Nightmare III

When it began, it was known as the Iran War, but by the time it was over, it was named the Great Oil War of 2026.

Okay, I'm just fantasizing, and the dream in my wide-awake mind is a nightmare, dark and forbidding. What started as Iran's blowing up oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, expanded to both sides targeting and taking out any and every oil facility they could in the Middle East.

Pump prices skyrocketed. Consumers suffered mightily. Cars and Trucks backed up for blocks, knowing that recent shipments of oil would soon be gone and they would be left without fuel. Nor was an empty tank the only way customers suffered. We have said the "suffered mightily" and you tell me if this was not mightily: The price of items derived from oil soared even as those items disappeared from store shelves. Cell phones, laptops, certain pharmaceuticals, heating oil, plastic bags, food containers, foam cups, nylon, polyester, and acrylic clothing, fertilizers, solar panels . . .  The list goes on. A modern world cannot survive without these products.

This nightmare is not likely to come to pass but could it. Two warrior nations are each going for the other's jugulars. But there is something good that would happen. Stop to consider that jet fuel would be affected. Yes, passenger jets would be grounded as air flight prices soared. But note also that the jets dropping the bombs right there in the Middle East would be removed from the skies.

Nightmares, Part II

Another nightmare comes to my mind tonight as I consider on news of the naturalized citizen from Lebanon who drove into Temple Israel in Michigan. There are perhaps 4.5 million Muslims in America and we can assume that a share of them side with Iran in the war that is raging.

In my nightmare, Muslim attacks snowball. When one Muslim attacks, others hear of it and decide to join in. Soon there are attacks all over the nation.

Most Muslims are great-- wonderful people, but with 4.5 million of them, there are enough who could decide to commit terrorist attacks. In my nightmare, our land becomes riddled with such attacks.

Drones in the Skies of America

A nightmare flashes in my mind upon hearing of the precautionary warning that Iran has plans to launch killer drones at California. I image Iranian terrorists buying a manufacturing facility in one of our western cities and turning it into a plant to manufacture drones. These terrorists are not so foolish as to launch their weapons of destruction from their plant but build launch sites in spots out in the country that can fold back into the ground-- not to be discovered once the drones have been launched.

The drones whistle into the skies, knocking down passenger airliners. They blow up seats of government throughout the west. They destroy freeways, explode National Guard sites in an effort to add to the number of American servicemen killed, and take out hydropower dams and energy plants.

Could the Iranians pull off such a harrowing nightmare? One wonders.

(Blogs)

 

Suicide, You Say, or Was It?

Epstein's death was ruled a suicide, but has a full investigation been done? I mean, has it? Even if you've interviewed everyone concerned, did you give proper weight to all the evidence?

Take the bank records showing that an officer charged with watching his cell received a $5,000 check just before the death. Has anyone pressed her as to who wrote her the check, and why they gave her such an inordinate amount of money?

I call for a full investigation. 

 

Circle Back and Check Again

A recently released document from the Epstein file says an inmate says he heard a voice say, "You dudes killed that dude" the morning Epstein died, He even fingers who the alleged killer was. The inmate claimed his fellow inmates said, "Miss Noel killed Jeffrey.," that being a reference to the female guard, Tova Noel.

Convicts are often not treasures of honesty, assuredly and admittedly. This inmate could be just trying to make a name for himself or stir things up. Plus, it is true the FBI investigated the death and ruled it a suicide. So did the DOJ inspector general. In fact, the DOJ has investigated the case several times. And the medical examiner also found it to be a suicide.

But do not close the door so quickly. 

The medical examiner originally did not mark either box --homicide or suicide, instead picking the "pending studies" box. A supervisor soon ruled it suicide. But Epstein's brother, Mark, does not believe it a suicide. Years later he pulled in a forensic pathologist who found inconsistencies. The fractures in the neck were not consistent with suicide, he said. And there wasn't anything high enough above in the room that Epstein could have attached the sheet (or whatever was used for the hanging).

Sometimes, when things are bothersome enough, you circle back and check yet another time. The House Oversight Committee should hire an independent investigator.

This just in: That committee today said it intends to interview Tova Noel. That's good. And it should also interview the prison guard. What he said is being dismissed as a rumor. I would suggest, though, he is a witness.

 

Principled Democracy

I believe in democracy. And that means not marginalizing the voice of any group or any individual. I do not believe in efforts to gerrymander, or to make it difficult for Native Americans to vote. Nor will I fall in with high-handed politicians who have repeatedly rejected the will of the people.