yardwork
yardwork's JournalUS-brokered cease fire near
Deal to free hostages, pause fighting between Israel and Hamas nears announcement
The U.S.-brokered agreement could take effect as soon as Tuesday and would include the release of around 50 hostages by Hamas.
The U.S. has brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to free dozens of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a four or five day pause in fighting, according to two current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official with knowledge of the talks.
All officials stressed that a deal isn’t final until it’s officially announced and that arrangements can always fall apart at the last moment. They said an announcement could come from the relevant parties as soon as Tuesday.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/21/deal-to-free-hostages-pause-fighting-between-israel-and-hamas-nears-announcement-00128239
I saw this just now on the blog Joe.My.God so I think it is new information from previous reports.
Is it a war crime to use civilians as human shields?
Is it a war crime to take over a hospital and embed combatants in the facility, thus drawing enemy fire?
Starbucks vandalized by anti-Israeli graffiti
Multiple Durham businesses, including at least five Starbucks locations, were vandalized Saturday amid accusations the companies are supporting Israel in its war in Gaza against Hamas.
At approximately 4:55 a.m., 911 dispatchers advised that there were multiple vandalism calls throughout the city that appeared to be related, according to a Durham Police Department statement. Officers determined that seven businesses were vandalized.
Durham police did not identify all seven businesses, but Starbucks confirmed that at least five of its locations were vandalized. “Kid Killers,” “Kids Killers” and “Don’t Support Kid Killers” were spray-painted all over the exterior of those Starbucks locations.
Pro-Palestinian groups have accused Starbucks of supporting Israel and called for a boycott of the coffee chain.
Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article281739558.html#storylink=cpyhttps://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article281739558.html?ac_cid=DM872948&ac_bid=216519064
Hamas hostage videos are cruel, manipulative, revealing. Experts expect more.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/31/hamas-video-hostages-israel/JERUSALEM — The latest hostage video released by Hamas is disturbing, manipulative and revealing. Three women sit on cheap plastic chairs pushed against a tiled wall, somewhere in Gaza. It looks like a waiting room for some fearful appointment.
....
By releasing the video, “Hamas is trying to increase demand” — to push Israelis to pressure their government into a cease-fire and negotiations — to remain in power and see its own prisoners freed from Israeli jails, Orbach said. He pointed out that Israelis are not new to having hostages taken and hostage negotiations. Many approached the video with hard-earned skepticism.
Everyone in Israel knows the case of Gilad Shalit, the soldier captured by Hamas in 2006 and freed in 2011 in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israelis didn’t need to be told that the words spoken on the video were what the Hamas captors wanted them to hear. “It is clear to all but the most gullible people that the hostages are under duress,” Orbach said.
....
Massive misinformation campaign against Israel.
I'm not Jewish. I'm not an expert on the Middle East. I've been critical of the Israeli government. There's a lot I don't know, but I know antisemitism when I see it. I'm seeing antisemitism and an anti-Israeli disinformation campaign that seems to be coordinated. The minute Hamas attacked Israeli citizens - in a shockingly brutal terrorist attack in which victims were gang raped, tortured in public, paraded naked in front of mobs - an anti-Israeli propaganda campaign took off across the globe. I happen to know some folks affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Their social media rhetoric instantly ramped up against Israel. Not even a pause. Coordinated. We're seeing it on DU.
I can connect some dots but I'll leave that to others. Im here to witness what I'm seeing.
UNC on lockdown for 'armed and dangerous person' two weeks after fatal campus shooting
Source: Raleigh News & Observer, NC
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued an emergency notification at 12:54 p.m. The alert says there is an “armed and dangerous person on or near campus.”
The university issued two additional alerts, at 1:29 p.m. and 1:54 p.m., urging people to continue sheltering in place on campus. Faculty and staff are advised to. Go inside immediately. Close windows and doors. Stay until further notice. Follow directions from emergency responders or university officials.
The report follows the fatal on-campus shooting of Zijie Yan, an associate professor, less than three weeks ago. That shooting sent the university campus into lockdown for more than three hours. Tailei Qi, a graduate student, is accused of first-degree murder in Yan’s death.
All schools in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district have been advised to enter “secure mode,” the district said. Classroom instruction will continue as normal, but doors will be locked and people will not allowed in or out of school buildings.
Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article279293124.html
Two weeks after a professor was shot and killed on campus. Students are terrified. I'm watching local news WRAL and there are clips of students running to get to shelter. The little kids in the Chapel Hill - Carrboro Schools are on lockdown again.
Updates says it was the boyfriend of a disgruntled employee who showed up in the Student Union waving a gun.
Looks like an all clear now.
Way too many guns!!!
Biden is the only one I want for president in 2024.
There isn't anyone else I want for president in 2024. Just Joe Biden.
Why? Because he's the only electable one who knows what we're up against and can handle it.
I never thought I'd think this. I haven't been a particular fan of Biden's until recently. I liked him as Obama's vice president, but I never thought of him as president material.
Well. I think he's done an incredible job. Considering what we're up against, and what he inherited, and the low down dastardly behavior of the Republicans, I'm impressed.
I want Joe in 2024.
Great tweet by George Takei on the budget deal
https://twitter.com/georgetakei/status/1662638014856589315Kevin: We’re holding the economy hostage!
Joe: You won’t pull the trigger.
Kevin: I really don’t want to.
Joe: Sit down. We’ll do the budget like we normally do, just earlier.
Kevin: No new taxes!
Joe: You control the House. There would have been no new taxes anyway.
Kevin: Spending freeze!
Joe: There would have been a spending freeze anyway.
Kevin: Okay.
Joe: Here’s a budget. It looks like what we’d arrive at later anyway, right?
Kevin: Right.
Joe: We good?
Kevin: Uh, yes? I may need help getting it passed. My people hate me.
Joe: We understand. Hey, Hakeem, can you help Kevin out?
Would you hand over a car you had just rented?
There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about the Citibike rental kerfuffle, in which a woman who was assigned a rental bike is being accused of being a racist Karen because she didn't allow a group of teens to take the bike she'd just rented.
If you're not familiar with the story, google it.
For people blaming the woman - who had just completed a 12-hour shift as a Physicians Assistant at Bellevue Hospital in NYC - I'm curious.
Would you hand over a car you'd just rented?
It seems to be an exact analogy.
I go to Hertz and rent a car. A kiosk gives me paperwork with the license plate of the exact car I've rented. There is no human clerk. I rented the car using an app. If I don't return it, I owe Hertz for the value of the car. I walk up to the car I've been assigned, in its numbered space, and a stranger is standing next to the car, saying it's really theirs. I say, nope, this is the car I was assigned by Hertz. I get in it. The stranger and their four buddies surround the car and prevent me from leaving. I'm startled, confused, scared. I ask them to back off and leave me alone.
They start filming me. They upload the video to the internet and accuse me of being a racist Karen.
Would you hand over the car to the stranger?
I figured out who DeSantis reminds me of.
He's that mean weird kid who followed the bullies around in middle school, hoping that they would include him.
The bullies used him as a tool to pick on their enemies. There was nothing he wouldn't do in his pathetic and futile attempt to be included, no cruelty too extreme, no self-debasement too far. In the end nobody liked him. The bullies thought he was pathetic and excluded him from their inner circle. Everybody else loathed him.
He didn't recognize any of that. He sniggered and giggled and acted conceited, and when he got caught doing mean stupid things he whined and blamed others.
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