hormuz is much more than a watery passageway;

 

 In the classic martial arts film Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee’s character is instructing a young, aspiring fighter. Irritated at the lack of progress his student is making, he points to the sky. “It’s like a finger pointing away to the moon,” he says as the student tries to focus on what his teacher is saying. “Don’t concentrate on the finger,” Lee says, slapping him on the head, “or you will miss all that heavenly glory.” The quote is derived from an old Buddhist text called the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and the point is clear: Sometimes if you focus on what is immediately in front of you, you can miss the point entirely.

Something like this is happening in Washington, DC, right now. For almost two weeks, the debate around the progress or lack thereof in the Iran War has been focused on activity in the Strait of Hormuz. A whole host of maritime experts have emerged suddenly to inform us that the Trump administration has succeeded in reopening the crucial waterway to shipping. Maximalists are claiming that this means the United States has effectively won the war in the Middle East. Others are making the more modest claim that this reopening of the Strait will solve the looming energy crisis.

These were the two perspectives that most people who were not deeply involved in the debate heard. There was, however, a small but vocal minority who questioned whether the Strait had been opened at all. If Iran had effective fire control over the Strait in spring and summer, they asked, then why would they suddenly lose it now? Almost immediately after this question was raised, Iran settled the debate by striking an enormous number of ships: 12 and counting in less than a week...........more...........

 a white teacher tells all, about her twenty years in a multi racial school; 

 

I began teaching 20 years ago at a majority-black public middle school. The behavior of the black students was so outrageous, it bordered on unbelievable. Their respect for authority and teachers was less than nothing. They would pull my hair to see if it was real, sometimes standing around me playing with my hair like animals performing grooming rituals. Other times, they would push their faces into my abdomen, take a deep breath, and comment on the way I smelled. I’ve even had students tell me they could smell my “coochie” and shove their hand between my legs from behind.

They stole anything that was left on the desk without a hint of shame. Once, I had my toddler’s toy cell phone on my desk because I was repairing the antenna that had broken off it. When class started and students filed into the room, the cell phone was instantly swept away. At the end of class, a black student came up to me, dropped the toy phone on my desk and demanded to know, “What’s this!?” He was angry that what he had stolen from me was not a real phone.

Even things of almost no value got stolen: one time a student pumped the entire contents of the lotion bottle on my desk into a plastic bag to take home. Theft increased in December, as the black students began their Christmas shopping at the expense of the teachers. Wallets, tablets, credit cards, and cash were all up for grabs if you carelessly left them in an unlocked location. Their penchant for stealing was matched by one for destruction. My car was vandalized in the school parking lot several times, and on occasion, students would draw on the back of my clothes with markers as I walked by their tables.

Their attempts to get me fired were relentless. Students would rock back and forth in their chairs screeching angry monkey sounds in an attempt to trick me into saying the word “monkey” so they could accuse me of racism and end my career. The same tactic was in play when they said “nigger” over and over again. If I asked them to stop saying “that word,” they would reply “what word?” hoping I would repeat it. Of course, they had no real issue with profanity. One of their strategies to break the morale of teachers was to leave little pieces of paper all around the room with only the word “bitch” written on them.........more............

 twenty seven seconds on how to take off a wet suit, japanese style;

watch............. 

 brian berlitic speaks about the empire's attacking russian data centers for twenty seven minutes;

watch.......... 

 garland nixon and the duran take fifty two minutes to speak about the neocon world crashing;

watch............. 

 sc reviews gives us eight minutes of the usual suspects in action;

watch............ 

 fifty five minutes with nima and stanislav krapivnik discuss what's going on between the saudi's and houthis; 

watch.........