Citing her comments on Israel and Jews the Republican-led House Thursday voted along party lines to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over previous comments she had made.
Born in Somalia, Omar fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States, according to her congressional biography. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family, living in the city that she now represents in Congress. Omar is a Muslim. She has been a fierce critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and routinely questions U.S. aid to Israel.
During the town hall event, Omar suggested Israel demands “allegiance” from American lawmakers, adding that “a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, (think) that everything we say about Israel (is) anti-Semitic because we are Muslim.”
If it was up to me I would expel her from the House of Representatives along with others who have made racist remarks. Omar was just re-elected and so her constituents want her to continue serving. This is how democracy functions.
GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser. Greense was re-elected too.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein is 89 years old. Her term in office ends in two years. From all appearances she looks frail. The picture above was taken October 14, 2020 when she questioned Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett. There are multiple reports about her ability to remember who she had just spoken to. The position of Senate president pro tempore is a position almost always given to the senior senator of the majority political party. That person would be Senator Dianne Feinstein. In an opportunity to become Senate president pro tempore, a position laid out by the Constitution to chair the Senate when the vice president is not present Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Democrats he won’t nominate Sen. Dianne Feinstein due to her mental acuity.
Feinstein has refused to say whether she will run for re-election. As many believe she will not run there is a growing list of well known congressional representatives who have declared their intention to run for the Senate seat. With the overwhelming Democratic registration in California the winner is almost certain to be a Democrat.
As of this date four well known liberal Democrats have announced their intention to run for the Senate seat. All four hold similar positions on most issues. Barbara Lee, Katy Porter, a rising star in the party who has notched close victories in competitive Orange County, Ro Khanna of Fremont, and now Adam Schiff representing Burbank and Glendale. Lee’s reputation is as the lone vote in Congress against the Afghanistan war in 2001.
So the question is how can these people run against each other when they have the same views on most topics? They all hold similar objectives. More gun control, eliminating the use of gas and oil, abortion access wherever you live, immigration reform are some of the topics they most likely will say are important and need new legislation.
They are left with just a few things. Name calling. Sewing petty doubts about their opponent’s loyalty to liberal ideas. The campaign is going to be very nasty.
The forecast in October by the Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, indicated the odds were stacked against the Golden State: a rare third year of La Niña was expected. And California had already recorded its three driest years in the historical record.
The center’s seasonal forecast for December, January and February said there were equal chances of a dry or wet season in Northern California. But for Southern California, the agency reported there was a 33% to 50% chance of below-normal precipitation.
Every California state water agency and every local water agency were preparing for another winter of drought.
Then the surprise started at the beginning of December 2022. Rain storm after rain storm hit Southen California.
How could that happen when this season was a predicted La Niña winter?
The meteorologists (climate scientists) provide us with an exclamation. One meteorologist who has warned against putting too many eggs in the La Niña basket is Jan Null, a former lead forecaster for the National Weather Service. In late 2020, as La Niña was developing, he tweeted of the phenomenon: “What does it mean for California and U.S. rainfall? Almost anything!”
So while La Niña and El Niño do factor into Southern California weather, another phenomenon known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation can affect whether storms hit. And instead of being forecast months in advance, they can be predicted only weeks ahead of time.
The Madden-Julian Oscillation — or MJO — is separate from La Niña and El Niño. It’s another way of predicting rain and it provides an excuse for incorrect forecasting.
1997-1998 was a year when the El Niño was accurately predicted (48.3 inches) and that started my collection of rain at my home. What I learned is that the average amount to rain is not a guide to how much rain will fall in any given year. Last year the total rain was just of 6 inches. This year the rainy season is only half completed and the rain received is approaching 16 inches.
More than three dozen Regal movie theaters, including a total of three in Los Angeles and Orange counties, will be closing as the chain’s parent company winds its way through bankruptcy.
The causes should be obvious. I have a 55 inch flatscreen television with an excellent sound system that has the capability of streaming movies from Disney, Paramount, Universal, and others. The cost is relatively low. I can stop the movie if I need to use the bathroom or get a snack from the kitchen. On top of that there is no potential for contracting COVID or other communicable diseases.
Phonograph records, eight track tapes, and CDs are all part of the past. Despite a recent surge in popularity of vinyl and record players, music streaming continues to be king. A wide variety of subscription-based music streaming services now grant access to millions of songs that you can access on any device you own. Spotify is the most popular streaming platform in the world, with 350 million users and 150 million subscribers.
Satelliteradio means broadcasts through a satellite that ensures you can always hear the broadcast as you drive from Los Angeles to Chicago. It’s not just in your car. The SXM App delivers the ultimate SiriusXM experience including ad-free music, plus live sports, original talk shows where ever you are. I’m hooked.
Smart speakers are a 21st century tool that is part of the advance of technology that is called AI (artificial intelligence). The speakers have a microphone that hears what you are saying. The unit can play music, podcasts, news and radio, just with a simple voice request. This is just the beginning of even more advanced robotics. As I am writing this article WordPress is suggesting my next words.
The AMC DINE-IN Topanga 12 just opened June 2, 2022. I can’t understand the decision building a new theater when there is a shrinking number of theater goers. They are appealing to the same people who love phonograph records.
I admit playing the music I love on CDs. I must be part of that dying breed too.
Amazon still enjoys something of a first-mover advantage with its voice-controlled digital assistant, Alexa. That means you’ll find a robust selection of third-party tasks—or “skills,” in Amazon Alexa parlance—that the speaker can perform and a wide array of devices that work with Alexa-powered smart speakers. I’m thinking about trying this AI machine.
Every time I go to a Gelson’s market in Calabasas, which isn’t very often, I pass a cactus garden and walled house and yard. In August 2020 I finally took my camera and stopped to walk through the garden and photograph it and the gated entrance. Now a local newspaper had called it the “Cactus House.” The paper reported that The house features four bedrooms and four baths in 4,667 square feet. The walled compound also has two decks overlooking a koi pond and pool.
The view as you drive by.
After you have driven by the entrance to the walled compound is on a side road that is not easily seen. I took a total of 14 pictures of the cactus and palm garden along with the entrance.
The property is estimated by Zillow at just over $2 million and is not for sale now. Photos were taken in 2020.
Macy’s has appeared in more than 50 movies and television shows. The store’s debut was in 1906 in the film The Kleptomaniac.Since then, it has appeared in many movies likeAuntie Mame (1958), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Sweet Charity (1969), and more recently Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Shark Tale (2004) and King Kong (2005). Finally, it is probably most famous for its role in the holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
Macy’s Harold Square has achieved fame in the TV world as well. Well known shows like The Wonder Years, Who’s the Boss, Seinfeld, Friends, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, The Biggest Loser, and Project Runway.
Macy’s is also featured in Kanye West’s US version of his music video for the song “Heard ‘Em Say.” Nearly the entire video was filmed inside Macy’s Herald Square. It features West and three children playing inside a closed Macy’s at night.
More than just a retail store, Macy’s has truly become an icon of Manhattan, and even of the United States. This is one shopping spot that cannot be missed during your visit to New York City.
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
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.
I just finished watching Grapes of Wrath. It is based on the book by John Steinbeck. It is a tear jerker. The movie does an excellent job of depicting the camps of Dust Bowl migrants coming to California for work. The last chapters of the book are not in the movie. As I watched the movie I could see the relevance to today’s homeless on Skid Row and other homeless encampments around Los Angeles. Police in the movie chasing those Oakies are the same police chasing homeless people today. Steinbeck offered no solution just as today’s Los Angeles mayor has no solution. There is no place to house 40,000 homeless people in 2023.
You may believe the mayor (Bass) and the county supervisors can change the situation but there really is not an idea of how to resolve the issue of 60,000 homeless in Los Angeles County. There is no plan for permanent housing and I doubt we have the money to accomplish that goal.
The real question should be how did we get here? Those people living in motor homes and tents are not all on drugs and mentally ill. The shrinking number of low paying jobs is an ever feed to the homeless population. Many of those people may not be able to handle anything more difficult than janitors and fast food workers.
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 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.”
Coast Contact 