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 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.] 

 

 

    

 

RANT: STRAITEN UP AND FLY RIGHT, AMERICA!

   

Hotel Burgenstock Luceren, Switzerland

YOU KNOW HOW IT IS when you think—watching Trump’s clown car of state beetling off a cliff—you say, heck, I could run the U.S. better than the incompetent current occupant of the White House. In fact, I offer my services—free of charge—to our great neighbour to the south, hoping my lack of citizenship and experience managing anything larger than my pocketbook will be overlooked. So, we’ll see how that goes.

BUT ON AN EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS NOTE, President Trump has once more claimed a peace deal with Iran is imminent, with just some final touches to be ironed out. Great! The price of oil falls and the stock market rises with news of an end to hostilities and a promised return to business as usual. Again. Dear reader, if Trump’s latest pronouncement gives you whiplash and a case of déjà vu, join the crowd. We’ve heard all this from the American president before, thirty-eight times before, as a matter of fact, since the Iran war reignited on February 28, this year. Only scammers and leeches on Wall Street pay any attention to The Donald’s divinations; they know it’s a con and they do their damndest to profit from the presidential pearls of wisdom as they ride to riches on the stock market’s up and down fluctuations. Moneymoneymoney! Most normal people ignore Trumpian proclamations like elevator music or those squeegee-wielding pedlars patrolling our summertime crosswalks and stoplights.

👉BUT what a difference these last few days make! Peace talks in Islamabad between the Americans and Iranians have borne fruit with the June 17 signing of an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) initiating the start of peace talks to resolve the American/Israeli-Iranian War. We must remember that an MoU is not a treaty, nor is it a ceasefire. It is a diplomatic note allowing a respite from attacks by either side for a sixty-day period while the hard work of finalizing a “deal” the Americans can live with, without having to eat too much crow, and one that the Iranians can trust. Not an easy bridge to build, I must say.

There are fourteen points to the document, with particularly thorny issues to be resolved that include the closing American bases in the Gulf states fronting Iran across the Persian Gulf (most were evacuated and subsequently destroyed by Iranian missiles in the early weeks of the war following the February 28 launch of hostilities by U.S. and Israeli forces). There are negotiations around compensation to Iran for damages it incurred during the 110 days of the conflict as well as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. Iran will end its blockade* in tandem with America removing its blockade of Iranian shipping. Point One of the MoU is the most difficult needle to thread, namely Iran’s insistence that cessation of hostilities "on all fronts” including Lebanon.

RECALL that Israel has been waging an illegal war of aggression against Hezbollah, the chief militia in Lebanon challenging Israeli aggression that seeks to absorb about one-fifth of the country into “Greater Israel”. Hezbollah acts to defend Lebanese territory because the Lebanese army and government have been mostly neutered by Israel and the United States. Hezbollah is an Iranian ally and the MoU, signed “remotely” on Wednesday by the American and Iranian presidents, stipulates Israel must cease and desist and withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. President Trump had digitally inked his approval (pending final negotiations) that is diametrically opposed by Israel that wishes to continue its conquest of southern Lebanon unabated. Iran has stated continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah means the slow-walk of peace talks convening in Switzerland and the closing of the Straits of Hormuz.¹  

Israel does not want there to be a successful treaty ending hostilities between the United States and Iran, that much is obvious by Friday’s bombing of Lebanon which claimed almost thirty lives. Israel will do its best to wreck the talks and force the Americans to restart the war. I was surprised by the welcome news of serious negotiations (the U.S. State Department has sent 300 diplomats, intelligence officials, and technical experts to talks scheduled to begin on Friday.² Iran will send seventy. Point being, that all the necessary personnel will be available to craft the MoU’s goals into a working treaty. Vice President Vance will head up the American delegation.

👉Trump, for his part, must put pressure on the Netanyahu government to stand down. We’ll see who blinks first in their pissing contest. If Trump does not get a deal and the Straits remain hopelessly choked off, Americans will see dramatic price rises in gasoline and other goods. The pain caused by a shuttered Hormuz Strait will trigger a global recession, possibly even a depression along the lines of the one experienced during the 1930s. Will Trump grow a pair and use the very real influence he has over Israel—withholding financial, military and diplomatic supports without which Israel could not conduct its wars of aggression—and curb the pariah state’s  military adventures in the Levant? Israel is the wild card in all this. Note that the MoU is between the United States and Iran. Not Israel. There is some suggestion that Netanyahu was caught flat-footed by the MoU’s fourteen-point proposed treaty plan and Trump signing off on it. Thus far Israel does not seem inclined to stop its aggression in Lebanon and elsewhere. But, we’ll see what the next few days will bring.

 

THIS IS INTERESTING: Recall two, three months ago the major talking points of mainstream pundits and from the Trump administration was of Iran signing onto a new nuclear deal, giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium and cancelling its nuclear programs, both civilian and military. Or else! Next in line was limits on Iran’s missile holdings. They must comply! Lots of strum und drang around these two.  Now, the focus is on reopening the Straits of Hormuz and getting oil and other commodities to market a.s.a.p. Because of its blockade, Iran has found the leverage to take the Americans down a peg or two and compel the superpower to reach a negotiated settlement, one that Iran can live with. Seemingly, Iran’s blockade of the Straits, with its global ramifications looming ever-larger “concentrates the mind” of the American president, “wonderfully.”     

👉ON Thursday, complying with the MoU, the American blockade of Iranian shipping was lifted.

👉ON Friday Iran announced it would lift fees for ships passing through the Straits for the duration of the 60-day negotiation cycle which was due to start on Friday.³

  

👉[UPDATE: As of this writing the initial meeting between American and Iranian delegates has taken place on Sunday in Lucerne, Switzerland. The American delegation was headed by VP Vance, but for some reason the dynamic duo of Kushner and Witkoff were included as part of the U.S. team. These two bozos have failed at every diplomatic mission they've been on, and the Iranians don't trust them; recall last June how the "Twelve Day War" was launched just as peace negotiations with Witkoff and Kushner were taking place in a transparent bid to 'sucker punch' the Iranians. 

ADDITIONALLY, there is some confusion as to whether the Hormuz Strait is open or not. They were closed, apparently by Iran, as a consequence of Israel's continuing bombardments in Lebanon. Will Israeli war-making scuttle the talks? After all, Iran has demanded Israel cease and desist it's aggressions against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia as well as against the Iranian homeland. Of course, Trump tweets his usual threats, blahblahblah, so we'll wait and see if round two of the talks will continue as scheduled.]

  

👉IT'S not yet time for popping champagne corks, not by a long shot. Let’s hope all this dancing around the negotiating table is just political jitters and doesn’t turn into a zero-sum game of musical chairs. Buckle the fuck up, people!

 

 

FROM THE FILES OF "CARNIVAL TIMES"--

THE EVER-P0PULAR COLUMN “I DON’T BELIEVE

WHAT I JUST READ!”👇

 

HERE’S SOMETHING that should give all of us pause: Recent statements by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:

“With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn,” he wrote.

“Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration,” he added.

Ben-Gvir noted he had conveyed his position directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep.”

Calling for a harsher attack, he added that in the Middle East it was necessary to “go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.”

Another extremist minister, Bezalel Smotrich, wrote on X, “A tough morning... Time to speak with fire. To open the gates of hell.”

 

THE TWO ARE MEMBERS of the Israeli government. Their language is beyond the pale of reasoned, political discourse and is immersed in the language, tropes and emotionalism of fascism. One could easily imagine such words atop the gates at Auschwitz. They are part of the Israeli cabinet which leads a government whose military possesses nuclear weapons. With such statesmen at the helm, what could possibly go wrong?

 

CHEERS, JAKE. __________________________ 

* THERE ARE numerous states that have already negotiated (i.e. paid Iran toll fees to use the Strait; still, there is a major backlog of ships yet to transit the vital chokepoint.

1. Point One of the MoU presumes America will curb its ‘attack dog’ in West Asia (Middle East) and bring Israel to heel. It remains to be seen whether Trump has the cojones to stand up to Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby in the United States (and perhaps the threat of incriminating Epstein files being released which may be in the possession of Israel’s Mossad or deep state operators in the U.S.).

2. I told you so, I told you so… The Swiss talks have been postponed ostensively due to scheduling issues with VP Vance but more likely because of Israel’s continued bombing of southern Lebanon after Wednesday’s digital inking of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by President Trump and Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Netanyahu, for his part, refuses to pull his troops out of Lebanon and vows to continue what critics are calling his ‘Gazafication’ of Lebanese villages south of the Litani River. Iran postponed sending its delegation to Switzerland, likely in response to the on-going aggression perpetuated by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force).  As stated in the above👆 UPDATE, the opening session of peace talks in Switzerland were held on Sunday.       

3. Personally, I think Iran is lifting its foot off the American neck prematurely. A growing oil-shortage crisis that will become obvious even to the most oblivious Western government, including the United States, will be hitting hard this fall. NatGas shortages, high prices at the pump, lower farm yields (from a lack of fossil fuel feedstocks for fertilizers and pesticides), issues with computer chip manufacturing because of a lack of Persian Gulf helium (Helium!? Who knew?) along with global manufacturing, shipping, and supply chains that will all be affected by the outcome of the Swiss talks. The looming crises may encourage the American president to make a deal with Iran, pronto. How long the talks will take, is anyone’s guess. 

 

 

 

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

  

 

FROM THE VAULT:

File: xxx-xxxx-xx-x. 26/09/25

MI-6/Mossad cranial dialogue intercept 

during United Nations General Assembly 

Opening Sessions. 

22 September 2025. New York. 

Utilizing MK-ULTRA INTRA-CRANIAL BRAINSPY^© 

SOFTWARE. TOP SECRET >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

TARGETS:

 

—Ahmed al-Sharr: (a.k.a. Abu Mohammad al-Julani; a.k.a. “Head-chopper”) Member of Isis. Spent five years in Iraqi prison on terrorism charges. Moved to Syria and was the founding member of al-Nustra Front in early 2010s. Broke away from al-Nustra in 2016 to start his own terrorist group, “Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)” in Syria, in opposition to the Assad government. Became president of Syria in 2025. (Ahmed)

 

—David Petraeus: served 37-years in U.S. army. Served in Iraq and oversaw “The Surge” operation, 2003-2005; Commander of Central Command (“Centcom”) in Afghanistan; Commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, 2008-10; Dir. of CIA, 2011-12; resigned due to extra-marital affair posing a potential security risk; retired as four-star general. Partner in KKR, a global investment firm since 2013. (Dave)

 

Dave: Wow! Meeting Ahmed, again. After all these years. I wonder if he remembers me? My boys caught him and put him away for five years. Nothing I could do about that. I hope he’s not still angry at me. Man! President Trump was right. He’s grown up into an 'attractive, tough guy'. A real raghead to riches story. Gawd! I can smell his man musk from here. Can’t let that distract me. Focus, Dave! Ask him a question so you don’t look like a star-struck schoolgirl. Take charge. You were a general in the United States Army, damn it! Ask him. Anything! “Ah, Ahmed. I should say, ‘Mister President’. Ha-Ha! You fought… ahem, for the most part, on the right side... [Polite laughter from audience] for some years. Most recently, you’ve joined forces with other militias in Syria, along with assistance from Türkiye. Even Israel helped. Then you defeated Bashir Assad’s criminal regime in what seemed like an afternoon. The dictator’s army collapsed like a wet tent when fronted by your forces. How does it feel to go from being a terrorist with a ten-million dollar bounty on your head to become Syria’s president in so short a time?”

Ahmed: Kaffir! Infidel! Betraeus. Look at him—a bowl of decrepitude. He comes sniffing around me like a dog in heat. Pah! I could gut him in an instant and lop off his tiny head like a skin tag! Where is the brave general now? He comes to me. Me! He ask me questions, and I answer. We sit, have polite talk. Yada-yada-yada. The audience—unbelievers all. I curse them! They clap hands when the studio light goes on like trained seals in circus. These Americans! Dogs barking in a kennel, unaware they will soon be put down. “Well, Davidz. I call you dis, okay? Dave, is like dis: You know toy the childs call ‘kaleid-o-scopes’, yes?”

Dave: “I think so. Go on.”

Ahmed: “You look insides and turn dial. Bits of coloured glass spin rounds. Is pretty. But, David, you never get big picture, just bits of coloured glass spinning in tube. Is like dat. Are you understand what I means?”

Dave: “I think so, Ahmed. You’re saying the only way you can get any perspective in life, is if you look outside the tube, from ‘the earth to the sky’ as they say in the Holy Book. But, what did you see when you look..looked up from the tube, beyond the tumbling, coloured glass?”  Gawd! My nutts are tighter than Scrooge at Christmas! Why does he have such an effect on me? After all this time. I thought I would be in charge. Me! But it’s him. I feel lost. Out of my depth.

Ahmed: His haunches are like third wife Asheedora—smooth, silky. He has hair in strange places, but not hairball like Ashee’s vale of paradise, thank the Prophet! He has  a mole on hip that look like blessed teta's [grandmother] face. His flanks are flabby. He has gut. Ha! Don't we all! His breath bad. He smell old. He old man. His thighs remind me of second wife, Frasha. Stringy. Both are weak. Frail. Like kittens kicked to curb. He need thrashing like I give First Wife Alorah. She is a trial. A pox on my house! Such a tongue on her! I should cut it out. Someday, I strap martyr pack on her. Then who boss, eh? God willing.

Dave: “Ahmed, what do you see when you look outside your tube? Where has his mind gone to. He seems miles away. Does he remember our time together all those years ago? He looks at me, his eyes wide. So deep! I feel like I’m falling again… for him. Again…

Ahmed: “Ha!” What I see? I see is great general spread-eagle on bed, beggings me to mount him like dirty sheep Yousef and me use to ride in Tal’at Musa foothills as childs. I make him scream like cat in alleyways. “GeneraI Betraeus, I see my Syria strong and free, and democratics beacon of light for all Middle East.” He like such talk. They all do. Infidels! Audience clap-clap. What dey nos about anytings?

Dave: I can’t stand this! My little soldier is so hard I could split my pants. I pray the studio lights go out before I have to stand up. I’ll write him a note. Give him my phone number. Maybe we could go for a non-alcoholic drink? Share old times. What’s wrong with that. I know what he’s like, what he’s done. It doesn’t matter. He’s changed. We both have. Life is too short, too precious to waste. I know he feels the same. “That’s admirable, Ahmed…truly wonderful, I….” [General Petraeus stops talking, utters a guttural cry before collapsing on the floor in a series of spasms. END OF TRANSCRIPT😀

 

 Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________