Valdai Club

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...


quote

"It's always difficult to play a double game: declaring a fight against terrorists while simultaneously trying to use some of them to arrange the pieces on the Middle East chess board in one's own interests," Putin said at a meeting of political scientists in Sochi known as the Valdai Club.

"It is impossible to prevail over terrorism if some of the terrorists are being used as a battering ram to overthrow undesirable regimes," Putin said.

... ... ...

"There is no need to play on words, to classify terrorists are moderate and non-moderate," Putin said.

"What is the difference?" he said, suggesting that "in the opinion of some experts... so-called moderate bandits behead people moderately or gently."

Putin accuses West of playing 'double game' in Syria

http://news.yahoo.com/putin-accuses-west-double-game-syria-terrorist-groups-155553638.html

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Putin has a flair, I'd say, and I hadn't heard him speak until awhile back I saw a youtube of him on a stage like before a Town Meeting going on about Senator McCain...he's speaking in Russian of course, but one can see he is agile with words, and has a quick and sardonic humor...

quote

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin called the former presidential candidate “nuts” in response to Twitter comment about Russia’s parliamentary elections that drew allegations of fraud and triggered large protests.

Mr McCain’s tweet read: "Dear Vlad, The Arab Spring is coming to a neighbourhood near you."

Mr Putin turned stony faced when asked about the tweet on his annual televised phone-in.

"Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore.

"Mr McCain was captured and they kept him not just in prison, but in a pit for several years," he said. "Anyone [in his place] would go nuts."

Vladimir Putin calls John McCain 'nuts' in outspoken attack
By Alex Spillius

12:59PM GMT 15 Dec 2011

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8958294/Vladimir-Putin-calls-John-McCain-nuts-in-outspoken-attack.html

 

unquote

 

McCain IS kind of a screwball...thinking here, I see in my mind's eye the Navajo Indians chasing after him as he retreats in a SUV...

 

quote

 

 

Reports, and a video, have surfaced claiming that protesters decrying the Oak Flat land grab and other disrespect to Indians allegedly perpetrated by John McCain ran his cavalcade off the Navajo Nation when he was there to celebrate Code Talkers Day on August 14.

 

Video: Was Sen. John McCain Run Off the Navajo Nation?

ICTMN Staff

8/20/15

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/08/20/video-was-sen-john-mccain-run-navajo-nation-161459

 

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When he was a pilot, he got to hotdogging, and flew under the electric transmission wires suspended from those tall grid towers in Spain...

 

quote

 

In his most serious lapse, McCain was "clowning" around in a Skyraider over southern Spain about December 1961 and flew into electrical wires, causing a blackout, according to McCain's own account as well as those of naval officers and enlistees aboard the carrier Intrepid...

 

McCain's mishaps in the cockpit

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/06/nation/na-aviator6

 

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McCain, clearly, is, or was, star crossed...

 

quote

 

McCain, pilot of A-4 Skyhawk side No. 416, next to White's, was among the first to notice the flames, and escaped by scrambling down the nose of his A-4 and jumping off the refueling probe shortly before the explosions began.

 

1967 USS Forrestal fire

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

unquote

 

Some have it that McCain was horsing around and teasing another pilot on the Carrier, who reacted by hitting a wrong button...but that's just a rumor!

 

quote

 

“Sen. Biden referred to how Jack Kennedy was tested in the Cuban Missile Crisis. My friends, I had a little personal experience in that,” McCain said. “I was on board the USS Enterprise. I sat in the cockpit of a flight deck on the USS Enterprise off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, do you know how close we came to nuclear war? America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I’ve been tested my friends.”

 

McCain Tells of His ‘Little Personal Experience’ in Cuban Missile Crisis

Mary Lu Carnevale

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/21/mccain-tells-of-his-little-personal-experience-in-cuban-missile-crisis/

quote

sheesh...don't know but McCain must drink Dos Equis..."Stay thirsty, my friends!"

Well, well, this morning's post is going nowhere in particular...lemesee where McCain is in the Putin/McCain Back and Forth today...

quote

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain on Wednesday branded the U.S.-Russian deal to avoid conflict in the sky over Syria "immoral," saying it gives Vladimir Putin a green light to bomb American allies.

U.S.-Russian Syria deal 'immoral,' McCain says

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/10/21/russia-isil-vladimir-putin-john-mccain/74349556/

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quote

Atrocities were committed by both sides. That fall our fighter group received orders from the Eighth Air Force to stage a maximum effort. Our seventy-five Mustangs were assigned an area of fifty miles by fifty miles inside Germany and ordered to strafe anything that moved. The objective was to demoralize the German population.

Noboby asked our opinion about whether we were actually demoralizing the survivors or maybe enraging them to stage their own maximum effort in behalf of the Nazi war effort. We weren't asked how we felt zapping people. It was a miserable, dirty mission, but we all took off on time and did it. If it occurred to anyone to refuse to participate (nobody refused, I recall) that person would have probably been court-martialed.

I remember sitting next to B[..] at a briefing and whispered to him: 'If we're gonna do things like this, we sure as hell better make sure we're on the winning side." That's still my view'"

Chuck Yeager in his biography

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Yeager had exceptional eyesight, could spot an enemy plane way way away...don't know but his mind's eye was spot on too...

"or maybe enraging them to stage their own maximum effort"

At some point, I'd say, the opposing sides in war become like acts of Nature, and are beyond moral judgement like earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and such...acts of God...

oh...I completely lost track of where I was headed with the beginning of this post...Putin called the war over Syria/Damascus a 'game'...and I found that charming insomuch as I've been going on about Cities being game boards...I'll get back on that track tomorrowmorrow!

but a bit more, as this is troubling...

quote

Controversial weapon - Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic and defence correspondent

YouTube video from the fighting in Syria has thrown up images of a rarely seen Russian weapons system - the TOS-1 "Buratino" multiple rocket launcher.
Described by the Russians as a "heavy flame-thrower", it is a highly controversial weapon and its appearance in Syria raises the question as to who is actually operating it.
The TOS-1 fires a 220mm rocket that is designed to carry a thermobaric warhead. Sometimes known as a "fuel-air explosive" the rockets detonates at a set altitude above the ground, releasing a cloud of fuel which is then ignited by a second explosion.
This creates a huge temperature and pressure wave whose impact has been likened to a low-yield nuclear explosive.
It is very much an indiscriminate weapon, typically used to support offensive operations by blanketing given areas with fire. Thermobaric weapons were used to devastating effect by the Russians in Afghanistan.

Syria war: Lavrov seeks talks with 'full spectrum' of opposition

• 26 minutes ago
• From the section Europe
• http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34618472

 

unquote

Very early on, on a TV news clip when US troops first rolled into Baghdad, from a group of soldiers in the background, a photo bomb these are called, one soldier shouted out, 'just nuke 'm'...

Oh...I wanted to see what the Valdai Club is...brb...

quote

The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It was named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the club’s first meeting took place. The club’s goal is to promote dialogue between Russian and international intellectual elite, and to make an independent, unbiased scientific analysis of political, economic and social events in Russia and the rest of the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdai_International_Discussion_Club

unquote

quote

At a meeting in Kazakhstan of leaders of former Soviet nations, Putin said his air force has achieved “impressive” results in Syria.

Russia denies unidentified drone shot down by Turkey belongs to them

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/10/16/putin-touts-impressive-results-from-russias-bombing-in-syria.html

unquote

hmmph

quote

The nickname Buratino matches the name of the hero of a Russian version of a Pinocchio-style tale (by Alexey Tolstoy), because of the big "nose" of the launcher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOS-1

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DavidDavid

 

Sea Hare

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

Well, I couldn't locate, yet, my poem Coral City, promised yesterday for today...the dishevelment has scattered things all over...but I did find my poem Sea Hare, which I'd wanted to post up with my post awhile back, called Sea Hare too...:)

Sea Hare

Too far from the receding tide,
Sea Hare retracted into a firm bunch,
Chalk green instead of speckled brown.

From the drying rocks,
Sea Hare felt like a skinless fruit.

At the pool where the others grazed on red algae,
I lowered Sea Hare in the water.

Children told their parents what I had done.

I sat on my haunches looking into the pool,
Blurred by the swirl of an incoming wave.

Sea Hare didn't stretch out,
And remained lifeless looking a long time,
Gently rocking on the bottom to and fro.

Dolphinwords
GG

The 5/2/15 post, Sea Hare, was about trying to save a Sea Hare too...click here  Sea Hare to see all of it, and here is some of the text:

quote (from me)

I thought Puppy Maya had found a kid's football, but, Sea Hare was upside right then, and I pretty much knew right then Sea Hare wasn't anything else, but to be certain, I gave a poke, and wanted to pick Sea Hare up for pic, but Maya on leash made that problematic, and rather than risk Sea Hare harm, beckoned a beachgoer wading in the waves to take Sea Hare out aways...'give Sea Hare a chance'...I've never seen Sea Hare on a Sandy Beach...maybe that's usual...

unquote

Sea Hare poem probably takes me closer to what I was reaching for in yesterday's post than Coral City poem...when I find Coral City, maybe I'll find that's the case!...but what I'm reaching for is failure in Nature...if I think of a Tropical Forest, or any eco system, as a game board, then there are winners and losers amongst the game pieces, all the Fauna and Flora...Coral City poem just extends the thought of eco systems to include our Cities...Cities are our eco systems, and as it happens, they're made of self similar cement to the cement corals form into...Forests, Reefs, Intertidal Zones, and such, are Cities...and while they are difficult to live in, they are not impossible...each Fauna and Flora is gifted with the means to survive successfully, most times...these Cities look to have as a main feature, a fairness, a balance, that makes it possible to live in them...and that is a very profound thing to think upon!...how do these Cities arrive at their balance?...and there's success right beside failure, and the failure has to be so there will be success...and it's very complicated in these Cities...failure can come from every which direction, and the sheer terror of it torments and motivates the successful...

Hillary Clinton did well today, I'd say, in the interrogation, which provided a long look, eleven hours!, at her conversational skills, skills much needed by candidates for President!

I've gone and changed my vote...:)

DavidDavid

Ymir

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

Well, my sister has brought it to my attention that if I don't post in awhile, there's the wonder if I've dropped off the edge of the world...a wonder myself I have about blogs that just stop in mid stride...don't do that, bloggers, it's annoying...make a notation, like, brb (be right back), or bio (need a visit the bathroom), or some such...:)

another crocodile poem...

Crocodile

 

Somewhere Crocodile is chomping

 

And Newborn Babes are teething

 

Day and Night

 

At the Crossroads (Harbor and Banner, OC, CA, USA)

 

Traffic turns left turns right,

 

Stops and goes,

 

Turns right turns left,

 

Goes and stops,

 

Night and Day.

 

Dolphinwords

10/21/15

GG

quote

"Why, why, why is it always so costly for man to move from the present into the future?"

closing line from: 20 Million Miles to Earth, 1957 movie

unquote

My memory had it that the title was 'million years' to Earth, but that's a confusion with '5 Million Years to Earth 1967', another movie...brb...go see if I can watch that one on youtube too!...ah..no luck...just snips and trailers on youtube...in one trailer the curio of the circles on the side of the ship, which look to be how one would draw a pentagram just using a compass!...

quote

The plot, which is largely faithful to the original television production, centres on the discovery of a mysterious object buried at the site of an extension to the London Underground. Also uncovered nearby are the remains of early human ancestors more than five million years old. Realising that the object is in fact an ancient Martian spacecraft, Quatermass deduces that the aliens have influenced human evolution and the development of human intelligence. The spacecraft has an intelligence of its own, and once uncovered begins to exert a malign influence, resurrecting Martian memories and instincts buried deep within the human psyche.

Quatermass and the Pit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_and_the_Pit_(film)



and the plot from 20 Million...

quote

Off the coast of a small Sicilian fishing village, two fishermen watch in amazement as a spaceship pierces the skies and crashes into the sea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Million_Miles_to_Earth

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The spaceship is carrying a specimen from Venus that grows up to be a giant dinosaur that rampages through Rome..."Creature?...loose and on the rampage!" being said after it escapes the Zoo where it was trapped and being studied.

Is Venus only 20 million miles?...it would seem so!...about 24 million at closest approach...

anyway, anyway, it was the 'millions' and the distances of these old movies that rang a bell when I read this:

quote

A community of lizards from the Caribbean, preserved for 20 million years in amber, have been found to be identical to their modern cousins, Stuart Gary reports for ABC Science.

This suggests the different niches inhabited by the lizards have – incredibly – changed little over the past 20 million-year, report the team, in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ancient Caribbean lizards in amber amaze scientists
http://repeatingislands.com/2015/07/27/ancient-caribbean-lizards-in-amber-amaze-scientists/

unquote

Darwin could have shortened his journey to the Galapagos, and just gone to these Caribbean Islands and studied the lizards!...

Not only has the niche one particular lizard species lives in remained unchanged for millions of years, this remarkably on such a small island, Hispaniola,  but the different lizards on different nearby islands have evolved in parallel into self similar body types...

quote

Using x-ray microcomputer tomography to produce three dimensional reconstructions of the fossils inside their amber cocoons, the researchers showed that the diversity of lizards that resulted 20 million years ago is the same seen today.
“Given we see the same range of morphological features this means the community of lizards has remained unchanged all this time,” says Sherratt.

unquote

A tropical forest is like a game board, and the species living on it like game pieces that are adapted to it.  It's a wonder which comes first, the game board or the game pieces. 

Checkers and chess are very old games, and nowadays one can go on line and find a game, with the computer as an opponent, or another player...I, I had the thought that these games of checkers and chess might just go on forever, or however long the web game board for game boards continues!...myself, I've gravitated to playing World of Warcraft, WOW, along with millions...this for like four years, and the game has been around for like ten...how long it will continue comes up in the forum discussions...and it has so much variety that the question fragments...some game features may last a long time, like checkers and chess, others will succumb to boredom, lack of interest, and such...

I wonder how long the old science fiction movies I watched will still be watched!...or remade...that keeps happening as film technology improves...it's happening to us too!...to our imaginations!...

Some technologies once they get going, have kept on, like the electrical power plant at Niagara Falls...it was one of the first, and provides lighting to New York...

Like for the Lizards in the Tropical Forests on the Caribbean Islands, Cities have become shadowbox niches for people to occupy with their occupations...Cities are our game boards, our eco systems...and hard to say which came first, the game board cities, or the city game pieces!

oh...to continue this I need to dig out my old poem, The Coral City...for tomorrowmorrow!...:)

oh!...the monster dinosaur had a name...

quote

The Ymir was a green colored scaly alien, with a dinosaur-like tail, feet with a humanoid upper torso and arms, along with a sagittal crest on its head. It also had simian-like facial features with large jowls hanging from its cheeks. It constantly increased in size due to tissue build-up as a side effect of inhaling Earth's different atmosphere from its own native world. At the time of it's death, it stood somewhere between 10 to 20 feet tall.

http://gwangipedia.wikia.com/wiki/Ymir

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The Ymir looked a bit lost, so far from home, climbing about the Roman Coliseum...gladiator contests to the death lasted a good thousand years before being banned...or at least relegated to make believe!

quote

The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential feature of politics and social life in the Roman world. Its popularity led to its use in ever more lavish and costly games.
The gladiator games lasted for nearly a thousand years, reaching their peak between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. The games finally declined during the early 5th century after the adoption of Christianity as state church of the Roman Empire in 380, although beast hunts (venationes) continued into the 6th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator

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quote (see above shadowbox link:)

It's a timeless quality, a feeling the place grew and aged right there, like an ancient forest with all the accompanying fungi and flora.

How The Shadow Box in Seaside aims to upgrade its game with cabaret.
Mark Anderson
http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/blogs/food_blog/how-the-shadow-box-in-seaside-aims-to-upgrade-its/article_5b7770c0-e793-11e3-927f-0017a43b2370.html

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DavidDavid









 

 

 

 

 

 

Google's Globe

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

I was trying to find on a google map just what the heck is going on in Damascus...and then just got to looking about, like following the Euphrates to its source, and zooming out to take in the Middle East...and Europe...everything so small and close together...and then zoomed out, all the way, and found myself floating in Space looking at the Earth...the Milky Way across the depths of Space, the Sun small and very bright, and Night time on the Western Hemisphere, lights sparkling across America...

Both John Muir and James Joyce in their writings gave their addresses...the street, the town, the nation, the continent, the earth, the milky way, the universe...

So, I zoomed back in to home, and sent off an email to my sister about what I found...

"type in the google search box 12661 Merrill Street Garden Grove, CA...do the search, and it brings up google map, click on the pic in the lower left corner...this is the street view which is part of the google globe...I'm sitting on porch!"

I had the fortune, don't know if it is good or bad!, to be sitting on the porch, contemplating, the day google drove down the street with their round globe camera thingy...

very cool

quote

Stephen Dedalus
Class of Elements
Clongowes Wood College
Sallins
County Kildare
Ireland
Europe
The World
The Universe

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce

Unquote

quote

John Muir, Earth-planet, Universe." -- These words are written on the inside cover of the notebook from which the contents of this volume have been taken. They reflect the mood in which the late author and explorer undertook his thousand-mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico a half-century ago.

(Introduction to A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir

http://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/a_thousand_mile_walk_to_the_gulf/

unquote

OH!...and if one puts in the search box Yosemite Lodge Dr...go to maps...it brings up the street view in September 2007...my old yellow VW camper bus is parked behind and to the left of Tree in the Door...a project is to find just what day they took the pics...and see if I had a blog post that day...maybe it was day I saw Yosemite Creek Hawk...  saw today, Hawk, Redtail, soaring over head when I came out of the Barber Shop in Shopping Center...Pigeons were having  a fit, but Hawk looked content to circle about...sunny warm some clouds blue...:)

DavidDavid

Lily Pads and Frog Feet

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

quote

"The greatest weapon of all is imagination..."

and

"You're going to need a bigger imagination..."

(Lego ad beginning with evil lord Vortec..:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KDvjX7NlE

unquote

Lily Pads

quote

Are ‘lily pads’ the future of US forces in Iraq?; Afghanistan’s own Pentagon; American defense firms flood Europe; Salvation at sea; And a bit more.

The next U.S. move in Iraq could be “lily pad-like” outposts that put American advisors closer to—but not on—the front lines, the New York Times’ Helene Cooper, Michael Gordon and Peter Baker reported yesterday. Officials cautioned that the idea is still being drafted and President Barack Obama isn’t expected to decide on it for another few weeks.
http://www.defenseone.com/news/2015/06/d-brief-june-12/115138/

unquote

Frog Feet

quote

New Satellite Image unveils an impressive line-up of 12 Russian Su-25 Frogfoot attack jets in Syria!

A new impressive satellite image has just been released.
It shows at least 12 Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes lined-up on the secondary runway at al-Assad airbase near Latakia, the same airfield hosting the four Russian Air Force Su-30SM multirole combat planes.
It looks like the Frogfoots, the Russian aircraft most suitable for Air Interdiction and potential Close Air Support missions against ISIS have eventually arrived in Syria.

http://theaviationist.com/2015/09/21/new-satellite-image-unveils-an-impressive-line-up-of-12-russian-su-25-frogfoot-attack-jets-in-syria/

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Proxy Wars

quote

Obama says Putin wrong on Syria but no 'proxy war'

A key concern is the prospect of U.S. getting drawn into a proxy war with Russia in the event that Russian warplanes hit moderate Syrian rebels who have been trained and equipped by the U.S. military.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing deliberations publicly.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-says-putin-wrong-syria-no-proxy-war-041229719.html

unquote


Turtle Shells

quote

In early 1934, Seeckt advised Chiang that to defeat the Chinese Communists was to wage a scorched earth policy, which required building a series of lines and forts around areas controlled by the Communists in the Jiangxi Soviet in order to force the Communist guerrillas to fight in the open, where the superior firepower of the Nationalists would give them an advantage.^[67] Following Seeckt's advice, in the spring and summer of 1934 the Kuomintang built three thousand "turtle shell" forts linked by a series of roads while at the same time pursuing a scorched earth policy around the forts as part of the Fifth Bandit Extermination Campaign in Jiangxi.^[3][67] It was Seeckt's tactics that led to a series of defeats suffered by the Chinese Communists that finally in October 1934 led to the famous Long March.^[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Seeckt#In_China

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Fish in the Sea

quote

 This explains the reasons why tactics such as hit and run, fight and live to fight for another day are being used by guerrillas around the world. The guerrilla can afford to run when he cannot stand and fight with a good chance of winning, and to disappear and hide when it is not safe to move. "A guerrilla", according to Mao Tse-tung (1937), "can always sink back into the peaceful population which is the sea in which the guerrilla swims like a fish".

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/maotsetunggiap.aspx

unquote

Islands in the Sea

quote

China nears completion of controversial airstrip in South China Sea

Runway with capacity for large military planes constructed on disputed Spratly islands, despite opposition from neighbouring nations

“Two helipads, up to 10 satellite communications antennas, and one possible radar tower are also visible,” said the Washington-based group, adding that two lighthouses and one cement plant have also been built on the island.
The runway is large enough for heavy military transport planes and fighters. Images taken in April showed it only a third complete, demonstrating that it has since been constructed at a rapid rate.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/02/china-controversial-airstrip-south-china-sea-spratly-islands

unquote

quote

"Impressive...most impressive..."

Star Wars movie
Darth Vader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvUL28Skt6E

unquote

hmmph...

quote

a voice over of Charlie Chaplin's speech in the movie The Great Dictator on a collage of Star Wars clips...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATJaT8P6mSE

unquote

DavidDavid

Constitution of Medina

 A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

quote

I shall go forward further with the story, giving an account of the cities of men, small as well as great: for those which in old times were great have for the most part become small, while those that were in my own time great used in former times to be small: so then, since I know that human prosperity never continues steadfast, I shall make mention of both indifferently.

Herodotus

unquote

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-h/2707-h.htm#link2H_4_0003



quote

In Muhammad's last years in Mecca, a delegation from Medina, consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina, invited him as a neutral outsider to Medina to serve as the chief arbitrator for the entire community.^[6][7] There was fighting in Medina mainly involving its pagan and Jewish inhabitants for around a hundred years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, especially after the Battle of Bu'ath in which all the clans were involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal conceptions of blood-feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with authority to adjudicate in disputed cases.^[6] The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellow-citizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as one of themselves.^[8]

Constitution of Medina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

unquote

quote

96. There appeared among the Medes a man of great ability whose name was Deïokes, and this man was the son of Phraortes. This Deïokes, having formed a desire for despotic power, did thus:—whereas the Medes dwelt in separate villages, he, being even before that time of great repute in his own village, set himself to practise just dealing much more and with greater zeal than before; and this he did although there was much lawlessness throughout the whole of Media, and although he knew that injustice is ever at feud with justice. And the Medes of the same village, seeing his manners, chose him for their judge. So he, since he was aiming at power, was upright and just, and doing thus he had no little praise from his fellow-citizens, insomuch that those of the other villages learning that Deïokes was a man who more than all others gave decision rightly, whereas before this they had been wont to suffer from unjust judgments, themselves also when they heard it came gladly to Deïokes to have their causes determined, and at last they trusted the business to no one else.
97. Then, as more and more continually kept coming to him, because men learnt that his decisions proved to be according to the truth, Deïokes perceiving that everything was referred to himself would no longer sit in the place where he used formerly to sit in public to determine causes, and said that he would determine causes no more, for it was not profitable for him to neglect his own affairs and to determine causes for his neighbours all through the day. So then, since robbery and lawlessness prevailed even much more in the villages than they did before, the Medes having assembled together in one place considered with one another and spoke about the state in which they were: and I suppose the friends of Deïokes spoke much to this effect: "Seeing that we are not able to dwell in the land under the present order of things, let us set up a king from among ourselves, and thus the land will be well governed and we ourselves shall turn to labour, and shall not be ruined by lawlessness." By some such words as these they persuaded themselves to have a king.
98. And when they straightway proposed the question whom they should set up to be king, Deïokes was much put forward and commended by every one, until at last they agreed that he should be their king. And he bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them, and they allowed him to select spearmen from all the Medes. And when he had obtained the rule over them, he compelled the Medes to make one fortified city and pay chief attention to this, having less regard to the other cities. And as the Medes obeyed him in this also, he built large and strong walls, those which are now called Agbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. 111 And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses. The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall round Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red: thus are the battlements of all the circles coloured with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold.
99. These walls then Deïokes built for himself and round his own palace, and the people he commanded to dwell round about the wall. And after all was built, Deïokes established the rule, which he was the first to establish, ordaining that none should enter into the presence of the king, but that they deal with him always through messengers; and that the king should be seen by no one; and moreover that to laugh or to spit in presence is unseemly, and this last for every one without exception. 112 Now he surrounded himself with this state 113 to the end that his fellows, who had been brought up with him and were of no meaner family nor behind him in manly virtue, might not be grieved by seeing him and make plots against him, but that being unseen by them he might be thought to be of different mould.
100. Having set these things in order and strengthened himself in his despotism, he was severe in preserving justice; and the people used to write down their causes and send them in to his presence, and he determined the questions which were brought in to him and sent them out again. Thus he used to do about the judgment of causes; and he also took order for this, that is to say, if he heard that any one was behaving in an unruly manner, he sent for him and punished him according as each act of wrong deserved, and he had watchers and listeners about all the land over which he ruled.
101. Deïokes then united the Median race alone, and was ruler of this: and of the Medes there are the tribes which here follow, namely, Busai, Paretakenians, Struchates, Arizantians, Budians, Magians: the tribes of the Medes are so many in number.

Herodotus
Histories
Book 1, 96-101

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quote

to the Histories of Herodotus, there were six Median tribes:^[6]

Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi.

The six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangle between Ecbatana, Rhagae and Aspadana,^[7] in today's central Iran,^[8][9] the area between Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan. Of the Median tribes, the Magi resided in Rhaga,^[10] modern Tehran.^[11] It was a sort of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes.^[12] The Paretaceni tribe resided in and around Aspadana, modern Isfahan,^[7][13][14] the Arizanti lived in and around Kashan^[7] and the Busae tribe lived in and around the future Median capital of Ecbatana, modern Hamadan.^[7] The Struchates and the Budii lived in villages in the Median triangle.^[15]


Medes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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DavidDavid

Call Me Israel

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

quote

Call me Ishmael...

Moby Dick
Herman Melville

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I thought... and I was impressed with the thought...that there were just Ten Lost Tribes of Israel...there are many accounts, all speculative, of where they went...here's link to one that has some pages on the web...

quote

A second major migration may have occurred five centuries later with the breakup of the Trojan Empire...

p25

Israel's Lost 10 Tribes: Migrations to Britain and the USA

Jan 10, 2012

by Vaughn E. Hansen

https://books.google.com/books?id=ltyoQC-RmlEC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=ten+tribes+units+of+measure&source=bl&ots=YqXC7JeO1V&sig=6bLc1MmkL2SEQGdBpOvZK0c_8Ow&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI8f_x7tKbyAIVT3uSCh3z3A2c#v=onepage&q=ten%20tribes%20units%20of%20measure&f=false

 

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I found that, and thought, 'oh, someone going on about the Trojans too...'...but only a few pages of book are on web for review, and I set it aside, and with a following lookabout on the web, happened on...

quote

Finding the Twelve Lost Tribes of Ishmael
Copyright 2002 CanBooks
Web Site The Nabataeans


Most of us are familiar with the ancient story of Abraham and his desire to have a son. In the Biblical account of his story, Abraham first has a son through his 'handmaiden' Hagar. This son is named Ishmael and is Abraham's first born son. When Abraham's second son is born, this son, named Isaac, is declared the 'son of promise.' The Jews today claim decent from Abraham through this second son, Isaac. Few people today, however, know what happened to the descendants of Ishmael. It is often assumed that they simply became the Arabs of the Middle East, but to most of us, our knowledge of them stops there. 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-h/2707-h.htm

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So, on finding THAT, I have it that there were Twenty Four Tribes descended from Abraham...and Ishmael's descendants, those Twelve Tribes, resided on the Arab Peninsula...the Kaabbaa is thought to be over the Spring that provided water for Hagar when she was exiled to the desert....

Sorting out the Tribes, and where they went, is complicated!...and then, and then there's this....

quote

The Battle of Khaybar was fought in the year 629 between Muslims and the Jews living in the oasis of Khaybar, located 150 kilometers (93 mi) from Medina in the north-western part of the Arabian peninsula, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khaybar

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The Jews of the Oasis are called the Banu Nadir

quote

The Banu Nadir (Arabic: بنو النضير ‎) were a Jewish tribe who lived in northern Arabia until the 7th century at the oasis of Madinah . The tribe challenged Muhammad as the leader of Medina,^[1] planned along with allied nomads to attack Muhammad ^[2] and were expelled from Medina as a result. The Banu Nadir then planned the battle of the Trench together with the Quraysh.^[3] They later participated in the battle of Khaybar. ^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banu_Nadir

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This is a page of history I haven't happened on before!...

quote

However, the story, in my view, has its origins in earlier events. Is can be shown that it reproduces similar stories which survived from the account of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans, which ended in the destruction of the temple in the year AD. 73, the night of the Jewish zealots and sicarii to the rock fortress of Masada, and the final liquidation of the besieged. Stories of their experience were naturally transmitted by Jewish survivors who fled south. Indeed one of the more plausible theories of the origin of the Jews of Medina is that they came after the Jewish wars. This was the theory preferred by the late Professor Guillaume.

NEW LIGHT ON THE STORY OF BANU QURAYZA AND THE

 

JEWS OF MEDINA

 

By W. N. ARAFAT

 

http://www.haqq.com.au/~salam/misc/qurayza.html

 

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A thought here, that this may have been a 'second migration', an earlier being when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple...

 

What one is left with is an intermingling of tribesmen from all twenty four tribes on the Arab peninsula!

 

And then there's this...

 

quote

 

"The Afghans call themselves Bani Israel, or the children of Israel, but consider the term Yahoodi, or Jew, to be one of reproach. They say that Nebuchadnezzar, after the overthrow of Israel, transplanted them into the towns of Ghore near Bamean and that they were called after their Chief Afghan they say that they lived as Israelites till Khalid summoned them in the first century of the Muhammadans.

 

Theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

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So, the scope of the Tribesmen's migrations widens...as far as India...

 

quote

 

The 'black' Malabar component of the Cochin Jews, according to Shalva Weil, might have arrived in India together with Solomon's merchants.

 

History of the Jews in India

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

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and all the way to China...

 

quote

 

The presence of a community of Jewish immigrants in China is consistent with the history of the Jewish people during the first and second millennia CE, which saw them disperse and settle throughout the Eurasian landmass, with an especial concentration throughout central Asia.^[

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_China

 

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And more!

 

quote

 

Jewish traditions are split between those, like Josephus, who consider Ishmael the ancestor of the Arabs,^[16] and those, like Maimonides, who believe that the northern Arabs are descended from the sons of Keturah, whom Abraham married after Sarah's death.^[

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael

 

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quote

 

Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The Genesis and First Chronicles accounts also list seven grandsons (Sheba, Dedan, Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah).^[2][3] Keturah's sons were said to have represented the Arab tribes who lived south and east of Palestine.^[15]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keturah

 

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More Tribesmen!

 

quote

 

The name "Israel" in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob (Standard Yisraʾel, Isrāʾīl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ Israēl; "struggle with God"^[46]) who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was given the name after he successfully wrestled with the angel of the Lord.^[47] Jacob's twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. Jacob and his sons had lived in Canaan but were forced by famine to go into Egypt for four generations until Moses, a great-great grandson of Jacob,^[48] led the Israelites back into Canaan during the "Exodus".

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel#Etymology

 

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There's like a four hundred year time distance between Jacob and Moses, and one wonders what migrations may have occurred due to famines and such thenabout...

 

quote

 

"We're not seeing a significant genetic influence from elsewhere on the coastal population in what was the Levant region," says Wells. "The people are very similar to the groups we see inland in Syria and Jordan, for example, suggesting that there wasn't a huge influx of Sea Peoples or others from outside the area. A cultural shift occurred but not a genetic one. Today's Lebanese, the Phoenicians, and the Canaanites before them are all the same people."

 

... ... ...

 

During the next few years, Wells and Zalloua plan to expand the sample size in the Middle East, southern Spain, and northern Africa. "I'm particularly interested in the Phoenician impact on Africa," Wells says. "We know that Phoenicians—to a certain extent—controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes from their center of Carthage. They also navigated through the Strait of Gibraltar and moved around western Africa. But how far south did they get? And did they leave a genetic trail?" The search continues.

 

In the Wake of the Phoenicians: DNA study reveals a Phoenician-Maltese link
The National Geographic ^ | October 2004 | Cassandra Franklin-Barbajosa

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1467818/posts

 

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Thought that brought me to that is that the Phoenicians were Jews...lot of web pages going on about that...that early Jewish alphabets and Phoenician alphabets are alike gives the notion credence...

 

so, so, the Tribesmen are going East, all the way to China, and how far West?

 

quote

 

The theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas is a fringe theory that suggests there was Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact between people of the New World and the Phoenicians or other Semitic peoples in the first millennium BC.^[

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Phoenician_discovery_of_the_Americas

 

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And one should consider further back the Sons of Noah...

 

quote

 

Noah blessed Shem above his brothers (Genesis 9:26–27), and it was through Shem that the promised seed destined to crush Satan came (Genesis 3:15). That seed is traced back to Adam’s son Seth (Genesis 5:1–32), through Shem, and on to Abraham, Judah, and David, leading all the way to Christ (Luke 3:36).

Shem’s son Elam was the father of the Elamites, who later settled east of Mesopotamia. Shem’s son Ashur, whose name is related to the word Assyria, is most likely is the father of those who settled the ancient region of Assyria (Genesis 2:14). Arphaxad is thought by many scholars to be a compound form of the Hebrew word for “Chaldea,” which was a region in southern Mesopotamia (Genesis 11:10–13). It was through Arphaxad that Eber came. Scholars believe that the descendants of Shem’s son Lud became known as the Lydians of Asia Minor. And Aram is identified by Bible scholars with the area northeast of the Promised Land, known today as Syria (cf. 2 Kings 16:6). The sons of Aram are listed in Genesis 10:23. Of Aram’s sons, Uz is later referred to in the book of Job (Job 1:1).

Who were the sons of Noah, and what happened to them and their descendants?

http://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-Noah.html

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more tribesmen...

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Other scholars regard Dʿmt as the result of a union of Afro-Asiatic cultures of the Cushitic and Semitic branches; namely, local Agaw peoples and Sabaeans from Southern Arabia. However, Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is thought to have developed independently from Sabaean (also South Semitic). As early as 2000 BC, other Semitic speakers were living in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where Ge'ez developed.^[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia

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quote


The story is told in the Kebra Negast (in Ge’ez language, Glory of the Kings), Ethiopia’s chronicle of its royal line: the Queen of Sheba, one of its first rulers, traveled to Jerusalem to benefit from King Solomon’s wisdom; on her way home, she bore Solomon’s son, Menelik. A few years later, Menelik went to visit his father, and on his return journey was accompanied by the firstborn sons of some Israelite nobles—who, unbeknown to him, stole the ark and carried it with them to Ethiopia.

Ethiopia: Ark of the Covenant Reported Stolen by Chuch Authorities
November 11th, 2014 | by Barbara Johnson

 

http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/ethiopia-ark-of-covenant-reported-stolen-by-church-authorities/

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I think the modern ark stolen tale (see link) might be made up...a check for veracity for sometime!

 

So, Tribesmen east to China, west to the Americas, south down Africa,....

 

quote

 

Beginning in the 8th century, Khazar royalty and notable segments of the aristocracy might have converted to Judaism. Khazar origins for, or suggestions Khazars were absorbed by many peoples, have been made regarding the Slavic Judaising Subbotniks, the Bukharan Jews, the Muslim Kumyks, Kazakhs, the Cossacks of the Don region, the Turkic-speaking Krymchaks and their Crimean neighbours the Karaites to the Moldavian Csángós, the Mountain Jews and others.^[19][20][21] A modern theory, that the core of Ashkenazi Jewry emerged from a hypothetical Khazarian Jewish diaspora, is now viewed with scepticism by most scholars,^[22] but occasionally supported by others.^[23] This Khazarian hypothesis is sometimes associated with antisemitism^[24] and anti-Zionism.^[25]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars

 

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and north to Russia...

 

I've skipped some of the big places the Tribesmen may have gone, like the Dogon Tribesmen of Africa, but there's one little place I find charming...

 

quote

 

The synagogue of Delos, Greece, is the oldest synagogue known today,^[1] its origin dating between 150 and 128 BCE. The building’s most recent use is widely agreed to have been an assembly hall for Jews or Samaritans.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos_Synagogue

 

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and of course there is some uncertainty of its Jewish origins...

 

"Call me Israel..." could have been the beginning of Melville's novel Moby Dick...

 

DavidDavid