Welcome to shabbos for goyische cats: Sunday, May 4, 2025, and Bird Day. In honor of the day, here are Mordecai and Esther (they are doing fine, but I will post about them when the ducklings come, which should be within ten days. He is watching over her protectively. Note that they are both in great shape! We all love ducks, don’t we?
It’s also World Laughter Day, International Respect for Chickens Day, National Orange Juice Day, Lemonade Day, and National Candied Orange Peel Day (I love the stuff!)
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 4 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Trump really, really hates Harvard, probably because it’s America’s most elite school. And it’s not enough that he wants to remove billions of dollars of federal grant money from the school (mostly from scientists who haven’t had anything to do with the anti-Semitic climate supposedly reigning on campus). No, now he wants to take away Harvard’s tax-exempt status. And, like Trump’s other blackmail, Harvard is fighting back against this thuggery (article also archived here).
Harvard University signaled Friday that it would resist President Trump’s renewed threat to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, a move for which it said there was “no legal basis” as the president escalated his bitter dispute with the nation’s oldest university.
Harvard stopped short of explicitly pledging a legal challenge to a revocation of its tax status, a change that would upend the university’s finances. But a spokesperson for the university said in a statement that there was “no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status.”
“Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission,” the statement said. “It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”
Mr. Trump declared Friday morning on social media that the government would be “taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status.” Mr. Trump added, “It’s what they deserve.”
Despite Mr. Trump’s assertion online and Harvard’s sharp response, it was not immediately clear Friday whether the I.R.S. was in fact moving forward with revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status, a change that could typically occur only after a lengthy process. Federal law prohibits the president from directing the I.R.S. to conduct tax investigations, and I.R.S. employees who receive such a command are required to report it to an internal government watchdog.
. . , With its tax-exempt status, Harvard not only does not have to pay most taxes, but donors can write off gifts to the school on their own tax returns. Losing the status would not only force Harvard to start paying tax to the federal government on its income but could cause donations to dry up. Philanthropy accounts for about 45 percent of Harvard’s annual operating revenues; most of that sum comes from a payout from the university’s $53 billion endowment.
Colleges and universities in America don’t pay taxes because of their special mission to educate students, and it does seem unfair to tax stuff like tuition, which should rightfully go for the mission of these schools. And why Harvard? Because of Trump’s claim that the school’s antisemitism must be penalized? What about all the other schools that are even worse? I say let Harvard clean up its own messes, and don’t penalize the school’s mission because of a desire for revenge. (I don’t think for a minute that Trump really does love the Jewish people or Israel, even though he’s treated them better than did his predecessor.)
*The administration has announced deep cuts to NASA’s scienc budget—by nearly half.
The White House released its 2026 “skinny budget” on Friday (May 2), a blueprint that outlines how the administration anticipates allocating government funds for the upcoming fiscal year. According to this proposal, NASA will see a 24% cut to its top-line funding, which experts say could be devastating for the agency.
“The White House has proposed the largest single-year cut to NASA in American history,” The Planetary Society, an independent nonprofit organization widely supported by scientists and space enthusiasts, said in a statement. “It would recklessly slash NASA’s science budget by 47%, forcing widespread terminations of functional missions worth billions of dollars.”
For instance, NASA says the skinny budget, which suggests removing about $6 billion in funding for the agency compared to enacted 2025 levels, would end efforts dedicated to Mars Sample Return. This program aims to bring samples of the Red Planet back to Earth — samples the Perseverance rover has been collecting over the last few years that experts say require lab-based analysis to reach their true scientific potential.
The budget would also eliminate climate-focused “green aviation” spending, directed at producing aircraft that are better for the environment. The latter also reflects the skinny budget’s major reductions to Earth science.
Furthermore, the skinny budget calls for the cancellation of Lunar Gateway, a space station meant to be built around the moon that has already notched some important construction milestones here on Earth. And on the topic of the moon, if this budget actually goes through (meaning it’s approved by Congress), it would retire NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after their third flight to the lunar neighborhood via the Artemis program. SLS and Orion have flown once together so far, in 2022, meaning there’d be two more opportunities left for this duo.
“If enacted, the 56% cut to the National Science Foundation, the 47% cut to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and the 14% cut to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science would result in an historic decline of American investment in basic scientific research,” the American Astronomical Society said about the proposed cuts in a statement released Friday.
I’m not keen on projects to get people to Mars, but I don’t think NASA is involved in that. The other cuts mentioned seem inimical to science. They are not DEI projects, they are are not “woke.” They are projects that will increase our knowledge about the universe. No, that’s not going to make us healthier or wealthier, but it will make us richer—in knowledge.
*Whatever you do, DO NOT FLY INTO OR OUT OF NEWARK AIRPORT. I’ve been there once, and although my flight to Africa was only half an hour late, the airport was soulless. Now due to staffing shortages that include air traffic controllers and various breakdowns, it’s the worst airport in America.
. . . Newark has long been a punchline among travelers in the tri-state area, a launchpad to be avoided at all costs. It routinely tops rankings of large airports in flight delays and cancellations. It is hard to get to and harder to get around.
“The American people are reasonable, but if we have to spend the night sleeping on a bench in the Newark airport we will grab a flag and join the revolution like an extra in Les Miz,” late-night television host Stephen Colbert joked during a government shutdown in 2019.
But over the past few days, Newark achieved the unthinkable: It got worse.
Newark’s week started badly with an air-traffic technology outage that disrupted flights. Runway construction and air-traffic control staffing issues extended the pain, prompting hundreds of flight delays and cancellations this week alone, according to travel analytics company FlightAware.
For travelers, there’s no end in clear sight, especially as the summer months and their inclement weather add to the airport’s troubles.
There follows the expected litany of horrors. Then this:
Some of the criticism of Newark can be chalked up to snobbery. New Yorkers of a certain ilk see crossing the Hudson into New Jersey to board a plane as a bridge too far, even if parts of Manhattan are geographically closer to Newark than they are to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia once refused to get off a plane at Newark, complaining that his TWA ticket from Chicago listed New York as the destination, not New Jersey.
But Newark’s operational problems are very real. In the last Wall Street Journal rankings of best large airports, Newark came in last based on scores for reliability, convenience and value.
. . .United CEO Scott Kirby, who joined United after that, has urged people to give Newark a shot. Still, he has long said the move to leave JFK was a mistake. Some corporate customers preferred JFK and switched airlines.
On Friday after the latest problems, Kirby wrote in a message posted on United’s website that the airline will cancel 35 daily round trip flights at Newark starting this weekend after a group of air-traffic controllers took leave following equipment outages:
“Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.”
When United Airlines cancels 35 round trips per day from one of its hubs, you know there’s trouble. Please do anything to avoid flying to, from, or through Newark.
*Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby yesterday (7-1 odds), but the AP has an article about why, according to SCIENCE, these thoroughbreds are so fast:
What makes horses so powerful?
A horse’s heart and lungs are the source of its extraordinary power.
The heart averages 10 to 12 pounds (4.5-5.4 kg), or about 1% of the animal’s body weight, compared with half a percent for the typical human heart. Secretariat, the storied horse that won the Triple Crown in 1973, was found after his death to have a heart weighing more than 20 pounds (9.1 kg).
20 pounds!!!!!
Horse hearts are built for exertion. The average horse can go from a resting heart rate of about 34 beats per minute to 220 or 240 while racing – faster than a human heart during maximum exertion.
“One thing that’s really unique about horses is that they have an incredible capacity to move blood around their bodies — their heart rate can go really high and still be safe,” said University of Connecticut researcher Sarah Reed, editor in chief of the journal Animal Frontiers.
They also have a lung capacity of 60 liters – 10 times that of humans.
“That massive lung field allows for oxygen to transfer from the air into their blood, which is vitally important for sustaining aerobic energy,” Farmer said.
Recent research in the journal Science found that a genetic mutation enables horses to avoid negative side effects of super high energy production.
“Horses are great athletes because they can deliver a lot of oxygen to their muscles – way more than an elite human can —and by elite human, I mean Olympic athlete,” said Gianni Castiglione, the study’s co-author. “They have a bigger tank of gas and they have a more efficient engine … and this mutation is contributing to both of those things.”
. . .Other aspects of a horse’s biology enhance its abilities.
Horses store extra red blood cells in their spleens. These cells are released to carry even more oxygen around the body during intense exertion.
“Adrenaline when exercising causes the spleen to release extra red blood cells into circulation,” veterinarian Hilary Clayton said. “What horses are doing is essentially ‘blood doping’ themselves.”
Meanwhile, horses’ brains allow them to process sensory information and react quickly. That’s despite having frontal lobes, parts of the brain used for thought and planning that are proportionally smaller than those in humans.
“Brainwise, they’re designed with a real desire to play and run independent of any fear,” said Dr. Scott Bailey, a veterinarian at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, a thoroughbred breeding farm where Secretariat is buried. Horses are also able to focus intently, which “is really important for an athlete.”
Bone structure and musculature also help. The ligaments and tendons in their hind legs act like springs, Farmer said, helping propel them forward. Like other large prey animals, he added, they have “long, thin legs that are meant to run.”
Here’s the two-minute race. Journalism was the favorite but finished second. Every one of the 19 horses in this race had the great Secretariat in its lineage (his track record still holds after over 50 years).
And those long, thin legs are prone to injury. Once, when I gave a lecture at the University of Kentucky, they took me as a treat to a racetrack to watch the thoroughbreds run. I got to sit in the rich people’s box and dine in their dining room, and watched the races with fascination—until a horse fell on the track. It had clearly broken its leg, and within minutes a large truck rolled onto the track and the view of the recumbent horse was blocked by men holding a big cloth. They euthanized it–right there in front of everyone (though we couldn’t see it.) That killed all my enthusiasm for thoroughbred racing.
*Israel appears to be planning a Big Push in Gaza, at least according to the Jerusalem Post. ‘
The IDF says it is sending out tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists this evening, as the military is set to significantly expand its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, during a security consultation, the military presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with its planned offensive in Gaza, which will require substantial mobilization.
Israel’s security cabinet is slated to convene tomorrow so ministers can vote to approve the military plans authorized by Netanyahu.
Currently, three IDF divisions are operating in Gaza, in an offensive that the military has said is aimed at pressuring Hamas back into a hostage deal, and not destroying the terror group.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that if no hostage deal is reached soon, the military would launch a major offensive aimed at defeating Hamas. The intensified offensive will see the IDF operating in new areas of the Strip.
The tens of thousands of reservists being called up tonight will begin to show up in the military this coming week, according to the IDF. The reservists have likely been called up multiple times already during the war.
The IDF has said that it sees the return of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip as the most important goal of the war, with defeating the terror group in second place.
It’s not at all certain that ratcheting up the fighting will lead to the release of the hostages, for Hamas would never do that unless there was a deal to allow the terror group to keep running Gaza. And I dont think Israel will make such a deal. Without any hostages, Hamas has no leverage to get any kind of deal. It’s a great shame that the world doesn’t recognize that the hostages are not the equivalent of prisoners of war: they were kidnapped in a supreme act of immorality and then used to solidify the position of a terrorist group sworn to commit genocide.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili misses a mouse so SHE can do something bad to it!
Hili: W zeszłym roku tu była mysz.Ja: Może gdzieś poszła?Hili: Boję się, że przytrafiło jej się coś złego.
And a picture of the loving Szaron:
*******************
From The Monday Morning Memo; I hope this is true!
From Cat Memes:
From Jesus of the Day: Natural selection!
Masih is still quiet, so here’s a bit about the new DHHS report on transsexualism. I really must read it, but it’s so LONG!
A 409-page report, produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, reviews 17 international studies. Among its findings:
— No evidence that medical transition reduces suicide risk
— Risks include infertility, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular disease
— U.S. studies on… pic.twitter.com/dnoE8Vf2Um— The Free Press (@TheFP) May 2, 2025
Just in case you don’t know the downside of scientific journals taking political stands:
In 2020, Nature magazine endorsed Joe Biden for U.S. president. A pre-registered, large-sample experiment found that the endorsement didn’t change people’s view of the candidates – but it did cause them to lose trust in Nature and in scientists in general.
[Link below.] pic.twitter.com/U8iQ38QhAo
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) April 27, 2025
From Michael. I’m not sure I’d go this far. . .
If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t tell anyone but there would be signs. pic.twitter.com/xRBYebPSfb
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) May 3, 2025
From Barry, who considers this a “fair warning”:
I mean, the warning wasn't wrong. #proofOfCat
From Simon:
Going to print this out and frame it on my wall
— Aaron Fritschner (@fritschner.bsky.social) 2025-05-01T15:12:32.867Z
From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I reposted:
A Hungarian Jewish girl was gassed to death upon arriving at Auschwitz. She was eleven.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-05-04T10:04:02.622Z
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, postmortem revenge:
19th Century customer reviews:
— Mark Wallace (@wallaceme.bsky.social) 2025-05-03T08:22:08.470Z
Robber flies! It’s a video, so play it.
From Wikipedia:
The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name “robber flies” reflects their expert predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.
For #WorldRobberFlyDay here's an edit I made showcasing how cool these flies are 😎
— Teagan Mulford (@teaganmulford.bsky.social) 2025-04-30T16:12:19.723Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859)
To explain a bit about Nasa budgeting: The NASA budget is divided into roughly two major areas: human exploration of space (about $12B) and science (about $7.5B) (with an addition couple billion spread out across safety assurance, STEM education, aeronautics, construction of ground facilities, etc). The human exploration of space piece is exactly what it sounds like- learning how humans can live and work in space, much of which is engineering rather than basic science, including things like the space station (ISS), transportation to and from station, next generation humans to the moon and Mars, including the new rockets to get them there. All this stuff must be human-rated as “safe” and carry life-support vis a vis robotic missions.
Science is done shoulder to shoulder with universities and accounts for tons of research grant money to unis. The $7.5B includes basic research in the areas of Earth Science (includes atmospheric science), planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics (the sun), and biological &physical sciences. The recommended big cut to this basic science research budget is about 50% or $3.5B. This is much like the cuts to NIH, NSF, and Dept of Energy basic science budgets.
This reverses federal policy since after WW2 based in part on Vannevar Bush’s “the endless frontier” that science is good, leading to the technologies that allowed the Allies to win WW2. One way to support basic science is by grants to universities from the multiple federal STEM agencies and the DoD.
oh and Nasa puts about $140M into “STEM Engagement” which the administration wants to zero out claiming it is dei funding of minorities. Actually, it has historically aimed at bringing the concepts of engineering and Nasa’s science missions as I explained in comment #2 above to K12 teachers and students, much through teacher workshops. Much of the school-based stuff for students is to inform and inspire students from schools in socio-economically deprived communities regarding Nasa work. Most of these schools happen to be filled with minorities because they are a big chunk of the poor. It is unlikely that the parents of these kids are scientists or engineers or that these kids think of engineers as anything but train drivers. If we want to draw from the entirety of available workforce in the future and not just the white guys or the minorities who have made it into economic well being with college educated parents, then we must introduce these children to the real STEM work world. Zeroing these programs out is more than foolish. And I am one who hates dei!
And another thing, if you can stand it. Trump had signed an executive order to cancel federal funding of NPR and PBS. I know there are issues with both services, but the PBS one in particular really makes me sad.
Here is where “enshitification” comes into it Mark. Five years ago I would have agreed with you a hundred percent. While they’ve always skewed quite left, one can price that in and still be well informed.
In the past five years or so though I feel they’ve utterly lost it. Their full scale Palestinian and Third World socialism sympathy would make Bin Laden blush with embarrassment, ditto their full embrace of the worst aspects of climate apocalypticism…. and the trans cult. They flat our LIE all. The. Time.
Sometimes the treasures we have from our younger years don’t stand the challenges of time and moral panics. So I changed my tune on them.
all the best Mark.
D.A.
NYC
For NPR, I do see a left skew in much of their news commentary on certain topics, such as on medicalization of gender dysphoria in minors. But having traveled around, I’d noticed that NPR news commentary is different in different states. Quite possibly is it very very leftward in heavily blue states. But over here in purple Michigan I did get pro-Palestinian viewpoints early in the current conflict, provided especially from a powerful lobbying effort from an activist group operating out of the Detroit area. But later in the conflict I’d hear very much pro-Israeli viewpoints, especially in regards to the wrong-ness of holding hostages and more recent protests against Hamas within Gaza. I do not keep score on the balance.
PBS…? I mainly pay attention to special documentaries and entertainment shows from them. Whatever skew they have goes under my radar.
Sorry, but Harvard is a bastion of entrenched privilege and needs to be disrupted.
The Harvard scientists I know are having so much grant money thrown at them that they are turning down grants. They will be fine.
Really? Times must have really changed since I was working. Do university researchers no longer have to write a significant proposal to compete for funding in response to an agency (NSF, NIH, NASA, Dept of Energy, etc) RFP OR BAA or the like advertisement? And as I recall from serving on grant review committees, the competition among 40-50 proposals for one or maybe two awards was brutal.
So who or in what discipline are these scientists who are turning down money and who exactly is throwing it at them? Just curious for some data.
I’m talking about Harvard researchers and not university researchers in general. Harvard researchers, at least in the physical sciences, are approached frequently by companies who want to give them grants. Lots of private money flows to Harvard. University of Alabama, not so much.
Oh ok. But my guess, and it is a datedly informed guess only, is that a few high profile guys get offers from the for-profit research park guys and startups, but there are plenty of younger, even untenured researchers or even an associate professor or three who must win competitive grants to keep food on their tables, labs supported, and grad students fed. I may be wrong, but thus my guess is that there still is a pretty serious need for federal grant dollars among the rank and file teaching and research faculty. Maybe “journeymen” faculty if such a thing exists at Harvard.
Here is a very interesting article on the difference between experts and elites:
https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/experts-and-elites-play-fundamentally?r=qy63&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Harvard produces “elites” who are not actually expert in anything. I don’t believe it is good for the U.S.
I tend to agree about Newark. Worse than flying from Newark is driving around the airport. I once had to return a rental car there, and it was maddening.
I have quite a bit of experience with NYC area airports (mostly from years ago). JFK is a mess. It was built in the bad old days, when each airline built their own terminal. LaGuardia has been rebuilt in recent years and is very OK. My experience with LaGuardia Airport is much more recent. Newark is remote but good.
My advice would be in you are visiting Manhattan (as I was), use LaGuardia. If you are going international you may not have any choice but to go through JFK.
I think Trump is losing his grip on reality. Search for “Trump pope” images. Unbelievable.
• The Onion must be concerned about this new competition from the real world, rather like Tom Lehrer giving up on parody songs after Dr H Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize.
• The closest non-mental-illness connection I can make between the Pope and the iDJiT is “the Pope’s nose”, the idiomatic far arse-end of a non-idiomatic turkey, described by idiomorigins.org as “very fatty and not particularly tasty”.
• Did you hear about iDJiT’s alleged comment that he’d like to be Pope? The Onion must now be even more concerned.
• Did you hear about the Italian Prime Minister referring to iDJiT as a clown? I only heard it in English but expect the original Italian was “buffone” (buffoon), the term originating in the late 16th century for the king’s jester (not the king).
• What’s next? Maybe an AI riff on the Sistine Chapel frescos, either the ceiling (with God) or the the altar-end wall (The Last Judgement).
I didn’t know that about Tom Lehrer.
I have no idea why Trump fancies himself as Pope. Perhaps because of their authority and the long time span they’ve existed.
He can’t be interested in spiritual qualities.
This is the first useful article I’ve ever seen on “Vox”: “Did our politics fail us during Covid?“, an interview with Frances Lee about the book she and Stephen Macedo have written about the response to Covid, In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us.
Sheer luxury. I once missed a connecting flight in Newark and was misdirected to the main ticket counter to get my new flight. Then they wouldn’t allow me to go back through security and return to the airport section because there was too much time before my next flight, so I ended up spending the night in the Newark airport baggage claim area.
I could only dream of those soft, comfy seats in the actual airport.
That sounds like a parody of “Four Yorkshiremen”. Was it intentional?
“Sheeah lookshureh!”
Regarding the IDF’s planned incursion into Gaza, I wonder how much is left to do there. I assume that there are still tunnels to dismantle and at least some terrorists to kill, but what is left for Israel to destroy that will convince Hamas to return the hostages and surrender? On that specific point, if Hamas hasn’t given up by now, what’s left other than Israeli concessions? And what would Israel concede if they won’t allow Hamas to govern? More prisoner releases? Safe passage for its (few remaining) leaders?
I suppose that if the IDF destroys everything—animal, vegetable, and mineral—in Gaza other than the remaining <24 hostages, then it will have de facto removed Hamas from governing. I’m not criticizing the Israeli leadership for calling up reserves and planning a deeper intrusion into Gaza, but I’m trying to understand Israel’s strategy here. At this stage in the war, what do they think it will take to rescue the hostages and get rid off Hamas?
Norman,
Perhaps this is the Israeli D-Day? (Which, I hope, will be followed by an Israeli Marshall Plan.)
I’ve been wondering about the status of the tunnels? Is their destruction going slowly because of concerns that hostages are in there somewhere?
I looked into the DHHS report on interventions of gender dysphoria in minors. It’s easy to find (https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/gender-dysphoria-report-release.html), but also one comes across many news headlines about it. The NPR headline says that it’s a report coming out of the Trump White House, but I doubt that could be so given the very short time the Trump admin. has been around. A summary of the report describes the efforts to produce a document, and it is still undergoing peer review although ones read this in a summary: “Contributors to the review include medical doctors, medical ethicists, and a methodologist. Contributors represent a wide range of political viewpoints and were chosen for their commitment to scientific principles.” And later, “Chapters of this review were subject to peer review prior to this publication, and a post-publication peer review will begin in the coming days involving stakeholders with different perspectives. Names of the contributors to the review are not initially being made public, in order to help maintain the integrity of this process.”
NPR criticized that the reviewers were anonymous. But that is what peer review is supposed to be.
Well, we will learn more later, I’m sure.
Just keeping score:
Three days ago, Trump said:
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran,” said Trump. “Iran will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
Several hours ago, the Houthis fired a missile which hit near Ben Gurion airport and injured eight people.
I was just going to mention that.
It would seem beneficial to have a joint operation between Israel and the US to just bring down the Iranian government. This could also help in Ukraine. But of course such things can easily bring unforseen consequences. Say what one will about the Orange One, but he does not show desire for getting entangled in such adventures.
Whoa! I very much doubt that Israel remotely wants to try to defeat Iran in addition to their proxies. Bomb the nuke facilities? — Ok. Scour Gaza down into the bedrock? — If that’s the only feasible way to remove Hamas. But Iranian regime change??
I don’t think the regime in Iran can be changed by the US and Israel. Neither country is going to send troops into Iran (bombs and missiles yes, troops no). Can the Iranian people change the regime? Sure they can.
Iran is huge and mountainous. Trying to invade Iran would be a fools errand at best. Check a map, if you doubt this. Iraq actually tried to invade Iran in the 1980s. Results were poor.
Can Iran be pressured? Sure it can. Iran exports oil and natural gas from a very small number of terminals. These terminals can be destroyed.
Iran and US actually went to war (Naval war) back in 1988. The Naval war lasted for only a few hours. Iran lost.
The ramp up of the IDF’s imminent re-monstering of Gaza is long overdue. Just last night the Houthis bombed Tel Aviv Airport, the central node of the Israeli state.
We’re hammering Yemen dozens of times a day – curiously almost ignored by the media, happily – and Israel bombed Yemen a few months ago. Let’s not stop.
Gaza must be squashed. And unlike Ukraine or other conflicts, in Gaza there are nearly no “civilians” as the destruction of all of Israel is a national goal. THE national goal of Gaza. “Death to Israel” are the first words of Pal toddlers there.
See proof in my article, variously republished including in jihadwatch.org
https://democracychronicles.org/kindergarten-jihad-who-plays-the-beheaded/
A century ago, days after Oct 7 there would be no Gaza anymore, not a blade of grass left standing. I’m not endorsing THAT, but a firmer fist has to be applied.
Hostage takers, terrorists and genociders crave martyrdom: Let’s help them along.
Onwards Israeli heroes.
D.A.
NYC
ps Newark is far from our best airport but I wouldn’t’ call it a total disaster. 🙂
Maybe, after they have “de-housed” (Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris) everyone in Gaza, the IDF can push them all into the sea. (In boats, I hasten to add.) NGO relief ships plying the Med will pick them up and deliver them into the loving embrace of Europe. There, freed from the yoke of their Zionist oppressors and comforted by legions of their own kind, the erstwhile Gazans will surely thrive and prosper, just as banished Jews did before them, even though the comforting legions in their case were much diminished. If Italy, Greece, and Turkiye churlishly refuse to let the ships dock, that’s on them, not Israel. (Maritime obligations to save life in peril on the sea, that sort of thing.)
Ethnic cleansing is not genocide as long as the cleansers take reasonable care — hence the boats — that the cleansed don’t all die en route to wherever they are banished to. The children have to go, too, though. Separating children from their parents and raising them as yours is prohibited by the Convention, which Israel will of course observe scrupulously.
HAHHA. Yes, Leslie. I’m sure they’d fit right in like the Muslim immigrants there so far. A difference is most don’t come from Gaza which is v. different to the current human exporting countries (Syria, Afgh, Somalia, Lebanon, etc).
Gazans are unique in their sociological and political opinions and actions – immeasurably worse than the above.
I’ve always been amazed at how Muslim immigration in the US (and Sth America and Oz) has been neutral to positive but in Europe such a howling disaster.
Part of it is the countries of origin but I think “critical mass” and % of the population matters more. More even than the host cultures of old vs new world.
It is the numbers. This is a question I’ve played with in my mind for 30 years.
Why Europe (or anybody) don’t need Gazans…(posted earlier here at WEIT, apologies if you’ve seen it already)
https://democracychronicles.org/worst-houseguests-ever-the-palestinians/
D.A.
NYC
D.A.
NYC
I would tend to agree. Newark biggest problem is that it is remote. Beyond that, it is quite “middle of the road” as new airports go. JFK is worse (in my opinion). As stated earlier, my favorite NYC area airport is LaGuardia.
Meanwhile, all the labs at Ft. Detrich (which BTW are not exactly “Top Secret”) have been shuttered.
Does that include NCI (National Cancer Institute)?
Good point. I think that’s unclear and probably not. They mentioned the NCI labs on TWiV, where I picked this up, but didn’t specifically say one way or the other.
If I recall correctly from a NASA boarding party I was on in the early 2000’s, the NCI lab at Ft Dietrick was a morph of the old DoD biological weapons lab that was closed with the signing or ratification of Nixon’s treaty to end offensive use of biological weapons. It had all the facility and equipment requirements for a cancer research lab and it seems like on a friday the bio weapons lab closed and on monday NCI opened as a civil service research lab. I know it wasn’t so simple, but it did show how our large national labs’ mission could be redirected. I watched the first 15 minutes of TWiV this morning…you have inspired me to finish it!
This via Leor Sapir, a review of the HHS’s American Cass Review on trans:
FYI
https://justdad7180.substack.com/p/a-cass-review-for-america
D.A.
NYC
I did not realize that! But I’m not surprised. I was once at Saratoga Racetrack and watched as one of Secretariat’s daughters blew away every other horse in the field to win her race by at least ten lengths. It was a thing of beauty.
Harvard’s President Is Fighting Trump. He Also Agrees With Him. The New York Times, May 3, 2025
Alan Garber became a hero to liberals after Harvard resisted the federal government. At the same time, he is trying to remake campus culture in ways the Trump administration might appreciate.
https://archive.ph/H79BM
“Trump really, really hates Harvard, probably because it’s America’s most elite school.” SRSLY? Nothing to do with it being an indoctrination center for wokeness and antisemitism?
Wokeness? — Yes. Antisemitism? — Sicut si curat.
My guess is that Hamas (in the end) will trade the hostages for safe passage out of Gaza. They would like to trade the hostages for ongoing Hamas rule of Gaza. They aren’t going to get it. Hamas (by their standards) made a huge mistake when they attacked on 10/7/2023. In the coming months, they will (very painfully) realize how big a mistake they made.
Maybe, but self-righteous fanatics of any sort tend to be sorely deficient in self-reflection.