Last Podcast Episode for the Year

I picked up an article in Reuters a few days ago about volcanic activity in Iceland. Most people may remember the eruptions from August of this year and the big one in 2010 that closed off air space in western Europe for about a week.

The main point of the article and the scientists who study these things, is whether global warming will have an even larger impact on the worlds volcanoes in the near future. They are worried that with all of the glaciers melting now, this will take the weight off of the magma floes under these volcanoes around the world, like in Iceland, Chile and even the Antarctic.

It is an interesting article with lots of good pictures in it. I remember when that volcano erupted back in 2010 and how it affected the global northern hemisphere. Planes were rerouted all over the world to avoid the huge cloud drifting eastward into Europe. If these glaciers keep melting as fast as they are, the world may see a lot more disruptive volcano eruptions in the next few years. And not just in Iceland.

Chile has some very active volcanoes in the Andes. The United States still remembers Mount St. Helen's from 1980 that blew up and killed a few people. If the ice pack in the Antarctic should melt enough, the scientists predict some possible eruptions from down there that could melt the even faster, raising sea levels significantly around the world. Especially in the global south.

The bottom line is that global warming may very well change the landscapes of places around the world in more ways than just in economics. If Iceland has another major eruption or several, it could dramatically change the geography there and have even more effect on western Europe than what happened in 2010.

If any volcanoes in the Andes erupt again, there would be another environmental catastrophe. Lots of people dying, like when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew up in 1991, burying huge swaths of the countryside in ash and mud.

Global warming affects more than just agriculture. It also has a major effect on the earth under our feet as well. Which brings me to my next news article from Inside Climate News. How the fossil fuel companies are making tens of billions in payments to foreign governments over oil patches and stiffing the U.S. government in taxes, legally, due to the subsidies and tax laws.

The oil industry is required to report any payments they make to foreign governments to the Securities and Exchange Commission per U.S. law. The payments they are reporting show a massive difference in payments to other countries compared to the payments for oil in the U.S.

What this shows is that the U.S. is letting the oil industry off the hook for taxes and other payments while the rich oligarchs make their money all over the globe. Other countries are making them pay through the nose but the U.S. government, not so much. All at the expense of the American taxpayers.

The American taxpayers are subsidising the oil industry and the oil industry is paying off their political benefactors while the working class suffer from lack of help when weather disasters hit, among other things.

You know, little things like homelessness, hunger, medical services education and such. Basic things that all of the other developed countries of the world do for their people. Or at least try. I will admit that some of these countries who offer universal health care are struggling with that today. Canada and Britain being at the top of that list right now. But still, why is the U.S. government letting these oligarchs get away with all of this? That is a rhetorical question as we all know why. Graft and corruption.

Which isn't going to change under any new U.S. government change next January. I am not going to get into that today other than to say that Trump has been saying for a couple of years what he will deliver as president right out in the open. His latest rally this weekend in Manhattan, New York was apparently all about misogyny, racism and outright corruption.

To add more fuel to that fire, republican speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, is telling reporters that if Trump is elected, Obamacare will go away as they have a plan. Trump has stated that he wants to send healthcare to the states to manage. The republicans want to return healthcare back to a free market system, which anyone with half a brain knows that the price of healthcare would jump through the roof. If they repeal the Affordable Care Act and send healthcare management back to the states, imagine what healthcare would look like in states like Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Louisiana, and so on?

Harris on the other hand, is trying to court the Muslims in Michigan with little success it seems. She doesn't get it and it may cost her the election. We all know what she needs to do to get the Muslim vote but it may be too late for that now. But she may also lose some of the mainstream blue collar workers as well, who used to vote Democrat in the past.

Her number one issue is that she has little to no plan to boost the economy. No plan to bring back jobs to the U.S. manufacturing sector. Other than to put a cap on grocery prices. That is all I have heard so far. Do you care if the government places a price cap on the groceries in the stores?

That is of little value if you get laid off from your job and can't find another one quickly. At least one that pays a living wage anyway. There are plenty of hiring signs in my community but they are mostly for the fast food restaurants and other low paying, part time jobs that no one can afford to take.

The United States is in big trouble economically, and neither candidate is talking about it. It just goes to show you where their priorities are and they aren't with the working class voters.

Meanwhile, apparently the pre-election shenanigans are already starting ahead of election day. In Washington state and Oregon, early voting ballot boxes are being found and set on fire. Is this a lead up to more serious disruptions to look forward to between now and next Wednesday, the day after election day? There are already rumours circulating that the MAGA people are going to sue the crap out of anyone and everyone that may have anything to do with Trump not being elected again. Will there be riots and intimidation squads deployed to voting precincts around the country next Tuesday?

As I move to Europe with the rest of the news articles I found, I will lead off with one about Trump.

In an article from RT news, Trump states that if he is elected again, he will end the war in Ukraine quickly and make the cleanup the EU's problem. The U.S. won't offer a dime to help with the mess they created. Doesn't this sound like a classic Donald Trump? This from the president who wanted to back out of NATO because the other countries weren't paying their fair share of their mandated two percent GDP on their military.

Poland is stepping up now with expanding their military spending on an Iron Curtain wall to be erected on their eastern border to keep out immigrants and others from coming across from Belarus and other Russian allied countries in the region. They have often complained about having to take care of Ukrainian refugees in the last couple of years. They are starting construction now and plan to have it completed by 2028.

Germany is in even more trouble this week. Volkswagon is closing three factories over lost revenues, Rheinmetall is opening military materials factories in Ukraine, which Russia is now declaring legitimate military targets.

Sholz's challenger to the chancellorship, Friedrich Merz, is stating that Germanies government is too afraid of Russia to send more money and arms to Ukraine.

What part about the failing German economy does this man not understand? Neither Germany or any of the other NATO countries can no longer afford to support the war with Russia. Sholz understands this a little but the other idiots, apparently not so much. Maybe a trip to the eastern front will shake them up a little bit and make them see some reason.

Then there is the latest news about the recent parliamentary elections in a little country nestled next to Russia and Ukraine. The Prop-Russian government party, Georgia Dream, won by 54%, according to the vote count but everyone in the west is screaming foul, from the Georgian president all the way to Washington D.C. As of yesterday, Georgia's election officials are going to start a partial vote recount to try and satisfy all of the naysayers.

This is another classic example of the west, particularly the U.S., interfering in another sovereign countries elections because they didn't like the results that were not in their favour. When will the United States empire managers learn that this is not good for their country? They need to stay out of other people's business and start attending to their own or they won't have a country left to support their empire anymore.  

The west is finally confirming that there are North Korean troops on the ground in western Russia, near the conflict areas.

This has been in the news for a few days now, ever since South Korea tattled on the North Koreans last week. Russia says these 10,000 troops are there for training, nothing more, yet. What better way to get some field training than by visiting and observing an ongoing war? Whether they will end up participating is still up in the air. So far, North Korea's contribution to this war has been to provide a few missiles.

On the other side of the western Russian border, the west has seen a fair share of western mercenaries killed for Ukraine in the last couple of years. RT just posted a story this week, with video, of a dead American with a 75th Ranger Regiment tattoo on his arm. Was he one of those ex-military solo mercenaries or something else? There is another story about all of the western weapons being found on the battle fields by the Russians. Is there more to this than the Pentagon is letting on?

Ukraine is on its last legs militarily so Russia doesn't need the North Koreans. Unless the west starts to do something else to escalate things beyond where they are now. Say, allowing long range missiles to be launched deep into Russia? Apparently the Germans are still hashing that out. The Poles are apparently all for it, except they don't want to send any of their soldiers to Ukraine to shoot them off. Something the Germans are arguing about.

There are rumours that the Americans and some other NATO member troops have been killed and wounded by Russia because they were on the ground in Ukraine operating missile radar systems and other data gathering equipment. Of course, the U.S. will never admit this before the election next week. Maybe ever unless some intrepid reporter files a freedom of information request some years from now and the world learns the truth. By then, the world will have moved on and no one will care beyond the Gold Star families.

In my last story this week, I picked this one from Reuters this morning. China is commenting that Donald Trump, based on old and recent statements made, may discard Taiwan unless they want to pay for 'protection'. Now, I view statements like that as quotes from old Mafia movies from Hollywood. Apparently Trump doesn't like the idea of Taiwan stealing all of the chip industry from the U.S. so he may stop supporting unconditional defence support for Taiwan. It says in the article that the U.S. is obligated to help Taiwan to defend itself by law so what give? But then, when has Donald Trump ever cared about laws, unless they favour him?

With stories like these, it's no wonder all of these authoritarian regimes like Israel, China, North Korea, and maybe Russia are secretly or not, favouring a Trump presidency. If Trump should win, it looks like a new world order may come about over the next four years or more and not necessarily in a good way.  

I hope I have given everyone who is listening to this something to think about as the U.S. is heading for the home stretch before the elections next week. I may hold off on doing a show next week because of all that. I have to work on Tuesday, election day which is usually a fifteen hour day for me. I know this because I have been working elections in my county for the last two years.

I am not looking forward to next week and I will be very glad when it is finally over, no matter who wins. It really doesn't matter anymore because the U.S. is screwed no matter who wins next week.

Head over to the podcast page, as once again, I read you another chapter from The Priest. The ongoing saga of Bob, who is trying to survive the collapse of the United States.

That is all I have this week to close out the year. My year as I follow the Celtic calendar for most things, except when I need to do something in the other world. I am not going to have a podcast next week due to the elections on Tuesday. I have to work that day and there will be so much turmoil in the United States, that it wouldn't be much of a show. Instead, I will wait and post some stories and poems at the end of the week to start off the new year. Enjoy your week. Sláinte

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "May the sun warm you a bit, the air be fresh as after a spring rain, and the birds be singing to you on your way up the lane" Slán go fóill.