Violet_Crumble
Violet_Crumble's JournalBernie Sanders explains why a vote for Harris is the only choice...
Bernie's aiming this at any left-wing American who is thinking of not voting for Kamala Harris because she hasn't deviated from the Biden administration's stance on Gaza. While his logic and common-sense might not reach many Arab-Americans, there are young Americans who feel strongly about it, and there's also former DUers who I hope may be lurking and read this and reconsider their stance, especially if they're in one of the swing states. Take it from this Australian who dislikes your political system - a vote for a third party candidate this time round is a vote for Trump. If you're okay with that, then you can fuck right off and don't ever claim to have the best interests of the Palestinian people at heart.
His Mother Was Killed by Hamas. Her Death Transformed His Life.
It's too long for /TLDR folk, but for anyone else, it's very long, but well worth reading it all. Vivian Silver was a good woman who didn't deserve to be murdered like that,
The son of a peace activist brutally killed on Oct. 7 is determined to make sure that her dream for Israel does not die with her.
The day Vivian Silvers home burned, her backyard was scattered with her grandchildrens toys, a blue plastic boat upturned near a rubber duck. Vivian often spent days preparing for their visits, planning trips to the petting zoo and baking birthday cakes molded into the shape of a Barbie or a dinosaur. Her sons, Yonatan and Chen Zeigen, reminded her that she didnt need to do so much, but Vivian measured her life by the way she made other people feel. The boys teased their mother: As a self-declared no-nonsense feminist, a renowned Israeli peace activist who was used to the sound of mortar fire, how had she stayed so soft?
Last year, in the days leading up to Oct. 7, Vivian was once again busily anticipating the arrival of Yonatans family from Tel Aviv. He and his partner, Maayan, would be packing their three floppy-haired children into the car for the familiar drive to his mothers home in Kibbutz Beeri, a desert village with socialist roots three miles from the border with Gaza. They were coming not only to celebrate Simchat Torah, the festival of the Bible, but also the 77th anniversary of the founding of the kibbutz.
But then Yonatan and Maayan changed their minds. It was time, they decided, to have their own private holiday. Beeri, where they both grew up, was such a tight-knit community that a childhood nickname could stick to a person until they died. There, Yonatan would always be known as Vivians son. He wanted to separate himself: He and Maayan would build their own lives, create their own traditions. Yonatan, defiant and a little guilty, told his mother they wouldnt be coming that day.
Twenty-four hours later, Yonatan woke up in Tel Aviv to the sound of sirens. Opening WhatsApp, he learned that hundreds of Hamas militants had crossed the border. Many of them had surged into his mothers kibbutz.
Vivian, that morning, was utterly herself. Hiding in her safe room, as fighters came down her street, she cracked god-awful jokes in text messages to Yonatan. Say something, he wrote. Something, she replied. Im trying to keep my sense of humor.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/magazine/vivian-silver-oct-7.html?unlocked_article_code=1.O04.DTZX.SoH5YrWX8HQO&smid=url-share
Rogue to Victim: What Australia Sees in Julian Assange
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, received a heros welcome even before he was set to arrive back in his home country of Australia on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a felony charge of violating the U.S. Espionage Act.
Australian politicians sprinted to publish statements supporting a plea deal that gained him his freedom. Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister who is now Australias ambassador to the United States, even joined him in the U.S. courtroom on the Pacific island of Saipan.
*snip*
He ended his standoff with the American government far from Washington, 14 years after he published classified military and diplomatic documents, revealing secret details about U.S. spycraft and the killing of civilians during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was a divisive figure then a brave journalist to some, a reckless anarchist who endangered Americans to others. He became even more polarizing during the 2016 presidential election, when WikiLeaks published thousands of emails from Hillary Clintons campaign and from the Democratic National Committee that had been stolen by Russian hackers.
But after five years in a British prison, where he had married and became the father of two children, Mr. Assange had turned into a figure more appealing for Australians. Somewhere along the way, he became the underdog forced to endure superpower pique, and in a land settled by convicts, a rebellious bloke who had done his time and deserved to return home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/world/australia/assange-justice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2k0.pfUY.VmTDtBsPAUhb&smid=url-share
He's due to land here at about 7:30pm AEST. I'm glad he's free. It's been way too long...
The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel
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This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power.
PART I.
IMPUNITY
By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswept hill in the West Bank near Hebron, it had long faced threats from the Jewish settlers who had steadily encircled it. But occasional harassment and vandalism, in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, escalated into beatings and murder threats. The villagers made appeal after appeal to the Israeli police and to the ever-present Israeli military, but their calls for protection went largely unheeded, and the attacks continued with no consequences. So one day the villagers packed what they could, loaded their families into trucks and disappeared.
Who bulldozed the village after that is a matter of dispute. The Israeli Army says it was the settlers; a senior Israeli police officer says it was the army. Either way, soon after the villagers left, little remained of Khirbet Zanuta besides the ruins of a clinic and an elementary school. One wall of the clinic, leaning sideways, bore a sign saying that it had been funded by an agency of the European Union providing humanitarian support for Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank. Near the school, someone had planted the flag of Israel as another kind of announcement: This is Jewish land now.
Such violence over the decades in places like Khirbet Zanuta is well documented. But protecting the people who carry out that violence is the dark secret of Israeli justice. The long arc of harassment, assault and murder of Palestinians by Jewish settlers is twinned with a shadow history, one of silence, avoidance and abetment by Israeli officials. For many of those officials, it is Palestinian terrorism that most threatens Israel. But in interviews with more than 100 people current and former officers of the Israeli military, the National Israeli Police and the Shin Bet domestic security service; high-ranking Israeli political officials, including four former prime ministers; Palestinian leaders and activists; Israeli human rights lawyers; American officials charged with supporting the Israeli-Palestinian partnership we found a different and perhaps even more destabilizing threat. A long history of crime without punishment, many of those officials now say, threatens not only Palestinians living in the occupied territories but also the State of Israel itself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html (for subscribers)
https://archive.md/x7KuY#selection-779.0-793.1079 (non paywall link)
I'm posting this down here because it was posted in GD and very predictably sank like a stone, and I think it deserves to be read by as many people as possible. From what I've been reading in GD lately, it seems like the only terrorism acknowledged by Americans is that carried out by Muslims.
Trump's indictment sets a concerning precedent for corrupt men everywhere
From The Chaser:
Dear readers,
Americas 45th president Donald J Trump was indicted just hours ago for taking classified and top secret documents to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, potentially setting an extremely concerning precedent of actually punishing powerful cis-white men for crimes.
Donald Trump was one of the world's best corrupt businessmen and pussy grabbers, people like that are the backbone of the entire political and justice system. If we set the precedent that men like him can be held responsible for their actions, who knows what sort of chaotic world that could cause?
This is the start of a very slippery slope. Indicting former presidents for federal crimes, what next, actually investigating powerful men for tax evasion, sexual assault or war crimes? Where does the madness end?
The US Justice Department claim to have found illegally held documents and recordings of Trump acknowledging that he was committing an alleged crime, but in his defence, who hasnt stolen stationery supplies or classified information from work?
Here at The Chaser we hope that the system works as it was designed to and justice is served, where the powerful cis-white man gets away with whatever he allegedly did then gets to sue anyone who commented on the allegations, because clearly it is the journalists and random social media users who need to be punished.
https://mailchi.mp/chaser.com.au/trumps-indictment
Television was one of my first great loves...
I've still got Marquee Moon and Adventure on vinyl though I haven't listened to them for ages and don't have a turntable.
RIP Tom
Batshit moments in Australian Politics - Bob Katter and gay marriage...
https://twitter.com/i/status/1512370202201460737Sovern Citizens - Internet Comment Etiquette
After 2 months of SovShits not complying and travelling, not driving in my city, this made me LOLx1000. Absolutely funny stuff...
Novak Djokovic Is Refused Entry Into Australia Over Vaccine Exemption
Source: New York Times
Novak Djokovic, the worlds No. 1-ranked mens tennis player, traveled all day Wednesday from Dubai to Australia, a journey that was supposed to begin his defense of the Australian Open singles championship.
On Thursday, he was told he would need to leave the country, following a 10-hour standoff with government officials at a Melbourne airport, where he was held in a room overnight over the validity of his visa and questions about the evidence supporting a medical exemption from a coronavirus vaccine. The exemption was supposed to allow Djokovic, a 20-time Grand Slam tournament champion and one of the biggest stars in sports, to compete in the Australian Open even though he has not been vaccinated.
It was not immediately clear whether Djokovic would appeal the ruling in Australias courts. A spokesman for the tennis star did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The chain of events represented a startling turnabout for Djokovic, who in a little more than 24 hours went from receiving special, last-minute permission to enter Australia, to boarding an intercontinental flight, to essentially being told by the prime minister of Australia that he was not welcome in the country.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-australia-visa.html
Good riddance. Anyone who thinks they're above the law and deserve special treatment don't deserve to come here.
I would have agreed about mountains until last weekend...
My new Golf GTI with its farting DSG transmission won me over. Lots of hairpin bends and stopping due to rockslides being repaired, but I felt I had a better grip on the road and more control of the GTI than I ever did with my old car with hits manual transmission. Then again, my old car was old and didn't have sports mode, while the GTI has sports mode and has like 8 gears. Plus it looks so cute and sporty! And I can hook my phone up and use Google Assistant to do the voicey thing!
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