Saturday, April 27, 2024
How Are We Doing
A joint submission from four bureaus - Democracy Human Rights&Labor; Population, Refugees & Migration; Global Criminal Justice & International Organization Affairs – raised "serious concern over non-compliance" w/international humanitarian law in Israel's conduct of the Gaza war.
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) April 27, 2024
These included repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; "unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage"; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and "killing…
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) April 27, 2024
Unlearning
I'm sure my worst takes were when I first started my blog. Not so much the most wrong ones - I'm still capable of being quite wrong - but the most embarrassing ones. Despite having some controversial-for-the-times opinions like "The Iraq war seems like a bad idea," I still felt influenced and constrained by conventional wisdom. I had yet to unlearn a lot of the things one learns while spending years thinking, for example, The Economist magazine has some special insight about the world.
Unlearning is a lot harder than learning. The things we need to unlearn are often things we'd deny believing, but somehow we still do, as they've burrowed into our consciousness like some "fact" we were told when we were 5 and are almost incapable of disbelieving.
Unlearning is a lot harder than learning. The things we need to unlearn are often things we'd deny believing, but somehow we still do, as they've burrowed into our consciousness like some "fact" we were told when we were 5 and are almost incapable of disbelieving.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Speaking of Sanctions
Ah, well, nevertheless.
The Biden administration has determined that three military battalions with the Israel Defense Forces committed "gross human rights violations" against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank but will remain eligible for U.S. military aid regardless because of steps Israel says it's taking to address the problem, ABC News has learned.I see:
Between the lines: Israel expressed grave concern during the talks that a State Department determination that the Netzah Yehuda battalion committed human rights violations in the West Bank that were not dealt with by the IDF would increase the likelihood the International Criminal Court would issue arrest warrants Israeli soldiers and officers, the Israeli official said.Can't be any consequences, or there could be consequences!
Prematurely Shrill
Regularly I see people who, back in the day, were prone to tut-tutting me (or people "like me" - this isn't personal), now being as shrill about the Republicans or a certain media outlet - the one run by several generations of failsons - as I ever was.
I'm not mad. Just observing.
I'm not mad. Just observing.
The University President Group Chat
Don't have enough precise details so I won't share the institutions, but friends have been telling me that their universities have been doing these last minute rule changes without notifications or consultaton, also.
“To invoke a reference to an ad hoc committee that might have existed half a century ago and attempt to use it to justify the on-the-fly creation of a new policy today, is utterly unprincipled,” Sanders said in an email. “If a university lawyer was involved in concocting this rationalization, then no one should trust their integrity or judgment.”
In an email to faculty, Whitten confirmed the university changed the policy Wednesday night after becoming aware of the Thursday protest to “balance free speech and safety in the context of similar protests occurring nationally.” She wrote that the policy was posted online the morning of the protest.
...
According to an emailed statement from IUPD, police detained 33 protesters and took them to the Monroe County Jail. The IDS observed that at least one was an IU faculty member — Germanic Studies professor Benjamin Robinson. At least one student protester — Christopher Handwerger — was arrested for criminal trespass and received a trespass warning from IUPD banning him from IU property for a year. Handwerger told the IDS he is a first-semester senior, meaning he needs this coming fall semester to graduate.
Purity Of Intentions
It is reasonable to ask why the much-touted sanctions, when the war started, don't seem to have hurt Russia much.
It was all very noble at the beginning, but we're talking about real money here, lads.
Maybe I am diagonising the problem incorrectly, but we were promised that all the sanctions would effectively cripple Russia and what happened to that?
The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries processing Kremlin fossil fuels.I get that things aren't entirely simple, but there was a great enthusiasm for sanctions at the beginning - everyone was very proud at the sacrifice, even some rich interests were being targeted - and that enthusiasm, along with (presumably) strong enforcement, faded fairly quickly.
Government data analysed by the environmental news site Desmog shows that imports of refined oil from India, China and Turkey amounted to £2.2bn in 2023, the same record value as the previous year, up from £434.2m in 2021.
It was all very noble at the beginning, but we're talking about real money here, lads.
Maybe I am diagonising the problem incorrectly, but we were promised that all the sanctions would effectively cripple Russia and what happened to that?
So It's Bladder Cancer Then
Doesn't sound like Charles is doing well.
Overall, however, the British press have observed what seems like a remarkable silence on the matter of Charles’ health and funeral planning.These "very strict rules and laws" are applied to protect the powerful, and not other times, as anyone who has picked up a British newspaper knows.
This is not, as one journalist told The Daily Beast, just out of respect for or collusion with the palace, but rather due to very strict rules and laws in the U.K. governing medical privacy and the publishing of personal information. “Even if you had it copper-bottomed that he had bladder cancer, you couldn’t run it,” the journalist said.
"Security Concerns"
That's the reason USC is giving for cancelling the graduation ceremony, when everyone fully understands (but won't necessarily tell you), that they have to say that because they'll be sued into oblivion, given California state law, if they admit the real reason.
We all remember when these costs were necessary.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
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