The Latest News

BORDER DISPUTE IN SOUTH AMERICA 

One thing that I haven't seen in any news about the old border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana is that this was one of the reasons for the tragedy of Jonestown in 1978, where nearly a thousand people died. It was thought that if Guyana allowed an agricultural community of Americans to settle near the border it would help to deter Venezuela from launching an attack.

PEACE BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY

The Turkish president visited Athens this week, which was a positive step. This dispute between the two countries goes very far back in history. We saw this in the posting "The Long Ago Battle That Completely Changed The World", December 2022.

THE PRICE OF THE ALAMO

There was an armed standoff in my local area. The reason this is so common is that history repeats itself and every such standoff is a reenactment of the Siege of the Alamo. This is a very important event in American history and it's history is being reenacted. The siege involved American settlers in Texas, even though it would be years before Texas would be part of America. I refer to having this history periodically repeated as "The Price of the Alamo".

HOUTHIS TARGETING SHIPS 

The Houthis, who hold power in Yemen, have recently been attacking ships passing through the Red Sea with drones and missiles and attacks have also been launched toward Israel. We saw recently in "Understanding Iran And The Middle East", November 2023, that Yemen was once part of an Iranian empire. What is happening today is that history, once again, is repeating itself. The attacks against ships is a reenactment of the "Tanker War" of the Iraq-Iran War of the 1980s. Both countries attacked ships that were doing business with the other. One accidental victim was the U.S. Navy destroyer, the U.S.S. Stark. The Persian Gulf is narrow just as is the Red Sea near Yemen. The attacks launched toward Israel is a reenactment of the "War of the Cities" during the Iraq-Iran War.

PLANNED ASSASSINATION OF SIKH LEADER

There was a planned assassination of a Sikh leader in New York, but it did not involve the Indian Government. This corroborates what we saw in the posting "Assassination In Vancouver", September 2023. Even if the assassination involved Indians, that does not mean it was the Indian Government. Maybe it was someone who lost a relative on Flight 182, since the bomb originated in Vancouver.

I have never used the word "corroborate" before but I saw it and thought that maybe I should use it.

FAR RIGHT IN ARGENTINA

The world is following what will happen, in economic terms, with the election of a far right populist as President of Argentina. The country usually leans leftward, going back to the philosophy of Juan Domingo Peron. Argentina was scheduled to join BRICS but now that has been cancelled. The new president has planned to do away with the Peso and just use the U.S. Dollar, in an effort to stop the tendency to print money. But he does appear to be backtracking a little bit from campaign statements.

As far as cutting social programs in my view there are two costs to any social program, and we should decide which one is greater.

1) The cost of having it.

2) The cost of not having it.

Does anyone remember when Argentina came up with a new currency, called the Austral?