News bits: Trump's gag order; The mystery of the exploding hospital; Exploding hospital redux

Some bits from the 3 page court order in DJT's insurrection trial in D.C. with judge Tanya Chutkan:

The defense’s position that no limits may be placed on Defendant’s speech because he is engaged in a political campaign is untenable, and the cases it cites do not so hold. The Circuit Courts in both United States v. Brown and United States v. Ford recognized that First Amendment rights must yield to the imperative of a fair trial. 218 F.3d 415, 424 (2000); 830 F.2d 596, 599 (1987). Unlike the district courts in those cases, however, this court has found that even amidst his political campaign, Defendant’s statements pose sufficiently grave threats to the integrity of these proceedings that cannot be addressed by alternative means, and it has tailored its order to meet the force of those threats. Brown, 218 F.3d at 428–30; Ford, 830 F.2d at 600. Thus, limited restrictions on extrajudicial statements are justified here. The bottom line is that equal justice under law requires the equal treatment of criminal defendants; Defendant’s presidential candidacy cannot excuse statements that would otherwise intolerably jeopardize these proceedings.

Accordingly, and pursuant to Local Criminal Rule 57.7(c), it is hereby ORDERED that:

All interested parties in this matter, including the parties and their counsel, are prohibited from making any public statements, or directing others to make any public statements, that target (1) the Special Counsel prosecuting this case or his staff; (2) defense counsel or their staff; (3) any of this court’s staff or other supporting personnel; or (4) any reasonably foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.

DJT can still spew his toxic slanders about things like allegedly bad government generally, the allegedly bad Biden administration or the allegedly bad Department of Justice, or that the bad prosecution is politically motivated.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Who blew up the hospital apparently killing at least 500 innocents? Hamas or Israel? As is the case in what feels to be about 99% of the time when bad or horrible things happen in that cursed part of the world, Hamas blames Israel for the attack on the hospital and Israel blames Hamas. That's standard for the God-forsaken hell called Palestine or whatever it is supposed to be called. Newsweek reports something suspicious about the Israeli version of the horrible event:

Two official Israeli accounts on X, formerly Twitter, posted and later deleted a video that claimed to show a Tuesday explosion at Gaza City's Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, adding to the confusion surrounding the incident that reportedly killed hundreds of people.

Official X accounts for the State of Israel and Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., posted a video that claimed to show a rocket fired from Gaza caused the explosion at the hospital.

However, the video was later deleted from the accounts after Aric Toler, a journalist on the visual investigations team at The New York Times, disputed the accuracy of the footage due to time stamps on the video.

According to messages posted on X by Toler, the time stamps on the video shared by the Israeli accounts showed it was recorded at least 40 minutes after the explosion took place.

Though the posts about the hospital explosion on Herzog and the State of Israel's X posts still contained the original written messages, the video has since been deleted from both accounts.

Toler's post was not cited as a reason for the editing, and Newsweek reached out to the embassy of Israel to the United States via email for comment on Tuesday night.

Toler's public announcement of the time discrepancy

So, who do we believe? The liar Israel or the liar Hamas? Biden said the US would investigate, then should we believe the liar staunchly pro-Israel US government when it finds that Hamas did it?

Qs: Does it make sense to argue that in politics in democracies (maybe not tyrannies) being faithful to actual facts, true truths and sound reasoning constitutes one of the highest moral values and duties that, in most situations (~99%) those in power are obligated to adhere to no matter what? Or is that just a quaint extinct dinosaur of a belief, and the people should be told only what is for their own good or for the sake of the sacred ideology (e.g., God's dogmas), the nation, or whatever other excuse that liars dream up?

For context to that:

“The social incentives to deceit are at present very powerful; the controls often weak. Many individuals feel caught up in practices they cannot change. It would be wishful thinking, therefore, to expect individuals to bring about major changes in the collective practices of deceit by themselves. Public and private institutions, with their enormous power to affect personal choice, must help alter the existing pressures and incentives. ..... Trust and integrity are precious resources, easily squandered, hard to regain. They can thrive only on a foundation of respect for veracity.

[Johnson repeatedly told the American people] ‘the first responsibility, the only real issue in this campaign, the only thing you ought to be concerned about at all, is: Who can best keep the peace?’ The stratagem succeeded; the election was won; the war escalated. .... President Johnson thus denied the electorate of any chance to give or refuse consent to the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Believing they had voted for the candidate of peace, American citizens were, within months, deeply embroiled in one of the cruelest wars in their history. Deception of this kind strikes at the very essence of democratic government.” -- Moral philosopher Sisella Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, 1999

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Well, the US has spoken about who blew up the hospital. Hamas or someone else other than Israel done it! The NYT writes:

President Biden said that information from the U.S. military led him to conclude that Israel was not responsible for the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital. Palestinians blame Israel for the blast, which has fueled protests across the Middle East.  

After an all-night flight from Washington, Mr. Biden arrived in a country girding for a protracted war against the armed Islamist group Hamas after it carried out the deadliest attack on Israel in generations. He quickly waded into the fray, backing the Israeli government’s denial of responsibility for the explosion Tuesday night at Ahli Arab Hospital, where many civilians were sheltering amid Israel’s daily bombardment of Gaza.

So there we have it. Mystery solved. Right? Damn, that investigation was quick.

Q: Who do you think most likely blew up the hospital?