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Monday, March 18, 2024

Final tour

Jeff Lynne’s ELO Announce Farewell Tour

[...] Electric Light Orchestra was formed by Lynne, Roy Wood, and Bev Bevan in 1970, with Richard Tandy joining a year later. The group’s initial run came to an end in 1983, with a pair of short-term reunions following in 1984 and 2000. However, in 2014, Lynne resurrected ELO with Tandy in tow, and has since released two studio albums and embarked on several lengthy tours.

ELO has sold over 50 million albums to date and earned seven top 10 hits in North America, including “”Can’t Get It Out of My Head,” “”Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “Xanadu.” In 2017, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...


Who does not love the Electric Light Orchestra?

Here they are for TopPop in 1975 (Evil Woman) ...



And here they are 42 years later and still great, playing at Wembley Stadium, 2017 (Higher and Higher) ...



Friday, March 15, 2024

WSJ



I followed the link and read the article by Amit Segal at the Wall Street Journal ... Biden's Middle East Is a Fantasy World. I was surprised to see that all the stuff I've been thinking about the Israel/Hamas war was shared by the writer.

I don't know what is more disturbing ... that the Biden administration seems to be misrepresenting the situation, or that on the subject of the war, I seem to be turning into a Republican (silent scream!). Well, maybe it's ok - I believe General McCaffrey is a Democrat, like me, and he linked to the article. It is long but well worth a read.

Regime change

Regime change is something the US often ochestrated in the bad old days ...

Since the 19th century, the United States government has participated and interfered, both overtly and covertly, in the replacement of many foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government initiated actions for regime change mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific, including the Spanish–American and Philippine–American wars. At the onset of the 20th century, the United States shaped or installed governments in many countries around the world, including neighbors Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic ...

We like to think we've grown beyond that now, becaue, you know, it's unethical. But it sure looks like that's what we are trying to do in Israel right now. The latest example ...

Schumer calls for new election in Israel and sharply criticizes Netanyahu

Biden tells a Jewish leader to "come to Jesus" and the Biden administration fetes an Israeli Minister they percieve to be a rival of Netanyahu. Now this.

But the whole Cabinet in Israel is on the same page when it comes to the war, as is most of the population. Most Israelis want Hamas destroyed, and none of the memners of the government wants a 2 state solution. Netanyahu is indeed unpopular here and in Israel, but changing the Prime Minister to Benny Gantz or anyone else will not result in an immediate and permanent ceasefire and end to the war ... no one in Israel wants that.

Our government suggesting regime change in Israel seems to be a disingenuous ploy to pacify Democratic pro-Palestinian voters, by an administration that doesn't want to recognize an inconvenient truth ... Israel's policies are not controlled by the US, but by Israelis.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

PP



It is amazing to me, someone who was a volunteer at a local Planned Parenthood when I was in college, that it has taken this long for a government representative to acknowledge that women's gyn visits to Planned Parenthood are persoal "health care" events, not religious/political issues.

The demonization of PP by Republicans and the pro-life movement is insane. PP has been portrayed by them as an abortion conveyor belt, but it really is a place where women, men, and low income people, can get information, cancer screening, exams for infections, contraception (men can get vasectomies), and, yes, abortions. It is all health care, and always has been. US citizens deserve access to it.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

My Back Pages

I always liked My Back Pages. Written by Bob Dylan (released 1964), it has odd and interesting lyrics that make for a different sort of song. I don't like his version, though ... liked the Byrds version better.

The most memorable version is the one in which many musicians joined together. In 1992 at the 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert to Dylan at Madison Square Garden, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds), Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison joined Dylan in a version of the song, with my favorite perfomer being Eric Clapton :) ...



Monday, March 11, 2024

Michael Oren

Today on Meet the Press Now, an interview with former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. I've seen him many times on news programs, and here he gives what I think is a much more realistic view of the situation in the Israelu/Hamas war than the Biden administration seems to have chosen ...



I'm not sure why Biden and many Democrats sem to believe Israel will just do our bidding. Yes, we're helping them with weapons and with our veto at the UN, but from their pov, the situation is existential.

:)



Ryan Gosling performs his song from Barbie ... I'm Just Ken ... at the Oscars. Nice suit.

Ryan Gosling Electrifies Oscars With ‘I’m Just Ken’ Live as Margot Robbie, Emma Stone and More Passionately Sing Along; Slash Also Rocks Out on Stage

Come to Jesus?

President Biden has said that Israel sending troops into Rafah would "cross a red line", and he blames Netanyahu for wanting to do so.

But surely Biden realizes that it is not only Netanyahu who believes Israel must enter Rafah to root out the remaining Hamas battalions. Pretty much everyone in Israel, politician and citizen, is on the same page when it comes to Hamas and the war.

Last Friday, Israel's past prime minister, Naftali Bennett, was on Meet the Press Now, and though Kristen Welker tried her best to get him to disagree with Netanyahu on the tactics and goal of the Israel/Hamas war, she couldn't ...



Though Biden may wish it, I don't think he can force Netanyahu or Israel to "come to Jesus" on the subject of the war.

Friday, March 08, 2024

Int. Women's Day

The rest of the western world is trying to treat women more fairly and equally ... France enshrines abortion as a constitutional right as the world marks International Women’s Day ... and ... Ireland’s Constitution says a woman’s place is in the home. Voters are being asked to change that

But in most Middle Eastern countries, women are still treated like poop, and a horrific example of this is the way Hamas fighters (and some Gazan civilians) have treated Israeli women they raped, tortured, murdered, and took hostage ... US, UK and France request UN Security Council convene on October 7 rape report.

And here in the US? Thanks to the Republican party and their Supreme Court Justices (Dobbs), women's health and even lives have been put in danger. But the conservative agenda for women is not just about health care, it's about so much more. As example, I give you the Republican party's real-time version of the Stepford Wife, Alabama Senator Katie Britt (Biden said Republicans oppose women's rights — Katie Britt's "tradwife" response proved him right) ...



Thursday, March 07, 2024

State of the Union



I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it.

I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away.

I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes.

I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence.

Above all, I see a future for all Americans!

I see a country for all Americans!

And I will always be a president for all Americans!


That's a bit from the end of President Biden's State of the Union speech. He did really well! I have to say, though there are things I wish were different, he has turned out to be the best president of my voting lifetime (from Nixon to now). Hope he wins in 2024!

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Vote!



My state is one of those which had voting today. I actually voted by drop box yesterday. The main race in my state, aside from president, was for senator to replace Diane Feinstein, and there was also a proposition.

The proposition, Proposition One, is kind of confusing. It's from Gavin Newsom and he said it will "get the homeless off the streets and into treatment".

It purports to be about helping the mental health system and helping the homeless, but in actuality, if I understand it correctly, it conflates homelessness with mental illness and drug abuse, and actually has a fearure that allows for forcing homeless people into mental health facilities against their will.

I think what homeless people need most is, you know, homes, whether that be an aartment or a tiny house or whatever. Homelessness is a problem of being poor, not so much a problem of mental illness and drug abuse, although being poor and unhoused would certainly exaserbate those problems. It costa a lot to live in California ... if my sister and I had not inherited the home where I now live, I would never have had enough money to buy a home.

Here's a bit of an article about Proposition One in The Guardian ...

California wants to force people into mental health care. Advocates say it will backfire

[...] California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who proposed the measure as a crucial part of his plans to solve the state’s dire homelessness crisis, has said it would “prioritise getting people off the streets, out of tents and into treatment”. Opponents, including disability rights activists, mental health advocates and the American Civil Liberties Union, countered that it would take money away from community-based preventative mental health programs to finance locked-door psychiatric institutions and involuntary treatment.

“It’s good politics, as Newsom positions himself to run for president in 2028,” said Samuel Jain, a senior policy attorney for Disability Rights California, an advocacy group. “It’s not good policy.” ...


Needless to say, I voted against it, but it may well pass.

Monday, March 04, 2024

UN report

From The Washington Post ...

U.N. report: ‘Convincing’ information Hamas raped, tortured hostages

A team of United Nations experts tasked with gathering information on sexual violence linked to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel found “reasonable grounds to believe” that some victims were sexually assaulted, including rape and gang rape, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

“In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed,” a press release announcing the report’s findings said. “The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations.”

The 23-page report said the team also found “clear and convincing information” that some of the women and children taken back to Gaza that day by Hamas as hostages were subjected to “rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” There were “reasonable grounds to believe,” it said, “that this violence may be ongoing.” ...


Gee, it only took the UN five months :(

And even with this, the UN still went on to demand a permanent ceasefire. You know, so the Hamas rapists and torturers and murderers can continue to rule in Gaza.

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Mouse

It has now been just over 2 weeks since my cat Mouse disappeared. I guess I'm finally starting to realize that he might not be coming back.

He first appeared in the yard in the fall of 2015 with his mother Misty. They were really afraid of me and it took a long time for Misty to trust me, but Mouse became friendly pretty quickly. He was small and gray and so thus his name.

I really miss him. I still hope he will reappear. I''ve been looking at the County's missing cats page, but no luck so far. He is not a spring chicken and he has a permanent limp, and I'm afraid something bad may have happened to him.

Looting



ABC News segment tonight about the US air dropping aid in Gaza. Also shown is another aid truck in northern Gaza being looted by hundreds of Gazans, as reported a few days ago by the IDF ...

The extreme hunger on display today with hundreds once again surrounding an aid truck in northern Gaza ... the shortage of food means gangs are looting and reselling what valuable aid there is ...

Friday, March 01, 2024

Air deops



As Admial Kirby spoke of at the White House press briefing today (aboit 7 minutes in), the US is planning to do some air food drops into Gaza, due to the danger to aid ground convoys from mobs and looting.

This reminds me of the situation in the 90s in Somalia, in which the US did food drops due to food being stolen by warlords and criminals on the ground. Here's a bit from Wikipedia: 1992 famine in Somalia.

[...] In 1991, Somalia's formal economy collapsed after several years of decline. That same year and during 1992, southern Somalia was struck by an exceptionally harsh drought. Concurrently, traditional coping methods broke down as the civil war spread into the south and law enforcement disintegrated. The largest contributing factor behind the famine was the devastation inflicted on infrastructure and farmland by warfare in the agricultural inter-riverine regions.

[...]

In early 1992, as relief agencies initiated their operations, they encountered growing obstacles in delivering aid to the impacted inter-riverine region. The disintegration of Somali law enforcement paved the way for armed looters and criminals to steal food from storage sites and supply routes. In certain affected areas, armed banditry on these routes emerged as a significant concern. To safeguard their supplies, NGOs and relief agencies contracted Somali mercenaries or local gangs, equipped with improvised combat vehicles, to escort their convoys.

[...]

US aid airlifts to the Red Cross that began in August 1992 and gone on until December has been credited with saving around 40,000 lives ...


About the event in Gaza in which the aid trucks were stormed by a nob ... what actually happened is in dispute. It's depressing, though, that most people and news organizations prefer to believe the terrorists over the Israelis.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Trump's Court

Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me.



Yep, at the end of the day, it will be up to us, the voters, to finally drive a stake through the heart of Trump's second presidency. We can't be too tired, we can't be too disillusioned, too complacent, too self-absorbed (Michigan voters) to vote against him again.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Michigan



As a Democrat, I find this 'abondon Biden' strategy just stupid and ultimately counterproductive.

Actually, the Biden administration has put a lot of effort into helping the civilians in Gaza, both before and during the war. These voters seem oblivious to the fact that it was Hamas terrorists who started the war with their attack on Israel, that American citizens were among those they murdered, and that American hostages are still being held prisoner in Gaza.

Refusing to vote for Biden will only make it more likely that Trump will win, and then we will see what an anti-Arab anti-Muslim president is really like.

Monday, February 26, 2024

SNL



Sad.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Women's role

In the news ...

Ahead of South Carolina primary, Trump says he strongly supports IVF after Alabama court ruling

Florida Republican Byron Donalds said IVF helps people 'breed great families' which the 'country desperately needs'

The Republican reaction to the latest pro-life victory in Alabama .... a judge declaring frozen embryos are children ... is beginning to show how dishonest their purported beliiefs are. Because, while ...

it is murder to destroy an embryo through abortion when a woman does not want to be a paernt ...

it is fine to destroy an embryo through IVF when a woman does want to be a parent.

The pro-life movement doesn't actually care about embryos. What it cares about is defining women's purpose in life as babymakers.

Face the Nation



Prime Minister Netanyahu on Face the Nation today. He talks about the possible hostage deal in the worls, and explains about a plan to move the civilians in Rafah to a safe area before the IDF begins a ground campaign there to get rid of the last Hamas battalions.