Missive #676

In a climate-ravaged future, a mother and daughter from London plan to have their minds merged as a form of government-sponsored population control.

In this taut thriller, a new kind of technology enables a person’s mind to coexist in another’s body. The two minds in one body are then called Combines, identifiable by their double names, mandala neck tattoos, and green clothing. A government-corporate enterprise, also called Combine, the process is marketed as a way of reducing the population and reversing climate change, but people who don’t merge are punished through government mandates: Most are forced from their homes into government apartment buildings, menstrual cycles are monitored, prison inmates are involuntarily merged, Oxford will only accept Combines. Of course, if you have the money, you can remain as you are.The Merge is the first book published by Grace Walker not to be confused with Clara Grace Walker that also write SiFi. I hope to find more of her books in the years to come. Amelia Anderson, a videographer, and her mother, Laurie, have signed up for an experimental merge group of risky cases—Laurie has Alzheimer’s disease, which will be cured when she merges into the body of her daughter. However, even with her failing cognition, Laurie is against the merge, as are many in London who protest in the streets and outside the Combine clinics. Secretly, Amelia volunteered them both as a form of gonzo journalism to have access to the inner workings of Combine during their three-month preparation period. She plans for them to escape before the merge, but doesn’t realize how difficult that will be. Walker has produced an inventive exploration of climate change, class disparity, corporate influence, and biotech “enhancement,” all of which converge in this frightening vision of a totalitarian Britain. Amelia and her mother discover Combine’s deadly secrets, in a world where individuality takes on a new meaning. Whether they will be able to escape is another matter.
An excellent addition to the growing catalog of 21st-century dystopian nightmares. — Kirkus Reviews

I had an appointment scheduled for yesterday with my dentist in Naco, MX but it was canceled by the office on 3 March. I had sent four emails asking for a confirmed replacement date and did not receive a reply until late Thursday afternoon. So I was going to go to Auga Prieta, MX yesterday and see if I could find a dentist to take care of an infected tooth. But with the reply from my dentist in Naco and my pulling the tooth that was causing me the pain I went shopping in Willcox yesterday and will go to Naco on 25 March. My pulling the tooth was not as you imagine. The tooth was almost completely rotted off at the gum line and I was able to just reach in an pulled it out with my fingers. Some minor pain continues but nothing like what it was and I’ll get the roots taken out on the 25th – I hope.

[T]he constant bombardment of both Israel and the GCC countries is the killer blow and the real Achilles heel of the West and of Trump. At some point, the Gulf Arabs are going to put pressure on both Israel and the U.S. to stop the attacks, and this can only mean one thing: a major concession from the U.S. Sanctions relief. As each day passes and social media timelines fill with pictures of the exodus of foreigners from Dubai or oil installations destroyed, the GCC faces an existential threat which is entirely of Trump’s making, if we are to believe that it was his decision to go to war. Recently he said he “had a feeling” that Iran was going to attack Israel. Perhaps now he has a feeling that his presidency is going to be put into the history books as an unprecedented disaster of any U.S. president in office, as he plunges the U.S. economy into the abyss and injects new life into the BRICS countries. It is hardly surprising he is phoning world leaders and urging them to create a ceasefire, given the stakes of the war continuing even another week. For Iran, there are only positive outcomes to plan for, given that each day that passes ratchets up the pressure on Trump and convinces Tehran that this is the only way to deal with someone so treacherous and so bereft of any respect for keeping agreements. The Iranians believe they’re dealing with a gangster who has no morals at all and therefore can’t be trusted even a tiny bit and certainly won’t respect any deals. Whatever deal is struck has to be guaranteed by the whole international community and will be hard to put together, given that the EU and UK are so weak these days, even with a U.S. president sliding down a slope heading towards a demise. It might mean that EU countries will have to consider relaxing sanctions if they want cheap oil and gas, as Iran now has them by the throat as it chokes the Straits of Hormuz. There is a new world re-order coming, and Russia agreeing to resupply India with oil, but this time without a discount, after Modi played both the West off against the East, is a small taste of things to come. Rules are about to change. The only thing Trump can do to save the West from this new setup is to move quickly to agree to sanctions relief on Iran, which he would probably wrap up and present to his own MAGA base as winning a great oil deal for America. The real question, though, is whether he even has any power left to end this war on any terms. — Can Trump Even Stop The Iran War by Martin Jay