Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 28th Birthday, Christina Palmer!
Happy 23rd Birthday, Kris Robinson!
Dad – and Anna Marie – headed for the city this morning, and while it is Presidents’ Day and the courts are closed; they took advantage of that; and had meetings booked for non-judicial negotiations and contracts for their clients. We were up early for their departure; and then the rest of our morning was quiet as we eventually got around to Tai Chi and breakfast with Mom before heading off to school. Just in case that seems odd in the future, our school doesn’t take days off for every federal holiday, and while extra long weekends might be nice; we prefer the extra time off during the summer that we get more of than even most of the public schools in the area. That especially works for the farm families, but then many of the businesses are busier with summer tourists and campers; so that works for part-time teen help too.
Our school day was uneventful; Ethan and I opted for another round of play-work at the lab or archives while saving up play time for the warmest days of the week that are still ahead of us; and we got home in time for a late dinner with Mom. We pretty much got to have the lab to ourselves today because many of the younger adults were busy with one or both of the birthday dinner-parties tonight. Cassie and Michael went to one of the dinners and planned on a cameo visit to the other; so they’ve been busy tonight while our evening only included that late dinner, the clean-up, and a Magi lesson before we opted for an early bedtime after the early start to our day.
We’ve finished up the rest of our usual bedtime computing, and now I’m past-ready for some world news commentary that could get all the way to a rant; so let’s go there – even though Ethan would be happy with skipping that part of our update! The conflicts in the Middle East continue to worsen and expand; and it breaks my heart to see and hear about all of the awful things that are happening to the people on both sides of the fighting while being unable to do very much to help them. The human cost is horrific; and nobody in power seems to care about that – or the tens of billions of dollars being wasted on both the weapons and everything being destroyed by those bombs and missiles. Despite claims to the contrary, our leaders are ignoring history; allowing a genocide to happen to the Palestinians; and there are no excuses for letting that happen at the least and aiding and abetting at worst.
The war in Ukraine is only different in that the leaders in Ukraine are part of the problem as they go along with the destruction of their own country and citizens for no other reason than to keep power and enrich themselves. The latest from Ukraine is that their armed forces have needed to retreat from a key defensive city, and while accurate news can be tough to find; it appears as though that retreat has been even more of a disaster than the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan was a few years ago – with the main difference being heavy troop and equipment losses. At this point, Ethan and I think that the best that Ukraine can hope for now is that their leaders will capitulate and work out a deal with Russia while their worst-case will be the total collapse of what is left of their army, defeat, and terms of surrender that Russia would dictate to them and then enforce. All of that is grim, and most leaders in the west wouldn’t believe it or agree; so we’ll find out eventually whether we’re right or not.
I haven’t ranted much on other issues; so let’s talk about economics! Yes, that is boring to me, but it is also related to all of the fighting going on elsewhere; since all of the money getting dumped into weapons affects the rest of the economy for all countries involved. For instance, we’ve seen reports from Israel noting a twenty-percent drop in their overall economy – not a surprise considering the fighting and blockade on Gaza that means that there isn’t any economic activity for more than two million people that previously were busying at least basic needs like food and clothing. That is going to affect their country for years to come – especially while also adding in new government debt that is inevitable for both the military spending and loss of tax revenues.
While Israel is a micro-example, most military spending elsewhere is also happening through new debts; that means borrowing more money on a big scale; and will lead to future round of inflation that eventually reaches everyone for reasons that can range from resource scarcity to demand-inflation. If your eyes are glazing over in your now, I apologize, but at the risk of boring you further, history also should teach us that debt cycles like this can and have led to the end of empires; and that can happen either slower or faster than most people can imagine possible. Most of the ‘western’ countries are on the wrong side of that problem right now, and even economic growth is a fiction when that is entirely-funded by new debt while also being off-set and made worse by inflation. We wouldn’t have any kind of family business if it had been run the same way as those governments have been running their ‘businesses’ for decades now, and to be blunt; that will only continue to happen until we either run out of weapons or have enough-fewer of them than other countries have so that they no longer need to be afraid of us.
Okay, that’s enough of a rant for tonight – though I could go on; and might do that soon for other topics that annoy me just as much as everything I’ve written about tonight; so don’t be surprised if you have more of the same to read in near-future reports! For now, though, I’m ready to call it a night and get some sleep; so I’ll set Ethan free to head for his room and do that now!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
