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Never Again?                                     #258

By Hank Silverberg


Commentary

You have seen the video on TV. Thousands of people protesting the war in Gaza that Israel is now fighting against Hamas. 

The death toll on both sides is terrible and yes, innocent civilians are the victims. History proves they usually are.  

War protests are not new. Peace is something we all want--I think. 

But you should be very troubled by a group of people who I believe don't really know what they are saying. 

I have written before that a two-state solution in the middle east, one where the Palestinians can have their own state and live side by side with Israel, is the best solution. But it has been rejected several times by Hamas and attacked by other countries in the region. Iran, which cares more about its own efforts to spread authoritarian theocracy than it does about the average Palestinian on the streets of Gaza or the West Bank, has done a great deal to stop any progress toward this goal.  

Hamas pushes another solution. You have heard the protestors chant it. "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." So what does that mean? To Hamas it means the elimination of the state of Israel and the more than six million Jews who live there. In other words, genocide on the scale of the Holocaust. (They talk the same way about the three million non-Jews who now live in Israel.) 

I don't think many of those protestors, especially young college students in the United States, really understand what they are saying with that chant. 

It is important that every responsible person challenge that concept. Today they once again want to eradicate Jews. Tomorrow it could be you. The lessons of the 20th century have apparently been lost by those coming of age in the 21st. 

You may think what I have written here is a simple explanation of a complex history in a troubled region. But Israel is fighting for its life. As Americans we must be on the right side of freedom and decency or we lose our purpose as a nation.  Hamas has never been on the side of either. Palestinians will never be free under Hamas or the stewardship of Iran's authoritarian theocrats. 

The best thing that can  happen to the Palestinians in Gaza is the complete destruction of their biggest oppressor, Hamas.   

Before you are tempted to go into the street and demand a cease fire or blame Israel for defending itself with brutal force, think about the alternative. 

War is terrible. But sometimes, like it was 75 years ago, it is necessary to destroy a murderous, oppressive ideology.    

Bad Start for New Speaker

He hadn't even been officially voted in as Speaker before Republican Mike Johnson made his first bad impression. 

It was at the news conference where the GOP announced his pending election after three weeks of bickering and indecisive votes.

ABC News reporter Rachel Scott did what all good
reporters do, she asked a good question. 


She wanted to know if the new Speaker would comment on his past attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and what would be his stance on that as Speaker.  

It was a totally appropriate question, asked not in a hallway walk or an ambush interview, but at a news conference Johnson had set up.  

Johnson was surrounded on the podium by a large number of his GOP colleagues who wanted to show some unity after that bitter fight. 

The reaction to Scott's question?   

(CSPAN screen shot) 

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, (R-NC) the white haired lady in this picture loudly told the reporter to "shut up."

Well-known malcontent Lauren Boebert (R-CO) cried out "oh God!" loud enough for the CSPAN mics to pick it up.  

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (on the left in the photo) who had earlier lost his own attempt to be Speaker, just laughed. 

Other members simply booed.  

Johnson said, "next question."

You can hear the exchange for yourself at the link below.  

House Republican tells reporter to ‘shut up’ for asking Johnson about overturning 2020 election | The Hill

So much for transparency from the new Speaker. 

If the news media does its job, the questions are going to get tougher. If the press doesn't hit him again and again with hard and difficult questions then things will go down hill fast. And every problem the country faces will get worse.


News

Antarctica is Doomed!

 A large portion of Antarctica is going to melt even if the world cuts back on carbon emissions. That conclusion comes from a new study. It says the melt could take a hundred years, but could add six feet to sea levels around the globe. That's enough to radically change where and how people live worldwide in the future. 

Researchers used computer simulations to calculate the future melt of the ice in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, which is the western part of the continent. The study, from the British Antarctic Survey, published in the Journal Nature Climate Change, says that even if future warming was limited to just a few tenths of a degree more, we would have "limited  

Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century | Nature Climate Change

power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet."  

(North Cove, Antarctica, courtesy British
Antarctic Survey) 
The computer projections looked at melting gatekeeper ice shelves which float over the ocean in the Western Antarctic that are already below sea level. Once that ice melts, there is nothing to stop the glaciers behind it from flowing into the sea and raising the sea level as the glaciers melt.  

The international goal is to limit future global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above the mid-19th century levels. The current worldwide levels are already 1.2 degrees above pre-industrial time, and this past summer much of the world shot past the 1.5 degree mark. The study only projects the melt up to the year 2100. The lead author, Kaitlin Naughten, told the AP that there is probably still time to prevent things from getting even worse after 2100.  

There have already been examples of small islands disappearing in various places across the globe and notable changes in some shorelines. The researchers predict many of today's coastal communities may eventually have to be abandoned.


Dumbest Quote of The Week!

This  week's dumbest and probably most offensive quote comes from the new Republican Speaker of The House, Mike Johnson, who comes from Louisiana.

"Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘… People are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that’s my worldview. That’s what I believe and so I make no apologies for it.”


But here is the problem with that, Mr. Speaker. Which version of the Bible? The King James version, the Torah, the Koran? There are many more. The versions are all similar in many ways,  but with some big differences. And in most cases they are interpreted differently by different sects or denominations of a particular religion. And the Bible in general is often misinterpreted. 

Here's the other problem. I don't remember anything in the Bible about immigration, tax policy or climate change, though I am sure someone will find some paragraph somewhere in their Bible version that they think is relevant on each.   

Our Founding Fathers were very leery of this concept.  We should be, too. 

"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together." --James Madison. 


Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) - Encyclopedia Virginia

‘Go pick up a Bible’: Speaker Mike Johnson defends anti-LGBTQ+ views | Mike Johnson | The Guardian


(Your comments and suggestions are welcome)   

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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796


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