4 January 2020

♄

 4 January 12020 is World Braille Day, along with such disjecta membra as the Day of King Amador and the Day of the Fallen Against Colonial Oppression. As I’m feeling ill (nothing serious—just that I have to keep running to the bathroom) I don’t have much if anything to say about any of them; I’m too focused on my internal state.

America’s de facto declaration of war on Iran has stirred up the sort of international repercussions one would expect of such an incident, and President Trump seems clueless about how to deal with it. His followers insist it’s all part of a master plan—that the idiot in charge only ordered the assassination to prevent a war—and that he has hard evidence for his case. We’re supposed to take his word for it—but Trump’s word is worthless, since everything he says is a lie, so I suppose we’ll just have to wait on the revelation of this alleged hard evidence. Until then the only rational course is to fall back on the safety of disbelief. (This, by the way, is why it so important for a leader not to habitually lie—suspension of disbelief comes easier if there is reason to suppose that he or she might be telling the truth.)

In my view, by the way, Trump did the Iranians a favor by disposing of Qassem Soleimani; a martyr beats a loose cannon any day. And there are plenty of others waiting to step into his shoes.