Lewiston will not be the last Mass Shooting in America the Year

Residents of Maine gather to pray and reflect, days after a mass shooting left 18 people dead. From Sandy Hook to Las Vegas to Lewiston, Maine people gather to say prayers and hold vigils where there are flowers to honor the dead. But this won’t be the last massacre. The United States has experienced 565 mass shootings so far this year.

Holiday season brings arguments and depression. Sadly the killing season may be coming. But we love our guns more than we love lives in America. The Second Amendment gives us the right to keep on killing.

“Washington, D.C. is broken.”

Republican Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (representing Arizona’s 8th Congressional district) announced that she will not seek reelection in 2024.

Lesko cited a broken government that is not accomplishing much and the time she spends away from her family as the reasons for her decision.

In four simple words, Lesko warned that “Washington, D.C. is broken.”

There is still no end in sight for the high-stakes speakership battle after House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy more than two weeks ago. Without a speaker no laws can be passed.

Even worse Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia said in a statement that after voting against Jim Jordan, his family started receiving death threats: “That is simply unacceptable, unforgivable, and will never be tolerated.”

Axios reported that Ferguson told other House Republicans in a Thursday meeting “that he’s had to have a sheriff stationed at his daughter’s school over death threats from the far right. Also one at his house.”

The New York Times reported that the wife of Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska “has begun sleeping with a loaded gun after receiving increasingly menacing anonymous calls and texts.”

Citizens of our country and people around the world are wondering what has happened to the United States.

History of Israel

In 1948, the UN established the State of Israel, a nation of Jews. It is not a big area. Think Yosemite to San Diego. This map appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

The land of Israel has been populated by the Jewish people since 2000 BC. Here’s the timeline, in case you didn’t realize that it is their homeland.

1900 BC: Abraham chosen by God as the Father of the Jewish Nation.

1900 BC: Isaac, Abraham’s son, rules over Israel.

1850 BC: Jacob, son of Issac, rules over Israel.

1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel.

1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation.

970 BC: King Solomon, son of David, builds the first temple structure in Jerusalem

930 BC: Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

800s BC: The rise of the prophets, God’s messengers.

722 BC: Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyrians.

605 BC: Kingdom Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.

586 BC: Solomon’s Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians.

539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel.

538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from exile.

520 BC: The Temple is rebuilt.

450 BC: Reforms made by Ezra and Nehemiah.

433 BC: Malachi is the end of the prophetic age.

432 BC: The last group of Jews return from exile.

333 BC: The Greeks conquer the Persian empire.

323 BC: The Egyptian and Syrian empire take over Israel.

167 BC: Hasmonean’s recapture Israel, and the Jews are ruled independently.

70 BC: Romans conquer Israel.

20 BC: King Herod builds the “second” temple

6 BC: Yeshua is born in Bethlehem

70 AD: Romans destroy the temple

After that, the people were captives to the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. Through all of these events, the Jewish people continued to live in Israel. There were more or less of them, depending on the centuries, but there was never a time when the Jews didn’t live in the land. They stayed, they built their communities, they raised their families, practiced their faith and they suffered at the hands of many outside rulers, but they always kept their faith. It is what sustains them, even now.

Israel Is Walking Into a Sympathy Trap

With help from The Atlantic Monthly

It’s a trap. Hamas’s ruthless and spectacular attack on southern Israel last Saturday was many things: an atrocity, a display of militant ingenuity, and a demonstration of the weakness of Israeli intelligence and defenses. Israel and the Palestinians have a long history of brutality against each other, but the Hamas killing spree outdoes anything seen since the founding of Israel in 1948.

Hamas surely would not have meticulously planned its audacious assault without also extensively planning a response to the hoped-for Israeli counterattack on the ground. The Israeli military will likely encounter a determined insurgency in Gaza. 

Iran and Hamas are counting on Israel to attack Gaza with such ferocity that the international sympathy of the past week toward Israel, even in the Arab world, evaporates quickly and is replaced by outrage at the suffering inflicted on the 2 million residents of Gaza. Those civilians have already been cut off from electricity, water, food, and medicine, all of which are controlled by Israel. They rely on everything from the outside world that is controlled by Israel.

Gaza has been an open-air prison for the Palestinians living there.  They have no way to leave.

Hamas and Iran hope that Israel will refuse to return to the status quo ante and will instead institute a prolonged ground occupation of Gaza, declaring that Hamas can no longer be allowed to pose such a threat. But Gaza, they trust, will be a slaughterhouse for Israeli soldiers, both during the immediate incursion and over time as the anticipated insurgency gains its footing.

Israel’s dilemma is Hamas’s goal is to eliminate the entire country and all of its Jewish citizens.  That is not going to happen. But the worldwide hatred of Jews predicts a never ending war for Israel.

When Someone Comes to Kill You

This all started on May 14, 1948 when Israel established itself as a free nation.  At the time, the Jews were about a third of the population of Palestine the British Protectorate created after World War One. The following day, the armies of four Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq—entered into parts of what had been British Mandatory Palestine, launching the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The apparent purpose of the invasion was to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state at inception, and some Arab leaders talked about “driving the Jews into the sea”.

Hamas formed in late 1987 at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). Hamas is a Sunni Islamic group that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and whose goals from the beginning have been to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation through any means necessary.

Unlike the Palestinian Authority, Hamas does not support the so-called two-state solution — the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel — as a permanent solution. It advocates for a Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, without an Israel. (Some extremists in the current right-wing Israeli government similarly believe in an Israel from the river to the sea, without Palestine. Israelis are not likely to kill millions of Palestinians to reach their objective as it is only the right-wing of their government that holds this view.

As is evident now, Hamas wants to kill every Jew to reach its objective.

This week revenge is the goal of the Israeli government.

Republicans are the Disfunctional Political Party

Republicans have had a lot of bad elections since Donald Trump took over the party. They lost the popular vote for president in 2016, they lost the House in 2018, they lost the presidency in 2020, and they lost the Senate in 2021.

Now to add to their incompetence they ousted their House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Most of the top Republican candidates running for president in 2024 reacted grimly to the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by a faction of hard-liners in their own party. One contender Vivek Ramaswamy, the loudmouth of the candidates, embraced the chaos and the front-runner, Ron DeSantis, notably did not denounce the move.

This is a Republican Party that has lost its mind.

They are so far away from Ronald Reagan that it is like the GOP today is not the real Republican Party.

The Democrats do not have to say or do a single thing.  The Republicans have proven that they cannot govern.

And there is a lot on the table today.  This past weekend, Congress passed, and President Biden signed, a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that continues to fund the federal government through November 17.

The CR does not provide funds for Ukraine and without that funding Russia will have won that war and likely be deciding which country to invade next.  Those are all NATO nations and an attack on any of them draws the United States into war because we are part of NATO.

One thing we do know is that Republican Party behavior assures we will have a government totally controlled by the Democratic Party and that is a good thing.

It’s called Intimidation

Donald Trump was in the court room for his fraud trial in New York. He sneered and glared at New York Attorney General Letitia James as he passed her on his way out at lunchtime; she, by turn, left smiling.

That will be Trump’s likely method at all the trials he faces and of course his name calling.

“Asa Hutchinson, I call him Ada … the guy has zero, why would be on stage,” Trump said before insulting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who he called “sloppy Chris Christie.”

“He’s like a deranged person, he suffers from Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said.

He also called out former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, calling her “bird brain.”

And we all know that Trump calls Ron DeSantis Ron Desanctimonius.

Trump is 6′ 3″ and weighs 243 lbs. So he is a big man. Between his size and his behavior he is an intimidating person.

Happily Jack Smith, Special Counsel, has a career that spans multiple stints in the Justice Department and international courts, which until his appointment had allowed him to keep a relatively low profile in the oftentimes brassy legal industry.

Trump himself repeatedly denounced Smith in speeches and on social media, calling him “deranged” and a “psycho.”

I doubt Smith will be intimidated.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, an advocate for liberal priorities, dies at age 90

Dianne Feinstein October 14, 2020 questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barret

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat and champion of liberal causes who was elected to the Senate in 1992 and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.

Feinstein died on Thursday night at her home in Washington, D.C., her office said on Friday. Opening the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that “earlier this morning, we lost a giant in the Senate.”

“Dianne Feinstein was one of the most amazing people who ever graced the Senate, who ever graced the country,” Schumer said, his voice cracking. “As the nation mourns this tremendous loss, we know how many lives she impacted and how many glass ceilings she shattered along the way.”

Senator Feinstein has long advocated for commonsense laws to reduce gun violence. Most notably, she achieved passage of the landmark, federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994 and has advocated for its reinstatement since it expired in 2004.