The Daily Briefing

In The Times of Israel's daily briefing, they discuss the possible hostage release/ceasefire plan and also the recent events surrounding the distribution of aid in Gaza by a new American security company.

Soylent Orange

Breakfast ...

Yoda, worried about my food choices ...

Pete/ The Bulwark

Tim Miller at The Bulwark talks to Pete Buttigieg ...

More Tom Cruise :)

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise at the BFI Southbank earlier this month. I really like him as an actor and appreciate the many science fiction movies he's done (Legend, Interview with the Vampire, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, The Mummy). And, of course, all the Mission Impossible films.

Rock Me On The Water

Jackson Browne at the BBC, 1978



Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You've left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You're lost inside your houses
There's no time to find you now
While your walls are burning and your towers are turning
I've goota leave your here and try to get down to the sea somehow

The road is filled with homeless souls
Every woman, child and man who have no idea where they will go, but they'll help you if they can
Now everyone must some thought that's gonna pull them through somehow
Well, the fires are raging hotter and hotter
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

Oh people, look among you
It's there your hope must lie
There's a sea bird above you
Gliding in one place like Jesus in the sky
We all must do the best we can
And then hang on to that Gospel plow
When my life is over, I'm going to stand before the Father
But the sisters of the sun are going to rock me on the water now

< $30

I see in the news that the Republicans big bill has passed. It will cut Medicaid, as we know, but also SNAP. I'm just curious ... I now receive $30 a month from food stamps, it having gone up a couple of months ago from $22 a month because of an increase in my bills.

I'll let you guess how far $30 goes in paying for a month of food in this economy. And that's just food ... food stamps don't cover toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, paper towels, etc, much less cat food.

So now that the Republicans are cutting that $30 dollars down, I wonder what help the residue will be. But that's ok because old people don't need much food, right? And, more importantly, this reduction in my benefits will help all those rich Republican donors make ends meet, so I guess it's worth it.

Terrorism

A terrorist murdering innocent people to support the terrorism of Hamas.

On Sky News

Eylon Levy on Sky News talking about the UK's recent stance on the war between Israel and Hamas ...

📺 Back on @SkyNews: pic.twitter.com/tItjZKHTTY

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) May 21, 2025

Resumption of aid

The guys at The Times of Israel's daily briefing talk about the resumption of aid to the Gazans, as well as the ongoing hostage/ceasefire talks ...

Biden and the Democrats

Very sad to see in the news that President Biden has cancer ... President Biden has metastatic prostate cancer. Here’s what you should know

This is especially distressing given the way top Democrats have been putting the blame for losing the last election onto Biden ... Original Sin: book on Biden’s health decline reopens Democratic party’s wounds

The Democratic party line now is that the reason the Democrats lost the last election is that Biden was too old and demented to run again, and stayed in the race too long, dooming Harris's bid for president.

I guess you have to give the movers and shakers in the Democratic party credit for trying, but this is simply false, and a shameful effort to throw Biden to the wolves to obsolve themselves of their own failure.

The Democratic party lost the last election for one reason, and that reason wasn't Biden.

The Democratic party lost because they lost their way and forgot who their constituency really is. They became the party of the Ivy League schools, of the financially wealthy, of the famous celebs. The minimum wage workers? The disabled? The seniors on Social Security? The Medicaid patients? The homeless? The Democratic party never mentioned them. IThe party seems to care more about the plight of the Gazans than about the homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks of my neighborhood.

And when those members of this "underclass" spoke up about their worsening financial problems, the Democratic party told them they were just wrong about their own lived experience.

No kidding. An example: here's a bit from Chris Hayes' All In on MSNBC from before the election - he's saying that those people who are complaining about their financial pain are just too stupid to realize that everything financial is actually really great ...



Yeah, finances were really great - for people like the wealthy voters the Democrartic party now cultivates. Not so much for people like me, living on Social Security at the Federal poverty line.

Harris and the other Democratic luminaries hosted galas featuring the wealthy ... the Clintons, the Obamas, Beyoncé, George Clooney, Oprah, Mark Cuban .... everyone millionares, including Harris.

Never did I hear Harris mention the homeless, never did she say she would try to increase Social Security for the senior poor, never a word from her about food stamps or Medicaid. The closest she got was supporting unions. News flash - people in unions like the UAW arte not the people who most need help.

This is why you lost the election, Democratic operatives. Because the people who needed help actually came to believe they had a better chance of getting that help from Trump. That is your fault. Scapegoating Biden will not change that.

Why Operation Gideon's Chariots

Tonight, I am conflicted.

Overnight, Israel launched Operation Gideon's Chariots. It marks the latest, bloody phase of the war Hamas launched on October 7, 2023 with a barbaric massacre of Israeli civilians, an attack that triggered a regional war against the Jewish state on…

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) May 17, 2025

Naked clothing

No Naked Dressing? How Will Stars Make News?

The Cannes Film Festival is getting more covered-up — and just in time for the opening ceremony honoring the octogenarian Robert De Niro. Bella Hadid, newly blonde, is already in town, and stars expected include Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson and Emma Stone. But anyone expecting one of the most reliable moves on the red carpet might be disappointed. The new dress code for gala screenings includes the admonition, “for decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.”

Cue a crisis in the fashion-film industrial complex. After all, nowhere has the naked dress been more of a presence than at Cannes ...

I find it depressing that (1) it's always only the women who are expected to shop their wares in public, and that (2) their worth seems to depend soley on how much wood their body parts can inspre.

If this scenario, seen even at the gala for the Metropolitan Museum, is really considered a worthy evaluation system, where then are the "naked pants" for the men? How can the public tell if male luminaries are worthy celebrities if we isn't allowed to examine and rate their low hanging fruit?

Silly me, I forgot. That would be pointless, because men are evaluated on their accomplishments, and only women are evalusted on their f*ckability.

We really are just a bunch of monkeys.

Israel's pov on the Trump tour

The Times of Israel's daily briefing discusses, with editor Devid Horovitz, Trump's Muddle East junket.

I feel for Israel - they have thought Trump was a wonderful friend to their country, never realizing, or maybe just not wanting to realize, that Trump is an opportunist, using others to benefit himself. The wealthy kingdoms and dictatorships of the Arab world can and will give Trump so much more than the democracy of Israel ever could or would.

Pete

Is Pete Buttigieg planning to run for president in the 2028 election? It would seem so. I like Pete - I would vote for him over my own governor, Gavin Newsom, who I'm sure will be running. Newsom's latest move to make himself more electable ... Newsom urges California cities and counties to ban homeless encampments. Has he forgotten he's running for the Democratic candidacy, not the Republican?

Bernie on Republican Medicaid cuts

Bernie talks about the seniors, disbled people, and the poor who live on $16,000 or less a year and who will have their Medicaid cut by the Republicans. All to give more money to rich people. I myself get less than that per year and I am very worried about losing Medicaid benefits.

Murderbot

Too many great sci-fi shows go unnoticed. I hope 'Murderbot' won't be the next

I first posted about the Murderbot books back in 2019 ... Murderbot. I really like the novels, The Murderbot Diaries, and it looks like the new tv series adapted from them and starring Alexander Skarsgård will be good as well.

The hostage release

The backstory on today's hostage release and Trump's Middle East trip, from The Times of Israel's daily briefing ...

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the wild moms out there!

Since 2019, wildlife monitoring program SnapShot USA has captured photos throughout the nation, including some great shots of animal mothers and their young. Besides showing off adorable baby animals, these images help our… pic.twitter.com/ADsgrR7PfZ

— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) May 11, 2025

Cat People

I think Cat People was one of the last movies I saw with the ex before we broke up, so it has a kind of taint. Still, I did like the song that David Bowie did for it - Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (1982) ...

Possum

We are very sad to share that Basil—a rescued Virginia opossum who was favorite of many Small Mammal House visitors—died May 1. That morning during their rounds, keepers found Basil tremoring, tense and unable to move. They brought him to the Zoo’s hospital, where veterinarians… pic.twitter.com/fW8IJ69qhT

— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) May 6, 2025

Makes me think of the possum living here. He is quite a big one and has taken up residence in one of the cat condos in the back yard. One day when we opened up all the condos to check on the straw, there he was, napping. He comes out at night and eats the left-over cat food. My neighbor likes possums too and leaves out grapes for them.

Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) is the new pope, an American.

He's being called like-minded to Pope Francis. I'd say yes to that. Like Francis, Pope Leo doesn't want women to be priests, he cares about the environment, he's for immigrants, he's been accused of ignoring sex abuse claims, and he's pretty negative about gay relationships (Francis is seen as liberal on this, which just isn't true).

For more info on this stuff ... Where Pope Leo Stands On Specific Issues ... Who is Robert Prevost? The American cardinal who is the new Pope Leo XIV

Although I find it depressing that women and gay people and sex abuse survivors probably won't have an advocate in the new pope, I still feel kind of hopeful about him. He chose to join the Augustinian order. The person they follow, Augustine of Hippo, was a really interesting guy (I read his Confessions in school). If you want to learn more about him, I recommend a movie, Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine. Here's the trailer ...

The daily briefing

The Times of Israel's daily briefing discusses the recent news that the Israeli government has decided to intensify operations in Gaza, as well as the Houthi missle which recently struck near Tel Aviv, and a report on the Hamas attack from the sea on October 7.

Interview

The president in an interview on Meet the Press.

Chilling.

May Day

When it's the first day of May, this song pops into my head. I don't especially like it, but there it is.

From the 1967 movie Camelot that I saw as an impressionable teen. Vanessa Redgrave singing.

I wanted to see it because I was a fan of all the Camelot books, like The Once and Future King by T. H. White and Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy that started with The Crystal Cave.

Still, the movie and the stories it's based on are pretty sad - by the end, everyone's happiness is destroyed. Maybe that's part of what makes it so memorable.

Kamala Harris

Oh no ...

Kamala Harris focuses first major speech since leaving office on taking down Trump

Interesting, then, that her husband's law firm is one of those that is actually cooperating with Trump ...

Trump Announces Deal With Doug Emhoff’s Law Firm

President Trump announced Tuesday another deal with a law firm he had targeted for potential punishment, this time the one that employs Doug Emhoff, former Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband ....

Ms. Harris is weighing whether to run for governor of California or president in 2028 and it’s unclear how the deal will impact Mr. Emhoff’s relationship with the firm, which he joined in January. According to a person briefed on the matter, Mr. Emhoff told the firm’s leadership on Tuesday that they should not strike a deal with Mr. Trump and instead should fight it ...

But still he continues to work there?

I hope Harris doesn't try to run for president again. I did vote for her last time but I don't think she has any chance at winning in 2028.