In Gaza City

From The Wall Street Journal ...

Israel Says It Has Killed Hamas Spokesman in Gaza City Strike Ahead of Planned Invasion

Israel killed the longtime spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing in a Gaza City airstrike, the country’s defense minister said Sunday, as the military prepares an offensive on the capital city where it believes other Hamas leaders are sheltering.

The spokesman, known by his nom de guerre, Abu Obeida, was famous for his fiery speeches denouncing Israel while wearing a kaffiyeh wrapped around his face. He was one of the few surviving senior Hamas officials left in the Gaza Strip ...

From the Beginning

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, 1972.

France

🟢 𝗝𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗨𝗖𝗥𝗘́ 🍑 ❯ Le 6e jardin du domaine a bien poussé depuis sa création en 2020 !

Ce verger 🍋🍐 à la française compte pas moins de 370 arbres fruitiers, qui s'épanouissent sur un hectare. pic.twitter.com/c5AQ2shYgO

— Château de Cheverny (@Chateaucheverny) August 30, 2025

Visiting the chateau's twitter page reminds me of my family's one trip to Europe, long ago in 1976. We did visit France, but were only there for a couple of days at the very end of the tour. In Paris, we visited the Louvre and Notre Dame and other traditional sites. Here's a somewhat deteriorated pic of my mom - you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background ...

Operation Thunderbolt

In the news ...

Tony Blair and Jared Kushner attended a meeting with Ron Dermer at the White House yesterday on the subject of who will rule Gaza after Hamas is defeated and the war is over - Scoop: Inside Trump's Gaza meeting with Tony Blair and Jared Kushner

They talked about this on The Times of Israel's daily briefing ...



One problem is going to be that some Arab countries want the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) to rule Gaza after the war, and that will be something Israel probably won't go for.

Why not? I don't know for sure, but I speculate that it's because Hamas has kicked the PA's butt in the past and probably could again, but also that the PA was/is the PLO, the author, along with its many factions, of suicide bombings, and the Munich massacre, and many plane hijackings, including the one that led to Benjamin Netanyahu's brother's death ...



It's hard to imagine how this will all work out.

Live At Knebworth

Money for Nothing by Dire Straits ... with Eric Clapton ... at the Nordoff-Robbins charity show at Knebworth House, 1990.

The boiling frog apologue

Nicole Wallace asks how you can tell when the frog is actually boiled (boiling frog apologue) ...



One way to tell if our particular frog is boiled is illustrated in this clip from the show The Handmaid's Tale ...



Here's Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker ...

Olive

Very hot here today. Olive is flopped out by the window.

The interview.

Wow. Just watched the interview with VP JD Vance on Meet the Press. I don't think I've ever seen a government official so gifted at blowing smoke.

Famine in Gaza?

I don't think so, if only because there are so few deaths. I recall the 1992 famine in Somalia. It was this famine and the war lords stealing food delieveries to victims that caused the US (Clinton) to send troops there to help (Black Hawk Down incident). 200,000 to 300,000 people died in that famine.

I think people want to believe there is a famine in Gaza, so much so that they will mess with the actual definitions and facts to make it seem so.

Eylon Levy addresses this ...

🧵 The UN-backed IPC just declared “famine” in Gaza City.
Here’s why that claim is WRONG — and why it matters.

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 22, 2025

I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)

Moody Blues, I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band). The recording was released in 1973 but I think this promotional video was made in 1972.

:)

Repost this cutie for good luck ✨ pic.twitter.com/h0Y4pjV9Dp

— The Wildlife Trusts (@WildlifeTrusts) August 21, 2025

MAHA

Genocide?

Watched former Obama aide Ezra Klein's latest NY Times episode, this one on genocide in Gaza. It seemed one sided to me, without a look at facts that contradicted his foregone conclusion: that, of course, Israel is committing gemocide.

It's depressing that it's hard to find an examination of this subject in places other than Republican/conservative publications. Leaders of the Democratic party .... if you really do wonder why so many people in your own party no longer trust you, one reason might be because you have turned into ideologues who don't actuilly listen to your own voters ... you think you know better than they do what they themselves believe!

But anyway, for those few people who haven't already made up their minds on this subject of genocide, here is a link to an article that I think is worth a read - "10 Questions 'Genocide in Gaza' Accusers Cannot Answer".

https://t.co/VjysXIHSlV

— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) August 18, 2025

"I'm looking for someone to change my life ..."

When I was young, this middle part of The Moody Blues' song, Question, really made an impression on me. This video clip is from 1970, Paris ...

pure beauty 🙏

the moody blues - question (interlude only) pic.twitter.com/7GXh4dSfmM

— 💜 mr bill 💜 ( get my notifications ) (@notmrbill069) August 5, 2025

Dahlias

Il est d'abord connu pour les valeurs nutritives de son tubercule (le goût n'est pas forcément formidable ! 😂), mais c'est son aspect décoratif qui fera sa renommée.

🌺🌼 Découvrez nos dahlias dans le jardin bouquetier. pic.twitter.com/qO7w3A8qrt

— Château de Cheverny (@Chateaucheverny) August 14, 2025

Appeasement

File under ... “those who don't know history are destined to repeat it”.

This policy is called appeasement ...

Appeasement, in an international context, is a diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power with intention to avoid conflict.

The term is most often applied to the foreign policy between 1935 and 1939 of the British governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and most notably Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

It doesn't work out too well.

Till There Was You

This looks really bad for Ukraine :(

"Wake up!"

He' right. Given the current administration, it seems terrifyingly credible that anyone anywhere and at any time and for any reason can be snatched away and disappeared into some foreign hellhole. This is not what America is meant to be.

Sultans of Swing

Dire Straits and Eric Clapton performing "Sultans of Swing" at Wembley Stadium for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, 1988.

Imagine how good you have to be on guitar to get Eric Clapton to play the rhythm for you. Amazing.#DireStraits pic.twitter.com/Q8va6L1O5E

— 🎸 Rock History 🎸 (@historyrock_) September 6, 2024

Gaza City

The daily briefing from The Times of Israel discusses the new offensive in Gaza City, starvation, and the recent death of an Al Jazeera journalist.

I'm not sure why people seem so surprised that Israel would decide to go into Gaza City. Every ceasefire/hostage release plan has failed and the goals of the war, saving the hostages and getting rid of Hamas, have still not been met. Gaza City is the last main area where Hamas is holed up and where it is thought most of the hostages are being held. The alternative to attacking that area is a forever war stalemate.

Magnetic slime :)

A robot made of magnetic slime could be deployed inside the body to perform tasks such as retrieving objects swallowed by accident.https://t.co/EYpnx56vNO pic.twitter.com/zA3hMO80xQ

— New Scientist (@newscientist) March 31, 2022

:)

Pete

Pete on Pod Save America.

Klein and Khalil

So, Ezra Klein of The New York Times had a video interview with Mahmoud Khalil ... Mahmoud Khalil Tells His Story.

I tried to listen to it all but I found it so disturbing that I gave up after the segment on the October 7 massacre by Hamas and other Gazans on Israeli civilians at kibitzes and a music festival.

Khalil, a Palestinian partisan though born in Syria, identified with the attackers, saying ... "Unfortunately, we couldn't avoid such a moment" when asked about the Oct 7 attack.

Really? Couldn't avoid cutting off women's breasts while raping them, before decapitating them? Couldn't avoid tying children together and burning them alive? Couldn't avoid trying to chop off a man's head with a garden hoe while he was still living? Couldn't avoid mudering Shani Louk and parading her half naked bbody through the streets of Gaza? ...



Klein, an Obama aide, one of the "progressives" of Pod Save America who doomed Biden's run for president in 2024, didn't even say a word at this point in the interview.

How, how in the world, did the other liberals in my own Democratic party choose to champion these creeps?

Paul

“Let it Be” - The Beatles (1970) pic.twitter.com/KgS2JEvI7L

— The Beatles Earth (@BeatlesEarth) August 1, 2025

One story of the song's origin is that Paul wrote it after having a dream about his deceased mother, Mary - -Paul explained once on Carpool Karaoke ...

Ariel Bibas

Kidnapping and killing of the Bibas family

Today should have been Ariel Bibas’ 6th birthday. But Palestinian terrorists from Gaza kidnapped him from his bed, murdered him with their bare hands, mutilated his body, and sent him back without his dead mother but a random corpse in her coffin. Rest in peace🧡 pic.twitter.com/DR5tT5YrfX

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 5, 2025

Pro-terrorist protests

As Hamas puts out a video of an emaciated Israeli hostage digging his own grave, protesters call for a Palestinian state ... Mass anti-Israel protests sweep Australia, calls to recognize Palestinian state

Someone had to say it:

World leaders trying to appease extremist protests on their own streets are emboldening Hamas to keep the hostages. pic.twitter.com/qXgljkB17K

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) August 3, 2025

Pete

I still think Pete would be the best Democratic candidate for the next presidential election.

He was asked about Zohran Mamdani and said "affordability" was indeed the right message ... I agree ... but Pete also later pointed out that the West won the Cold War because Soviet citizens wanted a life like ours, not the other way around. Mamdani's socialism iis merely the modern version of Soviet economic failure.

The whole longer interview is below ...

New digs for Maxwell

Federal Prison Camp, Bryan

Why am I not surprised.

Remember the hostages?

Hamas releases new video of captive Evyatar David

Hamas has released a video of hostage Evyatar David who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival.

He’s being held in a tunnel and shows clear signs of starvation.

Evyatar is a civilian and has been held in horrific conditions for 665 days.

— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) August 1, 2025

Yeah, remember the hostages?

Hamas, the terrorist organization that purposely raped and tortured and kidnapped and murdered civilians, including seniors, women, babies .... that would be the organization that the international community is on the side of, wants to give official recognition to, wants to give a vote at the UN to.