Tag: Politics
War Crimes in the News
DETROW: That’s what the press secretary says. The Pentagon has repeatedly said, the United States does not deliberately target civilians, and yet the president is talking about attacking a desalination plant. Would that be a war crime?
RONA: Absolutely, Scott, both under international law and U.S. law. We have a War Crimes Act that prohibits precisely this kind of thing. It would also be a violation of laws against terrorism. It’s prohibited to engage in attacks in armed conflict where the primary purpose is to spread terror among the civilian population. If you’re targeting a desalination plant, then that would be an act of terrorism.
DETROW: Help us understand a little bit more just ’cause I think you cannot overexplain this enough, right? Like, here’s an example. In the early days of the war, it seems like the United States accidentally bombed a girls school. What is the difference between something like that and deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure like a desalination plant?
RONA: So the difference is that even though one might have been mistaken and the other intentional, under U.S. law, both intentional and mistaken attacks that aren’t pursuant to due diligence can be war crimes.
No Kings Protest – March 28, 2026
In big cities and small towns across the world, protesters gathered for thousands of rallies against President Trump and his policies and actions, with the self-stated goal of fighting dictatorship.
…Chicagoans gathered at Grant Park, where Saira Bensett, 60, a retired zoological worker, described the turnout as cathartic.
“When I watch the news it’s often too much — the emotions I feel make me feel like I’m alone,” she said. “So I wanted to be here to feel like I’m not by myself.”
A Show of Defiance Across the Nation
It’s the third time that the coalition behind the “No Kings” movement has organized events to protest President Trump and his policies. In the United States, more than 3,000 demonstrations were planned.
Obama Discussing Current State of Affairs
Obama: They never miss a chance to scapegoat minorities and D.E.I. For every problem under the sun. You got a flat tire? D.E.I.. Wife mad at you? D.E.I..
No Kings Rally – Denver – October 18, 2025
Hundreds of Thousands Demonstrate – March for Palestine
In the Netherlands, an estimated 250,000 people, most dressed in red, gathered in Amsterdam to press the government to take tougher action against Israel.
Sunday’s protest and march through the Dutch capital comes less than four weeks before national elections. Two “Red Line” demonstrations in The Hague earlier this year also drew tens of thousands of people.
After packing the central Museum Square, the protesters walked through the city center, holding Palestinian flags and peace emblems. One placard read, “Ashamed of the government.”
Sunday’s demonstrations came a day after hundreds of thousands marched in Rome, Barcelona and Madrid in a show of growing international outrage at Israel’s two-year military campaign in Gaza. Smaller rallies took place in Paris, Lisbon, Athens and Skopje, North Macedonia, and in London and Manchester.
Hundreds of thousands march across Europe in support of Palestinians
New York City Bar Association on Unlawful Attacks on Venezuelan Vessels
This September, President Donald J. Trump ordered U. S. military strikes against three private Venezuelan-flagged vessels on the high seas, killing at least 17 individuals and severely damaging or sinking those vessels. A fourth attack, which killed at least four more people, was carried out on October 3. None of these attacks was authorized under U.S. law and, as explained below, each of them appears to be an unlawful summary execution prohibited by both U.S. and international law. Although the President has, without proof, characterized the victims as “terrorists” and drug traffickers, that claim, even if true, provides no justification for these unlawful executions. Even if, as recently reported, the President has communicated to Congress that he has “determined” that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, absent congressional authorization of these military actions, they remain unlawful…
Because the recent attacks on Venezuelan vessels and their crews were unauthorized by U.S. law and in violation of binding international law, they were illegal summary executions – murders. It is imperative that Congress act promptly, as pending legislation proposes, to make clear to the President and the nation that the President’s threat of similar attacks on Venezuelan vessels (and on Venezuela itself) are unlawful and must not be repeated. Only by doing so can Congress bring our nation into compliance with the Constitution and international law, reduce the risk of hostilities with neighboring countries and assure that similar abuses of Presidential power do not expand to American shores.
https://www.nycbar.org/press-releases/unlawful-attacks-on-venezuelan-vessels/
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Member of Antifa
Colorado Govenor Chats with Reddit Users
brosef321
What are you going to do about the dictator in the White House who is actively rigging future elections and imposing martial law in blue areas?
jaredpolis
Verified – Governor of Colorado
We are in 29 active lawsuits against Trump right now.
Bella_Climbs
Are you planning to do anything at the state level to make the covid vaccine more accessible after the CDC’s recent and unpopular change?
jaredpolis
Verified – Governor of Colorado
YES, and I think it will be fixed early this coming week
Haroldhowardsmullett
What(if anything) can you do to safeguard our public lands against future attempts to sell/develop them?
Mike Lee’s recent horrible proposal was stopped for now, but that’s just a single battle in a war that’s definitely not over. There will be future attempts to do the same thing.
jaredpolis
Verified – Governor of Colorado
I am so grateful and glad the effort to sell off public lands was defeated (for now! we must stay vigilant.) I will continue to lobby against selling off our public lands.
OtterlyDeplorable
What are your thoughts on ManBearPig? What is your administration doing about him?
jaredpolis
Verified – Governor of Colorado
We are continuing our work to make Colorado 100% powered with renewable energy by 2040 and 80% by 2030.
TheyCallMe_OrangeJ0e
Manbearpig was South Park’s allegory for climate change.
https://www.reddit.com/r/boulder/comments/1n4b3m1/im_jared_polis_governor_of_colorado_former_member/
The Absence of Due Process, George Takei on
No, you did not give those of us who happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor any due process. And that was profoundly wrong. It destroyed our lives.
— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Starvation in Gaza
The World Health Organization said Sunday there have been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children under the age of 5 — up from 11 deaths total the previous six months of the year.
Gaza’s Health Ministry puts the number even higher, reporting 82 deaths this month of malnutrition-related causes: 24 children and 58 adults. It said Monday that 14 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, is headed by medical professionals and is seen by the U.N. as the most reliable source of data on casualties. U.N. agencies also often confirm numbers through other partners on the ground.
The Patient’s Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza, says this month it saw for the first time malnutrition deaths in children who had no preexisting conditions. Some adults who died suffered from such illnesses as diabetes or had heart or kidney ailments made worse by starvation, according to Gaza medical officials.
The WHO also says acute malnutrition in northern Gaza tripled this month, reaching nearly one in five children under 5 years old, and has doubled in central and southern Gaza. The U.N. says Gaza’s only four specialized treatment centers for malnutrition are “overwhelmed.”
PBS News
Israel’s leader claims no one in Gaza is starving. Data and witnesses disagree
World Jul 28, 2025 5:17 PM EDT
SUMMERS: So tell us, if you can, what are families, people there in Gaza, able to eat now?
TANIS: Fundamentally, food is not available for the more than 2 million Palestinians there. There’s a very small supply of local vegetables, like some eggplant, zucchini, rarely maybe onion or garlic. Now, before things got so bad, people could at least eat bread. Now, flour is very expensive, and there’s not enough of it. So even if you have money, you can’t buy food.
And it’s not just food, though, because there’s a serious shortage of fuel and water for cooking and drinking. And the IPC report said today that nearly 9 out of 10 families in Gaza have to resort to extreme coping measures. I asked Beckie Ryan with the aid group CARE – she’s in Gaza right now – to tell us what she’s hearing from mothers who come to their clinic.
BECKIE RYAN: Some of the coping mechanisms they’ve had to resort to is choosing which child, you know, will be fed that day. You know, are they going to buy supplies for the baby, or are they going to buy something that the 5-year-old can eat?
TANIS: Aid workers also told me they’re seeing children rummaging through garbage daily, but not finding any food.
NPR
Famine is unfolding in Gaza, an alert from UN-backed food security experts confirms
No Kings Protest – June 14, 2025 – Denver
Handling Autocracy LA Style
A terrifying escalation:
— Jon Cryer (@mrjoncryer.bsky.social) June 11, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Bruce Springsteen – Telling it Like it Is
In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.
Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!
There’s some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.
In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.
In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.
They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society.
They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands.
They are removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.
https://brucespringsteen.net/news/2025/land-of-hope-and-dreams/
Define Concentration Camp…
Historians: Quibbling Over Exact Definition Of Concentration Camp Sign Of Healthy Society
theonion.com/histori…— The Onion (@theonion.com) April 19, 2025 at 1:00 PM
See also:
So, apart from those legal fights, the fact remains that the U.S. has sent hundreds of people to the notorious mega-prison in El Salvador known as CECOT.