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https://twitter.com/natopress/status/1792508173535883362?s=46&t=xfzQeJbXuKB_...

This is getting stupid.

Israel needs to immediately make clear that any country attempting to carry out these illegal warrants will be treated as if they attempted a kidnapping and hostage-taking of an Israeli official. And start sending Netanyahu around the world with a security force that can repel such an attempt.

Receiving countries can deny visas. Foreign citizens don't have a right to travel to other countries.

Such an action by the ICC I think would make Netanyahu persona non grata in most of Europe. They won't arrest him but that means to not having to arrest him and being exposed as hypocrites (a bunch of African states right now are salivating at the notion of European states being forced by law to arrest a foreign leader and choose not to), they just won't let him fly or travel there. The U.S. won't do anything to Netanyahu, but that's quite the long plane trip from Tel Aviv to New York and Netanyahu and his ministers would be even more effectively isolated internationally.

If Netanyahu flies to the U.S. and he is under ICC criminal charges and we choose to do nothing, then the U.S. can never say anything "ICC" again in any circumstance and have it be worth ten cents.

The official US position is that we have no obligations to the ICC and are further under no obligations to see the treaty's success. That's been more-or-less the American position since 2002. Hell, in 2021 Blinken made a statement about the State Department's "longstanding objection to the Court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-States Parties such as the United States and Israel." So I doubt anyone would consider US statements on the ICC regarding Israelis to be relevant anyway.

The ICC can go piss up a rope.  Israel should immediately make clear that any attempt to enforce this will be treated as a declaration of war.  Hopefully, the rest of the world does the right thing and uses the warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu as toilet paper.

Probably wouldn't be a good idea for Israel to declare war on a NATO state creating an even bigger international crisis, most of alliance being Rome Statute signatories.

Bold of you to assume any of NATO country except Turkey would ever be dumb enough to try and enforce this.  And it’s not like Netanyahu or Gallant have any compelling reason to go to Turkey, so Turkey won’t get a chance to attempt to do so.

“The ICC is just bullying Israel! Why do they indict Hamas too!?!”
*ICC also indicts Hamas*
“Reeeeeeeeee”

The ICC also indicting three Hamas leaders means simply that.  Obviously, I have no issue with issuing arrest warrants for Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Deif, but that doesn’t mean the warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu aren’t nonsense that should be tossed in the garbage bin.

Also, pro-tip: Your attempts at drive by gotcha posts will work better if they’re based on something other than imaginary straw men.  

[Evidence that Cohen stole from Trump Org. a "bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case"]

Evidence that Cohen stole from Trump Org. a "bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case"

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a "bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecution's case."

During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.

CNN's Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen’s testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to “take the sting out” when it had a chance during direct examination.

“We’re talking about 420,000 – it’s not 15 bucks,” Coates said.

...

Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-hush-money-trial-05-20-24/index.html


I don't know how true or significant this is. Maybe something that can be clarified in redirect?

[Aye]

Aye

Perhaps an even more telling- even saddening - demonstration of how popular butker's views are. His T-shirt is now the highest selling one in the NFL store.

I think part of that is that sports in general is turning into a clique for reactionary bearded men. Even real sports like football seem to be turning into MMA or NASCAR in terms of the type of fandom it attracts.

It doesn't help that football is horribly boring to watch now because of the penalties and commercial breaks. You'd have to be pretty weird to enjoy watching two hours of commercial breaks and another hour of watching people stand around waiting for the official review of every other play.


I also forgot to mention it's extremely expensive. You'd have to be a total asshole to waste money going to a game in person at this point, and you have to have cable or premium streaming services to watch everything. It's a mess.

Basketball is much more interesting to watch. At this point, with all the penalties and commercials you mentioned, even soccer too. Perhaps football is finally on the decline. A decent number of millennial parents won't let their kids play because of CTE risks, I'm guessing that number will only grow the more we learn.

Basketball’s biggest issue is the vast majority of games are only accessible if you have cable subscription. Also the regular season is way too long and irrelevant since a 10th seeded team has a chance to make the playoffs now thanks to the play in .

FF.

Somewhat-related: Tom Daschle's loss sucked and in hindsight he and maybe the country would've been better off if he'd ran for president or was Kerry's veep instead of the philandering ambulance chaser.

Tom Daschle served his state well for almost twenty years in the Senate.

Everything I know about the Kansas City Chiefs I know 1. against my will, 2. via Taylor Swift, or 3. both. Seems like a nasty bunch of people.

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but why exactly would Azerbaijan get involved in Pacific politics?

Because it's mad at France for supporting Armenia.

Tit-for-tat, so it's called.

Crucial detail from the article:

The Burlington Democrat called it a “winnable race,” saying that polling showed him getting within 10 percentage points of Scott. But to prevail, he said, he would have to wage a “scorched earth” campaign with negative attack ads. He said that such a race would be bad for the state and not the Vermont way.

Despite the positive spin, this reads as if Dean's polling just wasn't solid enough to justify a roll of the dice on returning to electoral politics in his mid-seventies.

I am grateful to have been spared a really nasty campaign, but I also worry that this is a sign that Democrats will just give up on getting more serious about reigning in the state budget. Why bother when they can let Scott do the dirty work and throw a fit that he's not signing off on every new spending bill that the legislature passes? Dean's attraction wasn't just his name recognition, fundraising heft, and experience, it's that he's a fiscal moderate in an increasingly profligate party.

Perhaps an even more telling- even saddening - demonstration of how popular butker's views are. His T-shirt is now the highest selling one in the NFL store.

I think part of that is that sports in general is turning into a clique for reactionary bearded men. Even real sports like football seem to be turning into MMA or NASCAR in terms of the type of fandom it attracts.

It doesn't help that football is horribly boring to watch now because of the penalties and commercial breaks. You'd have to be pretty weird to enjoy watching two hours of commercial breaks and another hour of watching people stand around waiting for the official review of every other play.


I also forgot to mention it's extremely expensive. You'd have to be a total asshole to waste money going to a game in person at this point, and you have to have cable or premium streaming services to watch everything. It's a mess.

This is false lol . The NFL just recorded its 2nd highest average ratings ever last season so it’s just as popular as it ever was . The fact is conservatives, liberals have both attacked the nfl constantly but in reality it has done nothing to dent the NFL’s popularity .

Also it’s false to say you need cable to watch the NFL as at least 90% of NFL games are broadcast on CBS NBC or Fox all of which you only need an antenna to watch .

https://fortune.com/2024/01/10/nfl-ratings-tv-second-highest-ever-football/