Childhood punishments become adult goals

I didn't want to end the bloggin day with all that war crap at the top of the column, so I'll shift gears to this aphorism.  Perhaps later I can find a nice photo or such, but right now I need to watch the end of the NCAAW championship game.

Screencaps from Al Jazeera

Not emphasized on American media are the antiwar protests going on in Israel.  There apparently is a lot of opposition to Netanyahu, either because of his principles or out of fear of retaliation, but the people there may have as little control over their leader as we do.

Yemen is situated quite a distance from the Persian Gulf, but in close proximity to the Red Sea and the access to the Suez Canal.  This image from last week when the Houthis joined Iran and Hezbollah in sending missiles against Israel, with mixed success.

Also not featured much on American media is the Israeli push into Lebanon in their efforts to lay waste to the southern part of the country to create a "buffer zone" from hostile forces there.  This image posted after an Israeli "double-tap" attack - a rocket to a residential neighborhood followed by a second one schedule to arrive when rescuers and journalists were present at the scene.

I think I mentioned in the Facebook excerpts that Iran is responding to destruction of its own universities by counterattacking American-related universities in the Gulf region.

A screencap from April 1 in response to Trump's claim that negotiations were underway.  The Iranian counterproposals are diametrically opposite to Trump's 15-point "plan" that any intelligent observer would see they are not compatible.

From April 5 (today), part of the message the Iranian parliament sent to Trump.  The phrase in the screencap "because you insist on following Netanyahu's commands" shows how they think the dynamics of the war are set.  More of the message to Trump was posted in The Times of Israel: he said "“Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family..." in response to Trump's claim that Iran will be living in Hell.

If any readers here do decide to intermittently monitor Al Jazeera's broadcasts (note they come not from Iran but from the Gulf state of Qatar), you can do so via a link at the World Monitor app, or via their You Tube channel (both are in English).  If you do so and happen to view at a time when this young woman is providing analysis -

- I would encourage you to pay special attention to her commentary.  I only picked up the closing moments of an interview, and her perception of the power play between Trump and the Iranians is superb.  I believe that she is Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy based in Washington DC.  She has ten years experience covering US/Iran relationships.  She is also the host of The Iran Podcast.

Gleanings from Facebook

I'm sure it's reasonable to assume that the "one million" number is exaggerated, but it's worth remembering that this is a country of 93 million people, whose lives are being systematically ruined by Trump and Netanyahu.  

This is "old" war news from more than a week ago, covering the destruction of one very advanced aircraft.  I don't remember whether it was the Telegraph coverage or commentary elsewhere that made special note of the position of the damage, which indicated specific targeting of the radar bubble where the hi tech was stored, suggesting (but not proving) that the attack was achieved using "smart" drones or drones guided by precise navigation coordinates, as perhaps could be provided by Russian satellites.

A good map of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, from a different perspective.  Kharg Islad would be the little brown dot above the word "force."  Note the distance from the actual Strait of Hormuz at the bend.  There is a lot of real estate in between.  I think the distance is about the same as from Boston, Mass to South Carolina.  Found in the New York Times, as part of an informative article (not from Facebook, but it seemed to fit in here on a topical basis).

The image is probably AI-generated, but the sentiment expressed is accurate.  Several spokespersons for Iran have expressed on Al Jazeera that Iran's response to American/Israeli aggression would be "proportionate."  In other words, now that Israel and America have attacked non-military targets in Iran, Iran feels justified in targeting non-military targets in Gulf States that are supporting the war effort.  This includes American university branches in the region, which I understand have been evacuated.  And as I write this I think there is a report of a desalination plant having been hit last night.

(BTW, I'm not enjoying posting wartime coverage.  I have an interesting article about head lice, and one about the U.S. leading the world in toilet paper consumption and a great Agatha Christie quote and other stuff I'd rather blog, but this war material is important, and I can't just stick my head in the sand and ignore it.)

Grim forecasts for the U.S. economy

The embed is a screencap from Facebook several days ago, but I've seen a similar forecast during a live discussion on Bloomberg TV.  The next Consumer Price Index report is scheduled for this coming Friday, April 10, before the markets open.  This will cover the month of March and thus will be the first one to reflect rising oil prices from the U.S./Israel war on Iran.

The second embed is also from before this weekend.  The Federal Reserve is in an impossibly terrible position if the anticipated "stagflation" occurs.  The investment community has been counting on a decrease in federal funds rates, arguing over one vs. two cuts in the year ahead.  More recently they have expected no rate cuts.  Now the possibility of a rate increase looms.  

Before we started this war, nobody would have imagined the Fed increasing rates.  It's probably not priced into the market now, but even the possibility of a rise in the future will have major reverberations on equity prices and bond yields.

"Pentagon Pizza Index" explained

In the wee hours of the night while doomsurfing for world geopolitical news, I noticed while looking at Euronews a reddish icon near the top that said "DEFCON 2 44%", and when I clicked on it, the pulldown showed a "Pentagon Pizza Index" as the index for the DEFCON rating.

Wikipedia has this to offer:

"The Pentagon pizza theory is the informal observation that spikes in fast food orders, particularly pizza delivery orders, near US government buildings such as The Pentagon, CIA headquarters, and the White House often occur right before a major international crisis...

In 1990, Frank Meeks, a Domino's franchisee in Washington, told the Los Angeles Times about an extraordinary observation of some unusual late-night deliveries to the Pentagon, CIA and the White House. Meeks had noted that on August 1, the CIA had ordered a one-night record of 21 pizzas, and the following day Iraq invaded Kuwait, starting the Gulf War. At first, Meeks thought it was just a coincidence, but he observed a similar surge in deliveries in December 1998 during the impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton...

In a statement to Newsweek in 2025, the Department of Defense denied the theory, claiming that the Pentagon has numerous internal food vendors that are available to late-night workers. It criticized the accuracy of the timeline provided by the Pentagon Pizza Report.

I found the Pentagon Pizza Index homepage.  It seems to monitor the number of pizza ordered from various places near the Pentagon, but has no evidence for where they are being delivered.  I think the page is run mostly for humor, as evidenced by this graphic:

International mail disruptions

From the USPS website.  None of these are surprising, but it's interesting to note that they are advising people not even to try sending mail now.  Imagine how this is rippling through the business communities involved.

(test)

I'm having trouble trying to tranfer a video from my Facebook page to my blog here on Blogspot.  Not sure how to tweak the code - but I can't fix it now because I have plans for midday today.

Also don't know anything about the source for this, but the claims being made do tend to echo what I've heard intermittently on Al Jazeera. There is a war of disinformation going on, and I don't know how this fits in.  The video uses the face of George Will, but I'm sure this is generated by AI from a written text because of various glitches in pronunciation.  I may erase this by tonight if I don't find other confirmatory evidence.

Years ago, probably during the first Trump presidency, I remember speculating (silently to myself, not here on the blog) whether if Trump were to order a nuclear strike or some other catastrophic order, whether the Joint Chiefs of Staff would tell him "Sir, we need to move you to a secure facility first," and then would take him to a bunker in Washington, lock him in, and announce to the Congress and the American people that they have effected a bloodless coup and ask the country to select a new leader.  Trump has removed most of the military brass who disagree with him, but I still wonder whether such a turn of events would be possible.  It would result in a total political clusterfuck, but might be better than the alternative.

Chuckleworthy

Found on Facebook.

"Make a fortune" may be the"truth" after all...

That from Trump.  This from the American public (via Facebook):

Trump really said this. Out loud. In public.

I found confirmation at The New Republic:

Donald Trump doesn’t think the federal government should fund child care, Medicare, or Medicaid.

At an Easter Lunch reception at the White House Wednesday, the president told guests what exactly he thought about what the U.S. should be prioritizing, and it doesn’t bode well for the government’s most widely used and popular social programs.

“I said to [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought], ‘Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare.’ That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up.”

“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, all you have to you have to let states take care of them,” Trump continued.

Newspaper clippings

Gleanings from recent entries at Bad Newspaper - a reliable refuge in a world of geopolitical turmoil.\

Beavers as landscape architects

There's nothing fundamentally "new" in this video about beavers being reintroduced into Scotland, but the results are impressive.

Related:  

A "rescue beaver" starts building dams inside a house (3-minute video)

Trailcam video compilation of one year activity on a beaver dam in northern Minnesota (6-minute video)

More than you would ever need to know about beaver testicles (re medieval bestiaries)

"Lunar Grazing Model" - a celestial bovine containment system

Posted at NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website.   

Related:  Historic footage from the BBC of the Swiss spaghetti harvest (1957):

Whom do you believe?

While the world jumps with joy and the financial markets soar upward on an announcement from Donald Trump that productive peace talks are underway, this screencap is from Al Jazeera this morning.

Could be empty rhetoric from their side... or perhaps both sides are just reloading their weapons.  Commodity traders must be having conniption fits.  And people with inside information are making immense profits from this volatility.

"Funeral bread" explained

Cinnamon bread. Cheez Whiz. Green olives.

These are the sole ingredients of a potluck offering that’s popular in some parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Some people use breads with a little less flair, like pumpernickel or rye, but the cinnamon version has its die-hard fans, especially in Roseau, Minn...

“When you go to our local grocer — we only have one in town — on the Super One display is fresh baked, in-house cinnamon swirl bread with a pyramid of Cheez Whiz displayed next to it,” said Sinnamon Krings, Roseau promotions director. “To someone not from here you might wonder why but to a local it’s as common as peanut butter and jelly.”

Those who love the combination are often nostalgic about it and remember eating it as a kid after church services or funerals. In some circles, it’s called “funeral bread.”..

The company debuted Cheez Whiz in 1952, first in Britain, where Kraft marketed it as an easy way to make the sauce for Welsh rarebit.  When the product landed on U.S. supermarket shelves the next year, Kraft already had the perfect way to introduce it to shoppers — on the company-sponsored television program Kraft TV Theatre... On Sept. 8, Sasser wrote that during that week’s program, Kraft TV Theatre demonstrated a recipe that is very close to funeral bread: Melba toast spread with Cheez Whiz and topped with sliced olives. Could this be the dish’s origin?

This may have been a standard sandwich in northwestern Minnesota, but not where I grew up in the southern part of the state.  The closest sandwich to this that I can remember eating regularly from the 1950s used cream cheese and olives (not Cheez Whiz), and we ate it on puffy white slices of Wonder Bread, not cinnamon toast.  

But this "funeral bread" looks yummy  I'll give it a try.

Image credit Erica Pearson via the Minnesota Star Tribune.