Reflections from the Heart of the Empire: Israel Flails, Others Fail, but Dolly Shines

and so do Ohio hot dogs

• “Israeli defense officials” told Haaretz that Netanyahu is no longer seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, but wants to annex the northern half of it.

• Well, at least they told a half truth, a significant improvement. We know Israel wants all of it plus the Golan Heights plus southern Lebanon, and that’s just for starters.

• Israeli thugs with badges arrested Jewish-American Gray Zone journalist Jeremy Loffredo, roughed him up some, and seized his cellphone(which they have still been unable to crack as of this writing) for reporting on the same bomb crater near Mossad HQ that ABC and PBS had without incident.

• An Israeli judge ordered him released, but he is forbidden to leave the apartheid state. Of course, the US government has said absolutely nothing, but you can make some State Department flunky’s day!

• Nicaragua announced that it has severed relations with the “fascist and genocidal government of Israel.” Makes me glad that I defended the Sandinistas in the 1980s, it does.

• UNESCO announced that Israel has destroyed 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and artistic interest, two repositories of movable cultural property, six monuments, one museum, and seven archaeological sites in Gaza alone since October 7, 2023. This is the literal definition of cultural genocide. (Below: A destroyed Greek Orthodox church in Gaza)

• The Scottish National Party expelled Scottish MP John Mason(below) for saying in August that “if Israel wanted to commit genocide, they would have killed 10 times as many” in Gaza. Dude, you’re waving the wrong flag!

• A Welsh county council included King Arthur in a timeline of LGBTQ history because there is one story of him dressing up in women’s clothing. Was Excalibur the first Gay Blade?

• Oops! That’s Zorro the Gay Blade(a very funny movie BTW). Here’s Excalibur the now Uncertain Blade—

• They’d be better off saying Abraham Lincoln was a closet gay, since he slept with wounded soldiers(apparently literally slept, but since when do facts matter to some people?). They could just celebrate the one definitely gay President, James Buchanan, but since he more or less enabled the Civil War I guess that’s a bad look. (Below: The first gay President)

• Some 100,000 people in western North Carolina alone still have no running water weeks after Hurricane Helene ravaged the area.

• Meanwhile, Dolly Parton and Wal-Mart seem to be delivering more aid than FEMA. You’ve gotta love Dolly Parton. She never forgot where she came from, and she still looks after her own.

• Tampa narrowly avoided the worst-case scenario when Hurricane Milton veered south, sparing it the dreaded storm surge in its confined bay. It still did a lot of damage, such as tearing the roof off of Tropicana Field, where the Devil Rays used to play baseball.

• Please let us know you’re safe when you can,

  djean111
  . 3 million Americans are still without power due to this storm alone.

• Iceland’s coalition government has collapsed. It seems it has something to do with an inadequate response to a volcanic eruption, and that the coalition can’t agree on immigration and energy issues. It would be nice if someone in Iceland would weigh in with more detail.

• Meanwhile, $kamala Harris has slipped in the polls so much that Al Jazeera noticed it. The latest NBC poll has the national race tied at 48% each for Harris and Trump. In the battleground states it’s even worse for her. I will have more on this story tomorrow.

• The Pakistani government declared a three day public holiday to celebrate its security forces locking down Islamabad for a regional Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting featuring Chinese premier Li Qiang. Somehow, these guys don’t put me in the holiday spirit.

• Canada declared the Indian Ambassador to Canada a “person of interest” in the investigation of the assassination of Sikh nationalist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year. The Indian government is outraged.

• To be fair, Canadian authorities have yet to release any hard evidence, but if you ask me which one of these guys is more trustworthy when it comes to people with political opinions they don’t like, I’d have to say neither.

• The BBC has discovered an innovative new pitch for more funding. It’s director-general claimed that the BBC is losing the propaganda war to state-funded Russian and Chinese media outlets, therefore the British Government better pony up!

• I’m sure all the British citizens who can’t afford adequate heating this winter will be more than happy to purchase a few more coats and blankets to support the BBC.

• Finally, Ohio’s own Skyline Chili set the Guinness World Record for the most photos of hot dogs ever uploaded to Instagram in one hour. That figures, because no one appreciates tasty food like Ohioans. The state welcome signs really should read: Welcome to Ohio. If you leave hungry, we’ve failed.

You won’t leave hungry, I promise.

Thank you for reading, good day or night, and good luck.

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