war

Three Sentences About Thoughts And Things

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 Spring officially started March 20th and it is now the second day of May. How do I officially know spring is actually here in upstate NY? There is “possible snow” in the forecast.

Donald J Trump is often credited by super intelligent, oxygen-starved pundits with playing chess in as many as “five dimensions”*, since he is way smarter than the rest of us playing in the normal amount of dimensions***. That is a true statement but fails to mention what the Fifth Dimension** is. Most of us normal people are happy–and smart–with 3D.

Since his name was brought up, ask AI how much money the Trump family has made in the last 19 months from Crypto Currency. Don’t ask me what it is or how it works since all I know is Crypto is unregulated and only really enjoyed by the super-rich or those wanting to be super-rich. I am neither.

According to all official sources, The War in Iran is over. We won. Cue the sailors kissing random women in Times Square.

Hold on, this just in: If Iran doesn’t agree to our terms we will bomb them into non-existence. Put a hold on the casting call for sailors and kissable women. For now.

Correction. Ai says no one has specifically used the word “non-existence”.  While Emma’s search was disappointing, so was her lengthy list of other “official” words used to describe what will happen if our peace terms are not agreed to. My paraphrasing was easier and succinct.*****

On the subject, what will these essays be about in future years, when Trump is out of office? Feelings? Getting old?

Speaking of old, when exactly do we “age out” of caring about current entertainment? It’s been years since any actor or singer nominated for any culturally relevant award was known to me or had any creation I was familiar with. Is it possible I won an award and not know it?

Sex is a problem—in many ways—for us old people but sex has found a new way to cause angst. One afternoon I tried several new television programs in several different streaming platforms but ended my entertainment search because there was as a sex scene in the first 5 minutes of every show sampled. I am old but I still believe in foreplay.

Footnotes**** are—again—misnumbered and—again—left alone as a “cognitive test”. If you believe they are not corrected because of laziness, congratulations. You are smart enough to play chess with our current President.

*Ask Ai, but be ready for AI to be diplomatic. At least my Ai voice, Emma, is.

**Popular Mid-60s to Mid-70s singing group with 5 songs hitting number 1. You might need some help if you really think this is the Fifth Dimension Trump is in, though it makes more sense, relatively speaking, than anything other explanation.

***Do you know how many named and unnamed dimensions there are?

****But not this one.

*****But I always enjoy using this guttural, dirty-sounding word.

Random Questions With Answers No One Wants To Talk About?

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How much is it costing the United States taxpayers to have Trump put his name on everything? How much will it cost the United States taxpayers to remove Trump’s name from everything?

How much did it cost to “gild” the White House?

Trump Media and some legacy media are trumpeting the destruction of Iran’s Nuclear Capabilities (INC)…again. That destruction is being labeled a “good thing for America”. How many times do we have to obliterate those unproven capabilities? What did we really obliterate in June, 2025, under the code name “Midnight Hammer”? Remember the bunker buster bombs* we dropped? Estimates of the costs of those bombs run into millions of dollars. Were they wasted?

For fun, google all the schools closing or eliminating educational programs due to lack of funding.

America and seven other countries, including Iran, “negotiated” INC moot with the JCPOA on July 24, 2015. Trump cancelled the “deal” in 2018. Is there a relationship between the 2018 cancellation and the 2026 urgent need to stop INC?

Why did Netanyu tell the world several times over the last 30 years INC was “two weeks away from a nuclear bomb”? Including in 2025. See the internet for all the videos.

Why does the Iran War of 2026 sound so much like the Iraq War of 2003? Anyone reading this old enough to remember “WMD” and “Yellow Cake”? What exactly is there about the Middle East that we fear it and want it at the same time? Is there a natural resource involved? Or is it a modern Version of The Crusades?

After bombs and threats and posturing, it appears a naval blockade has convinced Iran to negotiate, again. If the US had done the naval blockade in the first place would many innocent civilians still be alive? And the poor, innocent Bunker Busters and other destructive devices might still be alive today, too.

Anyone know how many innocent people have been killed, injured, or displaced by bombs, drones, and missiles in this new war? Anyone care?

Fallout from the Iran War has affected and effected every country in the world, causing loss of life, economic damage, and infrastructural ruin. All in the name of “Keeping America Safe”. Anyone have an opinion about how safe we are? Is a new 9/11 about to happen?

Iran’s rationale for the deadly actions it has taken historically, is a religious belief in Muslim law, social behavior, and the threat America poses to those beliefs.** Is that normal behavior for a religious group that feels persecuted? Maybe we could talk it out, hug it out, or understand?

Enough. America is now nothing but questions. When will they be answered? And by whom?

Or don’t we want to know?

Not a question: more Americans have been killed in The 2026 Iran War than have been killed by Iran’s Atomic Weapons. Did Iran have anything to do with 9/11? Google it, if you want an answer.

*Accidentally typed “boobs” here. Was tempted to leave it, given the latest facts.

**As well as America’s 1970s intrusion into Iranian politics, and other “events”.

WTF? No, Really: WTF?

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 It’s (nearly) spring in 2026 America and we have attacked Iran. Like most current ideas, it is not really a bad one, but–like most ideas–it hasn’t been thought through all that well. There are enough talking heads plodding ponderously and profusely about the attack so there is a danger of too much talk and not enough action. In addition, the level of punditry is always in an indirect relationship with knowledge, so the less said the better. I’ll just ask questions.

Why now? You can find videos of Benjamin Netanyahu proclaiming—and I’m paraphrasing— “Iran will have a nuclear weapon in two weeks” since the middle of the 1990s. (See The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, June 16, 2025.) They put the videos together because The United States and Israel had just bombed Iran and “Obliterated”* Iran’s nuclear ability, per our President. That was 10 months ago. A question: If it was obliterated, and Iran is being sanctioned, how did Iran’s nuclear capability recover so fast in 10 months?

And what is Putin doing about all this?

And Xi?

Does our aggressive bombing of Iran, along with our “regime change” in Venezuela, mean its okay for all the larger, more powerful countries to attack all the smaller countries? Are we trying to imitate Russia’s Ukraine Policies? Will Xi see a justification for attacking Taiwan? Japan? Indonesia?

Several months ago, I attempted to humorously describe a Super Conspiracy (SC) to divide the world into three Spheres of Influence (SIA). Russia would get Europe and some of Central Asia, China would get the East and Southeast, and we’d get the Western Hemisphere. Our action in Venezuela played into the SC, but what is happening with Israel? Are they trying to make it a Four Power SIA conspiracy? They Want the Middle East?  Would the three superpowers be okay with that?

Does anyone find it odd the relative lack of posturing by both Russia and China? They have both done their “lip service” requirements, but isn’t Iran a partner of both Russia and China, selling oil and gas for drones and missiles? Are the United States adventures in Venezuela and Iran depleting our military resources and (possibly) making it easier for Russia and China to begin their own adventures in the near future? If, so, how long will it take to ruin the current world order and set up the three (or four) SIAs?

Okay, here are some tougher questions: How much does each exploding Tomahawk missile cost? How many dollars get blown up by using  one Bunker Busting bomb**? Will we ever attack a non-oil-producing country? Of note, we have attacked Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, and Venezuela in recent years. How much of their oil production do we now control and profit from? Enough to pay the constant deployments of US Armed Forces? Who’s counting?

Aww, shite. Nothing is happening here, except me progressing from mad to depressed to silly to a heartfelt, dismissive “Thank God, I’m old enough not to care.” It’s almost over.

OMG, WTF is wrong with this world?.

*See The State of The Union speech by Donald Trump on February 28, 2026 when he repeated this claim. Days later we bombed the “obliterated” facilities, again?

**Depending on the size, $3.5 million to $13 million per bomb, per Ai. For an oxymoronic comparison, that is about what Juan Soto of the New York Mets earns for one third of the baseball season. Obscene fact: he makes $289,351 per GAME. Per Ai. How much do you make in a year?

Of Intelligence and Something Else Like It

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It’s been days since last you had something to read. Hope you didn’t forget how. Weather here in NY has been cold and wintry so I hibernated for a few days. It was the smart thing to do. I am an intelligent being, after all.

Am I? Are we? Ai, when asked, says “Defining intelligence is a bit like trying to pin jello to a wall.” I scrolled to the bottom of the answer to make sure the disclaimer was there: “Gemini can make mistakes, so double-check it.” I asked Ai to double-check itself. The answer was illuminating. And who trained Ai about jello?

Illuminating but not clear. I tried the Oxford English Dictionary People and got something more succincter(sic)*: “The faculty of understanding, intellect.”

The Brittanica Dictionary took a similar view: “The ability to learn or understand things or to deal with new and difficult situations.”

Both dictionaries did not have warnings at the end of their entries. They had confidence in their intelligence.

Take a moment and think for yourself: what is intelligence? Why do we not use the word “Real” in in front of intelligence? Or “Natural”? And why are we so afraid of Artificial Intelligence? Everyone asked in public likes to mention there are “different kinds of Intelligence”. There is Science, Street, and Sports intelligence, for example. The unsaid theory is we can be intelligent in one thing but not everything?

What is the opposite of intelligence? Unintelligence(sic)? Lack of intelligence? Stupid? Let’s ask Ai: “While the knee-jerk answer is usually stupidity or ignorance, the opposite of intelligence depends on how you define intelligence itself.” It then goes on to list three possible “opposites” of intelligence, ending—as usual–with the required disclaimer. What a crock.

Wait a second, can other animals be intelligent? Ai? “The short answer is a resounding yes. While we used** to define intelligence strictly by human standards—like the ability to solve algebra or write sonnets—science has shifted to seeing it is a diverse toolkit for survival.”

Algebra? You need to be able to solve Algebra to be considered intelligent?

It’s been fun talking about this one word, but the real issue is how we communicate, how we talk with each other, how we decide, even, what intelligence is or means. Think of existence as one, big contract. A legally binding contract where we all agree about things. If I wanted to argue intelligence meant stupidity, would you participate, agree, or think me an idiot and ignore me? It doesn’t make any difference how far back in time a word goes or whether or not it came from Latin roots, or whether or not it is “foreign”. If we all agree, roughly, on a definition, the world keeps turning on its axis and we get ready for the Super Bowl.

But there are forces at work in the World, and have always been at work in the World, trying to let intelligent people know they might be the only ones, and most of the world is stupid. Not intelligent. It doesn’t help when the citizens of the world act stupid.

To make a too-long essay short, the point: War is stupid. Poverty is stupid. Homelessness is stupid. Disrespect is stupid. Who uses these things for profit or gain? Who ignores them as if they don’t exist?

We do.

And at a time when we think we are the most intelligent. We have fast moving machines and high-flying machines and medical machines to see inside the body. Yet, still…

An intelligent society? Are we stupid or only intelligent when it suits us?

*I Like this word because it sounds like “sphincter”, one of the funniest words in the world.

** ”Used” to? And a “tool kit”? Who is kidding who, now.

Odd Things of Importance. Maybe.

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Trump Burger, a Texas chain of hamburgers, closed in October 2025. The owner was arrested by ICE and is scheduled for deportation. Ironic news, but the more salient fact is Trump was suing the owner to stop using Trump’s name. Bet there is a real, juicy story waiting to get well-done before it’s made public. Yes, apologies for poor buns. Puns, puns.

On December 3, 2025, a lab downloaded my pathology report for last week’s follow-up colonoscopy. The previous May colonoscopy had found irregularities. In reporting on the samples sent by the doctors this time, the report said: “NO NEGATIVE DYSPLASIA”. This is a new phrase never heard during my days of prostate cancer or any other tests and treatments and appointments…so I googled it. For the first time in over 34 months, cancer is no longer part of my health conversations. I’m free of it. But it’s hard to celebrate. Both voices in my head (see past posts) say the same thing: “Yeah? Till when?” This is the perfect time to remember the nature of life and death, and hope one lasts long enough for the other to be a kinder, gentler event. And sudden, too, maybe.

A recent letter to our paper’s editorial section says Trump and Hegseth cannot be guilty of war crimes, because there is no “official war”.  For the anxious among you, I did suggest the writer send a note to Hegseth asking Hegseth to stop calling the bombing event something that happens in “the fog of war.” The local letter writer also suggests it’s okay to “kill criminals.” There was no distinction between being accused and being convicted. And the letter writer also added a “whataboutism” concerning the civilians accidentally killed during the Biden era. For those who think about these things, it was never mentioned what Biden Era military people said or did when they saw survivors. Our current leaders said “Kill them all” and sent a second bomb.

Two of these paragraphs are not about Trump, so my promise is kept. They are about the people Trump put in place to run his government and his affairs. He says he knows nothing of the things his appointees and lawyers do. He deserves the benefit of his(sic) doubt.

Today, in upstate New York, on December 4, 2025, one week after Thanksgiving and three weeks before Christmas, we are getting bombed by snow. Overnight temperatures will get to minus two degrees.* I do not like it. If any reader “knows someone” who can do something, let me know? Quid pro quo, by the way. You wash my hands, I wash your hands, capische?**

If anyone was wondering, public discourse has not improved. The Oxford Dictionary people have recently revealed a hint as to why. Oxford’s 2025 “Word of the Year” is “rage bait.” *** Google it for a detailed definition. It describes a conscious attempt to NOT engage in serious discussion, but to get a type of action or response often totally unrelated to the subject. How freaking depressing. After learning of the “word” it’s become hard to read or hear any public comments without wondering about the originator’s purpose. There is not enough time in my life to correct a mistaken person when all they really want is to get me to respond,  and they have no interest in the grammatical and logical jewel of a comment with which I bless them. Hopefully, not too much commentary will be wasted on sow’s ears, but I’ll never really know. And there are others in need of it. Oh, the humanity. Thanks, Oxford.

*Otherwise stated as -2brrr

** Stupid “The Untouchables” Movie. De Niro gets in your head.

***They give no public reason why it is two words, this year. Inflation?