is Ceasefire Day …
June 24, 2025
Happy Ceasefire Day!
To some people, I’m sure I come across as facetious. Well, I should come across that way. I have a particular set of circumstances in my life which has led me to being quite skeptical and cynical toward our world, particularly to those in power in government and certain corporations. I have a degree in Communications, and I have two other college degrees. During my college experience, I came across many, many academic models. These models help to see the world through different lenses. For example, I learned that it’s common for us to assume similarities instead of differences.
The bottom line is that we wind up as different people. We wind up believing in different government systems. Some people wind up as anarchists, and believe we shouldn’t have any government at all. Some people’s worlds feel safe, whereas other people believe it’s a jungle out there, and we all must do what we can to survive each and every day. Some people believe there is true “justice for all” while others believe it’s a scam! There is no justice! If you can pay off judges, politicians, and expensive lawyers, you can get by easier, but there’s still no guarantee for a good life. You can get hit by a comet tomorrow! You might be stricken by an incurable disease!
June 24th will be known as Ceasefire Day for me! There are certain days which remain in our collective minds. November 22, 1963 is when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. September 11, 2001 is when the Twin Towers collapsed into their own footprints. June 24, 2025 is when Middle East peace was supposed to begin for years—perhaps centuries—to come. Israel and Iran started launching missiles at each other. As the script was handed to us, this was to be known as the “12 Day War” with an end to the conflict we could celebrate today. Somehow, it didn’t happen. I’ve never heard Trump drop the F bomb, but he did this morning. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the FUCK they’re doing. Do you understand that?”
I call this Ceasefire Day facetiously because I like to analyze the news from different perspectives. Here are four examples:
— authority left… MSNBC
— authority right… Fox News
— grassroots left… Brian Tyler Cohen
— grassroots right… Candace Owens
This is a small sample size. When I started college, I became a fan of Opposing Viewpoints. Bascially, it was a set of books which picked a topic, then allowed various academic essays for and against the selected subject. Each book had a quote from Joseph Joubert at the beginning. “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
I’ve been wanting to compile these charts and quotes for quite some time. There hasn’t been a moment when it seemed overly appropriate. It’s appropriate now, though. Why? I truly believe our world has gone insane. When JFK was assassinated, the Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone shooter. However, in 1978 the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded, “Scientific studies of assassination-related evidence do not preclude the possibility of two gunmen firing at the President.” Rob Reiner went so far as to say he could name four shooters.
We all agree that JFK was assassinated, though. He was shot in front of the world. There was no CGI back then, and robotics were in their infancy. Even today, we can conclude certain things and everyone can agree. No matter what your politics are, everyone agrees Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana in 2005. In 2011, an earthquake near the Fukushima nuclear plant caused a massive tidal wave, ensuing flood, and nuclear meltdown. But on this very day, Ceasefire Day, we’ve lost that. If Joe Biden were to die tomorrow, folks on the right would wonder, “Did his body double die? After all, the real Joe Biden was executed in 2020.” Yesterday, Kayleigh McEnany said Donald Trump deserved “34 Nobel Peace Prizes”! Oh, shit! Usually, as I analyze the day’s political banter, people agree on the bare minimal facts. “Elon Musk had a falling out with Donald Trump,” for example. What to make of it? Well, that depends on your politics and predispositions. As I start to reflect on Ceasefire Day, people’s universes are not intersecting… even a little bit. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the Iran/ Israel conflict will drag out for years and Donald Trump should be impeached. MAGA became divided over the “America first” position. Marjorie Taylor-Greene on one side, and Sean Hannity on the other. Tucker Carlson debated Ted Cruz and it went viral. People said Trump stole from the Neocon playbook of 2003 when George W Bush invaded Iraq. Rubio and Vance said the US strikes in Iran were about destroying their nuclear capabilities, and nothing more including regime change. Hours later, Trump tweeted that we should “Make Iran Great Again” and suggested supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ought to be removed.
I might be the only one who looks back on June 24, 2025 as Ceasefire Day. I’m okay with that. After Nine Eleven, I knew the day’s events would have a profound effect on my life. I started to get the same feeling today. Here’s what I know in the pit of my stomach. We will not agree on anything that’s happened. The so-called “12 Day War” will be a real thing in some minds, especially conservatives who rely on Fox News. It might be a real thing to others as well, because Trump is most likely going to repeat it a million times over so it will embed in heads. It doesn’t matter if the war continues or not. I’m laughing right now. There are different types of laughter. Haughty, joyful, snickering, boisterous, nervous, rude, devious, sarcastic, polite, and a few more. My laughter right now was delirious. How did we get to this point? One guy posted a YouTube video saying the Iran/ Israel conflict wasn’t real at all. It was a Wag the Dog situation, and even though some people died, it functioned more as a psy-op than anything else. There are people who look genuinely surprised at how things have played out. I can’t say I predicted every event over the past month, but a lot of us conspiracy theorists aren’t too surprised. There’s a metaphorical playbook the Establishment has. As the events unfold, it’s not a lot different than watching plays during the Super Bowl. When quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass against the Patriots, they called it the Philly Special. No one saw it coming, but for avid football fans, we all know plays like that are in the book. In politics, it’s common to see leaders create manufactured conflicts to distract from public scrutiny of a different sore spot. To me, that’s what Ceasefire Day was all about. It’s a culmination of events. We’re supposed to start praising the obligatory Dear Leader at this point. Others might believe the American participation of the Iran/ Isreal conflict was completely legit. For those that do, I hope you’re celebrating Ceasefire Day as well. Maybe world peace is on the horizon, and I’ve just become too jaded and cynical to see it …
—— Homer Cocktail
=============
=====
=====