Pragmatic politics focused on the public interest for those uncomfortable with America's two-party system and its way of doing politics. Considering the interface of politics with psychology, cognitive biology, social behavior, morality and history.
Etiquette
DP Etiquette
First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.
Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.
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?
They know they are most likely going to die’: Palestinian Americans in Mass. worry for loved ones in Gaza
Hazem Shafai, right, of Plymouth, his nephew, Sharaf Shafai, middle, and his brother, Hani Shafai, left.Hani Shafai
Every
morning for the past week, Heiam Alsawalhi has opened her eyes, grabbed
her phone, and texted her younger sister to make sure she is still
alive.
Alsawalhi,
a Palestinian American who lives in Brookline, said her sister and her
family, along with dozens of other relatives, are trapped in the Gaza
Strip without electricity, clean water, and barely any food and internet
connection as Israeli bombings increase ahead of an expected ground
invasion.
“She is my baby sister, and she is the world to me,” Alsawalhi told the Globe Monday. “I’m living in fear.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza face an increasingly dire
humanitarian crisis, with Israel barring entry of essential supplies in
retaliation for last week’s deadly rampage by Hamas militants.
Meanwhile in Massachusetts, thosewith family members stuck in the tiny territory move through day-to-day life filled with anguish.
Hazem
Shafai, of Plymouth, and his family, are in limbo in southern Gaza,
near the border with Egypt, according to Shafai’s brother, Hani, of
Rapid City, S.D.
Hazem,
his wife, Sanaa Shafai, and their three children, Seera, 13, Yomnah,
10, and Jaser, 2, were visiting Hazem’s father and stepmother on their
farm 2 miles south of Gaza’s northern border when airstrikes beganOct. 7.
“It’s been
really crazy for the kids; a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety,” Hani
Shafai said. “And the parents are just as anxious and saddened by
everything that is going on and that their children are being exposed to
it.”
Shafai
said that his extended family and his brother’s family left behind all
of their belongings, including livestock, to travel to Gaza’s southern
border to try to cross into Egypt, though they have been turned away
twice.
“When
I talk to my brother, it reminds me of the type of conversation that
I’ve had with some of my older friends who are in hospice care,” Hani
said. “They know they are most likely going to die, and they are giving
me their last instructions: ‘This is what you should do with my kids if I
die and forgive me if I’ve wronged you.’ ”
Hani
said that he and his family are praying for peace and hope that “people
can start living together and thinking of each other as humans.”
“I’m
glad we’re condemning the action of terrorists, but we should do the
same thing for the loss of innocent Palestinian lives on the other
side,” he said.
Alsawalhi
said her sister Mervat Alsawalhi, or “Miro,” is also in Rafah near the
southern border with Egypt, after fleeing her home in northern Gaza
after the Israeli military ordered more than 1 million people to
evacuate.
Mervat
Alsawalhi and her family, including her husband, three daughters, and
grandson Jamal, were initially at home in Gaza City in the days
following the Hamas attack.
Mervat Alsawalhi held her grandson, Jamal.Heiam Alsawalhi
Nearby,
Heiam Alsawalhi said, her own former in-laws had their three-story home
flattened in an airstrike, as well as other relatives’ homes. The
bombardment was even worse at nighttime, Alsawalhi said.
“They don’t want people sleeping,” she said of Israeli’s military. “It’s a mental war, as well.”
Alsawalhi
said her sister’s family attempted to heed Israel’s warning and
evacuate to the south, but found no cars, fuel, or taxis available. They
began to walk south along with other families carrying their children,
but became exhausted and turned around.
On their
way home, Alsawalhi said her sister saw “with her own eyes” an explosion
Friday, for which Gaza authorities said Israel was responsible, that killed 70 people
in convoys fleeing south. The next day, the family was able to get a
ride to Rafah, where they are staying with friends, Alsawalhi said.
Though the bombardment is less constant in Rafah, even there a strike hit a building housing displaced families from Gaza City, killing at least 12.
“Wherever you are in Gaza is not a safe place,” Alsawalhi said.
Suhad
Zendah, a Medford resident whose extended family lives in Gaza City,
said all her younger family members with children are making their way
south on foot, afraid of being targeted by airstrikes if they join
vehicle convoys. Elderly relatives stayed behind, she said,and she has lost all contact with them.
“It’s
hard to get sleep or rest or function normally,” Zendah said. “It feels
like a nightmare. But then I open my eyes, and I realize that it’s
still going on and it’s reality.”
Mahmoud
Abdalrahman, 34, of Arlington, is the only member of his family who
resides outside of Tal al-Hawa, a neighborhood in the southwest region
of Gaza City.
Why Having the Last Word Is So Important for Some People
Having the last word for some people means winning the argument. Whilst this clearly isn’t always true, it is a frustrating trait that applies to more than just Wikipedia!
It is worth remembering that the person who wins the debate is not necessarily the person who shouts the loudest, or gets in the last word.
Often a person with this personality is likely to be an egomaniac or bordering on being one. An egomaniac can be defined as a person who is obsessively self-centred or egotistical.
(Have you ever been in an argument where the other won't drop it?)
Insecurity:
Somebody who lacks confidence or self-esteem may try to assert themselves in other ways, by expressing himself or herself in a forceful way.
Arrogance:
A person with extreme arrogance may genuinely not be able to accept that they might be incorrect, or that another person’s opinion is equally as valid as their own.
Having the last word can be perceived as powerful, often by people who lack assertiveness in other areas of their lives.
Anger:
Refusal to debate calmly can be a reaction to feelings of anger, and shouting down an opponent is a way to express their feelings.
Dominance:
As with power, a person who feels the innate need to dominate others or to establish their seniority may do so by insisting they have the final word in any conversation.
