Notices by Hippy Steve (exador23@m.ai6yr.org), page 3

I meant to do that. Just practicing my mad firetruck drifting skills.

CW: language on vid audio.

No matter your politics, it should appall you that the media outlets which claim to care the most about "misinformation" suppressed coverage of South Africa's case against the Gaza genocide, but fully covered Israel's defense the next day—intentionally denying you the full story. ~Edward Snowden

@evan I'm not sure that "people are OK with ads" for any part of the computing experience...

During the timeframe of ad-supported hardware, I'm not aware of any ad-supported software that was successful either. Meaning via consumer choice. The ads crept in on the website side during the 90s rush to monetize the web.

Users didn't choose that. It was thrust upon us and kicked off the ad-block industry. Some people didn't care, or gave up, but they didn't actively choose ads.

Things are a little different now, where people are used to ads & cell apps so numerous that folks might choose an ad-supported app instead of paying for ones you might hardly ever use.

flabbergasting stat:

COP28: Total amount pledged to help developing countries with loss and damage from climate change: $656 million

Contract for baseball player Shohei Ohtani with the LA Dodgers: $700 million

#ClimateEmergency

@simsa03

Wish granted. Don't know why you can't block me. so I'll just block you.

Committee to Protect Journalists: The father of Al-Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif has been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, weeks after the reporter and videographer received threats to cease his coverage. https://cpj.org/2023/12/father-of-al-jazeeras-anas-al-sharif-killed-in-gaza-after-journalist-receives-threats/

On Nov22, Al-Sharif reported receiving threats from Israeli military officers via phone. The journalist told Al-Jazeera that he had received multiple phone calls from officers in the Israeli army instructing him to cease coverage & leave northern Gaza. Additionally, he received voice notes on WhatsApp disclosing his location.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike hit Al-Sharif’s family home in Jabalia refugee camp, killing the journalist’s 90-year-old father

Made the mistake of peeking over at the hell site. Al Jazeera is trending and being slandered mercilessly.

They have a left/Arab bias, but it's no different than any other news org's lean. And they are rated as Reliable for factual reporting, and want to stay that way.

Maybe if Israel hadn't killed so many journalists (and their families for good measure), CNN or BBC would be willing to have some reporters there to corroborate the atrocities too.

Video and images obtained by Al Jazeera appear to show bodies inside the Shadia Abu Ghazala School near the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. Witnesses reported that women, children and babies were killed “execution-style by Israeli forces while sheltering inside the school.”

According to an eyewitness: “The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire on them…They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her” including “newborn children.” The alleged witness added: “The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families at point blank.”

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Israel has long held that many if not all of the hostages are being held in those tunnels. Families of the hostages have previously expressed concern about the plan to flood the tunnels.

And with good reason. A brutal but strategically sound response by Hamas would be to abandon the tunnels and leave the hostages there to be found by the IDF later. It would be the political end of Likud.

I was able to get a paywall busted version of the WSJ report. archive .is doesn't always work on them. https://archive.is/n2JCW

A spokesperson for the Israeli defense minister declined to comment, saying the tunnel operations are classified.

Flooding the tunnels began around the time Israel added two more pumps to the five pumps installed last month & conducted some initial tests.

Some Biden administration officials have been concerned that using seawater might not be effective & could endanger Gaza’s freshwater supply. Egypt in 2015 used seawater to flood tunnels operated by smugglers under the Rafah border crossing, prompting complaints from nearby farmers about damaged crops.

The IDF has begun the 'Salting of the Earth' phase of their war on Gaza and its peoples according to the WSJ citing US Officials.

This is a crime against not just Palestinians but against the planet & humanity as a whole, including future generations.

The Israeli military has begun pumping seawater into Hamas' tunnel complex in Gaza, the WSJ reported citing unnamed U.S. officials. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-begins-pumping-seawater-into-hamas-tunnels-gaza-wsj-2023-12-12/

Some Biden administration officials have said the process could help destroy the tunnels, where Israel believes the militant group is hiding hostages, fighters & munitions. Other officials have expressed concerns the seawater would endanger Gaza's fresh water supply.

@simsa02 It's not an 'immunization'

critique of Israel combined with generalizations like: They're monsters. They always do that. etc. etc. can and should be legitimately labeled as anti-semitic.

But simply looking at the current policies of Netanyahu's government and their war tactics and pointing out the moral and strategic failings of those is no more anti-semitic than criticizing GWBush's government and the invasion of Iraq was anti-American.

Automatic association of anti-semitism with criticism of Israel is itself a form of bigotry that assumes Jewish people everywhere are monolithic and indivisible from Israeli policies. That's a very dangerous way of thinking that cuts both ways

Nice to read some common sense every now and then.

"Extremists on both sides share one tactic: to treat Israel and Jews as identical. This is where we must draw the line. We can't allow disagreement with Israeli policy to devolve into attacks on Jews. And we can't allow those who criticize Israeli policy to be called antisemitic."

@iamtherockstar

I think @evan's kids are older than that now, but he's been contributing significantly to open source for decades.

@evan Did you see the Foreign Affairs article the other day? It clearly laid out the case that the war so far is indeed collective punishment, and rather than eliminating Hamas it is strengthening them. And the Council on Foreign Relations that has published that magazine for nearly 100 years is NOT some touchy-feely progressive group. In almost any administration, about 40% are CFR members.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israels-failed-bombing-campaign-gaza

@evan I found the US ambassador's statement infuriating: "we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire. This would only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-State solution."

Every family that is bombed is creating more extremists eager to join Hamas or an even more violent future group. Those are the "seeds for the next war." Hopeless individuals who watched their innocent loved ones die horribly are ripe to become suicide bombers.

Likud is the greatest barrier to a two-state solution imo.

In a rare move, Secretary-General António Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the UN charter over the unfolding tragedy in Gaza.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4345665-un-chief-guterres-article-99-gaza-crisis/

In a letter to José Javier De la Gasca Lopez Domínguez, the current U.N. Security Council president, Guterres said he expects “public order to completely break down due to desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.”
___

If I understand correctly (I'm no expert), this would set a call for a humanitarian cease fire in motion in the Security Council, and force the US to veto it if they want to allow Israel to continue the fighting.

The Onion...

Everything Elon Musk Did While Visiting Israel https://www.theonion.com/everything-elon-musk-did-while-visiting-israel-1851051388

Musk claimed he was the first one to come up with the idea of using tunnels and accused Hamas of plagiarism.

Musk was obviously under the impression that the Israeli government was in possession of the notorious Jewish space laser and was visibly disappointed when he was informed it didn’t exist.

Musk attempted to demonstrate his Cybertruck’s ability to handle rough terrain, but wound up trapped in the wreckage of a building with the vehicle’s wheels spinning.

Ran Over A Lot Of People In A Tank. It was nice for once to forgo the self-driving feature and do it himself.

Absolutely intense flooding in Dominican Republic yesterday. Don't think I've seen huge chunks of asphalt get torn up & flipped by a flood like that before.

It's getting hard to keep track of the horrific #ClimateEmergency impacts. #Flooding

cc: @ai6yr

Gila Gamliel, the Minister of Intelligence for Israel has publicly called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza in an Op-Ed and suggests the UN pay for it.

Victory is an opportunity for Israel in the midst of crisis - opinion https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-773713

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying: “In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.”

ANOTHER OPTION is to promote the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons, outside of the Strip.

Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNRWA, the international community can assist in the costs of resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries.

...