A Blog for the People...
In the In Box this morning:
Malcolm found a welcoming Lutheran sunrise service in Juno Beach, Fla. There's room for everyone, and God has a plan for each one of his creations, "to help and not hurt you, plans to give you hope and a future..."
Jesus died and rose for all of us... His LOVE conquers all evil and extends to all. May you one day hear the Good News and believe... Happy Easter. Love is here!
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home. Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Very early Sunday morning, before sunrise, Mary Magdalene made her way to the tomb. And when she arrived she discovered that the stone that sealed the entrance to the tomb was moved away! So she went running as fast as she could to go tell Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. She told them, “They’ve taken the Lord’s body from the tomb, and we don’t know where he is!” Then Peter and the other disciple jumped up and ran to the tomb to go see for themselves. They started out together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He didn’t enter the tomb, but peeked in, and saw only the linen cloths lying there. Then Peter came behind him and went right into the tomb. He too noticed the linen cloths lying there, but the burial cloth that had been on Jesus’ head had been rolled up and placed separate from the other cloths. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first went in, and after one look, he believed! For until then they hadn’t understood the Scriptures that prophesied that he was destined to rise from the dead. Puzzled, Peter and the other disciple then left and went back to their homes. Mary arrived back at the tomb, broken and sobbing. She stooped to peer inside, and through her tears she saw two angels in dazzling white robes, sitting where Jesus’ body had been laid—one at the head and one at the feet! “Dear woman, why are you crying?” they asked. Mary answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve laid him.” Then she turned around to leave, and there was Jesus standing in front of her, but she didn’t realize that it was him! He said to her, “Dear woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” Mary answered, thinking he was only the gardener, “Sir, if you have taken his body somewhere else, tell me, and I will go and . . .” “Mary,” Jesus interrupted her. Turning to face him, she said, “Rabboni!” (Aramaic for “My teacher!”) Jesus cautioned her, “Mary, don’t cling to me, for I haven’t yet ascended to God, my Father. And he’s not only my Father and God, but now he’s your Father and your God! Now go to my brothers and tell them what I’ve told you, that I am ascending to my Father—and your Father, to my God—and your God!” Then Mary Magdalene left to inform the disciples of her encounter with Jesus. “I have seen the Lord!” she told them. And she gave them his message.
If you're a praying person, and even if you're not, I ask you to pray for your country and all the people of Chicagoland today. This story is from Rockford, Illinois. If you do not think that stories like these shake fear into the hearts of people of all ages and genders, housed or non, think again.
The Chicago Tribune has details of a killing:
Good morning, Chicago. Craig Garr stood in his driveway yesterday morning in southeast Rockford and watched a tow service load his Jeep Grand Cherokee onto the bed of a truck. Blood was still spattered on his driveway. It was on his door frame, on his yard decorations and all over two rocks that usually sat by his front door but on Thursday were lying near a set of deep tire tracks on his front lawn. From his kitchen window and then his front door on Wednesday, Garr, 74, witnessed a man stab, beat up and run over the neighborhood’s longtime mail carrier, Jay Larson, killing him in an attack that authorities said spanned multiple homes throughout the neighborhood and left four dead and seven injured. Court records show that Christian Soto, a 22-year-old resident of Winnebago County, admitted to “taking out the mailman” on Garr’s front lawn just before he stabbed three more residents in another home. After Soto fled that home, prosecutors said he broke into a home down the block where three girls were watching a movie during a sleepover. He struck all three with a bat, killing 15-year-old Jenna Newcomb and injuring the other two. Rockford Mayor Thomas McNamara said Thursday that Jenna’s mother “wants the community to know that Jenna died saving her sister and her friend and protecting them.” Soto was arrested while fleeing the scene of another attack. He told authorities that he went on the violent spree after becoming paranoid under the influence of drugs he thought were contaminated. |
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Big news in the Midwest:
and seeing Israel in every news story today..., or
Now that the sun has risen, the destruction is incredibly clear.
Intentional acts are ones that would not have happened without will. The line above is pulled from newspaper accounts we are waking up to this morning about the Sri Lankan -bound ship that smashed into a bridge abutment in Maryland in the middle of the night, collapsing the structure with the magnificent footage captured on camera...
(Reminds me of the Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007, which was caused after construction crews had been digging out sand at the foundations in building Target Field. Adding a bit of insider construction knowledge here... the union guys talk.)
No word yet on how many were killed in vehicles that might have been crossing the bridge when it went down.
Such a sad story, but somehow acceptable in the way stories of natural diasters that nobody saw coming or could have prevented are sad but not especially tragic.
What Israel is doing to Palestine in the name of defense is, by contrast, an intentional act. Perhaps they do not mean to kill so many unarmed women, children and elders but the act of dropping bombs to destroy Gaza is an intentional act with the defenseless civilians seen as collateral.
Nobody much is buying the media push -- by Jewish-American supporters of Israel here in the media too -- that the civilian deaths are all on Hamas.
You can't pretend that there was no way for military forces to find those tunnel entrances -- where Hamas and Israel's hostages are thought to have escaped with their lives after the Oct. 7 attacks -- without bombing the civilian populations that surround them.
David Brooks -- whose son went to fight in the Israeli Defense Forces back when the United States was warring for democracy in Iraq and Afhganistan, and a man who has since allegedly flirted with converting to Christianity himself -- asked over the weekend: "What would the world do to have Israel defend itself??" as though he wore a naive to military strategy and how the world works, even at his advanced age.
The paper did not print my comment, but the answer -- of course -- has been obvious since Day 1: the IDF soldiers need to get into those tunnels, no matter the potential high loss of IDF military lives, and pursue their enemies: the Hamas fighters thought to have taken their loved ones as hostage.
Sure it would be deadly, much like the US military suffered a great loss of life in taking a stinking sulfurous island in the middle of the Pacific during WWII that was thought to be necessary as a strategic landing ship on the island chains outside of the Japanese mainland the United States was thinking we would have to invade before ending the war.
But that's how you win a war. Sacrifice soldiers' lives in the fight against the enemy. (see the current grueling gameplan in Ukraine, before they even began attacking Russia proper with US supplied weapons. Imo, we should have stopped arming the little country when they stopped trying to defend themselves and began a Russian offensive...)
Here's the second line that made me think that Israel's intentional acts in flattening Gaza (even as they try to pretend "Hamas Did That!" and flee from accountablity for the high ration of the lost civilian lives of Palestinians compared to Israelis) will not be forgotten any time soon:
International surveys have shown that societies tolerate violence against people they perceive as the worst offenders, including terrorists, serial killers and perpetrators of violent crimes against children.
That one came from a story this morning about how the apprehended terrorists -- who allegedly attacked the civilian crowd in Russia gathered to hear the band Piknik -- showed up in Court with signs they had been allegedly tortured by Russian police during interrogation.
But read that last line and consider...
As more and more pictures of children suffering in Gaza by Israel's intentional acts come to light this summer, as more and more brave Western journalists infiltrate the war zone and reveal the alleged crimes against humanity, Israel's defense of protecting themselves -- needing to kill all those unarmed and defenseless little ones-- fall on false ears.
This is not time when I think more diversity in American media might have been helpful. You see, the men and women who support Israel and so fear for her safety in the world are blinded to the consequences of intentional actions. The world is not anti-Semitic; the world as a whole simply is sickened by those claiming self-defense in killing vulnerable children. Always has, always will...
Look at who is the number one known victim of the Holocaust: Anne Frank, a civilian Jewish child who has become the posterboard face of innocence taken much too soon in wartime. We don't see her as a Jew so much, but those school children in America mandated to read the book are supposed to see her as a child: a relatable human being passing from puberty into a mature womanhood she would never see.
Is Humanity Out of Fashion? ... another non-war-related headline today reads...
Know Your Enemy is the subtext of another news story recapping an episode of a television show... (how it ever became "news" to summarize late-night comics and tv episodes in respected national newspapers is another bizarre story, owing to the "rules changes" that come into the journalism industry during the digitalization of the news, after (mostly) young (mostly) men -- untrained in the profession/trade -- decided to assemble as activist-reporters and collaborate during the passage of Obamacare to get the historic legislation pass; now we every reporter seems to insert themselves into news stories and we know the political leaning and yearnings of most of them: they are not neutral reporters so much as "fighters for democracy!" who think they can save the country by spinning news stories: how's that working out for the country overall, Mr. Klein? Mr. Krugman? et al?)
No One is Above the Law ... another non-related editorial headline reads, but one wonders if the State of Israel will ever be held accountable for the acts of her soldiers in wartime, where killing civilians -- especially children, even children of the "enemy" -- has always been frowned on by fighting men...
I cannot find the final line -- buried in a news story somewhere today -- that was also not about Israel, but was about a party questioning their own role in helping participate in armed attacks that kill unarmed civilians who are no immediate threat to soldiers. But this one comes close, and is a good reason why America should start taking steps today to disassociate from Israel before more and more pictures of the Gaza destruction come out:
“Should we kill them? We should. And we will,” ...“But it’s more important to kill everyone involved” in the attack. “All of them: those who paid, those who sympathized, those who helped.”
If only our allies had listened to we wiser minds, and we had some "non cheerleaders" being honest about the attitudes toward people whose actions kill children, even during wartime.
The saddest thing is: the IDF has only rescued about 3 hostages since this offensive war on Gaza began... Hamas is still safely ensconsced in the tunnels the IDF is pretty much afraid to infiltrate in great numbers -- everyone is soldier at one time in Israel, and they fear the loss of their own soldiers' lives too much to truly risk pursuing armed fighters it seem; much easier to drop bombs on civilians from above and hope for a war of attrition, starving out civilians until other countries take them in, it seems... which is not likely to happenn as Israeli political leaders -- and "loose lips" Jared Kushner are making no bones about the master plan to clear the population so the "waterfront property" of Judea and Samaria can be claimed by Israel as her own, "as God promised" the American Evangelical community eager to bring on End Times would tell you... (Beware all those religions that take the Old Testament Torah/New Testament literally)
There's no easy fix now. There's no amount of money that will restore life to babies... There's no "do over", no waking up from the nightmare.
Israel has done this, with American support, the world will say this summer. And we did. via our intentional acts.
Now that the sun has risen, the destruction is incredibly clear.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. ... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." #AbrahamLincoln
The attack at 125th Street in East Harlem was unprovoked, a police spokeswoman said
This is an ongoing problem. Why can't they construct barriers along the tracks so this pushing is ineffective? Leave a spot for the train doors to open, and have the trains pull exactly into position. Don't nobody stand close to those open spots, and if the rest is all "fenced off", make it so that a shove only pushes them into the barrier not onto the tracks...
Cost too much? Bill it to the big infrastructure bill that Biden's people are promising will trickle down to the blue-collar workers sometime soon...
These stories are just too sick to keep reading. Somebody should say, Never Again and work to contruct a more protected transportation system that anticipates such shoves... cuz it keeps happening and locking up all the mentally ill people isn't going to. Again, just pray the victim is not of Asian descent... again.
Why can't we better protect civilians here at home? Low priority saving lives? (No offense, but I don't think sending all the National Guard troops in the country can help. Some solutions are more structural; not every problem can be solved by sending in military might... Rebuild those platforms already.)
Trump is not a Washington politician. He uses simple words and speaks truth to power. If Joe Biden could do this -- after years enriching himself in a do-nothing Congress (ie/ declaring wars/securing America's borders/pushing for national abortion legislation), he would be a more impressive candidate.
Trump is bringing the Change to DC that Obama promised but was too inexperienced to deliver on... I'll take it if that's the best on offer. Joe Biden and the Dems either need to wise up with Israel, or be prepared to lose in November.
The former president told an Israeli news outlet that images of destruction in Gaza were harming the country: “You’re losing a lot of the world.”
They always want to make the women into "victims" if it suits their aims, it seems. How does this help or respect women exactly?
“What happened to them was horrifying, but it was a great relief to find out they weren’t sexually assaulted,” Ms. Bar Sinai said.
Turns out two sisters in a kibbutz, and their mother, were killed. They were victims for sure, but not raped, not sexual assault victims. Murder victims. That's bad enough. An elite IDF soldier testified they had been raped likely to amp up other IDF soldiers, and convince their nation that killing women and children was cool in revenge... Video shows otherwise.
(I betcha the "babies were beheaded and baked in an oven" stories will turn out to be untrue too. And nobody was skinned and made into lamp shades either...)
It was a horrible attack, and amazing that a sophisticated country like Israel let their defenses down like that. No exaggerations in the tragedy needed though.
Why always out to make women sexual assault victims. The Dems played E. Jean that way... and now Trump is going to be on criminal trial for PAYING his sex worker. You got to be kidding me... All the drama and this is the criminal trial they are going to put the nation through?
The man paid a woman to have sex with him allegedly? She's a victim in hiding now? Oy. It's sad to me that women bear the brunt of the "gotcha" cases against Trump; that by putting women up as "victims" especially of sexual crimes we are making the fair sex any stronger or respecting them as more than their bodies, and private parts.
Strong women need to have voices in the Dem party so we don't keep having them star in the sex "victim" role, true or not. Blasey Ford? Looking at you too...
(*Proud of the US here... stick to this now. Do. Not. Be. Intimidated.)
Good. America and Israel no longer share the same values. Their actions endanger us too much now... move on. Plenty of other countries to ally with who share our values and appreciate our tax dollars*:
U.N. Security Council Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Gaza as U.S. Abstains
The U.S. decision not to vote on the resolution drew criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who ordered a delegation to hold back from a planned trip to Washington.
I also think the United States and select other European countries should simply take a convoy of aid trucks, and with armed US service members, simply bust through the Israeli checkpoints and get the food and aid into the civilians who are dying without.
If Israeli soldiers are stupid enough to shoot or try to stop such an aid convoy, shoot back and ram their gates. There is no way on God's green earth aid trucks should sit idling while the IDF "inspects" them or some stupid Israelis "protest". Run them over if they try...
#NotKidding. (If Joe Biden is too weak as commander-in-chief to take charge, elect somebody who is. If Trump is the only alternative on the ballot, vote for him. CHANGE. THen vote for somebody better in 4 years to replace him. Joe Biden has been in Congress for decades; the status quo is not going to change under his weak leadership today.)
* Let the Jewish diaspora who support Israel, and the American Evangelists determined to return Judea and Samaria to the settler "from the river to the sea" to bring about their fabled End Times, contribute privately to "defend" the Jewish homeland. "America Out". The first US politician -- Bernie? JD? -- who runs on that platform in future years has my vote, and I suspect, that of many many others out here. We're not anti-Semitic or even anti-Israel. We are PRO LIFE in military matters (with civilian women and children, and elders too) and we do not want to see one more dime of ours spent for the extremist religious settlers there expanding the borders of their religious state...
Can you hear me now? Many many more coming up who share these sentiments... In about 5 or 6 months, I expect some "pundit" will finally catch on and trumpet this as "new analysis" just like they are finally catching on to the fact that it's very very hard to respect a national leader like Joe Biden, given his past and refusal to focus on America's future. The world will do just fine without America's weapons being sent to massacre innocent civilians, whether in Russia proper or Palestine. We're losing big time, despite all our alleged military muscle.
We certainly do not need to ape Israel and lose our humanitarian values when we have plenty of land here, just not enough places to shelter people affordable. Focus on that Joe, after you cut ties with Israel this summer... sooner rather than later.
I feel bad for the timing of her diagnosis, as the media has decided that she is just as important news story to opine over now as the Moscow attack in the theater and the ongoing war on Gaza.
Talk about a royal distraction. Perhaps they have every woman writer opining on this because they think women do not follow hard news and will invest their time and thoughts into the princesses' private personal battles instead?
Sunday:
“We are counting here on cooperation with all countries that genuinely share our pain and are ready, in their deeds, to truly unite our efforts in the fight against the common enemy of international terrorism,” Mr. Putin said.
... well before the attack on the concert hall. American intelligence agencies might have information linking ISIS to the attacks but, it's not our country at war. Let Putin and Russia investigate: this is not our war even though we are the weapons supplier.
Thing is, we can tell Israel and Ukraine that our weapons must be used defensively only but yet we can see the attacks on Russia proper, and all the civilian deaths in Palestine they cause (don't tell me infants and children and unarmed mothers are legitimate Hamas threats or even "human shields" if the IDF is killing them without infants strapped to their hip.)
Do you know how many America soldiers died in VietNam? Do you know what the generations who fought that war learned and taught their children if they came home? It wasn't the same lessons Liz Cheney learned at her father's knee or Megan McCain, the daughter of the heroic POW and granddaughter of the WWII hero either.
Joe Biden's eldest son served, and lost. He sounded like a nice man too, Beau, but he paid the ultimate price with a brain injury that might have been linked to his war service, as well as genetics. (?) Hollywood and video games have sold Americans on the idea that War is Glory. Defense industries, many on the East Coast in the counties closest to DC, thrive on arming up the world to take down so much infrastructure, civilization and kill Others.
Today is Palm Sunday in the Christian calendar, and we pray the week ahead is peaceful in the world going into Easter time ad Spring 2024. I think most people anticipate a long hot summer -- we haven't have much precipitation up here in the rural farming regions, so drought might be a concern...
We don't have much leadership here at home anymore that unites us as Americans; we've splintered up by too many identity groups and as we're competing more and more for basics like housing/shelter, there is a lot of competition for basic human needs...
Pray for a peaceful transition in the world as the wars are wrapped up... We can't keep supplying the weapons to keep them going without putting fat target on American backs. You can never "clean up" as quickly as you can destroy, and the post-war deaths will likely be greater in number than those killed in action.
Politically, I think Joe Biden should spend this week in emergency talks with Congress, crafting a plan to wean both Ukraine and Israel off our support. Encourage them to work for peace: for Israel, tell them every dollar paid to build a Palestinian port or air drop food and aid comes from their allowance. Slowly this summer, transfer any aid that might have helped Israel militarily -- Netanyahu has told us the Israelis are prepared to continue their war alone -- to saving Palestinian lives.
The pictures we are going to see coming out of Gaza once journalists do not fear being killed for getting in there and covering the scene will likely sicken most Americans. That this was done in our name. It's not political advice I'm giving but humanitarian, but I also do think that severing our ties with Netanyahu's Israel sooner rather than later is the only hope Biden and the Dems have left of retaining their weak grip of power on our nation.
The answer isn't More Guns, friends. The answer is a change in leadership and if the establishment politicians in Washington cannot do that, American voters on the ground here will continue voting for Change, I fear. The current crew in Congress cannot deliver, and some of them have enriched themselves (and their own) for years and years and years while America and the world find themselves today in a worse place thanks to our "interventions".
Old News you might have missed...
President Obama Signs US-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act
July 27, 2012 | 3:23 | Public Domain
President Obama signs the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which strengthens Israel’s qualitative military edge and support for Administration initiatives that deepen U.S. defense and security cooperation with Israel.
Personally, I think the same phantom force that blew up those pipelines likely hired the gunmen to go in shooting up civilians and starting the blaze at the Moscow concert hall. I honestly hope President Biden reached out to Putin offering condolences on the civilian attack. People are people are people are people...
I'm sure there are some sickos cheering, but Americans know the vulnerability too now. Civilians aren't really safe anywhere now when evil is accompanied by semi-automatic weapons and men who refuse to distinguish between legitimate combatants and non.
In time, brave journalists will find their way in and start reporting what they see, not accompanied by the IDF and influenced on where they go, who they talk to and what they film...
If Joe doesn't distance himself from Netanyahu soon and very soon, the young people of America will likely take to the streets at the Dem national convention in August, like they did in summer 2020 in protest of what we have destroyed in Gaza with our weaponry handed over to Israel, no questions asked...
The alliance between our two countries has ended. The leaders in power simply have not acknowledged it yet.
Gaza’s Shadow Death Toll: Bodies Buried Beneath the Rubble
With hand tools and bare hands, families and rescuers continue to search broken buildings for missing friends and relatives.
6 MIN READ
In a visit to the Rafah border crossing, the U.N. secretary general called the conditions in Gaza a “moral outrage.”
4 MIN READ
Was the number one news story yesterday the attack on the Moscow concert hall or the news that Prince William's wife has cancer?
Sierra Ferrell - Fox Hunt (Trail of Flowers Album Release at Grimeys) Na...
Her whole role in the Royal Family is to be a figurehead and create public spectacle, in a good way. Hence the release of the royal Christmas card, the public relations appearances, and the charity attendances. She is a public figure, and very handsomely rewarded for her public role as a royal.
Be honest about this diagnosis. Did she have cancer before the latest pushback on her Mothers' Day card "scandal"? (I'm sorry, but if a person wants to touch up and photoshop their portraits there's no reason to apologize. She should have laughed that one off...)
If she had a hysterectomy, or cysts removed from her royal uterus, be honest! (even if she would have faced mockery was needing so much "healing" time in the hospital for her "abdominal surgery.") If they though she was cancer free until the biopsy came back, be honest!
I am just very suspicious that it would have taken so long, post surgery, for her to get that cancer diagnosis. THe public doesn't much like her, internationally, as it seems the finger was pointed as either she or Camilla as the royal that publicly questioned what Harry and his wife's baby skin color might be -- somebody allegedly asked how dark the baby might be...
In recent days, as her star has further fallen, you'd sure hate to think somebody thought a cancer diagnosis and a preventative round of chemo might draw her sympathy, like her father in law.
Just like the press was all over US Defense Secretary Austin when he tried to keep details of his hospitalization private, as a public figure I do think being honest about your health when you are in such a big public role is part of the job. The Royal Palace should release more details, not less. Cancer is nothing to be ashamed of -- she might educate women her generation with an honest campaign about health.
This idea that it is rude to ask details, or that she is deserved some privacy in her public role right now, is ludicrous. If she wants to be left alone by the press, be forthcoming. Even if it was a medically necessary abortion she had, I'd say that...
Fix the world. Discourage those countries running war weapons to the world. Work for a wiser peace than settling our disputes with weapons. Pray for all the dead, no matter their ethnicities or religions.
Images show the scene of what could be the deadliest attack
in Russia in decades. Multiple gunmen killed at least 40 people
The US under President Biden will rue the day they vetoed the earlier UN calls for a ceasefire. You can't go back in time now and fix what's broken or bring the hostages home and bring people back to life...
This is poor diplomacy because we are convinced that Might Makes Right and those with the biggest weapons caches win. That's not true. Non-violence and Reason always win the day over force and violence.
China and Russia were the BigPlayers at the UN vetoing the cease-fire this go around, picking up the role the United States previously played on Israel's behalf vetoing earlier U.N. resolutions. If China moves on Taiwan, is the US "defense" industry spread too thin distributing weapons to Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing wars which do not seem to be accomplishing much despite the billions already expended to help their countries' defense?
Don't you wish we had a strong commander-in-chief who had the ability to think ahead, and was not always playing diplomatic "catch up" doing what the US should have done months ago in curtailing Israel's use of our weapon supply?
Is Bibi or Biden in charge of US foreign policy today? I think the US Congress is in the lobbyist pockets, but that cast of characters is always changing as they age and are voted out of office.
Israel torched al-Shifa Hospital department: Gaza health ministry Israel bombed several buildings at al-Shifa Hospital and burned down its vascular department. Israel forces also detained about 240 patients and 10 health personnel at the Prince Nayef Center, the hospital’s radiology unit, the health ministry added. Hamas has condemned what it called Israel’s “bloody massacre” at al-Shifa and said civilians, patients and displaced people were among the dozens of fatalities. Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital before the current conflict started, is one of the few healthcare facilities that is even partially operational in the north of the enclave.
‘We’ve closed the gaps, but there are still gaps,’ Blinken says of cease-fire talks.
Isn't it a bit silly? Playing peacemaker as well as arms supplier? Seriously, this is the US role now? It's a bit as silly as providing the weapons to make refugees of women and children and to destroy their infrastructure thinking you'll kill all the people off or drive them off the coveted lands, and then paying to set up a port to feed the people you are attacking by the arms you are supplying...
It's a bit silly, no? The US certainly looks the fool here, and now Netanyahu is going to come to our county, speak to our Congress, to chastise us again for the mess he has intentionally created and that he expects the world to clean up?
Seriously? Take every penny being spent on food drops and setting up a port in Gaza -- on the beautiful "waterfront property" that Ivanka's husband is licking his chops over -- and take that out of Israel's annual allowance from the US. Every penny. If we have to clean up their messes, it's gonna cost 'em...
Next set a date that the US will no longer supply the weapons. Give 'em a year maybe. If Israel wants constant war with their neighbors, if they have land for expanded settlements then they have land for ammunitions factories and can start making their own. The US is done with the deadly silliness -- so much destruction on our dime, and the clean up costs too?
Lol. It's like with an alcoholic: let Israel clean up after herself (she's a big girl at 75+ now) or live with the messes she has made. If you want to cage a vicious animal and starve it, you risk it getting out of its cage and attacking. The answer, of course, is to treat the animal that you're keeping well so it doesn't turn on you. Israel would do well to keep that in mind not only in treating the Palestinian people, but the Americans as well.
We're really not as stupid as you think, and we really will not be underwriting Israel's alleged defensive war crimes forever. Israel has shown how little concern they have for their own people's lives in not being able to defend their borders or effectively fight for their hostages lives. Remember, they have acknowledged directly killing many of their own on Oct. 7 and later in the war on Gaza.
Do you really think Israel would not sacrifice American lives too to get the land the extremists believed God promised to them all those years ago, before he made the New Covenant with his people? It's simply silly to keep playing these deadly games. If Israel bears the costs of her actions, she will change her ways.
America needs to end this now.
An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing… ~Yeats, who both married and did his best work post-50 years of age.
Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats
That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees —Those dying generations—at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress, Nor is there singing school but studying Monuments of its own magnificence; And therefore I have sailed the seas and come To the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God’s holy fire As in the gold mosaic of a wall, Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre, And be the singing-masters of my soul. Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity. Once out of nature I shall never take My bodily form from any natural thing, But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make Of hammered gold and gold enamelling To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; Or set upon a golden bough to sing To lords and ladies of Byzantium Of what is past, or passing, or to come. ~William Butler Yeats
"He's speaking not as an actor he's speaking as a universally regarded figure of moral probity, as a spokesman for mankind. That's the substance of the speech." ~Scott Eyman.
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish…
Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!
In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Final speech from The Great Dictator Copyright © Roy Export S.A.S. All rights reserved
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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord[a]; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.[b] 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6 A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” 9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem,[c] lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. ~Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 96 1 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. 12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. 13 Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. ~Psalm 96
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