If it’s America… Again, the following:

• target practice

• cheap / unpaid labor

• scapegoating

• entertainment

• political wedge issue

• cannon fodder

• general purpose exploitation

• status symbols

• enemy images

That explosion may have caused hundreds of dollars worth of damage.

The damage to the reputation, the prestige, and the gold-plated hubris of “the greatest nation on Earth ever and for all time” is what’s at stake.

Fortunately, disaster capitalism will generate at least fourteen jobs, resulting in the fortification of this embassy — and all other embassies — at exorbitant cost. The US defense budget will far exceed the $1.5T requested for 2027.

Screw diplomacy, forget peace, pursue power.

At all costs. Until Empire falls.

I’ve never seen Letterkenny. And yet, “Letterkenny cold open” yielded this with the second click.

The only associations I can manage are the following:

1. Canadian.

2. Taught alliteration at school.

3. Friends and family from far down East.

4. The original Alphabet Aerobics, by Blackalicious in 1999 is a fave track of mine.

I guess, in text, I flex the gift of gab.

Not always well.

Riiight.

Attritable, armed aircraft. Add AI autonomy, an authoritarian asshole, and an aggressive alignment — all, appropriately, approaches an ashen Apocalypse.

See, in Seoul, to my eyes, drivers aren’t day-labourers, office workers, company people, or students. They are business developers, cab and bus drivers, delivery agents and the most affluent.

In a city of 45 million, car ownership is very, very low. Parking is very difficult to find — or own as city units must separately rent, lease, buy, or borrow a parking spot for a car.

If any large East Asian city could successfully ration gasoline, its Seoul. Public transportation is efficient and inexpensive. People remember the war and hardship. People respect tradition, unity in struggle, and are willing to fight together.

That’s the Seoul I remember anyway.

They imprisoned their Insurrectionist former President.

For life.

Six-hundred twenty-three days later.

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

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.

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

AI can read the Doomsday Clock.

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.

They did get me. I got away. But, it was my own kids.

CIA. Recruiting my own kids against me.

Always has been.

“Canadians say U.S. … is bigger threat [to us] than Russia”

World’s longest undefended border may have something to do with that.

Note: ask any country in Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Africa, or the Arabian/Persian Gulf who is a bigger threat, you’ll get the same answer. Some might say China is forgotten from the list.

Canadians are breaking through the propaganda, finally. Contra-American sentiment or a political anti-American stance has probably not been this rooted since 1812.

Russia threatens European power. U.S. threatens the Western Hemisphere and

Seven Seconds by Youssou N’dour and Neneh Cherry (French and English)

• this was my first foray into “world music” in, like Grade 7.

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.

The Roots (first four albums especially)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor / A Sliver Mt. Zion

Portishead, Massive Attack

Public Enemy