What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Israel’s incoming defense minister once called for bombing Egypt, suggested just weeks ago that Israel kill Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip and opposed the prosecution of a soldier accused of killing a wounded Palestinian. These are just a few of the positions that could put former bar bouncer Avigdor Lieberman at odds with the military he now commands.
Israel’s new defense minister could clash with his soldiers
Yikes, what a prize (read: psycho) this one sounds like…
President Obama’s visit to Japan got off to a rocky start on Wednesday.
Japanese leader lashes out at Obama over ‘despicable’ murder case
hmmmm
Russia releases jailed Ukrainian servicewoman Nadiya Savchenko in a prisoner exchange also involving two Russian nationals convicted in Kiev last month.
Nadiya Savchenko: Russia frees Ukraine servicewoman – BBC News
hmmm
U.S. President Barack Obama sought on Wednesday to ease growing Asian worries about the raucous election campaign to succeed him which has been dominated by the incendiary rhetoric of mogul Donald Trump, now the Republican Party’s nominee.
Obama to Asians worried about U.S. election: It’s going to be OK | Reuters
hmmm
A Swedish court has turned down a request to overturn the arrest warrant of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Swedish Court Denies Detention Hearing Request by Assange – The New York Times
hmmm
Multiple investigations have been opened into the shooting, which took place last month.
WTF?
Honolulu will pay $80,000 to settle a lesbian couple’s lawsuit alleging a city police officer wrongfully arrested them after seeing them kissing in a grocery store while on vacation.
Honolulu settles with lesbian couple arrested after kissing – CBS News
doh!
Bernie Sanders just declared war on the Democratic establishment – The Washington Post
Shocker!
I mean he has such a long standing tradition of being a part of the Democratic Party afterall…
What a team player this guy is, am I right???
He’s looking for more. A lot more.
The Daily Trail: Sanders gets his first concession from the DNC – The Washington Post
What a putz, this guy.
While I’m on my royals kick…
And as a side note: Man alive, the mayor of London…. Somebody deserves a swift, hard punch in the jaw!!! So, so, freaking disrespectful! As an American that offends me. What a total fucking douche-bag ass-wipe. So if Obama is half some country he never lived in, what does being English make you, Mr. Mayor? A little French and half German? Asshole. Obama is a Kenyan and whatever-the-hell-his-mother’s-brand-of-European-ancestry-is AMERICAN. 100%. Douche-nozzle.
Haitian descendants stripped of citizenship in Dominican Republic fight deportation hoping to earn formal status.
Stateless in the Dominican Republic – Al Jazeera English
This is still going on. So sad!
Yeah, yeah, yeah… More of my royal watcher postings!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what makes these people any different than any non-royal? Well, frankly, nothing. Life is not an evenly just place. Some people get better dealt better and more lucrative hands than others. Which is not to say we shouldn’t strive for equality or raising people up; quite the opposite! It is just to say that is where we start. What each person does with his or her hand matters just as much as the luck of the draw.
To be clear, I have no nostalgia for actual (i.e non-figurehead/ceremonial) rulers being chosen by birth or – even worse – by violent military clashes between clans. I do think that having a visible monarchy in some parts of the world is a valuable legacy and window into our collective past though. It’s like an ever present history lesson or something…
If we can assume for the moment, that there is and should be a British monarchy, isn’t it nice that Diana’s sons are leading the monarchy into the future with such a keen eye for ways to improve conditions for those less fortunate than themselves? (Seriously, wouldn’t it be nice if ALL scions and heirs to great wealth and power acted that way!!!)
OK, all of my justify and posturing out of the way, Harry comes off as such a mensch here… Finding ways to serve the military that he is prevented from making his career in that very few others would have the ability or inclination to carry out….
Can you just imagine a world where people like Paris Hilton and Ivanka Trump shared the same sense of duty? Sigh…
Anyways…
Good on you, Prince Harry! What a wonderful way to continue your service to the military. Not to mention what a nice continuation of all the work your mum did…
Oh, and the actual mic drop video with the Queen is a hoot.
The Egyptian navy said on Friday it had found the personal belongings of passengers and other debris floating in the Mediterranean, confirmation that an EgyptAir jet had plunged into the sea with 66 people on board.
Egypt finds belongings, debris from plane crash at sea
Sigh….
Taiwan inaugurated its first female president Friday — who is also, as The Associated Press notes, “the first woman elected as head of state in Asia not related to a prominent male politician.”
Taiwan Inaugurates First Female President
Go, girl!
This picture of father holding his sick son has fiercely divided opinion on social media.
Is this picture disgusting or beautiful? – BBC News
Our society is so fucked up.
House votes against Confederate flags … and LGBT protections
The Daily 202: The culture wars, they are a changin’
sigh… Well, at least they didn’t affirm protection for that flag of a failed insurrection.
A year ago, Southern Republicans in Congress protected display of the Confederate flag. Yesterday’s fight ended on a very different note.
Congress’ fight over Confederate Flag takes an unexpected turn | MSNBC
hmmmm
A San Francisco police sergeant shot and killed a 27-year-old woman in a suspected stolen car Thursday. ….The Police Department’s current policy prohibits officers from firing at a moving vehicle except when an occupant is threatening the officer with “imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury,” and the officer has no way to retreat.
No sign of weapon on woman shot to death by SF police sergeant – SFGate
Of course there was no threat to the officers. And of course they decided to execute her for disrespecting them. It’s great the Chief resigned. Next step? Arrest, convict, and imprison the offending officers for Murder One.
Debris from the missing EgyptAir flight has been found floating in the Mediterranean, Greek and Egyptian officials say.
EgyptAir crash: Debris found from flight MS804 – BBC News
Awww, Jeezus…
The images of the families mourning is heartbreaking.
Who is awarded tenure in the competitive environment of contemporary colleges and universities is one of the more hotly contested issues in academe today.
Denied Tenure at Dartmouth, Aimee Bahng Feels Diversity Efforts Ring Hollow – Higher Education
sigh….
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The mob didn’t know at first what Roberto Bernal had done, but he was running and that was enough.
Mob burns Venezuelan man alive over $5 as rule of law fails
Jeezus…
…all this bluster only serves to demonstrate a lack of understanding of who the super delegates are and why the chance of them switching from Clinton to Sanders is less likely than Knicks president Phil Jackson abandoning the triangle offense.
…It was a failsafe strategy designed to ensure the nomination of electable candidates; to prevent a candidate precisely like like Bernie Sanders—an independent, socialist outsider who’s not part of the Democratic machine—from winning the nomination.
The real rub here is that Sanders himself knows all this. Yet he continues to fan the flames of anger and resentment, amping up his rhetoric of a “rigged system” where super delegates either don’t count and/or will magically propel him into the Oval Office despite there being absolutely no logical or historic basis for them to switch allegiance. It’s time that he share this reality with his supporters.
Who the Super Delegates Are and Why They Will Not Switch to Sanders
Yup.
#hubris #totalfuckingnader
