Ten days into the new year, and what a start. Geopolitical conflict, drama in the Royal Family, incriminating emails released from Boeing, additional fallout from the Epstein scandal, a deeply troubling plane crash that should have been avoided, and calamity over fires in Australia.
Iranian Conflict
First, it is important to rehash the timeline that led us to these events.
- Unmanned drone is shot down. Trump opted out of taking a life because it was nothing more than an expensive piece of machinery.
- Countless ships manned by international allies were taken seize, or threatened while transporting through the Strait of Hormuz. Again, no formal retaliation.
- The largest disruption of the world’s oil supply in decades is carried out from an Iranian attack on two Saudi Arabian oil fields. Again, sanctions are ramped up, but no lives are taken.
- Iran, through their proxies, carries out an attack that results in the death of an American contractor from Sacramento, CA. Trump’s retaliation results in the deaths of 25 rebels. The first official loss of life.
- The Iranians, in concert with IGRC leader Soleimani attempt to lay siege, and try to bomb the US Embassy in Iraq.
- Trump carries out a targeted attack that resulted in the death of Soleimani in Baghdad. The US declared him a terrorist in early 2018, and the UN had implemented a travel ban on the general years prior. The justification for the attack was citing intelligence that an imminent attack was going to result in loss of life in the event he wasn’t killed.
- Iran fires multiple missiles at US bases in Iraq resulting in none hitting their target, and the unintended consequence of taking down a Ukrainian airplane murdering 176 innocent people.
There are a few things to unpack in all of this.
First, the intelligence citing an imminent attack seems baseless. Most Democrats, and some Republicans have expressed frustration with the briefing they were given to explain the rationale behind the target. It is important to note, the outspoken Republicans do not discredit the killing of Soleimani, but they are upset that Trump seems to be going down the same rabbit hole Obama and Bush went down, which is carrying out dangerous missions relying on intelligence that resulted in the continuation of endless wars. Senators like Rand Paul and Mike Lee worry that we are teetering closer to yet another war because of these actions. They also rather not rely on US intelligence, considering what happened in 2003 with our pursuit of Iraq’s WMDs that never existed. Their worries are warranted.
The next area to tackle is the murder of Soleimani and the question of, ‘was it justified?’ Yes. There is no way to say it wasn’t. The man is credited with murdering over 600 US soldiers, and his tactics of targeting US troops likely resulted in hundreds of our soldiers losing limbs because he developed ways to penetrate our armor. Need we go on? That alone justified his killing. But, it seems that isn’t enough to appease some.
Well, he is also a leader of carrying out proxy wars and attacks. What does that mean? Iran fights their battles through proxies so their government can avoid direct responsibility making it difficult to render them complicit in the actions carried out. Soleimani was their leader who meddled in affairs all over the world. He was the head of the snake, and we chopped it off. Yes, another head will grow back, but this is the most we can do in our ongoing battle to defeat terrorists.
Bush fought terrorists on the ground by trying to take out mass amounts of them. He also had the lofty goal of changing regimes and nation building. The task was expensive, and overwhelming. It was truly an example of biting off more than one can chew.
Obama fought terrorists from the air with countless drone attacks. These weren’t targeted like we’ve seen with Trump. They were large and resulted in many innocent civilians being murdered. He also embellished a form of diplomacy that showed his cards and relayed his actions to the terrorists. His playbook was often accessible.
Trump has been a wildcard, largely refrained from boots on the ground, hasn’t showed most of his cards, and carried out very targeted attacks to suppress terror. It’s a change of strategy, and it seems to be working for the time being.
The most troubling event from the Iranian conflict is the downing of the Ukrainian passenger jet. First, was it even accidental? That, we will likely never know. But, assuming it was an accident, we do know that Iran committed this atrocity. What a horrible turn of events. Iran was either “shooting to kill”, if we are to believe Mike Pence, or shot to save face, if we are to believe reports from the Pentagon that they alerted us ahead of time to avoid killing Americans or Iraqis. What we do know is that they can’t even play war games successfully. They murdered 176 people with their actions. This is incredibly unfortunate and such a shame. Just watch video of the wreckage. If you do, you may see a pink stuffed animal still intact amongst the destruction. A child was holding that at her untimely, tragic death.
The United States carries out a strategic strike to rid the world of a mass murdering terrorist sponsored and supported by a nation that has no problem inflicting harm across the globe. Said nation tries to retaliate and in turn murders 176 innocent civilians. My heart weeps for their souls, and my blood boils at Iran’s folly. They are complicit. Them alone.
The Crown… Drama
What a shocking turn of events from the Royal Family. Well, not really. Those following closely realized that this was bound to happen. Let’s play psychologist for the sake of this story and examine the intent, action, and response and rationale.
The intent was to rid themselves from the public eye. The reason cited from Harry is because of the trauma he deals with involving the loss of his mother which he and others largely attribute to the actions of the paparazzi. This makes sense, but unfortunately, he is a public figure. He always has been, and always will be. The intent is valid, but the lack of wherewithal is troubling.
The action is to post the news publicly for the world to digest via an Instagram post without divulging the plan to their family ahead of time. This is the first problem. You say you intend to leave the public eye with a post for the world to see. How does that even begin to make sense? If you intend to leave the public limelight, you can simply retreat to private places and subdued events. Gradually overtime you will fade away from the spectrum.
The response from fanboys and fangirls across the globe is telling. They love the move. They feel Harry and Meghan earned it. They believe they deserve it. This is problem number one.
The rationale being leaked out is that this is a hidden money grab from Harry and Meghan to profit from their platform, and rid themselves of the pomp and circumstance of the royal life. They’ve trademarked multiple items with the Sussex title, and expect $500 million in revenues. Allegedly, Oprah was in the ear of Meghan coaching the two on how they can carry out this plan.
So, you want to make money, but do it in a way where you don’t have to play by the rules of the royals. But, the royals gave you the platform you have that you now leave them to capitalize.
The two are abandoning their family, leaving what brought them their success, and going to another continent to develop their own brand that they can profit from to beat to their own drum. Hardly seems scummy?
It’s a classic millennial move. No loyalty. No respect. No work. Just the easiest way out. But, are they really to blame? They have a massive amount of haters, but they have a massive amount of fans. They can profit from this adoration with ease. Why not? If godless folks across the globe decide to worship false idols through social media and purchase products these people put out, why wouldn’t these famous individuals profit from it and make it their livelihood. Both sides are to blame, but depending on your side of the aisle, it’s up to you as to which group is more complicit in blame.
Boeing Fallout
How much worse can the story get from Boeing? Well, this week it ended up going to places we didn’t think it could go. Emails were published showing how brazen and insensitive Boeing employees were throughout the approval process of the MAX Jet, as well as the fallout after the first of two fatal crashes.
We saw lines from employees stating that “the planes were designed by clowns and supervised by monkeys.” We saw Boeing pilots state they wouldn’t put their family in the MAX Jets. We saw an employee say “he hasn’t been forgiven by God for covering up what he did.”
The cover up is most interesting. Unearthed emails from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have previously shown that the company certainly knew the jet was flawed.
Regulators at the FAA were cozy with Boeing throughout the process as well. We’ve seen proof of this. It was, and has been an inside job.
Everyone knew, but they still put lives at risk by letting the planes fly. And even after the first plane proved the point everyone had prophesied, the planes stayed in the air until more lives were lost.
There are so many problems with this story. First, we act as if America is a capitalistic free society, yet we are just as complicit of the crony capitalism we complain about in China or the EU. Boeing is hardly a publicly traded, free company. They are in bed with regulators and the Pentagon. They ensure their jets are flying, pushed down the throats of US airline companies, and funded and supported from an expeditious processes within the US government. The same thing goes on with jets manufactured in China and the EU.
Today, we see a stock that has barely been impacted in the way one would expect. Why is that? Well, Boeing is the single most important stock to the Dow 30. One point drop in Boeing equals nearly a ten point drop in the Dow. The stock market simply can’t afford a tremendous scandal to blow up Boeing’s stock price. Why do you think you’ve seen minimal comments from Trump, and few reports of government action to make meaningful change occur. It’s largely stayed business as usual despite an onslaught of tremendous reporting for over a year now laying out a tremendous case of inefficiency and corruption. We have a president who relies on a rallying stock market, and he wouldn’t dare derail his gains.
So, America is left in a quandary of sorts. What will ultimately happen to these planes? Will they ever fly again? If so, under what rules and brand? Expect more leaks to come out between now and the election, while the tight lips stay mute. Then, don’t be surprised about a strong response from the Trump administration or new administration once we hit January of 2021.
In my opinion, just nationalize the company and assume government control. Delist the company from the stock market and take it over. The company relies exclusively on the FAA to keep their planes in the air, and the US essentially forces our airline companies to buy the jets to remain competitive against the EU and China. Why act as if this is capitalistic and competitive anymore? It isn’t. Bridge the gap. Take away the incentive to maximize profits. Increase safety and regulation and prevent this from ever happening again. Lives are more important than stock prices.
Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself
The Epstein scandal continues to grow. CBS, through 60 Minutes, showed us an in depth look at the alleged suicide in his jail cell. The majority of the report only added to the the growing uncertainty surrounding his death. It seems more likely than not that there was some sort of foul play involved. Likely, a strangulation staged as a hanging. It doesn’t seem to have been a job carried out by prisoners in the jail. Why? The guards were conveniently asleep and the video is gone.
We may never know who carried this out, but it’s becoming very difficult to not view this as a staged suicide with malicious intent to suppress his voice. We can only hope the FBI will reach his right hand man (woman), Madam Maxwell, and she will provide us insight into what happened.
Later in the week, ABC released a piece highlighting the victims associated with the scandal. First, as if ABC cares. We shouldn’t forget that the anchorwoman who worked at ABC got caught on a hot mic exposing the hypocrisy within the organization. She stated she had the story years ago but heads of the company surpassed her story. Then, to make matters worse, CBS tipped off ABC as to who allegedly leaked the audio and proceeded to ruin her life. Sad part of the story is that they sought the wrong person! These companies have no leg to stand on. I intentionally refused to watch ABC’s documentary last night.
Australia Burns, Climate Activists Mourn
Australia is burning. The kangaroos and koalas are dying. Oh, the calamity. Never let a good crisis go to waste. That’s the mantra. You can see it all over the Internet these days with regard to the bush fires. There are companies using social media to gain exposure by acting as if they’ll be donating money based on how many shares and likes their posts get. There’ are American companies asking Americans to donate to the Australian charities to help in efforts. There are celebrities and politicians crying foul and citing this as proof of global warming and climate change.
Here’s a history lesson from someone who lived in Australia. The continent has a bush fire season every year at this time. The season they are dealing with now has yet eclipse the worst one from 2009 when 173 Aussies died in one fire alone. The fires are largely a product of poor planning. The country has no official firefighters. It’s volunteer based. So, no one is clearing dead brush and protecting areas from the obvious. Second, regulations prevent clearing of brush in protected areas. Finally, most of the fires are already attributed to lightning strikes and arson. In fact over 200 people have been arrested or questioned from Australian authorities. Finally, there is a drought problem, but like 2009, there was a drought then. The drought was declared over by the second half of 2010. Let’s stay patient, stop being quick to judge, and seek out facts.
Welcome to an election year, and welcome to mass amounts of hypocrisy! Tune out now. Everyone who has a platform will say what they need to say to remain in power or continue to profit. Companies will continue to pedal all sorts of bull shit to act as if they care about causes, concerns, or discovering the truth, but all they care about is the bottom line.
Just listen to Ricky Gervais absolutely obliterate everyone and everything at last weeks Golden Globes in a perfect way. He hit the nail on the head. Bury your head in a sandbox now, or stay pissed off at endless amounts of hypocrisy every day.
Phil Your Day 
Good read!!!
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