The Barcelona terror attack is ongoing in a different methodology. Drivers now live through the attacks.

17 August 2017
By Andrew Griffin

Two armed men (click here) are holed up in a Barcelona restaurant after a terror attack there and may have taken hostages.

The men – who may not be those who drove a van into a huge crowd of people earlier, though are presumed to be linked to them – may be holding hostages inside the restaurant.

Police have said they are still searching for the man who was driving the van, which drove into one of the busiest squares in the city centre.

The Turkish restaurant at the centre of the situation is called Luna de Estambul, or The Istanbul Moon, El País reported. That is just around the corner from the Las Ramblas tourist spot where the attack happened....

The change in methodology when it comes to terror attacks probably brings more recruits with it. But, I didn't expect the militia response for hostages after this attack. It is different. Charlottesville was different, but, this is yet another criminal element to the attack. I think of hostages in places in the Middle East. But, considering the migration of middle east terrorists into Europe, it is not a surprise this is occurring.

There was a hostage taking in Australia a few years ago, too.

I want statues of Rachel Carson.

There should be one in Springdale, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania College for Women, a notable presence at John Hopkins University, University of Maryland and every office of US Fish and Wildlife where she conducted her earthshaking research that lead to "Silent Spring."

There needs to be a non-profit foundation built in her name to provide scholarships and environmental research.

I mean every word.

Thank you, Rabbi Lookstein.

Every measure of ethnic hate needs to be removed from the American landscape. This has been a horrible awakening to the reality of the depth of racism in the USA.

August 17, 2017
By Derek Hawkins

A head rabbi (click here) at Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s New York City synagogue denounced President Trump’s response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, joining a chorus of political and religious leaders who say the president was wrong to blame “both sides” for the violence.

In a letter Wednesday to his congregation, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein wrote that his community had been “consumed” by the “frightening message and fallout” from the hate-fueled mayhem that left one woman dead and others injured last weekend.

“We are appalled by this resurgence of bigotry and antisemitism, and the renewed vigor of the neo-Nazis, KKK and alt-right,” read the letter, which was signed by Lookstein and two other rabbis. “While we always avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in his response to this act of violence.”

“We pray that our country heeds the voices of tolerance, and stays true to its vision of human rights and civil rights,” it read....

The country cannot ignore the rise of racism. It is now pervasive, including federal legislation. We tolerated a lot of the change as "elections have consequences." That was wrong. As soon as the whiff of racism was being realized it should have become part of the national dialogue.

David Duke's agenda is at the point where his followers felt safe enough to carry weapons into Charlottesville, Virginia. We lost a wonderful woman and two police officers and Duke didn't even blink.

The gun rights issue has to be included in this. The weapons on the street of the USA are at least or more powerful than what the average police carry. We are looking at SWAT teams being challenged by NUMBERS, not strength. The militarization of the USA has played to the racist agenda. I think the political agenda of ALEC is happenstance to the David Duke agenda, but, it certainly helped in arming the American street.

The agenda of mayors and states to remove racist statues and other symbols is correct and needed. A society values it's leaders through such infrastructure. We need to remove the heralding of the Civil War South. It is correct to do so. We have to stop passing along the legitimacy of slavery as part of the south's economy. These icons defended the enslavement of human beings. It has to be dealt with.