James Joyner is a Professor of Security Studies. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant:
the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif (who has reportedly been killed). Arrest warrants for Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar have not been issued as their deaths have been positively confirmed.
Just in time for Christmas and Hanukah, Trump is selling guitars. Yes! For only $1250 — $1500, you too can be the proud giver/owner of a genuine Limited Edition American Eagle Guitar! Be the envy of everyone you know!
Man, the makeup he’s wearing in that guitar photo is even worse than usual. His ears are bunny-rabbit-white and almost glow against the rotting-wood brown of his face.
@CSK: As a guitar player (very amateur but a few steps above campfire Kumbaya) I’m curious about where these are manufactured. Many are made in China of course and Indonesia. Some are pretty good and or course others are unplayable junk. $1200 – $1500 can get you a pretty good mid-quality name brand instrument but I’m sure these are not midrange Martins, Fenders, Taylors or Gibsons.
If all the world’s nations imposed a stiff carbon tax on oil companies, car makers, coal producers, and coal-fired electric plants and steel mills, how long would it take for clean energy alternatives to become so dominant your grandchildren won’t even know the word “gasoline”?
Very vague on where these are made, reference to a veteran and a talented luthier. My guess that the luthier is in China and there are many talented luthiers in China.
Some years ago I made spaghetti carbonara (in a more conventional way). A coworker asked to taste it, after I told him what was in it, and he remarked “It doesn’t taste like eggs at all.” recently I’ve been experimenting with egg based breakfast dishes, including fried, poached, and scrambled eggs.
Based on this, and things like the carbonara, I decided eggs don’t taste like eggs*.
A fried egg tastes similar to a poached one or to scrambled eggs, but they have a different taste. Familiar, as noted, but different. I mean before considering even the differences in texture. When you mix eggs as ingredients for something else, like carbonara, custard, cake batter, or even as a binding for ground meat, there’s no taste of egg in the end product. Ergo eggs don’t taste like eggs.
This led me to other thoughts. A cake made without eggs will have a different texture from one that uses eggs. Pasta made with flour, water, and eggs, will taste different from one made with only eggs and flour. This is pretty much obvious, but all this, and the above, completely ignores the fact that eggs are chicken embryos, which do not exist in order for people to be able to cook so many different things with them.
And it hit me then this is true of many other things. Trees don’t exist so people can build houses with wood, and stars don’t exist so people can navigate reasonably accurately at night. The list is a long one. part of the issue is that nothing exists for a specific purpose.
Yes, it’s things like this that sometimes occupy my time.
As @Mr. Prosser: points out, 1200-1500 is not a lot of money for a guitar a professional quality acoustic typically start in the range of $3000, given that trump wants to make a bunch of money off the rubes, this guitar likely would retail for 100-150.
This is like the trump watch 4 and 5 figure sell price for a movement that costs about $50.
I’m betting it will be bought by MAGA grandparents as presents for the MAGA-larva grandchildren for Christmas. It will sound like twangy clanging crap and no one will notice.
Speaking of scams, there is a lot of buzz that Elon Musk may shovel billions in legal bribery to Trump by merging X with the worthless Truth Social. There is no end to the corruption.
You probably missed it, because it created barely a ripple in the media, but last Friday, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump struck down one of President Biden’s most pro-worker policies: his effort to ensure that far more Americans benefit from overtime pay.
Donald Trump working class hero. Every Journalist should be asking Trump if he supports this.
@Rick DeMent: Trump said he wants to eliminate taxes on overtime, he just didn’t specify the “how.” Now we know: by making it impossible for anyone to actually get paid for overtime.
@Rick DeMent: Yep, and the folks most likely to be affected by it are low level office workers and retail managers. Folks who are more likely than the population as a whole to be women and/or POC.
On fast food, so as not to derail the other thread…
There’s nothing wrong with fast food, as an occasional treat or necessity. It’s just not something that should be consumed regularly.
I’ve come across multiple Youtube videos on the general theme of “how do restaurants make Z taste better?” A few are about technique or taking extra time or extra steps. Most are a version of “they add more salt/sugar/butter/cheese/cream.”
Fast food does this. That’s why most offerings like burgers, pizza, and fried chicken, are high in fat and salt, and why sauces tend to employ sugar or other sweeteners*. That’s why you should have it only sparingly.
Before I began bringing my own food to work for lunch, I used to go out to any of a great many nearby places available, often with several coworkers. Our usual places were low priced kitchens that served something more akin to a home cooked menu than a restaurant one. Choices were limited, but it tended to be good and the portions were sufficient. There are also burger places, pizza places, mid priced restaurants, taco stands, and others (lots of offices in the neighborhood). And we also went to those from time to time.
*It wasn’t until I began making my own tomato based sauces that I understood why Europeans call American pasta and pizza sauce “red icing.” I use no sugar at all in my cooking. If I deem something needs sweetening, I use some honey, or, when possible, add carrots to the mix.
The underage girl stuff has been known about and the DoJ passed on indicting him for whatever reason. But out of the Ethics committee investigation there was testimony that he paid at least 2 women for sex and there was a financial transaction trail. What isn’t known is where these transactions took place. The assumption in Fla but that’s not definitive.
If Fla, DeSantis would see that any state level investigation is quashed, but if those transactions were initiated and/or consummated in say DC, he could be subject to an investigation from a DC or state prosecutor. Plus there is the whole, if there were two instances, why aren’t there others, there could be any number of questionable financial transactions.
@Rick DeMent: If he gets seated, the ethics report release is back in play. I doubt he’ll try and recapture his seat in congress for that reason alone.
@Sleeping Dog: I do wonder why DOJ passed on indicting him. It’s not like sitting members of congress have never been subjected to that. I can’t remember specific cases right off the top of my head, but wasn’t there one who kept cash in the freezer or something?
At any rate, I hope that somehow this is the end of this dope’s illustrious career, rather than a brief stop on a failing upwards trend.
I vaguely recall something about the young woman being an unreliable witness and that was pretty much all they had. It seems that the ethics committee found a corroborating witness and now there are also rumblings about a second statutory rape incident. Not sure with the same girl or another.
Sources are reporting conflicting details – ICBM / not ICBM, MIRV /not MIRV.
A number of commenters are suggesting that Putin is sending a message to Ukraine and the West, that Russia is willing to escalate, and has the capability to do so.
Or, perhaps this may also be a sign that Russia is having to reach deeper into its ordinance because stockpiles are drawing down?
Carl Sagan is the source of many inspirational quotes. there’s one, though, that I loathe: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
This seems to pervade criminal investigations when the subject is a political figure, more so if the are a high profile one. It may be juries are prone to leniency in such cases, or that the evidence in such accusations will certainly receive heightened public scrutiny. So they proceed more slowly, more thoroughly, more exhaustively, and much more carefully.
This takes inordinate amounts of time. And in the end it may be the evidence may not be extraordinary enough to obtain a conviction. Add Kathy’s Principle of Broken Vases: it takes far less time, effort, and ingenuity to brake a vase, or to commit a crime, than it takes to reconstruct the vase, or investigate the crime.
Evidence must be sufficient. It need never be extraordinary, no matter how outrageous the claim.
@Kathy: I suspect it’s more what somebody said about Trump’s trials – Our system provides as much due process as the accused can afford. Convicting a guy with a public defender is one thing. Convicting a guy who can afford squads of lawyers is something else. I’m not sure about Gaetz, but I believe his daddy can afford a lot of due process.
A criminal trial requires proof beyond reasonable doubt. A confirmation hearing has more the standards of a job interview, i.e. none.
Maybe this is something the news media should delve farther into. With high profile cases, often the time between indictment and trial is really long, and most people never learn why.
As to how much due process one can afford, the felon was lucky to have a corrupt court on her side. Not only did they come up with a completely deranged decision, but they also took way too long. And then there was the excessive deference shown by almost all trial courts, with the notable exception of Judge Chutkan.
And on top of all that, there was Merrick Garland’s signal failure. Like @wr said.
Oh, great. I just got word that Hell Week will be officially unleashed next week. And that a lot of agencies are going to fall on us at the same time
Usually it would have begun by now, perhaps on a more leisurely pace. The change of administration screwed things up for some reason (it doesn’t happen every six years). So apparently it’s like a makeshift damn was holding back the flood, and it’s ready to give.
It’s worse because many of last year’s budgets were a tad too low. This means they’ve had to extend the contracts just to finish the year. There’s a limit for that, 20% of the value of the original contract. Meaning they can’t extend them again to, say, last until mid-February so they can publish requests for proposals in January.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant:
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif (who has reportedly been killed). Arrest warrants for Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar have not been issued as their deaths have been positively confirmed.
@drj:
Bibi claims the warrants for arrest are antisemitic and absurd.
One can picture Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel making similar claims.
Just in time for Christmas and Hanukah, Trump is selling guitars. Yes! For only $1250 — $1500, you too can be the proud giver/owner of a genuine Limited Edition American Eagle Guitar! Be the envy of everyone you know!
The ONLY guitar endorsed by Donald Trump!
http://www.gettrumpguitars.com
@CSK:
Man, the makeup he’s wearing in that guitar photo is even worse than usual. His ears are bunny-rabbit-white and almost glow against the rotting-wood brown of his face.
@CSK: As a guitar player (very amateur but a few steps above campfire Kumbaya) I’m curious about where these are manufactured. Many are made in China of course and Indonesia. Some are pretty good and or course others are unplayable junk. $1200 – $1500 can get you a pretty good mid-quality name brand instrument but I’m sure these are not midrange Martins, Fenders, Taylors or Gibsons.
On Trump selections
“TV propagandists“
If all the world’s nations imposed a stiff carbon tax on oil companies, car makers, coal producers, and coal-fired electric plants and steel mills, how long would it take for clean energy alternatives to become so dominant your grandchildren won’t even know the word “gasoline”?
@Not the IT Dept.:
Hey, I like your Sir Walter Raleigh allusion.
@Mr. Prosser:
Apparently the parts come from domestic and international sources.
@CSK:
Very vague on where these are made, reference to a veteran and a talented luthier. My guess that the luthier is in China and there are many talented luthiers in China.
@Sleeping Dog:
Indeed. I noticed that the “v” in “veteran” was capitalized as well.
I’ve been thinking about what eggs taste like.
Some years ago I made spaghetti carbonara (in a more conventional way). A coworker asked to taste it, after I told him what was in it, and he remarked “It doesn’t taste like eggs at all.” recently I’ve been experimenting with egg based breakfast dishes, including fried, poached, and scrambled eggs.
Based on this, and things like the carbonara, I decided eggs don’t taste like eggs*.
A fried egg tastes similar to a poached one or to scrambled eggs, but they have a different taste. Familiar, as noted, but different. I mean before considering even the differences in texture. When you mix eggs as ingredients for something else, like carbonara, custard, cake batter, or even as a binding for ground meat, there’s no taste of egg in the end product. Ergo eggs don’t taste like eggs.
This led me to other thoughts. A cake made without eggs will have a different texture from one that uses eggs. Pasta made with flour, water, and eggs, will taste different from one made with only eggs and flour. This is pretty much obvious, but all this, and the above, completely ignores the fact that eggs are chicken embryos, which do not exist in order for people to be able to cook so many different things with them.
And it hit me then this is true of many other things. Trees don’t exist so people can build houses with wood, and stars don’t exist so people can navigate reasonably accurately at night. The list is a long one. part of the issue is that nothing exists for a specific purpose.
Yes, it’s things like this that sometimes occupy my time.
*You know I love a good paradox.
@CSK:
As @Mr. Prosser: points out, 1200-1500 is not a lot of money for a guitar a professional quality acoustic typically start in the range of $3000, given that trump wants to make a bunch of money off the rubes, this guitar likely would retail for 100-150.
This is like the trump watch 4 and 5 figure sell price for a movement that costs about $50.
@Sleeping Dog:
I’m betting it will be bought by MAGA grandparents as presents for the MAGA-larva grandchildren for Christmas. It will sound like twangy clanging crap and no one will notice.
Speaking of scams, there is a lot of buzz that Elon Musk may shovel billions in legal bribery to Trump by merging X with the worthless Truth Social. There is no end to the corruption.
Well it look like one of the “rich men North of Richman” or more accurately in Texas just told 4 million workers that they can’t get over time.
Donald Trump working class hero. Every Journalist should be asking Trump if he supports this.
@Rick DeMent: Trump said he wants to eliminate taxes on overtime, he just didn’t specify the “how.” Now we know: by making it impossible for anyone to actually get paid for overtime.
@Rick DeMent: Yep, and the folks most likely to be affected by it are low level office workers and retail managers. Folks who are more likely than the population as a whole to be women and/or POC.
On fast food, so as not to derail the other thread…
There’s nothing wrong with fast food, as an occasional treat or necessity. It’s just not something that should be consumed regularly.
I’ve come across multiple Youtube videos on the general theme of “how do restaurants make Z taste better?” A few are about technique or taking extra time or extra steps. Most are a version of “they add more salt/sugar/butter/cheese/cream.”
Fast food does this. That’s why most offerings like burgers, pizza, and fried chicken, are high in fat and salt, and why sauces tend to employ sugar or other sweeteners*. That’s why you should have it only sparingly.
Before I began bringing my own food to work for lunch, I used to go out to any of a great many nearby places available, often with several coworkers. Our usual places were low priced kitchens that served something more akin to a home cooked menu than a restaurant one. Choices were limited, but it tended to be good and the portions were sufficient. There are also burger places, pizza places, mid priced restaurants, taco stands, and others (lots of offices in the neighborhood). And we also went to those from time to time.
*It wasn’t until I began making my own tomato based sauces that I understood why Europeans call American pasta and pizza sauce “red icing.” I use no sugar at all in my cooking. If I deem something needs sweetening, I use some honey, or, when possible, add carrots to the mix.
GAETZ HAS WITHDRAWN FROM HIS NOMINATION FOR ATTY GENERAL.
@CSK: Just saw that. Interesting…so, he gave up his congressional seat and gets nothing.
I wonder if he’s going to run for his old seat in the special election.
@Jen:
I still hope the ethics committee report on him gets leaked. It must be really appalling for Gaetz to drop out.
@Jen: I think he can still be seated. He resigned from the term just ending.
@CSK:
@Jen:
The underage girl stuff has been known about and the DoJ passed on indicting him for whatever reason. But out of the Ethics committee investigation there was testimony that he paid at least 2 women for sex and there was a financial transaction trail. What isn’t known is where these transactions took place. The assumption in Fla but that’s not definitive.
If Fla, DeSantis would see that any state level investigation is quashed, but if those transactions were initiated and/or consummated in say DC, he could be subject to an investigation from a DC or state prosecutor. Plus there is the whole, if there were two instances, why aren’t there others, there could be any number of questionable financial transactions.
@CSK: I hope 1) it gets sent to the appropriate prosecutorial agency and 2) the statute of limitations has not expired on any chargeable acts.
If we’re gonna wish, wish for justice not revenge, folks.
@Rick DeMent: If he gets seated, the ethics report release is back in play. I doubt he’ll try and recapture his seat in congress for that reason alone.
@Sleeping Dog: I do wonder why DOJ passed on indicting him. It’s not like sitting members of congress have never been subjected to that. I can’t remember specific cases right off the top of my head, but wasn’t there one who kept cash in the freezer or something?
At any rate, I hope that somehow this is the end of this dope’s illustrious career, rather than a brief stop on a failing upwards trend.
Bolsonaro has been indicted for plotting a coup.
If Brazil can indict their coup plotting former leaders why are we so incapable?
@Jen:
I vaguely recall something about the young woman being an unreliable witness and that was pretty much all they had. It seems that the ethics committee found a corroborating witness and now there are also rumblings about a second statutory rape incident. Not sure with the same girl or another.
I’m hoping Joyner (and others) comment on this development:
Sources are reporting conflicting details – ICBM / not ICBM, MIRV /not MIRV.
A number of commenters are suggesting that Putin is sending a message to Ukraine and the West, that Russia is willing to escalate, and has the capability to do so.
Or, perhaps this may also be a sign that Russia is having to reach deeper into its ordinance because stockpiles are drawing down?
@Jen:
Carl Sagan is the source of many inspirational quotes. there’s one, though, that I loathe: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
This seems to pervade criminal investigations when the subject is a political figure, more so if the are a high profile one. It may be juries are prone to leniency in such cases, or that the evidence in such accusations will certainly receive heightened public scrutiny. So they proceed more slowly, more thoroughly, more exhaustively, and much more carefully.
This takes inordinate amounts of time. And in the end it may be the evidence may not be extraordinary enough to obtain a conviction. Add Kathy’s Principle of Broken Vases: it takes far less time, effort, and ingenuity to brake a vase, or to commit a crime, than it takes to reconstruct the vase, or investigate the crime.
Evidence must be sufficient. It need never be extraordinary, no matter how outrageous the claim.
@Kathy: I suspect it’s more what somebody said about Trump’s trials – Our system provides as much due process as the accused can afford. Convicting a guy with a public defender is one thing. Convicting a guy who can afford squads of lawyers is something else. I’m not sure about Gaetz, but I believe his daddy can afford a lot of due process.
A criminal trial requires proof beyond reasonable doubt. A confirmation hearing has more the standards of a job interview, i.e. none.
@Jen: ” I do wonder why DOJ passed on indicting him.”
Probably because the first time it came up Merrick Garland had to retreat to the fainting couch for a week.
@Rick DeMent:
An article that delves into that issue.
Seems he’s done for this term, the next is up to the State of Florida*.
*DeSantis.
@gVOR10:
Maybe this is something the news media should delve farther into. With high profile cases, often the time between indictment and trial is really long, and most people never learn why.
As to how much due process one can afford, the felon was lucky to have a corrupt court on her side. Not only did they come up with a completely deranged decision, but they also took way too long. And then there was the excessive deference shown by almost all trial courts, with the notable exception of Judge Chutkan.
And on top of all that, there was Merrick Garland’s signal failure. Like @wr said.
Oh, great. I just got word that Hell Week will be officially unleashed next week. And that a lot of agencies are going to fall on us at the same time
Usually it would have begun by now, perhaps on a more leisurely pace. The change of administration screwed things up for some reason (it doesn’t happen every six years). So apparently it’s like a makeshift damn was holding back the flood, and it’s ready to give.
It’s worse because many of last year’s budgets were a tad too low. This means they’ve had to extend the contracts just to finish the year. There’s a limit for that, 20% of the value of the original contract. Meaning they can’t extend them again to, say, last until mid-February so they can publish requests for proposals in January.
TL;DR It’s going to be a horror show.