Tag: USA

DXB – LTN

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As the world slips ever closer to global warfare, with South Africa offering to be the mediator between the US/Israel and Iran – basically the equivalent of letting Pep Guardiola referee a Manchester City game – there’s very little to be happy about.

The countries involved in the conflict are trying their hardest to win the battle for hearts and minds with selective reporting, and the fake news sites are furiously peddling their wares. It’s hard to know what to believe. And it’s sometimes harder to accept the things that are (probably) true.

And so, as ever, we turn to humour.

This is (almost certainly) fake news, but it’s very well done:

Indeed. Frying pan and fire stuff.

More tomorrow, when I wake up to find out which new country has joined the fun.

Need to send a letter?

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Of course you don’t. No-one sends letters anymore.

But let’s just suppose that you did need to send a letter.
And that you were unlucky enough to be in the United States of America, under the control of Adolf Trump and his evil minions.

Sending a letter is going to cost you an absolute minimum of $0.78.

78¢. That seems a lot to send a letter.

Thankfully, here to help is website Postal Arbitrage. They’ve compiled a list of things that you can order via Amazon which cost less than 78¢ to send.

But how does that help?
If you want to send a letter to someone, how will sending them a 25¢ lime substitute for that?

Because included in that price is a gift message. And so rather than sending a boring old envelope with a bit of paper inside, why not rather organise for a LA MODERNA, Vermicelli Pasta, 7 oz (Pack of 1) | Enriched Durum Wheat Semolina | Kosher, Non-GMO, Iron and Vitamin-Fortified | Thin Vermicelli Noodles for Soups, Broths, and Quick Meals to be delivered, and include your message on the attached gift tag?

They get the message (and the noodles), you save 28¢.

What’s not to like?

I saw this idea described as:

One of those things that makes you laugh. And then makes you think.

And I can’t disagree. Something is wrong with the system… somewhere.

Capital tour

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I have absolutely no desire to visit America. The United States thereof, that is.

I didn’t have much desire to visit there before Captain Cheeto came along – maybe Monument Valley, and Washington State, but the rest of it: nah – and I have a good deal less now.

Yeah, I’m sure that I’m missing out with my simplistic anti-American views, but I’m not ruling out travel altogether. It’s just that there are a good number of countries that rank above the US in my list of places I want to visit.

I’d like to do a capital city tour of Europe for example.
Although, maybe I should actually head to the USA for that. Because look at all these places:

Deeply, deeply unoriginal, but I suppose that we need to blame the European settlers for that, rather than the Americans that they became.

And we’re not even going to be able to get to:

Andorra la Vella (Andorra)
Baku (Azerbaijan)
Bratislava (Slovakia)
Bucharest (Romania)
Budapest (Hungary)
Chisinau (Moldova)
Helsinki (Finland)
Kyiv (Ukraine)
Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Monaco (Monaco)
Nicosia (Cyprus)
Podgorica (Montenegro)
Reykjavik (Iceland)
Riga (Latvia)
San Marino (San Marino)
Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Skopje (North Macedonia)
Sofia (Bulgaria)
Tallinn (Estonia)
Tbilisi (Georgia)
Tirana (Albania)
Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
Valletta (Malta)
Vatican City (Vatican City)
Vilnius (Lithuania) or
Zagreb (Croatia)

if we do this the American way.

So let’s not.

Incidentally, I am reliably informed that there is no Port Louis in the USA either.

I’ll just have to manage with the one here.

About yesterday

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Given that today is the anniversary of 9/11 – arguably the biggest news day in living memory – it was probably fitting that yesterday was probably right up there with it in having the most “big” stories in a single 24 hour period, although none of them quite toppling the gravitas of that day in 2001.

Yet.

But wow. There was a lot that went on, and I think it’s worth documenting them, just in case “9/10” or more correctly “10/9” doesn’t become a thing, and future us forget that an awful lot happened that day.

And so, in no particular order:

Riots, a government toppled, ministers beaten and the parliament building burned down in Nepal.

Late annual riots in France, and the resignation of the Prime Minister there.

The shooting of Charlie Kirk, grandson of the famous Star Wars captain, James T.

I’m not a fan of political violence, nor any violence at all, really, but I couldn’t help but think of the words of Clarence Darrow, who wrote in his 1932 book The Story of My Life, “I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction”.

It’s perfectly possible to condemn everything that Kirk stood for (and I do) and also condemn his murder (which I also do). But “awful people certainly don’t deserve to be killed, but they certainly don’t deserve to be praised, either” seems to be a difficult leap for a lot of minds out there.

Russia sends drones into Polish airspace.

Almost forgotten about with potential starting points of various civil wars going on – the potential starting point of World War III. A reminder that Russia objects to Ukraine becoming a member of NATO because “it doesn’t want NATO on its doorstep”, but it already shares borders with Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Finland.

Israel bombs Qatar and Yemen. And Gaza, obviously.

Almost forgotten about with potential starting points of various civil wars going on and the potential starting point of World War III. Another potential starting point of World War III.

Oh, and they still haven’t released the Epstein Files. Let’s not ever let them forget about that, no matter what else is sent to distract us.

But as I said, there was a lot of news yesterday. Just none of it was very good.

What a complete and utter mess the world is in.
Let’s let this all subside a little (hopefully, at least) and then see which bits carry forward, and deal with them as we need.

Worst adventure ever

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We’re off on a bit of an adventure tomorrow, and I’m hopeful that it’ll be better than this offering that I spotted on Geoguessr last week:

I’m sorry… kick a what now? It’s not that I don’t want to keep my high standard of footballing skills up while I’m away. It’s more just that I’d like to do it with a ball rather than… well…

Yeah.

To be fair (and perhaps surprisingly), the place doesn’t actually look too sh1t. River rafting, canoeing, tubing and cycling in a state park in Illinois. The clientele look a bit annoying though, and in fact there is a guy on the right hand side of their frontpage image apparently praying that he was literally anywhere else.

More seriously, a bit of research suggests that there are Kickapoos all over America, the name coming from a migratory Native American tribe.

It’s still not a great command in English.