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From Jewish school days in Tehran, to a wish and a prayer from Hiroshima

https://johnmenadue.com/from-jewish-school-days-in-tehran-to-a-wish-and-a-praye…
Created
Sun, 28/01/2024 - 04:50
A few weeks ago walking past the Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome, I came upon a candle-light ceremony for the Israel/Gaza war. A young couple — she Jewish and he Muslim — were chanting prayers in Hebrew and Arabic, holding hands and weeping openly. Seeing the depth of pain ‘leaders’ in our region have caused these young Continue reading »

What A Mess

https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/27/what-a-mess/
Created
Sun, 28/01/2024 - 02:30
Who’s a civilian? The Atlantic: The International Court of Justice in The Hague today made an initial ruling, four weeks after an application from South Africa that accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The court ordered Israel to ensure that its military does not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians, to immediately improve humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and to prevent and punish genocidal incitement against Palestinians. However, the court stopped short of ordering Israel to end its military operations against Hamas, a nod to Israel’s right to respond in self-defense after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. South Africa had hoped the court would order such a cessation, in effect ruling in favor of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The court did also call for the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Given the dreadful toll of civilian deaths in Gaza, reportedly now topping 25,000, Israel should answer questions about its conduct. Every member of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention has an obligation to raise concerns if they have evidence that a group of people is at risk of genocide.

Another Day Older And $83.3 Million In Debt

https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/27/another-day-older-and-83-3-million-in-debt/
Created
Sun, 28/01/2024 - 01:00
What do Democrats offer instead? Donald “91 Counts” Trump will appeal the judgment, of course. It’s what he does as surely as “grab them.” He’ll appeal the $83.3 million judgment a Manhattan jury on Friday awarded E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case (The Guardian): Carroll will receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m in punitive retribution. The former president is paying Carroll compensatory damages of $18.3m – $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign. The $7.3m is for the emotional harm caused by Trump’s 2019 public statements. Carroll and her legal team were beaming as they left court in a black SUV. They did not answer questions immediately after court let out. Moments after the decision was announced, Trump decried it as “absolutely ridiculous” on Truth Social, and said he would be filing an appeal. Naturally. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she’d never seen someone as contemptuous of the U.S. justice system as Trump.

Econometric modeling and inference

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/econometric-modeling-and-inference/
Created
Sat, 27/01/2024 - 21:40
The impossibility of proper specification is true generally in regression analyses across the social sciences, whether we are looking at the factors affecting occupational status, voting behavior, etc. The problem is that as implied by the three conditions for regression analyses to yield accurate, unbiased estimates, you need to investigate a phenomenon that has underlying […]

Another Comer Misfire

https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/26/another-comer-misfire/
Created
Sat, 27/01/2024 - 10:00
He just can’t do anything right James Comer is an idiot: The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released the transcript of the testimony of Kevin Morris, a friend of and attorney for Hunter Biden, and his statements undercut everything Republicans have said about the embattled first son. Morris is a high-powered entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles who met Hunter at a 2019 presidential fundraiser for his father, Joe Biden. Morris has loaned Hunter nearly $5 million in the years since. He testified about his relationship with Hunter in a closed-door committee hearing last week. Initially, Oversight Chair James Comer just released a list of paraphrased highlights from Morris’s testimony. Comer claimed that Morris informally loaned Hunter the money and does not expect to be repaid until after the 2024 election—or possibly ever. But the transcript shows this couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, Morris never once mentioned the possibility of forgiving the loans.

Trump’s Social Media Bubble

https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/26/trumps-social-media-bubble/
Created
Sat, 27/01/2024 - 08:30
It tells you a lot about the cult and why they love him Philip Bump reads Trump’s social media so you don’t have to. And his analysis of what it tells us is right on: Truth Social is a weird place. The social media site started by Donald Trump (or, really, by tech-savvy people working for him) is not formally oriented around Trump, but it is in practice. It is largely populated by Trump fans and allies who use the site to orbit Trump like asteroids circling the sun. Trump uses it differently, injecting rhetoric and framing into the national conversation. Nearly every one of his posts triggers the same response from the site’s users: a flurry of pro-Trump, anti-Biden memes tacked on to Trump’s missive. It’s feudalistic; when the king emerges from the castle, the serfs compete to offer him their wares in the hopes that — glory be! — he might lackadaisically bless them with a reshare. All of that, the context for the site, offers insight into how Trump approaches power. But one post in particular, offered up by Trump on Wednesday evening, was even more revealing.