Ethan and Ehlana:
Let’s begin this update with what might be a good news story – if the tentative ceasefire between Iran and Israel can be trusted. A ceasefire has been declared by both sides and there is talk about the war being over already; so now we can only wait to find out whether that will lead to actual peace or prove to be yet another ruse – just as the recent peace negotiations have been used as a diversion to lull Iran into a false sense of security. It would be nice to be able to trust anything being declared on ‘our’ side, but that is impossible when history proves otherwise; and some of the rhetoric from Israel isn’t exactly helping to improve or change our opinion. Israeli leaders aren’t looking to change anything they’re doing; they are still terrorizing the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; and they’ve stated that their goals toward Iran are still the same – basically that Iran must get rid of their non-existent nuclear weapons program and give up all ‘offensive’ missile technology. To be blunt, Iran’s leaders would have to be crazy to agree to that kind of total surrender – and Israel still wants regime change in Iran too. We’ll wait as see what happens next and keep you posted. This should be a ‘win’ for peace, and the people in both countries will appreciate the end to the daily bombings on both sides; so let’s hope for the best and move on.
While we’re doing world and political news anyway; let’s comment on other stories of the day. The ‘other’ war rolls on whether getting much attention or not; Russia continues to bomb Ukraine; and their ground forces continue to make progress all along the front lines. There are reports of thousands of Ukrainian troops caught in cauldrons in multiple locations; and we can only hope that they’ll surrender instead of fighting to the last man. We want to comment on claims of hypocrisy directed at Russia for refusing an unconditional ceasefire in this conflict while supporting ceasefires with Iran and Israel – and the one between India and Pakistan, but while there might be a nugget of truth in that sentiment; the differences in the conflicts are also significant. We will point out that Russia has attempted peace agreements from before the Ukraine conflict began through to now, but the problem is that Ukrainian leaders and their western backers won’t accept the terms that Russia has demanded; they’ve proved to be untrustworthy; and now Russia is pretty much to the point where they have decided to impose their demands on Ukraine. Let’s add that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel won’t resolve the reasons for their fighting, and if time is no longer a factor for negotiations; then we’d really like to know why it was a factor used to justify the attacks on Iran. We certainly don’t actually know whether all of that bombing has achieved the purported goals – especially when it is more-likely that the attacks have likely just made everything worse. There is no doubt that most of the world has all-new reasons not to trust our country – or Israel; and that is sure to have long-term implications.
Here at home, there is a lot of nonsense going on ranging from judicial political games to the widespread protests and riots and other violence. Congressional fighting over spending bills and other policies are leading to either nothing getting done at all or worse – we’ll end up with bloated compromises that will be even worse for all of us as we continue to speed along toward bankruptcy for our country. It gets tough to sift through all of the nonsense; so we’ll report that our political system is messed up and it is once again proving that it doesn’t matter who our leaders are because they’re all terrible and only pretend to care about ‘normal’ people while only serving themselves and their paymasters.
Moving on to our own news of the day, we were up early for Tai Chi by the river and breakfast; Ehlana and I play-worked at the lab or archives for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon; and then we had a late lunch and a couple of hours of play time with our friends. It was hot again today, so we mostly went swimming and hung out under the shade of trees with cold drinks and not much interest in too much action. Naomi and Aiden stayed with us for dinner; we had our ball practices after that; and then we went for a cool-down swim after the baseball fun. We aren’t doing a sleepover again tonight, but we also didn’t do any work in the office either. Mom did a Magi lesson with us and we talked with Mom and Dad for a while too, but then Ehlana and I were ready for bath or Jacuzzi time; and now we’re quickly winding down toward nap time. That’s also pretty much all we have for this report and we really are ready to get some sleep now; so that’s all for this update.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
