Aleppo.

15 of those remaining doctors wrote a desperate plea for help to President Obama. I am not suggesting that the U.S. should intervene there. What could the U.S. do? But I am no expert and as always I'm conflicted. I can only imagine that U.S. intervention would make things even worse for the desperate people of that city, trying to survive without water or electricity and little food; I just can't see how more bombing from another force would do anything but rain down more death, more destruction, more misery. But what do I really know?

I know this much:

These doctors who have stayed are heroes of unimaginable fortitude. This is a post about honoring them and admiring their sacrifice and their commitment to the people of Aleppo.


Aleppo, Syria, has been besieged, battered, and starved for months. This week, 15 of the remaining 35 doctors in the city are pleading for help.

They wrote to President Obama, asking him to end the bombings by the Russian-backed Syrian air force.

“We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers, we need action,” wrote the doctors.


Unless a permanent lifeline to Aleppo is opened it will be only a matter of time until we are again surrounded by regime troops, hunger takes hold and hospitals’ supplies run completely dry. Death has seemed increasingly inescapable. We do not need to tell you that the systematic targeting of hospitals by Syrian regime and Russian warplanes is a war crime. We do not need to tell you that they are committing atrocities in Aleppo.  

The Assad regime closed off road access to Aleppo in mid-July, The Christian Science Monitor’s David Iaconangelo reported last month. Not only is the city mostly cut off from supplies, but the regime is also targeting rebel hospitals and medics.

<snip>

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2016/0811/Last-Aleppo-doctors-plead-with-Obama-for-more-help-What-is-the-US-doing

I love the Perseids. And Yay, it's clear here, though you westerners will have the best of the show.

Happy watching all.

Article and interview here:


http://www.npr.org/2016/08/10/489512773/astronomers-predict-incredible-show-as-perseid-meteor-shower-peaks

The Salutation of the Dawn

Every morning, before classes start, the entire student body and faculty gather on the lawn. While facing the American Flag and overlooking the city of Los Angeles and Catalina Island, the School community literally raises its arms toward the sun and recites "The Salutation of the Dawn," which is taken from the Sanskrit. While reciting this ancient poem, all members of the community think of ways to make the day as fulfilling as it can be. The following words are spoken:

Look to this Day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities
And realities of your existence:

The glory of action,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of beauty.

For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.

But today, well lived, makes
Every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn

I have no idea why the Reagans chose to send them to one of the most liberal schools you can imagine existing in the early and mid sixties. I'm glad they still have that tradition. (looks like they cut out the maypole dancing on may day, though)

Now JTD only goes through the 6th grade but at that time it was K-8.

People’s most vivid memories of Aunty Cathryn and Uncle John, the founders of The John Thomas Dye School, are their great personal warmth and their absolute determination to bring to life a first-rate, yet homey school, first in Brentwood and later in the hills of Bel Air. Theirs was a mix of intellectual engagement, family values and personal commitment that continue to define the school today, years after it first opened its doors. They persevered and succeeded despite great personal loss: the death of their only child, John Thomas Dye III (after whom the school was named) in World War II and the 1961 Bel Air fire that destroyed the school. The John Thomas Dye School has transcended the tragedies and challenges because of the support of generations of families who have acted with fortitude, determination and dignity in the spirit of its founders.

<snip>

http://www.jtdschool.com/page/About-JTD/History--Traditions

It was a wonderful place to go to school- (the fire was exciting, we were evacuated in the middle of the day, just in time). I went through 5th grade there, and then my family moved east. I still have most of my old report cards from JTD. I can remember Aunty Cathryn and Uncle John visiting us after we moved. They were just special people and educators who truly loved children.

I suspect that attending JTD has quite a bit to do with why both Patti and Ron Jr, grew up to be liberals.

Donny Demento literally doesn't know what the word literally means.



Donald Trump said Thursday that he meant exactly what he said when he called President Barack Obama the "founder of ISIS" and objected when a conservative radio show host tried to clarify the GOP nominee's position.

Trump was asked by host Hugh Hewitt about the comments Trump made Wednesday night in Florida, and Hewitt said he understood Trump to mean "that he (Obama) created the vacuum, he lost the peace."

Trump objected.

"No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS," Trump said. "I do. He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her, too, by the way, Hillary Clinton."

Hewitt pushed back again, saying that Obama is "not sympathetic" to ISIS and "hates" and is "trying to kill them."

"I don't care," Trump said, according to a show transcript. "He was the founder. His, the way he got out of Iraq was that that was the founding of ISIS, okay?"

Okay, Donny Demento.

More here:

read:http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/politics/donald-trump-hugh-hewitt-obama-founder-isis/

and worse. Considerably worse.

I was watching the live stream of HRC's speech and the live comments section was almost entirely Trumpettes saying vile things. So I jumped in and refraining from my fondness for certain curse words, took them on, calling them morons in the most polite of ways- and boy did that piss them off.

The stupidity was blinding. Worse even than the hate.

A former paid worker for Donald Trump’s presidential bid has accused the campaign’s North Carolina state director of pointing a loaded pistol at him.

Vincent Bordini filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday in a North Carolina court against the Trump campaign and recent state director Earl Phillip. The lawsuit alleges assault and battery, seeking monetary damages for emotional distress. Bordini also says Trump’s national campaign leadership refused to address the February incident.

Wednesday’s lawsuit — first reported by WBTV in Charlotte — says Bordini and Phillip were traveling by car in South Carolina when the campaign director suddenly pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and pressed the barrel to his kneecap.

Phillip told The Associated Press Wednesday he had recently resigned as both state campaign director and as deputy chair of Trump’s National Diversity Coalition. “I stepped down from ... all affiliations with Donald J. Trump until this is cleared up,” said Phillip, who is black.


<snip>

In his lawsuit, Bordini alleges Phillip also pulled his gun on at least four other people within the Trump organization. The behavior was so widely recognized within the campaign that others knew the caliber of his gun, the lawsuit says.

<snip>

read:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lawsuit-trumps-nc-campaign-director-pointed-gun-at-aide/2016/08/11/6bf243d4-5fe2-11e6-84c1-6d27287896b5_story.html

It appears Donald Trump's all-male team of economic advisers feel for Ivanka Trump's financial plight.

The child care tax policy as Trump announced it in his economic speech in Detroit yesterday would save upper-income working mothers like Ivanka Trump at least $10,000 per year while not saving the average working mother a penny.

As always with The Donald, details are a bit sketchy. What is clear is that Trump is proposing a deduction, not a credit.


<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/09/opinions/how-trumps-child-care-tax-deduction-would-help-ivanka-mccaffery/

Source: CNN

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to give the United States an ultimatum, demanding the extradition of the cleric he believes is behind the failed July 15 coup attempt.

The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Erdogan had said the US had to choose between its relationship with Turkey and Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has been in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for decades.

Turkey has requested his extradition, while Gulen denied involvement in the coup.

<snip>

"Sooner or later the US will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO," Erdogan said, in reference to the movement headed by Gulen.

Read more: read:http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/politics/turkey-us-fethullah-gulen-ultimatum/

U.S. Special Operations forces are providing direct, on-the-ground support for the first time to fighters battling the Islamic State in Libya, U.S. and Libyan officials said, coordinating American airstrikes and providing intelligence information in an effort to oust the group from a militant stronghold.

The positioning of a small number of elite U.S. personnel, operating alongside British troops, in the coastal city of Sirte deepens the involvement of Western nations against the Islamic State’s most powerful affiliate.

U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a mission that has not been announced publicly, said the American troops were operating out of a joint operations center on the city’s outskirts and that their role was limited to supporting forces loyal to the country’s fragile unity government.

Robyn Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command (Africom), said small numbers of U.S. military personnel would continue to go in and out of Libya to exchange information with local forces, but she declined to provide details.

An expanded on-the-ground role for Western nations follows the Obama administration’s decision earlier this month to begin regular airstrikes on Islamic State positions in Sirte, the group’s de facto capital in North Africa. Since the strikes began about a week ago, U.S. planes have struck almost 30 militant targets.

<snip>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/09/u-s-special-operations-forces-are-providing-direct-on-the-ground-support-for-the-first-time-in-libya/