All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Well, today I gotta go make the donuts. So if the world is still here when I get back later I’ll take stock of the situation and cogitate, integrate and generate my opinion. I’ll theorize, harmonize and rhapsodize my usual pearls of wisdom.
Crazy world.
A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Second Coming BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
I always come back to this poem, if poem is the right word. Warning or nightmare or terrible vision of the future.
“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
That line always seems apt for whatever the present-day atrocities. Maybe because we unconsciously buy into the progressive propaganda that the arc of history is on our side. And when the arc starts shifting away from our plans, we’re shocked at the failure of history to behave and these surprises appear to be anarchy. Well, no one’s buying into that arc of history jazz this morning except Lindsay Graham. For him the answer to every failing war is another war to distract from the failure. The wars and atrocities are starting to pile up nicely and even the moron in the White House must be getting nervous about how few tanks, artillery shells and Bradley Fighting Vehicles are still in reserve and we haven’t even begun our next forever war. But what am I worried about? We have all those nice shiny ICBMs just waiting for their targets.
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”
That’s right. When the center is rotted out a strong wind will blow the tree down. Time to start over from first principles. No more empires, no more foreign adventures. Marshal the strength to restore the health of the people who make up this country before we think about fighting Russians and Chinese and whoever else is on the regime hit list. Maybe if the Pentagon is in need of employment, they can take on the Mexican cartels in New Jersey and Arizona. Or if that’s too daunting maybe they can try to reclaim downtown Baltimore and Washington DC from the gang bangers and car jackers. They don’t have combat drones yet as far as I know.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
Who would even try to deny these charges. Look at our leaders! And worse, look at the people. Those two statements sum it up beautifully. Joe Biden and Antifa.
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
This one just seems too prophetic of all. Look at Europe and even America and tell me how it will resist a reign of terror with the leaders we have currently in charge. After our post 9-11 rampage in Afghanistan and Iraq what has been improved in the Middle East? All we managed to do is arm the world with our abandoned equipment and show our enemies that we have no idea what we’re doing. And now we send billions to the mullahs in Iran to arm the Palestinians. We might as well ship them a few ICBMs so we can get the main event started.
Maybe the end of history will turn into the end of us. Unless this country wakes up and takes the reins of power away from the lunatics currently running things, the cities of this country will be indistinguishable from Gaza and Beirut. We let in millions of hostile strangers and think there will be no consequences. These people want what we have and they will take it and make us live by their ways. And even the LGBTQ might look back on the intolerant right of the 1980s like heaven on earth compared to the rough beast about to be born in the desert.
Netanyahu says he will destroy Hamas in Gaza. But how exactly will he do that? Other than leveling the whole place with artillery how can you accomplish that? I’m assuming he wants a method that allows him to separate women and boys under military age from the men before delivering ordinance to the areas to be cleared.
My thought is to announce ahead of time what buildings are going to be leveled. That way everyone gets out. Once a good chunk of the city is rubble, the women and children will be living on the street and in order to survive they will be forced to turn themselves in to the Israeli authorities for warehousing separate from the combat zone in Gaza. I suppose eventually all of Gaza will look like Bakhmut; a bombed out hellscape. Of course, even that won’t be thorough enough. The Palestinians have built extensive tunnels that go to Egypt and under the walls into Israel. So, even the debris will have to be removed to search for tunnels.
Now how will the Israelis differentiate between Hamas fighters and the rest of the men in Gaza? I guess they can’t. Does that mean they will kill all the adult men in Gaza or only those found under arms? And if they allow surrender what will be the ultimate fate for these Gazans? Will they execute them? Will they imprison them for life? These are not trivial considerations. There are about two million Gazans. If even 25% are adult males that’s five hundred thousand men. In a country of seven million, that is like 7% of the population incarcerated for life. That’s a staggering number and an enormous expense.
And if they intend to go building to building looking for the hostages then it’s a hopeless plight. They’ll lose thousands of men during these endless frontal assaults on the high rises of Gaza. I think my original idea is best. Drop leaflets all over the city posting the schedule for which buildings will be leveled on which day and let the occupants be responsible for avoiding death. That combined with a blockade on supplies will bring the Gazans to their knees in a few weeks.
The Siege of Gaza. It sounds like an historical battle from the Roman era. Who knows, maybe the Israelis will lose their nerve. They will be vilified by Ivy League student organizations and the United Nations General Assembly. And all those Gulf States that have begun diplomatic relations with them will turn on them too. Maybe they’ll only make some symbolic attacks and instead build higher walls and add additional missile defense batteries.
But if they do, they’re doomed. This will be the beginning of unending attacks from Gaza and the West Bank and Hezbollah in the north. If they allow their women and children to be massacred with impunity it will break the Israelis’ belief in the strength and competence of their defense forces and it will ultimately undermine the stability of the nation. Israel is an island of modernity surrounded by an ocean of medievalism. To live with the barbarians always at the gates you have to have confidence that your leaders have developed a system to keep that ocean safely behind strong walls.
So, I think Netanyahu has no choice but to eliminate Hamas from Gaza. But I’ll be damned if I know how, the hell, he’s going to do it. I wish him luck.
There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
It reminds me a lot of what W said after 9-11. And I remember how that all ended up. To my mind the only way Netanyahu can prevent the same thing from happening again is to empty out Gaza and draw a final line on the map between Israel and the Palestinians.
Is he willing to do that? Is he even able to do that? I guess we’ll see.
Fate laughs at probabilities.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
