A Question I Can't Answer

 What happens after donnie slips irrevocably into senescence or dies?

Senescence seems to be more imminent, if one were to pay any attention to most of what he says these days, and how he says it.

But 77 is a lot of years - quite a load; add that load to the 22 stones he has to lard around when he tries to walk, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see him keeling over someday soon indulging in the trivial act of walking from point A to point B.

 So, if one accepts the fact that we have such a rigged system that the dildo is again going to be elected president, the question hangs in the air: What happens after donnie slips irrevocably into senescence or dies?

Antisemitism Re-defined: Daring To Abhor Mass Murder

 I posted this last year with the title Coming Home To Roost.

Nothing has changed.

A long, long time ago I saw an Israeli woman interviewed by some significant American Media Source.

She was in her home.

That home, before 1948 had been the home of a Palestinian family.

There came a point where the interviewer asked the woman if she ever thought about something that would appear, on its face, to be a gross and unacceptable inequity: she was living in a beautiful Mediterranean home and the Palestinians to whom it had belonged pre-1948, were most likely in some refugee camp somewhere.

Or dead.

I have never forgotten her reply.

"Macht nichts; I've got mine".

A curtain to a slightly different view of the aftermath of the holocaust flashed open for me in that moment: the fact that much of the world, after Hitler shot himself in his bunker, had coalesced behind the Jewish people, enthusiastically and unconditionally, had, perhaps, unleashed a newer, slightly softer, form of genocide.

Leverage is everything, that new form believed.

And use it while you've got it.

Smart move.

Six million innocent human beings industrially exterminated is a horror that even today looms as number one in horror, human race to date.

There's a lot of leverage pent up in that horror.

But to see the survivors of that horror leveraging it into a shoulder-shrugged right to exterminate the Palestinians is a new form of that same old horror.

And I can't understand how the Jews can tolerate it.

Such as is my minimal influence, I won't tolerate it.

Moving beyond all of the rhetoric about how bad Hamas is - and I argue that not - one issue remains.

Starting in 1948 the Israelis have been pursuing a policy of the gradual elimination of the Palestinians.

And the policy is succeeding.

In the years since 1948, Israeli policy has inexorably reduced Palestinian living space.

The Israelis finally have most of the Palestinians crammed into a chunk of land bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel; the land measures twenty-five miles long by five miles wide; there are two million Palestinians in there; recently Israel ordered the half of that two million who live in the north to move to the south; then Israel started bombing the south.

But that's not all.

The Israelis have nudged a lot of Palestinians, over the years onto the left bank of the river Jordan.

That was ostensibly to give them some lebensraum; but really it was just a fish trap trick to get them concentrated somewhere so that the Israelis could move in violent thugs that they call "settlers" to illegally homestead, and in their spare time do raids to kill Palestinians.

The lady of the interview got her house because the Jews told the Palestinians who owned it to get out.

One wonders where those Palestinians went.

"Macht nichts". 

Since 2000, or so, the Israelis have had another policy, parallel to the policy of Palestinian removal and relocation: allow a terrorist group (Hamas) to be an offset to the PLA.

Why would they do that?

Of course, I don't know, but I could argue that that policy is to permanently stymie a two-state solution, which, being the only solution, is a policy that totally precludes any solution; so removal and relocation, and now, elimination reign supreme in the chambers of Israeli policy.

Having a weak de jura government and a strong de facto alternate government - in opposition - makes serious discussion about creating a viable Palestine a nonstarter.

And not starting is and has seemed to have been a primary objective of Israeli policy.

For 75 years.

But allowing Hamas to exist has finally yielded catastrophic results for the Israeli government.

So, in reaction to the catastrophe, that government is reducing the Gaza Strip to rubble in pursuit of the goal of eliminating the terrorists.

But to do that they need to eliminate huge swathes of Palestinians.

"Macht nichts" says BiBi.

And if the world objects, the world is antisemitic (theme from Shindler's List commences).

Leverage is everything.

Big Bomb Primer

 Now that US weapons are being used with abandon to kill Palestinians and to not kill Russians (the republicans having a brotherly feeling for Putin's hoard) I thought it might be time to find out what it is that the Israelis are using to kill all the Palestinians, and what they COULD get, in addition if they act good and talk nice to the US.

Naturally, I asked Bing/Co-pilot.

Tell me about the two thousand pound bombs that Israel is using in Gaza.

Israel has been using 2,000-pound bombs in its military operations in Gaza. These massive bombs have had a significant impact on the conflict. Here are some key points:

Scale of Bombardment:

Israel has dropped hundreds of these 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza during the conflict.

The bombs rain down on civilians caught up in the violence, causing immense destruction and loss of life.

Purpose and Impact:

These bombs are intended to dislodge Hamas from Gaza.

However, their use in densely populated areas raises serious concerns about civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure.

The New York Times reported that Israel used these bombs even in areas it considered “safe” for civilians and along evacuation routes.

Accuracy and Controversy:

The 2,000-pound SPICE bombs are highly accurate but may be overkill in Gaza, where civilian lives are at risk.

Their immense power makes them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away.

U.S. Involvement:

The U.S. has supplied Israel with these large bunker buster bombs, among tens of thousands of other weapons and artillery shells, for use in the Gaza War.

The situation remains highly contentious, with ongoing debates about the humanitarian impact of such powerful munitions in densely populated areas.

Editorial Comment: More than 30,000 civilians have been killed.  Even if one pretends that 13,000 of them - as do the Israelis - are Hamas, that still leaves more than 17,000, mostly women and children, dead Palestinian civilians.

So I asked Bing: I have thought since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the US should give an arsenal of MOABs and C-130 delivery vehicles to the Ukrainians.

Tell me about MOABs.

The 2,000-pound bombs used by Israel in Gaza are not the same as the MOABs (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) bombs. Let me clarify the differences:

2,000-Pound Bombs:

These bombs weigh 2,000 pounds (approximately 907 kilograms).

They are precision-guided munitions designed for specific targets.

Israel has used them in its military operations in Gaza, causing significant destruction and loss of life.

MOABs (Massive Ordnance Air Blast):

The MOAB, also known as the “Mother of All Bombs,” is a much larger bomb.

It weighs around 21,600 pounds (approximately 9,800 kilograms).

The MOAB is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

It creates a massive blast radius and shockwave, primarily used for destroying underground bunkers and tunnels.

In summary, while both are powerful bombs, the MOAB is significantly larger and more devastating than the 2,000-pound bombs used by Israel in Gaza.

So would that work well against the Russians in Ukraine?

The MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) is indeed a formidable weapon, but its use in any conflict is a matter of great concern. Here are some points to consider:

MOAB Characteristics:

The MOAB is the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

It weighs around 21,600 pounds (approximately 9,800 kilograms).

Upon detonation, it creates an immense blast radius and shockwave, capable of destroying underground bunkers and tunnels.

Ukraine Conflict:

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine involves complex geopolitical dynamics.

Using a MOAB would have severe consequences, both militarily and politically.

Such a massive bomb could cause significant collateral damage, including civilian casualties and destruction of critical infrastructure.

Strategic Considerations:

Military decisions must weigh the potential impact on civilians, regional stability, and international relations.

The use of a MOAB would likely escalate tensions and provoke international condemnation.

International Law and Ethics:

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks that disproportionately harm civilians or civilian objects.

The use of such a powerful weapon in a densely populated area would raise serious ethical and legal questions.

In summary, while the MOAB is a powerful weapon, its deployment should be carefully considered, taking into account the broader implications and potential harm to civilians and infrastructure. Diplomatic efforts and de-escalation remain crucial in resolving conflicts.

But smaller bombs against Palestinian civilians is OK?

As an AI language model, I don’t hold personal opinions or judgments. However, I can provide information based on historical context and international law.

The use of any bombs or munitions in densely populated areas, whether against Palestinian civilians or any other population, raises serious ethical and legal concerns. Here are some points to consider:

International Humanitarian Law (IHL):

IHL prohibits attacks that disproportionately harm civilians or civilian objects during armed conflicts.

Deliberate targeting of civilians is a violation of IHL and is considered a war crime.

Conflict Context:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and complex history.

Both sides have faced violence, loss of life, and displacement.

Civilian Casualties:

Any loss of civilian lives is tragic and unacceptable.

The impact of conflict on civilians, especially women, children, and the elderly, is devastating.

Peaceful Solutions:

Diplomacy, dialogue, and negotiations are essential for resolving conflicts.

Efforts should focus on finding peaceful solutions that respect human rights and protect civilians.

In summary, the use of force in any conflict should be guided by principles of proportionality, necessity, and respect for human life. It is crucial to seek ways to prevent harm to civilians and work toward lasting peace. 

I guess the Israeli's aren't talking to Bing/Co-Pilot.

Pokin' The Pig: Trumpin' Up A Bail Bond

On 24 February I made a post titled A Pig In A Poke.

In the post, I noted that donnie the dildo had some big number dollar obligations coming due.

And they were coming due imminently.

Since then, their imminent due-ness has come and gone.

And the court has let donnie dance, lie, feint, rant, rave, fart and moan, and, with each new donnie due date, have given him another ten days, allowed him to do business in New York, although the judgement forbids that activity for three years, and allowed hundreds of millions of dollars reduction in the required bond.

That is the bond required to let him appeal his fraud-found-guilty obligation to the State of New York.

donnie shouts witch "hunt and persecution".

If persecution comes with the accommodative treatment afforded donnie, I'll take persecution every day possible.

Most recently, after being allowed a multi-hundred million dollar reduction in the amount required for escrow or bond, to appeal his fraud conviction, at the last hour, he posted the skinnied-down bond of 175 million dollars.

It was posted by a California insurance company nobody ever heard of, owned by a billionaire that nobody has ever heard of.

Surprisingly, there are some irregularities with the transaction.

1. The insurance company doesn't have a license to issue bonds in New York.

2.The insurance company claims to have $138,000,000 in surplus capital; maybe it has that amount, maybe it doesn't; but, as always with donnie, the company's books have the smell and character of being, fast, loose, fictional and opaque, and the sort of thing donnie would have for his various ventures; so don't bet on it; however, to do a $175,000,000 bond New York requires $1.75 billion, so $138,000,000 is a moot amount.

3. Trump has put up the cash in his Schwab account as collateral with the insurance company to cover the possibility that his appeal might be denied, and the bail be forfeit.

4. The insurance company has no lien from donnie on the Schwab account.

5. In any event donnie has a two-day window to drain the account.

6. The document filed with New York County, dated 2 April 2024, says that the Schwab account has (has, not will have, or is expected to have) $175,000,000 in it "on 5 April 2024". Apparently the document fell out of a time machine.

7. In any event it is extremely likely that the Schwab account is already pledged elsewhere, like the real estate assets that the state may start foreclosing soon. 

In my 24 February post I said:

"I'm going to be interested to see who turns out to be the billionaire who is stupid enough to buy a pig in a poke.

I find it difficult to suppose that there will be one. 

Real billionaires, unlike 'brilliant bidnessmen' don't do stupid shit".

So I guess I have the answer to that implied question.

And, what a surprise: we got a trumped up billionaire doing a trumped up transaction so donnie can keep skating through his trumped up existence.

And being persecuted.

Paris Love Locks

 

Panorama De Seine

 

I have stared at this picture until I'm blind.

I still can't be sure ...

but I think I took this one in Florence.

Not in Paris.

The clue has been that, 

no matter how long I look at it, 

I can't make that bridge be anything but Ponte Vecchio.

Bobby Bare Sings "The Winner": Thoughts About Ukraine, Gaza And Sudan

 

Play The Winner

Boeing: Just When We Thought Things Were As Screwed Up As Possible

 

Another whistle blower has surfaced.

This one hasn't committed suicide yet, but the company is working on it.

He says that the company has been and continues to be so intent on "movin' em all down the line" that the functions involved in connecting the various pieces of the exotic carbon fiber material that forms the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner are constantly being hurried up and short cut.

The problem with that, the whistle blower says, is that Boeing's mandated inattention to detail will impact the longevity expectations of the plane's body,

In every day you-and-me speak that translates to "disintegration in flight is a distinct possibility".

(Editorial comment: Even if Boeing could wave a magic wand and, as you read this, bring the assembly operation into acceptable parameters, there would nonetheless be a large inventory of plastic disaster currently aloft.) 

So, the 737 Max 8 has a nasty proclivity of wanting to go into a fatal stall attitude, a proclivity that requires a complicated software workaround and pilots sufficiently steeped in paranoia to be constantly on the lookout for the dreaded nose up condition, so they can frantically deploy the fix and avoid the plane spiraling down into the ground.

(Editorial comment: the fact that pilots are now able to be imbued with watchful paranoia so that they can deploy the software override to nose-down over-correct, rather than the plane "just doing it" is a real improvement: two early Max 8s "just did it" - the pilots had no idea that the plane had such a facility, and couldn't stop it from "just doing it" - and several hundred people died as the nose-down correction drove them at high speed into the ground; after those little kerfuffles Boeing decided to reveal its secret software feature and train pilots on its care and feeding.) 

But, back to the 787: it may break into pieces at altitude.

And you never know when missing nuts and bolts, loose engine covers, or over-used deicers may try to kill everybody.

I guess that's why Boeing is mounting a new ad campaign: "Your Money Back if You Don't Come Back".

Trumping Up A Blood Bath

 This Trumpy Long Island Politician Plans to Deputize Armed Civilians

This Getty image was posted with accompanying story from The Daily Beast.

Since this picture and its heading tell the story, I am omitting its accompanying text which was written by Zoey Hussain.

I make my own observations, below.

The thing that the trump morons ignore, or, more likely have no knowledge of or ability to comprehend is that this sort of shit, and all the "civil war" and "put the army in the streets" and "race war" and "a pure theocracy" rants and raves are all merely foreplay.

Once it gets going, it will get going ardently; and there'll be no stopping, until it's over.

Kinda like forcible rape.

Et voila: the US becomes Darfur, Cambodia, France 1793, China Cultural Revolution and a plethora of others that I can't remember right now.

It's apparently inevitable, even for an experiment as successful as ours has been.

It's apparently necessary, in general, for the human animal: we need to cleanse the gene pool every now and then.

From Place de la Concorde (had a different name in 1793) to the Killing Fields, something wells up and requires humans to kill one another en masse.

Jefferson even made a lily-livered allusion to the phenomenon: "“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

The problem seems to be and has always been that that phenomenon always demands trumped-up tyrants and trumped-up patriots.

With the trump-it-up apparatus humming along at full force, apparently our turn has come.

Gaza Primer - Repost And Updated From Last Year

 I think my initial reaction in my first post on the subject of the Israeli siege of Gaza has held up fairly well.

As the situation has advanced, I have tried to fine tune what I think.

Here are links to that metamorphic fine tuning.

I guess it is for me rather than for anyone else.

Fish In A Barrel

Analogies Usually Limp

Je Retracte

When Do They Start Counting?

They Don't Count

Trucks Too Few

Coming Home To Roost

Another Snippet

Big Bomb Primer

Just So Sad

Another Snippet About The Israeli War Criminals

Yesterday I heard an interview on NPR of a recently returned to America Palestinian American doctor.

He recounted a number of horrors.

But paramount among them was this.

One of his patients was a fifteen-year-old Palestinian girl who had been extracted from the rubble of her family apartment after several days in the rubble, feces, urine and blood - the doctor's words, not mine.

The story was an archetypical - in this Israeli horror show - one: the girl and her family were awakened in the middle of the night by Israeli loudspeakers announcing imminent destruction.

The destruction commenced immediately.

The girl was the only survivor of her family.

After several days Israeli soldiers removed her from the rubble.

She was nearly dead and totally gangrenous.

The doctor said that she said to him "why were they laughing at me"?

So the Jews are getting back, not only for October 7, but also for Auschwitz, Treblinka and the rest.

That's OK, I guess; boys will be boys; but, please, BiBi, don't give me that holocaust bullshit; we haven't forgotten: six million of you were industrially eliminated; that is a horror not yet equaled in human history; but that doesn't give you and yours free reign to do mini holocausts on another of earth's people.

But I guess you will do anything to stay out of prison.

Sounds familiar.

This is so archetypically rich.

He even stiffs people over a big pile of zeros.  

I guess one needs to strike the zeros before they vanish (while they're hot) if you live only by a reptilian mind.   

If one  doubts the veracity of donnie's shrieks about the US being a failing country, all one needs to do is consider that he has enough followers to make him a threat to the rest of us - again, and finally.

That, for sure, is a failing country.

And we were once the greatest.

Country.

How classically sad. 

In my wildest imaginings I could not have written a dystopian novel about such a meaningless character having had the ability to do so much damage.  

But then, I have always trusted my fellow Americans to eliminate slime before it choked us.

Massive naivete runs in my family.

World Central Kitchen Was Targeted

This is the third time I have posted this in the last six months.

Each time it has had a different name, but the story remains the sorry same.

**************************************************

A long, long time ago I saw an Israeli woman interviewed by some significant American Media Source.

She was in her home.

That home, before 1948 had been the home of a Palestinian family.

There came a point where the interviewer asked the woman if she ever thought about something that would appear, on its face, to be a gross and unacceptable inequity: she was living in a beautiful Mediterranean home and the Palestinians to whom it had belonged pre-1948, were most likely in some refugee camp somewhere.

Or dead.

I have never forgotten her reply.

"Macht nichts; I've got mine".

A curtain to a slightly different view of the aftermath of the holocaust flashed open for me in that moment: the fact that much of the world, after Hitler shot himself in his bunker, had coalesced behind the Jewish people, enthusiastically and unconditionally, had, perhaps, unleashed a newer, slightly softer, form of genocide.

Leverage is everything, that new form believed.

And use it while you've got it.

Smart move.

Six million innocent human beings industrially exterminated is a horror that even today looms as number one in horror, human race to date.

There's a lot of leverage pent up in that horror.

But to see the survivors of that horror leveraging it into a shoulder-shrugged right to exterminate the Palestinians is a new form of that same old horror.

And I can't understand how the Jews can tolerate it.

Such as is my minimal influence, I won't tolerate it.

Moving beyond all of the rhetoric about how bad Hamas is - and I argue that not - one issue remains.

Starting in 1948 the Israelis have been pursuing a policy of the gradual elimination of the Palestinians.

And the policy is succeeding.

In the years since 1948, Israeli policy has inexorably reduced Palestinian living space.

The Israelis finally have most of the Palestinians crammed into a chunk of land bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt and Israel; the land measures twenty-five miles long by five miles wide; there are two million Palestinians in there; recently Israel ordered the half of that two million who live in the north to move to the south; then Israel started bombing the south.

But that's not all.

The Israelis have nudged a lot of Palestinians, over the years onto the left bank of the river Jordan.

That was ostensibly to give them some lebensraum; but really it was just a fish trap trick to get them concentrated somewhere so that the Israelis could move in violent thugs that they call "settlers" to illegally homestead, and in their spare time do raids to kill Palestinians.

The lady of the interview got her house because the Jews told the Palestinians who owned it to get out.

One wonders where those Palestinians went.

"Macht nichts". 

Since 2000, or so, the Israelis have had another policy, parallel to the policy of Palestinian removal and relocation: allow a terrorist group (Hamas) to be an offset to the PLA.

Why would they do that?

Of course, I don't know, but I could argue that that policy is to permanently stymie a two-state solution, which, being the only solution, is a policy that totally precludes any solution; so removal and relocation, and now, elimination reign supreme in the chambers of Israeli policy.

Having a weak de jura government and a strong de facto alternate government - in opposition - makes serious discussion about creating a viable Palestine a nonstarter.

And not starting is and has seemed to have been a primary objective of Israeli policy.

For 75 years.

But allowing Hamas to exist has finally yielded catastrophic results for the Israeli government.

So, in reaction to the catastrophe, that government is reducing the Gaza Strip to rubble in pursuit of the ostensive goal of eliminating the terrorists.

That is not the real goal.

The real goal is to eliminate huge swathes (perhaps all) of Palestinians.

"Macht nichts" says BiBi.

And if the world objects, BiBi shrieks "the world is antisemitic" (theme from Shindler's List commences).

Leverage is everything.

April Fool's Day Question

 Is it possible to invoke the Twenty Fifth Amendment against a presidential candidate?