Light Man

 

Mind Reading

 

Hezbollah's Leader to Speak

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah meets leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups at an unidentified location in this handout image released on October 25, 2023 [Hezbollah Media Office/Handout via Reuters] --  Image on Left

Lebanon is on edge in advance of Hezbollah leader Syed Hassan Nasrallah’s anticipated Friday speech on Israel’s war on Gaza, which residents and experts fear could inflame regional tensions if he pledges to escalate attacks against Israel.

Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has escalated along their fraught border in recent weeks. The Lebanese armed group claims to have lost 47 fighters while Israel says that six of its soldiers have been killed. At least six civilians have also been killed.  READ MORE...

Still Laughing

Iran Will Destroy Israel

The New York Times is facing intense backlash for a report focusing on whether Iran will "live up to its fiery rhetoric" and follow through with its vow to "destroy Israel."

The Times suggested Iran was at a crossroads, running the headline, "After Years of Vowing to Destroy Israel, Iran Faces a Dilemma."

"With Israel bent on crushing Iran’s ally Hamas, Tehran must decide whether it and the proxy militias it arms and trains will live up to its fiery rhetoric," The Times report said Wednesday.  READ MORE...

Socks

 

Santos Escapes Expulsion

Embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., escaped being expelled from the House of Representatives Wednesday night after a group of his fellow New York Republicans spearheaded an effort to boot him.

The final vote fell 213-179 against expelling Santos, with 19 lawmakers voting "present." Expelling a member of the House, something that is historically rare, requires a vote of two-thirds of all members present.

Two dozen Republicans voted to expel Santos, while 31 Democrats voted to keep him in the House.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

Relatively Protected

 My wife and I live in East TN and have lived here for the last 30 years.  East TN is not like NYC or Atlanta, or Chicago or Washington DC or LA or San Francisco, or Houston or Miami or Ft Lauderdale.

• We don't have a lot of people living in this area so traffic and smog is not much of a problem.
• We don't have much crime although drugs are being sold in our elementary schools.
• We don't have a huge WOKE, CRT, BLM, or Defund the Police movement.
• We are not experiencing a whole lot of trouble from illegal immigrants because there is not much for them to do here except harvest crops.
• We don't have a lot of restaurants but we have all we need and then some.
• We don't have Broadway shows because we are kinda country and redneck when it comes to all that shit, even though many of us are WELL EDUCATED.

Just like a ritualistic bowel movement, I watch FOX News every morning and I FEEL BLESSED because none of that crap that is going on in other cities is taking place here in East TN.

My wife and I are retired and have been retired since 2015, and we managed to save enough money over the years to pay all our expenses (taking inflation into account) until we are both 95 years of age.  It is doubtful that we will live that long, but we have more than enough money.

• Rising prices don't bother us
• Buying a hybrid car has been already figured into our savings
• We have been debt free for the last 15 years
• The money we made on interest paid for our new home renovations
• We made $40,000 profit on the sale of our old home
• Both our vehicles are reliable and we have followed all maintenance plans suggested by the manufacturer
• We don't need any new clothes for the rest of our lives
• We pay $10,000/year for medical insurance and have received $500,000 worth of treatment for the last 10 years
• We are not afraid to walk around in the community after dark
• We don't spend money on anything we don't need

WOULD YOU SAY WE ARE LIVING THE AMERICAN DREAM???

Pond Ice Skating

 

Biden Wants a Pause

President Biden said there should be a "pause" in the Israel-Hamas War to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans and get those trapped in the Gaza Strip released.

The comment came during a campaign event in Minnesota on Wednesday evening, when a member of the audience shouted: "As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now.”

The president — who has not supported a ceasefire since the war began on October 7 — said that he would support a "pause."

“I think we need a pause," Biden began. "A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”     READ MORE...

Religious Peace

 

IDF Soldiers Killed Inside Gaza

The Israeli military reported additional casualties inside the Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war enters its 26th day. 

Israeli forces entered the second stage of their war with Hamas in what is expected to be a lengthy military operation. 

Until this week, Israel had largely relied on airstrikes and artillery to retaliate against Hamas' massacre in Israel on Oct. 7. 

More than 9,900 people have been killed in the war on both sides since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

Butterfly Stroke

 

Donald Trump Jr. Jokes

 

Sensorium Galaxy: Metaverse

The EDM music pioneer will transcend the confines of reality to deliver a ground-breaking virtual performance in the Sensorium Galaxy.

The legendary British electronic music icon, Carl Cox, will treat fans worldwide on Friday to a mesmerising 30-minute DJ set as part of a free show called "Intermundium."

But here's the twist – he won't actually physically be there.  READ MORE...

Instead, an astonishingly lifelike digital avatar of Cox, crafted by Sensorium Galaxy, will take centre stage for a pioneering metaverse experience.

Voyeur

 

Iceland's Wild Horses

Last year, Irish photographer Gareth McConnell was tasked with capturing the wild horses of Iceland. His results are truly spellbinding.

If you were asked to conjure up a picture of wild horses in the barren Icelandic landscape, it's unlikely that your mind would jump naturally to wild psychedelic imagery, bathed in the surreal glow of neon pink, yellow and blue hues.

But for Gareth McConnell, a London-based Irish photographer and publisher, this was precisely the vision he pursued when the New York Times commissioned him to photograph the horses of I
celand.

From the outset his goal was to create something as "non-National Geographic as possible" - and it's fair to say he achieved this with flying colours.  READ MORE...

Understanding Hamas

 

Fishnets

 

Trans Rights in Europe

While a number of European nations have been praised by leading trans organisations for their commitment to improving rights for the marginalised group, others - including Slovakia and the UK - have been told they still have a long way to go.

Rights for transgender people are always a hot topic of discussion - dividing friends, colleagues and ruining the legacies of the rich and famous.

This week in Japan, the Asian nation’s Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed in order to officially change their gender was unconstitutional.  READ MORE...

Trans

 

Our National Debt

With all the chaos and heartbreaking loss of life around the world today, few noticed the Treasury Department drop a financial bomb: The deficit for fiscal year 2023 was $1.7 trillion, growing 23 percent in a single year as the Treasury used $879 billion just to service the federal debt. But "Bidenomics" means the worst is yet to come, and multi-trillion-dollar deficits are the new normal.

The impetus for these massive deficits is federal government spending, which tipped the scales at $6.1 trillion last year. Government receipts, meanwhile, were $4.4 trillion, woefully short of the $5 trillion previously forecasted. A slowing economy and counterproductive tax increases were key drivers behind the $457 billion drop in receipts from the prior fiscal year.     Source:  FOX Business

THINK about that for a minute or two, if you will?

1. We are spending more than we take in
2. Biden wants to pay off student loans - more debt
3. Our economy has slowed because we are moving towards green energy
4. Ukraine was US military supplies - more debt
5. Israel wants US military supplies - more debt
6. Taiwan may want US military supplies if China invades - more debt
7. AI is replacing jobs - less revenue from taxes
8. BRICS is challenging the global use of the US dollar
9. China wants to the global leader, replacing the USA
10. Our infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels) needs refurbishing - more government spending

General Motors is warning other automobile manufacturers not to invest so much money into EV production because Americans are buying EVs as was originally forecasted...

What about all the extra costs associated with taking care of all the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

• Housing
• Food
• Clothes
• Healthcare
• Education

How can a Spanish child learn anything in school if they don't speak English?

They will need to speak English first.

More teachers - More money

SPENDING MORE MONEY THAN IS TAKEN IN...  IS THE MAIN REASON WHY COUNTRIES THAT ADOPT SOCIALISM GO BANKRUPT...

Not much to think about here...

Summer's Over

 

Russia Recruits Women for Mercenary Group in Ukraine

Women have rarely taken frontline fighting roles within the Ukraine war until now.

A Russian mercenary group is attempting to recruit women for combat roles in Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

In its daily intelligence briefing for Monday, the MoD said that Redut - a state-backed private military company - is appealing for women to work as snipers and drone operators in its Borz Battalion.

Redut - formerly known as Shield - has links to the GRU, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.  READ MORE...

Attraction

 

EU Power in the Middle East

Considering the increasing tensions and international competition in a very volatile region, if the EU seeks to become a strong actor in the MENA, it must uphold its values with tangible actions and not with contradictory statements, Assem Dandashly and Christos Kourtelis write.

In the last three decades, there has been a steady increase in the European Union’s efforts to shape the setting of its southern neighbourhood.

From the launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership in 1995, and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2004, to the 2008 Union for the Mediterranean, the dominant belief among policymakers in Brussels was that providing both financial and technical support would enable the EU to use its normative power to persuade its neighbours to accept its values.     READ MORE...

Rafah Gate

 

Japan's Robots

 

Unwilling to Take Palestinian Refugees

(AP) — As desperate Palestinians in sealed-off Gaza try to find refuge under Israel’s relentless bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack, some ask why neighboring Egypt and Jordan don’t take them in.

The two countries, which flank Israel on opposite sides and share borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank, respectively, have replied with a staunch refusal. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population.  

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made his toughest remarks yet on Wednesday, saying the current war was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to ... migrate to Egypt.” He warned this could wreck peace in the region.    READ MORE...