Six-hundred twenty-three days later.

“We cannot afford for Lebanon to become another Gaza,” António Guterres Secretary-General, United Nations, June 2024.

Less that I took this to be the worldview of Card’s books. I’ve also read Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.

More that there are operators in this world who, on reading this, see this as rationale and put it into practice.

Also: Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Greed. Ignorance. Intolerance.

Your workout, food, or personal hygiene regimen.

Exploitation, expropriation, or extortion.

Your subjective experience of opening a box, playing a video game, or viewing media.

Always a treat to hear the quiet part said out loud.

Though, to remain relevant, NATO is has to appease its in-house belligerent hegemon; especially when that particular orange monster is gobbling up oil-rich nations.

Iran may not be under NATO’s purview, but starving Ukraine is. When UKR F-16s are flying without missiles while trying to defend against Russia, NATO has to try to pry loose some armaments that will, otherwise, be funnelled to the aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.

The world continues to slip toward all-out war. One miscalculation, one over-reaction, one missed signal and the several conflicts will morph into a single, giant kill zone between 16 and 50% the size of the planet — a World War.

At least that’s the nightmare we ought to be working hard to avoid.

As much as I hate this quote and it’s shrewd cold logic, this is what’s bearing down on us:

“The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can’t kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.” ~ Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

Oh boy. Ill make this as short as I can because I really ought to be off to bed.

Nuclear weapons, since the beginning, foment distrust. Neocolonialism, the Red Scare, and Fuckiteering breeds enemies and blowback. And, Iran, having oil and a spotty history relating to the superpower/hegemon that is America, has denied and actively worked against the “Manifest Destiny” of American supremacy in the world and — regionally — Israeli supremacy in Palestine.

Since 1945, the United States has:

• developed nuclear weapons

• used nuclear weapons at war

• tested nuclear weapons at “peace”

• conducted a Cold War against “non-aligned” states — including Iran for a time — and communists and people who America regards as “other”

• supported Israel as an independent state despite the questionable (read: ethnic cleansing) methods employed to declare the state

• overthrown Iran’s democratically elected government and installed a Shah, “friendly” to US interests and brutal to Iranian people

• developed the Hydrogen bomb

• overthrown several other democratically elected governments, prosecuted wars and police actions across 4 continents…

And that barely gets us to the mid 1950s.

By 1979, Iran got fed up. JFK’s words, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable” apply here. There was a revolution, they booted the Shah and took some Americans hostage for 444 days. Somehow, an Islamist faction rose from the confusion and seized power. Marjane Sartapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, helped me with this part.

In the cocaine-addled '80s, the States said, “fuckit,” and started paying Saddam Hussein to go to war with Iran. Iran held the line for 8 years. After that, Hussein became the enemy instead of a friend, Iran sat back and watched the States undertake Gulf Wars I and II under the Bush family’s rule. Meanwhile, the Israeli people have lived in fear of Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Palestinians. Harsh words, and a few thousand rocket attacks, against the State of Israel and America’s support by AIPAC are part of the puzzle. And of course, Aljazeera conuterspinning the American narrative from its HQ in Qatar is also a threat.

In the end, Iran DID develop the capacity yo make nuclear energy which they claim is for electricity. US doesn’t trust anyone they don’t control, and haven’t since they achieved schoolyard bully status back in '45. Israel also has, but refuses to talk about, its nuclear weapons, which are a threat to all of the countries Israel has attacked (some of whom attacked Israel in the '50s abd '60s). Again, a paucity of trust.

Since about Y2K, Iran’s leadership has declared a Fatwa against nuclear weapons and swears they will never possess them.

There have been at least two Palestinian uprisings against Israel (2000-2005 and the Al-Aqsa Flood of 2023). There was a period of secular society-led protest that is often overlooked. Hamas changed the charter. All actions have been met with tacit or overt Iranian support for Palestinian resistance. That said, the heavy-handed actions of this Israeli government, and several governments back to 2000, have only made the prospect of peace in the region more distant from reality. Certainly, decimating the population of Gaza in 2 years under the Dahiya doctrine fits the phrase “the cruelty is the point.”

So, amid negotiations to not go to war, the children in the room decided to sneak attack and assassinate the Supreme Leader of Iran. This undermines resistance the Iranian people themselves were mounting against their government. It undermines International law and U.S. own laws about Presidency. It destabilizes the region and will impact the global economy.

Anyway. This took an hour and Im going to bed.

It’s in because, well, I was surprised that Grey’s Anatomy is in its 22nd season.

Its interesting that interactions here center on the one pop-culture element of my comment and none on the others. Yes, it’s a non-sequitur. It stands out.

Is it because the others are all self-evident? Flogged to death? Too controversial? Not controversial enough? Insurmountable?

• Expensive education

• Cities planned for cars

• 5-day work weeks

• Grey’s Anatomy

• Nuclear weapons

• Racism

And I agree with the others who’ve said:

• Fossil fuels, particularly coal

• Private health insurance

Were you there when it happened to me?

I swear, that one Donald Sutherland scene in JFK had me going for such a long time on the conspiracy bent. I thought it was real.

Who knew, it was Kevin Bacon we needed to pay attention to all along.

Worse, it was produced by Alex Jones.

Purposeful juxtaposition or transcription error?

Whichever, it is glorious. Never change.

Haven’t seen this but have heard this title for decades. One day, I’ll have the strength to take this film on.

• The Pianist

• Empire of the Sun

• The End of the Affair

• 火垂るの墓 — “The Grave of the Fireflies”

• La Vita e Bella — “Life is Beautiful”

Less about how the front lines and the warriors fared. More about how the wars affected individuals, particularly children.

Check also Hoopla and Cloudlibrary. Between those three, I get most of what I’m looking for from my public libraries.

The Roots (first four albums especially)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor / A Sliver Mt. Zion

Portishead, Massive Attack

Public Enemy

Ah. Oops. Did not know I’d transgressed.

As far as I know, these cycles were written by the post-maker. I just found them compelling, each a visual and visceral view of our inhumanity toward ourselves. The writing is pretty good. The AI is illustrative, though not altogether the compelling element.

In your head, change the name of a food you wish to avoid. I’ve done this with McD’s.

In my head, it’s been called McDicks since high school. I, personally, don’t enjoy eating dicks. So, when I see the sign, and I feel like a Big Mac would go down easy, I say to myself, “I don’t eat dicks.”

It works.

For those who enjoy eating dicks, well, you’ll have to choose another association. Also, I didn’t think the phrase “feel like a Big Mac would go down easy” would be so overtly sexual.

More people need to know about Bernays. Literally wrote the book, Propaganda in 1928. Went on to found the industry of Public Relations. He is the reason advertisers target your subconscious, make you feel bad, an use their products as a salve for the pain they inflict.

Adam Curtis covers the effects well in The Century of the Self. Watch out, it clocks in at just under 4 hours.

Do yourself a favour, watch the directors cut.

Skateboarding. Wingsuit flying. BASE jumping.

All seem like SO much fun. But, Im entering middle age with two kids. Broken bones are not fun. Nor are risks not covered by my insurance, apparently. That’s what my partner tells me anyway. She gets final say on fun.

Or, the insurance company does. Whichever. They’re on the same side: against injury. And fun.

For those who don’t understand these words, I’ll translate: driving a motor vehicle (car, truck, van, or other) with a manual-shift or stick-shift transmission.

In an automatic transmission vehicle, you have steering, gas, and brakes. The car itself decides automatically which gear to be in based on several conditions. This is the form of driving to which most are accustomed.

The rest of us can actually drive.