The Standard

Open mike 21/12/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, December 21st, 2024 - 24 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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24 comments on “Open mike 21/12/2024 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    21 December 2024 at 7:35 am

    Always on the side of the oppressed and against the oppressor

    The always good Democracy Now,

    From the Palestinians, to the Syrians, to the Ukrainians, through all these conflicts 'Democracy Now' has always charted a clear path and asked the right questions and sided with the people, and exposed the tyrants that attacked and murdered them.

    Other Honourable mentions; Joe 90, mickysavage.



    • tc 1.1
      21 December 2024 at 9:22 am

      A necessary watch at least once a week here…amy goodman has a very depressing job fronting it.

      Once a weeks enough for us as we check on the evolving situation with a well backed IDF and butcher ben's latest moves.

  2. tWig 2
    21 December 2024 at 8:26 am

    First dog on the moon cartoon – Santa list.

    "You know Shardonnae only a mass popular movement of the working class and their well-meaning allies from social media will be able to put an end to the dictatorship of capital"

    Santa hits the spot – keyboard warriors of the world unite!

  3. Subliminal 3
    21 December 2024 at 8:34 am

    Haaretz, in a recent article confirms that which has been long known.

    The IDF uses helicopters to fire missiles at groups of civilians, including children.

    A Division 99 reservist describes watching a drone feed showing "an adult with two children crossing the forbidden line." They were walking unarmed, seemingly searching for something. "We had them under complete surveillance with the drone and weapons aimed at them – they couldn't do anything," he says. "Suddenly we heard a massive explosion. A combat helicopter had fired a missile at them. Who thinks it's legitimate to fire a missile at children? And with a helicopter? This is pure evil."

    White flags are meaningless even when it is suggested that the bearers of such may be returning hostages. A person becoming a hostage reduces them to the status of a Palestinian.

    A drone revealed they were carrying a white flag and walking with raised hands. The deputy battalion commander ordered troops to shoot to kill. When one commander protested, pointing out the white flag and suggesting they might be hostages, he was overruled. "I don't know what a white flag is, shoot to kill," the deputy commander, a reservist from Brigade 5, insisted.

    There are also reports of obvious civilians being cut down by machine gun fire from tanks.

    Another fighter describes witnessing four unarmed people walking normally, spotted by a surveillance drone. Despite clearly not appearing as militants, a tank advanced and opened fire with its machine gun. "Hundreds of bullets," he recalls. Three died immediately ("the sight haunts me," he says), while the fourth survived and raised his hands in surrender.

    "We put him in a cage set up near our position, stripped off his clothes, and left him there," the soldier recounts. "Soldiers passing by spat on him. It was disgusting. Finally, a military interrogator came, questioned him briefly while holding a gun to his head, then ordered his release." The man had simply been trying to reach his uncles in northern Gaza. "Later, officers praised us for killing 'terrorists.' I couldn't understand what they meant," the fighter says.

    Time and time again commanders express the sentiment that there are no civilians, only terrorists. All deserve death. And of course, the follow on from this is that all deaths are then reported as militants deaths. It is this that finally demonstrates what has been repeated many times. These attitudes are entrenched at the highest level. Deaths are documented, examined, and knowingly, falsely portrayed at the highest level.

    An officer in Division 252's command recalls when the IDF spokesperson announced their forces had killed over 200 militants. "Standard procedure requires photographing bodies and collecting details when possible, then sending evidence to intelligence to verify militant status or at least confirm they were killed by the IDF," he explains. "Of those 200 casualties, only ten were confirmed as known Hamas operatives. Yet no one questioned the public announcement about killing hundreds of militants."

    https://archive.ph/FbviA

    • Jenny 3.1
      21 December 2024 at 9:48 am

      3 million Vietnamese died in the US war on Vietnam

      63 thousand US soldiers died fighting in Vietnam.

      Almost 3 times that number took their own lives on returning.

      Committing war crimes takes its toll of the perpetrators as well as the victims.

      40 thousand Palestinians have died in the Israel war on Gaza so far.

      How many former IDF will end up killing themselves?

      https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241022-israeli-soldiers-commit-suicide-after-seeing-horrors-the-world-can-never-truly-comprehend/

      Israeli soldiers commit suicide after seeing horrors the world can never truly comprehend

      October 22, 2024 at 3:13 pm

      …..

      Israeli soldiers returning from Gaza are reporting severe psychological trauma, with some taking their own lives after witnessing what they describe as horrors that the outside world can never truly comprehend. Their harrowing accounts offer a glimpse into the brutal reality of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and the mental toll that the violence being perpetrated against Palestinians is having on occupation soldiers serving on the front lines.

      In testimonies to CNN, occupation soldiers returning from Gaza revealed the horror of Israel’s operations. They testified that troops had to “run over” dead or living Palestinians “in the hundreds.” They reporting being unable to eat meat following deployment, saying that the sight of it triggers memories of the gruesome scenes witnessed in Gaza. “When you see a lot of meat outside, and blood… both ours and theirs, then it really affects you when you eat,” one soldier told CNN….

  4. Jenny 4
    21 December 2024 at 8:44 am

    Squillionaires

    Definition:

    Individuals whose personal wealth is measured in the Hundreds of $Billions, who are spending $billions to flee the planet after trashing it.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/12/21/want-better-public-services-ban-billionaires-tax-the-rich-and-legalise-cannabis-2/

    • tc 4.1
      21 December 2024 at 9:26 am

      Sanders did a great piece where he called out the western 'oligarchs' and their influences.

      Musk just gave another example of it by trashing the agreed bipartisan bill to avoid a US govt shutdown.

      • Jenny 4.1.1
        21 December 2024 at 11:24 am

        Definitions from Oxford Languages

        squillionaire

        noun

        plural noun: squillionaires

        an extremely rich person

        Use over time for: squillionaires

    • joe90 4.2
      21 December 2024 at 11:27 am

      And now they're helping themselves.

      President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t even taken office and congressional Republicans are already taking cues from Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and the pair’s new playground, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

      GOP lawmakers immediately lined up against the original short-term government funding bill released this week after Musk voiced his opposition. On top of that, a group of extremist Republicans, led by Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Andy Harris, are fighting to ensure that the fresh round of tax cuts Republicans have planned for Musk when Trump’s 2017 tax law expires are paid for with $2.5 trillion in spending cuts on programs Americans rely on chosen by — you guessed it — Musk.

      Republicans have made their plan for the new year crystal clear: ram through massive tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy and corporations, and pay for them by shaking down programs and agencies that working families rely on. And they’re putting unelected and unaccountable oligarchs — Musk and Ramaswamy — in charge of deciding how much pain Americans will have to tolerate so that the rich can get richer.

      https://archive.li/6pnvl (rollingstone)

  5. SPC 5
    21 December 2024 at 10:35 am

    An unsafe place to provide and receive medial treatment.

    A more immediate threat than a possible earthquake to a below regulation standard building.

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/21/staff-say-nelson-hospital-conditions-are-unbearable/

  6. SPC 6
    21 December 2024 at 10:39 am

    Has anyone considered allowing councils to choose different levels of mandatory fluoridation?

    1.retain 0.7

    2.reduce to 0.5

    3.introduce at 0.375 or 0.5

    https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/18/whangarei-district-council-threatens-injunction-over-fluoridation/

  7. Jenny 7
    21 December 2024 at 11:18 am

    Head of Israeli Amnesty International resigns.

    https://forward.com/opinion/681370/why-i-resigned-as-chairman-of-amnesty-israel/?

    Why I resigned as chairman of Amnesty Israel

    By Daniil Brodsky December 10, 2024

    ……I could not sign off on a critique of Amnesty International’s report that pretends to be an expert minority opinion, but is instead little more than the expression of an Israeli-Jewish worldview, to the exclusion of Palestinian voices.

    Let’s start with the Amnesty International report itself. It was written by a diverse set of legal experts, and was revised multiple times to adhere to stricter standards of proof. It is far from the first report prepared by legal experts to reach the conclusion that genocide occurred, but it is by far the most in-depth legal analysis on the issue. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the report’s conclusions, the critique of it ought to be the kind that is commanded by serious scholarship.

  9. joe90 9
    21 December 2024 at 11:43 am

    A ghastly gangster state led by a bored sociopath.

    https://xcancel.com/k_sonin/status/1869784014074347545

  10. Stephen D 10
    21 December 2024 at 12:11 pm

    Replying to Muttonbird at 9.1.

    Ike warned us.

    ”In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”