Karim Khan

About the only thing we can be fairly certain of is that Karim Khan's replacement will drop the ICC warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.*  And that will be telling, since it was both Israel and US who have been pushing to get Khan removed ever since his warrant for Netanyahu, and Marco Rubio even said beforehand that the administration had was taking actions to get him removed.

(*And not Putin.)

Here's the most definitive report I've been able to find on the actual acts Khan is accused of actually doing (you have to really dig to find this):

https://apnews.com/article/international-criminal-court-un-misconduct-accusations-a275e676e074c00d34c769c8bbdf69d7

A later report from 2026 reports Khan was cleared by a 3 judge panel of any relevant misconduct:

https://apnews.com/article/icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-investigation-united-nations-4f01c8ce5259dc726a565ce9a7f0a37b

This often gets referred to elsewhere as rape (I don't think it rises to that) or sexual harassment (it could qualify for that, but I generally question the concept and the standard ultimately applied by IOS which is the appearance of impropriety which is a terrible slippery slope, along with the concept imbalance of power which generally ignores the often superior powers that women have).

1.  He is alleged to have asked her to lie with her on a hotel bed (she did so) and ultimately he "touched her sexually" (elsewhere it is clarified: her breasts).

2.  He is alleged to have asked her to go on vacations with her (I'd dismiss this as completely unimportant).  She apparently did not, in this case she would have had to say yes for it to happen.  It was reported she was often reluctant to say no because of the imbalance of power.

3.  He is alleged to have put his hand in her pocket (I would say, this is no big deal, though perhaps not completely unimportant, and we don't know the precise context).

4.  He knocked on her door for 10 minutes at 3 am wanting to talk with her.  (It should be remembered that she was a very close aide who made many work related trips with him). I would call this completely unimportant to the charges.

Two items that are borderline seamy, and two that are completely unimportant.  Of which we know nothing about the antecedents--things she may have said or done.  We more or less know the context: she was his closest aide on important trips.  

And we are not at all talking about what would unequivocally be regarded as sexual acts.

IOW, it is not the Khan stopped doing things when he was told not to (ie no means no).  It is rather that he did not first obtain affirmative permission for doing a couple of things that may have appeared improper and two others that were not unreasonable.

And for these, the warrants against the greatest criminal of our era will be dropped.  And meanwhile, the vast documented rapes by Epstein clients go uninvestigated and the vast documented rapes in Israeli prisons are accepted, demanded and even celebrated by Israelis.  The Gaza genocide and pogroms in the West Bank continue.

Now Khan could NOT be described as any kind of leftist.  He was a Tory from the UK who only issued the warrant against Netanyahu (and failed to do so for many others who might have qualified for conducting genocide) under a lot of pressure, possibly even including the pressure from the initial secret inquiry into his alleged sexual harassment which had already started.  He had previously and more quickly issued a warrant for Putin (which in my mind is specious).

Also, FWIW, Khan is a married Muslim (married to a UN civil rights investigator) with two daughters.  And himself a judge of considerable stature.

The aide who was allegedly harassed did not make these things public (which was when they really took off).  She refrained from doing so possibly because she was in favor of the warrants against Netanyahu.  It was two of her "friends" who heard about the matter who made it public.

This raises many possible ideas as to the context and antecedents of the alleged sexual harassment.  

Nowhere in the public discussion are the things she may have done prior to the alleged acts in question.

Journalist Patrick Lawrence calls this affair (leading to the likely dropping of warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant) a "Descent into Lawlessness"

https://thefloutist.substack.com/p/further-into-lawlessness

Ultimately Khan was sacked not by a judicial process but by a political one, by the Assembly of States Parties, which was no doubt (see Rubio's comment) heavily lobbied, bribed, and or coerced by the US (which has observer status) into making the vote against Khan.  After actual judges had investigated the affair and concluded there was no there there.

Commentator Craig Murray has concerns about the affair but keeps hedging that we don't know the facts.  The problem with this copout is that we do know the allegations and even they are pretty weak tea.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2026/07/narratives-of-moral-conflict-karim-khan-and-delcy-rodriguez/

Murray's article may be far more interesting in his defense of Delcy Rodriguez who is now often demonized on the left for selling out.  He also uniquely points out that Venezuela is actually getting the money from oil sales, less a relatively small US fee, and of course with no control over where the oil is going, which is a violation of sovereignty.  He has been to Venezuela and talked to top officials.  Ironically, according to Murray, Venezuela is getting the money from oil sales far more quickly than when China was handling the process.

Left to Right Peace and Freedom Coalition

I've been very skeptical of all these Left to Right Coalition proposals.  Sam Husseini's is the best I've seen.  As far as he goes, I'd support it.  He  stands for peace (not defined well here but elsewhere it's clear he would end support for Israel and other wars and imperialism), equal rights for all*, and freedom of speech, universal healthcare, tax the rich, restrain corporations, and protect the environment (also left undefined and I worry about it).

https://husseini.substack.com/p/the-need-for-a-radical-center-party?utm_source=publication-search

He dodges Immigration saying it would not be an issue if we stopped imperial wars and meddling AND the "War on Drugs" (war on poor people and democracy actually).

That being said, there are "far" left orgs I'd support too, the best of these currently is PSL (unmentioned by Husseini, and he laughs at Cornel West who I voted for last time...but wouldn't next time).  PSL even got their Presidential candidates onto the Texas ballot (which West did not).

*He leaves unmentioned sex change bathroom and sports rights and minor sex change rights.

MakePlaylist Version 1.100 now online

I have now uploaded MakePlaylist version 1.100 to SourceForge:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/makeplaylist/

This is the version I have used to demonstrate that MakePlaylist is what I call a Lossless Information Procedure.  Even the smallest increase in data or data quality is reflected in the output data quality.  To do so it needs to generate millions of virtual playlists, which required considerable internal streamlining (what I've called Cyclotron mode) to be practical.  It also has an option to test what I call Paradoxical Information Procedures, for which some increases in data or data quality can cause less output data quality, ie, going backwards.  I discuss these types of information processing in an earlier post (which now needs a bit of updating to include the latest results obtained with 1.100 before it was finally uploaded, not to mention general editing, but the post is still basically correct):

https://verydeepleft.blogspot.com/2026/06/paradoxical-and-other-information.html

I need to get back to making other improvements to MakePlaylist for it's intended purpose of actually making playlists.  But eventually I also plan to add a mode to demonstrate Truncating Information Procedures which curiously requires adding more random numbers.  The Paradoxical type is achieved with simple data loss, which I think has far reaching implications.  And improve on the results and show they hold up for other conditions (which to some degree I have already done but not written up yet).

Sick People Should Stay Home

 I hate it when people go to concerts, movies, other social activities, and work when they are sick with respiratory ailments, carelessly spreading their germs to others.  It happens all too much, and I can trace every respiratory illness I've had (like the flu then pneumonia that almost killed me last month) to one or more such people.  I vowed never to remain near such a sick person, even at the cost of embarrassment.  Yesterday there was a person repetitively coughing and loudly sniffling with rattles right behind me at a concert.  It started just before the music director gave his intro.  I waited that out and as soon as he stopped I made my way out of the very tight row of people to a space in the corner of the hall where there were hardly any people (and nobody apparently sick).  I didn't quite get there before the music started.  I'm also going to remember to bring a mask to every concert etc in case I am delayed or trapped.  And generally not sit in the middle of front sections again because that really makes it hard to escape.  If there had been assigned seats, I'd have to go talk to an usher.  Many people give excuses like "it's just allergies" when they may have low grade infections caused by mycoplasma like walking pneumonia which are easily treated with antibiotics (which some doctors don't do).   I've been to places where nearly everyone was coughing with the chesty cough indicative of walking pneumonia, and sure enough I  caught it there, lasted a couple weeks until I got an antibiotic then went away quickly. Conditions like COPD lead people to easily pick up (and spread) other diseases, and are still disturbing to others.  It may be appropriate for people who cough a lot to wear masks in public as a precaution.  I pay attention to when I cough and rarely do so when I am healthy.  If it happens during social activities I turn away or cover my mouth.

Albert Einstein on Capitalism

Perfect synopsis.

“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.

This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

— Albert Einstein

Calcium

[Not intended as medical advice, see your doctor for that.  I don't know your situation at all, which may preclude some of the ideas here, especially if you are or will be taking any kind of medication.  Likewise, see a Nutritionist for nutritional advice targeted to you.  As always, my posts are intended to be thought provoking, but never the fully edited final word on anything.  I am not an encyclopedia and I don't have time to go back and fix everything I've written as new information comes in.]

Back in 2017, a friend of mine in her 50's got osteoporosis and started a treatment program.  For a few years she had to take Fosamax, which helps make weak bones more rigid but also can make them more brittle than normal if you take it too long.  The best thing is to reach the point where you don't need Fosamax any more in a few years and from then on get the proper nutrients every day for normal bone remodeling which will, over time, restore full bone normality.  Fosamax is a band-aid you don't want to keep wearing.

This made me start thinking about my bones and took a look at the Recommended Daily Allowance for Calcium.  I was shocked to see that it was 1,000mg for adults and 1200 mg for seniors.  I thought I was getting plenty of calcium from (then) 2 cups yogurt, but that was less than half of the RDA.  And not much else in my diet had calcium.  My multivitamin didn't add much.  So, I started supplementing calcium with a single 330-500 mg Calcium/Magnesium tablet every day to fill the gap.

Visiting my sister and brother-in-law in 2019, my attorney brother-in-law noticed my supplements, and gave me a scathing critique.  "You should not be supplementing calcium," he said.   "You'll get atherosclerosis.  You'll get kidney stones."

I replied, "You only get those things if you are out-of-balance somehow.  Meeting your minimum daily calcium requirement is not out-of-balance, it's in balance."  I could not change his mind at all.  He was highly opposed to supplements almost in principle (as it seems many doctors I've known have been).

I was very concerned about him that since he is lactose intolerant and avoids dairy altogether (except 2 cups of special ice cream with lactase for lactose intolerant people) he was not getting enough calcium.  And my sister too, who did have small pieces of cheese with her salads but less ice cream.  They were both already in their 70's and starting to look like they were rapidly shrinking.  I've tried and tried to get my sister to consider supplementing calcium but it's never happened so far.  She'd have to face her husband's disapproval for one thing.  And for another, she doesn't like to do anything technical, like calculating the calcium supplementation required, preferring to leave everything technical to her husband.

Nine years later now they both look extremely shrunken.  My sister has constant neck and back pain and her neck has become flexible.  Her two upper front teeth simply broke off one day and she had to get a partial dental.  The shrinking is not just in statue but in depth.

Everywhere I go I see elderly people who look like they do now.  I doubt any of them are getting enough calcium.  Few seem to even be aware that seniors need more calcium than adults and how much that is.  (BTW, this is a well known fact that most US seniors are not getting enough calcium.)

Retrospectively I now blame lack of calcium for my short stature.  In freshman year of high school, a friend of mine convinced me that drinking milk was for babies, and I quit doing so.  I really didn't have other significant sources of calcium in my diet then.  I didn't regularly eat yogurt or ice cream.  That was surely bad advice.

*****

Doing this can get a little more complicated than people might like.  You should not take simply take supplements having the RDA for calcium.  You need to figure out the gap between your diet and the recommended amount for your age, and then fill just that gap.  You don't want to get too more more calcium than the RDA because then you could get kidney stones, etc.  

But there is some slack here.  You can have somewhat more than the RDA without issues, so long as you stay below the upper limits.  It's when you go past the upper limits that you could get the kidney stones, etc.  The upper limits are a bit more complicated since they vary for young people, pregnant mothers, adults below 51, and adults above 51.  For non-pregnant adults under 51 the upper limit is 2500mg and for adults over 51 it is 2000mg.  Thus the range for eldery people is the most narrow: from 1200mg recommended to 2000 mg upper limit.

It's not really hard to do, though it takes a little time and arithmetic.  Nowadays you can simply ask your favorite search engine for the calcium in any kind and quantity of food.  You could probably even get it to add up the calcium in a long list of foods that constitutes what you eat in a given day.  I do the adding up myself.

Better than using a search engine is actually looking at the Nutrition Facts on any labeled product.  Then you get the exact numbers for the specific products you are eating (though lots of fresh foods are not so labeled--there you need to use the search engine).

I wrote everything down on an index card with columns for calcium, protein, and sodium.  It's a worthwhile exercise to do at least once, I wish I had the time to do it every day.

I don't recommend the example below as an ideal diet for anyone, even me.  I'm more interested in showing the method of adding up the calcium including everything.  This just happens to be what I ate yesterday when I was keeping track of everything, everything that went into my mouth.

It might seem like "too much" peanut butter but you may notice that the total saturated fat is still fairly low because no eggs, little nuts, little meat, and no red meat, at least yesterday.  Anyway the most recent research seems to show that dairy and peanut butter saturated fats are actually somewhat protective, but the saturated fat dogmas haven't been updated to reflect this.  I like natural peanut butter (nothing other than peanuts and salt so you have to stir it) because it's convenient and almost as much protein as eggs.   Yesterday I didn't get any of the most dangerous saturated fats, those from red meats, but sometimes I do have 3-4 oz lean steak instead of chicken, which still wouldn't be very much.  I've also switched since writing this to snacking with regular or low sodium Ezekiel bread, I only have regular bread (usually the whole wheat variety) for breakfast.

I have never had a bad A1C measurement but recently I've become very focused on keeping it low because I believe it is actually the number one factor in heart and other diseases for elderly people.***  You will note that there's very little sugar in my diet now.  I do use orange juice but only in the very tiniest amount for flavoring.  I eat a tiny bit of sugar and a tiny piece of chocolate.  I need the artificially flavored electrolyte drinks right now because I have diarrhea from taking an antibiotic.**  I didn't have any fruit mainly because that's not compatible with current diarrhea.  Normally I'd eat a fresh apple or banana.  On nutrition focused friend of mine thinks its pointless to eat fruit at all but I find the fiber beneficial.

Food / Calcium

1 oz Orange Juice (mixed with no sugar Citrucel) 2 mg

4 large slices Dave's White Bread            80 mg

4 tablespoons all natural peanut butter     36 mg

7/8 cup Chobani Nonfat Greek Yogurt    225 mg

1 scoop whey isolate                                105 mg

Centrum for Men 50+                               210 mg

2 Ultima Electrolyte Drinks                     94 mg

3 oz cooked chicken breast                       10 mg

3 oz Protein Pasta                                      0 mg

8oz can no salt added green beans            40 mg

2/3 11.5oz can low sodium V8.                33 mg

2 Tbsps Olive Oil                                        2 mg

1 Tbsp Heavy Cream                                   10 mg

7 cups RO water (coffee, mixes, ice)           7 mg

(Local Tap Water would be 105-140 mg)

1/2 cup Low Sodium Marinara Sauce.        20 mg

1/5 oz (one tiny square*) Chocolate w nuts  4 mg

3/4 tsp Sugar (in whey drink)                       0 mg

Before calcium powder: 876 mg calcium

1 tsp Calcium/Magnesium powder            267 mg

Total Calcium: 1143 mg

I was a bit below calcium target, but not far.   I was a bit too conservative when measuring out the Calcium/Magnesium powder.  I didn't actually know how the numbers were going to work out.  Going forwards, I think I may use the 1 1/2 tsp suggested amount.

That powder was my calcium supplement yesterday (sometimes I take a 333mg pill instead, which would have put me just slightly over 1200 mg).  But I'll explain below why I think the powder is better than nearly all the pills.

The total 'supplements' contribution to my calcium was 567 mg (multivitamin, electrolyte drinks, calcium/magnesium powder).  Almost half.  And that's in spite of eating slightly more than the standard serving of yogurt and about as much calcium as most people in US eat.

I love to have a spaghetti dinner every day and I think that's fine with exact portion control (pasta is weighed on my scale) protein pasta and low sodium marinara.  Pasta itself is zero sodium (and I put no salt in the water) which helps stay within optimal sodium. I do aim to cut back the extra two pieces of regular bread and peanut butter but it was the only snack I had available to go with my whey drink in the afternoon yesterday.  Today I had the low sodium Ezekiel bread with the lightest rub of peanut butter possible.  Going forwards, I plan to use low sodium Ezekiel Bread for snacking, with less peanut butter, and so reduce the daily peanut butter to 3 tablespoons or less.

Good calcium supplements (including pills and powders) are are sold with Magnesium included because you need to have calcium and magnesium in balance.  The recommended balance for calcium:magnesium is 2:1, so many pills have this exact ratio.

But it actually doesn't make sense if most of your other calcium comes from dairy, because dairy products are 10:1, the supplement should try to bring that back into balance.  So a 1:1 calcium magnesium supplement powder makes sense for me whose other calcium comes mostly from dairy.

The 1:1 Calcium Magnesium powder I get (NOW) is also made with citrates, which are more easily absorbed than the calcium supplements made with carbonates.  Most calcium magnesium pills are made with carbonates.   Adding it to my whey isolate drink makes it seem less watery and more like milk.

(* It wasn't long enough ago that I couldn't help myself but to eat a whole 3.5 oz bar of chocolate every day.  My recent near death experience with pneumonia and dehydration has made me a different and better behaving person now, and hopefully from here on.)

(** The day I started taking electrolytes the situation dramatically improved.  It's as if part of the problem was the interplay between the anal and urinal sphincters, which are connected, and of course are connected to the nervous system and all of its electrolytes.  My antibiotic lists no food or supplement interactions but out of an abundance of caution I apply a 4 hour spacing rule used for others, no supplements within 4 hours of taking the pill, before or after.) 

(*** From NIH published research I've read, the biggest risk factor for heart disease in elderly is in insulin resistance, aka type 2 diabetes, not in fats****, anyway.  The saturated fat dogmas haven't been updated to reflect this.  Lots of my thin elderly friends on lowfat diets are still taking statins, which I wonder about, then stuffing themselves with candy.  I think they should be more focused on insulin resistance, as I am.  I quit taking statins when I retired and could do my own low fat cooking instead of eating at Chinese buffets and steak bars every day. When that happened, I started noticing that statins made me feel weak  My doctor wanted me to continue statins anyway, perhaps a different one, looking at my BMI category, she said my LDL was still a few points short of target.  I don't think BMI reflects my stocky and above-average muscular body style correctly, I see Percent Body Fat, as I get on my biometric scale, a better indication of how much excess fat I have, which is as I understand it the relevant factor for heart disease.  I have always done better on percent body fat than BMI, and as of right now I am no longer even "obese".  Right now I can't seem to find the very impressive NIH published research I read last year on insulin resistance vs hyperlipidemia that put insulin resistance on top for elderly people while discounting hyperlipidemia a lot, but there is much research and writing that makes a similar case that can be easily found, such as https://www.optimalwellnessmd.com/blog/uncategorized/atherosclerosis-is-it-due-to-lipids-insulin-or-inflammation which mentions many studies.)

(****It bugs me no end that most people have come to regard low density lipoproteins (the entities, not the LDL relative blood measurement) as diseased.  In truth, low density lipoproteins are the essential lubricant the body needs like an engine needs motor oil.  You could not live without them.  High density lipoproteins are like the oil additive that keep it flowing smoothly under different conditions.  You can have too high HDL--when it keeps the low density lipoproteins from doing their job.  Not that you need to eat saturated fats, the body can synthesize LDL's.)

Here is another (Vegan) POV on calcium.  They claim the US RDA are inflated because of high sodium and animal protein diet.  May be some truth to that, if your sodium is lower and your animal protein* is lower it not be necessary to achieve US RDA but 300mg or so lower.  (This is still more than many Americans, especially seniors, get.). (*"animal protein includes dairy, which is probably the #1 dietary source for most people, including me. If you're Vegan and not consuming dairy, you will almost certainly have to supplement even if you follow their lowered recommendations.  Vegan recommendations also therefore do not apply to people like me, even though I use relatively little meat, I still seek high protein which increases the need for calcium.  So the Vegan POV does not apply to me and I'm back to RDA.)

https://www.vegancanada.org/news/article/2020/01/23/misleading-calcium-recommendation.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18597142512&gbraid=0AAAAAC2laoEA6W5grs7fEVO0TycsLLRLX&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr4jSBhCSARIsAOX1E-Iq_SgorrjeBbbfbP3oh2iB5ATOWisbL-ufLmJ7iQPrAGFlD7lKPLcaAnNpEALw_wcB

Another caveat is that one shouldn't have more than 500 mg calcium at one meal.  My plan of having yogurt plus multivitamin (totaling about 500 mg) in the morning, then whey drink with calcium supplement (totaling about 500 mg) in the afternoon or evening already does that.

Truthfully, I was much less careful about the total amount of calcium back when I argued with my brother-in-law in 2019.  That argument got me to start thinking about how the supplements add to natural sources so I only need to supplement the gap, and so I've been more careful about supplementation since then.

Petroleum Jelly

White Petrolatum, also known as Petroleum Jelly, often recognized under the trademarked name Vasoline, is one of the most useful skin protectants.

Vasoline has always been sold to consumers in small tubs.   This makes zero sense unless the goal is to sell as much of the stuff as possible.

With a tub, every time you use the stuff you dip your finger in the tub, pulling out a small bit for whatever purpose, you leave all sorts of germs, skin oils, and other crap (sometimes literally) on the remaining stuff.  After I've done this for awhile, I'm motivated to buy a new tub next time, wasting most of the earlier tub contents.

OR, if I use one tub of Petroleum Jelly for mechanical purposes, such as lubricating the corner of the door threshold, I'm motivated to get another tub for personal uses, because I don't want any of the crud from the doorway getting into my personal care.

It's much more reasonable to have Petroleum Jelly in tubes, allowing you to squeeze out exactly what you need and leaving the rest unadulterated.  This is the way it is sold to dermatologists and other medical doctors.

But since Vasoline was first sold to consumers in tubs, virtually everyone else who sells Petroleum Jelly in a retail store sells it in something like a Vasoline shaped tub so they'll recognize what it is.

The now disappearing Walgreens was the one retail store where you could buy Petroleum Jelly in nice blue flexible plastic tubes where you can squeeze it out like a professional.

It looks like when I need to buy more Petroleum Jelly in a tube, I'm have to get some professional variant at Amazon.  And I worry that the tubes may not be as nice as the Walgreens ones were.

100% pure Petroleum Jelly is generally far superior to all the other sorts of products which add extra ingredients, such as Aquaphor.  Now, Aquaphor IS conveniently sold in tubes.  But those extra ingredients are almost never necessary or useful but just create the conditions for the product to degrade over time.