October 12

 We have rain today and the weather forecast has been changed to predict rain till Tuesday next week. At least we don't have the storms hitting central Florida.

The coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict is still the main topic and is still incredibly lacking in historical perspective, speculative, and repetitive. I don't know how many questions were lobbed at interviewees about tactical or strategic mattes that no one with any brains were going to answer because it would provide Hamas with too much information. Unless, of course, they wanted to dispense disinformation.

Caitlin Johnstone has a long piece this morning that makes some points with which I agree. She is not a fan of U.S. foreign policy and takes little for fact just because some spokesperson or expert spouts it. That is why I read her pieces. It provides a different perspective. Johnstone note, accurately, that too many claims of atrocities are not verified. Most of our news sources have repeated them without criticism and the chorus of condemnation by our politicians have done the same. Only one anchor that I have seen so far has been at any pains to emphasize the lack of verification. Joy Reid  provided a lengthy caution on her Reid Out program last night. In today's world of Photoshop and parties who staged attacks for propaganda value, I don't even take pictures for gospel. Pictures do lie. Johnstone is also correct in noting that the whole thing has 9/11 hysteria feeling about it and it has since the beginning when the bodies began stacking up. One of the first comparisons across multiple pundits comments was how the number of Israeli victims, given Israel's population which is larger than Chicago and a third of New York City, compared to the U.S. victims of 9/11. The psychological impact, however, is similar and intense anger and grief drive out any rational analysis and any caution.

The impasse over who will be the next Speaker of the House continues. The private vote among the Republicans yielded a win for Rep. Scalise but his total of 113 votes is far away from the 217 he needs. His opposition within his own party includes many who did not vote to remove McCarthy and several members of Gaetz' little crew of arsonists. And some are making demands that simply can't be met.

Bill Astore has a good post which parallels some of Caitlin Johnstone's. There is a madness that takes over in war. We don't see anything that came before and can't imagine what comes after.

Another couple of stray thought as we listened to the brewing debate about the pro-Palestinian protestors and those who disapprove or stage counter protests: I think I noted yesterday a tendency of the Palestinian side to have long memories of the wrongs they claim(probably with justification depending on the wrong they mention) as do the Israelis (also with justification). Each side brings up their grievances while minimizing those on the other side. The first thought is one my parents harped on--two wrongs don't make a right; they are simply two wrongs. The second thought is that each side each side insists that the wrongs they have received so outweigh the wrongs they have done as to make them negligible. There is no scale which can fairly balance wrongs against each other. Nor can justice be achieved by such a means. Astore's choice of Ares to lad off his article above is suitable since Ares is the god of war who makes the bloodlust rise in warriors in combat.