Richard D
Richard D's JournalIt was twenty years ago today . . .
The world seemed to be rapidly heading towards doom (some things seem not to change).
I was reeling from 9/11 and the subsequent absurd wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I honestly thought WWIII was on the way (and still do).
And in many ways, my life was a mess.
Somehow, in the midst of all of this, I found DU and became a member. While I am not a major poster, I don't think I missed checking in there for any more than a handful of days in the last 20 years.
Great gratitude to DU and those who make it possible. Sometimes it is a lifesaver.
From the river to the sea . . .
. . . it looks like Palestine never really existed:
Interesting historical context, which I didn't know:
The book "Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata" was written in Latin in 1695. The author, Adriaan Reland, was a geographer, cartographer, traveler, philologist, and linguist who was well-versed in several European languages, Arabic, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew.
He meticulously documented nearly 2,500 settlements mentioned in the Bible. His research was conducted as follows:
He first created a map of Palestine and marked each settlement mentioned in the Bible or the Talmud with its original name.
If the original name was in Hebrew, he marked it as "pasuk" (a passage in the Holy Scriptures where the name was mentioned).
If the original name was of Roman or Greek origin, he provided the Latin or Greek equivalent.
In the end, he compiled a census of the population based on these settlements. Here are some key findings and facts:
The land was mostly empty, abandoned, and sparsely populated, with the primary population centers in Jerusalem, Acre, Safed, Jaffa, Tiberias, and Gaza.
The majority of the population was Jewish, with almost all others being Christians, and very few Muslims, mainly Bedouins.
The only exception was Nablus (now Shechem), where about 120 people from the Muslim Nashash family lived alongside approximately 70 "Samaritans."
In Nazareth, the capital of Galilee, about 700 people lived, all of whom were Christians.
In Jerusalem, there were around 5,000 people, mostly Jews, with a few Christians.
In 1695, it was well-known that the roots of the country were Jewish.
There was not a single settlement in Palestine with Arabic origins in its name.
Most settlements had Hebrew originals, with some having Greek or Latin origins, which had been adapted into Arabic names that held no meaning in the Arabic language. For example, names like Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Nablus, Gaza, or Jenin had no philological or historical Arabic roots.
Reland only mentioned Muslims as seasonal agricultural or construction laborers who came to the cities.
In Gaza, around 550 people lived, with half being Jewish and half Christian. Jews were engaged in successful agriculture, including vineyards, olives, and wheat, while Christians were involved in trade and transportation.
In Tiberias and Safed, Jews lived, but their occupations were not specified, except for their traditional fishing activities in the Sea of Galilee.
In the village of Umm al-Fahm, there were about ten families, all of whom were Christians (approximately 50 people). There was a small Maronite church in the village.
Reland's book thoroughly refutes theories about "Palestinian traditions" and a "Palestinian people" and establishes very little connection between this land and the Arabs, who even adopted the Latin name of the land (Palestine) and claimed it as their own.
Book by Adrian Reland (1676-1718) about Palestine, published in Utrecht in 1714.
Part 1: https://books.google.com/books?id=j5cUAAAAQAAJ&fbclid=IwAR3B4-K3a5RWCYbtElkjSVJab4H9p8VRQ0kDh_xK46jUOPtZEV0y7mP3GV4
Part 2: https://books.google.com/books?id=sZcUAAAAQAAJ&fbclid=IwAR0YnNvcT8AiL1S0Uc5-OKCBqg7HOin9jsU3ZHO5ScQ5AaG5w3TSVT6C6Z0
From a mother of an Uvalde victim. (intense)
Found on Facebook.
On Edit: this was not written by the mother, so I removed it.
My apologies.
Trial Balloon for a Coup?
. . . As the Guardian points out, this has an important and likely not accidental effect: it leaves the State Department entirely unstaffed during these critical first weeks, when orders like the Muslim ban (which they would normally resist) are coming down.
The article points out another point worth highlighting: “In the past, the state department has been asked to set up early foreign contacts for an incoming administration. This time however it has been bypassed, and Trump’s immediate circle of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus are making their own calls.”
(5) On Inauguration Day, Trump apparently filed his candidacy for 2020. Beyond being unusual, this opens up the ability for him to start accepting “campaign contributions” right away. Given that a sizable fraction of the campaign funds from the previous cycle were paid directly to the Trump organization in exchange for building leases, etc., at inflated rates, you can assume that those campaign coffers are a mechanism by which US nationals can easily give cash bribes directly to Trump. Non-US nationals can, of course, continue to use Trump’s hotels and other businesses as a way to funnel money to him . . .
https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/trial-balloon-for-a-coup-e024990891d5#.bo835cvzz
One last request for help and some DU love
My dear friend, Kimberly, has a beautiful music performance/video that I produced that is in a singer/songwriter contest.
She is a fantastic singer, and her song is very inspirational and a quite powerful story of her search to regain her personal power.
A week ago she entered a contest that had already been running for over a month. In just the last 6 days she rose to 45th place out of over 6,300 contestants, most of whom had already been in the contest for over a month!
To vote for her, all you have to do is watch the video. If you love it, please share it. K&R this too, please.
I would also love any comments you might have.
I've been a DU member now for 10 years. Never asked for a favor like this before. Probably won't again.
This is very important for her as she now is approaching a darn good chance to be in the semi-finals. Every view matters!
Thank you.
http://songwriter.revimage.com/channels/KimberlyHaynesMusic
Maybe the most disturbing video I have seen.
A. filmmakers Kate Davis, David Heilbroner and Franco Sacchi explore the lives of evangelical Christians who believe that Armageddon is imminent and that Israel will be the site of Jesus's second coming. The film follows evangelicals as they prepare for the apocalypse and examines how their beliefs and craving for destruction have influenced the U.S. government's relationships with Israel and Muslim majority countries.
Sometimes . . .
I give myself a challenge to shoot in a small area, right around my house. These were all taken within a hundred yards of my back door.
