@jeffjarvis

#VarietyMagazine
#WakeUp
#SmellTheFascism
Time to #PickASide

In the history of our slightly incestuous democracy, I wonder if more Conservatives have crossed to the Liberals or Liberals to Conservatives.

#CanPoli #CdnPoli #LPC #CPC #democracy #pickaside #bigtent #RedTory #BlueLiberal #FPTP #PropRep

Civil Discourse – The Moment to Pick a Side Has Come – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

The Moment to Pick a Side Has Come

By Joyce Vance, Nov 29, 2025

“You must refuse illegal orders.” That’s what was said in the video made by six Democratic members of Congress. Trump accused them of seditious behavior. The FBI launched an investigation.

Then, on Black Friday, the Washington Post ran with an exclusive story about the September 2, 2025, attack on a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean, the first of a series of attacks that have involved strikes on at least 23 boats to date. The Post reported that in advance of the strike, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive,according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody.’”

That’s what the special operations commander overseeing the attack did. After the initial hit, live drone feed showed two survivors clinging to the wreckage. The commander “ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions … The two men were blown apart in the water.” The video Trump released later that day did not include the second strike.

The Post quoted Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer who had advised special operations on the illegality of the order: “Even if the U.S. were at war with the traffickers, an order to kill all the boat’s occupants if they were no longer able to fight ‘would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime.’”

My colleague Ryan Goodman, Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and the founding co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, an online forum focused on U.S. national security law and policy, will join us Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. EST for an in-depth Substack live discussion of the issues raised here. Mark your calendars now and make sure you have the Substack App downloaded so you can join us for cutting edge legal analysis on this most important of issues. Ryan has been tracking these strikes and their legal implications since they first began. After the story broke in the Washington Post, he tweeted, “Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing.”

Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that Britain had stopped sharing intelligence on Caribbean drug running with the United States “amid concerns information supplied may be used to engage in lethal military strikes by American forces.” They specified that the cooperation was “paused shortly after the US began a campaign of lethal strikes in September,” but there was no explicit mention of the order Hegseth issued as the cause.

Friday evening at 5:42 p.m., Hegseth tweeted:

“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.

As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.

The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.

Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.

Our warriors in SOUTHCOM put their lives on the line every day to protect the Homeland from narco-terrorists — and I will ALWAYS have their back.”

Hegseth did not deny that two defenseless people were killed. We still do not know what, if anything, they were guilty of. Certainly, as they clung to the wreckage of a boat in the ocean, they did not pose an immediate threat to the United States. The lawful thing to do would have been to rescue and prosecute the men. Instead, per Hegseth’s instruction, they were executed.

Hegseth doubled down a few moments later, tweeting, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”

The Pentagon Spokesman, Seth Parnell, tweeted, “We told the Washington Post that this entire narrative was false yesterday. These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of whole cloth. Fake News is the enemy of the people.”

But shortly after the story ran in The Post, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, issued a joint statement with the Committee’s top Democrat, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, vowing “vigorous oversight” of Hegseth’s “kill them all” order. They wrote, “The Committee has directed inquires to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances.”

By Saturday night, there was a growing call for, if not accountability, investigation, including by both House and Senate Republicans. The Washington Post wrote, “In a rare split with the Trump administration, GOP-led panels in the House and Senate say they want a full accounting in the September military attack.” Saturday night, Democratic Senator Ed Markey tweeted, “Pete Hegseth is a war criminal and should be fired immediately.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Moment to Pick a Side Has Come

#KillEverybody #Caribbean #CivilDiscourse #DemocraticCongressMembers #EdMarkley #JoyceVance #Moment #NarcoTerrorists #PeteHegseth #PickASide #SenateArmedServiceCommittee #SenatorWicker #TheWashingtonPost #UnlawfulKilling

#pickaside I’m on the side of democracy.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2whlowi5jjjqrdrrj4lxh2lx/post/3lir5wzs7x22b

I don’t know how I will explain the last 30 days to my grandchildren when they are old enough to ask.

I’m so afraid they will think I supported this.

I have a neighbor who voted for this #anarchy and we have ‘agreed to disagree’. And I gritted my teeth when he put up his flags and wore his asinine t-shirts. Until today. I’m so effing done.

It’s time to #PickASide.

#shame #coup #trump #musk

Easier for the PM, to admit Brexit was a terrible mistake, and now we have to move to better and easier relationships with the EU especially for growth. The UK can't depend upon America for a good trade deal now with the return of the mango Mussolini.

No trade deal is worth bending the knee to that man. #pickaside #notomusk #punchanazi

"In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate-look to his character."

Noah Webster

#quoteoftheday #Voting #Character #PickASide #BeingHuman

"After the final no there comes a yes and on that yes the future of the world hangs."

Wallace Stevens

#quoteoftheday #YesorNo #PickASide #TheFuture #destiny #BeingHuman

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Elie Weisel

#quoteoftheday #PickASide #NotNeutral #Oppression #Torment #Vote #BeingHuman

@roknrol@neurodifferent.me "Better than fascism..."

That's where many think we are now.

I think we're beyond that by a far sight. I think we can choose reason over blind faith. I choose to believe we can still save the Earth, if we care enough to stop exploiting and recreating in it.

We're not lost. But we are trying to find out where, exactly, we are.

I'm standing with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

I'm picking a side.

#VoteBlue #PickASide

Antibiotics vs Probiotics. I just don't know which side of this debate to come down on. Can't we just all get along?

#PickASide #AreYouWithUsOrAgainstUs #Antibiotics #Probiotics

@NataliaArmyOf1 @snoopy_jay @EugeneMcParland
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
It is the whole 'grand old party' behaving in a coordinated effort to win the next election by any means. Includes cheating , lying, and using violence. They have a written plan once they are in power called Agenda 47.
#gopzi
#CallThemOut
#PickaSide
#wakeup
#resistance
#propaganda
#history

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

- Elie Wiesel

#quote #QOTD #quotestoliveby #Whichsideareyouon #Pickaside #oppression #beinghuman

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

- Elie Wiesel

#quote #QOTD #quotestoliveby #Whichsideareyouon #Pickaside #oppression #beinghuman

The Democratic Party is the largest organized effort to battle Trumpism & MAGAism: a clear danger to our democracy.
But some want to remain ‘INDEPENDENT’ ie undeclared.
The ultimate rejection of trumpism would be an affirmative choice to join the organized opposition (Dems).
The chief reason I’ve heard for being an I is to be free to disagree. Hello - have you not noticed that you can disagree all you want as a Dem? We’re the party of Mark Warner v E. Warren for gods sake.
#PickASide