Re-Entry

Making the mistake of reading the news.

Iranian attack on Tel Aviv (Source: The Guardian)

Atlanta, GA

June 13, 2025

After a half-hour ride from the Serena Hotel, our driver stopped shy of the Nairobi airport.

“Everybody out!”, he insisted.

Perplexed at this odd order, we exchanged glances.

“Are we there?”, we wondered.

“No. You must walk thru security”, he said while pointing toward a roadside structure. “I’ll meet you on the other side.”

“Do we bring our bags?”

“No. Bring nothing.”

Confused, we walked off… realizing we’d left our passports and valuables with a total stranger on a Nairobi bus. I kept an eye on it as we entered the small building beside the road.

I’d retained my wallet and phone, which I placed on the conveyor as I walked thru the detector. As it did for everyone who preceded or followed me, the screener beeped incessantly… like a fire alarm in an active volcano. With nary a glance, the indifferent “guard” waved us thru.

Re-boarding the bus, we rode further… into a collection of cars resembling cattle crammed in a crowded chute.

Having ridden as far as we could, it was time to walk. We dragged our luggage around the lot, about half a mile toward the entrance to the airport.

At the door, we endured another checkpoint. Passports were examined. Shoes and belts had to come off. All possessions and bags went into a bin. Having entered the concourse, we checked our luggage, and proceeded toward the plane.

Around a corner, we scanned our boarding passes to clear a turnstile. After we did, we joined another line… which carried us thru security again!

Same drill: passports out, belts removed, shoes off, bags conveyed, pockets emptied, questions asked. Having passed thru, repacked our bags, and gotten re-dressed, we approached the last leg of this endless gauntlet.

At the gate, we were forced again to present passports and brandish boarding passes. Receiving clearance, we finally made our way on the plane. I half expected the stewardess to check ID before I could take my seat.

Twenty-three hours later… after a five-hour layover in Paris… we landed in Atlanta.

Sipping Sludge

We’ve spent several weeks assiduously avoiding the news. I was hoping that tendency would harden into a habit.

But… like a recovering alcoholic hopping off the wagon…. when we hit the tarmac I grabbed my phone, popped the cork, and started sipping the sludge we’ve managed to miss.

Like a mild hangover, we nursed remnants of the fading tiff between Trump and Musk. I couldn’t get too worked up about the fight. It seemed irrelevant, like something designed to throw us off the scent.

We were gone only two weeks, and almost missed the entire kerfuffle. By the time we read about it, even the antagonists didn’t seem to care.

This reminded me that we’re manipulated to consume “news” that’s a deliberate distraction. Whenever such silly stories dominate headlines, it’s wise to wonder what important topics aren’t being discussed.

Within a few days, we had some answers. The largest landed in the Middle East.

Enormous Albatross

So much for “no new wars”. Since Trump took office, conflicts have continued in the Ukraine, resumed in Yemen, persisted in Gaza, and (now) started in Iran.

Each atrocity is conducted with American weaponry, funding, assistance, and consent. None were approved by Congress, and all would immediately stop if U.S. support ceased.

Yesterday, financiers, munitions makers, and other warmongers got their wish… when the state of Israel attacked Iran. In the White House, Israel’s puppet says the United States will “defend itself and Israel, if Iran retaliates.”

Last night, Iran did… as any country would after being attacked. Tehran lobbed missiles into Tel Aviv, affirming the Mideast theater of the Third World War.

The first act opened more than a decade ago, across the Bosporus. How long till it bridges the Atlantic, and opens on Broadway? Or in Boston… or Boise… or Birmingham?

And for what? Some intractable skirmishes six thousand miles away?

The U.S. has no responsibility to defend Israel or the Ukraine, and would have no reason to “defend itself” if only its reckless government minded its own business.

America’s “greatest ally” is an enormous albatross. It does nothing to enhance our prosperity or security. To the contrary, it compromises both, by cultivating endless enemies we don’t need.

Its prime minister is a war criminal. Its government corrupts our congressmen, interferes in elections, foments ruinous wars it expects Americans to fund, spies on its benefactors, and exposes them to deadly attacks (including from itself).

Right to Exist

We often hear of Israel’s “right to exist”. But no government, including Israel’s, has a “right” to exist… and no foreign regime has a claim on American lives and loot to ensure it does.

Did the Syrian government not have a “right to exist?” How about Libya? Afghanistan? Iraq? The Carthaginians? The Confederacy?

What about Iran?

If not, why not?

But even if Israel had such a “right”, why is it Americans’ job to preserve it? How does the existence of a small Mid-eastern country benefit residents of Mid-western states?

If Israel went away, what difference would it make to the average Oregonian, Arkansan, or Michigander? Aside from fewer wars ending the lives of their sons and extinguishing the value of their dollars, would they even notice?

American money and military should only defend American borders and citizens. It’s astounding this even needs to be said.

Propagandists like Douglas Murray insist that American survival is contingent on Israeli existence. As Murray put it regarding Islamists: “One of the reasons they go for Israel is they realize that if you take this out, you cut the tree at the root.”

This is self-evidently preposterous. If anything, the dependency works the other way. Obviously. Contemporary Israel isn’t the Israel of the Bible. It sprouted from European Zionists planting themselves into Palestinian soil.

The United States existed for almost two centuries before modern Israel was proclaimed. Europe has survived even longer. Despite the deficiency, they did just fine.

Especially Imbecilic

War with Iran is manifestly moronic. Unlike Syria, Libya, Kuwait, or Iraq, Iran isn’t some artificial construct carved in European boardrooms. Persia is a large country with an ancient pedigree. And a proud one.

Stupid as American involvement would be at any time, it’s especially imbecilic now. The United States is a deeply divided union, overrun by unassimilable aliens, cultural conflict, and more than $100T in unfunded liabilities. Unlike in 1917 or 1941, there’s no support for a stupid war.

To the contrary.

Donald Trump inherited a mess (partly from himself). But, as in the Ukraine, he now owns this disaster. He came to office with as much political capital as any president in recent memory. And he’s squandering all of it.

He could’ve and should’ve requested Congress (where his worthless party has a slim majority) rescind all funding to Israel and the Ukraine. Let those countries commit suicide on their own dime.

But the president hasn’t done it because he doesn’t want to. He’s no different than his predecessors he pretends to loathe.

What Good?

I’ve often marveled how Trump’s opponents treat him as a unique evil who’s different in essence from the psychopaths who preceded him. But his supporters suffer similar derangement, acting as if Donald Trump is some sort of messiah.

Four years ago, we lumped Trump among the ten worst presidents in American history, mostly because he was indistinguishable in substance from the other scoundrels of this century.

In fairness to each of them, that’s not entirely their fault. Modern executives don’t really run the government; they’re run (or run over) by it.

Yet debt grew more in Trump’s first term than it did in both of Obama’s. Much of that was caused by the calamitous covid response, which Trump supported.

Yet when upon his re-election, I was willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. But he never learns his lessons. Within months of returning to office, he launched strikes on Yemen, threatened to invade Greenland and grab Gaza, and pushed a disastrous bill to expand spending beyond that of his profligate predecessor.

He blasts as “grandstanders” the few congressmen who oppose his boondoggle bill. He threatens to “primary” Thomas Massie… the only principled member of the House… yet lauds Lindsey Graham, the most odious member of the Senate.

We’re to believe that even Obama-level budgets would cause mass starvation, put people on the streets, and lower grandma into an early grave. But our wallets and caskets always have room for more war, the latest of which started last night.

Collective Yawn

As Lysander Spooner said of the Constitution, Trump either permitted these disasters or is unable to stop them. Either way, what good is he?

It seems obvious Trump is enabling Israeli outrages, and gave Netanyahu approval to attack Iran.

The ostensible rationale for the Iranian “threat” exists only because Trump revoked the nuclear deal Obama negotiated (aside from opening to Cuba, perhaps the only good thing Obama did).

But even Trump’s own administration admits Iran isn’t producing nuclear weapons. This entire fiasco is a farce.

Regarding war and debt (the two issues that matter most), how much of what we endure now was different under Biden? Both continue to expand, Yet MAGA emits a collective yawn, and demands unyielding loyalty to their dear leader.

But Americans shouldn’t be loyal to any politician. Our politicians should be loyal to us… as if we were the Prime Minister of Israel.

JD