Halloween

- Pumpkinhead - Self-Portrait, Jamie Wyeth

It's Halloween, and I am going to forget the real world for a bit and instead concentrate on recommending some scary movies to watch tonight ...

- World War Z ...



- Aliens ...



- Constantine ...



- The Prophecy ...



- A Quiet Place ...



- Night of the Demon ...

No more mowing

So cute!

Now that it has started raining again here, the lawn has come back to life and today is my first day of mowing since early summer. It actually takes a few days to do the whole lawn area as the mower is on a battery and can only go for about an hour at a time.

No more mowing - we need some guinea pigs!

Food

Another viewpoint

Ezra Klein finally has a guest who represents the majority opinion in Israel when it comes to the Israeli/Hamas peace plan and the prospects for a 2 state solution. I thought it was really informative.

The peace plan

So what's happening with the peace plan for the Israel/Hamas war? The Trump administration has been trying to say the war is over and the plan is progressing, but there are hitches with fighting breaking out at times and with Hamas not returning all of the deceased hostages yet. And then there's the whole "governing Gaza" can of worms.

All this is discussed today on The Times of Israel's daily briefing ...

Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler proving why he's called one of the greatest guitarists of all time pic.twitter.com/FghOpnQ6uK

— 🎸 Rock History 🎸 (@historyrock_) October 28, 2025

Travels

Seen in my twitter travels today ...

« Les musées ne sont ni des bastions ni des coffres-forts » : les directeurs des plus grandes institutions du monde apportent leur soutien à la présidente-directrice du Louvre, Laurence des Cars.

⬇️https://t.co/OZGMPvajNG

— Musée du Louvre (@MuseeLouvre) October 27, 2025

On October 15, 2025, Jim Morrison completed the first ski descent of Mount Everest’s Hornbein Couloir—solving what elite ski mountaineers worldwide called "the last great problem." pic.twitter.com/iXe2l1MMl6

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) October 27, 2025

Happy #NationalBlackCatDay! This cutie is having fun buried in the autumn leaves 🥰🍂

📸: Matt White#BlackCat #Cat #Autumn pic.twitter.com/wgAMChhzAg

— Animal Planet (@AnimalPlanet) October 27, 2025

🎸"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"🎸
Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Dhani Harrison & Prince pay tribute to George Harrison at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonypic.twitter.com/XSOXy46C5a

— Music and lyrics! 🎙️🎵🎸🎼🎹🤘 (@somethingrand77) October 27, 2025

Chicago

Saturday In The Park—Chicago 🎶 pic.twitter.com/Gh89PXmH2l

— Amelia America (@AmeliaMerica76) August 30, 2025

Santana

Live at Tanglewood, with Gregg Rolie singing Black Magic Woman, 1970 ...



And in 1999, with Rob Thomas doing vocals, Smooth ...

Nooooooo!

Kamala Harris says she “may” run for president again. pic.twitter.com/F1hiB9tmO6

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 25, 2025

I'm not sure there will even be presidential elections in the future, given how things are going, but if there are, we Democrats would have to be insane to have her as our candidate again.

Then who?

I think many might choose Gavin Newsom, but though he is smart and fearless, I don't totally trust him, and he's my governor. Why not? Take his recent moves on homelessness: New California law aims to force people with mental illness or addiction to get help and California’s homeless encampment crackdown draws criticism from health experts

And there's other stuff - his cheating on the COVID ban, his disturbing choice of his first wife, etc. - suffice to say, he wouldn't be my first pick.

I like Bernie, of course, and AOC, but I don't rlike their stance on Israel and AOC just doesn't have enough experience, plus I worry that they couldn't win in a general election.

So far, the two politicians I like best and who I think have a good chance to win are Pete Buttigieg and JB Pritzker.

The working class?

Why did the Democratic party lose the working class voters, and how to win next time ... by having Democrats become Republicans in all but name? Ugh.

I'd rahter ask why the Democratic party gave up on the voters who yearn to be working class ... those who fell through the cracks in the system, those who met with some life-changing disaster, those who were doomed from circumstances of their birth ... the least among us.

Democratic politicians don't talk to poor people, to disabled people, to old people, the drug addicted, the homeless. Sometimes a few of them talk about those people, but the people Democratic politicians actually see are really people like themselves ... the sucessful.

Oh, they do mention the "working middle class" of course, but even then they have to put in the word "working" in case their more sucessful voters think they mean to give money and benefits to freeloaders.

At the end of the day, most Democratic politicians don't think these is a significant number of these prople, and anyway they don't vote, right? The arrogance of Democratic politicians is crushing to those who are struggling, and so they have looked elsewhere or just given up on voting.

The rich get rich and the poor get poorer

As Trump demolishes the east wing of the White House to make space for his new huge ballroom, and as he sues the Justice Dept for $230 million dollars for the temerity of having filed charges against him in the past (to be paid by the taxpayers), his shutdown will cause people like me to lose their food stamps ... Newsom says Trump 'endangering people’s lives' as shutdown hits food benefits.

Sad

"No Matter What" by Badfinger is an upbeat, power-pop anthem from 1970 that passionately declares unwavering love and resilience in the face of doubt or adversity.pic.twitter.com/F4JExWj2NC

— Music and lyrics! 🎙️🎵🎸🎼🎹🤘 (@somethingrand77) October 19, 2025

Saw this today and it made me sad. Badfinger had a lot of potential and they got some help in the beginning from the Beatles. But it wasn't enough. Eventually two of the members, Pete Ham and Tom Evans, committed suicide because of their financial problems. Here's another of their songs ...

End of the Line

Traveling Wilburys (Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty). Orbison had died after recording his vocals but before the video was made in 1988.

No Kings protests

Speaker Mike Johnson has said that people participating in No Kings protests hate America. Not true. Nothing could be more American than non-violent political protests.

From National Treasure, Ben reading from the Declaration of Independence ...

The deceased

Hamas Gaza held Hadar Goldin's body for NINE YEARS before the October 7 War.

It can't suddenly pretend it lost him.

Hamas must return all the murdered hostages' bodies NOW, I told Newsmax: pic.twitter.com/akOliWCLnQ

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 17, 2025

The AI apocalypse

Ezra Klein talks to a pioneer of A.I. safety research, Eliezer Yudkowsky, about P(doom) ...



It's hard to be a fan of science fiction and not have some worries about AI going bad, taking over society, and destroying us.

From Terminator ...



To The Matrix ...



I actually do think AIs have the potential to be very dangerous. They are human intelligence raised to an inhuman level, while untethered to the stuff in human beings that exerts control, and unpredictable in ways we, well, can't predict.

We're just dust

Kansas, playing at the Canada Jam festival in 1978, Ontario.

Stressful day. Lost my internet service last night - rain storm. I made coffee this morning and stared at the dead computer, realizing that I couldn't read Google news ... eeeeeee! The guy came and fixed it today, scared the cats but I feel better now. How frail my equilibtium is.

All the living hostages released

The last 13 surviving hostages have been transferred to the IDF and are on their way to Israeli territory. They are free. 💛

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 13, 2025

First hostages released

Band on the Run

“Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney & Wings is a timeless classic, blending catchy melodies with a thrilling tale of escape and freedom. Its iconic riffs and storytelling make it a standout in rock history!
pic.twitter.com/EzsV779Jln

— Music and lyrics! 🎙️🎵🎸🎼🎹🤘 (@somethingrand77) October 5, 2025

Back in the saddle again :(

Hamas once again policing the streets of Gaza where the IDF has pulled back.

Cleopatra

The search for Cleopatra's tomb isn't just a matter of geography—it requires an understanding of who she was.#CleopatrasFinalSecret is now streaming on @DisneyPlus and @hulu. pic.twitter.com/vno0M0J4PS

— National Geographic TV (@NatGeoTV) October 10, 2025

What I mainly recall about Cleopatra from college history classes is that she was Greek. She was part of the Macedonian-Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great (who had taken over Egypt and so many other places that just seeing his statue supposedly made Julius Caesar cry in envy ;) - (Ethnicity of Cleopatra).

:)

Penelope, you are perfect ❤️ pic.twitter.com/3zqGowcJh8

— San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (@sandiegozoo) October 9, 2025

RIP: John Lodge

Moody Blues member John Lodge has passed away. He played the bass guitar, sang, and wrote a number of the band's songs.

Here the band performs one of the songs he wrote, Ride My See-Saw from 1968 ...



And another song he wrote for the band was I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) ...



He and Justin Hayward were both hired in 1966, after Denny Laine had quit the band, and they became good friends. Here they are performing a song from an album they made away from the Moody Blues, as the Blue Jays ...

"I’m very sad and shocked to hear of John’s passing. I have such happy memories of making music together. My sincere condolences to his dear wife and family.” – JH pic.twitter.com/1ifcywfmcE

— Justin Hayward (@haywardmusic) October 10, 2025

More on the deal

I've had a lot of posts about the Israel/Hamas peace plan because it is so important after 2 years of war. The idea that all the hostages may finally be released is amazing.

Crushing, though, that so many who were kidnapped by Hamas, like Hersh Goldberg-Polin and the Bibas family, won't be released because they were murdered in captivity.

But also, it is easier to post about what's happening in Israel than about what is happening here at home, which seems like an expanding political nightmare.

And ...

Let's be clear how Hamas is going to game this.

It's going to claim it can't find some of the bodies of hostages it murdered in captivity. In some cases, that may be true. But it will exploit the ambiguity to hold onto hostages as bargaining chips for the future.

Don't let it.

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 9, 2025

Hostages to be released

Waking up in Israel to the miraculous news that after two years, Hamas has agreed to ransom terms to free ALL the hostages, living and dead.

Immediately.

In one go.

Two years after the October 7 Massacre, two years after they were ripped from their beds, from a music…

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 9, 2025

A done deal?

I hope so!

Trump announces deal reached on first part of his Gaza plan: ‘All hostages will be freed very soon’ https://t.co/BUbxm8aumU

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) October 9, 2025

Who Hamas wants released

One of the parts of the peace plan for the Hamas/Israeli war is an exchange ... some have characterized it as an exchange of hostages but it isn't that. Israel will get back the hostages taken by Hamas, and Hamas will get a release from Israeli prisons of, in part, a large number of convicted terrorists, many of them multiple murderers.

This tweet by a reporter below details who Hamas wants released.

BTW, people who accuse Israel of genocide might consider the fact that, unlike many counties, including ours, Israel doesn't use the death penalty ... that's why all these terrorists are in prison still and not dead. Israel has only once used the death penalty, and that for the captured Nazi, Adolf Eichmann (Eichmann trial).

#SCOOP: Israeli Security Official sources have got in touch with me re: the proposed prisoner exchange.

They do not mince their words:

"Hamas is currently insisting on the release of several prisoners who represent absolute red lines for all Israelis. Insisting on these names…

— David Patrikarakos (@dpatrikarakos) October 7, 2025

Noam Tibon

On MSNBC today, an interview with Retired IDF General Noam Tibon, who rescued his family from Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, about the peace talks and the future ...



Here is the trailer for the award winning documentary about Tibon saving his family ...

The red line

Israel is willing to pay a huge ransom to get the hostages home, but Hamas' disarmament is a red line.

If Hamas is not stripped of its rockets and tunnels, the next Gaza war will be only a matter of time.

📺I spoke to @firstpost in India pic.twitter.com/aEGz1JAHIf

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 7, 2025

Screams

- Shani Louk, one of the victims of the Nova music festival massacre

We are on the eve of what could finally be peace between Israel and the terrorists who attacked that country 2 years ago. I really hope the negotiations work and the hostages are released, Hamas ended, the war over.

Since that 2023 attack, the international community has come to the conclusion that Israel is the bad guy, that Israel is an apartheid state, that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, that Gazans are experiencing a famine created by Israel, etc. I don't agree with these views, and I'm hard pressed to explain how anyone could, given actual facts. But it doesn't seem like facts matter - it's all about the narrative. And in my head, the story remains the same as it has since 2023.

Below is part of a post I wrote in December of that year about the attack by Hamas on the Nova music festival on October 7. If anyone wonders why a non-Jewish liberal Democrat supports Israel, read on - below is a short excerpt from a story in The New York Times, 2023 ...

***

A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel.

‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7

[... an eyewitness saw ...] a young woman with copper-color hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back.

She said the men sliced her face and then the woman fell out of view. Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women ...

It is hard to read the whole article, which is long and very disturbing, but people need to know what happened in Israel, what Hamas did, if they want to understand the war and also the peace plan.

The Times of Israel: In harrowing detail, NYT reports on weaponization of rape, sexual violence on Oct. 7

Portland

There are protests, but Portland is not "burning to the ground" and there are not "insurrectionists and antifa everywhere" in Portland. The Oregon politicians are not "afraid for their lives" and they are not "pretending nothing is happening".

Federal agents knock down elderly couple during Portland protest

Here's something from Oct 4 filmed by Oregon Public Broadcasting ...



And here's Oregon's Governor, Attorney General, and the Mayor of Portland ...

More on the peace plan

The Times of Israel's daily briefing gives details on the peace plan and how it is progressing. I hope it works out and the hostages can finally be released.

Dismantling Hamas

If this war ends, Hamas' war machine will still have to be dismantled.

IDF troops just found a tunnel with a weapons factory adjacent to the Jordanian Hospital, and another tunnel UNDER Hamad Hospital in Gaza City.

Gaza must be demilitarized. pic.twitter.com/ruD8yZDwD3

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) October 4, 2025

The flotilla

I had no idea the flotilla was so big ... over 500 people on 47 boats. Or that 3 of the boats are navy vessals. I had thought this was just a publicity stunt, because the amount of aid they would be able to bring would, in practical terms, be a drop in the bucket.

I see now that this is all about causing problems for Israel, and at the time of a Jewish holiday ... the effort to stop the boats, sinking or towing the empty boats, taking in 500 people, some of whom might need medical care, and then having to deport them (fly them to their destinations).

And apparently the flotilla is funded by Hamas ... Captured documents reveal Hamas organized, funded Gaza flotilla