“Don’t do it son,” big George Foreman said as he shielded his commentary partners, Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley from violent rioters. The conclusion of the first Andrew Golota vs Riddick Bowe fight had ended in controversy which led to brawls and a ringside riot. It was with a commanding presence earned from years as a prize fighter, the best in the world, two time champion and a man who overcame great odds that kept those nearby safe. By then a millionaire, comfortable and forty-seven years of age. He could have run, cowered but instead he stood firm and protected his friends and others from a mob of lunatics who used the controversial end of a boxing match to spread violence.

There have been many tributes celebrating the late, great champion, so I don’t need to talk about him winning an Olympic gold medal or the menace imposed by him during his first career as one of the greats of 1970s heavyweight boxing. His destruction of greats like Frazier and Norton, to lose his belt to Muhammad Ali. The bitterness he exhibited over losing his title, fighting five men in one night in Toronto to prove a point in doing so losing the respect of boxing fans only to earn it back, in a war with Ron Lyle and walking away from the sport in 1977 after a close loss to Jimmy Young.

In his retirement he was a family man and a preacher, an important pillar within his community. In 1987, a decade after retiring he began a comeback at thirty-eight years young. At first it was to raise money for his youth training centre, where he coached and gave kids an outlet through sports. No one took his comeback seriously, at first it was seen as a novelty. He fought journeymen and stopped them, then he ran through men like Bert Cooper who was hot and cold and slugging it out with Dwight Qawi. Then Foreman stopped in two rounds a returning Gerry Cooney followed by an impressive knock out win over top ten contender Adilson Rodriques. Now the boxing world took him seriously.

By 1991, Mike Tyson had lost his title to Buster Douglas and Evander Holyfield had by then defeated the new champ. At Forty-Two, Foreman challenged the much younger champion in a tough battle where he lost the decision but earned greater respect. Holyfield was too young, too good. Foreman continued his campaign and fought tough opposition, in 1993 he fought Tommy Morrison for a slither of the heavyweight title. Again he lost the decision. Then the new champion, Michael Moorer fresh from his close win over Holyfield needed an opponent. The forty-five year old George Foreman climbed through the ropes and fought for the world title again.

“…it happened, it happened.”

Michael Moorer was knocked out in the tenth. Foreman wearing the very trunks that he had lost the title in, twenty years prior was now the new and oldest heavyweight champion of the world. Foreman would fight on until he was forty-eight, losing the lineal title to then up and comer, Shannon Briggs in a controversial decision. By then Foreman had become an advertiser friendly icon, a witty man who gave a good interview. A contrast to his Sonny Liston inspired brooding public persona from his first career. His faith and love of God was ever apparent in his life, though he never imposed while a media celebrity. Instead he set examples.

During his second career, he would hold back and let opponents off after landing powerful shots. He could be a brutal puncher, a menace who would occasionally go low or frame hard with his elbows though this was the Archie Moore methods he had been schooled in. He had control and accuracy, timing and besides his ferocious power, he was a tactician with skills that go unnoticed by those who see him as a force of nature rather than a ring general. His ability to mix linear and round punches, long and short, his walking uppercut to the cross arm defence married with his grappling skills were all once in a century traits. A package of skills that had became drowned out by his power and strength.

Despite his soft exterior during his second career, there was still that ferocity and maybe the temper of a man who cultivated his rage into boxing ability. Those who were present during the comeback years mention his fury on the bag and even frustrations during sparring and training. Anyone who has been in a fight camp or inside those moments get it. Those on the outside may not understand the relationship between anger, and violent focus. He was a man who with such experience, discipline and ability displayed a deep mercy and understanding about the power of compassion, even during a prize fight.

During the Oliver McCall vs Lennox Lewis rematch, when McCall went into a melt down that seemed to be more about his outside life rather than what was happening during the fight. It was Foreman while commentating who expressed an empathy for McCall, a man that he could see was going through turmoil. It was a merciful side that came through while the crowd booed and the other commentators were more concerned with McCall’s unprofessional performance. Foreman saw a human being in pain.

George Foreman will be remembered as a great, the larger than life character that became a reality television star, showman, salesman, comedian, broadcaster. He was a champion and one of the best boxers in history. As a man he was an inspiration, “age is just a number.”

He proved that.

As a man and a professional fighter, George Foreman exemplified primal violence, a ferocity that was already inside of him via birth and circumstances. With discipline, study and hard work he cultivated it and mastered his craft and himself. Foreman always fought, he always came to fight and he would always get back up to his feet.

Foreman once said, “boxing is like jazz, the better it is then the less it is appreciated it.” If he was a jazzman, then he would have been more of a Clifford Brown, a man who showed you could be clean and lead a good life while being a great musician rather than a surly, Miles Davis. Maybe in his youth, Foreman was more like Davis and found that peace to be a better man through defeat, and loss.

In this age of bluster, rizz and show boating, a man like George Foreman is a relic from when dignity reigned. One can be great, powerful and dominate other men in combat and still show mercy, compassion while expressing sincere empathy. That is strength. For me, this was Foreman’s greatest lesson, as both a man and a professional fighter. Thank you, from the young man I once was who grew up during the comeback years and poured over the pages and hours of video tape from the younger years. And now as an older man, thank you for inspiring me to stay in shape and work hard regardless of age, to retain discipline and dignity. Rest in Peace.

It turns out that journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was ‘texted’ two-hours before the recent US attack on Yemen. Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of Defense texted him the war plan which included specific information about weapons to be used, targets and time of the strikes. Goldberg was included in a Signal group of high level US officials, which had the information of the coming attack.

The highest level of the US government, the people who have the power over not only the millions of US citizens but a vast majority of the world exhibited a rather mundane incompetence

The full article is available here, https://archive.vn/JEYep

It is worth seeing the conversation as a glimpse into the very human and rather unimpressive manner in which those who through the magic of government are granted so much power. Despite the many movies and television shows of impressive meetings and security measures, like most things in life, rather underwhelming and unimpressive.

The people of Yemen are not new to being bombed, starved and droned. They have endured almost a decade of attacks from the Saudi led coalition, that was supported and enabled by the AUKUS nations. Now, it’s the US and Israel that are taking up the mantle in the attacks on the impoverished region.

The Houthi who mostly are the rulers of Yemen have shown their support for the people of Palestine by attacking Israel with long range drone attacks and disruptions to shipping that passes near their coastline. To call the Yemeni maritime assets a navy would be generous but the flotilla at their disposal has harried and caused concern for the US Navy. In fact the engagement with the Houthi was according to the Associated Press, “most intense combat since World War II,” for the US Navy.

The poorest nation in the Middle East managed to survive years of fighting it’s wealthier neighbours and now it’s facing the US and Israel. Both of their militaries are veterans at fighting and at times losing to poor, disorganised regional forces so experience is a key factor for all concerned.

The US Vice President, in the leaked Signal conversation expressed his regrets at attacking the Houthi. Though, it’s unlikely that most Americans are that concerned with Yemen or even care to know where Yemen is. Just another alien location for them to remember simply because the US military is killing the people there. It would however suddenly become a place of note to them should a US warship get hit or is even sunk by the adaptable low budge Houthi who do have access to anti-ship missiles. Luck would need to be on their side, or the US Navy would need to be rather incompetent.

As in most conflicts the victims are the innocent. Those who have no say or choice in the policies made by those who rule, whether it’s those being taxed and regulated by the Houthi or the US government, the innocent suffer.

Meanwhile over in the UK, the current Prime Minister, Starmer is invoking a very English bluster. He is no Winston Churchill but as he stands between two Union Jacks, he moans threats towards Moscow and any other nation on the other side of the EU curtain. With an ailing military, he shakes his fist, the ghost of Maggie Thatcher nowhere in sight. The UK, which a century ago was THE EMPIRE is now becoming the sick man of Europe. In fact, the former sick man of Europe, Turkey has greater influence on the diplomatic and military front than any Saville-ite regime in London. If it was not for the worlds fondness of history, or maybe habit and the fact that the city of London itself still draws in much wealth thanks to despots, oligarchs and it’s stock exchange, most would simply ignore the UK.

But don’t worry those other nations who speak English also like to waggle a finger at the world around them, threats and bribes that can only go so far. It’s all out habit to assume that they are the rulers of the world or at the very least the most important thing about it. The US still has the capacity to blow up tents in the desert, to arm it’s proxies and send warships that can afford to fuel jets for sorties and has enough ammunition to kill suburbs of people. It’s allies on the other hand can’t afford such imperial luxuries.

Recently the Chinese navy sent an expedition around Australia. It was only when a civilian Virgin airlines flight was warned by the Chinese ships that they were about to conduct a live fire exercise that the Australian government became aware of their presence. The Chinese ships circled the continent and did what the Western powers have been accustom to doing, inserting their presence into other regions. Decades ago, the Australian military was called, Imperial Forces, now it’s called the Australian Defence Force. There is nothing defensive about it. It’s still very much an instrument for empire, Washington’s and not London’s. To call it a Defence Force would be naive, in fact it’s ever reliant on the US and since AUKUS has become a dependency.

The coming decades we shall see a shift, those who still hold onto the hubris of their past tendencies to be exposed as paper tigers. The welfare nations of Australia, Canada and the UK may very well be an Austro-Hungarian like carcinogen to their bigger imperial friend, the USA. Meanwhile, key government officials of the US through incompetence shared information to a journalist. In that strike on Yemen, 53 people were killed. Likely all of those killed were innocent people. Goldberg sat on the information until after the attacks, he could have saved lives but instead he waited it out.

In the end for most people in the English speaking nations, dead Yemeni’s are simply not relatable. They are not ‘real’ people to them. Few care. And if they do care, it’s the assumed right of the imperial English speaking nations to attack, starve and terrorise the people of such regions. Whether South-East Asia in the past, Central Asia, Africa or the Middle East, it’s the right of such powerful nations to moan about welfare and diversity and whatever the trending academic interests of the government corporate intelligentsia conjures up, the manure above countless unmarked graves of the innocent. For cultures that secrete have professionalised mental health, they certainly exhibit a tremendous amount of privilege.

There is a scene in the 1995 romantic comedy, The American President, where Michael Douglas plays the fictional president Andrew Shepherd, he exhibits a humanity after ordering an attack on Tripoli, “somewhere in Libya right now, a janitor’s working the night shift at Libyan Intelligence Headquarters. He’s going about doing his job… because he has no idea, in about an hour he’s going to die in a massive explosion. He’s just going about his job, because he has no idea that about an hour ago I gave an order to have him killed. You’ve just seen me do the least Presidential thing I do.”

The least presidential thing to do…

In fact, we know that ordering the death of distant strangers is by far the most presidential thing to be done by an American head of state. These are not unknowable monsters, they are just ordinary men. People like those now dead in Yemen, except through the magic of obedience and government they have power, power the kill without guilt or shame.

The biggest thing to come out of all this, is Goldberg’s scoop. That he has screen caps of a conversation on signal, not that fifty three human beings were murdered. What does that say about all of us?