Day of the Once Without, 61st of Childwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): Today is the trickiest part of the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar. The calendar consists of 366 days, like the Julian calendar in a leap year, so that a year can be evenly divided into 62 six-day weeks and each year will begin and end on the same day of the week. But it accounts for the Earth revolving around the Sun in 365¼ days by skipping one day in three out of four years, instead of adding a leap-year day every fourth year. You wind up in the same place either way - adding one to 365 days every fourth year, to skipping one of 366 days three of four years. 

The New Revised USC has the "extra" day on the 60th day of the year, the Fifth Twelve, which is also Leap Year Day in the Julian calendar. But since this isn't a leap year, this year we go right from Electra, the 59th day of Childwinter, to Aldebaran, the 61st day of Childwinter, without observing Helios, the 60th day of Childwinter. We "leap" from 59 to 61 three of four years, which seems to me more of a "leap year" than inserting an additional day once every four years.

You probably wouldn't have even noticed anyway, so there's that. 

Khamenei is dead, the United States and Israel continue to bomb Iran, Iran is firing missiles into the Arab states and trying to hit Israel, and still no one is really sure why. This feels a lot like how WWIII starts, but I'm not ready to think about that yet.

The Stable Genius ran on an America-First platform of ending foreign wars and regime change, but is now saying he started the war (without the Constitutionally required Congressional authorization) to effect regime change in Iran. I'm no fan of the Ayatollah or the Iranian regime, but I think flinging missiles into Tehran with Israel will make the world less safe, drive up the price of petroleum and along with it, virtually everything else, and not advance any tangible American interests.

Some say he did it because he was disappointed the recent mass protests in Iran weren't successful and didn't affect regime change. Others say he's doing it to distract the public from the Epstein files. Still others are saying it's because he hopes that a wartime President is less likely to face impeachment if the files are released and also as a prelude to suppressing or outright cancelling the 2026 elections (can't held a fair election during wartime, amirite?).

There are those who follow the money, noting that the biggest beneficiaries of toppling Iran are probably Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (Qatar, UAE, etc.). These are also the same players who lavishly contributed to the Stable Genius' various enterprises, including a multi-million dollar, gilded luxury aircraft, a $2B "investment" in his son-in-law's businesses, and an equal size investment into the Stable Genius' cryptocurrency scheme. And remember, the first place the Stable Genius visited during both his first and second term was Bone-Saw Arabia. Follow the money - it can be argued it's what was owed the Arabs for all their lavish "gifts," under the guise of pretending to protect and cooperate with Israel.

War is never the answer. Killing and hatred only breeds more killing and hatred, a lesson we've seen over and over again in Gaza, in Northern Ireland, in central Africa, and in the Confederate South. Iranians who might have been accepting of U.S. support for regime change are shocked and awed as the bombs drop, and every bomb is but a seed for future terrorists and jihadists. 

This isn't ending well for anyone. T.S. Eliot, who was so wrong about so many things, was also wrong about the end - the world does end with a bang, the thunderous bang of U.S. guided missiles, and not a whimper.