Well, just as predicted, the A’s are out – defeated in the 12th inning by a dogged Kansas City Royals team. Still, there’s nothing in the media challenging tri-B’s actions. I suppose once Brad Pitt has played you in a movie, you become a teflon-coated manager. But the real question is: since everyone does seem to acknowledge his experiment was a mistake, will he learn from that mistake? I predict that whether or not he learns from his error, the team is toast for years to come. He proved to those players – Coco Crisp, Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss, Derek Norris, Josh Reddick – willing to put their heart and soul into the game – that they were mere pawns in the Billy Beane sweepstakes called ‘making it to the World Series’. Will these guys ask to be traded? You betcha. Will Bean Ball have to build an entirely fresh team, comprised of new kids on the block, years from reaching any kind of higher level of performance? Um, yes. So I intend to cancel my MLB subscription, rather than watch the demise of not just the team, but sabermetrics. Money always wins. That’s the message. And who will win the World Series? I’ll stick my neck out and say it’ll be between the two LA teams – Angels and Dodgers. Trout will be the MVP. Watch, wait and mourn.

On to other topics. Roger Cohen’s column in this morning’s New York Times concerns itself with the nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran. Here’s the last line from his column:

A deal can and must be done for the simple reason it is far better — for Iran, the United States, Europe and Israel — than any of the alternatives.

This immediately summoned images of Neville Chamberlain in 1938. He returned from his discussions with Hitler with what became the Munich Agreement, giving away Czechoslovakia to the Germans, bragging that the sacrifice of that country would provide “peace in our time” for Europe and indirectly for the US. But the ironic part of this is that last country mentioned – Israel. Their forebears didn’t fare so well from the Munich Agreement. As soon as Czechoslovakia was secured, Czech Jews started on their path to extermination. You know the rest of the story.

I’m certainly not equating this situation to pre-WWII German aggression – just commenting on Roger’s choice of words and how they summoned up a recollection of that quote from Chamberlain. My position is that these negotiations with Iran are just the beginning. The real threat to the Middle East is radicalized Sunni Islam – the genie created by Saudi Arabia that just won’t stay in the bottle. So reality is that Israel and Iran could be the last two countries standing after Da’ash (the Anglicized description of the Arabic word for ISIS/ISIL/IS/ – maybe just I next) – takes the radical notions espoused by Al Qaeda and the Taliban to new heights. No schools for women. No religion other than Islam. No variation of Islam other than Sunni. Those kinds of strategies certainly are comparable to the Nazi totalitarian state. And a few bombs dropped on a few convoys will not change the equation one whit, regardless of who’s dropping them. An all-out ‘hearts and minds’ campaign, as well as military action to address the evil known as radical Islam is necessary. It must be financed, supported and – in fact – led by non-radical Sunni Islam. That is the only answer, just as the rise of Hitler could have been stopped by right-thinking Germans after the Beer Hall Putsch failed. But a fearful German populace succombed to Goebbel’s sly propaganda. And a young male Sunni populace, long deprived of dignity and meaningful lives – succomb to the lure of whatever radicalism is selling this week. That usually means death for these young men and women, either via the suicide bomber route or in battle with drones, F-18 Hornets and RAF Tornados. Picture how depressing life must be if that’s a better alternative to what you’ve got now.

So to summarize – negotiation with Iran over nuclearization will likely be the first step in a lengthy diplomatic process that will culminate in getting Israel and Iran to the table to figure out how to collaborate to change the face of the Middle East. A nuclear Iran will beget a nuclear Saudi Arabia, which when combined with a nuclear Israel, means a triangle of death, destruction and lingering radioactive fallout, with millions of innocent lives lost. That is a prospect nobody should favor, and one that requires the US to take the lead. So maybe the petty bickering in D.C. can stop for a while so the current – and likely next – administration can try to sort this out? Makes sense to me. How about you?

Finally, let’s talk about writing. I’m two thirds of the way to finishing China Tea and WKKG, so one’s mind turns to the next plot line. Obviously there will have to be a finale for the Matryoshka series, involving Ishmael, Feng Tian and his daughter, Cecilia and Emily. I’ve decided to bow out of this one – maybe kill myself off, along with Nikolai. I’m contemplating focusing on Ishmael, and looking to Moby Dick as inspiration for the last in the series. Moby Dick is about obessession with killing the white whale. I’m toying with Ishmael being revealed as a time traveler from the future, obsessed with destroying earth. Why? Because he believes earth destroyed his planet by introducing toxins into the atmosphere to allow humans to colonize. Those toxins destroyed the occupants of his planet, all except Ishmael and a few others who escaped in their ship called The Essex (i.e. they stole the ship from the colonizers). So I’m back to reading in addition to finishing China Tea and WKKG. I’m also working on an opus of a blog piece, based on a wonderful essay by A.O. Scott in The New York Times magazine called “The Death of Adulthood in American Culture”. More about that later.

So that’s the buzz – never a dull moment.