Fast

Caption: Identify the small combatant #1

Rebuilding Gaza?

How many billions? Who will live there? President Trump’s peace plan is moving slowly. The U.S.-backed Board of Peace leads the framework for rebuilding Gaza and recently unveiled a $2.45 billion, six-month blueprint. This initial phase includes 66 projects focusing on urgent relief—such as temporary housing, diesel power generation, water and sanitation infrastructure, and massive rubble and unexploded ordnance removal.

(right – new Gazans)

Over the long term, total recovery and reconstruction costs are estimated at $71.4 billion over the next decade, encompassing a vision to transform the enclave into a modernized special economic zone with advanced digital infrastructure, data centers, and industrial parks.

According to reports from Reuters and the Associated Press, implementing this plan faces significant political, security, and financial hurdles (is that your shocked face?). The plan outlines a sector-by-sector process where an international security force (including personnel from Morocco and Kosovo) would enter to decommission weapons. This would clear the way for a new, apolitical Palestinian technocratic committee and police force to assume day-to-day administration. The question of who would live in the disarmed, quiet neighborhoods of upscale coastal high-rise condominiums, golf courses, and flashy, fashionable shopping malls remains unresolved. Can the Palestinians (characterized by their Arab neighbors as ‘human lice’) be trusted to live in the new Mediterranean city of the future with its data centers, extensive yacht basin, and corporate headquarters?

A central contingency of the plan is that Hamas must fully disarm and hold no role in governance. Because Hamas has not relinquished its weapons and Israeli forces still occupy large portions of the territory, the broader reconstruction effort remains largely stalled (I see your shocked face again).

You can file it under ‘talk is cheap’ if you’d like to. Of roughly $18 billion previously pledged by global donors, only about $280 million has been delivered. The new $2.45 billion blueprint is primarily designed as a pitch to secure the substantial foreign aid needed to begin work. Getting the next $70 billion will be even harder, but without big daddy Iran to fund Hamas, who will fill that void?

Maybe the enclave will be repopulated by homosexuals – Gays for Gaza? They don’t reproduce, so it would require an unending stream of homosexuals from around the world on pilgrimages to settle. A Gay Mecca? Don’t ask me what the litmus test would be to allow settlement under that scenario. I’m sure there’ll be a Disney Gaza theme park – with unicorn rides. It’s a small world, after all.

Sink Holes

Stoneman Lake is a large-diameter (3/4 miles) sinkhole in the Miocene-Pliocene basalt lavas of the Mormon Mountain volcanic field. The sinkhole formed as basalt lava flows collapsed into the cavernous Permian Kaibab Limestone. Google Earth image of Stoneman Lake.

Sinkholes are easy to explain and identify. Mormon Lake (much larger and not far away) is a similar sinkhole that was once a lake with an operating marina and recreational infrastructure until all of the water vanished back into the volcanic lava tube system within a few weeks and left sort of a swamp behind.

The active volcanic system in Arizona is alive and well, fueled by a hotspot not unlike the Hawaiian Island and Yellowstone hotspots, which are much more famous. Fortunately, the White Wolf Mine is far enough away to avoid being impacted by the extensive volcanic field. At the same time, the volcanic field is close enough to explore and examine, as are the fault lines that extend from the volcanoes. Statistically, eruptions in Arizona’s active fields occur roughly once every 5,000 to 10,000 years, and because the most recent eruption occurred about 1,000 years ago, another event is not expected anytime soon. If a new eruption occurs, scientists predict it will likely happen northeast of Sunset Crater, as volcanic activity in this field has slowly migrated eastward over millions of years.

Bullet Points:

** President Trump stood at the White House and unveiled a $𝟏𝟓 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥 headed for Iowa, flanked by the executives who are putting up the money. This isn’t a press-release promise or a future 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘺 project—it’s a groundbreaking with a price tag attached, and it’s happening in a state that handed Trump a decisive win in 2024. The plant belongs to 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐢 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐬, a Minnesota steelmaker that only weeks ago opened its state’s first new iron ore mine in fifty years. The Iowa mill is set to open with capacity for 𝟕.𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬 of steel a year, with room to expand toward 10 million tons—putting it among the largest steel plants ever built on American soil.

** Jules discusses Wellington boots.

** The more things change. The more they remain the same.

** When EdB and I interviewed Katie Hopkins on Saturday, I asked her if the UK had passed the tipping point. She said that happened ten years ago and that 7/8 school children in the UK are Muslim. She added that the insurrection is at the tipping point, and that’s a very different thing. Will the UK survive?

** More art from Jules. Cheap at twice the price – save a starving artist and her wolves.

Culling the Herd

(Thinker) While scrolling through the channels the other day, I caught part of a wildlife documentary. The narrator explained how predators such as wolves and coyotes often target the weakest members of a herd, usually the young, the old, and the infirm. As I watched, I wondered whether something similar might be happening in our own society. I started thinking about how our society treats people who are dependent on others — particularly the unborn, the elderly, and the seriously ill.

For most of American history, the socially accepted limit for abortion was the “quickening,” roughly 16 to 20 weeks into pregnancy. The Clinton-era slogan of “safe, legal, and rare” has gradually evolved and degenerated to the point where abortion is routinely described as “health care” or “reproductive justice.” Some now defend even the most controversial abortion procedures, and we have seen a disturbing number of people defending a mother who strangled her three children, ages five, three, and eight months.

The same concern arises at the other end of life. Elderly and infirm people who require assisted living or costly medical care are increasingly being advised to consider “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD).

In cultures that prioritize youth and economic productivity, those who need extensive care may start to look like burdens rather than people who need our support. This issue is emerging across North America and parts of Europe. Canada has become the leading example of the expansion of euthanasia. Approximately 90,000 Canadians have died through MAiD since its legalization. An estimated 16,500 people used MAiD in 2024 alone, representing roughly five percent of all deaths in the country. The numbers are bad enough, but a closer look at individual cases shows why the issue has generated so much controversy.

One case involved 83-year-old Ontario grandmother Brigitte Stegemann. According to her family, she was confused on the morning of the procedure, failed a cognitive assessment, cried, prayed, and pleaded not to receive what family members described as “the death shot.” Although practitioners maintain that they obtained legal consent, the incident was serious enough to prompt a police investigation.

Another example is Paralympian and Canadian veteran Christine Gauthiers, who sought assistance from Veterans Affairs to obtain a wheelchair lift for her home. Gauthier later reported that she was offered information about MAiD instead. She filed suit and testified before Parliament. Government officials condemned the suggestion and ordered reviews.

In the United States, at least 14,446 Americans have died through physician-assisted suicide programs, with deaths increasing dramatically between 2014 and 2024. California alone has recorded more than 5,000 deaths during the past decade and became the first state to exceed 1,000 in a single year. Approvals have been granted for conditions including lupus, anorexia, complications from falls, and a disturbingly vague and growing “other” category. Oversight remains uneven, with some jurisdictions releasing incomplete data or no annual reports at all.

Reports of cases involving non-terminal conditions such as broken hips, diabetes, and depression make me wonder if a system intended for people seeking relief from intolerable suffering is beginning to consider dependency as grounds for death rather than care?

A similar issue arises with prenatal testing and abortion, especially in cases involving disabilities such as Down syndrome. In Iceland, almost 100 percent of pregnancies diagnosed with Down syndrome are terminated, with only two or three children with the condition born each year. Denmark reports approximately 98 percent, Britain around 90 percent, and estimates for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States range from 67 to 90 percent.

In Norway, parents Jan and Lene Robertsen learned that their unborn daughter had Down syndrome. According to their account, their physician immediately recommended abortion. The couple refused, describing the experience as shocking and morally wrong. They are not alone. Other Norwegian families have reported similar pressure. Disability advocates argue that counseling often focuses heavily on the challenges of raising a disabled child while minimizing the joys and ordinary experiences that many people with Down syndrome enjoy. The broader concern is what happens when societies systematically choose not to welcome children who require extra care. Does this begin to resemble a modern form of eugenics?

Many nations face below-replacement fertility levels, aging populations, and rising costs of long-term care. At the same time, cultural messaging often celebrates youth, autonomy, and productivity. We need to consider this combination when we discuss how society treats people who need extensive care. Taken together, it raises the possibility that abortion in some cases and euthanasia in others could become ways of avoiding the costs associated with long-term dependency.

In the United States, the Hyde Amendment has long barred most federal taxpayer funds from covering elective abortions, and some estimates credit it with preventing more than two million abortions. Though it continues to face political opposition, it remains one of the most significant restrictions on public funding for abortion. When a society treats dependency as a reason to end a life, it may also change how people think about human worth. Compassion for suffering is important. But this can become dangerous if dependency starts to be treated as a problem that can be solved by ending a person’s life.

The argument over the intrinsic value of human life extends beyond abortion and MAiD. Some public figures are flirting with rhetoric that appears to excuse or encourage political violence. North Carolina Senate candidate Shelly Headen, while posing in front of crematorium ovens at Dachau, stated, “This is where Trump supporters belong.”

Comedian Bill Burr suggested that healthcare CEOs should examine the policies that inspired Luigi Mangione rather than simply increasing security. Referring to Burr’s comments, attorney Rafael Mangual, the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argued that “The only way to understand the comedian’s comments is as an endorsement of brutal and extrajudicial violence as a legitimate means of expressing one’s frustrations with corporate behavior.”

In other examples, political commentator Hasan Piker has called for a Chinese-style cultural revolution against moderate Democrats. Critics argue that such rhetoric favors ideological struggle over democratic persuasion. Finally, a recent poll found that nearly one-third of Democrats wished President Trump had been assassinated.

When taken together, I believe these developments point to a broader ‘culture of death’, in which some lives gradually come to be regarded as less worthy of protection. At one time, this was called “life unworthy of life.”

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Identify the Ship (continued from caption)

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