Good morning from my Hunker-Bunker overlooking the Puget Sound.  It is 0-dark thirty, and I am at home recuperating from my Proton Beaming session yesterday.  It’s mostly discomfort, but I can easily mitigate it with a bong hit every now and then.  A little dab will do ya, let me tell you.  This stuff isn’t anything like what we grew up with in the sixties…

The server here is excruciatingly slow this morning.  I’ve sent another email off to Misha, to try and upgrade the PHP here but I get no answer.  I may end up redirecting this site to one of my servers just to speed shit up here.  One of the big problems here is a connection issue.  About ever two minutes, the server literally will lose connection to the site for about a minute.  The PHP on the server is outdated for the new coding of the platform, and it is causing it to failover.  I’m running the same theme framework on my personal site and you can see how much faster it is.

So if you wake up one morning and find we are hanging out in a slightly different place running at breakneck speed, then you’ll know that I finally redirected this mess to a REAL server.

Okay, let’s get started…

Headlines That Caught My Eye This Morning

Item 1:  Biden Presses Netanyahu on Working Toward a Palestinian State

Biden can press all he needs to — Bibi isn’t budging.  It was never in any of his intentions to accept a two-state solution, and he’s done just about everything he could over the years to thwart such a thing.  While I think that most Palestinians would accept a two-state solution in the long run, it’s Iran that won’t accept any Israeli state in the region.  They fund their proxy fighters to reject any solution that includes an Israeli state.

The reality is that Iran et al don’t give a flying fuck about the Palestinian people.  Nobody wants these people in their country.  Jordan and Egypt treat them like shit, even worse than the Israelis.  Truth be known, most of these other Arab and Persian countries treat their Jewish citizens much better than they would a Palestinian.  Iran even has a Jew in Parliament, and other Jews are allowed to be officials in towns and local government.  It’s not the religion, it’s the state of Israel and how it came into it’s current existence.  It’s about the control of the holy lands.  It always has been.

I think that eventually, there is going to have to be a permanent presence of the UN controlling the actual “Holy Land sites”  The remaining land would somehow be split up with a DMZ between them controlled and governed by the UN.  Instead of a ‘two-state solution’, it becomes a three state solution.  Hell, we could move the entire UN operation out of New York and over there and free up some valuable real estate.

Item 2: In Strategic Bind, Israel Weighs Freeing Hostages Against Destroying Hamas

Basically, Israel has two stated goals:  Force the release of roughly 100 hostages being held, and destroying Hamas.

The two are apparently incompatible.  Both cannot be achieved, and the longer this goes on, and the more Palestinians get killed in the process, strangely plays into the narrative Hamas is looking for:  world sympathy and pressure on Israel.

I hate to break it to ya, but if Biden were to withdraw support for Israel, he’d be elected in a landslide today.   I’m old enough to be allowed to be cynical.

Item 3:  Alec Baldwin Indicted on Manslaughter Charge in ‘Rust’ Shooting

There were so many things wrong here, and I’m sorry, but Alex Baldwin was part of what went wrong.  The moment he picked up the weapon, he should have inspected it and the ammunition.  Each and every time.  The law is one place where ignorance is not accepted.  Accidents do happen, but they are almost always preventable.  Accidents can become manslaughter convictions if the accident was preventable.  All the state has to prove is carelessness and/or disregard.

Item 4:  Johnson backed into corner as conservatives put speaker on notice

What will REALLY piss off the Freedumb Cocks is when the House Democrats save Johnson’s ass.

Item 5:  Americans Are Suddenly a Lot More Upbeat About the Economy

It’s a sugar high.  Much of the spending is going on the credit card, with  interest rates averaging between 23-35%  depending on how bad the COVID economy screwed you.

COVID is still swirling around us, but nobody really cares.  Take some pills and most will recover in a few days.  Inflation is dropping as supply chains are reestablished.  The US is the number one producer of oil and natural gas which is resulting in cheaper fuel.  In spite of the dire predictions, the devastating recession Trumpublicans were praying for never materialized.  The stock market is in record territory — which is just one indicator the billionaire class is doing well.  I hear we are soon going to have a Trillionaire.  Boy howdy!

Item 6:  Pastor Charged With Housing Homeless in Church Sparks Fury

The conservative argument against taxpayer-funded social safety nets:  “That’s what the churches are for”.

But if a church dares to actually try and DO something, they get charged.  Hmmm.

No, I didn’t read it.  How many times do I have to point this out?

Item 7:  Top Israeli War Official Says Netanyahu Is Lying on National TV

Lying about his Netanyahu’s actual goals in this war?  We can see it:  he means to completely destroy the Gaza Strip.  Make it uninhabitable for generations.  He’s literally salting the earth which means nothing will grow.  He has no intention of quitting any time soon because the moment this ends, he knows he’s through as PM.  With a current 15% approval rating, he’s toast.

Once he’s gone, we are probably going to find out a LOT of disturbing things.  Put a pin in this one.

Item 8: Fetterman backs Andy Kim as Democrats scramble to keep Menendez’s Senate seat in New Jersey

I am really starting to like Fetterman.  Hell, if he’d run, I’d vote for him for president over the two old dotters we have currently running.  Just say’n

A Fetterman ticket?   Blunt, yet polite about it.

What In The Hell Did I Just Watch?

Killers of the Flower Moon – Apple TV+

At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is an epic western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal.

Music I found on the Rott Server

Today’s selection brought to you by the letters

“U – Z“

Memes From the Meme Box

I receive dozens of memes in my Meme Box on a daily basis from people all over the landscape.  Some are political, some topical, but most are just everyday events with a little fun inserted.  My absolute favorite are just photos that will speak those thousand words clearly.