Friday, July 01, 2016

The Bangledesh siege reminds me of the Australian siege.

01.33 Two hostages died as heroes. One, Tori Johnson tried to wrestle the gun from Monis, while Katrina Dawson was said to have been shielding her pregnant friend when she was shot dead....

The complexity of the land and people doesn't end with Palestine and Israel.

June 30, 2016
By Hilal Kaplan

March 2013, (click here) Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu called then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to apologize for the Mavi Marmara raid. This was the first time Israel apologized to a foreign state in its history.
With this agreement, Israel agreed on Turkey's second stipulation. Accordingly, it will pay compensation to the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara raid. the third condition is that Israel eliminates the blockade on Gaza.
Turkey succeeded to a large extent in this. According to media reports, as part of the agreement, "Turkey will take materials with civilian purposes, including humanitarian aid, to Gaza and make infrastructure investments there. It will construct houses for Gazan people and put the 200-bed Turkey-Palestine Friendship Hospital into service soon." Moreover, Turkey will build a power plant to meet Gaza's energy requirements....

Perhaps it should be Turkey that negotiates the peace between Palestine and Israel.

I remember this as a young adult. Many people were grateful to the IDF. 


July 1, 2016
By Adam Eiiyahu Berkowitz

A reproduction photograph of the late Yonathan Netanyahu, the brother of Bibi Netanyahu. Yoni was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service for his actions in the Yom Kippur War. He was killed in action during Operation Entebbe at Entebbe airport, by Ugandan soldiers, when the Israeli military rescued hostages after an aircraft hijacking. Netanyahu was the leader of the assault, and the only Israeli military fatality of the raid. February 05, 2009. (Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

A great man who valued life. He saved many lives that day.

Next week, (click here) Israel will mark the 40th anniversary of the daring IDF operation to rescue hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, an event embedded in the national consciousness of every Israeli, and one which represents to the core the Jewish life-cherishing principles which have given Israel its strength and power. More than that, the rescue operation is a clear reveal of the hand of God upon the people of Israel.

It began on June 27, 1976, when an Air France plane with 248 passengers, half with Israeli passports, was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in cooperation with German terrorists and diverted via Libya to Uganda’s Entebbe Airport. The hijackers demanded the release of 40 prisoners being held in Israel and 13 more held in other countries.

Idi Amin, the despotic ruler of Uganda, was sympathetic to the terrorists, personally welcoming them when they landed. The passengers deplaned, and in a process reminiscent of the selections at Nazi death-camps, the Israelis were separated out.  Non-Israeli Jews were forced to join the Israelis. Two non-Jewish passengers voluntarily joined the group of hostages as well. The 148 other passengers were eventually released....

It has been ongoing tensions. I hope the closures are enough. There should be no bulldozers.

Things have to quiet and become more reasonable and perhaps the closures will help. I don't see an invasion into any area of the West Bank. President Abbas needs to ask for peace negotiations to stop the hatred and return function to the region.

July 1, 2016
By Ruth Eglash

 Israel deployed several hundred soldiers (click here) around the West Bank city of  Hebron on Friday after two Israelis were killed in separate attacks in the previous 48 hours.
The army also began implementing wide-ranging closures around the city, including setting up checkpoints and restricting general movement.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the steps were the most “substantial” the Israeli army has taken on the ground since 2014, when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by two Palestinian militants.
On Friday afternoon, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli family traveling on a main highway near the Israeli settlement of Otniel. The car crashed, killing a man and seriously injuring a woman. Two of the couple’s 10 children traveling in the car were lightly injured. Israeli media identified the victim as Miki Mark, director of the yeshiva in Otniel.
Lerner said that based on an initial military investigation, 20 rounds were fired at the family’s car by a passing vehicle, which immediately fled the scene. The Israeli army is searching the area for the perpetrators....

President Abbas can start peace talks by accounting for the funding Israel states are payments to terrorists. President Abbas needs to respond when Israel makes such statements. If they are true statements, then President Abbas has to end the practice of hatred and terrorist violence.

Israel to deduct Palestinian terror funding from tax fees it hands to the PA (click here)
To stop the Palestinian Authority from making payments to terrorists and their families, Israel plans to deduct that sum from it’s monthly transfer of tax fees to the Fatah led government in the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that the transfer of those fees be halted in response to two deadly terror attacks in a 48-hour period that claimed the lives of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, and Rabbi Michael “Miki” Mark, 48, who is a father of ten children.

“The Palestinian Authority transfers funds to terrorists by various laundering methods; the more severe the acts of terrorism, the greater the amount of funds,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement it issued on Friday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered that the entire amount of support for terrorists and their families be deducted from the tax revenues that Israel transfers monthly to the Palestinian Authority,” the PMO said....

Displays of hate in Iran. Really?

July 1, 2016

Iranians (click here) staged anti-Israel rallies across the country on Friday, with protesters condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and chanting "death to Israel."
Tens of thousands of people marched in the capital, Tehran, as part of the al-Quds day rallies held each year on the last Friday of Ramadan. Some protesters trampled the Israeli flag and also chanted "down with the USA."
Similar rallies took place across the country, Iranian state media reported.
In a speech ahead of Friday prayers in Iran, the deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard lashed out at Israel....

There was once Shia living in northern Israel. These people were displaced in the 1948 war. They were accepted as Lebanese citizens in 1994. Hizbollah wants the land in northern Israel returned to Lebanon so the Shia can once again live there. That is some of the microcosm of the deep seated hatreds in the region.
The land is a huge issue. 
Flint Water Project is coming along. I am not unhappy with the progress I am making. I'll probably visit Genesee County, Michigan in the coming weeks.

Thank you for your interest.

This is exactly the "egg shell" problem the press loves.

President Obama and former President Clinton spend time on the golf course and Bill Clinton is accused of leveraging pressure and power. 

What?

What possible power does Bill Clinton have over the USA's President? Bill Clinton is a brilliant man and might point out issues of law, but, he is powerless to the decisions of President Obama.

Now, the Rich and Powerful meet on an airport tarmac and those egg shells appear again.

There is absolutely no reason why the definition of freedom should be denied any American. End of discussion.

July 1, 2016
By Mike Levine

Attorney General Loretta Lynch (click here) will follow whatever recommendation the FBI and prosecutors make on whether to charge Hillary Clinton in connection to an email probe, she said today, tying her announcement to the recent controversial meeting with Bill Clinton that she called “perfectly reasonable” to question.
"I will be accepting their recommendations and their plans for going forward," Lynch said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.
Lynch has decided that she will green light whatever recommendation comes from the FBI and senior career lawyers in the Justice Department, after a months-long investigation tied to Clinton's use of a private email server.
This comes just days after the revelation that Lynch met privately with former president Bill Clinton during a chance encounter on the tarmac at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix earlier this week...

Of all the most vulnerable people in the world, this has to happen in Bangladesh.

The world stood appalled at the poverty and capitalist victimization and these lousy bastard bring death.

Jihadist News (click here)

The websites contain nothing but glorification of killing. There is no sincere value to them.

July 1, 2016
By Erik Ortiz

Attackers (click here) stormed a restaurant Friday night in Bangladesh's capital, taking about 40 people within the diplomatic enclave hostage and exchanging gunfire with police, killing four security personnel, officials said.
A team of seven or eight attackers entered the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area around 9:20 p.m. local time (11:20 a.m. ET) and were holding customers and staff captive — including one Westerner —at gunpoint, a senior police official, Assistant Superintendent Fazle-e-Elahi, told NBC News by phone from Dhaka.
The ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency (click here) reported that the ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the terror research firms Flashpoint Intelligence and Site Intelligence Group. The claim has not been confirmed, and the State Department said it was still assessing it....

There was a death with the model S. I would think that should be a real topic for morning coffee. Right?

It continued on it's path although a semi with a white trailer on a sunny day was in front of it.

It is the first after million upon millions of safe miles. The darn thing ran right into the trailer under carriage. It almost fit through the space under the trailer.

I don't know how they know this, but, the driver didn't activate the brake either. Therefore, both the driver and the computer failed. I don't think human judgement should be viewed as a necessary factor when an automatic driver is expected to be safer. Seriously. People are going to let their guard down when a computer is enacted. I betcha folks with automatic driver talk on mobile phones and are far less vigilant to surrounding traffic. 

Automatic drivers are going to create all new types of bad habits for the human driver inside.

You know. Saving lives and all that opposed to ending them. American lives, too. Can't be hatred there. It might be an enlightening feeling for Americans.


July 1, 2016
By David Noland


I’ve owned my 2013 Tesla S (click here) more than three years, and put 66,000 miles on it now.
It still runs great, and it makes me happy every time I drive it. I plan to keep it for at least a few more years.
But I can’t help occasionally peeking at the Tesla Motors online Model S configurator  to check out the prices and features on the newest versions....

The automatic driver cars do not have sensors on their roofs. They can't. If they did the car would be slamming on the brakes with every underpass it approached. The Model S kept moving because the under carriage of the semi was higher than it's sensors. This might be a permanent condition for the car.

Accidents happen because they are accidents. The event survived regardless of any measure of safety society and auto manufacturers institute to prevent tragedy. Insurance carriers know there will always be a degree of liability, regardless of how much safety is built into cars, with the public driving cars.

I am quite confident the computer didn't fail. it simply didn't see the truck due to space under the trailer. I don't think sky and white trailer has a thing to do with it.

Maybe the USA military should simply invade Yemen and work north.

In all sincerity, there are far more dead innocent people, including women, children and the elderly, due to illegal and immoral invasions by the USA than caused by terrorists. 

But, what the heck, it is good for the USA economy and politics.

Osama bin Laden is dead. The darnest thing though, he wasn't even in Afghanistan.

July 1, 2016
By Jane Oryanga-Omara

...The three suicide bombers (click here) who attacked the Ataturk airport in Istanbul late Tuesday were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, a senior Turkish official said Thursday. The dead include 19 foreign nationals and 230 people were injured. Authorities believe the Islamic State is behind the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

Authorities imposed a temporary news blackout within Turkey on Friday on information concerning the investigation, the AP reported. Swedish authorities said Akhmed Chatayev, an ethnic Chechen identified as having directed the three bombers, was jailed in 2008 for smuggling an automatic weapon and two handguns into Sweden, according to the news agency. Chatayev's whereabouts are unclear.

Counter-terror teams launched 16 simultaneous raids in Istanbul on Thursday, Reuters said. Turkish police said they detained 13 people, including three foreign nationals, in connection with the attack, local media reported.           

From "The Gulf News"

Strange, but, I get the feeling the USA has a rather bad reputation in the world. Must be the coffee.

I think our politicians should talk more about "The Small Arms Treaty" and it's effectiveness rather than exporting more violence.


Excellent idea.

July 1, 2016

Riyadh: Muslim pilgrims (click here) joining this year’s Haj in Saudi Arabia will have to wear an electronic safety bracelet, newspapers reported Friday, after more than 2,000 died in a stampede last year.
The high-tech safety measure will help authorities provide care “and identify people”, papers reported.
At least 2,297 pilgrims died during the stampede on September 24 during last year’s Haj, according to data from foreign officials, some of whom expressed concerns about difficulty in identifying the victims.
Saudi Arabia issued a death toll of 769.
It was the worst disaster in Haj history....               
There isn't anything like talking about killing with your morning coffee.

Amazing.

The USA is not going to enter another war.

Here is a different thought exercise. Put yourself in a uniform and then fight for your life in urban warfare. That might put war into perspective for you. Everyone that engages in war mongering wears such nice freshly ironed clothes and perfect hairdos. 

The USA is not going to enter another war, unless every person in the USA volunteers.

Casual war mongering is highly immoral and a compete disrespect for life.

Assignment: On Monday show up for morning coffee in war uniforms. Don't forget the body armor and AK 47. They are on sale this week in Great Britain.