seen glimpses of it before. Remember his 2015 mockery of reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffered from a congenital joint condition? If I had known nothing else about Trump, that act of cruelty and disrespect alone would have caused me not to vote for him.

Kovaleski was a stranger and a grown man. Here he's suggesting that his own flesh and blood, a teenager, be "allowed to die" since, after all, he has multiple disabilities, including mental defacits. In other words, he's not a person at all.

In 2024, if that were the only thing I knew about Donald Trump, it would cause me not to vote for him.

Links
Time: My Uncle Donald Trump Told Me Disabled Americans Like My Son ‘Should Just Die’ (opens in a new browser window)
The Guardian: Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says (opens in a new browser window)
The Guardian: Trump nephew reveals Uncle Donald’s racist outburst in new book (opens in a new browser window)