The Moon was ready to set behind the nearby trees when I took this picture. The trees don’t show up in the dark. The distant lights along a thoroughfare indicate the actual horizon.
For a calendar of full moons, see The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Recently, I posted that I spotted two cows on a street in my part of town where I was walking. It was cute to see them. Of course, it was unexpected.
Now, Providentially, a news story came to my attention about some more cows on a residential street. Some thirty cows escaped from a slaughterhouse and stampeded into a residential neighborhood near Los Angeles.
ABC7 Los Angeles Eyewitness News reported the story:
PICO RIVERA, Calif. (KABC) — A herd of cows got loose and were running through a Pico Rivera neighborhood Tuesday night [June 23, 2021].
It is believed they got loose from a slaughterhouse in the area.
The other day, I wrote:
I spotted two cows crossing a local town street walking away from a wash …
Apparently, the street was walking away from the wash.
Maybe like those moving walkways that they have in large airports?
On my sunrise walk, I spotted two cows crossing a local town street walking away from a wash (dry riverbed) and then back again into the wash. Groundwater feeds lush greenery in the wash including grass, which the cows were munching on. Most likely they escaped from the nearby Indian reservation about two miles away where they raise cattle.
I only have pictures of one of the cows.
I called 9-1-1 and an officer came right away. He said that he was going to call folks on the reservation.
Although the cows were happily eating grass, I wasn’t going to be eating until I got home about half an hour later. And I wasn’t going to be eating grass.
I feel blessed to have had this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Summer begins officially today, but here in Phoenix we’re well into summer. We just had a record stretch of eight days of high temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit — the hundred teens. For me, summer began just after Memorial Day — May 31st this year.
Sunrise today was at 5:17 AM Mountain Standard Time. The first picture was taken at about 5:10. The last picture was taken around 5:38.
Time for a glass of iced tea with sugar.
On May 21, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to reporters about Israel’s battle with Hamas and its armed Jihadist faction Al Quds Brigade in Gaza. He spoke about his idea of peace between Israel and Palestinians:
“Until the region says, unequivocally, they acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as an independent Jewish state, there will be no peace.”
whitehouse.gov • Speeches and Remarks (about half-way down the page, in answer to a reporter’s question)
Note that he was specific about Israel being a Jewish state by right. This is not in keeping with the Far Left’s hostile regard toward Israel for what they call “apartheid” — Palestinians kept separate from Jews. These Leftists compare Israel to South Africa and its racist past. The Jews of Israel are racists. Zionism equals racism. If this comparison needs refuting, I’ll write about it at another time.
But, Biden’s administration is saying to Israel, “Stay the course. Continue to be a homeland for Jews.”
At the same time, Biden has voiced a widely held belief that a “two-state solution” will bring peace. Let the the Palestinians set up a Palestinian state next to Israel. Isn’t that what Palestinians say that they want?
Palestinians say that they’ll be at peace with Israel when Israel withdraws troops from the West Bank, allowing for a Palestinian State on the West Bank and in Gaza with its capital in Eastern Jerusalem. It’s also necessary for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to Israel.
This is an opium dream. This is a mantra, like a confession of faith. This two-state solution will never come about.
Where do I begin?
Israelis won’t divide Jerusalem into two parts as it was between the 1949 cease-fire and the 1967 war when Israel’s military captured the eastern sector from Jordan. There’s nothing to discuss. The U.N. can pass resolutions, but there won’t be a divided Jerusalem again. The U.S. can apply pressure, but Israel will not bend. It’s not negotiable.
In the negotiations around 2000, Israel was willing to see a Palestinian state with its capital in the suburb Abu Dis just outside Jerusalem to the east. This wasn’t acceptable to Palestinians. They want a capital in Eastern Jerusalem. So there’s an impasse. A dead-end. There’s absolutely no way forward. So this is why negotiations ended around the year 2000.
Besides this, part of the Palestinian so-called solution to bring peace is that refugees from 1948 should have the right to return to their former homes and businesses. It’s absolutely unacceptable to Israeli Jews for refugees to return. It’s not nearly practical anyway. Why do bleeding hearts think that it’s possible? During the last 70 years homes have been remodeled, amenities upgraded. The 1940s era home doesn’t exist to go back to. Israel insists that when there is real peace, refugees will be compensated. Palestinians won’t talk about compensation. Why not?
The time for talking about a Palestinian state ended years ago. Not just because Israel is recalcitrant to the idea. Palestinians have had autonomy in the large cities of the West Bank and the entire Gaza Strip, and what is there to show for it? The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is barely functioning. It’s corrupt. The rival Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in Gaza is at war with Israel. Together they could have the makings of a functional state without the name. What they would lack is international acceptance as equals. But it wouldn’t satisfy the Palestinian ego.
One of the Palestinian problems is the lack of a functional government. The electorate was divided fairly equally between the Hamas and Fatah parties with a Hamas majority. In 2007, Hamas decamped to Gaza where is governs until today. Fatah is the party of Yasser Arafat which made concessions to Israel, if only by recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Hamas is a jihadist Islamist party that advocates implacable armed conflict with Israel. It has a military wing, the Al Quds Brigade, but remains at a public distance from the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad which is headquartered outside the Palestinian territories but well represented in Gaza. This party is also at war with Israel.
The Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Fatah parties are not working together. Who is Israel supposed to negotiate with when the Palestinians make up a divided polity?
Hot Tea with Sugar 