Gentle Ramblings

      On March 15th, 2021 it became 10 years since a war which was born out of the Arab Spring with hopes of overthrowing dictator Bashar Al-Assad and wound up becoming something so much more complex, involving several world powers, numerous proxies and militias, as well as the most brutally barbaric terrorist group in modern history (date courtesy of apnews.com ). Thanks to Russia, and the many various battles between different factions, Bashar Al-Assad is still President of Syria. It doesn't appear he'll be giving up his position any time soon as long as he continues to have Russia in his corner, at least militarily. The war weary nation dealt with extreme unemployment, severely damaged infrastructure and empty supermarkets in Damascus throughout 2021. Still, Assad actually held a press conference with a hand picked group of Syrian journalists shortly before the tenth anniversary of the calamitous conflict. When one reporter dared ask Assad an unscripted question about the st

                         The so-called "Jewel of Democracy" in the Middle East has melted down into a chaotic, mismanaged mess when it comes to its Parliamentary style election of Prime Minister. The Knesset, which is Israel's version of the House of Commons in Great Britain, has been unable to claimed a winner in four elections over the passed two years. We'll get to how this is a perfect, deceitful ruse to keep Benjamin Netanyahu, and more importantly, his ultra-right wing, imperialistic, Likud Party in power as long as possible. Unlike, say Vladimir Putin in Russia, with his phony, perpetually rigged "elections” aimed to present him a lifetime seat as President for life, Israel must portray the facade of an actual functioning Democracy that the International community can be assured that Israel's elections are free and more importantly, fair elections in the mold of the US, UK and other Western Democracies. After a stalemated election for a 3rd time, in Ma