jerryk

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2026-07-16 23:27:22 UTC

When the British encouraged Jewish settlement in Palestine with the Balfour declaration in 1917, their objectives were not altruistic. What they had in mind, was that a Jewish state in the Middle East could keep an eye on the Arabs, act as a disruptive influence, and discourage the reestablishment of an Islamic superstate after the Ottoman Empire was dismembered at the end of WWI. And, Russia, France and the US joined with Britian in this primary geopolitical objective. Ever since the time of Muhammad, Islamic superstates had been a threat to the West, for almost 1500 years -- first, the Muslim Caliphate, and then, the Ottoman Empire. The West wanted to make sure this would never happen again, and, up to a point, they saw Israel as a means to assist them in this very practical, and rather ruthless objective. And, for several decades, after the state of Israel was founded in 1948, they did manage to keep the Arab world off balance and divided, which the West appreciated, and rewarded them for, with material aid and diplomatic support.
However, with the rise of the power of an Islamic superstate of Iran, spreading its tentacles throughout the Middle East through proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis and the Iraqi militias, it is becoming quite clear that Israel has failed miserably in its primary mission, from the standpoint of the West. Hence, support has largely evaporated in Europe for Israel, and is now on the verge of being eliminated in its last bastion of support, the United States. Israel's use of brute force to suppress Muslim opposition to its presence in their midst is no longer fashionable, or acceptable to the West, simply because the costs are becoming too great to the international community, in terms of conflict with the emerging Islamic superstate of Iran. The West is now realizing that they will have to get along with Iran, and, so, the original function of the state of Israel --preventing this uncomfortable contingency from ever occurring --has ceased to exist. From the standpoint of the West, Israel no longer has any function at all to them, so, they are discontinuing their support. If Israel wishes to survive, they must learn to adapt to this new geopolitical reality -- the Islamic superstate of Iran -- and to find some way to make itself sufficiently useful to the world as a whole, that it may continue to exist as a Jewish State.
#geopolitics #history #Israel #Islam

2026-07-15 16:18:57 UTC

Donald Trump has proven so totally incompetent, that he has provided with the Democrats with a unique opportunity to make the dreams of the Founding Fathers of the United States come true. While demanding massive increases in military spending, Trump has failed miserably as commander in chief, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in a totally failed campaign to dominate the Middle East, which has merely confirmed Iran's total domination of the Middle East. Every American is well aware of this, although they may deny it, if they are traditional supporters of Donald Trump. Hence, there is no mandate or desire to waste more money on Donald Trump's ridiculous military games against Iran. Politically, the Democrats are actually in a position to implement now, the original conception of the founding fathers of the US -- no permanent standing military at all, ever!
Now, of course, the Democrats cannot come right out and say that, that would be politically incorrect, given the traditional militarism of American foreign policy. They can't say we're not going to approve any military budget at all. However, Trump's stupidity has made possible something quite close to this. The Democrats can, for the first time in US history, make it impossible to spend a thin dime of the US military budget without the explicit approval of 60 American senators, and, that is exactly what they are going to do! Americans are perfectly happy for them to do so, to effectively have a US commander in chief who is totally hamstrung by Congress, who cannot lift a finger militarily without them, and in which all, or almost all military funding, is effectively frozen, indefinitely. So, Democrats can claim they didn't cut a cent from the budget, while effectively freezing the entire military budget, and making it impossible to spend it.
Now, what this means, is that the Democrats can simultaneously realize the dreams of the founders of the US, and also cut the US budget by a full 20% at a stroke! What could possibly be better? What could possibly make more economic sense, when the US President wastes this budget to actually undermine the world economy fundamentally, because of his utter stupidity and incompetence? So, the problems in funding social security suddenly disappear, as a trillion dollars is freed up to support it! Suddenly, everything is possible economically, in the US budget, as the utter waste of money on US military incompetence is revealed, and liquidated, quite painlessly, by simply making it impossible to spend it.
#politics #geopolitics #history #military #economics

2026-07-13 21:16:50 UTC

Trump's saber rattling has driven oil prices up to a level higher than they've been at in more than a month, and, once more, the Strait of Hormuz is fully closed to traffic. There doesn't appear to be any clear off ramp here, since neither side is even slightly inclined to compromise. Trump wants full control over the region, and, so do the Iranians. On the whole, the Iranians are in a better position to enforce their claims, largely because of geography. They are there as a nation, all Trump has is vulnerable aircraft carriers in the region, at terrific expense. The longer this goes on, the more economic problems the US and the world will have, and Iran's government and social structure largely make them immune from these kind of pressures. It seems likely that Trump will pay a very steep price in November for his military antics, which have little chance of actually impacting Iran to any significant extent, as we have seen, over and over again. So, Iran is likely to "win", simply because Trump's power base is evaporating for further action against Iran, while the Iranian regime is actually being stabilized somewhat by Trump's indiscriminate attacks on it. On the whole, Iranians prefer their own government to Trump's bombing campaigns. Simple enough, really!
#poltics #geopolitics

2026-07-11 15:15:33 UTC

In Japan, libelling the dead is a very serious crime. Really, it is! Now what are the implications of that, and what does it mean, exactly? Why does Japan make it a very serious crime to libel the dead?
I think it probably is related to WWII, and the really horrific war crimes committed by the Japanese during the war -- vivisecting allied prisoners of war, doing horrific medical experiments on untold numbers of live human subjects, as if they were rats in a cage, which is exactly the way they were treated. The Japanese viewed all non-Japanese as sub-human, quite literally. Basically, the Japanese made Himmler, Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann all look like choir boys. And, General MaCarthur and the Americans never touched them, once they surrendered. They even forgave them Pearl Harbor! Anything to get a loyal ally against the USSR.
But, if you think about it, it's pretty darn hard to study history, if you can't libel the dead. How do you study history without saying mean things about the dead? Are there historians in Japan? What exactly are they allowed to say? Anything?
And, what about the legal system? If it's a very serious crime to say mean things about dead people in Japan, wouldn't that rather tend to skew the the nature of Japanese Justics? I mean, how can "justice be blind", if it's a very serious crime to say mean things about the dead? Where is the objectivity, the reality, the justice there?
I think what this really tells us, is that societies will do anything to protect themselves, and shield the powerful from any and all criticism. And, truth, justice, reality itself become irrelevant, when social power and structure are at issue. And, this is obviously the case, when looking at the past, in Japan.
#Crime #law #wwii #philosophy #Japan #history

2026-07-10 20:52:00 UTC

- reply

jerryk
2 wk.
I just got a permanent and immediate ban from Mastodon social for sending the following post to NPR radio :
We all live on an overpopulated planet, and people are becoming progressively more uncomfortable. Rather than seeking "consensus", people are now seeking new approaches that work. You have to try extreme things to make progress, otherwise, you're just running in place. Of course, those who are actually doing well, would much prefer that everyone continue running in place, because they don't want things to change much. This creates constant conflict. #ethics #geopolitics #history #histodons
https://mastodon.social/@jerryk__1999/116743558370462488
Any thoughts?

2026-07-10 19:55:12 UTC

- reply

I've no phone, no computer, for precisely the reasons you've mentioned. Not that I really have anything to hide, but, you know, who knows? I use public computers at major metropolitan library sites, hard to track. Totally centrally controlled, no legal risks. Most relaxing. I'm even beginning to make my own films, totally for free using blender online tools. Most enjoyable and interesting, maybe even profitable. You really can have your cake and eat it too, with technology these days, if you don't always follow the crowd, you know.

2026-07-09 21:45:41 UTC

Although Republicans are desperate to see "disarray" in the Democratic Party's dismissal of Graham Platner, in fact, they handled the situation brilliantly. Unlike Republicans, who cling to their mentally ill "leader" exactly like rats on a sinking ship, the Democrats are perfectly happy to jettison a mentally unstable candidate. This was done firmly, but fairly, and now they can select the perfect candidate in terms of electability, and they will do just that. Which is precisely why the predictions markets are favoring the Democrats taking Maine by 2:1 now. This pretty much guarantees a Democrat pickup of a couple of Senate seats, in Maine and North Carolina, and with several other vulnerable Republicans, it seems at least 50:50 at this stage that Democrats take the Senate majority in November. Certainly, it seems more than likely that the Democrats can tie up the senate at 50 seats for each party, making effective control of Congress in the hands of the Democrats, since they will almost certainly take the House by a comfortable margin. #politics

2026-07-07 17:36:38 UTC

#geopolitics #politics #history
Once more, Iran is attacking the strait of Hormuz, once more the price of oil is rising, once more the stock markets are falling, as Iran continues to make a quite intentional mockery of any peace process between the US and themselves. The Iranians will never let Trump off the hook, God love them! Make no mistake, the Iranians will continue to pummel the Western economies to undermine Donald Trump's power in the United States, and in the world as a whole, they will never stop. The Iranians know their only path to safety is in the utter destruction of their enemies, and Donald Trump is their enemy.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-trump-nato/

2026-07-05 20:04:23 UTC

Truman Capote is known for his brilliance in discriminating the nature of human social deviance in works like "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- perhaps because of his own homosexuality -- but, I think his astonishing short story "Miriam" takes this to a whole new level. This story is so unique and subtle that it remains rather ambiguous on a number of levels. First of all, it's not clear what exactly is happening in the story. The story begins with an "elderly" widow -- she's only 61, but, at the time, that was quite old, perhaps equivalent to mid-70's today -- who's living a quiet life in a city apartment, alone with her canary. She decides to go to a film and sees a beautiful, elegantly dressed little girl there, who seems a bit lost. The little girl approaches her to buy her a ticket, which the widow does, and then the girl disappears into the theatre. A few days later, the girl appears at her door, without explanation, demanding food. The widow is nonplussed, but, provides the food rather unwillingly. While she is doing this, the girl steals her favorite piece of jewellery from her jewel case, which the widow tolerates under protest. After eating her food, she says she likes more sweets, and complains about the artificial flowers in the widow's vase. As she leaves, she breaks the vase and takes away the artificial flowers. The widow for some reason feels compelled to purchase sweets the next day and gets a new vase, and fresh flowers. Then, the girl appears at her door, ringing relentlessly, with a large box containing a beautiful doll. The widow notices that the "girl" actually looks older than she thought, and might not be a "girl" at all, perhaps a small young woman. She says she's moving in with the widow. And widow goes down to some neighbors she scarely knows on a lower floor, complaining about the intrusion. The woman in the apartment comes up to see what's going on, but, the girl has totaly disappeared, as if she was never there. The widow sits down, stunned, but relieved, altough somewhat disappointed to be alone again. As she sits collecting her rushing thoughts, the girl appears before her, and says "hello". End of story.
Now, what is this all about? OK, this is an old woman, equivalent in today's years to a woman in her mid-70's. Did she imagine this girl named "Miriam", is she suffering from dementia? Is the girl some kind of a ghost, a supernatural phenomenon? At the end of the story is widow possibly suffering from a stroke, or has she actually died? Why do she and the girl have the same first name, which, apparently they do?
While all of these possibilities are fairly consistent with the story itself, I really don't think that's what Trump Capote has in mind at all. Rather, as is typical with Mr. Capote, he is very interested in unusal, deviant behavior. This "girl", or possibly young woman, is an extraordinarily adept social manipulator, so adept, that to typical, socially conformist individuals, she appears almost to have supernatural powers. Now, her powers appear to be limited to manipulating elderly people to provide for her basic needs, but, she is a kind of "genius" at that. Proably, she would tend to be classified as a criminal and a sociopath. But, perhaps not. After all, she is providing some basic needs to the widow -- companionship, excitement, variety, novelty. The girl is undoubtedly a aware of this. Is this a parasitic social relationship or a symbiotic one? Is the girl providing he widow with essential needs that the widow herself would be totally incapable of fulfilling without her, that will allow her to have a more fulfilled and longer life?
Society is full of social manipulators working in highly esteemed professions whose actual utility is very much open to question. Doctors, lawyers, scientists, politicians, journalists, businessmen of all types are all very aggressive social manipulators, who intrude on people's lives, making demands while pretending to "help" people. The only difference between the girl and these professionals is that the girl is making no pretense to actually be helping the widow, is openly using her, but, is this really entirely a one-way street? If so, why is the widow putting up with it? Does she have a choice? Do any of us really have a choice, when we are being manipulated, and used by society?
#literature #philosophy #psychology #sociology #crime

2026-07-02 16:47:18 UTC

For some decades now, doctors have insisted that Alzheimer's disease is NOT just "senility", a normal age related condition. They point out and emphasize that some very old people -- not very many, of course -- have excellent memories and overall cognitive function, and also that some fairly young people -- again, not very many -- do have severe memory and cognition problems. However, this changes nothing. In general, as the body decays with age, the brain decays along with it. Exceptions only serve to prove this very general rule. Now, of course, people would very much like to retain their youthful ability to think and remember things as they get older, so, there is inevitably no shortage of doctors and pharmeceutical companies who will insist that they have treatments and drugs that will cure the disease of "Alzheimer's", and they will indeed retain youthful brain function indefinitely. Of course, none of these treatments or drugs work worth a damn. However, this doesn't stop their eager purveyors to insist that they work very well indeed. And, by claiming they are merely correcting certain very specific problems in neural function, they can actually try to make a case for this. After all, it probably is possible to correct certain neural issues up to a point. Who is to say they can't? By lowering the bar to this extent, it is impossible to argue conclusively that they aren't accomplishing anything at all. Only, that they aren't accomplishing much. But, how much is enough?
Now, if instead of classifying Alzheimer's as a distinct, narrowly defined syndrome, doctors went back to simply calling it "senility", age related brain dsyfuction, it would be much more difficult to claim a "cure", for the "disease". After all, it would have to be clear that the patients were actually growing younger again, in general, something that would be obvious to see, and that we obviously cannot do. So, the reason doctors claim Alzheimer's as a distinct "disease", is because otherwise, doctors would have to admit their own utter incompetence and ineffectiveness in the face of it. And, that would tend to undermine their incomes a bit, wouldn't it?
#Alzheimers #Dementia #Medicine #Health #Pharma #Longevity #Philosophy #Science

2026-07-02 00:14:00 UTC

#geopolitics #economics #history #Israel
Donald Trump has fallen into the trap. He is in exactly the same economic quicksand that Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter found themselves in, Stagflation caused by the Arab oil weapon. The Iranians really don't have to do anything at all now. The mere fact that they can close the strait of Hormuz at will with inexpensive mines and drones creates uncertainty in the American business sector that makes realistic planning impossible, and discourages investment, for that reason. It doesn't even matter what the price of oil or gas is, they could spike and double at any time, on any day. And, there's absolutely nothing Donald Trump can do about it. He can bomb Iran all he likes, and Israel can join in. They can kill all the senior political and military leadership of Iran, it doesn't matter in the slightest, because the people, the military and the politicians all know that they have the ability to bring America and Israel to their knees, and they will never give up that power, why would they? It's not like Israel and America are all that nice if you cooperate with them, right? They will squeeze you like a ripe tomato! So, the professional economists and political analysts can make all the predictions they want about how Iran "must" submit, on the basis of their complex mathematical models, but, they don't, and they won't, they aren't total fools! They will retain their weapons and their power to crush Israel and the US, because they know their very survival as a nation, and as a people depends on it!

2026-06-28 19:54:56 UTC

#history #philosophy #economics #law #Israel
JD Vance has been saying, to my absolute astonishment, some very interesting things lately. First of all, he said, "Israel can't kill its way to security." Now, really that is astonishingly good. That may be the very best summary of Israel's attitude I've ever even heard! Kill everyone, we'll be just fine. Because, of course Israel was placed in the middle of the Muslim world, quite deliberately, by Britain, America and Russia, to keep an eye on them, and to keep them in line. Because after WWI, the Ottoman Empire was destroyed, and the West never wanted another Muslim super-state to arise again in the Middle East that could threaten the West, so the split all the Ottoman Empire up into small Muslim states that would hopefully war against each other, and Israel was going to keep an eye on them, in any case.
JD Vance also made another very interesting observation. Apparently unrelated, but, I don't think it is. He said, "If Watergate occurrd today, it would be a 12 hour news story." Which, of course, is exactly what Watergate was! At first, of course. When the break-in was announced in June, 1972, no one really cared much. Richard Nixon was astonishingly popular, the US economy was humming along, the stock market was at record highs, and he had pulled most of the US troops out of South Vietnam, and South Vietnam was still holding on as an independent nation. People cared so little about Watergate, that Richard Nixon won a record landslide in November for reelection, beating George McGovern by 20% in the popular vote, and winning 49 of 50 states!
So, when did Watergate become so important? Why, of course, after the Arab oil embargo instituted when Nixon provided a massive airlift of arms to Israel, to avert Golda Meir's threat of using tactical nuclear weapons against the Arab forces. While Israel probably would not have been wiped out as a nation -- the Arabs didn't particularly want the pre-1967 state of Israel anyway -- they would have been forced to give up all or most of the territory they acquired in 1967. Of course, they had to do this anyway, when Jimmy Carter became President, in return for peace with Egypt. And, the resulting Arab oil embargo, totally trashed the US economy, creating a massive scarcity of oil, jacking up its price, leading to gas rationing, economic weakness, inflation and a collapsing stock market.And, the weakness of the US as the result of this also drastically weakened the South Vietnamese government, to the point that it started to collapse, eventually being forced to surrender to North Vietnam a year and a half later, in summer 1975.
And, it was only then, with the prospect of defeat in Vietnam, and the reality of total economic disaster, that suddenly Watergate became an issue of "great national signficance". Because, after all, society always needs a legal pretext to destroy great men, doesn't it? They can't just have made mistakes that led to economic and military disaster, quite innocently, out of ignorance or incompetence, can they? They must be great villains, who must be sacrificed! They acted -- gasp!!! -- illegally. And, so, Watergate became a great national scandal for everyone associated with Richard Nixon, and he was forced to resign.
And, history seems to be repeating itself. Donald Trump has, like Richard Nixon, made the mistake of getting too far into bed with the state of Israel, and, once more, the Arabs -- this time Iran -- are punishing the West for it. Once more, oil and gas are being cut off, this time with military force, from Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz. Once more, inflation is rearing its ugly head, once more the economy is suffering, once more the Republican players supporting the administration are feeling intense pressure to change course.
The IRGC has a pretty good track record for demolishing anyone who opposed them -- the Shah, Jimmy Carter, Saddam Hussein, George Bush Junior and, now, Donald Trump. I think JD Vance might just be anticipating that Trump is going the way of Richard Nixon.

2026-06-27 16:55:35 UTC

Things are heating up again in the Persian Gulf. Iran has attacked Bahrain and is destroying ships, perhaps in retaliation for American attacks on Iran, or quite possibly, because that's all Iran ever had in mind in the first place. Iran's agenda remains unchanged -- dominance of the Middle East, as a superpower. Iran is not interested in Donald Trump's business agenda. Iran wants to destroy Donald Trump. Iran will not stop until it has achieved its ultimate goals. #geopolitics
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/bahrain-accuses-iran-launching-drone-092425920.html

2026-06-26 18:00:10 UTC

#history #wwii #ussr
One of the points that Western historians harp upon regarding WWII, is that the massive losses suffered by the Soviet Union in 1941 were directly attributable to the Great Purge of the Soviet military hierarchy by Josef Stalin in the late 1930's. These historians contend that with a more intact senior officer corp, the USSR wouldn't have been as poorly equipped to defend effectively against Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, and that the losses of manpower and territory would have been far more modest.
Now, this is of course arguable, but, is it really provable? After all, no one contends that the reason that Pearl Harbor was such a disaster for the US, was that FDR had purged the US military. Some suggest that they should have been better prepared, there are even some conspiracy theorists who argue that FDR deliberately sacrificed them to provide a military justification to enter the war, but, no one really takes them very seriously.
The fact is, at the beginning of WWII, military technology favored the attacker. Tanks and fighter-bombers had shifted the advantage from defense -- which gave entrenched heavy machine guns the advantage during WWI -- to the offense. Inevitably, any moderately well prepared attacker was going to be able to advance quickly, because of this basic change in military technology. So, it is no miracle that the attackers in WWII -- Germany and Japna -- did very well at first. It may be tempting to attribute this to some fundamental error on the part of the defenders, but, this is probably not the case.
In the case of the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin, this temptation is aggravated by the deep hatred and distrust that Western historians have for Stalin and Communism in general. So, the Soviet disasters at the start of WWII are inevitably and consistently attributed by Western historians to the Soviet purges in the 1930's. This is much less the case with Russian historians who, these days, are by no means fans of communism. They see these military disasters as the result of the effectiveness of the Nazi military, and the advantages accruing to the attacker. They are probably correct. Stalin wanted to ensure absolute control over the Soviet military, and absolute loyalty. These may have been advantages that allowed the USSR to win the war. Stalin may have been right.

2026-06-26 17:04:08 UTC

Trump's big problem now, even with his own "base", is that it is totally impossible for him to even pretend that he "won" the Iran War. Trump lost big time, he got creamed, the trillion dollar a year US military looks like a trillion dollar a year down the tubes. Iran can attack ships in the strait of Hormuz at will, and all Trump can do is whimper about it. Donald Trump is now perceived as a total loser, and this is absolute death to anyone hoping to command the respect of MAGA, with their Nazi, social Darwinist philosophy. That's the real reason Trump's popularity is in total free fall now. Donald Trump is now seen as a total loser, and Americans really don't like total losers at all. #politics #geopolitics

2026-06-24 19:24:35 UTC

Trump approval is down to 30%. Donald Trump has now officially dropped to the level of extremely unpopular Presidents like Richard Nixon, who, of course, had to resign to avoid imprisonment. Could Trump avoid imprisonment by resigning. I doubt it!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-approval-hits-low-ahead-194217711.html

2026-06-22 22:21:14 UTC

I just noticed that the price of oil rose two dollars and fifty cents in a moment, as soon as Iran announced it was closing the Strait of Hormuz again. Then, this rumor was tamped down, and oil prices dropped a couple of dollars just as quickly, so quickly it isn't presented on the chart. Isn't it fairly obvious that Iran is playing Trump, and wants to destroy him? This isn't something economists can price into their mathematical equations, so, they really don't like to talk about it, at all. But, it is very real. Iran now has the power to crush Donald Trump at will by closing the strait of Hormuz. Why wouldn't they use this power? They certainly will use it. #geopolitics

2026-06-22 17:07:08 UTC

- reply

#free-speech #censorship

2026-06-21 21:38:19 UTC

I just got a permanent and immediate ban from Mastodon social for sending the following post to NPR radio :
We all live on an overpopulated planet, and people are becoming progressively more uncomfortable. Rather than seeking "consensus", people are now seeking new approaches that work. You have to try extreme things to make progress, otherwise, you're just running in place. Of course, those who are actually doing well, would much prefer that everyone continue running in place, because they don't want things to change much. This creates constant conflict. #ethics #geopolitics #history #histodons
https://mastodon.social/@jerryk__1999/116743558370462488
Any thoughts?