The Royal Soap Opera

The British royal family must love the non-stop news stories about the king (Charles), his wife (Camilla), his children (Harry and William), his children’s spouses (Megan and Kate), and aunts and uncles (Andrew and Margaret). If they wanted that news to stop they would stop writing books about the family and stop doing interviews. Below is a list of the more scandalous postings I have seen on news web sites. None can be verified. It is all part of a never ending soap opera that is better than the real soaps like Days of Our Lives. News items about the family are usually under the category of Entertainment.

A prerecorded interview with Britain’s ITV is scheduled to air Sunday evening. CBS show “60 Minutes” is set to run a conversation with the prince later, and he is appearing on “Good Morning America” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

1. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were blissfully planning their 2018 wedding, one person was prohibited from the guest list — Princess Diana‘s ex-lover, James Hewitt, the man long suspected of being Harry’s biological dad, RadarOnline.com has learned. “The prince doesn’t want the other guests looking at Hewitt and then at Harry and whispering about how much they look alike,” spilled the insider.

2. Britain’s Prince Harry spent 10 years in the British army. He served two tours in Afghanistan, the first in 2007 and 2008 and the second in 2012 and 2013. Though he in 2013 revealed he’d killed Afghan insurgents during attacks against the Taliban when he was an Apache attack helicopter co-pilot gunner, in his January 2023 memoir, “Spare,” the Duke of Sussex disclosed — for the first time — that he killed 25 people during his second tour of duty. As reported by The Telegraph, Harry writes in his memoir that he flew on six missions that resulted in “the taking of human lives.” He felt neither proud nor ashamed, explaining that during combat, he thought of those who died not as “people” but as “chess pieces” that had been taken off the board. Harry has long been a terrorist target because of his two deployments, but in the wake of the revelations in his book, reports indicate there are increased concerts for his safety.

3. Prince Harry says King Charles was concerned Meghan Markle would take the limelight from him and Camilla in his upcoming memoir.

4. Prince Harry hasn’t revealed whether he and Meghan Markle will attend King Charles’ coronation. During the ITV interview promo, when asked by Tom Bradby if he will attend, Harry says, “There’s a lot can happen between now and then.” Harry goes on to say it’s up to his family to make the next move. “But the door is always open” he continues. “The ball is in their court. There’s a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they’re willing to talk about it.” Harry also says that while he still believes in the monarchy, he doesn’t know if he will be part of it in the future.

5. Prince Harry ‘Written Out’ Of King Charles III’s Coronation Ceremony As Memoir Excerpts Leave Prince William ‘Burning With Anger’: Source

6. William allegedly specifically feels betrayed after Harry talked about their physical confrontation back in 2019.

7. LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry is expected to lob more criticism at the U.K. royal family in broadcast interviews to promote his soul-baring new memoir, which has generated incendiary headlines even before its official release.

Israel is Becoming a Theocracy

This is complicated.

Israel’s biggest foreign supporter has been American Jews and American Jewish organizations. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States.

The number of Jews worldwide stands at approximately 15.3 million compared to 15.2 million in the 2021, according to newly released statistics from The Jewish Agency for Israel. Among the global Jewish population, the number of Jews in Israel is 7 million. Approximately 6 million Jews live in the United States. Clearly the American Jewish population is a significant part of the total.

The Right of Return has been the most important part of creating the Sate of Israel. Israel is the one place I can go when the crimes against Jews appears to resemble Hitler’s attacks on Jews prior to WWII. Now extreme Jews in Israel want to change that law. Candidates for Religious Zionist parties have long argued for closing a “grandfather clause” that allows the descendants of Jews to immigrate to Israel provided they have one Jewish grandparent. As part of Netanyahu’s prospective coalition, the traditional religious and Religious Zionist leaders alike have started to lobby to cancel this clause. This, too, would be a major change in Israel.

More than 300 U.S. rabbis have put their signatures to a letter warning that Israel’s new government under incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could do “irreparable harm” with extremist policies.

The letter cautions against policy proposals from extreme Jewish nationalist members set to join Netanyahu’s Cabinet and government, calling them “anathema to the tenets of democracy.”

The rabbis argue the policies could erode women’s rights, expel Arab Israelis and override Israeli Supreme Court rulings, among other actions they say could run counter to the country’s values.

If implemented, the policies “will cause irreparable harm to the Israel-Jewish Diaspora relationship, as they are an affront to the vast majority of American Jews and our values,” the letter reads.

The Washington Post reports Religious Zionist leaders already pursuing plans to restrict the rights of minorities, alter the system of governmental checks and balances, hollow out the Israeli judiciary, exert influence over the army and security forces, and allow harsher treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. AIPAC and other American Jewish organizations will have a difficult time receiving support of American Jews and other supporters of Israel.

Homes Encased in Ice

Homes on Lake Erie were encased in ice as blizzard whipped frigid waves onshore.

Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada after last weekend’s blizzard whipped the frigid waves on shore.

Residents of the Fort Erie community, coincidentally named Crystal Beach, said the waves were crashing over their Lake Erie break wall during the storm.

“Then the water has frozen up the backsides of the houses, so from the tops of the houses all the way down,” Derek Tupling told CNN news partner CTV. “So, you can just imagine the sheer volume and strength of water coming up over the wall to hit it and then freeze – flash freeze – immediately. It’s absolutely incredible.”

The community is west of Erie County, New York, where the death toll from the historic blizzard has climbed to over three dozen, most of them in the city of Buffalo.

The temperature has risen to 44F this afternoon.

President Donald Trump was Responsible for the January 6, 2021 Insurrection

Bennie Thompson January 6 committee chairman

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has concluded that former President Donald Trump was ultimately responsible for the insurrection, laying out for the public and the Justice Department a trove of evidence for why he should be prosecuted for multiple crimes.

For months, the Jan. 6 committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.

The committee referred Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges, including:

Obstructing an official proceeding
Defrauding the United States
Making false statements
Assisting or aiding an insurrection

It is truly sad that a president did not honor his oath.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

§2383. Rebellion or insurrection Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Will the Department of Justice prosecute Trump? If they do not it will mean that people of influence are not treated like the rest of us.

“I have no doubt that once the investigation proceeds and is concluded, if the evidence is as we presented it, I’m convinced the Justice Department will charge former President Trump,” chairman Bennie Thompson says on CNN.

Thousands of menorahs in Billings, Montana

Billings, Montana is not the home of a large Jewish population. I found there are estimates of 5,000 Jews in all of Montana.

Jews light the menorah during Hanukkah to remember the miraculous triumph of the Maccabee in ancient times, lighting one candle each night for eight nights. Classical Jewish texts recommend placing menorahs in windows of homes to publicize the celebration of a miracle.

“In that way, in a sense, the light will be spread,” says Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “The light of understanding, the light of tolerance, the light of Jewish identity, all of those.”

But will a menorah in a window really make a difference in the fight against antisemitism?

It can – and has.

Look no further than the town of Billings, Montana, whose citizens fought back in 1993 after someone launched a brick through the window of then 5-year-old Isaac Schnitzer’s bedroom. A menorah in the window sparked the attack, according to The New York Times. The Billings Gazette published a menorah drawing in response, and thousands hung these makeshift menorahs on their windows. Jews and non-Jews alike.

The Billings Gazette is recreating the full-page menorah ad this year and will ask the community to repeat history and place them in their windows. The move comes after swastikas and threatening messages recently appeared at a local high school.

“It’s important to mark this anniversary because we don’t ever want to forget the power of love,” Cole says. “Common decency is more powerful than hate.”

Billings is working with Shine A Light, a coalition of organizations raising awareness about antisemitism. In addition to engaging several local communities like Billings, the group has partnered with corporations like Google, iHeart Media and Airbnb.

All this begs the question, about 30 years later, “what’s the wider community able to do to make Jewish families and the Jewish community feel more secure, at a very insecure moment?” asks Jacobs.

Menorahs in public spaces this time of year suggests solidarity.

“It’s a statement against antisemitism broadly given what has been happening,” Neufeld says. “It’s a sign of allyship to Jews, that they are not alone, and that these attacks affect everyone. It’s also a deep recognition that antisemitism doesn’t just affect Jews, but affects everybody, that it is part of the conspiratorial glue, that is key to so much of hate in society today.”

Trump- The Superhero

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Laughs Out Loud at Trump’s Superhero ‘Major Announcement’ Tease: ‘We Are in Third Grade’

Trump reveals ‘major announcement’ — a digital trading card collection for $99 per card

This is the man many Republicans want to lead the United States. Just what we need. A child leading our country.

A voice of Independence

Arizona Senator Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has changed her registration from Democrat to independent. She wrote her reasons in the Arizona Republic and they were posted to that newspaper’s website. You can read the entire article here but the following are the consequential parts.

I too am registered as an Independent in California. I too am sick of the non stop bickering and one upmanship where making political points is more important than doing the right thing.

“Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.”

“In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought. Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.”

“Americans are told that we have only two choices – Democrat or Republican – and that we must subscribe wholesale to policy views the parties hold, views that have been pulled further and further toward the extremes.”

“Most Arizonans believe this is a false choice, and when I ran for the U.S. House and the Senate, I promised Arizonans something different. I pledged to be independent and work with anyone to achieve lasting results. I committed I would not demonize people I disagreed with, engage in name-calling, or get distracted by political drama.”

“I promised I would never bend to party pressure, and I would stay focused on solving problems and getting things done for everyday Arizonans.” 

“My approach is rare in Washington and has upset partisans in both parties.” 

Could this be the end of the two party system in the United States? Not likely. The most we can hope for is a third party of consequence.

Time Magazine Person of the Year