"Whether they like it or not"

Texas woman died after being denied miscarriage care due to abortion ban, report finds

Yep, thanks to Trump, women now will sometimes have to die "whether they like it or not".

The Rapist

The rapist running for president has vowed to "protect" the women of America from immigrants, "whether the women like it or not". After all, those women are his property, and he's the only one who should get to rape them.

The F word

I saw this tonight at General Barry McCaffrey's twitter. It's a short video by Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale, who is probably most well known for his book On Tyranny. I've seen him on the news a lot, especially during the Trump presidency when the subject of authoritarianism often came up.

People are talking about fascism. I've heard from people who are baffled that we haven't been speaking of fascism more and earlier, and from people who want to know what it means – and from people who want me to explain why fascism is bad.
Please share! Please vote! pic.twitter.com/zxVnn38dyH

— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) October 29, 2024

Bye bye UNRWA

In the news ...

Israel's potential ban on Palestinian aid agency UNRWA raises concerns in U.S., Europe

If you want to understand why this is happening, listen to today's Times of Israel's daily news briefing on UNRWA and the move to ban it ...



Here's some context - a relevant news story from a few days ago, which helps to explain why Israel wants to get rid of the UN agency ...

UNRWA confirms terrorist killed by IDF who led Re’im shelter massacre was a staffer

And we will recall that the UN fired a number of its UNRWA employees for being Hamas members who took part in the October 7 attack. This led to the US defunding UNRWA ...

In the Garden

I think what defines Trump's followers is their hatred of others. And there's nothing like a shared event with your own kind ... a mosh pit of racism, misogyny, and homophobia ... where you can fearlessly let it all hang out. But oops, the rest of us were watching.

The Pope and women

Catholic church reform process expected to disappoint hopes of more equity for women

A yearslong process to reform the Catholic Church closes Saturday with recommendations that are expected to fall far short of hopes that women would be given more equity but that reflect the pope’s aims for a church that at least listens more to its flock.

The Vatican’s top doctrinal officer, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, told the extraordinary assembly of bishops and laypeople this week that Pope Francis said the moment for allowing ordination of women as deacons in the church “is not ripe.”...

Women can't be deacons, much less priests? Gee, I'm shocked! I mean, isn't Francis the most liberal pope ever? Isn't he a big fan of women and fairness and everythig good? Wake up! He is and always has been a very conservative person, priest, pope, and sexist. That's just the truth, one that anyone would know if they had ever paid attention to his history, his own words over the years, and of course, his actions or lack thereof.

As long as he is pope, there will be no women deacons, no women priests, and women will be preached as little more than baby-makers.

And if you are thinking that maybe the pope who comes after him will be diferent, think again. The system is built for conservatism .... people are chosen as bishops because they please the conservative higher-ups, and it is from this pool of yes-men that the papal candidates are chosen.

Those guys don't want change - they are happy in their own little country, where pedophile priests are protected from presecution, where the incredible property wealth* the chirch owns around the world supports their lifestule, and where women will always be nuns, housekeepers, and the people who do the flowers at Mass. There won't be any change.

* Vatican owns over 5,000 properties globally

Democracy Dies in Darkness

"Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the motto of The Washington Post ...

[...] "Democracy Dies in Darkness" was the first slogan to be officially adopted by The Washington Post in its 140-year history. According to the newspaper, the phrase was popularized by investigative journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward used the phrase in a 2007 piece criticizing government secrecy, and referenced the phrase during a 2015 presentation at a conference when he talked about The Last of the President's Men, his book about the Watergate scandal. Woodward said he did not coin the phrase himself, instead attributing the phrase to a judge ruling on a First Amendment case, believed to be from Circuit Judge Damon Keith. The paper's owner Jeff Bezos, who attended Woodward's 2015 presentation, also used the phrase in a May 2016 interview. The newspaper said it decided to adopt an official slogan in early 2016 ...

Ironic, now that The Post (and The Los Angeles Times) has decided not to endorse a candidate for president in 2024 ...

Washington Post Says It Will Stop Endorsing Presidential Candidates

A debate inside The Washington Post continued for days among its top leaders: Should it make an endorsement in the presidential race, continuing a decades-long tradition? In the end, Jeff Bezos, the paper’s billionaire owner, decided that the answer was no ...

And ...

L.A. Times Editorial Chief Quits After Owner Blocks Harris Endorsement

The head of The Los Angeles Times’s editorial board resigned on Wednesday after the paper’s owner quashed a presidential endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris. In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, Mariel Garza, who held the title editorials editor, said she had quit because “I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” ...

So, at the end of the day, the rich businessmen who own these papers, afraid Trump will win, have decided not to incur his wrath by taking sides against him.

Cowards.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Yes, I liked him :) Yes, I had his albums :) Underappreciated. Glad he finally gets his due.

From 1975 ...



And here is Frampton playing guitar as David Bowie sings Let's Dance, 1987, Glass Spider tour ...

Hitler

Yep, Hitler. If you had been paying attention, this would come as no surprise: many reports of Trump liking Hitler over the years since he was in office. Jewish people, I hope this isn't your first clue that Trump doesn't care about you or Israel, despite his claims.

But the part that really bothers me is that Trump's supporters are all good with this, not just the brain-dead zombies that go to his campaign rallies, but the "normal and respectable" Republican politicians like Chris Sununu. I actually kind of liked him until this, and I realized he's just another scumbag.

BTW, did anyone tell Trump that Hitler's generals tried to whack him? ;)

Revenge voting

I voted yesterday. For Harris, of course, though she's not the Democrat I would have chosen.

In one of the swing states, Michigan, Arab American voters appear to be more willing to vote for Trump than Harris in order to punish her and the Biden administration for being on the side of Israel instead of being on the side of the terrorists (Hamas/Hezbollah) ...

‘Don’t blame us, blame yourself’: Furious at Harris, Arab Americans in Michigan face a hard choice

Kamala Harris’ campaign is facing deep skepticism from Arab American voters in Michigan, many of whom are appalled by President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in the Middle East and remain undecided about whether to back a candidate who supports his policies .....

“People are really right now in a dilemma. They really don’t know where to go. It’s like somebody hit them with a two by four, right on their head,” said Osama Siblani, the publisher of an Arab American newspaper based in Dearborn, Michigan. “So now they’re in total disarray. They may vote for Donald Trump, just to punish Biden and Harris, just to say, ‘Look what you’ve done.' ...

Great :(

Hezbollah: drug trafficking and money laundering

Eylon Levy discusses the recent attack by Israel on a bank in Lebanon used by Hezbollah.

If you want to learn more about how Hezbollah gets its money, see the Wikipedia article Funding of Hezbollah, which describes money laundering and also drug running. See the DEA project, Cassandra, in which the US tried to keep Hezbollah from profitting from illegal drug trafficking in South America ...

- CBS News, 2016: DEA targets Hezbollah's cash flow link to cartels

- Newsweek, 2017: Hezbollah Smuggled Tons of Cocaine Into the U.S. During Obama Administration, Report Reveals

There's more if you care to look.

The rich and the powerful

The rich and the powerful think they own the world, and actually they do. But what can they buy with all that money? Wealth does not buy life. It does not buy a good heart. And it cannot buy the kingdom of God. - Jesus, from the film Jesus (at 43:14).

But what can money buy you? Maybe the presidency of the United States ...

Musk promises a daily $1 million lottery in questionable pro-Trump effort

Billionaire Elon Musk has further escalated his direct intervention in the 2024 election in support of GOP nominee Donald Trump, announcing Saturday that he will hand out $1 million daily in a lottery for registered swing-state voters who sign a petition put out by his super PAC’s voter recruitment drive.

How is this not illegal?

Trump dicks around

Yep, this is the Republican offering for president of the United States and the most powerful person in the world. They must be so proud. I've not heard any of them, not Mike Johnson, not Lindsey Graham, actually explain why what Trump said about Palmer is ok or even normal. They just deflect. Cowards and toadies who have sold our country out.

More disturbing is the fact that half the people in the US want this demented gasbag to be the leader of the free world. Trump will eventually be gone but those people will persist.

Outside

Outside today with the camera. I haven't been out as much as usual lately because my knees have been bothering me. I'm trying to decide if I should/can get knee replacement surgery. Seems scary.

And meanwhile, the cats are having their own problems. Lately, Olive has been disappearing when it gets dark. He used to always be on his perch on the porch, like he is right now ...

But when it gets dark now, right after I feed them, he runs down the driveway and then down the street. I've tried to follow him, but by the time I get to the end of the driveway, he's disappeared. I'm so worried. Last night, he apparently got sprayed by a skink - PU!

And here is a kind of fuzzy photo of Snowy. She's really interested in something in the bushes under the pecan tree. She's saying 'don't bug me' ...

The election

I haven't written much about the upcoming election, probably because I'm both depressed and terrified about how it's going to go. John Oliver talks about some of the reasons to be concerned.

End the war now

Eylon Levy on the opportunity in the death of Sinwar.

Sinwar is dead

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and the matermind of the October 7 attack on Israel, has been killed by the IDF in Rafah.

You can get details from the Wikipedia page Killing of Yahya Sinwar

And here's something from The Times of Israel ... New details emerge of Sinwar’s final moments

What does it all mean? If nothing else, as US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at today's press briefing ... "The world is a better place with Sinwar gone from it".

The letter

An interesting daily briefing from The Times of Israel, discussing the letter from the US to Israel about humanitarian aid to Gaza, and about the situation in Lebanon.

When I read the US (and British) news about what's happening with Israel, it seems to me that there's both a lot of info missing, as well as a lot of opinion interpreted as fact. I'm glad The Times of Israel is available to anyone online.

Eylon Levy on UNIFIL

I see in the news that the UN is now accusing Israel of war crimes (again), this time for purposely targeting UNIFIL. I've got to say, I'm beginning to regard everything the UN says about Israel as BS unless otherwise proven.

But anyway, here Eylon Levy explains what's happening between Israel and UNIFIL.

We're doomed

On Meet the Press today. Harris has lost what little lead she had over Trump, and now they are tied. I will vote for Harris, of course - I would vote for a dead bug over Trump - but I don't really care for her policies.

She makes no mention of the most needy in our country, but for the upper middle class we have promises of student loan forgiveness and money for starting a business and buying a new home. People living on Social Security, people who are homeless, people on disability ... they usually aren't considering buying a new home, they are worrying about making it to the end of the month.

She's the candidate for the complacent. That would be understanable if she was a Republican, but she's not. If she loses, it will be because of her stance on the economy.

The animals

In the news ...

Activists risk their lives to rescue animals in areas of Lebanon hit by Israeli airstrikes

Hours after an Israeli strike destroyed a three-story building in Beirut, killing at least 10 people, Maggie Sharawi received a telephone call from a person living nearby saying that the attack had killed a cat that had several kittens.

While civil defense members were combing through the rubble for human victims or survivors, Sharawi and other members of Animals Lebanon, an animal protection organization, also rushed to the scene in Beirut’s central Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood Friday.

They began climbing through rubble, twisted metal and collapsed walls to reach the kittens. The animals, just a few days old, were pulled out ...

Seeing this story tonight made me feel kind of sick, not just because I'm worried about all the animals that are getting hurt in the wars, but also because I'm pretty sure that I should be feeling that way about the humans too. But I'm mostly not. Not a good sign :(

Podcast

If you want to understand what Israelis are thinking/feeling since Oct 7 2023, this is a great Times of Israel podcast to listen to. It seems so many people don't want to understand - they have already made up their minds about Israel - but if anyone wants to know why I myself have been so on Israel's side since this war started, take a listen ...

UNIFIL

- deployment of UNIFIL

In the news, the international community is mad at Israel because they accidentally wounded some members of UNIFIL while shooting at Hezbollah in Lebanon. Apparently, the IDF did warn them, asking them to move, but the UNIFIL forces declined to do so. Israel says Hezbollah is hanging out near UNIFIL bases as cover.

So what is UNIFIL? It's the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, ...

a UN peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, and several further resolutions in 2006 .... It is composed of 10,000 peacekeepers from 46 nations, tasked with helping the Lebanese Army keep the south of the country protected from "unauthorized armed personnel, such as Hezbollah" ...

Post 2006, UNIFIL was deployed throughout Southern Lebanon, south of the Litani River, and primarily along the United Nations-drawn Blue Line, the border between Israel and Lebanon. Since then, the force's activities have centered around monitoring military activity between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces with the aim of reducing tensions and allaying tension along the border. UNIFIL has played an important role in clearing landmines, assisting displaced persons and providing humanitarian assistance to civilians in the underdeveloped region of Southern Lebanon ...

The Wikipedia article on this subject is quite detailed, including about the UNIFIL/Israel/Hezbollah problems, and worth a read.

I don't know much about UNIFIL, except it seems that it has utterly failed in its mandate to de-militarize Hezbollah and keep them north of the Litani River (the Blue Line).

More: UN says some peacekeepers moving as Israel blasted over fire on UNIFIL posts

Eruption

My latest sci fi read from the library is Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. As Wikipedia notes, the novel is ...

based on an unfinished manuscript by Crichton at the time of his death. It is Crichton's 29th novel, the nineteenth under his own name and the fourth of his novels published posthumously. A thriller about an eruption of Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, the novel was unfinished at the time of Crichton's death in 2008, but was completed years later by Patterson, at the behest of Crichton's widow Sherri. In June 2024, it was reported that Steven Spielberg was in talks with Sherri Crichton about a possible film adaptation.

Crichton's two Jurassic Park novels are among my most favorite books, so I was guardedly hopeful that this would be good. I had to wait a long time, too - I was like # 300+ on the hold list at the library!

The story started out kind of so-so, and the main character, named John "Mac" MacGregor, cannot help but remind mo of MacGyver in both name and can-do personality ;)

But it's getting better. Right now I'm reading about Mac saving people from a helicopter that crashed in the crater of the lava lake, Puʻu ʻŌʻō ...

If you like the writing of Michael Crichton, or of James Pattersn, or are interested in volcanoes, you may find the book worth a read. Here's a bit from a book review in The Washington Post ...

James Patterson finishes Michael Crichton’s book, with explosive results

[...] As author partnerships go, this is Godzilla’s head grafted onto King Kong’s body. Of course, Hollywood is already buzzing around it, and why not? Together, these two authors — or their brands — have sold an estimated 675 million copies, one for every year since the Neoproterozoic era ....

36-year-old John “Mac” MacGregor hears a deep rumbling and feels the beach shaking. As director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Mac understands what that means. “He’d always known this day would come.” Steam is already wafting up from the top of Mauna Loa, the planet’s biggest active volcano, a colossus that rises almost six miles off the ocean floor. “The eruption was only days away.” ....

Hamas

More from General Barry McCaffrey ...

Hamas must be attacked wherever they appear until they are destroyed. No ceasefire. If it’s permanent war….so be it. Israel has a right to exist. 7 Oct changed reality going forward. … permanently. Where is a Pan Arab force to take Gaza authority? https://t.co/CTxyVzduyT

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 8, 2024

Bill Maher

Bill Maher on how badly women are treated in Middle Eastern countries, and the irony of liberals supporting reactionary theocratic terrorist regimes like the one in Gaza ...

Another annicersary

- Israel/Lebanon/Syria border

Today is the one year anniversary of war declared by the terrorist group in Lebanin, Hezbollah, against Israel, in solidarity with Hamas' attack the day before ...

[...] Hezbollah on Sunday said it had launched guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in the Shebaa Farms [in Israel] "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

"Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you," said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut's outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian fighters ...

Since that day, Hezbollah has launched more than 9,000 rockets, drones, and anti-tank missiles at Israel. More than 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in the north.

Israel has finally decided to push Hezbollah back from the border, and has stated that returning its citizens to their homes in the north is now one of their war goals. If Hezballah had kept their part of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 in 2006, if Lebanon or the UN had enforced that resolution, this probably would not be necessary.

So Israel, worried about an attack from Hezbollah like the one by Hamas on Oct 7, has been clearing out Hezbollah infrastructure in the villages near the border in Lebanon, Israel has been striking Hezbollah operatives and leadership in Beirut. And Israel has closed a border crossing to Syria to keep weapons from coming from Iran to Hezbollah. As Israel does this, it warns civilians to get out of dangerous areas.

What I see in the news is that Israel is "escalating" the war. Israel is deiplacing, trapping, killing civilians. There's never condemnation of Hezbollah ... why do they put their headquarters under apartment buildings, why do they put their rocket launchers in civilian homes, why did they started the war in the first place? I have no doubt they knew what would eventually happen.

Israel was attacked. It put up with that ongoing attack for a year while they tried diplomacy. Now it is fighting back. That's what anyone else would do.

Ginally, in the State Department press briefing today, Matt Miller made clear that the US believes Hezbollah is untrustworthy and that the US supports Israel's efforts in Lebanon. Start watching at 47:53, when a reporter asks about that war ...

October 7

In the news today, a year after the October 7 attack - thousands at anti-Israel protests around the word, both Hezbollah and Hamas shooting rockets at Israel, and anti-Jewish threats spiking actoss the US.

I don't understand it, I guess. The facts are that ...

1) Hamas began a war, with hundreds of terrorists and civilian Gazans swarming into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering, raping, torturing, and kidnapping, while they rained down rockets on Israel.

2) The next day, Hezbollah declared war on Israel too and began firing rockets, which has continued for a year, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.

3) Israel has fought back. While doing this they have made more efforts than any other nation before to preserve civilian life in Gaza and Lebanon.

4) And Israel is winning the wars started by Hamas and Hezbollah.

Is that the problem? We're they not supposed to fight back, to be so effective at it? Were they just supposed to bury their dead and move on? Were they just supposed to leave the hostages to rot? Were they just supposed to give up the northern part of their country as a Hezbollah firing range? What exactly does the world demand of them? To just lay back and die?

And speaking of dying, yes, a lot of people are dying. Too many. If the world didn't want to see that, they should have made Iran and Turkey and Qatar call off the terrorists, they should have helped Israel save the hostages and defeat the terrorists as quickly and efficiently as possible. Why didn't they?

More: 14 images of Israel from a year of war

Hezbollah

As anti-Israeli protests surge around the world, Israel continues to crush Hezbollah ...

If confirmed … a final stunning blow to Hezbollah. Not a decapitation strategy. The IDF and Mossad have actually shattered the terrorist chain of command from the bottom to the top. I’d hazard 3500+ experienced Hezbollah leaders obliterated or mangled. https://t.co/8qYyjYbGz4

— Barry R McCaffrey (@mccaffreyr3) October 5, 2024

Last episode

- Sauron

Just watched the last episode of season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

- Elendil is the ancestor of Aragorn

It was really pretty good. We see the end of Eregion and the beginning of Rivendell, we see Aragorn's ancestor aquire the sword Narsil, we see a Balrog :), and we see a great fight scene between Sauron and Galadriel. This video below doesn't do it credit but it was the best I could find ...



I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was a teen, and it still has the power to touch me all these zillions of years later.

Iran's nuclear facilities

John Bolton on Meet the Press Now yesterday. He was asked about the targets Israel might choose to fire on in Iran. I've always thought of Bolton as a scary ultra conservative, but since the Trump years, when Bolton came out against him, I've reconsidered him ...



To me, the most logical choice of targets would indeed be Iran's nuclear sites. Here's a map from Wikipedia, Nuclear facilities in Iran, showing what there is to choose from ...

Israel rescues Yazidi woman from Gaza

After more than a decade in captivity in Gaza: the IDF led by COGAT, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Israel, rescued a young Yazidi woman held by a Hamas terrorist affiliated with ISIS in the Gaza Strip

In an operation coordinated by IDF and led by COGAT, with the U.S.… pic.twitter.com/9GbyU4oJw9

— COGAT (@cogatonline) October 3, 2024

Read more: Hostage kidnapped by ISIS at age 11 — and then held by Hamas for 10 years — is freed in operation led by US, Israel

VP debate

I watched the debate between Vance and Walz last night. I just want to point out here some of the lies told by Vance on the subject of reproductive rights. I say "lies" because he's a smart guy and I'm sure he knows the actual facts, but chose to misrepresent them at the debate to mislead voters.

1) Vance said that he supports abortion laws being made in the states, and that he doesn't want a federal ban against abortion. But up to this point, he has indeed supported a federal ban.

2) Vance also said he supports IVF. This is an odd stance for a conservative Catholic ... the church is against IVF because it usually includes the destruction of embryos. He had a chance recently to vote in the Senate for protections for IVF ... he didn't vote.

3) Then Vance lied about the Minnisota reproductive rights law that Walz signed as governor, saying that it allowed doctors to deny medical care to babies born alive after a "botched" abortion. Here's some fact checking from CBS news ...

Vance's statement omits key context about the law. In 2023, Walz signed a bill that updated state law regarding medical care for infants "born alive" as a result of an abortion. Both the previous and updated law state that an infant "born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law."

Previously, the law required medical professionals to take all reasonable measures to "preserve the life and health of the born alive infant." After the update, medical personnel are required to take all reasonable measures "to care for the infant who is born alive" — a change advocates say allows parents of infants not expected to survive to forgo extraordinary and futile interventions.

Late-term abortions typically occur to save the mother's life or when families are facing situations where the fetus is unlikely to survive long after birth. The Minnesota Department of Health reported eight infants "born alive" from 2019 to 2022. According to the records, three of those infants were classified as "previable" or not developed enough to survive outside the uterus; three were provided "comfort care as planned;" and two had fetal anomalies.

4) Then Vance implied that Catholic hospitals are (or will be?) forced to perform abortions against their will. But it is federal law that no medical practicioner is forced to do any procedure that is agains their conscience. And - U.S. can't punish Christian hospitals for refusing to do abortions, gender surgery

JD Vance said he and Trump are for women, for children, for families. This is untrue ... the Republican party in government has consistently slashed funds for these groups. Vance wants the Republicans to "win back women's trust". Women don't trust people who lie to them. And given that the man at the top of the Republican ticket is a rapist, well, that doesn't exactly inspire women's trust either.

In Lebanon

The IDF describes details (with vvideos, photos) of what it's doing in Southern Lebanon ...