Shares for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have climbed on hopes for an Iran-U.S. ceasefire to be signed by Sunday. Of course, the U.S., Israel, and Iran continue to trade shots and threats as the deadline nears. Does crossing your fingers for luck actually work? (Spoiler alert: No ... no it doesn't.)
Against Hope
While all this news and effort is going toward a ceasefire in the Middle East, Trump tells the nation that he wants to take Iran's Kharg Island oil hub and the U.S. launched
Stormy Weather
My wife and I just drove back from Minnesota this week ... ahead of this news item. The north and midwest and ultimately the northeast are all facing dangerous weather. Winds, storms, tornadoes, hail ... it just goes on and on. (We just missed it by hours as we headed the opposite direction.) Some 40 million are in its path, from Wisconsin to Illinois and Michigan and more to follow. For us, it was clearly "travel mercies."
And We Think Trump is a Problem
Armenian authorities arrested six candidates running for election a day before they were to stand in general elections. They are part of the Strong Armenia party with strong ties to Russia and the claim is they are trying to overthrow the government. The party opposed to this, the Civil Contract party, leads by a substantial margin. (By comparison, we just came through Colorado where it seems as if every candidate is running against Donald Trump, from the governor to the Attorney General to the Senate and House. Amazingly, not one is actually running against Trump, but their advertising says their primary purpose is to defeat him.) Trump is problematic, but a party dedicated to ending the nation is worse, I'd think.
"A Nice Young Man"
Texas teen Karmelo Anthony was convicted of fatally stabbing another teen at a high school track meet in 2025. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. It is, of course, instantly a "racial issue" and the judge who sentenced him called him "a nice young man." Strange way to say he's guilty.
All the Fake News That's Fit to Print
The Bee noted in line with the articles about another ceasefire that Trump has set a new world record by defeating Iran 27 times in one year. Impressive indeed. California just held an election and officials were delighted to report a voter turnout of 250%. Good job, California. And on the Karmelo Anthony story, the Bee reported that the nation was shocked to learn that you can't stab someone in the heart for no reason. With today's standards of morality, I'm surprised myself.
Must be true; I read it on the internet.
Hope Against Hope
ReplyDeleteHoping for an end to hostilities by any day seems like a bad idea. It didn't even come close to the initial six weeks promised. But as they say, risk big, win big, I guess.
Against Hope
It seems odd to me that Trump seems to vacillate between understanding how the Middle East works and then doesn't. We don't even know who he's supposedly talking to since they basically have two governments, the president that only has power through the IRGC giving it to him, and the IRGC. We keep hearing reports of talks being close to done, and the IRGC denies any talks. I see no end to this conflict without a near total destruction of the IRGC. Do that, and maybe the people have a chance to make changes.
Stormy Weather
Glad you made it out of there safely.
And We Think Trump is a Problem
Sadly, there's a fine line between election interference and law enforcement. Of course, there's no law against wanting to fundamentally destroy America from the inside, so any legal action against politicians at all for any reason is difficult.
"A Nice Young Man"
I'm sure he said that simply because he wanted to reduce the death threats against him for the sentencing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of judges doing this to black defendants, buying into the narrative that black people are only like that because of the circumstances of the White Supremacy they have to endure. Too many judges are believing that black men simply aren't responsible for their own actions.
All the Fake News That's For to Print
Sadly, I heard a senator say that the 35 years was aggregious because Karmelo "only stabbed him once". The initial crime doesn't seem to have been about race, but this case has clearly only been about race, and now we have people saying Austin deserved it simply because he was white, and it was a shame that his twin brother want killed as well, and even that there should be legalized killing of white people on specific days.
Stormy Weather
ReplyDeleteYou drove through the middle region of the country in the summertime?! That’s asking for an encounter with a tornado or serious hail storm, for sure. Glad you dodged the storms and were granted safe travels. (Hope my husband and I do so as well when we drive from southeastern PA to Seattle, WA, and back in August--it might entail a lot of dodging! On our last summertime road-trip out west, we were caught in a fierce hail storm in Sundance, WY.)
“A Nice Young Man”
Learning that even “a nice young man” like Karmelo Anthony can kill someone (for no good reason) makes it quite easy to agree with the Bible that there are no good people.
Where in MN were y'all?
ReplyDeleteGlencoe, mostly. We hiked around Minnehaha Falls and walked the Stone Arch Bridge one day. Visited Hinkley (or closes to it) one day to visit the pastor who married my wife and I in California 33 years ago.
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