Been a student. Been a clerk. Been a salesperson. Been a manager. Been a teacher. Been an expatriate. Am a husband, father, and chronicle.
It is the kind of work environment that attracts people just itching to use the terms “war”, “woke”, and “pansies” in the same sentence.
Not saying anything about you, in particular. Just identifying the accuracy of your characterization.
I think those who want to be part of a professional military are not primarily interested in the use of force, wars of choice, or projecting power. They are interested in deterrence, discipline, and a duty to protect.
I’ll not give a source, but on good authority, they’re very fed up with the very stupid approach of this administration. They refuse to call it, “the Department of War.”
In the same conversation, my source said that they were happy in 2021 because, “the adults were back in charge.”
Not stated above. Iran has spent the time between 1979 and 2026 building social, military, and political infrastructure to ensure that a decapitation strike, like the one carried out on 28 February, would not destabilize the country or even upset the leadership system of the state. If anything, US didn’t account for the galvanizing force of being attacked.
Iran has exercised leverage for decades. Funding.and arming Hamas and Hezbollah to wage proxy war against US ally Israel and forestall the ambition of regional nemesis Saudi Arabia. Iran held off US-backed Iraq in war, at great cost, for 8 long years. Iran sells their oil to their allies, defends their territory effectively, and suppresses popular uprisings within. Iran may not be a global power, but it is certainly a regional one.
Control of the Strait does not make for a happy global community. Controlling the Strait is expensive. Better to wield the threat of its closure and extract concessions or support from other nations. Its cheaper, more neighbourly, and keeps up appearances. “Exercising” leverage by closing the Strait, from either side and for however long, just makes things worse for everyone. Speak softly and carry a big stick. Not, “lookit my big stick! I’ll hit you!”
What Iran seeks to gain with control of the Strait is recognition of their regional power, an end to hostilities, and a return to a status quo that existed before the Red Hats had their day. It has cost them dearly. However, within living memory, war against Saddam Hussein cost between 200K and 500K lives.
Control of the Strait turns the world against the Red Hats. Hopefully, it turns Americans as well.
Saved! was the first film of hers that I saw after Donnie Darko. It’s a good one. Mandy Moore as the “holier than thou” mean girl was excellent. The film deals with teen pregnancy differently than most. Not as heartwarming as Juno. Pairs well with the documentary film Jesus Camp.
You cam read more about this, and very accessibly, in Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. The shape of “the upside-down” world of “alternative facts” and “post-truth” advocates goes a long way toward explaining why people on opposite sides of this divide have literally different realities.
I also recommend The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. Though dated, it was published in 2007, its merits outweigh its quaint picture of the scale of corruption, ignorance, and deception we now experience.
Quoting J-Live, “World’s Apart”
Verse 2
They say the old world brought up a new world order
And ran up in the third world and divvied up borders
Tribes were divided by countries that were thought up
Economically held back and never caught up
Power corrupts and the oppressed get slaughtered
Mothers and fathers’ll lose sons and daughters
Brothers and sisters denied human rights
And can’t even guarentee themselves clean drinking water
First world speaker, second world spoken to
Third world who they conversatin’ about
Hardly even got a voice in the conversation
So the words fall on deaf ears and get drowned out
But uh, speaking as the first person, I can’t take it
Speaking to the second person, you on some snake shit
Speaking for the third person, they ain’t gon’ make it
But who are we to talk 'cause it’s really our fault
They say the opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy
So lack of self-love ain’t self-hate, it’s apathy
We so desensitized by travesty and tragedy
How we supposed to realize humanity’s majesty
Accessed via Genius.com
The Newsroom - this clip, from the pilot, you’ve probably seen.
Deep dives into 21st century US History, as it happened in real time. Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) style. Remixed with melodrama about the people within the Newsroom. Sloan Sabbith is my favourite.
Topics include:
Deepwater Horizon
SB 1070 (Arizona’s racist detention law)
the Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Arab Spring
Citizens United ruling
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident
the Death of Osama bin Laden
Glass-Steagall Act (this video threads a few scenes together)
the Tea Party (described as the American Taliban) - significant because The Tea Party is antecedent to MAGA
Occupy Wall Street
The Boston Marathon bombing
Climate Polycrisis (chef’s kiss)
Edward Snowden leaks
This is most my contact with others who read what I read and write what I write or think about what I think about. And, I vent here. Sure. I’ll admit it.
The North American town I now live in is decidedly not like me. I work with youth. I parent young children. 21st century parents, and those who marry into my partners social orbit, need to book engagements five months to a year in advance.
So, this is just easier.
Also: Fuck Reddit. Fuck Xitter. Fuck Meta. That’s the venting. I quit, gave up, or got hacked on all of them. Admittedly, I use WhatsApp to appease my extended family, workplace, and some friends. I’d dip back to T9 SMS if I could.
And I use Bluesky to microblog — keeping a timeline of the tragicomic decline and fall of the Western empire. And books.
Looking for the alternate name for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (the Gate of Grief), sent me looking for other strategic “choke” points.
Aljazeera came through with the first one that was descriptive and visually informative, though they skipped the Strait of Magellan, probably because it’s not a shipping lane for oil. Published this year.
Follow this with Best in Show.
Please watch all of Brad Bird’s writer-credit movies. All are fun. Only Tomorrowland is… odd.
Genetic-level diagnoses and treatments.
Inexpensive, rapid genome sequencing.
Commonplace genetic counselling for more than just pregnancy.
Laws in place to govern the collection, use, ownership, and patenting of human genes and genetic information.
Cloned tissues (i.e. blood, skin), organs (i.e. heart, lungs, kidneys) for transplant or repair.
I graduated university the same year the Human Genome Project first published completion. Certainly, that project uncovered more questions than answers.
Also, we’ve done an absolutely garbage job of becoming appropriate stewards of this technology. Primarily, today, it would be used to identify, segregate, subjugate, and eventually kill a portion of the population.
I think there was a POW scene in Magnum P.I. that was a lot for little me. Not sure episode/season.
Honestly, though, coming to the realization at abput 13 that the “General Lee” and the prominent placement for Confederate flags the Dukes of Hazzard represent an American South that promotes white supremacy, Jim Crow laws, and segregation — all antithetical to my BIPOC existence.
The cognitive dissonance involved in the song, pre-programming me to lend them the excuse that they’re “just a good ol’ boys…” — yeah, my parents should’ve known better.
The thoughts I had for Daisy Duke would’ve had me lynched, like Emmitt Till, under that flag. Still might.
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.
Seven Seconds by Youssou N’dour and Neneh Cherry (French and English)
Sadeness by Enigma (Latin and French)
Miserere by Arvo Pärt (Latin)
The Expanse by Clinton Shorter (Old Norse?)
Disappointment by Moon (Russian?)
Also, I lived in Korea when Gangnam Style dropped. It was magical at the outset, but now… well, hyperexposure is a real thing. But, good on Psy for his work.
Ee-ahn’-aw-oh(ng)-oo(ng) for robot to vehicle. And quickly.
I’ve used this so many times. Now I need to employ Wilhoit’s composition as well.
Perhaps both, together.
You make an excellent point.
Perhaps, instead of “celebrating”, the opposite of “[vicious] harassment and [ignorant] hatefulness” is virtuous identification and commitment to learning. Thoughts?
Thumbsucker, 2005 film. Good stuff.