Donald Trump is reportedly advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would be a violation of the Logan Act.
He may not be in office, but Donald Trump has been speaking with the powers that be about Israel’s war on Gaza—but it’s not in an effort to end the genocide.
Instead, Trump has allegedly been talking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert a cease-fire deal, fearing that doing so could help Vice President Kamala Harris win in November, according to PBS.
“The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign,” said PBS’s Judy Woodruff Monday night. “So, I don’t know where—who knows whether that will come about or not, but I have to think that the Harris campaign would like for President Biden to do what presidents do, and that’s to work on that one.”
I don't, I know what it was like to be an optimistic young adult. I understand the allure of holding strong to an ethical code while others' compromises seem to make the progress all too slow.
The truth is that this shit takes time and requires a lot of pressure - and that's a fucking bitter pill to swallow.
Some of them no doubt, a lot of them are younger voters that are just sick of their country never having been sliding down into more and more blatant evil for their entire lives.
Yes, but I'm more tired of realizing he will never be in prison. There's not a judge in the country that seems willing to do more than make him fork over a little of his pocket lint. And if it's ever more than that, it's still going to be an ankle bracelet and a 1% lifestyle.
One justice system for the rich and powerful, another for the rest of us.
Assuming the election goes in a positive direction, this might be the feds just letting him make his own bed… and hopefully, they throw the book at him afterwards. It’s of course a moot point if he wins, for a lot of reasons.
Edit: fwiw I don’t disagree with the pessimism. Justice delayed is justice denied.
what book? The supreme court just ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for anything that can be considered “official acts.” So nixon wouldn’t have to worry if he were president now.
I think the last Republican presidential candidate to sabotage peace talks to help his own campaign was Richard Nixon in the Vietnam War, so Trump is just continuing their tradition of killing innocents for personal gain.
Throwback to Reagan’s team intentionally sabotaging negotiations for the Iran hostage crisis, so it would make Jimmy Carter look bad right before the election.
Not sure why you would expect them to be going nuts on this. This is just one more in a long line of terrible things Trump supports, but he is not going to change stance on this for a bunch of people not in his party complaining online.
Genocide Joe has run its course, in my opinion. Biden is no longer the nominee, and despite all the hand wringing about foreign shills by people who see Russian manipulation in their own shadows, polls seem to indicate this was an overwhelmingly positive move for the Democrats. Harris is not my ideal candidate, but the Genocide Joe moniker was part of a campaign during primary season and leading up to the nomination to not have Biden as the nominee, and it accomplished this.
This is just some weak what aboutism from sore losers. No shit Trump has worse stances on this issue than Biden, but I can't vote in primaries other than my registered party in my state, and the GOP was never going to replace him as nominee over this issue anyway.
Genocide Joe crowd knows Biden was a better choice than Trump. They know Kamala is a better choice than Trump. In every metric there is.
Having said that just because they r the better choice doesnt give them free reign in colluding with genocidal foreign countries who are directly and indirectly trying to influence the election. Just because they r not our enemy doesnt mean they r allowed any and every infraction they wish to do.
They just want to be heard that they don't support Israel ignoring the genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza and the US's role in it.
You don't seem to understand the frustration they r feeling having this binary choice. If push comes to shove n they vote they will vote Kamala.
Their continued silence in the ha6ve of Trump's alleged interference is proof that they don't give two shits about Palestine or genocide. They're just pushing an agenda.
Buddy, I understand the frustration. We are all feeling that frustration. It's just that most of us understand the reality of the situation.
I like to think that people like you are either concern trolls, or naive first time voters. Because anything else is fucking depressing.
This genocide has been going on for literal decades, but suddenly "progressives" such as yourself care enough to possibly spoil the most important election in history, and hand the reins to someone who will literally be 1000x worse for Palestine. What a convenient time to grow a conscience (and/or bother doing a modicum of research into one of the longest, ongoing conflicts in modern history).
If you actually give a shit about these people, you will vote for Harris. Otherwise, you're just talk, and your actions (or inaction if you refuse to vote) will be directly responsible for what happens next if Trump wins. You will be explicitly complicit in Israel's inevitable ramping up of the genocide, and the blood of the millions of Palestinians that will die because of it will be on your hands.
The "genocide Joe" crowd are, for the most part, well aware that Trump is just as bad for Gaza as Joe is. They're not arguing for supporting Trump, they're arguing that both choices are bad.
This is not a rational position, obviously, because if you care about protecting Palestine you're still better off supporting the Dems to avoid the worse option of Trump, but for a lot of people it's hard to stomach the idea of voting for a murderer, no matter what the justification is. The not entirely unreasonable argument is that voting for the Dems to avoid the worse option basically encourages the Dems to be more shitty because they know they can always throw the threat of the GOP in everyone's faces when they're called out. I don't agree with this argument, but I see how it's compelling to people.
They're not Trump supporters - at least, not intentionally - they're just sick of the whole dicochtomy of being asked to choose between bad and worse. I can understand their frustration, even if I don't agree with the choice they're making.
Trump is not "as bad" as Biden. Trump is significantly worse. Trump has said he wants to ramp things up, and for Israel to "finish the job." There is no "as bad" here. There won't be any Gazans left under Trump most likely. There certainly won't be a Gaza separate from Israel at least.
Except the ones which are saying it simply to encourage people to stop voting. They do that to dem voters only though suspiciously
There is no comparison between the two. Trump is unimaginably worse. The only thing anyone has against Biden is his son (which isn't anything to do with him) and Israel, which Biden is likely trying to get a ceasefire in the background
I'm sitting here in Australia as he's telling you guys exactly how he is going to fuck you over.. He's dropping hints constantly that he won't leave power and introduce laws to extend his term if he wins
He's definitely going to pardon more criminals. It's scary to think of how much damage he'll do on a second term internationally, as he's done plenty the first time.
If Trump ends his term knowing he's going to jail, don't be surprised if he leaks all the classified information to everyone to make it seem like he's fighting for freedom and try to get more power
What does this even mean? Leftists want an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The only way that happens is if the US stops funding their genocide campaign. If Biden (or Harris/Trump as the next president) had any interest, they could just do that. They won't, but they could.
If you think leftists want Trump to sabotage the minute possibility that Biden will finally do the right thing, then you fundamentally misunderstand the situation.
It means that those that were referring to Joe Biden as "Genocide Joe" because of his continued support to Israel, haven't said peep about Trump actively sabotaging a peace deal for his own personal and political gain. Like it was all in bad faith or something.
Hey, lookit that, I'm learning how to summon them!
Who defended Biden? I pointed out how y'all seem exceedingly quiet on the matter, and what's your response? "Buh-buh-buh-Biden buh-buh-buh-bad!" I'll give ya one thing, you're as predictable as a Swiss watch.
They didn't jail Nixon or that shitbag kissenger for the same shit, doubt anything will be done about this. Hell, both of those asshats got to live out their years rubbing elbows and "advising" the political elite of both parties.
If only we had, like, books or documents with laws written down in them, so we could know for certain when legal lines are crossed. That way headlines could just say "Trump broke the law", instead of "Trump may have broken the law. We're not sure, but yeah probably. We think. Maybe? Who knows?"
The trouble with prosecuting Trump under the Logan Act is that, technically, the ceasefire would not be an agreement between the US and a foreign government. It would be an agreement between Israel and Hamas. Here's the text of the act:
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Now, I would argue that brokering a ceasefire counts as "measures of the United States," but it's not a slam dunk legal argument. Trump put a fuckton of sympathetic activist judges on the bench, including three Supreme Court Justices, so I don't have any faith that he will be held accountable.
Trump put a fuckton of sympathetic activist judges on the bench, including three Supreme Court Justices, so I don’t have any faith that he will be held accountable.
While judicial corruption is a real risk, this sort of assumed helplessness just lets them implement it without actually doing the corruption and putting their credibility on the line. And it could be applied to literally anything. Once you assume the Court will always act corruptly, it doesn't matter whether a legal question exists, they'll do it anyway.
He probably won't be held accountable, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be initiating court cases for every violation of the law. They can die in the Supreme Court and be added to the list of reasons for why extreme reforms are necessary.
My first thought is that the US is trying to broker a cease fire, so that should definitely count as a measure of the US.
The founding fathers weren't unaware of international affairs and that countries do things that are not in relation to their own country. So that last clause seems to specifically address those other things.
It's only libel if it's not true. If he threatens to sue, grow some balls, call his bluff and make him prove it's not true in court.
Threatening to sue, effectively forcing the media to back down because it would too inconvenient to deal with a suit is how Trump keeps getting away with his bullshit.
They really can't say "has" because it's possible he wins the case in court. It should be something like "seems to have" though. "May have" means there'd a chance. It should be something that means "it is likely."
The presumption of innocence doesn’t work that way. It’s a legal fiction imposed upon the courts and justice system as a means of (poorly) protecting the civil rights and liberties of those who are accused.
On that, it’s a very important “fiction”- don’t get me wrong.
What it does not do, however, is change historical reality. If Jackass murders a homeless woman, Jackass is a murderer- even if that woman’s murder was never properly investigated, and he was never suspected/indicted/arraigned/convicted for murder.
One’s guilt at having committed a crime does not, in fact, change based on the outcome of a trial. After all the officers of the court, and the jury, are all human and prone to errors. They get it wrong. Sometimes that means guilty people go free, and sometimes that means innocent people are convicted.
But the truth of that guilt is established when one commits a crime.
So I’ll say it: Trump is a mass murderer.
As president, he had a legal, moral and ethical obligation to act to protect Americans from harm during moments of crisis
This includes from things like COVID. He had a moral, ethical, and legal obligation to voice sound medical guidance like “hey folks, I know it’s tough and it looks a little silly, but we need you to stay home if you can, and if you can’t, wear a mask. A real mask.”
He failed us in that moment of crisis and as a direct consequence of his rampant bullshit; millions of Americans needlessly died.
He's still running around and the media is still treating him like some random dude running for president, oh look what crazy don said seven times today!
34 felony convictions for fraudulently interfering in the 2016 election that made him President.
You know, the guy who accuses others of stealing elections from him — and getting people killed over it btw — after he already committed fraud to help win an election.
Just wait and see: all it takes is for a judge to tell him not to do it - ten consecutive times, THEN threaten with actual consequences, and THEN you may or may not see him become more circumspect about his transgressions in order to skirt the legal line a tiny bit less obviously!
After all: everyone is equal before the law!*
*Unless you bought the highest judges and make them declare you an absolute ruler immune to criminal law.
Netanyahu revealing which part of the US he's really an "ally" of. Maybe stop giving blank checks to a foreign power destabilizing your country while you only hand out loans and debt to Ukraine?
First of all, there aren’t any blank checks. Foreign aid isn’t a lump sum of money just given to a country. We allocate it to a spending purse and they can choose to spend it on specific items the US agrees upon, which is usually weapons. We don’t just give them cash.
Second, which debt? The US hasn’t issued any debt to Ukraine since the war started, except for possibly private companies.
I might be wrong about the loans and debt to Ukraine, just tried to double check it and couldn't so I don't know where I got that idea. I'm glad then if this isn't the case. Thanks for the callout on that.
But I was aware of how Israel receives aid, and while calling it a blank check might be an exaggeration, that point still stands. The fact that they receive it as credit for offensive wide area weapons probably encourages them more to use said weapons with destructive consequences to their civilian population, and that Israel might say to the US that it will consider a two state solution while they condemn, accuse of antisemitism, and break ties who recognize those who would recognize the Palestine state says they are definitely being duplicitous at best. What is happening in the West Bank speaks for Israel's true intent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqK3_n6pdDY
“I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop,” Trump said at a New Jersey press conference on Thursday, referring to their meeting at Mar-a-Lago last month. But he also criticized cease-fire demands.
In other words Trump wants to have a quick genocide. That is the only way to stop the killing, without having a ceasefire. Even Biden was a hell of a lot better then this.
If anybody deserves to be locked up for being a clear and present danger to society, it's this guy. At the very least, he should be forbidden from using a phone, then locked up when he eventually breaks that rule because he thinks that none of the rules apply to him. The way he's treated, the government is basically encouraging that.
As Israel is in conflict with Palestine, not the United States; would that even be covered by the logan act?
The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen.
Then there's actually proving this negotiation took place and isn't hearsay; from a legal perspective...
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Whenever he does (the tiniest of) fists, I instantly realize there’s nothing to gain from reading/watching further. That accounts for 99.9% of times and why I set a high standard on fist measurements, although I live in EU and US politics only concern as far as influence goes, which reaches way deep here
Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, who escaped the besieged country in December, reported on Monday that the humanitarian area in south Gaza is little more than 14 square miles.
“Crammed in it are more than 1.8 million people, with no water, no electricity, no food, no clinics or pharmacies, and no shelters,”
How's that work? Oh right is an obvious false statement.
Edit: Well it has been 3 days since this post. Rest in peace to all 1.8 million people at the humanitarian zone who having no water died of thirst after 3 days in the desert.
It's ridiculous to blame Trump for the lack of a ceasefire between Palestine and Israel. Why not just blame Trump for the war in Ukraine as well or the stolen election in Venezuela.
I've heard more than one Lemmy-ite make this claim. Of course, I've also heard any criticism of the Israel genocide is the product of Russian botnets and Iranian sleeper agents.
The scapegoating is off the charts. Anything I don't want to think about is due to a nefarious foreigners and their kompromat fifth columnists at home.