In The Fatal Environment, Richard Slotkin demonstrates how the myth of frontier expansion and subjugation of the Indians helped to justify the course of America’s rise to wealth and power.
I got all the housecleaning done last Saturday. This was after not doing it at the end of July because we had tracked in a lot of mud. So what happens? We get rain again Sunday morning starting around 3:00 when it woke me up and I closed the windows. It was still raining lightly when we drove into Reserve expecting Ella’s to be open for breakfast. When that did not happen I went to the Adobe Café and Bakery again then after breakfast there back to Jake’s to get some groceries. Still some light rain or sprinkles after we got back to the park and hooked up to water and power (getting a little damp while doing that). Then I woke up this morning near 4:00 with rain on the roof again and got the windows closed. Looked like more rain when we got up late so canceled our walks again. They may need the rain here to break the drought that they have been in but I’m really really tired of the rain!
For Donald Trump, August 28th will pass just like any other day. It’s unlikely that one of his closest aides might point out that it’s the six-month anniversary of when he announced that he was about to start an “incursion” with Iran, which should only last a matter of a “few days”. Six months later, respected analysts in D.C. are announcing on podcasts that it is common knowledge that Trump has in fact backed down – and even scrapped any idea he might have had of some sort of a ramped-up war with Iran, possibly using land forces. Trump simply ran out of three things. Firstly, the required minimum amount of weaponry – missiles – which were used so recklessly in the first couple of weeks that now the U.S. is running dangerously low on some key types, which has seriously taken the sting out of the scorpion’s tail when it comes to bullying your way around the world as a pseudo-superpower. Secondly, realistic military options, given that bombardment of Iran simply by missiles alone – usually by air – has proved beyond any doubt to be nowhere near enough in terms of trying to get close to harming the country’s infrastructure to the point where the regime might consider talks. And thirdly, credibility – as this would have been critical in recent weeks in trying to seek an off-ramp, given that it would have involved talks with the Iranians, but they have long given up on this method as they simply have no confidence in him keeping his word on anything.…
On the floor but still breathing, Trump is undefeated, though, in his mind. Like an out-of-shape boxer, he believes he still has moves, and yet he is unable to see how the games he plays with allies and frenemies always make his credibility sink even lower – which, presumably, makes it harder for the U.S. to borrow more money around the world. — Trumps Iran Disater Comes with Bigger Costs Than Originally Thought by Martin Jay
The most serious cost is credibility, the United States no longer has any. It has been loosing credibility for years and president Trump has simply taken it down to what is now its lowest level an years. His promise of MAGA has become a joke to everyone except president Trump. After all he renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario as Lake America; juvenile perhaps, but that seems to be his idea of MAGA. He has also kidnapped a head of state and placed a gun at the head of his replacement and then claims that he has signed a historic ‘deal’ for the countries oil. The ‘deal’ requires private oil developers to invest some 100 billion over some undefined period of time which may require putting a gun to their head also to make them do that. They have not wanted to do it for many years, why would they want to voluntarily want to do it now? However, in president Trumps mind this is also MAGA, it is all The Art of the Deal.
A clever wag has said that from this time forward Canadian Geese will be named Donald’s Ducks
At the White House on 9 January 2026, shortly after the US removal of Maduro, Trump insisted the industry would spend more than $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s oil sector. The room did not agree. ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods told the President to his face that Venezuela is, as it stands, “uninvestable” — that durable legal frameworks, commercial terms, and stability must come first, and that Exxon would send only a technical team to assess. ConocoPhillips’ Ryan Lance said the system needs major restructuring first; both firms had their assets expropriated under Chávez, and by 30 January both Exxon and Chevron said they had no plans to raise Venezuela spending that year. The figures put before that meeting matched Miller’s: Rystad estimated roughly $110 billion merely to double output by 2030, and closer to $185 billion to climb back toward 2000-era levels. — <a href=https://sonar21.com/feedstock-is-not-fuel-why-venezuelan-crude-cannot-fix-the-diesel-and-jet-shortage/>Feedstock Is Not Fuel: Why Venezuelan Crude Cannot Fix The Diesel And Jet Shortage</a> by Larry C. Johnson