Today is Saturday, January 15, 2022. Today a bizarre story unfolded in an area northeast of Fort Worth, Texas, in an area called Colleyville when an armed man took several people hostage at a synagogue during services this morning. As of now, the rabbi of the congregation and several others are being held hostage while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Texas Department of Public Safety are at the scene attempting to negotiate with the lone gunman.

The details of this ongoing situation were covered in an online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an article written by Jessika Harkay, James Hartley, and Domingo Ramirez, Jr. entitled “Rabbi, others held hostage at Colleyville synagogue; police heard negotiating on livestream.”

The service was being livestreamed on Facebook, and the live recording, which was removed shortly before 2 p.m., captured muffled audio of what appeared to be negotiations with the police.

The synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, is located at 6100 Pleasant Run (sounds downright pleasing, doesn’t it?) Road, which is now overrun with FBI special agents from the Dallas field office. All residents in the immediate area were evacuated, and people in general have been asked to avoid the region.

As for what is happening in the synagogue, a source on the scene has told ABC News that one armed suspect took the rabbi and three others hostage, claiming to have bombs in unknown locations.

The suspect’s aims are not random, as he seems to be demanding the release of one Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who is imprisoned on charges related to the attempted murder and assault of U.S. officers and employees in Afghanistan in 2008. At the moment, Siddiqui is serving an 86-year sentence at FMC Carswell.

Siddiqui is considered a dangerous terrorist by U.S. authorities, as she is suspected of having ties to the ringleader of 9/11. Counterterrorism groups have dubbed her “Lady al-Qaeda” and U.S. officials have described her as “the most wanted woman in the world.” This is not the first time someone has tried to force her release from prison; the other times, our government has refused to trade her for American hostages multiple times, including for journalist James Foley prior to his execution by ISIS.

Despite this portrayal of the imprisoned woman as a dangerous exponent of terrorism here in the United States, back in Pakistan she is widely portrayed as a heroine and a martyr. “Her family and supporters say the mother of three was falsely accused and used as a scapegoat in the “war on terror” after 9/11, according to a profile in the Guardian.” In 2018, the Senate of Pakistan unanimously passed a resolution to take up the matter of Siddiqui’s freedom with this country, referring to her as “the Daughter of the Nation.”

According to sources at the scene, the armed gunman has mentioned his sister (a later report on MSNBC denied that Siddiqui is actually the man’s sister) and has talked about religion. On the Facebook livestream of today’s service, the man was heard asking for his sister to be released from prison. So we can only conclude that this reference is to a “sister of the cloth,” meaning someone who holds the same beliefs as himself, which is Siddiqui. At one point, another voice can be heard apparently talking to police on the phone. The man has said he doesn’t want anyone hurt, and he has mentioned something about his children.

The identity of the rabbi of the congregation is Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, and it is reported that he joined the synagogue in 2006. The shul is a Reform Jewish synagogue.

Oh, I just heard on the MSNBC broadcast right now that one hostage, an unidentified male, has been released, unharmed by the gunman. That leaves the rabbi and two others still in the building. This incident has been going on for many hours now; let’s hope and pray that no one is injured before the situation comes to a conclusion, one way or the other.

I don’t know about you, but I’m so fed up with hearing the abominable names of Sinema and Manchin for the last year for their horrible obstruction of President Joe Biden’s progressive agenda, especially for their derailment of Biden’s significant voting rights legislation that is being held up by these two anti-Democratic Democrats. What is the only remaining political party to do here in this situation to get these two freaking roadblocks to the advancement of voting rights out of the fucking way! They are just as bad as the fucking repugnicans who have not come out at all for the legislation. Hell, if we had at least five or repugnican 10 members willing to vote yes on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, we wouldn’t need these two bastards. If this isn’t concrete proof that the filibuster needs to go, I don’t know what is still necessary to torpedo it for this essential legislation.

That’s why in a radio interview yesterday with host Dean Obeidallah, New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat advocated severe consequences for the two traitors to the cause, Sinema and Manchin, on the program. Espaillat told the host that both errant Democrats must face “consequences” – just like Dumpf and his traitorous bunch of allies – for not getting in line behind President Joe Biden’s voting rights agenda.

Reading the transcript from the interview, I cannot see what sort of consequences Espaillat envisions for these two rogues. I’d love for them to be expelled from Congress, but we know that won’t happen. If we can’t even expel extreme examples of bad apples from Congress or the Senate – people like Ted “Oooze,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Rand Paul et al. right now for participating in seditious activities against their own country, then what are we going to do with these obstructionists? Sinema made a speech the other day which I refused to hear about why she’s not supporting a change to the filibuster. Fuck her! She needs to be unseated when her time comes – which can’t be soon enough for me!

Before I leave tonight, I have been alerted to a blunt elucidation by a writer by the name of Peter Manseau, who tweeted this long assessment of this country’s two-year slog with COVID-19. I quote the tweet in full:

“US response to Covid has ultimately been like our response to school shootings: Once we decided unimaginable loss was a price worth paying for an imagined ideal of freedom, the number of deaths ceased to matter. We’d trade a million lives for our need to do exactly what we want.”

Do you agree or disagree with Manseau’s interpretation of our response to this pandemic? I’m sure you know where my feelings lie with regard to our reaction to the consequences of COVID-19.

So have a good Sunday. The weather is supposed to be slightly milder than today, with temps being in the low forties. The temperature today was about 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrrr, was it cold! However, that didn’t stop Elliot or me from going to Brooklyn to have a late lunch at Peter Luger’s Steakhouse, in Williamsburg. We had canceled a previous reservation to have an early dinner there on December 30, 2021, so we said, “What the heck!” about not cancelling again. We’ll just bundle up and go in and out of the car without walking so much. The restaurant was, surprisingly, at full capacity, ti seemed to me. The patrons inside were not deterred by the weather either, apparently.

Stay safe and be well.