This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

So there I was, living in the land of nod. When the big news hit my big screen. It appears there is some sort of breakthrough or imminent agreement in Trump’s Iran war. A one-page memo; quick and easy. Let’s get things moving quickly here before something worse happens. I watched my news feed all day and searched the internet all day for news of the one-page memo. Did I dream it? By the end of the day, all mention of the one-page memo had disappeared. Leaving behind the question, was it ever real in the first place?

Was it just more Trump Power Trip and Gaslighting Company? Slip em some good news on Friday and watch the markets cream themselves. And then, it all melts away. From an imminent peace deal to both sides making hostile moves, while insisting the ceasefire is still in effect. According to Hoyle; Ceasefire Rule One. For the ceasefire to be in effect, both sides must agree to stop shooting at each other. The US Navy struck two Iranian oil tankers, disabling them rather than sinking them. I wonder why they never tried that in the Caribbean? They could have, you know? If they had really wanted to, but they really didn’t want to. “Fire for effect, Mr. Sulu!” The US wanted powerful military headlines. “Deputy Dick Slays the Drug Runners!”

The US could have boarded the Iranian tankers and directed them to a neutral port. But that would be way, way too dangerous! (Borderline crazy) Too ripe with danger and armed with amateur zeal. The Navy could have stopped the tankers and arrested their crews. No, no, no, no! No hostage dramas! Disable the ships without sinking them or hurting anyone. That, by itself, tells us more than the six o’clock news. They’re handling this one with kid gloves. “Men, set your paintball guns to stun, we’re going full Nerf!”

The administration talks tough when the cameras are running, when they talk at all. What’s actually going on is all speculation. Mr. Trump’s motto: “Walk softly and carry a limp dick. The imminent single -page memo has disappeared, and both sides are back to shooting at each other again. But it’s okay, because it’s just a little bit once in a while. What happened to the Pakistanis? What happened to reopening the strait?

Then, I had a look at myself in the mirror and felt a little bit ashamed of myself. Did that big orange son of a bitch take me in and fool me with his bullshit propaganda, again? One-page memo? What one-page memo? It’s like waking up drunk and wondering how you got there. No memo, no peace. One step forward and thirty-nine steps back. Are the two sides talking directly or indirectly? Don’t know. Are there any direct communications? Don’t know. Even if I did know, the only source for the information is the Trump administration, and ergo, I wouldn’t really know anything and would leave myself open to the sway of government propaganda.

As Mark Twain once put it, If you don’t read the newspaper every day, you’re uniformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed. Marco Polio shouts to the press. “Of course, we fired back!” Conflating two different shooting events, attempting to put the onus on Iran for breaking the ceasefire. The Navy says it was  attacked by small Iranian boats before disabling the two oil tankers. I don’t want to doubt the Navy’s version of events, but I’m hesitant to believe it for obvious reasons.

After all, Mr. Trump has assured me on many, many occasions before that Iran no longer had a navy. That all of Iran’s fissile material was buried under tons of bunker-buster bomb debris. The bombing mission was 100% effective! You hear? 100% effective! Mr. Trump declares the Iranians are begging him for a peace settlement. The latest US proposal remains unanswered by the oh-so-anxious Iranians. But we have so little to hold onto to, trying to define our position. To accept knowing nothing or taking the word of Donald Trump and his henchmen and knowing only what they tell you. Which is nearly always a lie and probably worth less than nothing!

No reporters are embedded with the troops or on the aircraft carriers this time around. No time! This war came about without warning. Without even warning Congress or the American people. The polling on Trump’s Iran war is terrible, but who cares? It changes nothing. They still love Donald Trump in Indiana. They don’t even care if Trump tried to get their native son Mike Pence murdered. They still just love Trump. Farm bankruptcies are up 25% in 2025 and 45% in 2026. Tariffs, high gas and fertilizer prices, inflation,  and now a war in Iran, what’s not to love? “Please, sir, can we have more?”

There is a story floating around, and maybe it’s true, and maybe it’s not true. But as the story goes, Vladimir Putin was getting really worried about Ukraine staging a drone attack during his Russian Victory Day parade on May 9^th, celebrating the Russian victory in World War Two. Interestingly, according to the “story.” Mr. Putin was looking for a way to obtain a ceasefire for his parade. He was afraid that President Zelensky would be unreasonable and not give him one. What to do? What to do? Drop a dime and get Donald Trump on the line. He said, Anything for you, Vlad!

The Russian victory parade will be a pedestrian affair this year. Traditionally, the parade showcases Russian military hardware and prowess. But this year, they ain’t got none. Did they tell you about that on the six o’clock news? Vlad had to get his big brother, Donny, to get him a temporary ceasefire. So that Russia could show off her military hardware and prowess and celebrate her victory.

It has reached full tilt Orwell, no one knows the truth about anything anymore. 2 + 2 is a multiple-choice question. Five? Six? Even seven or eight. Maybe Oceania really wants peace, maybe not. Maybe Donald Trump wants peace? We have no way of knowing even when we have a right to know. Maybe the administration works for peace? We only know what they tell us when we know that they always lie. Until, the only thing that we know for sure, is no matter what they are saying to us, is that they’re lying.

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
― Mark Twain