I agree with Professor Jack Goldsmith that if the media reporting is accurate, this military operation is a “dishonorable strike” that is illegal under international law and the laws of war. This sentiment and logic was echoed by former U.S. military lawyers. The illegal order also runs contrary to longstanding U.S. military doctrine and U.S. Navy Regulations governing the treatment of survivors at sea. (See, also, this analysis by Michael Schmitt, Ryan Goodman and Tess Bridgeman.)

But beyond the troubling legal issues associated with the strike, killing unarmed and vulnerable survivors is stunningly shortsighted. Killing survivors of a military strike is not just patently illegal and morally reprehensible; it is strategically reckless.

The United States, which has military forces deployed around the globe, cannot build a safer world for its own servicemembers by discarding basic laws of war. History shows that when America blatantly abandons humane norms and the law of war, it ultimately endangers its own people.

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Wachowski—who has made it crystal clear in the past that The Matrix is a trans allegory—also noted that “Right-wing ideology appropriates absolutely everything. They appropriate left-wing points of view, and they mutate them for their own propaganda, for their own to obfuscate what the real message is … That is what fascism does. It takes these things, these ideas that are generally acknowledged as questions or investigations or truisms about humanity and life, and they turn them [into] something else so that they remove the weight of what those things represent.”

~ Full article…

The Matrix Was Intended to Be a Trans Story, Says Lilly Wachowski

At its core, The Matrix is also the story of a person who realizes they’re trapped in a place where they can’t be themselves, escapes, and is reborn in a new world as their true self. And considering the film was written and directed by two trans women, it’s no surprise that Lilly Wachowski says telling a trans allegory was the intent of the film all along.

Lisa Doe versus Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, Coexecutors of Epstein Estate

NES, LLC, 
Financial Trust Company, Inc. (FTC), 
 Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, HBRK Associates, Inc. 

Reuters “Two of Jeffrey Epstein’s close advisers can face victims’ claims”
By Jonathan Stempel
August 5, 2024

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan rejected arguments by Epstein’s former personal lawyer Darren Indyke and former accountant Richard Kahn that victims cannot pursue a class action because many agreed not to sue after settling claims against Epstein’s estate.

“… Indyke’s lawyer Daniel Weiner said they “emphatically reject” accusations they knew about or were complicit in Epstein’s wrongdoing.”

“Victims said Indyke and Kahn helped Epstein create a complex web of corporations and bank accounts that let him hide his abuses and pay victims and recruiters, while leaving them “richly compensated” for their work.
McCawley and another lawyer for the victims, David Boies, helped obtain $365 million of settlements with JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N)
, opens new tab and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), opens new tab after accusing them of missing red flags about Epstein, once a lucrative client.

~ Full post…