I have found that feeling older, the realization that the hard miles are starting to catch up, is more revelatory than gradual. You don’t feel it day to day, but rather the feeling reveals itself through little everyday things that a few years back would have passed unnoticed, unremarkable quotidian events. I just had that similar experience as it concerns my aging parents. My mother, a prodigious if very durable habitual tumbler, broke her hip last week. Coming along nicely after surgery, but the effect on both her and my father has been one of those revelatory moments. But as I said, her durability is helping her to recover nicely.

What I’m Watching
Middle East – I’m not surprised we’ve yet to see publicized direct Israeli action against Iran in retaliation for the 01 October ballistic missile attack. Rather, as a I previously speculated, Israel continues to focus on denigration of Hamas and Hizballah, up until now Iran’s preferred proxies for kinetic activities to impact Israeli decision making. I still maintain that Israel will prioritize the destruction of both Hamas and Hizballah’s ability to conduct substantial offensive actions against Israel. I also believe they will continue a parallel effort to create a new paradigm in which both these actors are unable to restore their offensive capabilities through a grip on political power.

Assuming Israel is able to achieve these goals, it raises important questions about how Iran might choose to protect its interests in a new such paradigm. Whereas the Huthis in Yemen can harass, they do not pose a significant military threat to Israel. So how will Iran react to losing its primary sources of leverage in the eastern Mediterranean? If under the previous paradigm Iran at least assessed it could limit direct Israeli threats to its security by building menacing proxies on Israel’s border, how will it respond to the loss of these proxies? Or the more fundamental question, how will it respond to a growing feeling of vulnerability? In my estimation, peace in Lebanon and Gaza might be the end of one chapter, but it presages a more threatening next chapter in which Iran feels compelled to accelerate its nuclear ambitions – with Israel coming that same conclusion.

In other news….
Charles Hoskinson says Cardano will flip Bitcoin.🤔 
https://x.com/BitcoinNewsCom/status/1847599028902519277