Iran

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

Goodbye, Dolly! Passed away at 80 – and one of the few remaining universally beloved people in the USA. I figure she leaned a bit Left, but she never made a thing about it…and that is the key to keeping that universal love. Of course, maybe if she was younger it would have proven impossible? These days, just to keep your gigs coming, immense pressure is brought to bear on you to toe the Leftist line. By the time that came in about 25 years ago, Dolly was so established she could just ignore such things, had anyone attempted such pressure on her. We probably can’t have anything universal across American culture any longer – and until we destroy the Left, that is how it shall be. For goodness sake, the Left pitched a fit about America 250 just last month.

The economic pressure being put on Iran is immense and destructive. We’ll see if it works – that is, will it convince the Iranian people (cowards, for the most part) to rise up? They don’t want freedom – they’ve made that clear by supinely allowing themselves to abused by dirty-necked Islamists for decades. But they might be just materialist enough to want their stuff…said stuff now being denied by the US blockade. We shall see. If it doesn’t work, then I suspect it will be bombs away for one more sustained campaign to cripple Iran for a generation.

Trump is also upping the pressure on Canada – which has been getting a free ride since WWII. They have had essentially free access to the American market while carefully protecting their own from us. Now they are saying they’ll let China use Canada as a means of getting around our tariffs on China. Screw them. Nothing against those Canadians who are what I’m now calling Old Canada – allies in two world wars and great people all around. But New Canada is filled with Leftist bigotry and hatred…stupidity as well. We do not need a thing from Canada while their economy collapses without access to our market. Either conform yourselves to our desires or go jump in a lake.

Trump is set to revoke the visas of 200,000 people who are here on business or tourism visas but are claiming asylum. Think about that – they were able to get visas to come to the USA but are now claiming asylum status. Just insane we let this sort of nonsense go on. If you can get a visa, you’re probably not oppressed. Asylum is for people who will die if they don’t get out of their home country…and you get asylum in the first country you can. Essentially, asylum and TPS have been used – by Republicans and Democrats – to back-door amnesty. It is good that Trump is ending this but it can also be un-ended by his successor. We need laws clearly laying out asylum. I mean very specific…actually listing social categories of people and countries of origin we’ll accept asylum applicants from (like, say, a gay person from Iran, Christian from Pakistan, white person from South Africa). If you don’t meet one of the legislatively decreed categories then you can’t even try. We also need to change the laws so that asylum is not a fast track to a green card. It is your life that is at stake – you just need a place to hide from those trying to kill you. We’ll forward you to some other country if at all possible…if you get asylum here, you’re in some sort of holding camp until you find a country to emigrate to or are able to return home.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan8 Comments

The Federal workforce is at its lowest level since 1966. Think about that – this was before the Welfare State was fully built. Some of this reduction is simply not replacing people who leave, some of it is firing people. The main thing is that each person reduced is one less person who can pester us…one less button for the Ruling Class to press to gain our compliance. Sure, if a Democrat gets in they can hire a lot…but that does take time, and the precedent has been set that the President has broad powers to fire Executive Branch employees.

Democrats made a huge mistake in taking Trump to court on a lot of issues, but taking him to Court on grounds that he’s not really the President has been the most bone-headed. Again and again, the Courts are forced to rule the obvious: Trump is, indeed, President and the President is the sole person vested with Executive power under the Constitution. We haven’t quite got to the ruling all the way. We won’t while Roberts is Chief Justice…but if you read the Constitution properly, the President cannot surrender Executive authority. It is vested in that office. Even if an Executive signs a law limiting Executive power, that law is completely unconstitutional. There is one person in the entirety of the USA who holds Executive power: the President. We will get there…and the Democrats will have made it happen.

Here’s the real kicker in all of this: had the Democrats told Hillary to go jump in a lake and simply let Trump be President then he would have sailed through eight years ending in 2025 – to be sure, making some lasting changes (most notably in immigration and trade) but no real fundamental shake up of the system. Trump is, after all, a moderate man – he’s a New Yorker, ya know? He’s no more far right than Ed Koch or Nelson Rockefeller. They could probably have got a lot of things they have long desired but no Democrat could ever get enacted into law. But, no; they decided to indulge Hillary’s temper tantrum and now its snowballed into opposing Trump 100% of the time. Resist!

Ok. But you just resisted your way into President Vance exercising power a President hasn’t used since FDR. Good luck, Democrats. You won’t be able to take him to court. The cases have all been decided. You’ll have no recourse at all – even if you take Congress there’s nothing you can do other than refuse to spend money (ha!). It is so very crucial that we win in 2026 and 2028…the stage is set, the ball is rolling…if we can just keep things going for another 5-10 years, we’ll have won for good. Personally, I think we will win – polls are not just mistaken, they are fabrications designed to warp the political system (mostly, this year, to get GOP money to flow into sure-things rather than being spent on good opportunities). Outside of polls, everything is coming up roses for Trump and the GOP…Trump will nationalize the election and then spend a billion dollars telling people what a great job he’s done and how it will all be lost if the Democrats get in…MAGA will show up.

I’ve heard about the lady who is alleged to have killed her kids but I haven’t paid remotely enough attention to render any sort of judgement. But it is bizarre there are women out there cheering the accused. Seriously? What if she really did it? What the heck are you cheering for? Has Moloch really captured that much of upper class white women? Geesh! It betrays a deep sickness in our society, even if the lady is acquitted. No matter what, children are dead. Someone murdered them. Even if she’s particularly innocent of this, she’s guilty of being part of a social dynamic that murdered children. This is an event to provoke a desire to confess our sins to God and amend our lives. Not to make some sort of social media sensation…and all of this before all the facts are presented in Court.

Trump is going to bankrupt Iran. It is an interesting strategy – and one that hasn’t been tried since the WWII blockades of Germany and Japan. But this will be much worse because Iran has only limited domestic capacity. For instance, in the USA we have about half a hectare of arable land for each one of us…in Iran, they’ve got less than a quarter of a hectare per person. Hard to feed 92 million people like that – especially as Iran is in a severe drought (Iran has floated some plans to move its capital from Tehran as there simply isn’t enough water to sustain the city). They don’t make much of anything. So, throttling their economy – already a basket case – is going to hurt. A lot. And very soon. My bet is this is a gambit to get the Iranian people off their cowardly butts and overthrow the regime. If a desire to be free won’t make you fight when you have IDF and American air cover, maybe running out of food will get you to move? We’ll see. I don’t see this going beyond November. The oil flows out of the Gulf. Iran’s military capacity is gone. Economic pressure is being applied…and in November there will be no political concerns to restrain Trump from turning Iran into a junk heap.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

Democrats are stoutly asserting that the discovery of 6,000 illegal aliens registered to vote in New Jersey is proof that there is no fraud. No, seriously: that’s what they’re saying.

But do note: what they said was never happening at all is now admitted to be happening. They’re just absurdly claiming it doesn’t matter. This, by the way, is mere battle space prep – in the wake of Trump’s election integrity speech, they know what is coming…that is, they know DOJ has been looking into this and is likely about to blow the lid off it. This is an attempt to get out in front and implant into the public mind the concept that it doesn’t matter.

It is my contention that the deeper Blue the area, the less the reported votes are real. The deep Blue areas don’t really have elections…the powers that be determine who is going to win and just manufacture the vote totals to match. Think about what happened in LA – Pratt clearly came in second. Now, given how Democrat the city is, this still probably would have been a loss in November…but the Ruling Class in LA wasn’t going to take any chances, so they simply manufactured enough votes to get the Super Commie (who had tearfully conceded on election night!) into second place. And then the Super Commie just stopped campaigning. Bass – the Ruling’s Class’ stooge in office – is going to win by default. And, yes, there will be some votes actually cast in LA this November. And those votes will skew heavily Democrat. But the reported number will bear no relation to the number of people who actually bothered to vote. Nobody really votes in a One Party State except those who have a vested interest in that State. Everyone else gives it up as a useless exercise. Sure as heck the welfare bums won’t bother – and don’t ever bother. Used to be in olden days the Democrats would provide “walking around money” to get street thugs to push welfare bums to vote…these days, they just get them registered and then cast the votes for them. Much cheaper. Easier, too. And no chance at all that the welfare bums will vote the wrong way even by accident. Democrats know all this – and there is a very strong chance Trump is about to expose it all.

Trump continues his drumbeat against Communism. Naturally, his critics are saying he shouldn’t do that. We need to concentrate on “affordability”! Just ask any Democrat or RINO and they’ll tell you so! The American people don’t care about Communism…all they care about is grocery and gas prices. To be fair, we do care about that – we want very much for those prices to go down. But there is also only so much the President can do on that and anything effective takes time…like years of time. Reshoring our manufacturing, spurring American ranching and agriculture and getting the supply chain straightened out is going to take time. And it is already working: inflation is easing. But the existential threat to the United States isn’t $4.25 a gallon gasoline…it is the Communism. Trump is jumping on it because it is the actual issue of 2026…as much as immigration and “they/them” were the 2024 issues (and they remain the issues of 2026, but now Trump is tying them to their source…the Communist infection of the United States). Back in 2024 Trump was advised to stay away from immigration and “they/them” – he ignored those critics and went on to win. Will this concentration on Communism work in 2026? Can’t know. But I think it will.

You see, Democrats have been pushed ever further Left since Humphrey lost in 1968. Year by year, the people who rioted outside the DNC in 1968 have taken more control of the Party and allowed in increasingly Leftist screwballs. People like Carter, Clinton and Obama could mute it – cover it up with soaring rhetoric which hid the inner Maoist. But now there’s no hiding it…its out there, in the open, and being touted for the 2028 nominee. This will probably be Harris, again, because of all the insane people running, she’s the black woman and so will scoop up sufficient early wins to make her nomination a foregone conclusion…and the Democrat leaders will be relieved because if it isn’t her, its AOC or someone even more insane. The Democrats are committed to ending ICE (that is, ending all immigration enforcement), allowing criminals to run free, keeping up the drumbeat for “they/them”…every last lunatic Leftist position is endorsed and advanced. Only a few Democrats (most notably Fetterman) are even mildly objecting to it. The rest are either openly embracing it or keeping silent, lest they be condemned and removed via a far Left primary challenger. What Trump is going to do between now and November is merely point this out – to make this a national election and a referendum on Trump/MAGA. It is the path to victory if there is one at all – trying to hide things and go with the flow is the sure path to defeat. Victory comes with ruthlessly pointing out how insane the Democrats are…and tying the most lunatic Leftist around the necks of every Democrat everywhere.

We continue to whack Iran – they managed to get four of our own, and Trump says they’re going to pay heavily for that. This is what we must do. Eventually we will get to the point where even the most insane Islamist will want to call it quits. Remember, all the drawn-out wars we’ve had since WWII were drawn out defeats because we never seriously went after our enemies. We let them off the hook. We essentially told them that if they just endure for a bit, we’d quit. No more of that – failure to obey our orders means it is just going to get hideously worse for you and even if you can get a few of our along the way, we’re going to get far more of you.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

RIP, Lindsey Graham. I don’t think anyone can say they ever agreed with him 100% but he’d be the first person to let that slide. It was politics. You might have to kick a man in the shins one day and shake his hand the next. Intelligent and mature people realize this and roll with it. Graham was one of the mature and intelligent people.

Naturally, the Left is filled with utterly vile comments about him. This is because Leftists are, by and large, garbage. Key to understanding the current hatred is that Graham was a stout supporter of Israel…and the Left has made it an article of faith that a genocide occurred in Gaza…this despite an increase in Gaza’s population since the start of the war. Facts don’t matter – the Islamists made the claim, the Communists adhered to it…and now everyone Left of center is supposed to fall in line. Almost all of them do…but that means that everyone who supports Israel is now Worse Than Hitler.

Side note: Graham entered politics in 1992 and his wealth is estimated as a max of 2 million. This could be a couple houses (he had to divide his time between DC and SC, of course) and some savings. Nancy Pelosi is worth 269 million.

Looks like there is no faction in Iran that can commit to a peace – so, we’re back to bombing them. If this keeps up until after the mid-terms, then Iran better watch out. Once there is absolutely no political concern, if Iran doesn’t make a deal then Trump will just wreck the whole country. We hit a bit if infrastructure lately but for the most part we’ve left it alone – essentially telling the Iranians they can have a peace and the ability to rapidly recover…or they can keep it up and we’ll knock their economy back 50 years. Personally, I think we should take Kharg Island, and keep it. Serious: annex it. US territory. All Iranian oil exports now go through US territory. They only get to sell as much as we allow, for the price we set, to the customers we approve.

Been thinking on this more and more – it is, once again, time to get into the real world. We’re told story after story of Trump aid cuts causing this or that bad thing in the Third World. Well, why are they still Third World? It’s been 60 or more years. That is plenty of time for any people to build their economy. Hey, the claim is the West is rich because it stole the wealth of the Third World. Ok. Take them at their word: but this means the Third World has wealth, and we’re no longer stealing it. So, why are they poor? Any baleful legacies of settler-colonialism are gone in twenty years, tops. Anyone who still a failure on the twenty-first anniversary of independence is just a failure…and as we’re rapidly learning on domestic welfare spending, the worst thing you can do is subsidize failure.

So, if we are to provide aid to these Third World nations, it should come only via a colonial governor. And, remember, they don’t have to accept the aid, or the governor. But if they want aid, then governor. We can’t trust them to use the aid properly – this is proven by the fact they’re still poor. This can only be because they’re stupid or venal…or both. The other side of this is that if you offend us – that is, make us spend blood and treasure dealing with you – then we’re taking our pound of flesh. We’re confiscating wealth and annexing territory. You don’t have to pay us an indemnity and surrender land to us! It is all a matter of choice – and if you choose to be quiet and respectful towards us, no worries. Cause us trouble and you won’t like the outcome.

Bottom line: it is time the world adjusts to the fact that we are, indeed, the most powerful nation on Earth.

Nick Shirley has continued to expose fraud – mostly by just going and looking at it. Very much out in the open. Latest is a scam where someone starts an “adult day care” and the place gets lavish federal subsidies…part of which is kicked back to the geezers who sign up. I am more and more leaning towards 2 out of every 3 federal dollars is stolen. Its just been a free for all of theft. We could be out of debt and taxed a third less than we are now and still provide gold-plated benefits for those who actually need them. Makes you understand why Napoleon would shoot a contractor from time to time…just to keep the stealing to a dull roar.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

Starmer is going to resign his office. Doesn’t really matter as his replacement will be a carbon-copy. There isn’t a dime’s worth a difference between anyone in Labour. Heck, between anyone on the global Left. They’re all liars. They’re all cruel, greedy and stupid. Starmer and his Party – in conjunction with the Tories – allowed the rape gangs to flourish in the UK and are still trying to sweep it under the rug…but what do you expect from people who think that abortion and “assisted suicide” are good? Who think that hordes of foreigners are great? Who believe that if they just impoverish their own people it will cure “global warming”? And, of course, as they push these anti-human policies they’re all stealing as much as they can.

Labour does look like its heading for a trouncing but an election doesn’t have to be called until 2029. And with Labour holding an absolute majority of around eighty seats, there is little chance anyone can force an early election. In other words, lots of time to set things up – mostly by imposing censorship to ensure nobody hears how bad it is and, of course, grant yet larger numbers of migrants citizenship so they can vote in another Labour government with 34% of the vote. The Tories are completely craven. Reform is showing itself unwilling to actually tackle the immigration issue…and Restore Britain will be lucky to get 5% of the vote…which is indicative of how many actual patriots still reside in the UK. Just the sad and pathetic ending of a great nation…the Ruling Class, starting with the next King, will convert to Islam and that will be the end of it (and you just watch the feminists say the burka is feminist as it saves women from the perils of the Male Gaze).

The Left is so lunatic here in the USA that they are actively vandalizing the reflecting pool in DC – tearing up the material and dumping algae into the water. These are people who will kill us all in an instant if they had the power.

Still lot of back and forth on the Iran thing. Its a process, guys! Patience. Trump will bomb if he has to – and even bomb quite a lot if necessary. The Iranians have nothing but bluster – and an army of social media bots. They can’t close the strait – it takes a Navy and Air Force to do that. They haven’t got one. Some are saying Trump doesn’t realize the sort of people he’s dealing with – the reality is the Iranians still don’t know who they’re dealing with. Trump isn’t just another American President who will roll over just to get something signed. It is either do as you’re told, or lose out. Meanwhile, the oil flows, gas prices drop and the whole world starts to adjust to getting oil through any channel but the strait of Hormuz.

People are going to serious extremes to paint it all bad. I mean seriously quoting known liars because they’re saying the Orange Man is Bad. It is like we’re going to have to draw pictures explaining that the side which can bomb at will is the winner. But, not really: they know we’ve won. They just hate Trump – and need to somehow prove to everyone that they hate Trump.

RNC came into June with $125 million on hand. Democrats? Negative $3.5 million. And the GOP number does not include the gigantic amount Trump and his various PACs have. There is no way the polls are right given then – they aren’t wrong; they’re lies. Not even within ten points of reality.

Understanding War and Peace

Mark Noonan15 Comments

I think I see the problem some are having with Trump’s Iran negotiations. I’m not talking about the lunatics on the Left, nor the pathetic Never Trumpers, worn out Neo-Cons and assorted grifters. No: I’m talking about those who want victory and fear Trump is throwing it away. Here we go:

They neither understand what constitutes victory, nor understand why we lost all of the post-WWII wars.

The first part is easier: most people, on the whole, don’t understand military or foreign affairs (this is especially true among senior military and State Department personnel, until Trump II). Lacking such knowledge, they feel that there should be an abject surrender ala Reims or Tokyo Bay. Gotta tell ya: these are not usual. In fact, they’re nearly unique. Of course, total war is nearly unique…the world approached it in WWI and went overboard on it in WWII, but such is not the norm. Usually the enemy quits before all resources are exhausted – that is, the leadership weighs things and figures that continued fighting is more costly than peace, and so peace is made.

In my view, the demand for unconditional surrender was a gigantic strategic and moral mistake. The Germans and Japanese were already determined enough to fight hard; that demand just fused their peoples into a determined mass willing to fight to the last man. Had we offered a way out, the voices of ceasefire would have been able to rise to the top. We should have offered peace to a non-Nazi Germany on basis of her 1938 borders. Peace to a Japan willing to surrender all post-1932 conquests. Heck, we should have worked Germany to overthrow the Hitler regime and place Rupprecht of Bavaria on a new German throne (thoroughly Royal, despised the Nazis, wanted to curb Prussian militarism – just perfect, actually). The demand for unconditional surrender probably extended the war at least a year longer than otherwise…with untold millions being killed as a result. Plus half of Europe in Soviet hands with no major Continental Power able to stand athwart Stalin’s ambitions. It is not a good idea to totally destroy your enemy…you might need him as a friend. Often very soon. Look how quickly we actually needed a powerful Germany after 1945. Japan, too. Didn’t have them, so we had to take the whole burden upon ourselves.

So much for the easy part – that is, people just not knowing that you can win a war and leave your enemy alive. Now, to the second part: why did we lose all those wars?

Quite simple: we held back the full application of our power against an enemy who was supported by outside powers we deemed off limits to retaliation. It is really nothing more than that. Or do you really think some Korean and Vietnamese peasants could do what the Waffen SS and Japanese soldiers failed to do? Sorry, no: they didn’t beat us in a stand up fight. They didn’t, in fact, beat us at all. We beat ourselves. Failure to apply power. Failure to take the steps necessary to victory. Allowing the conflicts to drag on for years, causing dismay among the American population. What we have done since 1945 is set ourselves up for defeat. Rather insane. Stupid, too. And you do wonder if we had people in our government deliberately setting this up? That’s for a later time. Suffice it to say that if we allowed our enemies to script our moves, it could not have ever come out worse.

Until Trump.

Trump is not a man of war. He takes a businessman’s view of it. That is, its bad for business. Why shoot when you can work a deal beneficial to both sides? This sort of view can get you into some trouble (it fails to take in to consideration the simple passions which war can cause), but on the whole it is the best way to go about it…because war is a business. A nasty one, to be sure. As the old saying goes, amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics. Business, that is. Not the glorious charge or the clever flanking move…but how can I get this many troops there by this day? How long can I supply them? How large are the enemy’s supplies? Who can produce more supplies over time? These are the questions which real generals ponder. And Trump seems to instinctively know this – and so his plan, when he put it in motion, was two fold: hammer the leadership in hopes of an uprising and hammer Iran’s economy so that even if there wasn’t an uprising, whoever was in charge would have to come to the table. We haven’t engaged in that sort of warfare since 1945. There was no uprising…but Iran’s economy is in shambles. They came to the table because if they couldn’t start selling as much oil as the market can bear, there would be an uprising because the Iranian people are running out of food.

Iran also has no outside power willing to bankroll them. Russia and China are friendly, but neither want to tangle with us over Iran. Plus we just demonstrated that Russian and Chinese military hardware is worthless on the battlefield against us. Just as they had to after the first Gulf War, they are now pausing to rethink their whole strategic worldview. They are once again unsure they can actually fight us – so, time to lay low. A year ago the Chinese might have been thinking they could send a naval task force to contest our control of the Arabian Gulf…but not today. All they’d be doing is providing excellent naval scrap. Without a patron, without the ability to endlessly kill Americans, with their economy on the verge of collapse…they really had to come to the table.

Can we trust them? Of course not! But peace doesn’t require trust. No more than alliance does. It requires shared interests. Right now, Iran has a vested interest in a calm middle east. A time for it to recover a bit. Build a bit. Reconsider strategic choices. Argue amongst themselves who gets to be in charge. We, too, need a calm middle east and an Iran no longer sabre rattling all over the Middle East. We need time for the peace efforts to really take hold and encompass the entire region. This is why Trump was so mad at Israel for bombing terrorists in Lebanon: for very small returns – killing a few more terrorists – Israel nearly upset the apple cart. Hey, I get it: Israel would like all her enemies dead. But Israel, herself, refused to do this in Gaza. For the most decent and humane reasons, to be sure, but it totally undercuts bloodthirsty demands about Iran…as well Hezbollah creeps in Lebanon (who probably haven’t been paid in months given Iran’s troubles). Both sides need peace – and so we’re going to try to make it. And even if the Mullah regime survives, that isn’t a defeat. It is, in fact, a victory – because Iran’s whole thing has been to disturb the peace.

War and Peace With Iran

Mark Noonan13 Comments

War is a continuation of politics by other means, Von Clausewitz famously said. Lot of people forget, though, that politics is a continuation of war by other means. They are, ultimately, the same thing – a person who truly understands war understands politics and vice versa. I bring this up because we have a lot of people dooming over the pending deal with Iran.

First off, we don’t really know the details yet. It hasn’t been released. Trump has outlined (for months) the broad outlines of what we’re after: no Iranian nukes, no threats to commerce, Iran ceases using proxy forces around the Middle East. Trump says he’s close to a deal to get what we want. Ok. Lets wait and see. If you really think that Trump will throw away our overwhelming victory over Iran then I just don’t know what to say: I can only assume you’re just so filled with hatred of Trump that you’ll swallow any nonsense fed to you by known liars.

Secondly, just what do you want? That is, what is your post-war?

It is a serious question and one which hasn’t been asked for a very long time. And, in fact, it is rarely asked during any war. But it is the most crucial thing to ask. In fact, if you don’t ask and find your answer, you really shouldn’t engage in war. There have been so many wars in human history and for most of them people don’t even ponder what is next – and this is true for both just and unjust wars. But if you are in any way a serious person, you have to know what you want at the end of it. I do believe Trump knows what he wants.

In any war you can have your idea outcome in mind but you must also have your merely acceptable outcome ready. You can never know what is going to happen once the guns go off. The enemy, after all, does get a say. Trump’s ideal outcome in Iran was the Iranian people overthrowing the Mullahs. I thought it would happen. I think almost all of us did. Trump certainly did. But with the Mullah regime decapitated, its remaining leaders in hiding and their goon squads running the Iranian people simply did not move. They didn’t want to risk their lives. Had they done so, US and Israeli air cover would have been available. Nothing happened. They took videos and then went home. Given this, our ideal outcome became out of reach. We will not usher in the end of the Mullah regime short of a US invasion and no sane person in America wants that. It isn’t that we wouldn’t win it is that in the post-war we’d be responsible for rebuilding Iran and you just know the Iranians would take pot-shots at us as they vie to be more anti-American than the next guy. No, thanks.

So, given that the Mullahs truly gauged the quality of their people, what next? It has got to be a deal. We could keep bombing. But to what purpose? It is still an option and Trump has repeatedly said he’d resort to it absent a deal…but, for goodness sake, you’re not supposed to want Iran reduced to rubble. Whatever else they are, they are your fellow human beings. If necessity requires you to kill them, then so be it – but if you can abridge the slaughter and still obtain your minimal requirements then it would be a crime to keep killing. Right now, Trump says he can make the deal – presumably no nukes, open seas, no proxies. Lets see if it can be done.

Will Iran break the deal? They might. You can’t trust them any further than you could throw them. But they also just found out that 25 years of military build up using untold amounts of money turned out to be a complete waste of time. They couldn’t even slow us down. That is a lesson which only a fool ignores. Might they all be fools? Could be. But, I doubt it. Given that at least some significant faction of the mafia running Iran is talking, there are at least some people there who know that it is time to lay low, rebuild and try again down the road. Long down the road. So far down the road that by the time you get there, attacking the USA might not remain a priority. In other words, it is time for peace. War might come again. War might always come again. But it is time for peace. The Mullah dream of conquering the Middle East is over. And outside some potential fanatics, everyone understands it. But, meanwhile, Iran still carries great weight. They can have strong influence in the area…if they make a deal and thus are able to rebuild. Their choice, ultimately.

But right back to it: what do you want? What do you think is best for America? In my view, what we want is us exiting the Middle East. That is, peace is secured to the extent that we don’t need to be deeply involved over there. I don’t care if some random Islamist nutter sets off a bomb – that is for the local people to deal with. What I do want – and I think America should insist upon – is the free movement of oil combined with no attempts by any Middle East party to export their lunacy to the rest of the world. Remain 7th century savages for all I care – as long as you don’t export it to the USA. I don’t want us to have to fuss every time some idiot does something stupid. I want our forces to withdraw from the Middle East. I want good relations there – especially with Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I want to have in place various protocols for what to do if some idiot decides to set the place on fire…but I don’t want us deeply involved in the day to day. Let the people there sort themselves out.

I doubt that those pre-condemning Trump have any idea what they want. Other than to take exception to any Trump action, that is. If we hadn’t hit at all they’d condemn. If we kept hitting they’d condemn. If Trump’s deal works, they’ll still condemn. But as I’ve been saying for a while now, it is time we rejoined the real world…and in that real world we don’t have to be eternally engaged in warfare. We can make peace. Even with people we hate and who hate us. Peace isn’t love. Peace isn’t trust. Peace is…peace. It is a state where we’re not shooting at each other and are unlikely to do so any time soon. I think Trump is going to get us that – and that is good.

Update:

Open Thread

Mark Noonan13 Comments

On again, off again with Iran – but I saw some of the video of yesterday’s bombing and it was ferocious. Trump now says the Mullahs again are ready to talk. We’ll see – but also for the first time he indicated the next step is taking Kharg Island. Though, keep in mind, that could be a decoy to have the Mullahs move their remaining assets there to be bombed while we move somewhere else. Bottom line, Trump just showed the Mullahs – and the world – that we have absolute military supremacy. Whatever amount of pain we want to inflict will be inflicted and Iran can’t even slow it down. Oil futures are down under $87 a barrel … which makes me feel the people most in the know figure Iran really is ready to deal; that is, the Iranians, themselves, might be telling the oil market that they’re quitting and thus oil will soon flow very freely (Iran desperately needs this – they haven’t made money in weeks and Goon Squads don’t work for free).

Irish and Brit politicians who knelt for Floyd of Fentanyl are upset that some people in Belfast are rioting against the migrants…anyways, the protests are mostly peaceful, right? The disgusting part of the pols is that they’re straight faced telling us that it is wrong to riot because of injustice right after they told us people must riot because of injustice. We’re used to such disgusting acts…but that doesn’t make us any less disgusted. I still don’t think the Brits – or the Irish – have the guts to really do what is necessary…that is, after a few are picked up by the police, the rest will quiet down. There is no way out for the UK without violence…it is the only way you can possibly get the government to listen. Only if Whitehall fears a lynch mob will they concede that a policy change is necessary. But, I do have some hope – maybe they really have had enough? It wouldn’t take much. Been saying that for a while – you don’t need 69 million Brits to rise up. Ten thousand would do in a pinch. One hundred thousand would make it a walk over. The British Army is about 75,000 strong, has a massive manpower shortage and is shot through with DEI leadership…I doubt they’d stand and fight as they almost certainly haven’t been taught how to do that. Get ten thousand rebels marching on London and you’d probably see half the government flee to France. Reminder: our opponents are stupid cowards; not men or women we actually have to fear.

Vance is going on The View – and, honestly, I can’t imagine why. Clearly he thinks it is a good idea. I mean, sure, he’s intellectually miles above the hosts on the show…but the problem here is they’ll say stupid things and when the applause sign lights up, the mindless crowd in the seats will cheer. I get taking the fight onto enemy territory…but, still.

Black lady I follow on X is just furious about the reaction of some black people to the Anthony verdict – pointing out the egregious lies being spread such as the jury was all white (it wasn’t; not even close) or that Anthony was the victim of a mob attack…which allegation was not raised where it would matter most: in court. This is because it didn’t happen. What clearly happened was that Anthony was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, got into some hot words with a man there, and then like a lunatic barbarian stabbed him over nothing. Out the gate this was a bare minimum second degree murder. The jury came back with first degree murder. But there really never was any doubt that it was felony murder…Anthony should have plead out. But, he didn’t. And he didn’t because he clearly has the idea in his head that his skin color excuses him from civilized behavior. He was taught that he’s of a Master Race…and it was in the public schools and pop culture where he got this message. Seriously: Goebbles’ efforts were weak and pathetic compared to what our public schools and pop culture shove into the minds of Americans. Anthony simply felt that no white man should ever so much as talk back to him…he’s actually worse than the Klansmen of old who at least looked for some genuine offense (even if made up) to justify their actions…Anthony just didn’t like someone taking exception to him.

But it is crucial that we don’t get drawn into the race aspect here. It doesn’t matter what skin color Anthony is. What matters is that he’s a barbarian. He shouldn’t be getting mere jail time – he should be whipped within an inch of his life. And then get jail time. And then he hauled out once a year to again be whipped within an inch of his life. It is how you instruct barbarians. They won’t learn any other way. Hey, I get it: he’s what he was taught to be. Sorry ’bout that. Wish he hadn’t been taught to be a savage. But, he was – and now we civilized people have to apply the corrective. He took a man’s life – his life – over nothing. He wasn’t defending himself. Wasn’t defending others. He wasn’t even doing honest crime – trying to steal and fighting his way out of the jam. He just…saw a guy giving him some lip and decided in an instant that the man had to die. You can’t fully atone for that in a human justice system. The crime is so entirely disproportionate to anything rational that we can’t really get to justice. Killing him in return doesn’t balance the scales.

But whipping him and having him break rocks, would go a long way – and provide a bit of instruction to the barbarians out there that if they can’t control their emotions then some really bad things will be coming their way. In a generation, the problem is cured.

If you want to have a bit of fun, look around X at the foreigner accounts which are here for the World Cup…so many of these guys are just astonished at how great America is. The German account Freddy is the best.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan3 Comments

I’ll just say it: the Martin Luther King model has turned out to be a catastrophe for both America and the black population. It taught that political activism is the way ahead. Straight line from Du Bois to King to the race hustlers of today. Keep in mind that Du Bois – founder of the NAACP – was the son of an immigrant who lived a middle class life in an integrated, American community which gave him so much opportunity that he obtained a PhD from Harvard…but he rejected the ideology of Frederick Douglas which urged integration and became a Pan-Africanist…a black nationalist. This man, who had no connection to American slavery or Jim Crow, used both of those to attack the nation which had given him a great life. And it has simply lead to disaster.

A couple days ago an old man in New York was murdered – pushed onto the subway tracks by a random attacker. The attacker was there because a couple weeks before that, he had assaulted a random woman who refused to press charges because she “didn’t want to see another black man in jail”. This is where race-conscious political activism leads…to complete insanity. Had we kept with Douglas things would have been better. Here is George Washington Carver’s – a man strictly in the tradition of Douglas – eight points of the true Lady or Gentleman:

Be clean both inside and out.

Who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor.

Who loses, if needs be, without squealing.

Who wins without bragging.

Who is always considerate of women, children and old people.

Who is too brave to lie.

Who is too generous to cheat.

Who takes his share of the world and lets other people have theirs.

Nobody can improve upon this – it is all anyone needs. If everyone followed these precepts – even if haltingly and with mistakes – this world would approach Paradise. But it was abandoned – and largely so because the white upper class in the USA paid for it to be abandoned. They paid for political activism…because they simply could not imagine a world where black people were their actual equals. I know that sounds weird, but it is so – for all the trouble Klan racism caused, the worst was that of upper class whites in the big cities. It was they who essentially decreed that black Americans could not make it…and so they were going to pay off political radicals who would keep a welfare-dependent black America in line for them. This all needs to be reversed…and the means are now in place. The end of race-based districting is the door being kicked in…the end to racially set-aside political power at the beck and call of urban white liberals.

The media is barely reporting it but the US Navy is winning the battle for the straight decisively – and if this were normal times, we’d now have national heroes to celebrate. But it works out well for Trump so the MSM prefers to ignore the fact that the Iranians tried their best to attack our ships and got totally destroyed without even causing damage. And the blockade continues…Iran is desperately trying to get empty tankers into their ports because they’re running out of storage room for oil…and I guess that if you shut down production you can’t just whistle it back up. That is, once it is cut off, there’s a significant time and effort cost to get it back up and running again…time when you have to spend a lot of money while not making any. I honestly don’t know what game the Iranians think they are playing…Trump will resume strikes if there’s no deal. And as we’ve now got past the War Powers Act time line, he can resume strikes at any time without having to invoke the Act.

The redistricting fight has ended in catastrophe for the Democrats. Do think about it: in response to Democrats massive gerrymanders (which, among other things, shut the GOP out of New England even though 40% of the voters there are GOP), the Republicans did a modest gerrymander in Texas (nowhere near as byzantine as the districts Democrats draw in their gerrymanders). In response, Democrats went flat out…and in Virginia tried to draw a 10-1 gerrymander in a State Trump got 46% of the vote in. To do this, they had to violate laws that they had written! It was Democrats who got Virginia a “non-partisan” redistricting commission. It was theirs – it had already drawn districts overly favorable to Democrats. And there were strict provisions in their own law to prevent redistricting outside the commission structure (this to prevent a transient GOP legislative majority from writing districts!). Democrats ignored all that, forced through their referendum (at the cost of $70 million)…while the GOP just waited for it to be done, got an injunction against the results and then a SCOVA ruling on the obvious…it was against the law for Democrats to do that. Now its at least even money for the GOP to hold the House (personally, I think it’ll be 222 or better GOP, but we’ll see)…because in response to the Democrat outrage in Virginia and the SC ruling that race-based districts are unconstitutional (mostly because they are), Red State after State is redrawing districts. Florida already has their new districts…and we’re going to get 4 more GOP reps out of the State.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan7 Comments

Trump pretty much said what I’ve been saying – there is no actual government in Iran; just various factions striving for control. We, of course, want the faction that will deal with us to win…and my guess is that, for now, that faction is back door asking us to hold back – and so Trump has extended the ceasefire while still keeping up the blockade. This is because the faction which hates us the most is the one that needs money the most…that is, you can’t pay your goons without cold, hard cash.

I’ve been saying forever that you can’t take our enemies at face value. They don’t actually believe it. I mean, sure: there are always fools who can be suckered into believing just about anything. But those who call the tune never do. As Hitler’s armies approached Moscow in 1941 the whole Soviet leadership took off running…except for Stalin, and that because he knew if he fled he’d be killed almost immediately by the rest of the leaders. So much for being Communist stalwarts…they weren’t: they were sucking Russia dry to live better than the Czars and when it looked like the game was over, they ran (with sacks of money and fake identities). So, too, with the Nazi leadership. Most of it just took off running or, if cornered, killed itself. True believers would have crawled out of the rubble and insisted on having their say – proud of what they had done and ready to defend it against all comers. But what it did was Himmler…shave off the mustache, grab the fake ID (made months before because he knew it was over) and try to make to a cache of cash and gold so he could get the heck out of Dodge.

The fanatic faction in Iran is lead by men who know they have no way out – if there isn’t a Mullah regime under their control, then they’ve got nothing. No place to hide. No money, either. Nothing. So, might as well keep it up and hope for the best. But they will run for the hills if the end really does come…because they don’t believe it. Never have. It was just a rationale for obtaining money, power, what have you. This does make for a rocky ground for Trump to go over…but he also holds every last advantage. There is nothing Iran has that the world needs…it is even finding out that it doesn’t need Iranian oil. Time is very much on our side here.

Democrats managed to get their gerrymander through in Virginia – via mail in ballots which went +45 for the referendum in a State that looks like it went overall +4 for it…meaning that without those sacks of mail in ballots, the measure would have gone down to flaming defeat. And, of course, the Democrats held back their reporting until the rest of the State was in…because they weren’t sure just how many votes they’d need. Trump’s DOJ should open an investigation into it – I’m sure it is rotten to the core. But it is also going to spur Florida to just take those seats away.

Meanwhile, we simply must win 2028 so that we have control of the 2030 census. An honest census is going to lock Democrats out of the House and the Electoral College for a generation. It is the win it all election. For both sides.

Trump’s DOJ indicted members of the racist hate group, SPLC. And about time. But what is coming out is what we suspected all along – the SPLC was paying for “racist right wingers”. The Charlottesville protest was their op…and we’re now all betting that most of the BLM/Antifa actions were bankrolled the same way. And there’s more than an even money chance that this is how the J6 riots originated.

The Mets are now 0-12 since Mamdani gave their mascot a hug. And 45-71 since the raised the Pride flag at the start of a game last season.

Something, something about not being mocked…