Law, Power, and Justice

MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2025

        Well, a week until my new knee replacement, the second one.  I am not looking forward to this, but I am looking forward to not having to play Russian roulette every time I stand up.         

        Mike and I went to the No Kings March in Brunswick on Saturday.  It was a disappointing crowd, perhaps a few hundred people.  There were virtually no black people there and no Hispanics.  Just old white people.  Lots of canes and walkers.  There was one guy there with a Ukrainian flag.  I went up to him and said “Slava Ukraini.”  He answered back. 

        The make up of the crowd speaks to the unwillingness of the local organizations to reach out to other communities.  The local Democratic Party has not been our favorite organization, but we must try to get back involved with them. 

        I have been abandoned by my boy cats today.  Last night, Pooper (gray, Cossak, cat who dominates the second floor) was laying at the end of the bed.  I called Sam (new feral kitten found in the front yard screaming bloody murder in the rain) and he cam running.  Unfortunately he jumped up on the bed right at the spot where Pooper was.  Pooper gave him a whopping and Sam was not pleased with me.  Sam was not pleased with me for summoning him to the bed where  Pooper was holding court.  Pooper was not pleased with me for having Sam upstairs in the bedroom in the first place.  So, neither of them will come up and cuddle with me while I work this afternoon. 

        In addition, to try to make up for the sin of calling him to the bed and then letting him get attacked by Pooper, I curled up with Sam on the bed downstairs in the library and fell asleep last night.  Mike said Pooper, when he couldn’t find me in the bedroom, came downstairs looking for me and found me, betraying him, with my hands all over the loopy headed clown kitten (Sam is a light Champaigne orange and white).  So, Pooper is not speaking to me today.  I went downstairs and tried to pet him while he was hunkered down on the kitty climber looking out the living room window, but he wasn’t having a thing to do with me.  Heartbreaking.  Just heartbreaking.   

Israel

• Hamas appears to be trying to maintain control of the people in Gaza by executing some of them.
• News Notes from HAARETZ (10/20/25) 
• Iran’s Khamenei has told Trump to “keep dreaming’ of destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities.
• Two Israeli soldiers killed in anti-tank missile strike in Rafah.  IDF strikes across Gaza.
• Headline: “After his victory lap, Trump sends Vance, Kushner and Witkoff to Save his Gaza deal.”
• Headline: “In first major test of Gaza cease-fire, Netanyahu sides with Trump over far-right allies.”  Some of Netanyahu’s far-right ministers pushed for more extreme action after the killing of soldiers in Rafah.  Bazalel Smotrich tweeted “war” after the killings.  Itamar Ben-Gvir urged the full-scale fighting in Gaza with maximum force.  Minister Orit Strock claimed Hamas’s attack “is not a violation of the agreement, not even significant one.  It is a declaration, in action and in the clearest terms, that no agreement exists.”  Right wing Defense Minister Israel Katz chose not to follow the far-right ministers’ calls for extreme action. 
• Hamas claimed it had no role in the Rafah attack, Trump said Hamas leadership “probably” wasn’t involved.  (Note: Jesus.)
• (1018/25)  Yossi Verter.  “the first (Israeli) government meeting after the war will focus on renaming it – not establishing an official state inquiry – reflecting Netanyahu’s malicious campaign to rewrite history.  The war served his personal and political interests, at the cost of thousands of lives and Israel’s international reputation.”
  • “It should be called “the War of Deception…or simply “Netanyahu’s War…”  “Hostages who could have been rescued much earlier were left to suffer and some to die in Hamas’ tunnels because Netanyahu did not want the war to end.”  The tens of thousands of Israelis who had to abandon their homes failed to receive adequate support.  When other organizations stepped in to fill the gap, they were vilified by Netanyahu’s supporters and called treasonous.
  • Netanyahu’s people were preoccupied with “shaping the narrative….intended to distance Netanyahu from any personal blame….for spearheading a destructive strategy while ignoring specific warnings from military intelligence and the Shin Bet, for fostering Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, and for carrying out a regime overhaul that divided the population, weakened Israel’s deterrence, and harmed its international standing and U.S. relations, effectively inviting the attack.”
  • The first session after the war will not focus on establishing “a state commission of inquiry.”  This is part of “the systematic avoidance of an objective investigation into what preceded October 7 and what followed.”
  • “Netanyahu and his cabinet’s methods to erase memory and deflect responsibility are textbook examples of authoritarian regimes.”

HAMAS

(10/20/25)  PODCAST.  Call me Back, Podcast with Dan Senor

        An excellent discussion of Hamas executions and the disaffection of Palestinians with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. 

UKRAINE (MSNBC)

• What Trump should have done was promise the Tomahawk missiles and started a training program.  Why he has supported Putin’s talking point is “hard to understand.”  Barry McCaffrey  (Note: Well, not really since Trump has been a Putin puppet since before 2016).
• Ukraine Children’s Action Project.  The effort is expanding, to capture and send more and more children from Ukraine to Russia.  Ukraine is a “thriving democracy.”
• Unicef reports that Ukrainian children are spending an extraordinary amount of their time sheltering from bombs.

TRUMP (Mehdi  Hasan, Zeteo)

• Over the weekend, Trump posted an AI generated video showing Trump in a crown, dumping feces all over the No Kings protestors.  None of the Sunday shows mentioned it. None of them asked any questions of their Republicans guests. 
• “Normalization of authoritarianism is complicity in authoritarianism.”