We live in interesting times, and they're moving fast...

It was just a couple days ago a CBC story informed me that we (ie Canada) had signed on to a letter from six NATO allies plus Japan vowing support for "appropriate" actions Uncle Sam might take to open the Hormuz Strait. Make of that what you will, but bear in mind this is largely the same crew that promised Ukraine "whatever it takes for as long as it takes." Between the lot of them, that "support" won't go much beyond a strongly worded letter, or maybe two. Before the ink was dry on that letter, Japan had already signed a side deal with Iran to ensure its ships got through, just in case. Which leaves us on the cusp of economic catastrophe. I had no idea how much vital shit comes out of a barrel of crude or a cubic metre of natural gas. Gasoline and diesel, of course. Home heating gas. Jet fuel. Propane. Cooking gas. Helium. The MRI machine in your local hospital requires helium. Sulphur. Apparently you can't etch high-end computer chips without it. And one third of the world's fertilizer comes out of the Gulf. I had no idea. And "no idea" pretty much sums up Mafia Don's strategy when it comes to this war of choice his blackmailers pushed him into. To be clear, it was Bibi's choice, not Donald's. The Israel connection isn't helpful. As American lives begin to fall in this war, more than a few voices are asking why American soldiers are dying for Israel. That's a question that's ultimately going to cost 47 his career and his legacy. America First doesn't include dying for Israel.

Towelheads o' Terror turn tables on Western Civ

That's quite a shit-show unfolding over there since American Exceptionalism and Jewish Supremacy joined forces to spring a surprise attack on Iran. In the middle of what the Iranians thought were peace negotiations! That worked last time, but apparently the towellers weren't having any this time round. Within the hour of the Boss Mullah's demise, Iranian drones and missiles were on their way to every US base in the Middle East and to Israel. That was three weeks ago. They haven't stopped coming since! And they won't stop anytime soon. Damage to the world economy is already into the trillions. Every US base in the ME has been put out of business. Ben Gurion is closed. Seven million Israelis spent all of last night in bomb shelters. Iron Dome is long broken. And the missiles and drones keep coming and coming and coming... Meanwhile, it's harder by the minute to keep alive the fiction that our marvelous Patriots and David's Sling and Arrow are doing anything at all. The clown show in DC wants us to believe there's a plan... as we reindustrialize and home-shore our manufacturing capacity, we'll eventually be able match the drone and missile production capability of Iran. Eventually!

Trump crime syndicate's Arab Gulf States empire going up in smoke

If you follow this sort of thing, you know there's multiple NYC billionaires with substantial investments in the Arab Gulf countries. Jarrod Kushner spearheaded a lot of this action. Moving the embassy, floating the Abraham Accords, and the Gaza "Board of Peace" were all manifestations of Kushner's efforts to cash in on Mideast Mayhem. Hardly a month ago, Arab Gulf states were promising billions to join the Board of Peace. Might as well be a hundred years ago, just a few weeks later. That scam is over. American news platforms are thus far trying to maintain the fiction that the USA-Israel war criminal combine is obliterating, destroying, devastating, etc etc Iran. Iran, meanwhile, has the economy of the Western world, ie the Israel-USA-EU-NATO universe, totally and entirely by the balls. They haven't closed the Straight of Hormuz at all. Chinese, Russian, and Irainian ships are getting through just fine. There's absolutely nothing Israel, USA, or anyone else can do about it. The pundits all over Western media continue to spew fantasies of victory for American Empire and Greater Israel. The Iranian missiles streaming through Iron Dome day and night are telling a different story.

Western Civ trapped in Biggly Heap 'o Shit

I'm kinda an armchair doom-scroller, who follows international geopolitics because I've lost faith in professional sports. I mean, at some point you can't explain decades of Leaf failures without resorting to conspiracy theories. While I am not at all surprised that, as playoff season rolls around, the Leafs suck harder than ever, it does shock me to read that games are deliberately tossed in order to nab the top draft prospects. That's gotta be Russian propaganda for sure! I don't know about you, but for me personally I'm kinda coming round to the view that, all things considered, what we call "Russian propaganda," tends to be more accurate, more timely, more relevant than the usual same-old from ABC/BBC/CBC/CNN/Fox/etc. According to the Rooskie propaganda, they are winning the war in Ukraine. Ya! And if that's not foolishness enough, some of our adversaries are secretly supporting Iran in their futile defiance of God, America, and Israel, not necessarily in that order.

Iran's alleged nuclear program and Canada's support for the criminal Trump-Bibi war

Benyamin Netanyahu has been warning the world of Iran's imminent nuke since at least '92. For at least that long, plenty of well-placed experts have consistently called out that claim as bullshit. In December 2011 I published a post titled "Mossad boss dismisses Iranian nuclear threat." Tamir Pardo is long retired and still calling BS on Bibi's BS. Many other IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet alum have joined him, but generally only after they retire. In 2007 a US intelligence report came to the same conclusion. Since then, the 18 US intel agencies have confirmed the same conclusion year after year.. Iran abandoned its nuke program in 2003. There has never been any evidence that it has been reconstituted. That conclusion has been reiterated as recently as June '25. In between, the Islamic Republic signed on to Obama's nuke deal which opened Iran to international inspectors. On March 3 the PM of Canada announced on his official website, his "regrettable" support for the absolutley illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran, in the midst of what Israel and the US pretended were negotiations. "Despite more than two decades of diplomatic efforts, Iran has not dismantled its nuclear program." No mention anywhere of the nuke deal negotiated under Obama. No mention of multiple reports from US intel debunking Netanyahu's serial lies. No mention it was Trump himself who kyboshed the nuke deal. Mark Carney prefers the lies of the warmongers to taking a stand. After all, when push comes to shove, keeping Trump happy far outweighs questions of principle.

Fuhrer Doug Ford shows true colours

I recall Doug Ford promoting himself as an everyman populist in his early political career. That was quite a long time ago. Alas, as he clawed his way up the greasy pole of power, his populism morphed into something else by the time he arrived at the top. We've had one dubious shenanigan after another where friends of Douggie, a crowd that includes every billionaire real estate developer Toronto has produced in the last 50 years, would make out like bandits at the expense of that quaint relic "the common good." Ontario Place, the Science Centre, that Greenbelt razzle-dazzle that would have added a few more billions to the accounts of a handful of real estate billionaires... oh Douggie, what have you become? I think the answer is clear. With his drive to exempt himself and his cabinet from Freedom of Information requests, he's become a full-fledged tyrant. If he can pull this off, democracy will be safe from prying pinkos who are forever trying to trip up good, or in the case of Fuhrer Ford, stupendously fabulous, responsible, and ethical governance.

Trump up Shit Creek, no paddle

There are decades when nothing happens; then there are days when decades happen. We're living through some of those days now. The American Empire is transitioning from gradual decline to chaotic freefall in front of our eyes. The biggest loser in this transition is Israel. Once the US is driven out of the Gulf, Israel as we know it, will cease to exist. It will, in the fullness of time, emerge as a single unified state wherein every citizen, Jew, Muslim, or Christian, has the same rights. Same rights to property. Same rights to a gun permit. The apartheid bastion of Jewish supremacy American largess has enabled for the last fifty years will be no more. It looks to me like the billionaires who bought the White House may be starting to have second thoughts. Apparently there was considerable White House lobbying among the hedgies to assure them the Iran war wouldn't disrupt markets for more than a few days, max. As Trump's three day war enters it's third week, Pentagon boss Pistol Pete Hegseth, the cartoonish Secretary of War, is dispatching 5,000 marines to the area. To do what? My guess is they're going there to die. When you listen to the speechifying of Hegseth or Trump, the hubris oozing out of them is utterly nauseating. Off-the-charts misplaced pride... biggly fall soon. Greatest in history!

Iran aims to collapse the US economy

Frankly, I think they could well succeed. Right now they're doing a job on Gulf States oil/gas infrastructure. That means even after Hormuz is navigable once again, it would be months to restore processing capacity. Air defence throughout America's Gulf allies is either exhausted or has been transfered to Israel. Trump claims he can open Hormuz. Even if he could, it wouldn't be anytime soon. Americans don't know or care that their society rots from within, but watch what happens when pump gas hits 7 or 8 bucks a gallon. Revolution for sure! If the oil shipments don't resume within weeks, GOP loses both House and Senate in November. There is also the problem that this war is unsustainable for Israel, and Israel is the only reason America is in this war in the first place. There is no place in Israel safe from enemy missiles. The economy is severely stressed. They goaded, cajoled, manipulated and possibly blackmailed Trump into this war believing American support ensured a quick victory. It hasn't and it won't. The billionaires who own this government will soon enough face a reckoning. Here's a fact they should keep in mind. It is only in the Western sphere that governments operate at the pleasure of the billionaire class. While Russia, China, and Iran all have billionaires, they can find themselves in jail, exile, or the ground if they defy the government. That may seem harsh, but I have a hunch the vast majority of Americans would applaud the reining in of the oligarchs.

They've been bullshitting us about self-driving cars for over ten years. Where are they?

I see where Waymo (short for way more bullshit, apparently) is doing yet another trial of driverless vehicles. These trials, and there have been dozens by various entities over the years, inevitably end the same way. Everything goes great 80 or 90 or 99% of the time, but just before regulatory approval, there's a front-page story about how 12 children on their way to Sunday-school were trapped in their driverless taxi for six hours when the door-locks malfunctioned, and are permanently traumatized. So the magic of driverless cars remains but a dream. Here's what I had to say about the matter more than ten years ago. ************* Saturday, May 31, 2014 Google's driverless car is the public transit of the future. Think about it. A car that doesn't require you to drive it can come to your house empty and pick you up. When it drops you off it can pick up somebody else somewhere else. You'll never have to worry about parking! With efficiencies of scale kicking in, one of these transportation pods will be makeable for a few thousand dollars. Goodbye multi-billion dollar street-car and subway infrastructure projects. The Google-mobile uses surface roads that are already there. Real-time GPS monitoring will make sure you get where you're going, and a vast network of hardware and software will ensure these "cars" are used as efficiently as possible. I think they're on to something! ********** Yup, we're still waiting! Meanwhile, the safety record of "self-driving" vehicles plummets, which doesn't boost confidence in fully autonomous tech. One thing I know for sure is if I'm getting in a car, I want a steering wheel and a brake pedal.

The war Israel and USA started ten days ago now threatens the future of both

I caught a brief CBC News segment where they had somebody on the ground in Israel showing damage from an Iranian missile. It's only in the last few days that Israel's information management system (otherwise know as censorship) has allowed foreign media limited access into the country. The segment still promoted the fiction that a missile landing in Tel Aviv is a novelty, as the vaunted Iron Dome + David's Sling + Arrow systems + Patriots and every other US Air Defense system take down at least 90% of incoming. In reality, ten days into the war on Iran, it has become obvious that AD has collapsed. Things have got so desperate the Israelis have concluded there's no longer any point in pretending. The reality in Israel right now is that both Iran and Hezbolla are raining down missiles and drones at will. The Iron Dome is shooting down next to nothing. Trump called Putin today, and the Russian transcript of the call looks to me like Donald is angling for Putin's help in finding an off-ramp. Meanwhile, we still see Rubio and Hegseth bragging up American greatness. My understanding is that every US base in the Gulf is at this point out of commission. US casualties, officially pegged at 7, are closer to 700. America can survive this. Being humiliated in Ukraine and the ME still leaves it with its usual vassals in the EU and the Western Hemisphere to slap around. But Israel? At least 200,000 Israeli's have left since Oct 7. The ones leaving tend to be from the highly-educated Ashkenazi elite. The ones clamoring for more death, more war, more genocide, are exemplified by the "hilltop youth." When they're not terrorizing the Palestinians, they're studying the Torah. I don't see much of a future for Israel.

Let's take a moment to consider our values

We are constantly reminded that Canada and our allies represent superior values than those held by our adversaries. We've had to struggle over that since the President of the US, the leader of the free and democratic world, has gone a bit nutso-kookoo in his second term. Some of his policies, for example the deportation of undocumented migrants, are an affront to Canadian values, which has motivated our PM to search for more agreeable allies amongst the remaining Nations of Virtue, as "Western Civilization" imagines itself. Not only have we been disappointed in our former Ally Number One, many Canadians have been shocked by the actions of one of our other bestest allies over the past two and a half years; to wit, Israel's holocaust in Gaza and the West Bank. For thirty months Israel has bombed, strafed, rocketed, and starved the captive population of Gaza. Most of the world correctly calls this genocide. On 28 February our two rogue allies joined forces to mount an entirely illegal attack on Iran. Our PM gave his qualified approval, but hinted that Canada would not join in with our allies. But wait a minute - seems a lot of our other allies with whom Carney was hoping to establish an anti-Trump coalition are signing up to support the Bibi-Trump war on Iran. Yesterday a German frigate arrived in Cyprus. Today Italy announced it would stand with the Free World's assault on Iran. France is sending it's aircraft carrier. Starmer planned to send the UK's carrier too, but alas, had to settle for a lesser contribution. Looks to me like all those toadies who were aggressively denouncing Trump mere weeks ago are now busying themselves sucking up to a pair of war criminals. I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before Carney caves and commits Canada to this war on Iran too. So much for "values." Empty talk won't butter our bread, but kissing up to billionaire war criminals just might.

The Peace President has started WW III

I was listening to DefSec... I mean WarSec "Pistol Pete" Hegseth's update on the Iran war. Apparently the good guys are kicking the shit out of the bad guys, unleashing hell, punching them while they're down, devastating them without mercy - as things should be when you're waging a REAL war in the name of God, as opposed to the faggy woke wars America used to conduct under communists like Obama and Biden. Ya, the exceptionalist rhetoric is utterly mind-boggling. I can't imagine God being on the side of warmongering retarded arseholes like Hegseth. But I've been wrong before. Like when I advised my readers to dump their appl back in 2012, and maybe a couple of other times. I've probably got two dozen posts out there over the last 15 years predicting the demise of the wily Erdogan. To my chagrin, not only has the Sultan defied my predictions, he is wilier and more influential than ever. Trump is taking us into uncharted territory. America's loss of every war they've instigated in the past half century hasn't deterred the Orange Ogre from instigating one with Iran, a country far more capable than any of the failed states America has been driven out of over the past 50 years. The American Empire has never looked more precarious.

Fifteen years in, pot-addled hillbilly's blog passes three million views

That's kinda amazing, considering it's only got, according to my dashboard, a grand total of three (3) followers. I figure that's because of the warning that comes up every time I post, to the effect that my musings somehow violate "community standards." That started shortly after I posted my World Trade Center building seven story, way back in year one. For many years Google wouldn't even find me, even though they own the platform. Anyway, here we are fifteen years later, fifteen years older, and firmly into life's final quarter. Barring a few extra seasons for penalty time, I'm thinking the 25 year warranty on my roof shingles (installed how many years ago?) should pretty much take me as far as I'll need a roof. I've also noticed, fifteen years on, that a lot of stuff I always took for granted, like good health, for example, is a gift from God rather than something you earn or "deserve." Fifteen years ago I took great pride in my hiking adventures on the various trails in our area. My hikes these days are much shorter and show a definite preference for flat terrain. My main challenge now is calibrating the correct balance between my pee pills and my sleeping pills. Last time I visited with my GP he upped the dosage for both. Ponder that for a moment and you'll realize why that calibration process is so important. From time to time I think maybe I should look into those community standards and see what I could do to go legit. Then the "Like" button might come back and folks could subscribe, and I'd be able to monetize the blog. Then again, 3 mil views over fifteen years ain't gonna monetize into much more than a case of beer now and again. Three million a day... now you're looking at something... I could upgrade my Toyota! Fuck that. I write because I like writing, and spending time managing a website isn't on the agenda in any way. Those hours are better spent playing with Bruno or visiting with my grand-daughter. Anyway, I'll keep writing as long as there's anything in the tank. Seeing how the greedbags who run things are more out of control than ever, there'll be plenty to talk about going forward.

Canada hated Trump till he attacked Iran; now we love Trump!

Canada's newspaper of record, the Globe & Mail, has relentlessly been anti-Trump since before his first kick at the can. And their American Exceptionalist choir has worked non-stop to alert Canada to the potentially deadly impact of a Trump 2.0. So imagine my shock when I picked up the G&M the other day, only to find an editorial board op-ed celebrating Donald Trump's bold attack on Iran! The ed board at the Globe are 100% American Empire Loyalists. They utterly hated Trump back when he unleashed ICE on Minnesota.But now that Donnie J has unleashed the entirety of USA military might on Iran, the editorial board is all aboard! Canadian airwaves have been saturated, for six days now, with Iranian expats thanking Trump for bombing their country. We closed our Iran embassy in 2012 because our gay twat of a Foreign Minister at the time was hell bent on getting the blessing of his personal rabbi. They coulda been gay lovers for all I know. And of course it didn't help that our Defence Minister at the time was married to an Iranian beauty queen. What's remarkable is that a political elite that took serious umbrage re: Trump's 51st state fantasies, is totally hunky-dory with Trump's utterly unprovoked attack on Iran.

Trump puts Israel first

Exhibit A; America, the country Trump was democratically elected to lead, has gone full in on Israel's war on Iran. Trump puffed himself as the peace candidate to get elected. Now he has embraced the ultra-nationalist factions in Israel who celebrate genocide. I have yet to see any remotely plausible rationale for America's war on Iran. There is no evidence anywhere of any "imminent threat" whatsoever. What we're doing with this fakery is running interference for the genocidal maniacs who, having destroyed Israel, are keen to bring down the rest of the Middle East too. There must be some prime juicy Trump footage on those Epstein tapes to make Mafia Don do a 180 on his entire election platform, just to please his blackmailer.

US missile stockpiles running low on second day of Iran war

That's according to a story on view at the Daily Mail website at the moment. Per traditional DM habits, there's maybe about a 50-50 chance there's at least an element of plausability to the story. So it's probably bullshit. At the same time, it makes you wonder how Trump's team calculated for an operation that might last longer than the 24-hour decapitation attack on Maduro. Missile inventory has been in the news for at least the last three years of Project Ukraine. There has been nothing concrete done to address the missile deficit. Nevertheless, Team Trump has decided this is the right time to take on Iran. If Iran can survive the first week of this war, hypothetical shortages will have become reality. Meanwhile, Iron Dome proved yet again to be a sieve. The entirety of Israeli strategy is predicated on America's military backstop. That stops when the Americans run out of missiles, which they'll have done in a week. Then what?