Rambo

“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do.” — Charlie Munger

Today's breakthrough in context:

France is on the eve of voting one of the most shameful laws in its history: it would effectively outlaw criticism of Israel and criminalize any speech seen as even remotely sympathetic to whoever the French government chooses to designate a "terrorist group." In effect this law would turn France's foreign policy into unchallengeable dogma backed by prison time. You could literally be sent for 5 years in prison if you, for instance, call what France says are "terrorists" a "resistance group." Think for instance Nelson Mandela during the apartheid (the ANC was on every Western terrorist list) or, heck, France's own Résistance against Nazi Germany - designated as "terrorists" by the Vichy regime and the Nazi occupation. It's frankly absolutely insane. The new law is called "loi Yadan" after its author Caroline Yadan, a MP who represents French expatriates living in Israel. The U.S. has congressmen paid by AIPAC: France has cut out the middleman entirely, we have MPs whose constituency is literally in Israel. The law has already passed committee and heads to a full parliamentary vote on April 16th - 3 days from now - under a very unusual fast-track procedure. Seven of eleven parliamentary groups have said they'll vote yes and the law is expected to pass. What does the law say? Let me quote from it directly (full text here: assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/…): 1) Article 1 introduces the concept of "implicit" provocation to terrorism and punishes it with five years imprisonment and a fine of €75,000 That's the one I was speaking about. Under this provision, describing anyone France designates as terrorist as a "resistance movement" - the way France describes its own Résistance against Nazi occupation - could effectively become a crime. The key concept is what does "implicit provocation to terrorism" mean? Nobody knows. And that's the point. It means whatever a prosecutor wants it to mean: a perfectly good case could be made that, for instance, quoting international law on the right of occupied peoples to resist with respect to Hamas is, in fact, "implicit provocation to terrorism." France's most famous anti-terrorism judge, Marc Trévidic, says he has never seen anything like it in his entire career (x.com/CharliesIngall…): "Implicit provocation to terrorism: do you realize what that means? Becoming a censor of other people's thoughts, trying to guess what a person really meant." 2) The same article also expands the terrorism apology offense to include "minimizing or trivializing acts of terrorism in an outrageous manner." This is even crazier: until now, "apology of terrorism" meant actually expressing a favorable judgment of "terrorist acts" (which is already insane because, as we all know, one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter). Well, under this new provision, a judge could decide that providing context, explaining root causes, or insufficiently condemning an act amounts to "trivializing" terrorism - and that would now be punishable with 5 years in prison. So, for instance, a history teacher explaining the origins of Hamas or Hezbollah is providing context - but a prosecutor could argue that contextualization is trivialization. The same reasoning could apply to a journalist, a researcher, or anyone on social media who says "yes, it was terrible, but here's why it happened." The "but" becomes a crime, as it is trivialization. 3) Article 4 expands Holocaust denial law Under current French law, denying the Holocaust is already a crime. This provision extends that crime by specifying that contestation of crimes against humanity now includes, "whatever its formulation, a negation, minimization, or outrageous trivialization" of those crimes. Again with "outrageous trivialization"! In this instance the very authors of the text - Caroline Yadan and her colleagues - explain their reasoning explicitly in the law's preamble (assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/…): "Comparing the State of Israel to the Nazi regime would thereby be punishable as an outrageous trivialization of the Shoah." So while the provision is written in general terms, its architects are openly saying what it's for: making it a crime to draw any parallel between Israel's actions and those of the Nazis. 4) Article 2 creates a brand new crime: calling for the destruction of a state. The law adds to an existing 1881 press law a provision punishing anyone who "publicly, in disregard of the right of peoples to self-determination and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, calls for the destruction of a state recognized by the French Republic." Five years imprisonment, €75,000 fine. The qualifiers about self-determination and the UN Charter are meant to sound reassuring. But what does "destruction" mean? In practice, if you advocate for a one-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals, you are de-facto calling for the "destruction" of the state of Israel. Well, that would now be punishable by 5 years in prison 🤷 There you go. Absolutely insane: if this new law passes, and it unfortunately very much looks like it will, France - the country that gave the world the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the country whose national identity is built on the Résistance - will have made it illegal to use the word 'resistance' about anyone the government doesn't like. Jean Moulin would be prosecuted. De Gaulle would be prosecuted. The only people who wouldn't be prosecuted are those who stay silent. Which, of course, is the whole point.

How is this not a war crime? But what do I know…

Everyone should take 2 mins to watch this. A father, helped by neighbours, digging for the body of his daughter. Their home destroyed by Israel. This is proper reporting and the reason Israel allows nobody into Gaza and targets journalists every day.

Wow. Everyone should read this 1983 article by Roald Dahl. Every word of it. It's literally the same fucking shit as now, with the same kind of impunity, only now it's even much worse. He called it. He fucking called it and they just ignored him and called him an antisemite.

🇱🇧 (EN/FR/NL) I came to Beirut today to show our full support to the Lebanese authorities and to express our deep solidarity with the families affected by the violent conflict opposing Israel to Hezbollah. Just before I was commending President Aoun for offering to open official negotiations with Israel towards a ceasefire, Israel launched, with no previous warning, one of the most massive strikes since the beginning of the hostilities, allegedly causing hundreds of civilian victims. We were at the embassy with my delegation, just a few hundred metres from where the missiles struck. This must stop. The ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran must include Lebanon!  —— Je suis venu aujourd’hui à Beyrouth pour manifester notre soutien total aux autorités libanaises et exprimer notre profonde solidarité avec les familles touchées par le violent conflit qui oppose Israël au Hezbollah. Peu avant de féliciter le président Aoun d’avoir proposé d’entamer des négociations officielles avec Israël en vue d’un cessez-le-feu, Israël a lancé, sans aucun avertissement préalable, l’une des frappes les plus massives depuis le début des hostilités, qui aurait fait des centaines de victimes civiles. Nous étions à l'ambassade avec ma délégation, à quelques centaines de mètres seulement de l'endroit où les missiles ont frappé. Cela doit cesser. Le cessez-le-feu entre les États-Unis, Israël et l'Iran doit inclure le Liban ! —— Ik ben vandaag naar Beiroet gekomen om onze volledige steun te betuigen aan de Libanese autoriteiten en om onze diepe solidariteit te betuigen met de families die getroffen zijn door het gewelddadige conflict tussen Israël en Hezbollah. Net toen ik president Aoun prees voor zijn aanbod om officiële onderhandelingen met Israël te starten met het oog op een staakt-het-vuren, lanceerde Israël zonder enige voorafgaande waarschuwing een van de zwaarste aanvallen sinds het begin van de vijandelijkheden, waarbij naar verluidt honderden burgerslachtoffers zijn gevallen. We waren met mijn delegatie in de ambassade, op slechts een paar honderd meter van de plek waar de raketten insloegen. Dit moet stoppen. Het staakt-het-vuren tussen de VS, Israël en Iran moet ook Libanon omvatten! @BelgiumMFA @BelgiumLebanon

In the best case scenario, Trump struck a deal to reopen a Strait that was open before the pointless war he started, with the IRGC demonstrating its control over the Strait and potentially extracting fees plus sanctions relief. Thousands of innocents - including hundreds of children - dead in Lebanon and Iran for no reason. U.S. troops killed and wounded. U.S. embassies and bases in the Middle East badly damaged. U.S. standing in the world obliterated. U.S. munitions badly depleted. Hundreds of billions spent. Prices up everywhere. More global economic fallout to come. Putin strengthened and enriched. Just a catastrophic situation even in the best of circumstances. A profoundly shameful episode in American history no matter what happens next.

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A downed US pilot has attracted more media attention than more than 100 schoolgirls massacred by a US Pilot in Iran. This is the media machine that wants to narrate the truth. Journalism is beat down by paymasters of a certain persuasion of values.

Israeli authorities confess they are singling out the Shi'ite Lebanese population for destruction. This is textbook ethnic cleansing, described as "Israel's message" by the @nytimes.

After the right to torture Palestinians, Apartheid Israel claims the right to HANG Palestinians. The shame of the century continues. Ben Gvir belongs in The Hague.

How outcomes in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma changed, from 1986 to 2026

After a 7-year hiatus, India is about to import its first Iranian oil. At ~$100 a barrel. Quite the achievement in Washington for the long-term strenght of the economic and financial sanctions regime.

Italian Prime Minister Meloni: "I accuse Israel of crossing the red line, I condemn the massacre of Palestinian civilians, and I announce that Italy will support European sanctions against Israel."

Imagine if a country announced it was introducing the death penalty, but only for Jews. Imagine the global outcry. But apparently it's fine to introduce the death penalty only for Palestinians...

Israel has now seized a larger percentage of Lebanon's total landmass than Russia has taken from Ukraine since its 2022 invasion. The latter was immediately met with international uproar and unprecedented multi-sectoral sanctions while the former is barely even mentioned.

The US bombed a primary school in Iran, killing 168 girls. Why is nobody talking about this anymore? These abominable war crimes should not be forgotten — and nor should the lives, hopes and dreams of human beings who were slaughtered with impunity.

58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. Over 3,000,000 Vietnamese died. And for fifty years, American culture has centered the grief of the 58,000 while treating the 3,000,000 as a backdrop. As scenery. As context. As "the Vietnam War experience." They built a wall in Washington with American names on it. A beautiful wall. A solemn wall. Good. Mourn your dead. But understand what that wall does not say. It does not say why they died. It does not say what they were doing there. It does not say what was done in their name to the people whose country it actually was. It does not mention My Lai, where American soldiers massacred an entire village, old men, women, children, babies, and the officer who ordered it served three years of house arrest before being pardoned. Three years. House arrest. Pardoned. For five hundred people murdered in a ditch. It does not mention the 2.7 million acres of Vietnamese forest doused in Agent Orange, a chemical weapon disguised as herbicide, that is still deforming Vietnamese children today. Not in 1970. Not in 1985. Today. Children born in 2020 with bodies twisted by a war their grandparents fought. And the chemical companies that made it are still in business. Still profitable. Still un-prosecuted. And yet they send us human rights reports. They grade our democracy. They warn us about our behavior. The audacity is so enormous it becomes almost impressive. Almost.

Standing up for accurate medical information should never invite intimidation. Absolutely. I applaud Dr. Sivaranjini for her fight against misleading ORS branding, and every doctor who rallied behind her. This is what the medical community should look like. But let me be honest. Painfully honest. The medical community in India develops courage selectively - when the stakes are low and the enemy is convenient. Fighting fake ORS is important. But it is also safe. No ancient tradition protects it. No ministry backs it. No political ideology wraps itself around electrolyte branding. Now try standing up against Ayurveda and Homeopathy causing liver failure, kidney injury, lead poisoning, and death. Try publishing that data. Try saying it out loud on a public platform. I have been doing this for years. What has it earned me? Fifteen-plus legal notices. Criminal cases. FIRs. Defamation suits filed across multiple states. Harassment, bullying, and coordinated attacks from an industry that enjoys state protection and cultural immunity. And where has the medical community been? Largely silent. Comfortably silent. By-and-large, the medical community especially the medical student community, the specialists clinical societies or national and regional level doctors group never come out and fought for the rights of the patients and their safety against Ayush in India in the open - not even endorsing evidence after evidence of harms published. The gastroenterology and hepatology societies in India - my own specialty - do not hold sessions on alternative medicine at their national meetings. They do not publish guidance for patients. They reject manuscripts documenting AYUSH adverse events. Their consensus statements pretend the problem does not exist. They have decided that this particular cancer growing inside Indian public health is someone else's problem. For years, the medical establishment believed that if they ignored AYUSH harms, if they simply didn't talk about it, the problem would disappear. It didn't. It metastasized. And now have infiltrated Institutions of repute. And while it grew, the people who stood by me, who amplified the evidence, who fought alongside me — were not doctors. They were not specialist societies. They were not medical colleges. They were the public. Ordinary citizens who understood that patient safety is not a niche academic concern - it is their lives, their families, their right. And I want them to know, that I appreciate you. You are my sanctuary here. I love what I do. I have no complaints. I will keep doing it as long as I can. But imagine, just imagine, what we could have achieved if the entire medical community had treated AYUSH harms with the same urgency they now show for fake ORS. If every clinical society had said: our patients are being poisoned by unregulated products sold as medicine, and we will not stay quiet. We would have had better regulation. Better research. Better outcomes. Fewer destroyed organs. Fewer dead patients. Fewer transplants. "Death is the sound of distant thunder at a picnic." That is what AYUSH toxicity is to the Indian medical establishment - a distant rumble they can ignore while they enjoy their conferences. Until the storm arrives at their own table. It shouldn't take one doctor being dragged to court for the community to notice. It shouldn't take a patient dying for a society to issue a statement. Stand up for all of patient safety. Not just the parts that don't cost you anything. Dismantle the narrative Ayush is building. This is, the only beast, medical community in India must handle effectively to improve healthcare outcomes and public and patient safety.