Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects US calls for Palestinian state after Gaza war – ABC News

US national security spokesman John Kirby said President Joe Biden would “not stop working” toward a two-state solution.

“We obviously see it differently,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu spoke just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have “genuine security” without a pathway toward Palestinian independence.

Earlier this week, the White House also said it was the “right time” for Israel to lower the intensity of its devastating military offensive in Gaza.

Source: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects US calls for Palestinian state after Gaza war – ABC News

A Federal Judge Has Gone to Great Lengths to Make Clear Trump Really Did Rape E. Jean Carroll – Mother Jones

District Judge Lewis Kaplan has said it multiple times: Donald Trump raped E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Kaplan wrote it in May 2023, when he presided over one of the trials against Trump. And he reminded jurors of the rape this week, during the latest proceedings in the multi-layered, winding rape and defamation cases brought against Trump by Carroll.  

Last spring, author and journalist Carroll sued Trump, testifying that he had raped her decades ago and had defamed her since by denying the accusations. Carroll won that suit. The jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and said he must pay $5 million—but they came short of saying he had raped her due to the legal scope of New York State’s penal code.  

In New York, someone can only be convicted of rape if they can prove vaginal penetration by a penis. In Carroll’s testimony, which mirrored what she had described privately for decades and publicly for the first time in 2019, she said Trump used both his fingers and his penis in the assault. But during the trial, the jury had only concluded that Trump had “deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm,” Kaplan’s decision from last year reads.   

That the jurors did not find that Carroll had proven rape, Kaplan explained, “does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’” “Indeed,” he continued, “as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.” 

Federally, rape is defined as “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” This broader explanation, while still dependent on penetration, would include assaults using fingers.  

Even though Carroll’s case has taken place in the national spotlight, it exists within the confines of civil law. The reason Donald Trump was not found to have raped E. Jean Carroll has less to do with the events detailed in her story, and more to do with the fine print of the state’s legal code. The minutiae of New York’s law allows the former president, his supporters, and sexual violence cynics alike to tout the case as proof that Trump is not a rapist (notwithstanding the tens of other accusations of sexual misconduct against him). Following Carroll’s initial testimony, Republican senators did just that. “The whole case is a joke,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said. “It makes me want to vote for him twice,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told HuffPost.

Had this case happened outside of New York, however, the verdict could have been different.  

Source: A Federal Judge Has Gone to Great Lengths to Make Clear Trump Really Did Rape E. Jean Carroll – Mother Jones

The Hypocrisy Of Wealth | Filosofa’s Word

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I am not a fan of great wealth or those who possess it.  Some may have earned their wealth honestly, others (the majority) were born into it or obtained it in ways that were less than honest.  Either way … I don’t understand how anyone can justify having a million dollars or more when that money could provide food for the hungry, build homes for the homeless.  If that line of thinking makes me a socialist, then so be it.  This week is the annual ‘World Economic Forum’ held in Davos, Switzerland, where the wealthiest people on the planet get together to … who knows what?  I’ve yet to find anything meaningful that ever came out of this ‘forum’ other than the excess carbon put into the atmosphere by all the private jets going to and from Davos.  This year’s theme is particularly hypocritical, and Robert Reich shares his thoughts on the topic …

Source: The Hypocrisy Of Wealth | Filosofa’s Word

Why Greg Abbott Wanted Vouchers So Badly: Jeff Yass Paid Him $6 Million! | Diane Ravitch’s blog

…Gov. Greg Abbott received a $6 million campaign contribution last month, which his campaign is calling the “largest single donation in Texas history.”

The check came from Jeff Yass, a national Republican megadonor whose priority issues include school vouchers. Abbott spent 2023 unsuccessfully pushing for a voucher program and is now targeting state House Republicans in the March primary who thwarted his agenda…

Source: Why Greg Abbott Wanted Vouchers So Badly: Jeff Yass Paid Him $6 Million! | Diane Ravitch’s blog