Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 39th Birthday, Uncle Nick!
We had a gift and best wishes for our uncle while at school today, but that was the extent of our involvement in his happy day. Mom and Dad were among the guests for his birthday dinner, but we were at Aiden’s house and he hosted our dinner and study time between our afternoon and evening practices. We can add that Leah and Sebastian are not at home tonight; and don’t need to comment on anything else related to that story!
Ethan and I have had a good day, and that was partly thanks to better-than-forecast weather. We only ended up having a few afternoon showers instead of an all-day rain event. We were able to have Tai Chi by the river; the high for the day hit the mid-eighties; and even the showers that came during our football or cheer squad practices was welcome to help us with cooling off near the end of our respective workouts. Dinner and the studying at Aiden’s house were a highlight of our day thanks to the time we got to spend with his parents while Hailey was with Leah for that birthday dinner; and then we were on the go again for our teen praise team practice at the church. That practice was a lot of fun too; Ethan and I split up after that for a bit of alone time with Naomi or Aiden that he did at Naomi’s house while Aiden stayed with me for an hour or so in the lounge. Silkie went with Ethan; they were home before Aiden left; and then we had a short visit with Mom and Dad before moving on to bath or Jacuzzi time. That pretty much brings us up to now, since I won’t be writing about that couples-only time; so let’s cover a last world news update for September; and then we’ll head for our beds and what will hopefully be happy dreams.
One of the stories getting a lot of attention today was the attempted hijacking of a passenger jet en-route to Israel. The co-pilot attacked the pilot with a knife and tried to crash the jet, but was stopped by other passengers and crew; and then two other pilots on-board took over and landed the jet safely. The rumors that have gone along with this story were expected, but it is also stupid to try and tie every incidence of violence with State actors before any facts are known at all. We have mentioned that there is so much hatred growing in the Middle East that anything could set off new violence or conflict, so while we don’t want to see things like this happen; we will not be surprised to see more incidents of individuals or small groups attempting what they surely believe to be retaliations for the Israeli and American atrocities in the region.
As for the Ukraine war, the Ukrainian drone attacks continue to target civilians while Russian missile and drone attacks are focusing on destroying infrastructure that has recently expanded to include telecommunications centers. They continue to hit energy infrastructure down to the gas station level; transportation systems; and port facilities. The Ukraine steel industry is basically destroyed now; and every warehouse of any size has also become a target for Russian attacks. The stories from the frontlines aren’t as spectacular as the bombings and don’t get much attention in western media, but tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are in constant peril as they are surrounded and are often forced to fight to the last man instead of retreating or surrendering. We’ll continue to wish for their leaders to come to their senses and make a deal with Russia before they have nobody left to fight or anything left to fight for, but their elites are still getting rich; and probably won’t give up their power regardless of the cost to their citizens.
The last story we want to cover tonight is about how much our government manipulates data and statistics. This is far from new, but we took note of it again today as our government changed methodology for the PCE – Personal Consumption Expenditures – index to make inflation look better than it really is. Doing things like that have ripple effects that usually hurt the poorest people – such as reducing pension incomes that are tied to inflation and keep benefit payouts depressed. We find those tactics particularly-disgusting when at the same time as our government hurts the people most in need; they also choose to throw hundreds of billions of dollars into military spending increases and pile up new debts that can never be repaid but will be a drag on our resources forever – or until our leaders take us collectively into bankruptcy. Our actual point, though, is that manipulating data doesn’t change the reality of inflation – or any other statistic – and it is stupid to intentionally blind yourself to reality just to look better or feel good. Reality eventually wins – or loses; and that will just be harder to cope with for everyone trying to live in the delusions our leaders and governments try to create to fool the rest of us.
Okay, that’s enough bad news for one day and we really do want to head off to dreamland with happy thoughts; so we’ll end this and try to get to that happier place by the time we do drift off to sleep.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
