"Occupy" - the word and the deed

I saw in the news today that a reporter asked Mayor Mamdani if he would have threatened to arrest the leaders of Hamas, as he had threatened to arrest Netanyahu. Abd to his credit, he said he would have ...



I bring this up because the whole subject of Israel is now such a weighty topic in the Democratic party, of which Mamdani is a popular representative. And it's my party, so I have strong feelings about how the leaders and candidates of the party are using this subject to try to get votes.

Anyway, today I also saw this video by Haviv Rettig Gur. He has a podcast - Ask Haviv Anything - and in this case he discusses the claim (increasingly now made by Democratic politicians and pundits) that Israel is "occupying" Gaza and has always done so (and also tangentially the West Bank).

Before I add the video, I just want to say ... everyone knows that the actual facts about these historical subjects are out there, right? That people who want to know the actual truth can look stuff up and cross check and verify in multiple ways? You can look up Haviv's facts and you can use your reasoning abilities to evaluate his opinions. Sadly, the Democrats in the party who now want everyone to hate Israel don't want to go there. They think hate will bind us together and help us win elections.

War crimes

Trump threatens a major escalation in Iran after 13 straight nights of strikes



I don't believe this strategy is meant to actually bring Iran to the negotiating table. I think it's meant instead to punish them for exposing the failure his war has been.

A nuke for Prince Bone Saw

What could go wrong?

The Tates

Will the Tate brothers be extradited to the UK? Maybe not, since they have sooo many defenders on the Right ...

There’s Only One Thing Standing in the Way of the Tate Brothers’ Extradition. It’s, Uh, Not Good.

[...] Though the Tate brothers have drawn reproach from across the political spectrum, they have a long history of sympathetic treatment from numerous influential figures on the right, including those close to Donald Trump. While they were barred from leaving Romania during prosecutors’ investigation, the Tates wisely got in good with right-wing podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, both of whom interviewed and defended Andrew Tate, as did Charlie Kirk. Andrew Tate also cultivated friendships with two of Trump’s sons. Donald Trump Jr. conducted a public, livestreamed conversation with him during his father’s 2024 campaign, and Barron Trump spoke with him over Zoom. Unsurprisingly, the Trump sons are fans of the Tate enterprise and believe not only that the Tates are innocent but also that the criminal charges are political efforts to silence essential voices in the discourse ...

Why am I not surprised.

More in-depth article on the Tates and Trump from Axios: Trump, Rubio don't plan to stop Tate brothers' extradition to the U.K.

The Odyssey

Helen (first from the left) and her second husband, Paris of Troy (right) - from Pompeii

I'm not referring to the book by Homer, but the film by Christopher Nolan. I haven't seen it yet, of course ... it can only be properly viewed in IMAX and there are apparently only about 40 IMAX theaters in the whole world! There are a number of them here in California, though, so if I decide to go it won't be a problem.

But will I decide to go? Probably not. From what I've read about the movie so far, it has a lot of flaws.

My very first philosopjy class at college had us reading the Iliad and the Odyssey. The first book tells of the last year of the Trojan war, with the Greeks outside the walls of Troy, all supposedly to get back Helen, daughter of Zeus, the person who was so beautiful that her face had launched 1000 ships when she married Paris of Troy.

But anyway, the Odyssey starts at the end of the war, where Achilles had killed pretty much everyone, but the city still hadn't fallen. It is Odysseus, who finally brings down Troy, not by his bravery in battle, but by his stealth and guile in the creation and use of the Trojan Horse. He was, well, sneaky. And I think his questionable character was further revealed by the way it took him 10 years to then get back home to his wife and child, who really needed his help, because he was basically screwing around along the way.

But apparently, Nolan wants to somehow make Odysseus a real hero. A hero for the manosphere, a hero for the bros.

I would recommend instead a tv miniseries - Helen of Troy, 2003. I think you can find it on Youtube.

But, here's a bit from a review of Nolan's movie in TIME ...

The Odyssey Is Just Another Reason for Despair

[...] The Odyssey ends up being just another reason for despair. In the runup to its release, The Odyssey seems to have inspired more anxiety than actual anticipation. Lovers of classical literature have been asking, Will it hew close enough to Homer’s vision? Or, perhaps more accurately, Will it hew close enough to their vision of Homer’s vision? On the right, pundits have bemoaned what they see as the pure fact that you simply cannot have a Black Helen of Troy (she’s played in the film by Lupita Nyong’o), though it’s hard to fathom that the most controversial trait of a woman who’s been hatched from a swan’s egg should be the color of her skin. The Odyssey has already inspired so much chitter-chatter that its actual release was poised to be a letdown in comparison. But just wait till you actually see this eye-glazing dud of a movie.

Matt Damon, earnestly bewhiskered, stars as Odysseus, the King of Ithaca and a revered warrior, who’s working hard—or so it seems—to get home to his wife, Penelope (a reasonably dignified Anne Hathaway), and the grown son he has never gotten a chance to know, Telemachus (Tom Holland, so bland he’s practically unreadable). Odysseus has been gone for 20 years: The first 10 of those were eaten up by military exploits, chiefly the Trojan War—Nolan’s movie, like Homer’s tale, begins at the end of that war, with a giant wooden horse half-sunk in the sand, a pretty direct reference to the beached and forlorn Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of the Apes. Throughout The Odyssey, we’ll get flashback glimpses of just how violent the sack of Troy, led by Odysseus, was. The suggestion is that he has done some Really Bad Stuff, though the battle scenes, while elaborate, are so tastefully un-bloody that it’s hard to feel there’s anything at stake ...

Ask Haviv anything

As the midterm elections get closer, Democratic politicians are working overtime to put distance between themselves and Israel, all to please their most left-leaning voters. I find this so disingenuous. Makes me think of that description of prostitutes = people who will assume any position if you pay them enough. But anyway, Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish, is no exception.

Someone asked Haviv Rettig Gur what he thought of what Emanuel said ...

How to make a buck

US cancels automatic protections for imperiled animals as critics warn of extinctions

Trump rolls back protections for threatened species and habitat for endangered species

President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, back when even Republicans like him were still actually conservatives .... protectors of our planet and its creatures.

But theTrump administration sees our ecosystem as just something to be plundered for financial profit. Everything they do is about how to make a buck.

T testing

Right. Testosterone testing for our "war fighters". The women too?

Election integrity speech

Lawrence and Congressman Jim Hines talk about the speech.

Fact-checking Donald Trump's national address on U.S. election integrity

STOP Buying Bagged Salad

Oh no. I just had a bagged salad for dinner :(

Sam Neill

Sam Neill, actor known for ‘Jurassic Park,’ dies at 78

Actor Sam Neill has passed away. Even though I've just seen a fraction of his films, I especially liked two of them. One was Jurassic Park (1993). He played the role of Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist invited to see the park. Having read the book, I can tell you he did a great job as that character ...



The other role I liked him in was that of Merlin in the tv miniseries (1998) of the same name. If you know the story of King Arthur and Merlin, you know things went terribly wrong at the end for most of the characters. In this movie version, at the end, Merlin is old and has been separated from his true love, Nimue, for many years. He's lost most of his magic and survives as a traveling storyteller. But one day he meets an old friend (Martin Short) who tells him where he can find Nimue ...



Sad he is gone.

Planet of the Humans

I just deleted my earlier post of Ezra Klein's podcast with Bill McKibben on clean/green energy. Why? Because it had nothing at all aboit the downside of that kind of energy - not just solar and wind but also the burning of biomass (indlufing forests) and solid waste.

Looking up more on the subject, I came acoss a movie by Michael Moore from 2020 - Planet of the Humans. I recall when it came out that it was controversial and really upset supporters of clesn/green energy, but I never watched it.

Well, tonight I did. And it made me feel literally sick. If you look at the Wikipedia page for it, you will see all the criticisms of it, but I looked up a lot of info as I watched it, and there was enough was correct to be shocking - I had to stop before the very end when they showed living animals being crushed into "biomass" for "clean and renewable" energy.

At the end of the day, I think most people who consider themselves environmentalists, like me, will decide the movie is full of poop. Because if it's not, then God help us all. I can't convince myself of that. If anyone cares enough to give it a try, it's free to watch the whole thing on Youtube.

The strategy

Here's a clip from The Wall Street Journal's interview with the Democratic stategists who chose Graham Platner. You can watch the whole video here.



So, is it only me whose skin is crawling?

The "new" Democratic movers and shakers, the ones who have recently chosen Democratic Socialist candidates, would have you believe that their strategy is groundbreaking and unique.

But it isn't new at all. This is how Trump got elected. He was raw, he was real. So he had a few quirks that appeared to be flaws ... like racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and being a liar ... but actually those were his strengths! They made him dangerous and powerful. A real man. Right?

And isn't that a description of Graham Platner?

God help us all - the Democrats have figured out another way to fail their voters and the country.

Project Hail Mary (film)

I finally saw Project Hail Mary ...

a 2026 American epic[a] science fiction film .... based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir. It stars Ryan Gosling, who also produced the film; Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce appear in supporting roles. The story follows Ryland Grace (Gosling), a middle school teacher who awakens aboard an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there.

I had read the book some time ago and thought it was really good. The film is pretty faithful to the book - just a few changes - but the book has a ton more detail and complexity. The important part, the relationship between Ryland and Rocky, still comes across well in the film ...



I liked it! Must read the book again :)

Don't Dream It's Over

Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over.
(1986) pic.twitter.com/yELZElI2Od

— DEDÉ DE TONÍ (@JOSFFOLIVEIRA) July 5, 2026

By the Australian/New Zealand band, Crowded House, 1986

Platner gives up

Graham Platner says he will leave the race. In the video, he was at times angry, blaming everyone else for what had gone wrong, still refusing to take any responsibility. It was all about him - how he had been unfairly treated, how the party rulers were out to get him, how the claims against him were all false, and how he was really the only person who could rightly represent Mainers.

What struck me was how much he reminded me of Trump. Different politics, yes, but the attitude ... currents of antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and seeing himself as a victim of conspiracies ... was the same.

Saw this in The New Republic today ...

Trump Struggles to Form a Single Coherent Thought About Graham Platner

In the drawer

MESMERIZING: Broadclub cuttlefish can change their color and pattern at will!

Learn more about these masters of disguise: https://t.co/kuuxOOekMG pic.twitter.com/sgvfuTusgf

— Oceana (@oceana) July 5, 2026

I do like cuttlefish. Here below is a photo I took a while ago of some of my little rubber fish ...

Lawrence on Platner

Lawrence O’Donnell gives his opinion of the Graham Platner situation, revealing some detail about that candidate that I was not aware of, like that he comes from a wealthy family, with a mom who buys his oysters for her restaurant and a dad who bought him his home.

Stupid

Washington records world’s worst air quality for a city after 850,000 Fourth of July fireworks

Along with killing birds, terrifying animals, and causing brush fires in a drought, fireworks ruin air quality. Who didn't see this coming? It's not that any of this is unforseen, it's that people just don't give a poop. They have to have their fun.

Platner, again

More bad stuff comes out about Platner.

Who to blame? I think this is the fault of Morris Katz, the political operative behind Fetterman and Mamdani, and the man who chose and groomed Platner (These People Handpicked Graham Platner. He’s Now Democrats’ Biggest Risk. ... Top Graham Platner adviser threatened former aide over sexting stories).

But even more so, this is the fault of the far Left in the Democratic party, who have thrown traditional values under the bus in order to appeal to young voters, from misogynists to pro-Palestinian protesters