Fulfilling… a prophecy??

In the Bible we’re told about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – the first riding a white horse and bringing pestilence; the second on a red horse and being the creator of war, conflict and strife; the third a food-merchant riding a black horse and symbolising famine, while the last is pale and accompanied by the god of death. Well, here we are, in 2026, and we’ve survived the pestilence on the white horse of Covid-19 since 2020 with over seven million deaths – but it looks like the fella on the red horse of war has been doing very well for himself, thank you!!
There’s that war up in Ukraine that’s been going on since February 2022 – when Putin rode in on his red horse. He shows no sign of letting up anytime soon!! Even though Putin says it ain’t really a “war” but a “special operation”, between 200,000 and 300,000 persons have been killed so far!! I!!! The huge indeterminacy being a sign that truth is the “first casualty of war” – and neither side’s revealing the true carnage!! And we’re supposed to be thankful that only our wheat (and flour) supplies have been disrupted since no nukes have been launched to date!!
Then, of course, there was that genocide… erm… “reprisals”… by Israel against the Palestinians on the West Bank – or wherever they’re found – including just last week, in Lebanon!! The Palestinians had killed some 1147 Israelis, while to date between 90,000 and 100,000 Palestinians have been killed – mostly children. The indeterminacy here seems to be the lesser worth of Palestinians since they’re not counted so accurately as Israelis’ deaths!!
Even more beneath the radar – because of their lack of worth – is the civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rebel Rapid Support Forces. Since 2023, when the latest upsurge began, some 150,000+ Sudanese have been killed overall – with one battle alone in Khartoum accounting for 61,000 deaths. Yet you’d be hard pressed to’ve read about this war even in the so-called “newspapers of record”!! Over in nearby Ethiopia, rebels in their Tigray and surrounding regions have inflicted between 500,000 and 600,000 deaths – with the fellas on the black horse of famine and white horse of pestilence generously pitching in!!
Another under-the-radar war that gets lost in the shuffle of other conflicts that doesn’t involve countries that matter – like the US and Israel! – is the Yemeni Civil War that’s been dragging on for a decade! There’ve been 377,000+ deaths – many from famine and disease – in the conflict among the Yemeni government, Houthis and a Saudi-led coalition!!
So what can we conclude from all of this?? We’re in a period in which war’s normalised. So we better get prepared!!

…free market’s destiny
One thing we should learn from the present upsurge of the free-market economy is that companies gotta always exploit opportunities – to make more money. There’s NEVER too much profit, baby!!. And it ain’t just about finding the cheapest labour pool to produce our widgets – like the US did with China since 1972!! They’re now flocking to India, Vietnam, etc. to do the same now that China isn’t just the enemy – but more critically, its labour costs ain’t rock bottom no mo!!
Another tactic is to register your company where they’ll be taxed and regulated the least – or just as profitable; the regulations ain’t as stringent!! So we see Exxon quitting NJ, where they’d registered 144 years ago in 1882 as Standard Oil Company (SO or Esso, get it? And then Exxon). They’ll be moseying down to Texas to register as ExxonMobil – the legal, tax and regulatory landscape is so much more friendly to the bottom line!
No pesky pollution regulators!!

…futility
Sanction Man and his Daady just lost their latest bid to halt their extradition process in the Magistrate Court, which they’d filed in the Appellate Court. That court ruled the trial must continue – while they mull over the not-so-substantive points raised!!