More sick sh*t coming out of the Gaza situation….first it was a moron posting on social media and bragging that he had killed 13 kids……and now this piece.
This situation is getting out of hand…..maybe Bibi should reconsider his promises……it can only get worse.
Help to pass this news around…..we will NEVER see it on our media…..it needs to be told to the world……..
Israeli officer: I was right to shoot 13-year-old child | World news | The Guardian.
We all are addicted to something…..drugs, cigs, sex, whiskey and so on……but we Americans have an addiction to……consumerism. A couple of years ago I wrote a piece entitle “The Real Opiate Of The Masses”…..when I pointed out that Americans were drowning in debt and even with the crash of ’08 nothing would change……we will buy way beyond our means……and guess what?
(Newser) – More than a third of Americans with credit scores have debt “in collections”—meaning one in three of us has been reported to collection agencies, a study finds. That’s a total of 77 million people whose non-mortgage debt is significantly overdue, the Urban Institute notes. The study includes debts ranging from credit card and medical bills to parking tickets, CNNMoney notes. And the widespread issue “can tip employers’ hiring decisions, or whether or not you get that apartment,” an analyst tells the AP.
The average debt is $5,178, the AP notes. The problem exists all over the country, but Southern and Western states are facing the most trouble. Among the report’s findings:
- Nevada has the highest percentage of people with debt in collections: 47%. In Las Vegas, the figure is 49%. North Dakota has the lowest at 19%, CNNMoney reports.
- The average amount owed is also highest in Nevada at $7,198. Washington, DC, has the lowest figure at $3,547.
- At 51%, McAllen, Texas, has the highest percentage of affected people among the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. At least 43% of people in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio have debt in collections. Minneapolis-St. Paul has the lowest percentage among the 100 biggest metropolitan areas, with 20%.
The scary part is that NOTHING will change……this addiction is like any other addiction….eventually it will kill the individual….in every sense of the word….KILL!
Once again an avid reader, Phil from thevantagedecade.com, has sent me a ‘toon via Twitter…..Thanx
And I do not mean ‘sick’ in a good way……I saw this on Twitter this morning…..will there be an outrage? If a hoax fine….if not then it is a war crime and punishable by DEATH!
From time to time I will write about situations in my state, Mississippi…….it has always been a poor state and in my opinion it is poor for one reason and one reason only……conservative politics.
Awhile back Mississippians voted down the personhood BS of the GOP….that was a win and then the ultra-conservs set about making it impossible for any abortion clinics to remain open by using a tactic of “emitting privileges”……it worked along with some “standards” that are not required by any other medical clinic….again trying desperately to close the one remaining abortion clinic in the state……but with all this effort by the conservs someone crapped on their parade…….
(Newser) – A law that would have forced the only abortion clinic in Mississippi to close appears doomed after a federal court ruled against it once again. An appeals court panel decided 2-1 that State House Bill 1390, which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, would shift Mississippi’s constitutional obligations onto other states by forcing the Jackson clinic to close, CNN reports. “Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion,” but the law “effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi’s borders,” the judges wrote.
The court didn’t strike down the law itself, but “I think the way they ruled on those arguments essentially dooms the law,” a constitutional law expert tells Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger. He describes the ruling as a huge victory for the Jackson clinic, where doctors had been denied admitting privileges by all seven hospitals within a 30-minute drive. Gov. Phil Bryant—who said he wanted the state to be “abortion-free” when he signed the bill into law—says he’s disappointed by the ruling and wants the case to go in front of the entire court instead of a “divided panel of judges.” A similar law goes into effect in Louisiana on Sept. 1, and legal experts believe it won’t face the same issues as the Mississippi law because at least one of the state’s five abortion clinics will be able to remain open, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
But never fear…..the Right is NOT finished…..I am sure they will find yet another BS issue to use to try and close that one remaining clinic…..but for now…..it is a victory for choice.
My Personal Reflections!
My writings on Israel and the Palestinians have had many people ask me what my problem is with Israel and the situation that develops……I would now like to answer those many questions.
My opinion is based on first hand knowledge not some babbling bullshit from some obscure pundit who cannot spell Gaza much less find it on a map……
Since 1980 I have been a staunch critic of Israel. Mostly I criticize their policies toward the Palestinian people. My support for Palestine came from my days of working in the Middle East…..since my Arabic was not as good as it needed to be I was given an interpreter to travel with me…..his name was Rafiq and he was a Palestinian…..we were co-workers, colleagues and friends…..we worked in some pretty tight places in those days from Egypt to Jordan to Syria and Iraq……we were on holiday at his father’s farm in the Occupied Territories, the West Bank, one evening about dusk we were having a meal when there was the sound of heavy equipment being used……Rafiq and I went to see what all the noise was about…..we found the Israeli army uprooting Rafiq’s family’s olive trees…..Rafiq approached the soldiers to ask what the Hell was going on and what right did they have to destroy his father’s farm. A guard in the IDF told him to leave but Rafiq kept asking for an explanation and to see the legal papers that gave them the right to destroy……the soldier told Rafiq to leave or there would be trouble….Rafiq refused to leave and stood in front of a bulldozer……..a soldier gave him an order to depart….he would not…..and the soldier shot and killed Rafiq…..I was arrested before I could do anything and taken away to the local IDF office…….at the station I told the people that I wanted to file a report on what had happened because I was an eye witness to the murder.
I was handcuffed and thrown into a cell for 5 days…….when I was released I was told to leave the region and not to return……I insisted that I still wanted to file a report on the murder of my friend…..the man in charged smiled and said that I should pick my friends more wisely. At this point I was steaming…..I told the Israeli that my mother did not pick my friends for me and I sure as Hell was not going to let a toad like him do it either…..after a couple of uncomfortable moments (at least uncomfortable for me) I was taken to the airport and put on a plane with orders that since I was an agitator and a person of questionable character that if I ever returned I would be arrested and held as an enemy of the state.
Rafiq’s family, his father, mother and 2 sisters, moved to Gaza in 1990…….the farm had been confiscated in the name of Israeli national security……I begged the family to let me sponsor them for immigration……..he said he was born in Palestine and he would die there……….once they moved to Caza to live with the father’s brother I have lost track of them…..I try every contact I have to find them so far I have not been able to find them and I fear the worse.
Since those days I have had NO use for the state of Israel. My dislike is for the Zionists that run the country not for all Jews…..my dislike has nothing to do with religion. I despise any government that pretends to be democratic and that is exactly what Israel’s government is doing….pretending……any government that treats a portion of its population as 2nd class citizens is not democratic…….and the treatment Israel is giving to the Palestinian minority is despicable.
To my critics that would like to condemn my words and actions I have but one thing to say………if you have never seen or experienced first hand the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people then it is time to go see for yourself or keep your opinions to yourself.
Opinion from the desk of the Editor
It is NO secret that I think that most of Congress is a bunch of lying cowards….for one the “pro-life” tag…….these cretins are no more pro life than I am a Mother Superior and they are COWARDS because of the latest Gaza War…..they all have an opinion based on nothing more than hand picked info for their little pressers…….if they want to have an opinion then try going on a fact finding mission to the region….I am not talking about the vacations they usually have…..but a real fact finding mission.
The blind OBEDIENCE to Israel is a sure sign of COWARDICE. Not one of them has any first hand knowledge all they have is a big mouth, and as I have witnessed over the years, a sure sign of cowardice……these people, if I may use that extremely subjective term, operate on all levels without first hand knowledge.
Then we have the morons that like to cite historical references….like the cowardly moron, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IN)…,..he recently made a complete ass of himself and showe just how ignorant these people are………
“Hamas is like Nazis,” Kirk told Fox 32 after speaking at a pro-Israel rally in Chicago. “The more Nazis you got, the more Hamas you get, the more death you get.
“The only way to secure peace in the Middle East is to wipe out those who would bring terror to the Middle East,” Kirk added.
Kirk, a friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, estimated fighting in Gaza could last a couple more months. The Associated Press has reported that 1,000 Palestinians, 53 Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have been killed in the fighting so far.
Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in Israel’s ongoing invasion of the Gaza Strip aren’t sitting well with Israeli hawks, and by extension that means they aren’t sitting well with the US Congress.That’s got Congressional officials up in arms, pushing President Obama to stop trying to negotiate a ceasefire in the conflict, and instead to endorse Israel’s war unconditionally, and irrespective of how bad it gets.
There is an old say……”Truth is the first casualty of war”……..World War one, Vietnam, Iraq and now Gaza.
States must have an excuse to go to war these days if they want popular support….without it a war would be short lived or not happening at all……
Fast forward to a month ago……Israel is dealing with the kidnapping and deaths of three teens—-the reports coming out of Israel is that Hamas is behind the deed and they were most likely using the tunnels as a way into Israel to accomplish their desired missions which in this case was the kidnapping of Israeli teens.
As they say…the rest is history……Israel started its current operation in Gaza to retaliate for the deaths of the teens and to try and stop the odd rockets being fired into Israeli territory.
But there seems to be a twist in their logic…..,a twist that you will mostly likely NEVER hear here in the West……
BEIRUT: The Israeli Police Foreign Press Spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, appears to have falsified the Israeli government’s claim that Hamas was responsible for the killing of three Israeli settler teens in June, by saying responsibility lies with a lone cell that operated without the complicity of Hamas’ leadership.
The kidnapping and subsequent killing of three Israeli settler teens last month is considered to be a flashpoint for the escalated violence in Gaza — that as of day 19 of the conflict has left 926 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead.
At the time Israeli authorities placed the blame squarely on Hamas, with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying “They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by animals in human form. Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay.”Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jul-26/265229-hamas-not-complicit-in-teens-kidnap-israeli-police.ashx#ixzz38llmIrWO
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Opinion from the desk of the Editor
It has been 4 weeks of carnage in the Gaza……and the narrative is that Israel has a right to defend itself so it has declared war on Hamas who is to blame for all the missiles being fired into Israel……also they say that they will keep fighting until Hamas is no longer capable of harming Israel in any way…..
I have been a student of the causes of war for many years…….and the actions taken to bring it to a quick end with victory for the good guy….whoever that be……this is where I question what Israel is really doing……
If it is truly a war on Hamas and not the Palestinian people why did it take 4 weeks to hit the Hamas leadership and their radio and TV network? To me in any war you would take out command and control before attempting other actions…..but yet Israel waited 4 weeks…..why?
Here is the report from 29 July 2014 in an article in the Wall Street journal…….
They (Israel) damaged the home of the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, along with government offices and the headquarters of the Hamas broadcast outlets, Al-Aqsa TV and Al-Aqsa Radio. The Israeli military said it hit the broadcast center to silence Hamas propaganda and messages to its operatives. The TV station continued to broadcast but the radio went silent.
The bombardment hit 70 targets, the military said, including two used as Hamas command centers, four weapons storage sites hidden within mosques, a tunnel, and a Finance Ministry building. Israeli aircraft hit 10 Hamas operatives in targeted strikes, the military said.
I ask again….why would Israel wait 4 weeks of bloodshed before going after the command and control of Hamas?
There are two answers to that question…….1–Israel is inept and not the professional army that it pretends to be. personally, I think that is NOT the reason. 2–They wanted to punish the Palestinian people….and that seems to be the most logical answer to why the 4 week delay.
Hamas had lost much of its support prior to this attack and now the longer Israel prolongs this war the more support Hamas will receive…..which will mean this will all occur again and again…….and maybe that is what Israel wants in the long term….
I do not question the right to defend….I do however question the tactics and the end game.
This is a game that need not be played.
We have a national election coming soon……but first we must go through the mind numbing 2014 election…..we have a wealth of babbling idiots that are running for office……the sitcom will be complete very soon…..only a couple of months before we see just how stupid the American people can be.
But let’s talk about the 2016 election shall we……we are pretty sure that Hillary will run barring some disaster……the GOP has NO front runner…..they however have a wealth of idiots that want to be in charge……but so far there is NO one that we can point to and say he may have a chance against Hillary.
There have been some rumblings that Hillary needs a viable opponent to help her hone her message for the general……some have suggested that Elizabeth Warren should be that candidate……let say she does run….what does she bring to the table….
Newser) – No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, you should root for Elizabeth Warren to run for president in 2016, writes John Dickerson at Slate. She can’t win, but she can make both parties stronger with a bid against Hillary Clinton, he argues. Start with left: Liberals should encourage her because even though she’d have almost no chance of winning the primary, she might wring some promises out of Clinton. More moderate Democrats should recognize that Warren would make Clinton a better candidate, force her to “draw clear lines about what she believes,” and shape her up for the general election.
So why should conservatives want Warren to run? The primary might “expose Democrats for the socialist one-worlders they are,” writes Dickerson. But more importantly: A Warren candidacy would ensure that the central debate would be about the middle class, and as she and Clinton duke it out, that would “give conservatives a chance to offer their alternatives” to the same crucial constituency. If Warren “believes in the ideas she says she does, one of which is that the system is rigged in favor of those with money and power, a place to demonstrate her commitment to changing such arrangements would be to announce her candidacy for the highest office in the land,” writes Dickerson. Click for his full column.
Some interesting points…..would anyone like to add a thought or two?