Writers Note: Here is the written portion of the video above for all who prefer to read my thoughts of the week rather than watch a video. Also, the reading of this week’s chapter of The Priest has adult language in case that’s an issue for anyone.
Fáilte
Welcome to The Village Oak Tree
I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.
Thank you for joining me once again.
In my continuing podcasts to push people into standing up against tyranny, I found a handful of odd news stories from around the U.S. and the world that I thought might peak people's interest this week. A couple of them are downright stupid from the Americans, and I also found some interesting stories about the middle east. Some you may already know about, some you may not.
So gather round, sit you down somewhere comfortable for a bit and let me tell you about some of the things that are going on around the world.
Let's talk about the feckless Americans first. My first story comes from The Cradle, and they report that some American politicians want to sell B-2 stealth bombers to Israel.
US Congress seeks to arm Israel with B-2 stealth bombers, 'bunker-buster' bombs
A newly proposed bill seeks to give Israel the ability to attack Iran's underground nuclear facilities on its own
From The Cradle.co
As much as they cost, and the technology involved, this should raise the hackles on the back of the neck of every national leader around the world. It's bad enough that the Americans have these, as they are slowly becoming a rogue nation, but to sell a couple of them to Israel?
You know what they'll do with them. How can this be right in anyone's moral book? The one takeaway from this article, is that the writer couldn't make up his mind whether it would be B-2 stealth bombers, for which the Americans are purportedly to only have nineteen of, or some B-52 Stratoforces. If it's B-52's, that’s a whole different story.
Selling some very old B-52's to Israel may be construed as just another instance of the Americans playing retailer for old military surplus. Could Israel actually fly an old B-52 to bomb their enemies? Consider that the old B-52's needed a crew of five to six to operate efficiently as a rule but it could be done with a crew of four in a pinch.
But they're as old as dirt, with the last one being built back in 1961. Would the Americans feel like continuously suppling the repair parts needed to keep these things air worthy? They're expensive to fly and very slow. Their only advantage being that they can bomb targets from a really high altitude and they can carry nuclear bombs. Which was their main purpose back in the Cold War days. That should scare people just knowing that little factoid. Israel has nuclear weapons. Is that why certain American politicians want Israel to have nuclear capable heavy bombers?
These people don't have any limits on how far to go with their war mongering. Their shortsightedness should be a big red flag for those of us who don't want to have to dodge any nuclear fallout from a nuclear war. Which you know we would if Israel, with the help of the U.S., were to drop nukes on Iran, or anyone else in the region. Someone else would start firing at Israel and the U.S. soon after.
In other American news, in this very under reported news story, the U.S. has finally figured out that they need more than two aged ice breakers for the Artic frontier. I guess they just figured out that they can no longer depend on the Canadians to handle that for them anymore. Gee, I wonder why?
US plans massive Arctic investment
Trump’s budget bill allocates billions for ice-capable vessels as Washington plays catch-up with Moscow in the region
From RT.com/news
So, Trump, as part of his new military spending increase last week, has decided that the U.S. needs some more ice breakers for the Coast Guard in order to be on par with the rest of the world. Especially the Russians.
Who are way ahead in the exploitation of the Arctic. Does Trump just think he can wave a magic wand and several new ice breakers will magically appear? It will take several years before the Americans see one of these ships drop out of one of their shipyards, much less the same amount of these ships that Putin already has moving through the ice up there now.
As usual, the stupid Americans are a day late and a dollar short when it comes to competing with the rest of the world. By the time any of these new ice breakers are christened and deployed up north, Russia and China will have divvyed up the Artic between themselves, leaving everyone else behind.
This is just another sign that the once innovative United States has lost the competitive edge with the rest of the world and they're becoming irrelevant on the world's stage.
I'm sure by now, that everyone has heard about the rivers flooding in central Texas over the July fourth weekend and the many people, including small children, have died or are missing. The stories have made it into nearly every news media feed across the world.
Although tragic, this is nothing new for them. I lived near the central Texas hill country for five years and this type of weather was rather commonplace this time of year. The difference this year, is that apparently people decided to act like nothing was going on. The warnings went out via cell phone, to an area with minimal cell phone coverage, so a lot of people either missed or ignored the warnings. There seems to be a lot of that ignoring of warnings these days in lieu of missing out on some fun.
And that brings up why I decided to get in on this myself, despite everyone else talking about this tragedy. The U.S. is heading into hurricane season. Last weekend, I had a bunch of rain from a tropical storm that came ashore in South Carolina. All I had were heavy downpours, which is generally just good for the gardens but for South and North Carolina, they have endured floods once again. They haven't fully recovered from Hurricane Helene yet. These extraordinary storms are starting to become ordinary now. Here in Virginia, I am receiving extreme heat warnings nearly every day now, which is a new thing.
Chantal Wreaks Havoc in North Carolina as State Lawmakers Try to Repeal an Ambitious Climate Change Goal
The tropical system dumped massive rain across central North Carolina on Sunday, days after the state’s Democratic governor vetoed a bill canceling an interim carbon reduction goal of 70 percent by 2030. GOP lawmakers will likely attempt an override.
By Lisa Sorg from Inside Climate News
But what if this tropical storm had been something worse? Would anyone have had ample warning to prepare or evacuate, as needed? As we see what happened in Texas, it's doubtful. So what's going to happen when an actual hurricane forms up and comes ashore? Which we know will happen. Will the people in its path have enough of a warning to take care of themselves? It doesn't look good, according to the people left at NOAA (National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration).
So what's going to happen when a big storm like a hurricane comes ashore? NOAA is hamstrung, and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is nearly non-existent anymore after Trump's funding cuts. As a lot of left wing pundits are screaming about on the news since the Texas tragedy started, these cuts will disproportionately hurt the very same people who largely voted for Trump in both of his elections.
Voters remorse is starting to become a real thing amongst the rank and file Americans as they're seeing their lives being upended by Trump's budget policies of late. This is only going to get worse. I'm sorry but it's too late now. People can't start over like a bad video game. Americans will have to weather this out and hopefully learn from their mistakes after Trump is finally gone. Although, given his history, he won't be truly gone until he's dead and buried somewhere.
Then there are the truly stupid politicians like Representative Marjorie Taylor-Green from a small district in north west Georgia. She's loud and obnoxious on her best days and dangerous on her worst days in the public eye. I found this crazy story last weekend about how she wants to pass a law stopping anyone from artificially messing with the weather. You know, stuff like cloud seeding or spraying chemicals in the air to influence the weather and so on. Not that anyone is doing that, but she seems to think so anyway.
US lawmaker calls for ban on ‘deadly weather modification’
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced a bill that would make the release of “weather-altering chemicals” a felony offense
From RT.com/news
If she were to actually do a little research, she would quickly learn that no one, who is legitimate anyway, is even doing that. But she thinks the U.S. should have a law preventing this non-existent weather manipulation anyway. As if the politicians don't have enough other things to think about right now. Such as whether the Americans will vote for them again next year. Something that's not looking good for a handful of them anymore. She doesn't have to worry about her job too much yet, as the district she represents in the southern Appalachian mountains of north-west Georgia, are more ignorant than she is. At least most of them anyway. All of the stereotypes of Appalachian hillbillies were mostly taken from the people living deep in these mountains. I know this as I used to live near there years ago and I would occasionally have to travel down there for work from east Tennessee.
There is more from the U.S. This story I'm going to talk about next is not in any way amusing. In fact, it should scare us. There has been a lot of attention being paid to Florida's new migrant detention center this last week. One, because Trump wanted a lot of media attention for it when it opened to intimidate everyone, and in a more subtle way, set up the path to open a lot more of them across the country.
We Asked Trump’s Former Prisons Chief How $45 Billion Will Reshape Immigrant Detention
We also asked an ACLU attorney, a private prisons expert, and the ex-commissioner of New York City’s corrections department.
Samantha Michaels from Mother Jones.com/politics
Alligators and Pythons and Marines, Oh My!
Hegseth is deploying more Marines
Caren White in Medium.com
One thing that is being glossed over, is that Florida is footing the bill for this camp in the Everglades and any subsequent detention centers they decide to build. Which will be the model for any other camps that might be built in other states. The bottom line, is that the states will be paying for these camps, not the federal government. For example, the Florida taxpayers are on the hook for about $450 million per year to keep this camp staffed and operational. And Governor Ron DeSantis wants to build more.
Florida plans to submit to FEMA a reimbursement request but since Trump gutted the FEMA funding, I wish Florida and any other state good luck in getting their money back for any of these camps. Something else that was largely ignored by the mainstream media, is that there are 200 Florida National Guard troops and a detachment of U.S. Marines deployed to this swamp to provide logistical support for this island concentration camp deep in the Florida Everglades. As if the snakes, alligators and nasty biting insects weren't enough, the detainees will have to deal with soldiers and Marines who are not trained in law enforcement or as prison guards, even though the US. has laws against that type of deployment of active duty troops.
I feel really bad for the national guard soldiers and Marines who are going to be deployed there for who knows how long. There was some speculation that there might not even be any air conditioning there for anyone. Imagine all of the unwashed bodies that may be crammed into these camps with no A/C or minimal clean water or toilet facilities? There are stories of how DHS wants to put upwards of 3000 people in this camp in Florida.
Add to this, the real possibility of more National Guard and U.S. Marine deployments to these camps around the country. Not only does it pose a moral dilemma for these troops, we will now have activated troops everywhere. There is a lot of speculation about whether this would set up a military coup for Trump and his crew. I ask you, would you be comfortable with uniformed troops roaming around your neighborhoods and small towns, assisting ICE in rounding up people? Imagine how uncomfortable these young soldiers and Marines are being unwilling participants in all of this? This is not what they signed up for.
I picked up this story from Ken Klippenstein last Monday about the 1st squad, 18th cavalry California National Guard assisting Homeland Security with an operation in MacArthur Park. Los Angeles that day. In this news story, he tells everyone about his interview with some guard soldiers about the fubr’d operation, at least as far as their part in it anyway. Which was nothing. They deployed out to secure the perimeter of the park as per their operational orders but someone screwed up at Homeland and they arrived too late to do anything other than sit in their trucks for nearly a half an hour, sweating their butts off, before leaving. You should read this, as it's actually comical. I really feel bad for those poor soldiers being subjected to this humiliation by their leadership in order to kiss DJT's butt.
There is another story out, that's not in the mainstream media, about the lack of basic humanitarian care being given to these migrant detainees in these camps across the country. And they want to build many more of these, sort of, temporary camps to house thousands of migrants across the country that they expect to round while they can.
Imagine more temporary camps in places like the deserts of Arizona, the swamps of Louisiana, and other very unhospitable regions of the U.S. soon? With little to no sanitary facilities for the prisoners, or food and clean water as they await, for who knows how long, to be flown out of the country to who knows where.
After the way the United States thumbed its nose at the world over Israel's war crimes, and their own crimes during the, so called, War on Terror (the renditions to the CIA black sites around the world for torture), I don't for one minute think they care whether they're treating all of these detainees humanely. They want to instill fear in everyone who's looking on in horror. The cruelty and lack of humanity is the point. Trump is daring anyone to try and do something about it. I mean these are the same people who sanctioned and threatened the prosecutors at the ICJ in the Hague.
He also doesn't care about the money being spent. If he can get the states to pay for it now, and stiff them later, as he has been so famous for through the years, so much the better. Again, Trump doesn't care about anyone accept himself and his dynasty. Public opinion doesn't matter unless it directly affects him, as we can see from the latest protests and news stories. If anyone gets in his way, he'll do all he can to eliminate the obstacle in any way he can, whether it's legal or not. Experts think that he is doing all of this because he knows this is his last hurrah and he wants to try and get away with as much as possible while he's in office.
In this mix, I found this story yesterday in The Guardian about ten people in Alvarado, Texas deliberately coaxing ICE agents out of their office in order to kill some of them. They wounded one local police officer in the firefight, and the police caught all of them, which goes to show us that these guys are probably some local idiots, but this is a start. You can bet this won't be the last attack on ICE agents across the country as people start deciding that enough is enough. How many people, both agents and rebels will die before things change or the U.S. breaks out in a violent insurrection against the immigration authorities?
Ten charged with attempted murder after allegedly ambushing Texas Ice agents
Federal prosecutors described ‘planned ambush with intent to kill Ice correction officers’ on 4 July in Alvarado
From The Guardian/us-news
To change the subject; I found a story that doesn't affect Americans too much but it does showcase how global warming is having a dramatic effect in other places around the world, which will eventually effect the rest of the world sometime in the next few decades, if not sooner.
‘End is near’: Will Kabul become first big city without water by 2030?
The city of six million people could soon run out water, amid climate change, sanctions and governance failures, say experts.
From Al Jazeera/features
Kabul, Afghanistan is running out of water. Their using up what water they have left quickly and with the warming weather affecting the snow packs in the Hindu-Kush mountains badly now, their underground aquifers are running low, and at the current rate of extractions, they will run dry within the next few short years. Afghan refugees are already being pushed out of other countries, like Pakistan, and as of last week, Iran and being made to return to the severely impoverished Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been ravaged by wars for nearly forty years, and the Taliban aren't doing much about it as they're apparently just sitting around rubbing their prayer beads lamenting about the state of affairs. Russia just granted them recognition last week and that may open some trade doors but Afghanistan never really had much to trade, ever. Opium doesn't count. There is a lot of unexplored mineral wealth there supposedly, but the Taliban government hasn't allowed anyone in to do much about that. So the refugees are being told they have to give up established lives in Iran and Pakistan to return to Afghanistan with nothing to return to. With USAID no longer an option, and water running out, the possibility of a famine is real.
With the water now running out, the poverty will get to a point where there will be a massive humanitarian crisis then the Taliban will cry out to the world, hoping for a free handout to take care of the starving and thirsty people. Like any corrupt regime, the poorest of the people will get nothing while the mullahs take the money for themselves. They'll never run out of clean water or food.
That's the difference between the haves and have nots. The haves around the world will never run out of food and water while everyone around them begs for a drop of water and a bite of food to get through another day. What's happening in Afghanistan right now is what the future will look like when the water and food start to run out nearly everywhere decades from now due to global warming. Lots of starving and thirsty people dying everywhere, of malnutrition and disease.
What's happening in Afghanistan will come to a country near you as global temps are setting new records in Europe this summer. Once the water and food starts to run out in the global north, remember what happened to countries like Afghanistan.
The war in Gaza, where Israel is deliberately starving Gazans in order to remove them from land they want, is just the beginning. In the near future, there will be more wars like this as the water runs out around the world, causing severe food shortages. The predictions are that by 2050, billions of people will become climate migrants as the equatorial latitudes become uninhabitable due to extreme heat. I listened to another Ted talk on YouTube last Monday given by Al Gore of the U.S. in Nairobi, Kenya. He lays it all out pretty distinctly in this video.
Why Climate Action Is Unstoppable — and “Climate Realism” Is a Myth | Al Gore | TED
Speaking of Gaza, Israel has apparently given in to world public pressure and is starting to allow a trickle of food and relief supplies into north Gaza. Ben Gvir and Smotrich kicked up a fuss in the Knesset but Netanyahu is going to let the U.N. administer the meager deliveries now. We'll see how long that lasts. Maybe it has something about the restarted ceasefire negotiations with Hamas again? Maybe Israel is finally realizing that they still need some favorable attitudes from some of the other nations around the world? It's not near enough but it’s a start.
Israeli cabinet approves trickle of aid for north Gaza amid shootings, starvation
Nearly 70 Palestinian children have died of starvation since Israel's siege began in March
From The Cradle.co
But then, there are stories coming out this week, that Israel is pushing hard to create a concentration camp in Rafah to move all of the Gazans to, whether they want to go or not. The U.S. is on board so it will probably happen soon after Netanyahu flies back home after meeting with Trump this week. How is this not ethnic cleansing? Can you just imagine the humanitarian crisis this would create by cramming hundreds of thousands of people into a camp with minimal supplies, guarded by the IDF?
I am a subscriber to Zeteo so I got to watch the latest Zeteo documentary about what Israel has been deliberately doing to the hospitals and doctors in Gaza last weekend. For most people, It's pretty gruesome. We've all been watching stories like this ever since October of 2023. This is another one that people should pay attention to if we want to continue to support the Palestinians. The ultimate goal is to bring all of these entities, whether they're nation states or corporations, to account for the genocide taking place in Gaza and the West Bank. There will be a reckoning someday, like what the world courts did to the Nazis after WWII. I don't think they'll hang anyone anymore but being held accountable would be a good start.
With more and more young people giving the authorities the middle finger over their support for the Palestinians, it's only a matter of time before they really start to sway public opinion. It's already starting and I suspect this will spread across Europe and the rest of the world soon. With artists like the Irish rap group Kneecap, and this British rapper Bob Vylan along with a lot of others starting to pick this up, the wave is starting. One of the other groups supporting this at Glastonbury was an Australian group but they didn't get near as much attention as the boys chanting 'Death, Death to the IDF.' That got everyone's attention around the world. I think it sounds pretty catchy, don'tcha think? I wonder what the U.S. Gestapo would do if American rap musicians started chanting Death, Death to the IDF?
Of course, all of the establishment politicians who are on the Zionist payoff lists are all over this. Trump canceled the visas for Bob Vylan to play in the U.S. and another venue canceled their headline showing, only to have all of the other headliners pull out as well. Maybe this show will have to cancel altogether now? If these headline artists start boycotting shows because of the rift over supporting Palestine, that could start a major upheaval in the music industry and maybe more.
And the British government is wanting to lock these lads up to try and make people forget they were ever at Glastonbury in the first place. Imagine the backlash from all of the young people? If they thought Glastonbury was an embarrassment, just wait.
The BBC, the British state owned media, is in so much hot water over this business at Glastonbury. There's also now a revelation that they deliberately suppressed the showing of the movie about the doctors in Gaza. Being state funded, they won't be put out of business but people will be held accountable, if you know what I mean. Sucks to be them right now.
With all of the other more pressing problems going on in Britain these days, I would think Starmer's government would have more pressing things to worry about, such as having clean water ten years from now?
And people still think we live in democracies. I beg to differ. Britain appears to be reverting back to their feudal monarchy days of past kings who oppressed their people so badly, they started civil wars. The days of the British empire are gone. They have never really been held accountable for the millions of people they killed directly or indirectly through the centuries. Maybe they should just fade away quietly and stop pretending they matter to the rest of the world. Imagine how peaceful the world would be if Britain and the U.S. were to stop meddling in other people's business?
The United States is trying to follow in the shadows of Putin's Russia and Orban's Hungary these days. More and more smart people are seeing a pattern here, that maybe there's a shadow government running behind the curtains while Trump blusters around keeping the spotlight trained on him, with himself not having much of a clue as to what's going on. The same can be said for some of the people in his cabinet. Like Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, and a couple of others. They're apparently window dressing for Trump while the real government, that Stephen Miller and Russel Vought are running, is doing everything else behind the scenes.
Notice that Scott Bessent and Tulsi Gabbard are rarely heard from anymore. Is that by design because they publicly said something that Trump didn't like? We know Gabbard did. We saw what happened to the first National Security Adviser Michael Walz. No one's heard from him since. Did Bessent lose favor while negotiating during the Chinese trade talks? Will these folks end up on the chopping block soon? Does anyone really care?
Next week, I'm going to talk more about global warming and climate migrations. I'm already picking up some news stories to point out what to expect in the next twenty-five years.
I know I unloaded a bunch on everyone this week but it needed to be said. To lighten things up, I am linking the next chapter from The Priest by Michael Campi. I will warn everyone, there is some adult language in this episode so be warned.
Go raibh maith agat, thank you for watching or listening to the show today. I hope you enjoyed it and that you'll return again to help me protest against the would be tyrants.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this rebel quote. "To be a rebel is to refuse to accept the status quo, to challenge the powers that be, and to fight for a better future." Slán go fóill.
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