Edition #1156

Monday. And glad to be back. Family time was everything that I thought it would be…great, amusing, fun, chaotic, annoying, exhausting, and then again, lots of fun. Now for some quiet time.

“Everything has been said before; but since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” André Gide, quoted in The Knowledge. And now I feel a bit justified in continually returning to the same themes from time to time…if only people would listen.

In the latest example of a president out to loot the public for as long as he can, to enrich himself, his family, and his friends, the Trump/Witkoff/Whoever organization known as World Liberty Financial has been given the right to become a bank. The Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, whose members were appointed by…well, need I actually say it?...approved this preliminary move, discarding any regard for conflicts or other red flags. You will remember that World Liberty Financial is the entity created just before Trump took office for his cryptocurrency scams, and as a vehicle into which bribes could be offered for such silly things like presidential pardons, exemptions from tariffs, relief from regulatory pressures, and other completely legitimate activities. And now that same organization will have the imprimatur of being a legit banking operation, complete with FDIC protections…for the Trump family, not for the rest of us. I would ask where the outrage is on the GOP side, but we all know that, according to those on the right, the Democrats did and do so much worse, right (lack of any evidence aside)? In light of what has occurred in the last nineteen months, objections to what Biden, or Obama, or Schiff, or any other Democrat may or may not have done could not have been actual objections to the activities. Were they merely objections for not being included?

You may have noticed that the situation in Gaza is far from settled. While the first phase was completed with the remaining hostages released, Israeli pullback from some portion of Gaza done, the next phase is yet to begin. Disarmament of Hamas, the final withdrawal of Israeli troops, and installing an independent security apparatus is, as was expected, a difficult proposition. But recently, Hamas agreed to a phased disarmament plan that was immediately rejected by Israel. I suspect that the upcoming elections in Israel prevent Netanyahu from agreeing to much, but I read here of one aspect of the deal with Hamas that has not made it to the mainstream media, or much of any media, actually. The original plan, and red line for Israel, was Hamas disarmament and elimination from political life. Well, it seems that behind closed doors, the Trump team has agreed that Hamas members can run for office in any upcoming Palestinian elections. Perhaps under a different banner, but with the same goal. And all of this stems from the fact that Trump and his team want to be able to tout a deal, rather than tout the details of whatever that deal may end up being. I know a number of people who voted for Trump because they viewed Biden as too critical of Netanyahu’s actions. And I have always believed that a friend is not the one who merely cheers you on. A friend is the one who warns you to change course when you are running off a cliff. So from that perspective, I have no issue with any American administration coercing Israel to alter course for the promise of a brighter future. But I also wonder how those friends of mine are twisting themselves in pretzels to explain the difference.

If you thought that having a heart attack in a parking lot was the worst thing that you could go through, how about getting a parking ticket afterwards because your car remained in the parking lot too long afterwards? Well, in Auckland, New Zealand, that is what happened. I know, it sounds like something that could only occur here in the jolly old US of A, but our neighbors down under are humans as well, right? So this woman went into distress in her car. A passerby stopped and administered CPR until paramedics arrived, saving her life. They then transported her to the hospital, where she was treated and subsequently released. But her car was left in the car park (similar to a parking lot…while being the same thing) for over five hours, violating the ninety-minute limitation. Of course, when notified of the circumstances, the parking ticket was reviewed…and reduced. Not dismissed, but reduced. In what universe…? Right?

Here is an interesting assessment of the state of the world from a geopolitical standpoint by someone I have been following for a long time. It puts our geopolitical interests in historical perspective as it offers where things seem to be headed. It is a bit dense, and you may agree or disagree with its analysis, but it is worth a read. The company that put this out is Geopolitical Futures, started by George Friedman. Long ago, Friedman started a company called Stratfor, which I followed religiously. It was a source on goings-on around the world. There was little in the way of advocacy, but much in the way of objective analysis of what was happening. It was a wealth of information. But it got bought out by some other company, and they took it in a different direction from a business model standpoint. So eventually, it offered me less and demanded more money in subscription fees. But now George set up a new platform in Geopolitical Futures, which harkens back to what Stratfor used to be for me. Anyway, I offer this analysis without my interpretation because the news that we often get is couched in terms of policy preferences and political agendas. What I like here is a seemingly objective analysis of what is happening, who the players are, and what their motivations are. From that, you can better interpret the more political statements and policy arguments, devoid of what one might wish were true.

I suppose I should not be surprised about this, but for some reason I was. I am very familiar with the trend over the past decades to ensure that our children are given every leg up that we, as parents, can deliver. Private sports coaching for your exceptional seven-year-old soccer/baseball/basketball/tennis/golf/swimming/tiddlywinks athlete. Prep courses for standardized tests for entry into middle schools, and now probably kindergarten as well. Not to mention testing for college admissions. But now, how about coaching for your freshman hoping to get into that special sorority or fraternity? Merely going through the process being yourself is not good enough. How to dress, how to speak, what to speak about, what not to speak about, what to eat, what not to eat, how to walk, how not to walk, and, I would guess, what to think, and not think. I know I am very naïve in all of this, but if you have to be coached into being something other than what and who you are in order to gain access to this or that group, then is that really the group you want to spend your college years with? Just a thought from a “never-frat” advocate.

I just thought I would follow up on this one with an image of the impact crater that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 second stage left on the Moon. You can see the before-and-after images above. You can see, in the aftermath of the impact, the debris that was flung from the newly formed crater. I believe that the darker ejecta was from the surface while the lighter was from deeper down…Although I could have gotten that backwards. I am sure there is a lot of work being done to evaluate how debris spreads from this sort of impact to enhance protection for future Moon dwellers, noting that this impact, at about five thousand miles per hour, is about one-ninth the velocity of asteroids and other space rocks. But cool, no?

So while we are out in space, let’s talk about ground stations. Ok, not my best segue, but I am trying here. One of the things that has been an issue from the beginning of humanity’s space ventures was communication. I mean, communication between humans has always been difficult, and in many instances the cause of conflict, on a personal level as well as globally. But that digression aside, throwing an object into space to orbit the planet can make it difficult, if not impossible, to communicate. Once that object crosses over you and beyond the horizon, you are merely speaking to yourself. Stations in the Outback of Australia, places in Europe, Africa, and more, have been the backbone of a global network of stations that pass communications from one to the other as the world turns and space vehicles circle overhead. While that system has worked adequately in the past, Blue Origin is not satisfied. The fragmented, non-standardized, opaque pricing, and non-continuous contact nature of the existing infrastructure will come to an end, or so Blue Origin hopes. It has constructed three sites in Bermuda, New Zealand, and Australia as first steps in an integrated global communications system that will offer a secure, reliable, and adaptable system into the future. That’s all that I’ve got on this, but happy to see the aging and outdated infrastructure is being brought into the 21^st Century.

Even though we are traveling, I did get a chance to cook here in the mountains of Colorado. So scallops over a corn salad/mixture/whatever.

So I take a week off, and really nothing happens. Certainly things I could comment on, but that would be just nibbling on the margins, and I am not in that kind of mood. So, for now, stay healthy and be good to each other…but not just “for now.” You should do those things every day. Just saying.

Me.