Cead Fáilte
Welcome back to another episode of The Village Oak Tree. I have another interview for everyone this week.
I have a return guest, whom I interviewed back in March of this year about his book, Final Bible Study. His writes under the pseudonym AMS Esquire and is back again this week to talk about his latest book, Love Poems for Men: A compilation of poems for American men.
His latest book is full of poems that date back hundreds of years by poets from all over the known world. Such famous writers as Syed, Hali, The Master Rumi, The Moghul Princess Zeb Un Nisa, Master Omar Al Khayyam, Werner Goethe, and Edgar Allen Poe.
The book is not that lengthy but a good read of some classical poetry from some of the greatest names in literature. The poetry does require a bit of studying as the author notes. They are written at a college level mastery.
This book of poetry has made it to the top one hundred poetry books for sale in Amazon by now so it is very popular. His previous work has also made it to some bestseller lists.
For anyone interested in reading this, I offer a link to the Amazon page where it can be purchased for a reasonable price.
The rest of the hour, we spend talking about American politics from his perspective. He is an acknowledged, “son of Abraham”, not a Muslim, Christian or a Jew. We talked about the uncommitted Muslim American voters some, the genocide in Gaza and the wars over there, plus the two political candidates, whom we both agree are going to be trouble for the United States. As if things aren’t bad enough already.
Since this show was recorded a few days ago, we have seen a massive escalation of the war in the middle east in the last 24 hours, with more to come I’m sure. As I write this today on October 2nd, 2024, the Iranians have fired somewhere around 200 missiles of a couple different types to satisfy their revenge for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh back on July 31st in Tehran. The amount of missiles is a loose figure as some reports that are coming in say that it may have been 180 and others are saying upwards of 250. We may never know and it isn’t that important anyway.
Israel has started their ground invasion into southern Lebanon, even though they are saying to the press, no they are not, yet. Meanwhile they are sending casualties back to Israel from their not invasion into a sovereign country.
The other questions that few in the mainstream media are asking, is the U.S. going to use American troops from the 82nd Airborne that are deployed to Israel right now to back up the IDF in the not invasion of Lebanon? Is Israel going to try and hit Iran directly now after the latest missile attack? Will the U.S. back that up with their own assets in the region?
Two destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean used their interceptors to help Israel’s Iron Dome stop some of the Iranian missiles. They were somewhat effective apparently but nowhere near what is needed to defend Israel from Iran, the Iraqi militias and the Houthis, who are firing barrages of missiles into Israel as I write this.
With a media blackout in Israel right now, it is hard to know what is being hit and how bad the damage is. I am sure that some video will be snuck out in a few days to let the world know how much damage the missiles are causing in Israel. And they want to ban TikTok and Telegraph. Good luck with that.
In the United States, the media is all over the government spokespeople to find out as much as possible but, as usual, the spokespeople are flapping their lips without saying anything of substance.
Today, president Biden is telling Israel, and the world, they will not support any bombing of Iranian nuclear power plants. Finally, some sanity from the white house. Even a little bit these days is welcome, given all of the chaos in the last year since October 7, 2023.
That will likely be short lived but I will take it while I can. I am sure the U.S. government will do or say something stupid to escalate things soon. It seems they can’t help themselves anymore. Biden and his people just keep shooting themselves, with a rabid congress right behind them.
Everyone is also watching the U.S. election move into the downhill stretch. The two primary candidates are still neck and neck in the polls so it is anyone’s guess as to how that will turn out in November. The V.P. debate last night didn’t help the democrats at all apparently, according to all of the reports today. It may have even hurt the Harris campaign a bit. Something they can ill afford.
Biden and Harris decided, a few days late, to visit the hurricane ravaged areas of the state of North Carolina. I have to wonder how many of those folks who were wiped out by the floods will show up for a speech? I imagine they are more interested in clearing up what’s left of their towns and homes than attending speeches for a couple of rich politicians who haven’t offered to help much.
I read a report today that the federal government has pretty much defunded FEMA now. So, now there will be little to no help from them and given the way the insurance industry is in the U.S., their will be lots of court battles in the near future from folks suing to get their insurance benefits.
More and more U.S. insurance companies are bailing on regions that are prone to climate change weather disasters these days. Florida and California are the top two but I bet there will be a few more areas added to that list before long.
How long before the Americans wake up to the fact that the insurance system there is nothing but a con? The insurance companies sell their products all day long but when it comes to paying out after a disaster, they pull a Donald Trump and find any excuse to get out of paying out.
Welcome to America. The land of the scammers and con artists who find their way into a large majority of their government offices and corporate boardrooms. With the support of their prejudicial justice system, they fleece their citizens day in and day out constantly.
The citizens and non-citizens are subject to air pollution, water pollution (if it isn’t drying up), land pollution and any number of other toxic hazards that are causing global warming. There are lots of climate deniers, such as Donald Trump, but the large number of F4 and F5 tornadoes every spring, devastating Cat 4 and 5 hurricanes in the fall, wildfires and record temperatures in the summer tell a different story.
And yet, emergency services are at a record low as the U.S. federal government sends millions of dollars to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, to try to maintain their global, unipolar hegemony.
I wonder how much longer before the American populace finally wakes up to the fact that they are being conned by the governments and the corporations? How many people have to die in weather disasters before they say enough?
Will the next president have to be escorted to an underground bunker soon as the angry mobs storm the Bastille called the white house? We all can imagine how Donald Trump would react to that but what about kamala Harris?
What do you think she would do if a very large angry mob of thousands of people tried to storm the white house and the congress? We already have a recent history of such a mob from Jan. 6th, 2021 and they were relatively small compared to the protestors who tried to get into the white house in 1971 when Nixon was president. It was reported at the time that Nixon was scared that they would come in to get him.
I leave everyone reading this with that image in their heads this week as the wars escalate and the United States continues to ignore the needs of it’s people. As long as they keep sending all of that much needed taxpayer money overseas to proxy wars, this will only lead to economic disaster for them and those they are supporting.
Israel and Ukraine are already in the negative credit rating category, according to Moody’s and Finch, and now the S&P. Will the United States follow them soon? With a national debt nearing 36 trillion dollars now, it doesn’t look good. Funding FEMA may be the least of their problems when they can no longer pay their debts.
Thank you for tuning in again this week. I hope I have made you think a little bit as you finish out your work week or whatever it is you do. I will be back next week with another interview, which will likely be my last for a while.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "If you have to make war on another clan, make sure you have the best sword and the sharpest tongue. Use your sharp tongue first and pray you don’t have to use your sword" Slán go fóill.
T. Ó Domhnaill - Gaelic Seanchaí
References:
Vietnam War Protests at the White House
Lindsay M. Chervinsky from the White House Historical Association
Big US oil companies reveal massive payments to foreign governments
By Tim Mclaughlin for Reuters
The Village Oak Tree