| To: Les H who wrote (42991) | 7/22/2024 6:29:48 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Israeli Forces Strike in Humanitarian Zone; Scores Reported Killed
An official at a major hospital in Gaza said hundreds of injured people had arrived there.
Israel renewed its military assault in parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday, in a ground and air operation that local health officials said killed and wounded scores of people, adding to the misery of a city deeply scarred after nine months of war.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had launched the operation because intelligence indicated that Palestinian militants had used the eastern part of the city — part of an area previously designated as a humanitarian, or “safe” zone — to fire rockets toward Israel and that Hamas was attempting to regroup there. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military had warned people in that area to leave, and photographs showed thousands fleeing.
The Gazan health ministry said 70 bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital, and at least 200 other people had been wounded, adding that others were almost certainly buried under rubble. The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been killed and 50 wounded.
nytimes.com
Logic would dictate that militants would be leery of moving with the civilians to a temporarily designated safe zone after so many Israeli attacks. No mention of any militants killed or targeted.
Very similar to the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre where the village had declared their peaceful intent. That attack precipitated the flight of 700,000 Arabs from Israel during the Nakba. So far, 200 thousand may have been killed by Israel while another 115,000 have fled to Egypt. |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| From: Les H | 7/22/2024 9:57:45 PM | | | | | | China unveils world’s 1st meltdown-proof nuclear reactor with 105 MW capacity
The nuclear reactor has been in the works since 2016 and was only began operations in December 2023.
Updated: Jul 22, 2024 08:20 AM EST
interestingengineering.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Don Green | 7/23/2024 8:18:13 AM | | | | | | Complicit in the Biden cover-up, the lying Democrats have lost all credibility
They didn’t soulfully consider Joe Biden’s marked decline and decide, for the good of him, his party and the country, that he had to step down.
They lied, and they got caught.
The Democratic Party line on President Biden was that he had turned in an exceptionally effective State of the Union address. He might mess up a name here or there, but he had gotten better with age.
He should be judged on his achievements, which rivaled those of LBJ. Anything suggesting he was in decline was a paranoid lie, or — in a truly ridiculous neologism — “a cheap fake.”
Everything we saw with our own eyes was misleading. No, he hadn’t wandered off at the G-7 summit. No, he hadn’t frozen up at his Hollywood fundraiser.
No, everything was fine.
No one formally enforced this party line, but everyone knew to follow it — Democratic leaders, journalists and donors.
The whispered conversations stayed whispered.
Then the debate happened, and before it had ended, the party line was inoperative.
There were attempts to revive it, but it was a little like being a Communist in the 1930s when Stalin wrenched the party into a totally new position.
It didn’t matter whether the new had any connection to the prior line; it had to be followed.
So Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, who months earlier had issued forth with table-thumping assurances that Joe Biden was at the absolute top of his game, suddenly thought he might have to step aside.
George Clooney, who co-hosted the aforementioned Hollywood fundraiser, wrote in the New York Times that Biden at that event was a shadow of his old self, and suddenly former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau could say that everyone he talked to at the event was appalled by Biden’s state.
The president can be forgiven for being disappointed and angry that everyone who had been covering for him switched overnight.
There’s no honor among thieves, but shouldn’t there be at least a little among political co-conspirators?
Biden showed monumentally poor judgment in deciding to run again last year. He almost certainly was in the grips of legitimate self-delusion, though.
His enablers were truly cynical and dishonest, hoping that their fake narrative about Biden’s continued vitality could see them through until November.
Their credibility should be shot as they attempt their great switcheroo.
‘Defenders of democracy’ staged a cover-up and coup
Opinion by David Harsanyi
Democrats love to brag about how they are defenders of “democracy.”
Which is odd, because 2024 will be the first presidential contest in modern history featuring a nominee who wasn’t chosen by voters.
Kamala Harris did not get a single vote in the primaries.
And the same cabal that propped up Joe Biden, that hid his ailments, that put the nation in a perilous position, that used him to push hard-left policies, that bypassed the electorate, now promises that Harris is the very best person for the job.
Why would anyone believe them?
Al Sharpton contends that Kamala’s candidacy is a “grassroots” movement. Which is laughable. She has never displayed impressive political instincts. There is, and has never been, any organic movement championing Kamala Harris.
Now her base is Democratic Party elites.
Recall that Kamala couldn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses in the 2020 Democratic Party primaries, as her campaign went broke and disintegrated into bickering factions before it even really got started.
What has Kamala done as vice president? I can’t think of a single accomplishment.
Democrats are now forced to create a fake primary that approximates a legitimate “process” so they can argue Kamala’s ascension is democratic.
see also Top Dems threatened to forcibly remove Biden from office unless he resigned, set him up to fail at Trump debate: SourcesIt is not. If there was a normal, open contest in 2024, Kamala would likely have faced a half a dozen accomplished governors, and almost surely lost.
So, this backroom nomination creates a lot of questions. For instance, will Kamala really be running the country, or do we have another Biden on our hands?
The Wall Street Journal reports that congressional leaders were worried about Biden’s mental state back in 2021. Democrats covered it up.
One person who knew the president was unable to perform even the most rudimentary tasks, incidentally, was Kamala Harris.
If Harris was a patriot, she would have done something about it. If Biden was a “patriot,” as so many Democrats now contend, he would have gotten out of the race months ago and allowed a credible candidate to emerge.
But the president didn’t step aside, he was bullied out of the race after the left’s gaslighting efforts about his mental acuity failed.
Only then did Democratic elites begin applying massive pressure on Biden to leave the race — among them big money donors, who stopped writing the president’s campaign checks.
Democrats love to scaremonger about the corrosive power of money in politics. Have big donors ever had a greater say in picking a major party’s nominee?
None of this is exactly new. Recall that the entire left-wing establishment, including the media, let Biden campaign from his home in 2020 to help him beat socialist Bernie Sanders.
see also Kamala Harris is not your wacky aunt, she’s more dangerous than BidenIn 2024, the Democratic National Committee changed the party’s nominating calendar and put South Carolina first in line, overturning decades of tradition, to ensure that Biden avoided any inconvenient challenges — even though most elected officials knew about his diminishing mental state.
Once in power, the “moderate” Biden spent trillions on the left-wing grab-bag “inflation reduction” bill, even when economists warned the spending would spark inflation.
Biden rolled back numerous border enforcement measures, despite being warned the country would be flooded by illegal immigrants.
Biden dropped a moderate abortion stance and supported the procedure on demand without any limit.
Biden coddled the Islamic regime in Iran and sold Israel out on numerous occasions.
That’s just a taste. These policies had Barack Obama written all over them.
Now, Kamala owes the same people, not voters, her political future.
Like Biden, Kamala will be a useful proxy for those who propped up her candidacy and perhaps her presidency.
Maybe Democrats have no other choice. But please don’t tell me this is “democracy.”
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Twitter @davidharsanyi
nypost.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42994) | 7/23/2024 10:03:59 AM | | From: Les H | | | | Inside Biden’s Withdrawal: ‘I Need You and Mike at the House,’ He Told 2 Top Aides
President Biden did not tell most of his staff until a minute before making an announcement to the world on social media on Sunday. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Mr. Biden went on to endorse, also learned of his decision on Sunday.
archive.ph
His cognition may have temporarily improved because of the Paxlovid and other medications to fight Covid-19. Anything that reduces systemic inflammation (where the body is fighting disease) is going to improve blood flow to the brain.
stltoday.com
He's on the roller coaster where conditions improve for a while, then go downhill, and it all repeats. That contributes to the Alzheimer's denial by him and those around him. Even if he isn't clinically diagnosed with dementia, he may be close enough that certain conditions, such as illness, stress, or lack of sleep, can tip him over temporarily. |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42998) | 7/23/2024 10:18:28 AM | | From: Les H | | | | After Resignation of Israel’s Intelligence Chief, Will Other Heads Roll?
But various news reports have indicated that analysts provided warning three months before the attack. The Times of Israel reports that Haliva ordered that intelligence collection be stepped up, and that it was. But other reports suggest that warnings issued by a veteran analyst and by the junior enlisted cadre known as “spotters” who were assigned to observe Hamas actions were dismissed as “alarmist,” and the idea that Hamas would attack as “imaginary.”
One cannot ignore the fact that Israel’s political leadership set the priorities and created the environment that allowed Hamas to thrive. Netanyahu’s governments over a decade pursued a policy that allowed and encouraged payments to Hamas totaling billions of dollars, reportedly believing the revenue stream would maintain the peace and lessen pressure for a two-state solution. Perhaps just as importantly, government priorities flow down, sometimes subtly and sometimes abruptly shifting intelligence services’ attention and resources. In this case, it meant resources, intelligence collection, and personnel were shifted away from monitoring Hamas to other threats that appeared more serious or to political priorities, like protecting settlers in the West Bank.
thecipherbrief.com
The higher-ups hid the warnings and reports. They threatened the border observers if they continued reporting the Hamas exercises and border incursions.
jns.org |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (2) |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42999) | 7/23/2024 10:32:58 AM | | From: Les H | | | | Russia's reserves dwindle, but fiscal safety net could last years
By Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow
February 15, 20244:33 AM
Thinking that Russia might quickly run out of reserves is misleading, said Elina Ribakova, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) pointing to Moscow's efforts to shrink budget deficits and siphon off oil revenues since 2014.
"They did a lot of homework to prioritise the war over social spending and produce a more severe fiscal adjustment than needed to insulate, or isolate, itself from pressure from the West," she said.
"Oil prices at $80 is extremely comfortable for Russia," she said. "Maybe at $60-$70 it starts feeling the pinch, but we cannot start talking about crisis if Russia is selling oil at $60 or above."
reuters.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42999) | 7/23/2024 2:54:04 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Rivals Hamas and Fatah sign a declaration to form a future government as war rages in Gaza
BY JACK JEFFERY, TIA GOLDENBERG AND HUIZHONG WU
Updated 1:41 PM EDT, July 23, 2024
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed in Beijing to form a government together, the groups said Tuesday, in the latest attempt at resolving a longstanding rivalry that looms over any potential vision for the rule of Gaza after the war with Israel.
Previous similar declarations have failed, raising doubts about whether the China-sponsored negotiations might lead to reconciliation between Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for 17 years, and Fatah, the main force in the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank.
The two groups issued a joint statement announcing the deal but gave no details on how or when the government would be formed, saying only that it would be done “by agreement among the factions.” Both sides said the accord, which provided no guarantees, was only an initial step, and they promised to follow up on previous reconciliation agreements signed in 2011 and 2022.
Israel swiftly denounced the pact. The U.S. and other Western countries have refused to accept any Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless it expressly recognizes Israel — a factor that has helped wreck past unity attempts, along with the factions’ own competition for power.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV announced that the two sides and other, smaller Palestinian factions signed the declaration on “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity.” The agreement offered only broad outlines for how they would work together.
“There is an opportunity … but it is not big, because it lacks a specific timetable for implementation,” said Hani Al-Masry, an expert on Palestinian reconciliation affairs.
The declaration comes at a sensitive time, as the war in Gaza rages into its 10th month and as Israel and Hamas are weighing an internationally backed cease-fire proposal that would wind down the war and free dozens of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
One of the thorniest issues is the question of who will run Gaza after the war. The unity efforts are motivated in part by Palestinians’ desire to offer a scenario for postwar rule.
But Israel vehemently opposes any role for Hamas, which it vowed to destroy after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. It also has rejected U.S. calls for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the fighting ends, though it has not presented a cohesive postwar vision of its own.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ’ Fatah has been deeply reluctant to share power with its longtime rival. Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. The following year, amid escalating tensions, Hamas routed forces loyal to Abbas in Gaza. It has ruled the impoverished coastal enclave ever since.
During the current war, Hamas officials have said the group does not want to return to ruling Gaza and that it advocates for forming a government of technocrats to be agreed upon by the various Palestinian factions. That government would then prepare for elections in Gaza and the West Bank, with the intention of forming a unified government.
Reacting to the announcement out of China, Israel’s foreign minister said no joint governance between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza will take place “because Hamas’ rule will be crushed.”
The agreement also underscored China’s attempts to have a growing role in Middle East diplomacy, after its success in mediating the restoration of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
“To be sure, China is still in the process of trying to earn credibility as a global mediator,” said James Char, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Officials from Fatah, Hamas and 12 other factions met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in talks that started Sunday, according to a post on social media platform Weibo from Chinese TV network CGTN.
In the statement, all the factions including Hamas said they were committed to the creation of a Palestinian state on lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Hamas, whose original charter directly called for Israel’s destruction, has said it would accept a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 war borders but refuses to officially recognize Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, has recognized Israel and works within the framework of peace deals signed in the early 1990s. Those deals were supposed to lead to an eventual state in the West Bank and Gaza, but talks have been defunct for years, leaving the authority in charge of only isolated West Bank enclaves. Many Palestinians view the authority as corrupt, out of touch and a subcontractor for Israel because of their joint security coordination.
The unity announcement is based on widening the membership of the Fatah-led Palestine Liberation Organization, including Hamas, said Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesperson.
“It’s a long way ahead, and most of it will be implemented after a possible cease-fire,” he added.
Hamas members have never been part of the PLO, the umbrella group of Palestinian factions that undergirds the Palestinian Authority. Husam Badran, a Hamas political official based in Qatar, called the agreement a further “positive step towards achieving Palestinian national unity.”
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration envisions a revamped Palestinian Authority ruling postwar Gaza and has sought reforms that might make it a viable presence in the war-ravaged territory. Israel rejected that idea.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied with Hamas, issued a statement after the talks saying it still “rejects any formula that includes recognition of Israel explicitly or implicitly” and that it demanded the withdrawal of the PLO’s recognition of Israel.
apnews.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| |
