Fire Hydrant of Freedom

Just Security has surprised me several times lately. Generally a neocon/left wing/Never Trump site that predictably if sometimes tepidly supports “Progressive” causes, here it lays bare the folly of any org, including the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide as it pursues Hamas in Gaza:

https://www.justsecurity.org/91517/why-the-icj-ruling-misses-the-mark-mitigating-civilian-harm-with-an-enemy-engaged-in-human-shielding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-the-icj-ruling-misses-the-mark-mitigating-civilian-harm-with-an-enemy-engaged-in-human-shielding

Love your ongoing efforts in thread coherency    but not a good fit here.

I would suggest Homeland and Energy Policy as better threads.

As always, when a piece merits, feel free to post it in more than one thread.   Witness for example my double posting just now of a George Friedman piece both in the FUBAR thread and the Iran thread.

Okay. The dual focus on the southern border and the LNG heavy handedness left me thinking threads focusing on either immigration OR energy would give short shrift to the subject not covered by the thread’s title.

Oh well, I’ll keep seeking to sort it out.

Found this through a usually reliable source quoting the NYT, which I won't set an account with. I'll amend it if I find confirmation or refutation:

Details emerge on the 12
@UNRWA
 employees who participated in the Oct 7 massacre (from
@nytimes
):
🔴 9 employees have been fired; 2 are dead.
🔴 6 were confirmed to be inside Israel on Oct 7 based on their phones; others discussed their involvement on intercepted phone calls; 3 received texts telling them to report to meeting points on Oct 7, and one was told to bring RPGs stored at his home.
🔴 7 were teachers at UNRWA schools; 2 worked at schools in other capacities; the remaining three were a clerk, a social worker, and a storeroom manager.
🔴 A school counselor from Khan Yunis and his son abducted a woman from southern Israel.
🔴 A social worker from Nuseirat helped bring the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza and helped distribute ammunition and coordinate vehicles on the day of the attack.

ETA: though I can't open it without registering, here is the NYT link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/world/middleeast/gaza-unrwa-hamas-israel.html?fbclid=IwAR166nStU1hGzS-rhFWEyXCv0V9xE5Md6CHGlnTzQJ48bFkj_52qy5GTc-I

Long but very readable piece examining the difference between what alarmist predictions claim will occur and what has indeed occurred, with basic possibilities presented to explain the difference:

https://www.heritage.org/environment/report/global-warming-observations-vs-climate-models

It astounds me she is so blatant in proclaiming her loyalties. Guess she figures no one was recording or no speaker of the language would dare to translate her proudly un-American speech into English:

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/28/watch-ilhan-omar-rips-the-mask-off-and-pledges-allegience-to-somalia-in-disturbing-video-n2169348

Did not know this.

Explain's a lot of the "free shipping" found on eBay....

Fascinating bit of Venusian detective work:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1750952860131729544.html

Likely the least of it, but still progress of sorts:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/nsa-finally-admits-to-spying-on-americans-by-purchasing-sensitive-data/

Similar piece here:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/01/27/pro-palestinian-protesters-showed-up-at-john-fettermans-house-his-reaction-was-priceless-n2634269

Add “Snopes” to the topic line for this to fit, but it’s a lovely case in point of a website carrying water for a Democrat despite an obvious error, and ought to be all anyone needs to know about the veracity of that site:

https://www.mediaite.com/news/snopes-fact-check-calls-true-biden-story-false-despite-photos-they-included-in-post-then-reverses-it/

Given my previous post and the fact Newsom, near as I can tell, is a party hack through and through, his warblings here strike me as preemptive chutzpah.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4434091-newsom-democrats-should-be-worried-about-third-party-candidates/

Another one that defies categorization as I couldn’t find a polling thread. Poll finds many Americans believe the end of the world is upon us, with religious folks and Republicans more likely to believe it than the left side of the aisle.

One of the (perhaps unintended) consequences of ongoing “climate crisis,” Covid, and other politicized doomsaying is a swath of populations expecting the end to be nigh. For the young in particular I believe this incessant thrum of doom meant to serve political ends is a gross disservice:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/08/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times/

https://substack.news-items.com/p/the-podcast

44 minutes of analysis I found helpful, from NH, SC and the Pres race to AI (AGI) to the border. Two very veteran reporters,  Ellis, Boston Globe, a Bush Sr. admirer. Klein of Time, Newsweek, I think a Clinton insider, wrote 'primary colors'.

Not my bias and I wouldn't send them money but good political insights when free.

I had no issue listening to this re paywalls.

Indeed, not my cup of tea, but more than a few bon mots. Heck, anyone that references the “boys on the bus*” along with an anecdote or two will gain my attention, at least to some degree. With that said, these two have certainly hung onto the coat tails of the MSM and political class and it shows.

* https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Bus-Timothy-Crouse/dp/0812968204

A great read!

As for the bank thing, my concern remains-- having a capacity to go after laundering also means an end to banking privacy.

I’m certainly not arguing for more regs, rather trying to figure which shell the pea is under. When you have congress critters & amok regulators yodeling for more enforcement tools while failing to use the ones at hand I wonder why. It appears to parallel the “gun control” effort: thousands of laws on the books that aren’t enforced vigorously (yo Hunter, how they hangin’?) while onerous new laws that primarily impact the law abiding are demanded.

At the end of the day our overlords aren’t all that creative: foster a set of circumstances that can be used as a poster child, wave that poster tither and yon, accuse anyone that fails to join the “solution” stampede of being cruel to baby ducks, children, & the favored class du jour, while our overlords utterly ignore any rules & regs that do result ala Diane Feinstein carrying a concealed firearm while denying that right to her constituents. The pattern is distinct. It’s time to call it out every time it’s seen.

Stop what you are doing and read this. It lays out why we are at where we are at: ruthless efforts to limit options for the American voting public. This really isn’t the place for this piece, but I can’t find a better one and hence am tempted to start an “American Oligarchy” thread.

https://www.racket.news/p/the-anti-democratic-movement-targeted?r=1qo1e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR2x9941xaT_8AhmtjiGoICHv_fkbsHBqUONy2NNQGURC3UiyN1LbYaOcRg

China supplies Iran who supply the Houthis that are interrupting Red Sea trade:

https://weapons.substack.com/p/china-the-red-sea-and-trade?r=1qo1e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid =IwAR1ebiIj1_iEBM9yQkMD6WWE2ljzllb7OU7YYjsvwgYituKtOItbuUCdrFM

As the piece points out, they can hide their faces, but not their license plates:

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/this-is-how-you-do-it-nypd-stops-hamas-supporters-from-flooding-jfk-airport/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-is-how-you-do-it-nypd-stops-hamas-supporters-from-flooding-jfk-airport

Found on the web:

Gazalighting

Gaza-lighting /verb Psychological manipulation where one who commits atrocities uses the response to gain sympathy for their actions.

Example: Bob kidnapped a baby and then complained when he was arrested.

Bob is gazalighting.

Dammit- this is outstanding!

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/01/27/hiv-positive-youth-baseball-coach-held-at-gunpoint-by-mom-of-12-yr-old-girl-he-allegedly-raped-1431592/?utm_campaign=bizpac&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=Get%20Response&utm_term=EMAIL

I may come to regret this, but I'm giving Fetterman his own thread!

It appears you posted the wrong link.

My eyes started to glaze over reading that.

I found myself wondering about the consequences of an all-seeing all-knowing financial system.

Instead of destroying financial privacy in the name of fighting the cartels, maybe we should hit China over the head with a baseball bat for its role in the trade and actually control our borders instead?

I think there were two big takeaways in the piece:

- The scope of Mexican dysfunction. 90% of crimes NEVER reported? The body count? The breadth of the corruption? All well sourced? With some in the US appearing to work so hard to bring something similar our way?

- The lack of US prosecutions where the bank in question was concerned. Why? Are pockets getting lined? Are spooks banking dark funds? It’s not like both haven’t happened….

Who cares if our allies in Europe need it due to their embrace of net zero foolishness?

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/biden-pauses-liquefied-natural-gas-export-approvals-in-desperate-bid-to-appeal-to-climate-cultists/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biden-pauses-liquefied-natural-gas-export-approvals-in-desperate-bid-to-appeal-to-climate-cultists

Covid vaccine link to heart issues cat out of the bag?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/exclusive-email-reveals-why-cdc-didnt-issue-alert-on-covid-vaccines-and-myocarditis-5571675?utm_source=Morningbrief&src_src=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2024-01-26&src_cmp=mb-2024-01-26&utm_medium=email&est=%2BPrVeCY9bAIs5%2Fx1p3pWRZx2EuCgDIWy6SMgg1sUE0roHSFNcQiQd8w62QWgem08%2FH1B

I suspect the civilian death concern is something of a red herring—this source is very left leaning and hence embraces a zero collateral damage ethos meant to serve orgs like Hamas that embed themselves among non-combatants—but I am all sorts of down with monitoring outcomes in which US intelligence was used by other countries, particularly that which negatively impacts US citizens:

https://www.justsecurity.org/91451/congress-must-strengthen-oversight-on-intelligence-sharing-and-civilian-harm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=congress-must-strengthen-oversight-on-intelligence-sharing-and-civilian-harm

I’ve noted elsewhere I have rote memory issues and indeed went through grade school DX’d as dumb due to my inability to regurgitate force fed teachings. As such I view the whole multiple gender you must memorize and apply as an appellation/pretend pronoun lest the DEI fascists dispatch the flying monkey cancel klatch to be a scam. Indeed I view pronoun proliferation as a special snowflake kowtow solicitation servicing inner control freaks seeking to run amok.

Then again if I call myself a “demisexual panromantic” perhaps someone will come along & tell me what it means.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/portland-state-u-releases-lgbt-directory-with-over-20-genders/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=portland-state-u-releases-lgbt-directory-with-over-20-genders

… while tracking associated semantic gymnastics & absurdities:

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/01/25/second-amendment-roundup-agency-guidance-interpretive-regulations-and-chevron/