BEST PART OF YARD WORK

U.S. Embassy move to Capital of Israel, JERUSALEM

It has been a long time since the United States promised to move it's embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital of Isreal, Jerusalem.

Well, it looks like our president-elect is going to do it, as well he should. It is a long overdue.

How Donald Trump could soon discard a long-standing precedent on Israel

Every four years, presidential candidates routinely signal their support for moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Then, after they’re sworn into office, they balk when faced with the potential ramifications.

Comments from Trump aides and the mayor of Jerusalem, though, suggest that Trump could be poised to discard yet another diplomatic axiom and relocate the embassy “fairly quickly” after he enters the White House. That move would be highly political, effectively meaning that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which it has refused to do for decades out of concern about provoking Palestinians who want part of the city to become their own capital.

The question of Jerusalem’s status is the most sensitive and complicated issue in the long-running conflict between ­Israelis and Palestinians. It is fraught with political, religious and nationalist implications that potentially could create an uproar throughout the Middle East and the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Trump will have an opportunity to decide the fate of the U.S. diplomatic mission on June 1, at the expiration of another six-month waiver President Obama signed to the Jerusalem Embassy Act passed by Congress in 1995 mandating that the embassy be moved by 1999.

“It’s hard to argue you could harm an already-comatose peace process, but you don’t want to make matters worse,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official who advised Republican and Democratic administrations on the Middle East. “And you do want to maintain the hope and illusion that under some circumstances, a two-state solution is possible. By forcing the issue upfront as an immediate act of the Trump administration, you’re essentially burying that possibility.”

WASHINGTON POST 

(redacted)

Ethiopian Judaism - Second Temple Period

It is living history.

A people whose traditions and culture practiced for nearly two thousand years.
I imagine it really annoys the Haredi and other Orthodox Jews and they wouldn't recognize it.

Ethiopian Judaism nearly identical to that practiced during Second Temple Period

Researcher Dr. Yossi Ziv has researched Ethiopian Judaism and found an amazing discovery: Ethiopian Jews' customs and traditions extremely similar to those described in Dead Sea Scrolls, Second Temple Era texts.

Dr. Yossi Ziv has been researching the religious rituals of the Ethiopian Jewish population still in Ethiopia and discovered that they maintained the same customs and traditions as the Jews of the Second Temple period for the past two thousand years.

"It’s knowledge which hasn't been written anywhere, and has been preserved in their traditions," the researcher said.

"They have been curating ancient customs that have disappeared from the world. They provide examples of how the leaders of the nation of Israel would have behaved during the time of the Second Temple."

The professor released his findings at a seminar which was held at the Kfar Etzion Field School right before the Jewish-Ethiopian holiday of Sigid.

Ziv said that many Jewish-Ethiopian customs go against modern Jewish practice, but perfectly align with customs and rituals described on scrolls found in the Qumran caves and in books dating back to the Second Temple Period. The Qumran Caves are where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, which include the third oldest Hebrew Bible ever found.

Some of these Second Temple Era customs include not lighting Shabbat candles, adhering to an ancient custom prohibiting the use of fire lit even before Shabbat started. Along with this, no flame is to be passed from one vessel to another on Shabbat, even if it was lit before Shabbat came in.

"They don't even adhere to the famous rule which says that 'Shabbat rules may be disregarded for the purpose of saving a life,'" Ziv said. "For the Ethiopian Jews, the sanctity of Shabbat must be preserved, even at the cost of human life."

Evidence of this stringent observance of Shabbat was also seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Ynet News - FULL TEXT

DON AND HILLARY ELECTION RACE

Trump's Daily rant from 2004 to 2008

This guy, Trump, full of surprises, but somehow nobody should be shocked he engages in the kind of activity most voters hate of politicians. For a self-proclaimed nonpolitician, he sure picked up on the game awful fast. So he is a fast learner, however, I am willing to bet he is not new to the concept of duplicity, misdirection, obfuscation etc. tools most likely aided him in garnering many millions of dollars.

Radio Archive: What Donald Trump Said About Hillary Clinton, Tattoos, Guns, More

By 

MARK MAREMONT

 

AND MICHAEL ROTHFELD

Jul 11, 2016 8:04 pm ET

Donald Trump between 2004 and 2008 recorded a daily 60-second commentary that was aired on several hundred radio stations across the U.S. On the program, named “Trumped!,” the New York businessman gave his thoughts about current events, relationships, women and politics.

In the commentaries, Mr. Trump said Hillary Clinton would “make a good president,”

Buzzfeed, in a story about the radio show published in March, reported some of the transcripts and also included a demo audio file that promoted the show.

The Wall Street Journal tracked down more audio recordings. We also found nearly 200 full and partial transcripts on archived web pages.

In March 2008, Mr. Trump, commenting on the 2008 Democratic primaries, says Hillary Clinton would make a “good president or a good vice president” and a lot of people think pairing her with Barack Obama would be a “dream ticket.”

In May 2008, Mr. Trump opposes a West Virginia move to allow hunting-education classes in schools, saying “the thought of putting guns in the classroom seems like a really bad plan.”

Those are just two examples from the Wall Street Journal Article.

Juno and Jupiter's Moons

This is a nice presentation of the movement of the Moons which circle Jupiter.

JUNO - Juppin Jupiter

I always love it when we send probes to faraway places which look like stars in the sky.  As a child, it  was the first star with a simple telescope I looked at. Seeing the moons really excited me.

'Welcome to Jupiter!' NASA's Juno space probe arrives at giant planet

Jet Propulsion Lab, California (CNN)NASA says it has received a signal from 540 million miles across the solar system, confirming its Juno spacecraft has successfully started orbiting Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

"Welcome to Jupiter!" flashed on screens at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

The Juno team cheered and hugged.

"This is phenomenal," said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The probe had to conduct a tricky maneuver to slow down enough to allow it to be pulled into orbit: It fired its main engine for 35 minutes, effectively hitting the brakes to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second).

"NASA did it again," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.

On board NASA's flying lab

"We're there, we're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter."

"Through tones Juno sang to us and it was a song of perfection," said Rick Nybakken, Juno Project Manager, referring to the audio signal the probe sent to indicate it was in orbit.

The probe had to conduct a tricky maneuver to slow down enough to allow it to be pulled into orbit: It fired its main engine for 35 minutes, effectively hitting the brakes to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second).

"NASA did it again," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.

On board NASA's flying lab

"We're there, we're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter."

"Through tones Juno sang to us and it was a song of perfection," said Rick Nybakken, Juno Project Manager, referring to the audio signal the probe sent to indicate it was in orbit.

CNN

ROBBERS OF HISTORY

Who owns the past?

Well, we all do.

 I have not the problem with people who go out for a profit find articles of antiquity. But really, it should be shared. How that is to be done is the question for all of us. I believe that the average person  would want it to be displayed for everybody to share in.

Jewish archaeologist gumshoes rush to dig at Cave of Skulls before looters take everything

NAHAL TZE'ELEM, Israel --- Amir Ganor is an Israeli cop, but not the kind who chases car thieves or bank robbers. Ganor is a Jewish Indiana Jones, an archaeologist gumshoe, but instead of a coiled bullwhip at his side, he shoves a pistol into his pants and manhandles jeeps through seemingly impassable goat trails.

The investigator's beat is the antiquities bazaars of the Holy Land and the remote caves of the Judean Desert, where hinky Israeli dealers, Palestinian tomb raiders and Bedouin guides conspire to traffic in the world's oldest merchandise, especially the loot unearthed from the time of Roman legions and Jewish rebels and Jesus of Nazareth.

Today the target of Ganor's investigation is a remarkable cavern located high in the pitiless mountains above the Dead Sea, a frying pan of extreme heat and dryness, rich in artifacts from the deep prehistory of humankind.

"Why did we come here? We came to stop the looters from taking it all," said Ganor, who sported blue-tinted sunglasses and seemed relaxed and loose in the broiling air. "They led us here in a way. They destroy much, but they find things, too. Clever. Always watching. They are very destructive, but sometimes they know where to look."

After busting a crew of tomb robbers armed with shovels and metal detectors digging at the site two years ago, Ganor and a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University in Jerusalem launched an "emergency excavation" last month to sift the powdery dust and bat guano before looters made off with everything.

The three-week dig, now completed, was the largest, most complex and most intensive Israeli excavation in the desert in 60 years.

Archaeologists call the site the Cave of Skulls, for the seven craniums found buried deep inside in 1953.

The cave has yielded artifacts from the Neolithic Period to the Copper Age. The cavern may also have been a redoubt for rebels with the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in the years 132 to 136.

Jewish World Review - -READ THE REST HERE

Boy Allowed in Girls Lockerroom

How far does it have to go, I mean the sexual revolution where there is no decency at all? 

Really. The federal government mandating a perv boy be allowed to shower in a girls high school locker room.

Who woulda thunk.

Chicago school allows transgender teen to use girls' locker room, despite parents' protest: 'God does not make mistakes'

A transgender Chicago high school student won the right to change in the girls’ locker room, despite protests from hundreds of parents who claimed the teenage girl was “a man."

The school board for Township High School District 211 in Palatine, Illinois, voted 5-2 Thursday to provide the unnamed student, who was born male but identifies as female, with a changing area equipped with a privacy curtain inside the girls’ room, a month after federal officials ruled the district had discriminated against the girl.

IDENTIFIES AS FEMALE

DAILY NEWS

I suppose this is why we send so much money to the federal government, so they can tell us what to do.

Government orders Chicago school district to grant transgender student full access to female facilities

The U.S. government on Monday found that a Chicago suburban high school district discriminated against a transgender student and gave the school a month to provide full access to girls’ locker rooms or lose federal funding.

The student, who has not been named, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a complaint on her behalf, applauded the findings, while the school district called them “serious overreach.”

After an investigation stemming from a 2013 complaint by the ACLU, and months of negotiations, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found Township High School District 211 was violating federal non-discrimination rules.

The district says transgender students may use their gender-identified locker room if they change and shower privately. The government said a separate changing place was discriminatory because it subjected the student to stigma and different treatment.

DAILY NEWS

Treated different because HE is different.

Sounds to me like that boy needs some serious couch time. 

cultivation 23,000 years ago

I always understood human history started something like 10,000 years ago. 

To me it is exciting to see earlier humans making the first attempts at what today we take for granted, AGRICULTURE.

Israeli archeologists find evidence of cereal cultivation 23,000 years ago

Dig at Ohalo II prehistoric site on the shores of the Kinneret uncovers 'proto-weeds' indicating hunter-gatherers tried to cultivate wild cereals 11,000 years before the onset of agriculture.

The Ohalo II prehistoric site, which over the years has become synonymous with characteristics of the hunter-gatherers, allows researchers to study the way cereals were sown, reaped and used. Researchers found the remains of 150,000 plants, including edible grains such as wild wheat, barley and oat. Remains of starch found on a grindstone at the site shows that bread was baked there.

"The grain seeds brought to the hut were processed and grinded to flour," Prof. Weiss explained. "This flour was used to prepare dough that was baked in an oven made of flat rocks that stood outside one of the huts. Surprisingly, they worked the fields and sowed crops even at that prehistoric time, even though we have no evidence that this phenomenon continued in our area. For this reason, we consider our findings as indicative of small-scale trial cultivation rather than success which led to the beginning of farming. Furthermore, since weeds are defined by botanists as plants that developed as a result of the human cultivation, we called the plants we found at the site 'proto-weeds.'"

ynetnews.com

Coffee and Race Relations

I have never known race relations in this country which couldn't be improved on. One might think that electing the first black (mulatto) president would be a plus.

Others would point out that substance is way more valuable than symbolism.

Anyway as the current occupant of the White House fiddles, a private company tries to pick up the pieces.

A noble cause to be sure, but why stop at race relations to annoy dreary eyed coffee drinkers?

WASHINGTON POST

Women in Combat?

Nothing but pure hogwash, wishful thinking which makes women suitable for military combat rolls.

Pass all the laws one wants doesn't change nature. Interesting to watch and see how standards are lowered to accomplish the illusion of qualified female soldiers.

Integrating women into combat reduces effectiveness, harms unit cohesion

As the American military prepares to open all combat positions to women by 2016, a British report found that integrating women into combat would reduce effectiveness in battle and could harm unit cohesion.

The British report, released in December, found that physiological differences put women at a disadvantage in both strength-based and aerobic fitness tests. Even women who are able to overcome the physiological disadvantage will likely get injured more easily or get tired quicker, making them easier targets and poorer marksmen in combat.

“These are about biology rather than character,” the report states.

“Every use of the word ‘mitigate’ in the [Ministry of Defence] report pinpoints a problem, not an advantage,” said Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness. “There are no benefits balancing the weight of costs and risks that detract from combat readiness and effectiveness.”

Washington Times

Eric Holder and American Fugitives in Cuba

When he wants that Obama guy can be a real easy to get along with.

The President seems to really favor Communists leaders giving them a pass as they harbor fugitives escaping justice for crimes committed in the United States.

Holder on the hot seat: Senators demand answers on U.S. fugitives in Cuba

A group of Senate Republicans are pressing Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain the administration’s policy for U.S. fugitives in Cuba, including a convicted cop killer,

after President Obama’s announced normalization of relations with the communist-ruled island.

“As the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, do you support the normalization of relations with Cuba without the return of fugitives from justice for prosecution who have the blood of Americans, including law enforcement officers, on their hands?” said the three senators in a letter to Mr. Holder.

As many as 70 fugitives from U.S. justice could be living in Cuba. Several criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted List are known to have found refuge in Cuba.

JoAnne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, fled to Cuba in 1979 after fellow members of the Black Liberation Army broke her out of prison, where she was serving a life sentence for the execution-style murder of a New Jersey state trooper.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/23/gop-senators-eric-holder-us-fugitives-cuba/#ixzz3Q3lPXJv6 
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Introducing, AVERAGE MUHAMAD

We all know about the  Charlie Hebdo Shooting: 12 Killed at Muhammad Cartoons Magazine in Paris. Right now seems the murderous spree is coming to a head, Cornered Charlie Hebdo suspects 'want to die as martyrs'.

Reason that I feel it necessary to remind everybody is more than to inflame. It

is my way to introduce everybody to Average Mohamed.

It can be difficult to remember that most Muslims are not like those who commit such despicable atrocities.

Average Mohamed counters terror message with cartoon videos

Muslim-American runs website with homemade videos to combat terrorist groups' efforts to recruit young Muslims.

In the war for young people's hearts and minds, Mohamed Ahmed hopes to use cartoons to dissuade a generation raised on "The Simpsons" and "South Park" from taking up arms for the Islamic State group and other extremist causes.

Ahmed, a convenience store manager from Minneapolis, has launched AverageMohamed.com, a website offering homemade videos aimed at countering the messages and images terrorists use to lure disaffected youths.

"I don't want my children fighting this war. Let's end this in my generation," said Ahmed, a married father of four young children.

Sitting in his sparsely furnished recording studio, Ahmed, 39, said he started his videos out of frustration.

"I've decided to take on one value at a time, one item at a time, to shoot down extremist ideology and philosophy," he said. He took the moniker "Average Mohamed" because of the worldwide popularity among Muslims of the Prophet Mohammed's name.

Ynet News

I thought of the videos Average Mohamed I have so far watched, this best applies to the latests wannabe martyrs.

The Amazing USS Zumwalt

The most modern of warships, USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) probably the most

revolutionary advancement in naval ships since the USS Nautilus (SSN-571).

I realize this is an expensive platform, but in a nutshell as stated in the following comentary, 

decision may have been penny wise and pound foolish, as it leaves significant voids in the Navy’s ability to adapt to future threats. Most notably, ending the Zumwalt program in favor of buying upgraded versions of the decades-old Arleigh-Burke DDG-51 destroyers limits the Navy’s capabilities without significantly reducing costs.

Only three DDG-1000 are to be built. I expect, hope this decision to be reversed. Won't be overnight, a few years down the road.

Cancelling the DDG-1000 Was a Big Mistake
by Ben Freeman
January 2015

The U.S. Navy’s DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers are extraordinarily expensive. Since

2009, the cost of the ships has increased 34.4 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service. Each of the three Zumwalt’s being built will cost taxpayers around $3.4 billion. And, that’s on top of the more than $9 billion in research and design funding that has gone into this program.

Are they worth the price? The Navy didn’t think so in 2009 when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the program would end with the procurement of just three ships, down from the 32 ships the Navy had initially planned to buy.

But, now that the first Zumwalt is actually in the water, there’s growing concern that this decision may have been penny wise and pound foolish, as it leaves significant voids in the Navy’s ability to adapt to future threats.


The problem with using DDG-51s in lieu of DDG-1000s is that they are “ill-suited to providing defensive cover for LCS or helping the Navy conduct operations in a coastal environment,” says Young. 

Thus, it’s not at all clear how LCS will be able to safely operate in littoral waters given that, alone, it’s “not expected to be survivable in high-intensity combat,” according to J. Michael Gilmore, Defense Department director of operational test and evaluation.

All of these comparisons between DDG-51s and DDG-1000s belie the fact that the ships should not be competitors; they serve different, but complementary roles that are both essential for the future of the U.S. Navy. Fortunately, it’s not too late for Congress to act — the DDG-1000 production line is still hot. If we’re serious about having a Navy that can adapt to the threats of tomorrow, then we need to get serious about DDG-1000’s today. 

National Defense

Another Excuse to Loot and Destroy

Here we go again. 

Shooting Death of Black Man by White Officer Spurs Protests in St. Louis Suburb

This time there is VIDEO,

 Even if clear would anybody expect anything other than burning, looting etc.
We’ve seen the chanted lies,  HANDS UP DON’T SHOOT, I CAN’T BREATH to inflame the feral population. I am wondering if this time the mantra will be something along the lines of 

Officer Did Not Have Body Camera On

It is a now no win war when we suffer folk like always about Al

I don't know about New York City politic, the the concept that BIG AL reportedly has the ear of Mayor Bill de Blasio by itself would be disturbing. But then Mayor Blasio is a disturbing concept

It is the business of the folk of New York City. 

I am sitting here looking at this crook reportedly visited the White House 81

Well, Barry [aka Obama] learned big city politics in Chicago. 

Al Sharpton's $4.5 Million Tax Bill 

Another Obama IRA scandal to pile on other scandals.

Berkeley Officer-Involved Shooting 12-23-2014

I love the game of chess.

There was a time when I aspired to garner the rating of "EXPERT" by the United Chess Federation.

Well I spent a couple of years in the Army.  Come home, played chess, worked and went to school.

No problems except I lost interest in the finer points of chess.  I just want to play and have fun. 

And  the computers took over, that was for me the last straw.

Computers finished what the Russians started.

Chess with no style.

Chess Yields to the Young

The latest exemplar of this trend is 24-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who defended his title as world chess champion in a match in Sochi, Russia last month. He defeated 45-year-old Viswanathan Anand of India, the former champion whom he had dispatched a year ago to win the crown.

Just thinking, 

modern tournament and match schedules are more rigorous. In 1985, the world championship match had three games a week for a leisurely eight weeks. These days, the entire match is finished in little more than two weeks—a comparative sprint. A second factor is the explosive growth in the amount of chess information available online and in the capacity of computers to spot errors and suggest better opening moves. This enables younger players who train conscientiously to reach elite status even faster than state-supported Soviet prodigies could 30 years ago.

Chess to the Young

Does all that result in better game play?