13Sep2025
I told folks at the Indivisible-Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW event that I was looking to get “action photos,” photos like the above that showed us interacting with citizens as we passed out information on Citizens Bank and how they were collaborating with ICE.
When the announcement was made that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had agreed on a peace plan between Israel and Gaza, I was immediately skeptical as the two men are very close allies. For those two to agree is a simple matter, it was getting Hamas to agree that was clearly going to be the hard part. Sure enough: “The formula … is riddled with red flags.” The proposal to exchange hostages is clear, but what does “gradually” mean when it comes to Israeli forces leaving the Gaza strip? Destroying the Palestinian capability for military resistance also sounds good in theory, but what happens if/when Israel goes back on the deal? Also, a “Board of Peace” headed by Trump sounds great, but when Israel resumed the war on Gaza in March of this year, NPR does not record any reaction from the Trump Administration.
Oh, and “Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a ‘final warning’ for residents to evacuate” from Gaza City. Anyone who does not evacuate (There are half a million residents still there) will be considered a “terrorist.”
The Supreme Court has now set out a “shadow docket” ruling.
In a brief order, the majority said the government met the standard for urgent preliminary relief, though it emphasized that Friday’s order “should not be read as a final determination on the merits.”
The Supreme Court said that the Trump Administration could withhold $4 billion in funds that Congress had appropriated. It’s fine to do that in unusual or emergency situations, but there’s no apparent emergency or any sort of urgent situation here. The principle that’s being trampled here goes all the way back to the Magna Carta, signed in 1215. It holds that the legislature decides, in broad strokes, to spend money. The executive decides, in detail, how to spend it to achieve the goals that the legislature has agreed upon. The three Democratic-leaning Justices on the court strongly dissented.
Very interesting. Trump now has some glimmers of doubt that the right-wing self-contained bubble of information is a substitute for getting out and talking to people who are in a position to know things. Why is this not being widely reported? It raises very serious questions about his competence, his honesty and whether his staff is keeping him properly informed.
How effective have sanctions been in restraining Russia in its war with Ukraine? Not very. Russia has reduced its trade with Western countries while increasing it with others. Smuggling Western components through third parties has also proven quite lucrative for third parties and Ukrainian intelligence has found that there are a great many foreign parts in Russian drones and missiles.
In response, Ukraine feels that it is applying “effective sanction(s):” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy:
“The most effective sanctions – the ones that work the fastest – are the fires at Russia’s oil refineries, its terminals, oil depots. We have significantly restricted Russia’s oil industry, and this significantly restricts the war.”
By late August, Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries had reduced refinery capacity by 17%. Gasoline shortages are starting to pinch ordinary Russian consumers, to whom Moscow’s “Special Military Operation” was comfortably abstract and distant from their day-to-day lives.
Ukrainians certainly want American long-range weapons, getting those long-range weapons and permission to use them to hit targets in Russia would certainly aid Ukraine’s war effort. Representative Don Bacon claims that Secretary of Defense Hegseth is blocking Trump’s desire to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons. Again, this raises questions as to who’s really in charge in Trump’s White House.
But Trump’s ability to influence events in Ukraine is shrinking anyway as Ukraine’s “home grown” arsenal becomes more and more capable. Ukraine now has a whole series of long-range weapons, either already in the field or under rapid development.
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