Dire Straits (No, not the band, the Strait of Hormuz)
"The word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
I'll come to that in a full circular fashion.
Saturday, up far later than usual, out for a walk. Every bar downtown is full, spilling out into the streets, and Bloom, the last club I pass before returning home, is thumping. It was a beautiful day and I had to work, dead-slow, looking out at a blue sky, forlorn like a dog looking into a butcher shop.
I was taking a break from the old-doom-scroll, the neurosis that settled in during the pandemic has been started again by our Southern neighbours.
First, there's Professor Jiang, who's predicting Canada will be sold by Carney to Qatar & China after he calls and wins an early landslide election. Then there are his theories on Evolution, and while I'm buying some of what he's saying I'm a little skeptical of the rest. He's gotten popular, though, and has been on Tucker Carlson. And Pierre Poilievre on Joe Rogan, with a straight face discussing the cleanliness of the Oil Sands...
Then Iran, aiming a new medium range ballistic missile surprise for Diego Garcia or an Israeli false flag? I mean, they're hardly to be trusted, does anyone remember the USS Liberty? I'll let you look that one up.
Then there's the 85+ thousand killed in Gaza, continuing daily, the illegal Jewish settlers, the government sanctioned torture of Palestinians, A million displaced in Lebanon, the IDF soldiers practicing their shooting on innocent children and fishermen.
There's the Chinese and Russian assistance to Iran, Safe passage to Chinese, Japanese, Indian ships in trade for Juan, which implies the American dollar may be due for as a fall, as petrodollars will no longer have value, countries will dump their reserves, already China is moving it's American funds into tangible assets like Gold, and - if the Japanese Prime Minister has any pride after Trump's "Pearl Harbour" bomb they'll be dropping theirs as well.
China is using this as a test America’s to examine military tech, readiness & strategy. And they're laughing, because they know the game they're all playing, and they know the game is up.
There was the removal of the USA's embargo on Iran’s oil - so in essence the USA is now funding Iran, which funds Iran can divert to pursue it's own self defence and war upon it's neighbours. Now - looking at it's neighbours - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc etc - well, there are no good guys here. All boon friends of the USA. And - see above quote - they're all just finding out.
Epstein was spotted in Florida driving a car, but no - it’s “Palm Beach Pete” and conspiracies afloat the very next day, comparing teeth, no, that’s Epstein…Who would know? 'Palm Beach Pete' seems nice enough but the world is so thick with conspiracies and coverups that people are jumping on everything.
And you know, a surprising number of them are proving to be true...
Netanyahu apparently dead, I’m not convinced, but the peculiar AI videos cited as proof of his being alive, in the cafe, the press conference aren’t convincing me either;
Then there's the Zorro Ranch, former property of Jeffrey Epstein, and apparently (according to a former driver) busloads of young Latina’s were being bussed in for “Modelling tryouts”, but there was never a bus that left with them…
There's the news that the new FEMA director doesn’t recommend being teleported into a Waffle House, which is so beautiful I couldn’t make it up, no one could have, none of this, not even 5 years, that’s how fast crazy happens, and how far it goes; there's Hegseth's unhinged Holy War and Anti-Islam rants (see quote at top), there's Bondi's bizarre attempts to skirt the subpoena, there's Leavitt, there's the insanity of Trump's rants, how the Iranians have 48 hours to capitulate or he's going to attack Iran’s power & critical infrastructure, more war crimes; Iran responds with it’s own threats, Trump claims negotiations, Iran denies, TACO Monday.
Then there's the heartwarming news that China is sending humanitarian aid to Cuba, and the kind offer of Iran to assist in the defence of Greenland.
Who are the bad guys again? Just want to make sure…
Don't worry, I know.
And then, back to the real world this morning, run into acquaintance at the library, the regular cafe I frequent was closed Sunday, she's telling me why, the owner has died, this sudden and unexpected, hence the closure, she was young enough, no obvious health symptoms, and - being the same age, and this just another in the list of cafe-owner-deaths I've seen the past few months, people young and without issue, well. I'm curious, my lifestyle isn't winning me any prizes and how these clean-living young ones keep dropping is making me a bit uncomfortable.