The mifepristone (abortion medication) legal case continues to be asinine propaganda bullsh*t. It was propaganda nonsense when it was originally filed and it still is, because in what world should a bunch of non-medical experts be allowed to review the safety of a medication that’s been proven TIME AND TIME AGAIN to be EXTREMELY SAFE?! Safer than literal Tylenol. It makes me so angry and the only way to vent that anger is to tell you all about it, so here it is: an update on the mifepristone lawsuit.
They did this with Biden on the way! They are not using restraint and they don’t plan to. This is a war crime, just as when Russia did it. This has become a genocide! And if the US and Biden agree and sign on to this in any way, the stain is on the US also. Angry angry hugs. Scottie
Palestinians evacuate wounded from a building destroyed in Israeli bombardment in Rafah refugee camp in Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
BY NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMYA KULLAB, RAVI NESSMAN AND MATTHEW LEE
Updated 2:15 PM EDT, October 17, 2023
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Health Ministry run by Hamas said an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.
The health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people had been killed. Photos purportedly from al-Ahli Hospital shared widely on social video showed fire engulfing the building, widespread damage and bodies scattered in the wreckage. The photos could not be independently verified.
Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas, which sparked the latest war with an attack last week that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, called Tuesday’s hospital strike “a horrific massacre.” It said in a statement that most of the casualties were displaced families, patients, children and women.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.”
In the south, Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure Tuesday as U.S. officials worked to convince Israel to allow delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals after days of failed hopes for an opening in the siege.
With Israel barring entry of water, fuel and food into Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken secured an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss creation of a mechanism for delivering aid to the territory’s 2.3 million people. U.S. officials said the gain might appear modest, but stressed that it was a significant step forward.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Still, as of late Tuesday, there was no deal in place. A top Israeli official said Tuesday his country was demanding guarantees that Hamas militants would not seize any aid deliveries. Tzahi Hanegbi, head of Israel’s National Security Council, suggested entry of aid also depended on the return of hostages held by Hamas.
“The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts,” he told reporters, without elaborating whether Israel was demanding the release of all of the roughly 200 people Hamas abducted before allowing supplies in.
U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict. Violence flared Tuesday along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza — but plans remained uncertain.
Palestinians flee Israeli bombardment of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Palestinians look for survivors in buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Deir el-Balah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”
In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.
An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.
An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighboring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.
Shelling from Israeli tanks hit a U.N. school in central Gaza where 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agencysaid. At least 24 U.N. installations have been hit the past week, killing at least 14 of the agency’s staff.
Israeli soldiers gather in a staging area near the border with Gaza Strip, in southern Israel Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Mourners gather around the five coffins of the Kotz family during their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.
A barrage of strikes crashed into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, leveling an entire block of homes and causing dozens of casualties among families inside, residents said. Among those killed was one of Hamas’ top military commanders, Ayman Nofal, the group’s military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.
Nofal, formerly the intelligence chief of Hamas’ armed wing, was in charge of Hamas militant activities in the central Gaza Strip, including coordinating activities with other militant groups.
Netanyahu sought to put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s retaliatory attacks and the rising civilian casualties in Gaza. “Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding behind civilians,” he said.
In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also hit the house of Hamas’ top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh is based in Doha, Qatar, but his family lives in Gaza City. The Hamas media office did not immediately identify those killed.
Israel sealed off Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.
Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse. Hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of people searched for bread and water.
The U.N. agency for Palestinians said more than 400,000 displaced people are crowded into schools and other facilities in the south. The agency said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.
Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefitted only 14 percent of Gaza’s population, the U.N. said.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to enter. The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.
Civilians with foreign citizenship — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — also waited in Rafah, desperate to get out.
“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” said Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish citizen.
Repeated reports that an opening was imminent have proven false as negotiations continued to grind on, including the U.S., Israel and Egypt.
A senior Egyptian official called it a “very tough, complicated back-and-forth process” and said talks were over deliveries through Rafah and Israel’s Karam Shalom crossing to Gaza. He said Israel was insisting to search all aid, and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” He said Egypt proposed that the U.N. oversee the whole process, including inside Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the press on the talks.
Officials for Hamas and Israel cast doubt on an immediate opening, saying they were unaware of an agreement.
Blinken arrived in Israel last Thursday with a full-throated message of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in its campaign to destroy Hamas. But in meetings with seven Arab leaders over the next three days, Blinken’s tone shifted subtly, talking more prominently about the need for humanitarian aid.
U.S. officials said it had become clear by then that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened. They said that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would be a boon to Hamas and could encourage Iran, according to four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking. That prompted Blinken to press Netanyahu on an aid deal.
Biden’s visit to Israel Wednesday will signal the White House’s support for a key ally. He will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears the fighting could spread in the region.
Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with Hezbollah militants.
Israel said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.
“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.
___
Kullab reported from Baghdad. Nessman reported from Jerusalem. Lee reported from Amman. Associated Press journalists Amy Teibel in Jerusalem; Abby Sewell in Beirut; Samy Magdy and Jack Jeffrey in Cairo; and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt contributed to this report.
Nessman is director of global text for The Associated Press. He has covered major news stories in the United States, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
I had a serious problem with this one. Oh, not with the video, that is wonderfully spot on. I just wanted to post it as the YouTube video itself. Oh yes I would have given Ten Bears credit for the link, but that did not sit well with me. When someone goes to the effort to find a video and post it they deserve credit for it. So here is an important video on US healthcare that is so simple and clear, it should be shown in every school and public square. Hugs
(Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Over the years, the United States has endowed Israel with more than $150 billion in assistance, making it possible for the Jewish state to maintain its occupation, its ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of the land, its unremitting seizure of territory, and its settlement project, the latter of which has intentionally and drastically diminished any possibility a fair peace could ever be negotiated between the parties.
Prominent Israelis have referred to Palestinians as donkeys, crocodiles, cockroaches, snakes, psychopaths and serial killers, animals, not human, not entitled to live, shrapnel in the buttocks, they deserve to have their heads chopped off, etc., etc.1 Convinced of the truth of these slurs, Jewish settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, have made it a practice of entering Palestinian villages where they poison wells, cut down olive trees, physically assault villagers, teach their children to throw stones at Palestinian children coming home from school, and deface buildings, mosques, and churches with slogans such as “Death to the Arabs” and “Jesus is a monkey?”
With its United Nations security council veto, the United States shields Israel from accountability to international law, thereby giving it a green light to continue and even accelerate these crimes against humanity.
Hamas’s October 7 surprise breach of the Israel-Gaza border, followed by its killing, injuring, and hostage-taking of soldiers and civilians is horrifying. American media has been following the tragedy for hours daily and has been overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel, rarely, if ever, mentioning the motivation behind Hamas’s assault, which are the generations of persecution, humiliation, and character assassination Israel has levied against its Palestinian subjects; never enunciating that it shouldn’t have come to this; not once admonishing Israel for prioritizing its lust for Palestinian land over the lives of its own citizens.
At the same time, the media has been interviewing Israeli citizens who, outraged at Hamas’s actions, likewise make no mention of the motivation behind the actions. Neither have they expressed a hint of empathy or a measure of self-reflection upon the role their attitudes may have played in the dehumanization of the Palestinian people who, for decades, have endured essentially the same horrors these Israelis are now having to endure.
On October 9, Hamas threatened to kill a Jewish hostage every time Israel bombs a civilian building without first giving its residents time to flee. Justifiably horrified and quick to excoriate Hamas, the Israelis I’ve watched have said nothing about Israel’s habit of bombing residential buildings. As prominent Israelis throughout its history have admitted, their nation always targets civilians. The implications behind the following admissions are as horrifying as Hamas’s pronouncement:
Ze’ev Schiff, Israel’s most respected military analyst (by all sides of the military spectrum): “the Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously . . . the Army . . . has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets . . . [but] purposely attacked civilian targets.”
General Yigal Allon with the approval of Ben-Gurion: “There is a need now for strong and brutal reaction If we accuse a family – we need to harm them without mercy, women and children included. Otherwise, this is not an effective reaction. During the operation there is no need to distinguish between guilty and not guilty.”
During Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), Deputy Prime Minister Eliyahu Yishai urged the IDF to “bomb thousands of houses, to destroy Gaza.”
During Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012), Ariel Sharon’s son Gilad: “They will pay the price and will remember the same for a long time. We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too. There should be no electricity in Gaza, no gasoline or moving vehicles, nothing.”
Israel’s past assaults on Gaza, which human rights organizations have documented in detail, are further testaments to Israel’s contempt for a defenseless civilian population.
The reaction from every American lawmaker I‘ve seen is that Hamas, not Israel, must pay for its crimes. How? By giving more weapons to Israel so it can kill even more families. That is exactly what the United States intends to do, despite its hollow assurances, past and present, that it seeks peace between the two parties; despite knowing that years of military assistance have sustained both Israel’s illegal occupation and the violence it perpetrates upon ordinary people.
In keeping with the past, and vowing to “crush and destroy” Hamas, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu warned that every Hamas member was “a dead man.” In keeping with his fellow lawmakers, President Biden condemned Hamas’s attack, again without acknowledging either its seeds or that Israel wrote the rules of the game and that Hamas is playing by those rules. Aware of the thousands of Gazan civilians, including a disproportionate number of children, whose lives Israel has snuffed out in previous operations, Biden said, “terrorists purposely target civilians, kill them.” Yes, they do Mr. President. As of the early morning of October 12, over 1,000 Gazans, mostly residents, have been killed, and 5,000 injured. Whole neighborhoods and refugee camps have been blown to smithereens, more than 120,000 displaced. And Israel has yet to commence its inevitable ground invasion. Fortunately, I’ve not seen any reports that Hamas has made good on its threat.
Israel has cut off the delivery of all fuel, food, water and medical supplies. If its assault doesn’t end soon, Gazans who survive the bombings could starve, freeze to death, or die from a lack of medicine and medical treatment. This is genocide, the Final Solution, all because “terrorists target civilians.”
The only way to stop this cycle is for the US to resist its habit of resorting to physical punishment, concede that arming Israel so it can do to Palestinians what it always does will only inflame hostilities, and demand that Israel break the cycle of violence and negotiate a fair peace. Or, at the very least, treat its subjects not as snakes and cockroaches but as human beings. Otherwise, America and Israel’s message to the world will continue to be that revenge is more satisfying than peace—the lives of Israelis and Palestinians be damned.
It’s too quiet. It’s too quiet!! The walls echo emptiness and absence, and it’s tearing my heart.
In April of 2010 I wanted a friend. I wanted one who would keep watch over my safety, driving off strangers and those who meant me harm. I wanted a friend who would stand tall and let none pass that meant me harm. And so, I went to a friend of a friend who found those who no one wanted with hope she could find me such a friend. As we spoke this maniacal blur of black and grey came ripping into the yard, eyes wide, teeth sharp and white, claws digging up tufts of grass as she made corners and then straight towards me with an unknown intention.
“Watch that one,” the lady said. “She came to me as one too wild to be homed.”
And then this wild child launched herself into my lap and laid her head on my chest, looking right through me with soft brown eyes full of mischief and hope. “Well, looks like you have been claimed,” the lady said.
“What’s her name,” I asked.
“Grace,” the lady said. “I found her just before she was to be put down at the pound. I told you she is said to be too wild.”
“Yeah, she looks vicious,” I laughed. Yet, claimed I was, a man no one wanted by a dog no one wanted, and both of us thought by some better off with a bullet. And so, Grace came home with me, this wild one that would protect my home and safety, just as I wanted. Just as I thought I needed.
As time went, she proved to me how wrong I was. Grace was not a guard dog. She didn’t stand boldly at the gate, the fear of strangers everywhere. In fact, one of the neighbors referred to her as a slut – taking love from anyone. I didn’t know if I was offended by that or not, but she was right.
As time passed Grace helped me deal with my anger, my desire for violence, my desires to just get in my car and drive away from it all. Grace taught me discipline and responsibility.
Most importantly, Grace taught me love and loyalty. I did not receive the guard dog I wanted that day, but was instead blessed with the best friend I deeply needed.
Last summer Grace began to limp. She was coming on 14 years old, so arthritis is expected. But, the arthritis medications didn’t help. Still, she lived a happy dog, and though she couldn’t do zoomies anymore, she loved to be with me outside or between my feet while I sat in my chair. There was nothing wrong with her tail, that’s for sure, and she was sure to tell anyone who could reach the box that she was ready for a bone no matter how bad her leg hurt. Two weeks ago I found out that she actually had cancer as her pain was getting worse and worse.
Still, my happy girl was glad to see me, quick to cuddle, quick to make me feel wanted, needed, loved.
On Thursday I overcame my selfishness and said goodbye to my sweet friend of 13.5 years. She laid her head in my hands one last time, a slight look of confusion on a face wet with my tears as the vet helped her move on. I held her to the end, my sweet friend, and experienced pain I just didn’t know a man could as I drove home. Alone.
Thank you, my sweet girl. You will forever be the better part of my heart.
I had to take Ron to get his eye appointment as he would be dilated. On the way back to our home, we stopped at the Publix store just a mile or two down the road from us, and where we are well known. While checking out we were chatting with the cashier and the young woman bagging the groceries. I really like the Publix stores and their employees. Very friendly and helpful, and the people doing the bagging always ask if they can help me out to the car with the groceries. As we were leaving, the cashier asked if Ron and I were brothers or something, noting how well we got along and were often together. I looked back and said no, we are spouses and married. She beamed and was congratulating us, the young woman doing the bagging started clapping while also beaming. I knew some of the people working there knew we were a couple, I had already been asked before. Only one person struggled to understand it as he was new to the country, but the other staff rushed to explain it to him. Once he understood, he seemed OK with the idea, if still confused. I could tell from his very deep accent, he simply had not thought of two men being married. But back to today, as we stood there, I looked around. In the check-out aisle next to us, another cashier and bagging person were both smiling and nodding and most of the people in line did not seem bothered … except the woman in the front being checked out. She stared at Ron and me with a horrified, shocked look on her face. She looked like she had just smelt the worst sewer smell she had ever smelled and felt the poop running down her leg. I almost laughed as it was so over the top. Ron thankfully missed it and was saying goodbye to everyone as we started walking out.
But it stuck in my mind. Publix is known for being a semi religious company, they make it a priority to treat staff well, they have a strong pro LGBTQIA policy, they hire disabled workers a lot, more than any company I have seen. One of the bagging persons is a young man with only one hand and good arm. His other arm is smaller, thinner, and yet he can bag groceries with the best of them. Another is a very mentally challenged young adult who lives in our park, who has worked there since he was a teenager. One of the cashiers is an 84-year-old woman with oxygen they treat like a queen who is loved by all and lives to come to work. Which brings up another point, not all religious groups are automatically anti-LGBTQIA. Publix is not. They are very supportive of the LGBTQIA.
This woman with the horrified face is an example of what is happening more and more in Florida. Five to ten years ago there was only acceptance of Ron and me. Sometimes it was stumbling but very supportive. Now it is about 70-30 to if the response will be positive or aggressively negative. In January 2015 Ron and I went to the clerk of the court to get married, we were the first same-sex couple in Lee County. There was a slight delay in our ceremony, not because of anti-same sex marriage feelings though. All the clerks wanted to be the ones to marry us. When they told us what was going on that the entire office wanted to be involved, we invited them, all who wanted to come. The office took an unofficial break while we got married with the entire office staff in attendance. The package we paid for was a five-minute ceremony with a dozen pictures. It took nearly an hour and I have hundreds of pictures. So the Florida of then was very progressive. Sadly, that has changed.
I have grown my hair very long. While I clearly am not trans and don’t pretend to be, I get a lot of animosity for that, a lot of hostile looks. And also some very leering scary ones where someone is making it clear they think I am available to … rent. I am an out of shape, fat, 60 year old man, with a very large belly and walk with a cane! What kind of freak do you have to be to think I am a sex worker because I have very long hair. Either that or they are the most desperate involuntary celibates I have ever seen. But back to the story, I have over the last year faced push back when affirming that my spouse is Ron, a male, when filling out medical forms and in doctor’s offices. When at a new provider the MA was taking my information, and it came to emergency contact and family, I stated Ron and our relationship. She paused, then got up and left. After a few minutes a different MA came in and continued with no explanation of the change. But I knew. It is again becoming the 1990s again, and I feel too old to take on that same fight.
The great news is how happy everyone seemed at the store when I answered the question with “He is my spouse, we are married”. The bad is at least one person was openly horrified like I would gay her right there, how would she explain that to her family and hate preacher. The bad news is DeathSantis and his people have made Florida a lot less accepting to those not white fundamentalist Christian nationalist cis straight people. When do the lynchings restart? Hugs
Hello Wonderful people. I just put another 48 open tabs in Chrome, so I can shut everything down and go to bed. By doing that in the morning when I open Chrome I can open the many saved windows of many open tabs. The reason, well today despite my best efforts Ron and I kept doing things keeping me from the computers and getting up in the morning at 3 am to work on some open tabs, I crashed in the late morning. I couldn’t stay awake. Then Ron really got on my case for damaging my somewhat fragile health trying to stay awake and deal with open tabs. I let him browbeat me into the bedroom, where I lay down and fell asleep for 4 hours. So I saved what I could, had a really great day over all. But this window joins the other five of many open tabs I have to find a way to get to. Some of them are getting to be about 6 weeks old. Hugs, loves and everyone have a grand night. Scottie
I know I am late to reading and posting stuff, but this is why I save so many open tabs. This is a simple but so very important message to repeat over and over. On the plus side, I live in southwest Florida. Yes in DeathSantis Florida where the state just had to admit they hid and lied about the massive number of covid deaths, and Ron and I have been talking to our pharmacy about getting the covid vaccine. I am happy to say the pharmacy has asked us to work with them (they know us and we are very friendly with them) and they are over run with demands for the vaccine as soon as they can provide it. So the idea that the entire right is enslaved to the DeathSantis anti-vaccine message is wrong. The people want it, and are swarming any place that advertises they have it. Thanks Ten Bears for this wonderful explanation of how vaccines work. Hugs
Yet, claimed I was, a man no one wanted by a dog no one wanted, and both of us thought by some better off with a bullet. And so, Grace came home with me, this wild one that would protect my home and safety, just as I wanted. Just as I thought I needed.
There was nothing wrong with her tail, that’s for sure, and she was sure to tell anyone who could reach the box that she was ready for a bone no matter how bad her leg hurt. Two weeks ago I found out that she actually had cancer as her pain was getting worse and worse.
Scottie's Playtime 