Open Thread

March 28, 2026March 29, 2026Mark Noonan

The Iran war has been a major revelation showing us how the entire Global Ruling class has a vested interest in keeping the Mullah regime going. Now, just why is that? Well:

A lot of them are bribed. The Mullahs pay them off. Never forget that the Ruling Class is corrupt and greedy – throw a couple bucks at them and they’ll dance to your tune.
Peace in the Middle East would be a catastrophe. Reminder: the continued chaos there justifies the continuation of migration to Europe…gotta get those poor people outta there, right? If there’s peace, there’s no justification for replacing French and British voters.
They really hate Israel. Of all the geopolitical events since 1945, Israel is the one they’ve come to hate the most. It is rich. It is powerful. It has the only growing Christian population in the Middle East. It is the only Middle East nation where Muslims are able to vote in genuinely free elections. It is a standing indictment of not just the Muslim world, but of the entire Third World…showing that starting from war and poverty you can lift yourselves up and very rapidly. You can have a free and law abiding society.
Combined with this, the Ruling Class has been importing Muslims by the million and in order to keep them voting for that Ruling Class, hating Israel is a requirement. Even if one of them would prefer to support Israel, the potential loss of votes – and the turning over of their nations to patriots – is something not worth the risk.

Combine all that and you can see why they are so invested in the Mullah regime. Make no mistake about it, the Mullahs have not closed the Straight of Hormuz. They can’t. They lack the physical means to do so. But the Mullahs said it is closed and the Global Ruling Class went along with it and ordered the ships to stop sailing…because they hoped it would spike oil prices and force Trump to back down. What they didn’t understand was that Drill Baby Drill had already made the USA independent of the global oil market…we have had price spikes, but those really are just people being greedy. Charging the higher price because they can, not because they need to…in the USA, there is no shortage of oil or natural gas. To be sure, lots of countries are running out (I hear that Thailand is already rationing gasoline), but we aren’t. Trump is right when he proclaims we don’t need the Straight – it is Europe and Asia’s problem if it is closed. We can go on like this for a while – and the longer it goes on, the more the USA will be decoupled from the global oil and gas market…that is, our prices will start to drop, rapidly, even if the rest of the world is paying $20 a gallon for rationed gasoline.

Now, how will Trump wrap this up? I have no idea. It won’t go on much longer, though. Don’t pay much attention to alleged statements from the Mullah regime – in reality, there is no regime. No real government. Just various factions – mostly led by third and fourth tier people – vying for survival. Any idiot can put on a dress uniform and appear in front of a camera with a flag in the background to make a statement. What appears to be happening is the continued rapid degradation of every Iranian military asset – including tanks, vehicles and ammunition supplies – while Trump people talk to various Iranian people, trying to find the guy who will cut a deal…that is, bury the Mullah regime and become the transitional government. The continued bombing is important because day by day the various factions have less to bring to the table…and now it appears we’re hitting the ability to censor the internet and television. That is, the Iranian people are now getting access to non-regime news. The longer the factions hold out, the less their leverage…the coup de grace would be US occupation of strategic Iranian territory. Everyone is focused on Kharg Island, but I’m thinking Bandar Abbas and environs. But, that is all up to Trump and his people. We’ll see how he brings this to an end.

A Spanish girl in government care was raped by migrants. Not getting proper help afterwards, she attempted suicide which left her paralyzed. Then the government pressured her in to “assisted suicide” and her organs were harvested. You really need to think about that one – and not get angry at the migrants. To be sure, they all need to be flogged and then hung…but they aren’t the problem. The problem is the host of people – doctors, nurses, lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians, orderlies, etc – who made it all happen. The evil of the Nazi regime – or the Stalinist regime – wasn’t Hitler (or Stalin) it was the army of faceless operatives who made it all happen. The clerks who fill out the forms. The officials who sign the forms. The end-use operatives who carry out whatever is written on the forms. There was someone who filled out the form for the girl’s suicide…typing away at a computer screen, making sure there were no typos and all the relevant information was accurate…and what that clerk was doing was having a poor, suffering victim killed…to be harvested for organs and then forgotten about. After all, looking up at the clock, have to get this one done before lunch today!

The evils of the modern world are only possible because people go along with them. With a shrug. And it is just those people who must be severely punished. The insanely evil can’t do it unless (allegedly) decent, hard working people agree to help. We have to figure out some way to make such faceless actors indictable – and then convict them and subject them to something really horrific. It is the only way to drive home the absolute moral requirement that nobody cooperate with evil. Ever. Even for a minute.

UPDATE: All yesterday a growing love between Americans and Japanese flowed through social media. Appropriately it started with a shared love of barbecue. But it looks pretty awesome…some samples:

Japanese version of Country Roads. Very much worth a watch!

Japanese apparently like country music:

Japanese thanks Trump for the Pearl Harbor joke because, in his view, it finally completely buries the WWII hatchet. We can josh with each other, even about the bad things, because we’re friends.

Awesome:

Also awesome:

And more awesomeness:

Retired Spook March 28, 2026 / 9:06 am

A lot of them are bribed. The Mullahs pay them off. Never forget that the Ruling Class is corrupt and greedy – throw a couple bucks at them and they’ll dance to your tune.

And a lot of that money they used to pay bribes came from Joe Biden; NEVER forget that!
Cluster March 28, 2026 / 10:24 am

The Iran conflict has exposed the world that is for sure. We have come to realize that China is weak and no threat whatsoever. Hell they won’t even protect their own oil supply. Russia is feckless and incapable of helping their allies, let alone themselves. NK is watching and now realizing a how weak their allies of China and Russia are, so they are quiet and isolated. NATO is a complete joke. We all knew they would never come to our defense and that has been proven now. And the big bad Arab States of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc, are just praying that we finish this job for them.

It’s amazing to me how a 4th century country with unimpressive men can intimidate the entire world. I would not hesitate in the slightest to drive an oil tanker through the straight and the entire time I would be on the bow flipping the bird to the towel headed pieces of shit. If I died doing it … good. I don’t have to share a planet with them.
- Retired Spook March 28, 2026 / 11:16 am
  
  It’s even worse than that; they won’t even act in their OWN self interest. Jeff Childers nailed it:
  
  Whether he meant to or not, Trump’s global energy crisis has doomed the Europeans to become second-rate powers. Not just for the next three years until Trump’s term is over, or even the next 30 years, but maybe for the next hundred years. Maybe even forever.
  - Mark Noonan March 29, 2026 / 1:45 pm
    
    They’ve made the decision to die – now, there are some patriotic parties in Europe which are surging in popularity but I have my doubts they can obtain power…or retain it long enough to matter. Most Europeans seem sunk into sloth…as long as the welfare check keeps coming, they just don’t care.
    
    The problem which might be confronting my granddaughter when she’s my age is the carve up and colonization of Europe…that is, which surviving peoples will take over.
Retired Spook March 28, 2026 / 11:33 am

I loved Ronald Reagan. Rush’s nick name for him, “Ronaldus Magnus,” was apt. But Reagan was a big picture guy. He promised to revive the economy, solve inflation, and put the Misery Index in the rearview mirror. And he did. Trump, by comparison, has control of the big picture and a whole lot of little pictures. He learned some really valuable lessons during his first term, about leaks and back-stabbing politicians, bureaucrats, and even staff. He’s graduated from playing 3D chess to playing 5D chess while his adversaries are playing Chutes & Ladders. A fun time to be alive.
- Cluster March 28, 2026 / 12:27 pm
  
  Because Trump has been working with, and thinking about all of these issues for the last 40+ years, and he has been remarkably consistent. He is saying the same things today that he was 40 years ago … before any of these current day politicians knew how to wipe their ass
Retired Spook March 29, 2026 / 11:06 am

Heh!
- Mark Noonan March 29, 2026 / 2:01 pm
  
  Did anyone under 70 show up yesterday? FFS they were all geezers…I felt young again watching them.
  
  We know what they’re trying to do – support a Narrative:
  
  “It is a dark time in America…the Bad Orange Man and his Fascist ICE goons are on the march…but then, like a miracle, the No Kings march! It opened up the skies of Liberation! On to November!”
  
  It only works if the people participating don’t have Life Alert buttons. Gotta have someone under 70 who isn’t covered in piercings and claiming to be a different gender.
  - Cluster March 30, 2026 / 9:36 am
    
    Well they are not just protesting Trump and hating on Trump. They are protesting us, their neighbors, and hating on us. They are telling us that they don’t approve of our values and will make life miserable as a result. These are not people you want to share a country with
  - Amazona March 30, 2026 / 10:39 am
    
    It was really kind of sad to see so many people stomping around making no sense at all, just emoting about grievances they FEEL but don’t understand. They seem to think that if they throw a big enough temper tantrum they will “get rid of Trump”. Remember, this is in the same mass indulgence in emotion claiming that Trump ignores the Constitution. They are wound up about “the war” though there isn’t as much howling about “blood for oil” as there was with Bush, as there is so little American blood and we don’t get the oil. There is the default squealing about “fascism” and “dictators” though, typically, with no definition of “fascism” other than “something that ticks us off” and “dictator” just seems to be thrown in there. And a biggie is their demand that we actually engage in insurrection and rebel against the authority and laws of the United States in simply “getting rid” of the law enforcement agency tasked with enforcing federal immigration law.
    
    All in all, it was the silliest, most brainless protest ever held. There was one aspect I found a little disturbing—the heads of administration officials on pikes. That had a creepy reference to the French Revolution, and I think was a not-very subtle call-out to the violent in the crowd, the same types who advocated for the assassination of Trump.
  - Mark Noonan March 30, 2026 / 12:11 pm
    
    And meanwhile on Palm Sunday 12 Nigerian Christians were massacred by Islamist radicals…so, they don’t care about death, they just hate Trump and America. And a side note on the Pope’s antiwar statement (which is not obligatory on Catholics as it is not a definition of dogma)…we’re supposed to dialogue with people who massacre Palm Sunday worshippers? We’re supposed to get mad that out of an over abundance of caution the IDF shut down the Church of the Holy Sepulcher but pass over in silence about our brothers and sisters being martyred for the faith?
    
    The more this sort of thing goes on, the angrier I get…and then I pray for patience because I know that God will make it right…but what I’m getting very sure of is that “making it right” isn’t just passive prayer and waiting on God to miracle us out of this…we have to do the work. And, in a way, atone for our sins. We let this state of affairs arise because we were lazy and cowardly. Trump is getting us on the path of making it right.
  - Amazona March 31, 2026 / 8:09 am
    
    It’s like the world has been drained of intelligence, with emotion pumped in to replace it. I had hoped to finally get a less squishy Pope, but this one seems as clueless and huggy-kissy as the last. How many “dialogues” do we need? We have plenty. They fall into two basic categories—-“You should not hate and fear Muslims because this is the religion of peace” and “Death to all who are not Muslims (and that includes those who are not the “right kind) of Muslims”. Believing the first just enables the second.
Retired Spook March 29, 2026 / 11:08 am

One of MANY great campaign ads that cost zero dollars to make. Thanks Democrats for your attention to this matter.
Retired Spook March 30, 2026 / 10:26 am

Got this from a retired Navy buddy, and I couldn’t NOT share it here. (attribution – Michael Smith)

America the “Sin Eater”

“People wonder why America is filling the role of global police when Trump promised no more new or “forever wars.”

I think there is a simple reason—and it is one I have personally experienced over a business career that included frequent international travel, extended assignments abroad, and even a few years living overseas.

9/11 changed more than just America; it changed our relationship with the rest of the world and how American citizens moved through it. Personally, I went from believing I had a kind of protective aura because I was an American to understanding I was a target. As terrorists grew emboldened, it became clear that if I were detained or kidnapped, there was no guarantee American assets would be coming to retrieve me. Holding an American passport was no longer a guarantee.

When I landed in Dubai in 2002 on an American Airlines flight, I remember thinking that being an American on an American airline, flying over Middle Eastern terrain within MANPAD range in a plane with a big American flag on the tail, might not have been the best idea.

It also awakened me to the reality that as America pushed globalization, we failed to recognize that globalization works in reverse—importing cultures and people not aligned with American principles and values. That realization only deepened when former President Obama worked to diminish American standing and leadership in an effort to make us just one nation among many. He and his allies believed that being a superpower drew too much attention, and that if we were simply another country—like those in Europe—there would be less threat to America and Americans.

Ludicrous. When America appears weak, as it did during the Carter, Obama and then the Biden administrations, the threat does not recede—it grows.

The truth is that America has always been more than “Team America: World Police.” It has been the world’s sin eater.

In historical lore, a sin eater is someone who takes on the sins of another through a ritual act, absolving them and allowing them peace. America has often played that role—absorbing the consequences of global disorder and, in the process, preventing humanity from being permanently stained by the worst evils men inflict on one another. At times, this “sin eating” has not only preserved peace but advanced the broader cause of civilization.

There is a simple rule about problems: they rarely improve when ignored. More often, they grow—and once they metastasize, they become far more difficult to resolve quietly.

That is why I find the assertion that Iran “presented no imminent threat” to America so unconvincing. In a world defined by asymmetric risk, Iran and its proxies have posed a continuous threat to Americans since 1979. To argue otherwise is a form of pre-9/11 wishful thinking.

I wish we lived in a world where America was not required to play the role of sin eater. But that is not the world we inhabit. The West allowed this reality to take hold through apathy and lethargy—ignoring problems when they were small and refusing to act when action could have been limited and precise, rather than requiring aircraft carriers and cruise missiles for what might once have been handled far more discreetly, perhaps by a suppressed .22 semiautomatic.

Is this a constitutional role for America?

No—ideally it is not. But neither is it entirely outside our role.

In a connected world where physical borders offer diminishing protection, where even close allies fail basic tests of shared self-interest, and where anti-American forces operate with increasing freedom, we have effectively surrendered the option of not playing this role—ironically, by choosing not to play it when it mattered most.

One might even argue that the constitutional mandate to “provide for the common defense” has been globalized along with everything else.

I don’t like it—but reality is indifferent to what I like.

What I truly detest is being forced to react instead of act—because we delayed the inevitable for far too long.

Far too often it falls on presidents to become a reaction to all that has been ignored for too long. That is how I see President Trump. He is not a conservative, but he does conservative things. He is a mercenary, and he plays with the cards he has been dealt, trying to improve every hand.

Imperfectly and sometimes unconventionally, but his actions are now required to change the game.”
Retired Spook March 30, 2026 / 10:32 am

Laugh for the day:

In an Air Force One gaggle last night, Trump said the negotiation with Iran was going “extremely well, but you never know with Iran, because we negotiate with them, and then we always have to blow them up.”
- Mark Noonan March 30, 2026 / 12:15 pm
  
  Day by day there are fewer regime people left and they have fewer assets left as bargaining chips. Trump announced this morning that he’s having some good talks with regime survivors but he also warned them that if a deal isn’t struck soon, we’ll start going after basic services…power and water. Iran’s economy is already experiencing hyper inflation. The Gulf States have seized apparently a couple trillion in Iranian assets. Things are grinding to a halt while Iran’s armed forces are being reduced to a shadow of their former power. Someone has to stick their finger in the dyke…because if the regime loses all capability, they’re going to find Kurds and Afghans taking off strips of Iranian territory.
jdge March 30, 2026 / 1:04 pm

FDA Launches New AI-Powered System to Track Drug and Vaccine Side Effects

Seems this is a significant upgrade to most other antiquated systems the FDA uses that will actually be of value for most people.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2026/03/30/fda-adverse-event-monitoring-system.aspx?sd=20150112&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1ReadMore&utm_campaign=20260330Z1&foDate=true&mid=DM1897475&rid=534917484

AEMS – Federal Adverse Event Monitoring System

https://www.fda.gov/safety/fda-adverse-event-monitoring-system-aems