Taki Visits the Oracle
Pythia doesn’t see anything good coming for Trump or the U.S. of A.
I met with Pythia, God Apollo’s high priestess known as the Delphic Oracle whose prophecies throughout the ages are legendary. I used to date Pythia back in Ancient Greece when I was young, but it ended badly because she forecast what I was about to do before I had even thought of doing it. Especially where other women were concerned.
Never mind, she has now forgiven me, and she and I had a very friendly chat near her temple in a beautiful part of the old country. What I wished to know was not if I have a chance with, say, the divine Lily James, but what are the chances of peace in the Middle East. “None whatsoever,” was her answer. “The Israeli lobby is much too strong and disqualifies anyone who dares to broach the subject of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.”
But why can’t Donald Trump read the riot act to the Israelis and to the neocons who are urging Netanyahu on? “He’d be toast tomorrow,” said the priestess. “The neocons got us into the Iraq war with lies and emerged as strong as ever. The Ellison media conglomerate Skydance, headed by an Israeli-American, Ynon Kreiz, with CBS in the hands of the Likud loyalist Bari Weiss, ensures that CBS and CNN will act as cheerleaders for Netanyahu’s policies.”
We conversed in Ancient Greek, of course. I asked her what is to be done: “Stop subsidizing Israel’s crimes, there’s genocide and deliberate starvation,” was her answer. “Without America’s backing, Israelis would have reached a peaceful agreement with the Palestinians long ago. The Palestinian Authority may be corrupt, and Hamas not exactly democratic, but after 75 years of illegal occupation, jailing of innocents, and lands stolen by Israeli settlers, insurgency and radicalism are certainly understandable. The malevolence of the Netanyahu cabinet excludes any peaceful settlement. The secret Israeli plan is ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and eventually the West Bank, and it’s well on its way. Only if America ensures Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty and self-determination will there be peace.”
I was impressed. Pythia might spend her days in a trance induced by some exotic fumes provided by Apollo, but she sure understands the mess we’re in, especially in the Middle East. The Delphic Oracle did not mince her words: “Trump is flailing, his family is enriching itself, and the midterms will punish Republicans.” She then took up AI.
“The world will pass beyond our understanding. You cannot trust the Altmans and Zuckerbergs of this world with the future of humanity. Meta was already caught concealing evidence that its products seriously harmed kids. Altman and his kind should be held accountable for the dangerous and illegal actions of their systems. The riskiest of all products should be regulated and monitored by the government, not greedy individuals.”
What about Iran, I asked her. “One doesn’t dispatch a slumlord and an opportunistic fundraiser and expect to win at diplomacy,” she replied. “The pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests is nothing new.” She insists that Trump is mired in a war of his own making. Israel’s role is that of Iago, but the Israelis are not the ones that will pay the price in the November elections. It will be a bloodbath for Republicans. Is there a chance the Iranian regime will collapse due to sanctions and the people having had enough, I wondered aloud. Certainly not before the elections in November was the answer.
According to Pythia, Trump’s weakness is his lack of historical knowledge. Louis XVI of France had the most powerful land army in Europe, but while helping the Americans kick out the Brits back in the 1780s, Louis bankrupted his country. We all know what followed: a revolution that not only got rid of the ruling nobility, but also cost poor Louis and his wife their heads. Beware of extreme generosity to so-called allies and friends—and I’m thinking of all the missiles and billions we’ve spent in the Hormuz and with our gifts to Zelensky.
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The oracle got excited once I mentioned the First World War, and how every great power sleepwalked into it. Unlike peace, war comes rapidly, she said, and once it begins, change for the worst is inevitable. Those who dismiss history, according to her, more often than not find themselves surprised and appalled.
I had to agree with everything she said. Unfortunately she made no predictions—which is her job, after all—but her wisdom about current events was undeniable. All the warning signs are there, signs that something terrible might happen with armed conflicts the world over. Actually, what I wanted to know from her, and what she failed to deliver, was Trump’s thinking. Why are we involved with Ukraine, Iran, even the Middle East? Why isn’t he concentrating on the midterms and boosting American pocketbooks? Why is he wasting his time overseas? Why is he ignoring the dangers posed by AI in the hands of greedy midgets?
The quagmire in the strait reminds me of the start in Vietnam. A few hundred advisers one day, 500,000 plus grunts a few years later. We just left Iraq 23 years after “mission accomplished.” Trump was one of the few leaders who seemed to understand the failure of past quagmires. Now he’s in one of his own making. I should have asked Pythia what happened to Trump, what changed him, but she was back in one of her trances.
