RANT: SLIDING DOWN A SLIPPERY SLOPE

  

A SHORT NOTE ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING seems to be going faster and faster these days, one example being the rapid deterioration of the United States, with its hollowed-out industrial base (all those jobs and businesses going over seas to low wage countries) and the incredible debt burden now standing at over twenty trillion dollars and nearly a trillion per year in interest payments! As well, the decline of the dollar as the global currency of trade, once a given in the decades following WWII is on the ropes. Now, more and more countries are using local currencies to evade the financial strictures^* imposed on them by the United States and its 'weaponized' dollar. 

👉The system of global trade and finance, brought into being during the 1944 Bretton Woods¹ summit where the post war years were envisioned and shaped, that system is over, as many commetators suggest. It's another data point exposing the failing American empire as it loses it financial mojo, along with its vaunted military might, as seen with its current military fiasco venture in the Persian Gulf. Again, the emperor or the empire has no clothes and everyone can see behind the curtain whose really in charge.

MOST TRAGICALLY, and most costly in blood and treasure (on all sides) was the “War on Terror” begun in in the  shadow of 9/11 during the Bush presidency. America spent trillions of dollars over nearly two decades in failed wars of choice halfway around the world. The cost of these wars has all but bankrupted the country.

  

AS WE GO FORWARD, marching bravely towards our imagined future, we fail to realize that the carpet of the past behind us is rolling up ever faster, what with nuclear Armageddon or the climate crisis increasingly at pace with our forward march. And when we finally see, too late of course, that the past is catching up to us, we then sprint forward in a desperate attempt to outrun the consequences of our actions. Eventually we’ll either run out of carpet or be rolled up entirely and thrown into the dustbin of history unless we heed the lessons of those who have gone before us whereby civilizations of one sort or another, large or small, do indeed come to an end, strangled to death by hubris or willful blindness, or both. Endings are rougher than beginnings because there is a lot to lose empire-wise. People and politicians cling to things that are precious to them and hold fast against the winds of change as they scour away everything, or most everthing that remains entrenched and unwilling to change.  The question is: Will we remain victims of the coming changes or will we adapt and change ourselves? Only time will tell.

 

SOME SAY, tongue in cheek mostly, that the next species to emerge into sentience and roam the world will be racoons (Procyon lotor), a mammalian example of creatures that can survive in most environments, especially where there are garbage bins to tip over. Personally, I’d like to see whales, another mammalian, especially friendly Grays (Eschrichtius robustus) or giant Blues (Megaptera novaeangliae), take the lead on things as they leap forward into conscious self-awareness—though maybe they’re already there, aware of themselves, aware of us as they patiently wait in deep ocean waters for the handoff, so to speak, from Homo sapiens when we crash and burn and go down the tube, nuclear Armageddon or the climate crisis being the top two contenders that may bring about our demise. (There are more waiting in the wings, of course). 

👉Thus, we race desperately forward to our imagined future, not heeding the looming consequences stemming from our actions, both past and present that doggedly follow us. We will need to endure those consequences, to reap what we have sown, and pay our debts in the decades ahead, debts to the world we share with so many living beings (plant and animal alike). We must pay our debts to fellow humans we have abused, past and present. We must pay our debts to the environment, to our world and to Gaia, and those debts must be paid in full. 

  

Cheers, Jake. _______________________________________ 

 

* “The Bretton Woods Agreement was a 1944 pact that set up a new global system of fixed exchange rates tied to the U.S. dollar and gold.” (Investopia) Bretton Woods is in the state of New Hampshire.

 

1. One example being the United States using “sanctions” which are illegal under international law because they have been imposed unilaterally by the United States and not approved by the United Nations or other international regulatory bodies. 

👉Currently, some thirty countries are under sanctions of one sort or another imposed on them by the US. Four billion to five billion people are under US sanctions which is an extraordinary number and a symptom of American hubris and its blind faith belief that America is a benign actor in its role as “global hegemon”, a role that was activated in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed and the “Cold War” ended with America emerging as the world’s sole “superpower”. Today, that role is being challenged by an increasing number of countries that turn their backs on the US dollar and the heavy hand of the United States that imposes its order as ‘top dog’ in the world, sanctions that primarily benefit rich oligarchs at the expense of the rest of us. Nice.

 

AT THE CLINIC WITH A JOB TO DO

(Gratuitous sexual humour. Enjoy.😏) 

 

 

 

QUOTES: H.P. LOVECRAFT

  

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”

(1890-1937) 

 

RANT: IN THE WEEDS WITHOUT A PADDLE

THE AMERICAN NOVELIST, Mark Twain, is said to have quipped: “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” As a nonplayer, I’d have to agree, but there are millions of diehard devotees who take to the links at every opportunity. And chief among them is America’s spunky, octogenarian president, Donald J. Trump. Recently at his Bedminister, New Jersey golf club, President Trump was accompanied by a short-range air defence system, the “U.S. Army AN/TWQ-1 Avenger”. Props to the Prez for his ability to concentrate on his game; it’s not just anyone who can ignore a four-ton Humvee-mounted mobile missile launcher following him around the golf course! All that firepower must give him peace of mind. No Russian drones or Iranian missiles to worry about or interrupt the Leader of the Free World as he rounds the final dogleg and heads to the clubhouse for cheeseburgers and Cokes.

 

👉Couple of things: I grok the need for security; politicians are constantly in the public's eye, with a percentage ending up painted with the bull’s eye of would be assassins of one sort or another. But carting around a missile launcher? YGTBK! If you’re that worried about being clobbered by a drone, perhaps you should take up an indoor sport, ping-pong or something. Also, the Bedminister club must spend a fortune repairing the turf and putting greens the Humvee’s tires chew up. Ouch! 

👉Another thing: would you feel like sharing a golfcart with The Donald under the circumstances?

“Come on, boys, hop on! Let’s head to the clubhouse.”

“No, thanks, Mister President,you go ahead. We’ll catch the next one.”

 

CHEERS, JAKE.  _____________________________________

 

*  For further evidence the American president is a class act, recall the NATO meeting last month in Ankara, Türkiye, after which Trump was to board Air Force One to return to Washington. Apparently, Israel's spy agency, Mossad, warned Trump’s team there would be an assassination attempt as the plane lifted off the runway. The president and the Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, were spirited away to a waiting military aircraft inside a catering truck. Turns out there was no plot to shoot down the president’s plane; Mossad probably wanted to keep Trump paranoid and grateful to Israel. Trump’s plane took off as schedule, only the president wasn’t onboard. 

👉Problem is: there were about 150 staff, crew and reporters who returned to the U.S. on Air Force One, with no one the wiser the president wasn't on board. In essence, the plane was a decoy disguising Trump's and Hegseth's changed travel plans. Air Force One was a decoy and so were its passengers and crew. One of Trump’s team, White House spox, Karoline Leavitt, was so pissed she got left behind by the MAGA king, she resigned.

👉Alternate plans could have (and should have) been arranged for those left behind, but I guess they were expendable. (Nice.)  

 

  

RANT: A BILL BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STILL REEK TO HIGH HEAVEN

 

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (ret.) is a Viet Nam War vet. He was chief of staff to the American Sec of State Colin Powell in the early 2000s and has for years taught Government and Public Policy at the venerable College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Recently, he was interviewed by Glen Diesen on his go-to eponymously-named podcast where the Colonel expressed concern over a piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that is currently winding its way through congress. The grossly inflated military budget bill (nearly $1.15-trillion!) for fiscal year 2027 comes with additional provisions 

 

“…labeled Section 219 or Section 224 in respective drafts, that seek to structurally integrate the U.S. and Israeli defense industrial bases and shift the bilateral relationship from traditional direct military aid to joint co-development and co-production.” (Bloomsbury Intelligence)

 

👉WILKERSON calls the provisions anathema for those who would preserve the sovereignty of the United States and keep its national interests at the forefront of policy-making and legislative initiatives. In effect, NDAA provisions such as the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative*  allows for “bilateral research, development, and co-production of military equipment, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems”. In other words, Israel will have access to new weapons technologies as if it were part of the U.S. government and it would have a say about where and how new weapons should be produced and distributed.¹ It works both ways, of course, but clearly Israel would be the main beneficiary if the NDAA bill is ratified by the Senate.

👉It’s no coincidence that Israeli PM Netanyahu quipped some days after the Bill was before the House of Representatives that Israel wouldn’t need the $3 billion it receives annually from the U.S. in cash and war materiel if the Bill passes in the Senate. Ever-the-expert in three-card monte, Netanyahu neglects to inform the American public that this Bill simply hides the aid money and weapons transfer to Israel within opaque War Department budgetary statistics.² Essentially, the NDAA makes Israel part of the U.S. government in ways those pesky Russkies or inscrutable Chinese can only dream of!³  

 

👉While Israel has become, arguably, the most loathed country on the planet—a rogue, apartheid and genocidal nation whose security is ensured by making its neighbours insecure with all its warmaking—you would think the U.S. would want to take a step or two back from its unwavering support of the place. This NDAA bill, if it becomes law, will make separating American national interests from Israel's more difficult and will further erode American sovereignty, along with adding another layer of opacity between the government and the people it purports to serve.😕   

 

CHEERS, JAKE. _____________________________________

 

* Same goes for provisions labelled: “Missile Defense”; “Counter-Unmanned Systems”; “Subterranean Operations”; “Emerging Technologies” and “Intelligence Sharing”.    

1. The proposed budget of the Department of War for fy2027 includes additional expenditures totalling an eye-watering $1.5trillion!

2. Note: Since 2018, when annual audits of federal government departments became mandatory, the War Department has failed every single attempt to account for the money it is given by U.S. taxpayers. Round and round she goes! Where the money stops, nobody knows!

3. Trump’s slavish backstopping of Israel’s military adventures in the Levant to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, and his supine acquiescence for its genocidal actions in Gaza and assorted war crimes in Palestine and elsewhere that clearly do not benefit the United States in the court of world opinion, is puzzling. Along with billions spent defending Israeli interests, to the detriment of America’s own, Trump has opened the proverbial can of worms in his standoff with Iran—a war done at the behest of Israel. With such misadventures in West Asia and elsewhere during the Trump administration, the ‘glow’ is definitely gone from the nation that once saw itself as that “shining city on the hill” and a model for countries everywhere to emulate.

👉The issue of Trump’s kowtowing at every turn to Israel’s Netanyahu may come down to ‘kompromat’ stemming from Trump’s association with Jeffry Epstein. [We’ll only have to wait 60-80 years for those files to be released! Ed.]

 

 

 

 

AND I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD A PALE HORSE....

  

I GUESS WE SHOULD TALK about Gaza because it hasn’t gone away. Neither have its almost two-million Palestinian residents, who live in squalor amid the ruin of their homeland. Since October of last year, a ‘ceasefire’ has been in place between Israel and the Hamas resistance forces. Brokered through President Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” with Egyptian and Qatari mediation, and the United Nations Security Council’s backing, the number of attacks by the IDF tapered off considerably. But they didn’t stop. Near-daily violations of the ceasefire have occurred as Israeli air and ground forces shamelessly bomb and raid Gazan tent encampments ostensivley striking "military targets". Since the ceasefire, over 1,260 Palestinians have been killed and 4,150 injured in the attacks. The terms of the ceasefire calls for Hamas to disarm, beginning with their heavy weapons, in conjunction with an IDF withdrawal from Palestinian territory. As usual, Israel moved the goal posts, demanding Hamas fully disarm before any of its troops are removed.

 

THE SHINE on the deal faded soon enough as Israel continues to squeeze Palestinians into barely one-third of their original homeland, first by setting up a ‘security perimeter’, the infamous "Yellow Line" around Gaza beyond which Palestinians could not cross, and along which dozens of Gazans have been murdered by IDF gunfire because they were "too close" to the perimeter. This was followed by the “orange line” which further tightened the noose, taking almost 70% of the enclave. In recent weeks, Israeli Defence Minister, Israeli Katz, has stated the IDF will remain* and that Israeli settlements are planned for northern Gaza where, worryingly, there is less scrutiny and more difficulty bringing in humanitarian aid. SINCE the February 28 assault on Iran by Israel-U.S., Gaza has slipped from the headlines. But a recent UN report states:

 

“Continued Israeli military operations, new displacement and deteriorating access further limited humanitarian assistance and heightened protection concerns across Gaza, according to the latest updates from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.” (July 21)

 

WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services have been drastically disabled because of Israel’s deliberate targeting of such support facilities with the inevitable increase in vermin [That be rats. Ed] and communicable diseases.

 

“WASH services in the Gaza Strip face a catastrophic collapse, with roughly 1.8 million people requiring urgent humanitarian assistance. Over 70% of families cannot access the emergency minimum of 6 liters of water per person daily, driving severe public health crises.” (UNICEF)

 

WITH INADEQUATE HUMANITARIAN AID reaching the captive population of Gaza due to deliberate bureaucratic obstacles put in the way of establishing robust and sustainable aid delivery networks, Gaza continues to be strangled, this time, by red tape, and hunger, disease and despair are used to achieve the aims of a racist, apartheid state bent on emptying Palestine of Palestinians. 

Don’t forget the West Bank and East Jerusalem have seen escalating settler violence against Palestinian farmers and villagers. One incident this week, where a Palestinian family was barricaded in their home while dozens of settlers cut off their electricity and water, was so egregious and criminal that the IDF had to intercede, using force to arrest several of the rioters. Normally, the Israeli military are ‘Johnny-come-latelys’ to such situations, rarely making arrests of Jewish settlers. So, we can expect more violence as Israel continues to annex Palestinian lands with its ultimate goal being the exodus of millions of Palestinians currently from the West Bank, along with those in Gaza and East Jerusalem. 

 

The bleak choice between dying slowly or ‘voluntarily migrating' [Where? Ed.] seems to be the only options available for Gaza’s nearly two-million souls.

 

THE WORLD continues to watch Gaza, albeit distracted by war in Ukraine, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other hot spots that occupy much of the news media’s bandwidth. The world watches and for the most part shrugs its shoulders as our brave new century’s Levantine genocide continues to attrit the enclave's population, and appears ready to pick up the pace. Stay tuned.  

  

CHEERS, JAKE. _____________________________________

* as well as in Lebanon and Syria. 

RANT: AUGUST 6, 1945

 

YESTERDAY, AUGUST 6, was the 81^st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. August 9 will be the 81^st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Both cities received widespread destruction with total deaths estimated at around 210,000 civilians.* The Hiroshima bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy”, used Uranium-235 as its explosive core, while the Nagasaki bomb used Plutonium-239, with yields of 15 kilotons of TNT and 21 kilotons of TNT¹ respectively.

  

THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW are of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the days after the bombings. One should note that while the Nagasaki bomb was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, the damage to the city was less and the death toll lower. This is because the bomb was dropped slightly off target, whereas the earlier Hiroshima bomb was dropped on the city centre, not far from city hall, where the building’s skeletal remains at ground zero can be seen in the distance on the left bank of the Ota River. Hiroshima is on a flat river plain where there are few natural obstacles to deflect the blast and fire. The city of Nagasaki, by contrast, sits in “an amphitheater of steep coastal slopes and peaks”, which absorbed and deflected some of the 21 kT blast. Both cities were destroyed and tens of thousands died in an instant with many more succuming to injuries and radiation poisoning in the days, weeks and months after the bombs fell. 

 

HIROSHIMA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAGASAKI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

THE DRAWING BELOW is from the book Unforgettable Fire—Pictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb Survivors, published by Pantheon Books, 1977. 

 

"The girl was injured on the chest and covered with blood. She had no shoes on her feet. Still able to think clearly she avoided the many splintered things on the road and trudged towards her home where her family was waiting for her.

Passing through Matoba section, the girl and I came to the area called Kojin-machi Akebono-cho. On both sides of the road there were temples. Everywhere was a sea of fire. No road was open for us anymore except for a narrow path and that was barely passable. The clothes which we earlier had dipped in water had already dried so much that they were almost to the point of burning. There was no time to lose. We dipped our clothes in the water that was stored in an air-raid shelter and dashed through the fires desperately.

‘Awfully hot! Is this the end of my life?...Oh God!...Help me!’ I murmured and prayed.

When we managed to come to a safer place, we looked back at the path we had dashed through. It was the most frightful scene I had ever witnessed in my life. Yet even at this safer place, I found many dead bodies lying in the air-raid shelter, under fallen trees, and everywhere. When we final arrived at the girl’s home at Nakayama section, the darkness of the summer’s night was already falling upon us.”

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________

 

* Figures include immediate deaths from the explosions and those later succumbing to radiation burns and radiation sickness by the end of 1945.

 

1. “TNT” stands for “trinitrotoluene”, a compound that has a chemical “punch” less than dynamite but is more stable with a longer burn rate, making it useful as a propellant in firearms, bombs and artillery shells. Dynamite’s higher shattering effect (“brisance”) and shorter burn rate is aided by the addition of nitroglycerin, a relatively unstable substance, which gives dynamite a “higher detonation velocity, a sharper shattering effect, and more chemical energy per kilogram than TNT.” Dynamite is a “high explosive” useful in mining, excavation, and blowing shit up.

TNT is used as the “benchmark” from which to gauge the relative power of various explosives including nuclear weapons. For comparison, the explosive potential of today’s nuclear weapons are orders of magnitude greater than those early bombs at the end of WWII. For example, 1 megaton=1000 kilotons=1,000,000 tons. Recall that the Hiroshima detonation was roughly 15 kilotons or 15,000 tons of TNT. Just a burp by today’s standards!

 

👉The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated was in 1961 over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in Russia’s far north. Dropped from a high-altitude bomber, the explosion registered as 50 megatons or 50,000,000 tons of TNT. The Nagasaki bomb (“Fat Man”) yielded 21 kilotons or 21,000 tons of TNT.

 

💥DID YOU KNOW that a Plutonium-239 sister to the Nagasaki bomb, was the one they tested at the Alamogordo (nicknamed "Trinity") test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945? The bomb's builders didn't bother testing a Uranium-235 bomb because they knew it would work with its relatively simple firing mechanism. The bomb with the Plutonium core was triggered by explosive charges surrounding it, forcing the core to implode and in doing so releasing a tremendous burst of light, heat and blast. The scientists at the Trinity test site weren't sure if it would work. But it did. And here we are.💥

 

👉WE CAN REST EASY, HOWEVER, with the assurance that modern nuclear arsenals rarely keep in stock warheads with over one or two megatons of explosive power (something about overkill, I should think). And, should anyone want to get an understanding of what it would be like to live in a city when a 1 Mt nuclear device is detonated they should read Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War. [A word of caution for those who like to read in bed: Be prepared or you’ll shit the sheets for sure! Ed.]