Syria Falls, Bad news for Iran and Russia

 The most important story in the world today is the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. You’d never know it by watching Sunday morning US TV news shows, where 99% of the reporting is on Trump, this and Trump that, along  with an update on the hunt for the guy who murdered the insurance executive.

The Bibi government in Israel Seems to be pretty happy with the  fall of Assad. I’m not sure that I would celebrate anytime soon. The largest part of the rebel force, HTS ( formally known as the Al Nusra front )  was once a part of Al-Qaeda. That is a pretty bad history.

The big losers this weekend are Russia and Iran, both of whom supported the Assad government.

Russia has a  Navy  base in Tartus, Syria, which they should lose now. If they do lose that base, they won’t have any naval facilities in the Mediterranean. And the Russian ships now in the Med will not be allowed to go into the Black Sea,  as Turkey  will not permit them to transit the Bosphorous. Those ships will be without a port, unless they travel all the way up to Saint Petersburg. 

Iran has projected power in The past years by Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and Assad. Now, Israel has broken the back of Hamas and Hezbollah, And  Assad is bye bye.

Iranian and Russian power looks to be much weaker in the region that it was even six months  ago. That is probably good news, but let’s see what Syria looks like a couple of months from now 

Election – what lessons have been learned?

I didn’t expect this result, and I don’t think that most of us did either. I think that the Democrats expected to win a close election; while a lot of Trump supporters were more confident, but still nervous.

Trump didn’t sneak in the electoral college way the way he did in 2016, this was an impressive majority vote in the majority of states. 

Even in deep blue New York City, Trump got significantly more votes than he did eight years ago. Trump had a double digit gain in votes in Brooklyn. He won an overwhelming majority of the orthodox Jewish vote.

I don’t think that this was so much an endorsement of Donald Trump as it is a  rejection of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party.

I’ve spoken to a number of Trump supporters who agree that he is personally dishonest, generally a man of low character. But they voted for him because he was strong on the issue of border security, and because he was perceived, as being stronger on the economy. 

Some will call Trump a racist, But it’s hard to Square that opinion, with the fact that Trump sharply increased Republican, share of the Latino vote, while increasing the small Republican share of the black vote.

Bill Maher, the comedian is as committed a Democrat as there is, But he has for some time Been disturbed by the thin, lipped intolerance of many Democrats, and their embrace of lunatic cultural positions. Months ago, on his HBO program, he wondered why The left wanted to die on the hill of minors ( supposedly) changing their sex, without the consent or knowledge of  their parents. ( see the bill that Gavin Newsom signed in California ) 

Some have said that Latinos wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris, because she was a woman. That’s hard to believe, when they voted for Hillary Clinton, and at a time when Mexico now has a woman Prime Minister. Latinos And other Americans aren’t anti-woman, they just aren’t insane. They don’t want boys in the changing room, and they don’t want an  uncontrolled border. 

The backdrop to all of this is that Joe Biden was seriously impaired for years, and the Democratic Party power structure and all of the Democrat friendly media, covered it up, and lied about it. How can you trust a party that does a thing like this?

 We have a mentally impaired president right now for the next two months. Whose fault is that?

But also, you can’t avoid the fact that Kamala Harris was just a god awful candidate. In my opinion, she is a  vacuous, unserious person. 

Some said that she Moved to the center, but she did no  such thing. A couple of weeks ago, she said that the concept of rate operations for slavery “ should be studied” . That means that she’s for it, I don’t see too many former slaves when I go about my day, and I don’t think that any of the slaves that did exist 160 years ago were held in captivity by the US government. 

So we are now about to be ruled by an evil, probably  the lesser of two evils, but evil still, supported by a meek, subservient , Republican house and Senate. 

Heaven help us all.

Photo taken yesterday afternoon in Dyker  Heights Brooklyn. American flag, Madonna, Trump poster. 

No one to vote for

 Yesterday, at Fort Hamilton high school, I voted early for the first time. 

I am in a Democratic, one party state, so I really have no say in this presidential election. I don’t like this fact. But it does allow me to be a free agent. I don’t have respect for either Trump, or Kamala Harris, He is wildly, undisciplined and divisive; she is stealthy and divisive, a wolf in  sheep’s clothing.

 I voted for neither one of them. 

Both camps sound  pretty confident. 

I think that Trump will take the state of Georgia, which he lost last time around. If he is also able to take Pennsylvania, he’ll win the election. 

Box of Rain

Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead has passed away.

I have long admired “ Box of Rain “, From the Dead’s  “American beauty “album. 

It was created by Lesh and Robert Hunter. Phil wanted to create a song for his dying father. He composed the music,  Robert Hunter supplied the lyrics. Lesh rehearsed the song as he drove to see his father in the nursing home.

I just discovered this cover by Steve Forbert, I’m happy to see tis still around.

October 7 2024

It has been one year since Hamas crossed from  Gaza into Israel, killing about 1,200, most of them Israeli civilians. 

October 7 was not the beginning of the Arab/ Israeli conflict, But it certainly was the first page of a horrific chapter.

The Hamas supporters in America and in Europe chose October 7, 2024 to have their celebratory commemorations. Not on the one year anniversary of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but On the one year anniversary of the murders, the rapes, the abductions. I think that tells you everything you need to know about these demonstrators.

This evening, I watched a documentary on Al Jazeera TV about  what has gone down over the past year. 

Al Jazeera’s report began with the Hamas attack, but at no time did it  mention the large scale murders, or the  sexual assaults. 

There was plenty  of footage of Israeli soldiers mistreating captives in Gaza, Of large groups of Gazan Civilians being marched out of their neighborhoods, of the demolition of apartment houses in Gaza, while Israeli soldiers cheered on and sang songs about it.

If you are an American, who gets all his news  from The likes of MSNBC or Fox News, you won’t be well informed about this war at all. These stations devote The majority of their programming to Democrat versus Republican, cops and robbers. 

CNN or BBC will do a better job of reporting the overall picture.

But you will understand things better if at some point you watch  Al Jazeera, Israeli TV, or Israeli, talk radio. These sources from within the region will absolutely be slanted, will absolutely exaggerate some things, and leave other things out, But they also give you glimpses of the terrible situation on the ground.

Could Trump carry Bay Ridge? Nah

The other day, I saw a Harley rider.zooming  down Bay Ridge Avenue, with a large blue  Trump 2024 flag at the back of the bike. That’s not something you see every day in New York City.

Bay Ridge has historically been more conservative than the rest of Brooklyn and New York City, but it’s not as conservative as it used to be. Biden carried Bay Ridge in 2020; but Trump did carry a few blocks, which you see in the specs of red in the block near Shore Road.

Trump had a major campaign rally at the Nassau Coliseum, the other day, where he said that he was going to win New York State. That’s insane talk, Considering that he lost the state last time by about 2 million votes. But the Republicans are competitive in a number of counties in New York State, which is probably the reason for the big  rally. To motivate the congressional voters.

I have not seen any Trump or Harris political  lawn or window signs near me. . I’ve not discussed politics with any of my neighbors. I think that most people around here don’t like either candidate, and are keeping their opinions to themselves. No one to vote for, only someone to vote against.

Harris will win my neighborhood, but we might see a few more blotches of red on the 2024 map.

2020 NYC presidential election map shown below

 

World Trade Center 23 years later

 I went into Manhattan this afternoon to pay my respects.

My company has a commemoration every year. The names of the employees  who were lost are displayed along the perimeter of the two pools that are in the footprint of the two buildings. The names of our lost people are read aloud, a yellow rose placed by each name.

Belfast Grand Central Station is open

 

New York City has its Grand Central Terminal, and now Belfast has its Grand Central Station, which  has just opened.

Grand Central Station replaces the Europa bus station as the departure point for long distance buses. Inter city buses I think are a bigger thing in Ireland that they are in America. 

 Before the end of the year, we are told that Grand Central Station will have train service, including hourly trains to Dublin.

Good show for Belfast.. This is exactly the kind of first class facility that a large and confident city should have..

The name Grand Central Station is of course an homage to New York City. 

Good show, Belfast.

a quick temporary post

 Hi Team

I am busy tidying up a website that hasn’t been used much at all over for more than a decade

Some of the old blogroll has been removed, Many of the old blogs that I once linked to no longer exist, 

At least, for the foreseeable future, I will use  comment moderation, to ensure that everybody plays nice. Also, it will make it much easier to keep the spammers away.

The default setting was that you had to be a Google account in order To comment. I have changed it so that those without Google accounts can comment on an anonymous basis ( but in their comment, they can still identify themselves if they choose to ) 

Some of the links and posts might not be as much interest to some because they are neighborhood specific

A given Post might be talking about a restaurant in the neighborhood, while the next one attempts to solve the insolvable problems in Europe and the Middle East. We will figure it out as we go along

Suggestions are welcome

Putin the Slav Killer

There are two major imperialist powers in the world today. Of them is Russia. The other one is Russia’s increasingly senior partner, China.

Putin has said that the dissolution of the USSR was a great tragedy. He seeks to reclaim as much of the old Soviet territories as he can.

Many years ago, Solzhenitsyn wrote of the deep connections between Russia and Ukraine, how it would be impossible to separate them. Putin would have agreed with that assessment.

But, by his unwise and clumsy invasion, After all the bombings and deaths, Mr. Putin has created a hard separation between the Slavs of Russia and those of Ukraine.

I can see a truce Agreement at some point, but it’s hard to foresee any true peace Any century soon. Putin has divided these Slavic peoples as they have never been divided before.

Bay Ridge Blog Is Coming Back

 After a short hiatus of 13 years, I have decided to resurrect this website.

I will need to do some tidying up over the next few days. After that, The intent is to have maybe two posts per week.

The focus will shift from the very local in Brooklyn to national US and international issues.

Comments are welcome. 

Noel, Charles, Patrick, Peter are all welcome to come, as our -most-  from the old ATW. I will invite David and Pete Moore to drop in, should they choose to. If there is a way to reach out to mahons and  Daphne, tell them that they are welcome as well.

I think that some lessons have been learned over the last many years. There will be no ad him, and I don’t want any score settling. This is meant to be a place where people with significant disagreements can  meet in a spirit of friendship.