Well, I made it through Monday and Tuesday without obsessing about the news — surprisingly, with a little help from Donald Trump, of all people — because, while the media were focused heavily on his abysmal State of the Union marathon, I was able to ignore it for the worthless piece of made-up, babbling, self-aggrandizing bullshit it was, and instead used the time to get a few heretofore-neglected chores done around the house.

But Wednesday presented a new, though not unexpected, difficulty: boredom. I finished reading one novel and wasn’t quite ready to start the next. Clearing the junk mail from my inbox took about five minutes; a couple of crossword puzzles occupied another hour; and the laundry, once I put the clothes into the machine and turned it on, washed itself.

Being largely housebound clearly has its limitations in the excitement department. Even a stroll around the neighborhood only offers a view of the same houses, the same cracks in the sidewalks, and an occasional friendly wave at a passing driver. There isn’t even a neighborhood store within walking distance. Boring, boring, boring.

And while I thought about cleaning out a closet and filling another bag for Goodwill, there was still one important element missing: mental stimulation. So I confess . . . I took a peek at the headlines, and my eyes landed first on this one:

“Four shot dead on US-registered speedboat by border guards, Cuba says.” [Bernd Debusmann, Jr. and Max Matza, BBC, February 25, 2026.]

It was breaking news, so the article was short on details other than the following:

According to the Cuban government, a US-registered speedboat entered Cuban waters with ten people aboard. When a Cuban boat carrying five members of the Interior Ministry approached the vehicle in order to identify the passengers, “the crew of the violating speedboat opened fire,” allegedly wounding the Cuban commander. “As a consequence of the confrontation, as of the time of this report, four aggressors on the foreign vessel were killed and six injured.” [Id.]

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who (coincidentally?) was on the island of Saint Kitts and Nevis to meet with Caribbean leaders concerning Cuba and other regional issues, said initially that the nationalities of the boat’s passengers had not been determined, and that:

“It is highly unusual to see shootouts on the open sea like that. It’s not something that happens everyday.* We’re going to find out exactly what happened, who was involved, and we’ll make a determination on the basis of what we find out.” [Id.]

* Ed.Note: Unlike the U.S. attacks on all of those suspected Venezuelan drug-runners’ boats. But I digress.

Stating that the U.S. Coast Guard had already traveled to the vicinity of the attack, Rubio added:

“I don’t know who has possession of the vessel. This is the first thing we want to have. We obviously want to have access to these people, if they are American citizens or US residents.” [Id.]

He also said that, rather than rely on information provided by the Cuban government, Washington would independently verify the facts of the case . . . certainly a proper procedure under the circumstances. But there will likely be two very different sides to the story as it unfolds, depending largely on the identities of the speedboat’s passengers.

Any attempt at analysis would be purely speculative at this point. But the fact that it occurred on the heels of Donald Trump’s threats against the island nation, and within the time frame of Rubio’s discussions in the region, is enough to raise serious concerns.

And certainly enough to have aroused me from my recent lethargy for the moment.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/26/26