Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to the Cruelest Day: Tuesday, March 10, 2026, and a celebration of everyone’s favorite instrument (not): International Bagpipe Day. Bagpipes aren’t just Irish or Scottish: they have been going for a while in different countries. Here’s a Wikipedia drawing labeled, “A detail from the Cantigas de Santa Maria showing bagpipes with one chanter and a parallel drone (Spain, 13th century).”
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 10 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The latest war news from the NYT includes Iran naming the late Åyatollah’s second-oldest son as the Supreme leader, meaning that they’ll fight on, and a predictable rise in oil prices.
U.S. stocks fell at the start of trading on Monday, after markets in Asia and Europe tumbled, as a spike in oil prices reflected global fears of a prolonged U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Meanwhile, Iran projected defiance by naming a son of its slain supreme leader as his successor.
Oil prices briefly surged early Monday to almost $120 per barrel, their highest level since the Covid pandemic, as President Trump’s plans for the next steps in the war, let alone its endgame, remained unclear and Iran showed no sign of bowing to his demand for unconditional surrender.
Investors appear increasingly worried about the lack of a clear offramp for the fighting, which has spread across the Middle East, disrupted oil supplies and raised costs for consumers and businesses. The price of gasoline in the United States jumped again on Monday to an average of $3.48 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club, a nearly 17 percent increase since the first U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 and the highest level since 2024.
. . ., Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was appointed by senior clerics on Monday, days after Mr. Trump declared that he was an “unacceptable choice” and amid Israeli threats to kill Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s successor. Iran’s military and hard-line political forces trumpeted the selection, but in Tehran, opponents of the government were heard chanting “Death to Mojtaba” from their windows — reflecting widespread if muted dissent.
As the conflict raged into its 10th day, more than 1,300 people had already been killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran, according to the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations. And Iran was continuing with attacks across the Middle East, killing more than 30 people.
A ballistic missile launched from Iran targeted Turkey before being downed by NATO defenses, the Turkish defense ministry said. It was the second such announcement in six days, after officials said a previous Iranian attack had been aimed at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
Iranian strikes on Turkey are particularly incendiary because Turkey is a member of the NATO alliance, whose nations are bound to defend one another. Iran denied targeting Turkey and has yet to comment on Monday’s announcement.
And from the WSJ:
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader defies President Trump and signals that Tehran won’t back down as it fights a war with the U.S. and Israel.
The elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei, a conservative long close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shows that Trump’s efforts so far to cow the regime into surrender have failed. It also appears to have put hard-liners in firm control of the country, with moderate and reformist factions long marginalized. The 56-year old Khamenei is expected to take a confrontational stance toward the West.
His appointment also shows that Iran won’t acquiesce to Trump’s demand that he approve the country’s new top cleric. Trump told Axios last week that “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”
The slanted reportage of the NYT on this war (just look at the headlines) seems to me one of the clearest instances I’ve seen of the paper’s “progressive” bias. Now we don’t know what’s going to happen in Iran, and Trump (and perhaps Israel) might stop attacking permanently leaving Khamenei Jr. in control. But then the construction of nuclear weapons would beging again, and would the U.S. and Israel, having made that a huge goal of intervention, really accept that? It doesn’t help that Trump keeps waffling on how long the war might take, but that depends after all on the Iranian regime.
A newly released video adds to the evidence that an American missile likely hit an Iranian elementary school where 175 people, many of them children, were reported killed.
The video, uploaded on Sunday by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency and verified by The New York Times, shows a Tomahawk cruise missile striking a naval base beside the school in the town of Minab on Feb. 28. The U.S. military is the only force involved in the conflict that uses Tomahawk missiles.
A body of evidence assembled by The Times — including satellite imagery, social media posts and other verified videos — indicates that the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on the naval base. The base is operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Asked by a reporter from The Times on Saturday if the United States had bombed the school, President Trump said: “No. In my opinion and based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.” He said, “They’re very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was standing beside Mr. Trump, said the Pentagon was investigating, “but the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”
The video of the strike, which was first reported by the research collective Bellingcat, was independently verified by The Times. We compared features visible in the footage to new satellite imagery captured days after the strikes in Minab.
The video was filmed from a construction site opposite the base and shows a worn, dirt path across a grassy area and piles of debris also evident in recent satellite imagery, bolstering its credibility. The video also comports with other verified videos taken in the immediate aftermath of the strikes.
A Times analysis of the video shows the missile striking a building described as a medical clinic in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. Plumes of smoke and debris shoot out of the building after it is hit as the distant screams of onlookers are heard.
As the camera pans to the right, large plumes of dust and smoke are already billowing from the area around the elementary school, suggesting that it had been struck shortly before the strike on the naval base. This is supported by a timeline of the strikes assembled by The Times that shows the school was hit around the time as the base.
Here’s a video showing the missile before the strike (the fins and cylindrical shape show it’s a Tomahawk, used only by the US), and the proximity of the school to the strike site (an IRGC Navy base_:
This was a bit confusing, but it seems that the school was hit independently, by a missile that was not one of those that struck the base, i.e., not a Tomahawk missile. If that was the case, then yes, the U.S. screwed up, and that seems likely. If it was the same missile or bomb that hit the base, there would be less culpability for the U.S., as it could be considered a byproduct of missiles striking the base, and the equivalent of Gaza embedding its military facilities near schools or hospitals. But I’m assuming the former: the U.S. simply targeted a wrong building. The death of so many noncombatants, particularly children, is horrible. I would hope that if Iran also aimed at civilian targets (and it has, but the Iron Dome and other systems have intercepted the missiles in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other countries), they would receive opprobrium for targeting civilians, but we hear little about that.
*Israeli historian Benny Morris has a very good update of the war in Iran at Quillette: “Iran’s Risky Gamble” (archived here). He seems to produce one of these weekly, and it’s worth reading them, as they summarize basically everything of interest. Here’s the beginning of the long piece, but you can read it yourself at the archived link.
The American–Israeli war with Iran that began on 28 February has significantly expanded in two—possibly three—directions, with likely revolutionary implications for the geopolitics of the Middle East in the coming decades.
The most immediate possibility is the likely demise of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Islamist terrorist organisation, which is Iran’s main proxy in the region. Though strapped for cash, this past year Iran has sent Hezbollah some one billion US dollars, in funds or in kind. After a two-day hesitation and under pressure from an embattled Iran to join the fighting, on Day Three of the war Hezbollah launched a salvo of short-range rockets toward Israel’s northern border settlements. The organisation said this was in response to the Israeli assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s “Supreme Leader” and the most important religious and political figure in the Shi’ite universe.
The Lebanese Islamists may have been simply trying to make a symbolic statement, but the IDF—eager to complete the job it began in summer 2024 and demolish Hezbollah—responded with an escalating array of operations, including bombardments of targets in southern and eastern Lebanon and in the Dahiya quarter of southern Beirut, the Lebanese capital’s Shi’ite neighbourhood and Hezbollah’s main stronghold.
Most significantly, the IDF ordered the inhabitants of southern Lebanon, most of whom are Shi’ites, to completely evacuate the villages south of the Litani River and the Dahiya district. Since Thursday, Beirut’s boulevards and Lebanon’s roads have been clogged with endless streams of cars heading north and east, loaded with mattresses and other household appurtenances. More than half a million Lebanese are reportedly on the move and seeking makeshift shelter. On Friday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) began toppling multistorey apartment blocks in the Dahiya district. Meanwhile, the IDF began moving armour and infantry into the border-hugging areas of southern Lebanon to prevent possible Hezbollah raids on Israel’s border settlements and possibly also as the start of a slow crawl northwards towards the Litani River line.
Hezbollah responded with rocket and drone strikes on northern Israel and, on one occasion, on Tel Aviv. A drone also appears to have unsuccessfully targeted Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. On Friday and Saturday, Hezbollah ordered the population of Israel’s northern border settlements, including the town of Kiryat Shmona, to evacuate southward to a depth of five kilometres from the border in an obvious response to the Israeli evacuation orders in Lebanon, but observers considered this an empty gesture and few Israelis are likely to actually leave their homes. So far, Hezbollah rockets and drones have been largely ineffectual and have claimed no Israeli lives.
None of this is new. But what is new is the near-simultaneous announcement by the Lebanese government deeming all Hezbollah military activity illegal and the arrest of 26 armed Hezbollah operatives at Lebanese national army roadblocks. Then, after Israel ordered all Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officers, who had been training and arming Hezbollah for decades, to leave Lebanon on pain of death, the Lebanese government ordered them out, announcing that henceforward all Iranians will require visas to enter the country. In effect, Iranians and Iranian funds for Hezbollah are now barred from Lebanon. Although the Beirut government has been unhappy with Hezbollah and Iranian interference in internal Lebanese affairs for decades, this is the first time it has directly challenged Hezbollah or Iran. On Saturday, Israeli jets struck a suite in a downtown Beirut hotel reportedly housing operatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
Morris is Israeli, but I can’t detect any real bias in his takes (blame me if I’m blind), and his assessment of what’s new and the consequences of various acts seem pretty objective to me. I will call attention to his summaries from time to time.
*Two Islamist terrorists tried (and failed) to explode two bombs in NYC’s upper East Side at a rally protesting Islamist Mayor Mamdani (near his mayoral mansion), with the rally having a name: ““Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer”. Nobody was hurt as the bomb fizzled, but Mamdani’s response was remarkable—but in character. He first called out the protestors, not the terroists! From the Free Press:
Two men tried to detonate homemade bombs on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Saturday. They had, according to reports, been inspired by ISIS videos. In a video from the scene, you can hear someone scream, “Allahu akbar.”
But you would never know any of that from the mayor’s statement—or from much of the mainstream media’s coverage. If you were reading that, or listening to the words of the city’s top elected official, you would assume the bombs were placed by white supremacists.
Not only did the failed attack expose Mayor Zohran Mamdani and many of his sympathizers in the press as apologists for apparent Islamists, it showed how hard they will work to hide the truth when it’s inconvenient to their worldview.
Here’s what actually happened. The scene took place Saturday afternoon outside of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence. A protest calling itself “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer” was organized by right-wing influencer Jake Lang to protest Mamdani, an observant Muslim. Lang’s group of about 20 faced off with a group of some 125 counterprotesters calling themselves “Run the Nazis out of New York City, Stand Against Hate.”
The counterprotestors then threw the bomb, but it didn’t go off. And it wasn’t a “placebo bomb,” either. It could have killed people if the fuse hadn’t fizzled.
Many initial reports presumed it was a dummy, but police set the record straight by Sunday afternoon. “It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death,” Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced in a statement on X. Officers arrested two men in connection with the attack: Emir Balat, 18, who they believe threw the bomb, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, who is believed to have supplied it. The FBI is probing the attack as an act of terrorism.
In some of the videos you can hear someone shouting Allahu akbar—Arabic for “God is great.” (According to a reporter at the scene from Agence France-Presse, the person who shouted it was Balat.) But regardless of who shouted it, the reporting that has emerged over the past hours makes their motivations plain: The New York Post reports that the suspects told police they attacked because they felt the protesters had insulted Islam. According to law enforcement sources, they said they had been radicalized by watching ISIS videos.
New Yorkers look to their mayor when terrorists strike, hoping to rally behind a leader who can communicate the facts, direct the response, and express righteous rage on the city’s behalf. Rudy Giuliani strode through the rubble on 9/11. Bill de Blasio, an avowed progressive, experienced at least four attacks while in office, including a truck rampage that killed eight in 2017. He described each event as what it was: “terrorism.”
Mamdani is different. Here was his statement:
The omissions are remarkable. Instead of denouncing a terrorist attack on the police who serve his city, Mamdani referred to the “violence” as if it were the weather. There is no reference to the suspects. No use of the word terrorism. And no mention of Islamism, which the evidence suggests motivated the nearly catastrophic attack.
Like many of the worst figures of our hyper-partisan moment, Mamdani saved his rage for his political opponents. He chose to open his statement not by condemning terrorism, but by lambasting a legal demonstration against him. He said the protesters, not the terrorists, have “no place in New York City.” He named Lang, but didn’t mention the names of the attackers.
Mamdani released his statement after the police commissioner’s, so it’s unlikely that he lacked any of the facts when he spoke.
Here’s a tweet found by Luana showing the bomb being thrown:
It’s absolutely perfect…
A liberal man in NYC yelling about how everyone is welcome, as a Muslim man yells “Allahu Akbar!” and uses him as a literal springboard to throw a homemade bomb.
Finally, Mamdani realized he’d made a gaffe and corrected it with another tweet, but he’d damaged his reputation with his first response.
Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS.
They should be held fully accountable for their actions.
We will continue to keep New Yorkers safe. We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in…
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 9, 2026
I cannot abide Mamdani, who seems to be both an Islamist of the worst stripe (a cryptic one) and an antisemite. I hope the New Yorkers who voted for him expect more of this, because that’s exactly what they’re going to get. As for taxes on the rich, free public transport, and free childcare, fuggedaboutit.
*At first I thought this WaPo op-ed, called, “Your salted caramel mocha latte is destroying society,” was a joke, but it’s not (article archived here). Author Jakub Grygiel, identified as “a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior adviser at the Marathon Initiative,” seems dead serious. I don’t like those fancy drinks either, which are akin to coffee milkshakes, but that’s because they are expensive and icky, but I don’t blame them for the destruction of America. The argument:
According to the National Coffee Association, last year 46 percent of Americans had some “specialty” coffee (42 percent, sensibly, still had a regular one) in the past day. Simultaneously, 54 percent of U.S. adults feel isolated and half of them feel bereft of companionship “often or some of the time,” according to the American Psychological Association.
As specialty coffee consumption has surged (84 percent since 2011), so has the loneliness epidemic. Just a correlation? Consider what your coffee order reveals.
The salted caramel mocha latte, the iced brown sugar soy milk shaken espresso, the white chocolate macadamia cream cold brew are the triumph of hyper-individualization over communal norms. When you order a dirty spiced chai with oat milk, you are not only wasting the time of other customers in line but also are signaling that your personal appetites demand an elaborate, customized response. You are asserting your primacy, unique in the complexity of your desires, and stand apart from your nation’s simple rituals. No wonder you’re alone.
Edmund Burke would have thought, correctly, that liberty is put at risk by the consumption of that vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew. People “are qualified for civil liberty,” he wrote in a letter, “in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites … in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption … in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good.”
The moment we let our appetites rule us, devising ever more intricate beverages, we knock one more chunk from society’s foundation. In fact, Burke continued, “society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.”
And you thought that I was a curmudgeon! Here’s a professor who quotes Edmund Burke to drinkshame those who buyt fancy lattes. If customers buying regular coffee objected to the wait, Starbucks wouldn’t sell the fancy stuff. It’s capitalism, Jake!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili insulted Andrzej!
Hili: You amaze me.
Andrzej: With what?
Hili: With your lack of understanding of the essence of things.
From Merilee: an old video showing Brian Cox taking Deepak Chopra apart on Conan’s show.
From Masih; I knew this would happen, and no, they weren’t mourning the death of the Ayatollah when they didn’t sing:
Hello Australia, this is your moment. We need your support.
Iran’s women’s football team refused to sing the regime’s anthem right after the killing of Ali Khamenei.
State TV called them “war-time traitors.”
Now they’re on a bus back to Iran, flashing the SOS hand signal through… pic.twitter.com/HhLtEgJKkC
From Luana; the purported Islamist throwing a bomb at conservative protestors. The explosive, which didn’t detonate, was identified down the thread as “TATP, the explosive infamously known as the ‘Mother of Satan’.”
This really is an all time photo. A protestor shouting about the pros of immigration is interrupted by an Islamic terrorist throwing a bomb jumping over him. pic.twitter.com/3TyBfewCYT
There are reports that the two Muslim terrorists had not met prior to the event and were unknown to each other. It seems that Ibrahim Kayumi, who made the bomb, handed it to Emir Balat to throw.
In other words, support for terrorist violence is so high among the sort of Muslim who would attend such an event, that one Muslim can simply turn to those around him and immediately find another Muslim also willing to be a terrorist.
(And it comes to something when supposedly satirical websites such as the Babylon Bee can simply say it as it is.)
Let’s not be so hard on the foo-foo confectionery beverage drinkers at Starbucks. One must add something to that black concoction they call coffee to make it marginally palatable.
The Morris piece was a pleasure to read. It went down well with my morning coffee. Black, as real coffee was meant to be.
Yes, let’s be hard on people who want a liquid candy bar instead of coffee. I’ll go as far as a latte, but I almost never buy them at Starbucks (with the emphasis on “bucks.”)
RFK jr has made these sweet coffee drinks his latest cause. He’s taking Dunkin Donuts to task, in particular (Bulwark has a funny video about it). The amount of sugar in those drinks can be astounding – up to 180 grams. They only differ from candy bars in being much worse. For example, a Snickers bar only has 28 grams of sugar.
After reading the chapter 11, from the free archive, I bought the paperback so that 1. I could make notes in margins, and 2. To try to get Mr Morris his monetary just rewards for this excellent work.
Crowd source request please: I am now reading Michael Oren’s book on the six-day war, but am still looking for a fair and authoritative book on the Yom Kippur War …. Can a reader help me out and recommend one please?
I have read several books about the YK war, written by Israelis, Egyptians, Brits, and Americans. I also have access to Israeli military archives, and read extensively about Israeli military history.
Based on that knowledge, I think that the best book by far is The Yom Kippur War, written by Abraham Rabinovich, published in 2004. There are other books about specific aspects of the war, such as the tank battle for the Golan, the US airlift, the Egyptian army buildup from 1967 onward, etc. There is also an account based on dispatches from the Insight Team of the Sunday Times.
Overall, the Rabinovitch book is the best general history of the conflict, taking into account that. It is written from an Israeli perspective — just as is Oren’s book.
Thank you. I had just ordered Rabinovich…based on Oren’s and Morris’ reviews of it. So your write-up is very helpful reinforcement. Thanks again.
Five Iranian female soccer players have requested asylum in Australia. They were granted visas by the Australian government.
Five members of the Iranian women’s football team have been granted humanitarian visas in Australia after their elimination in the Asian Cup, the government in Canberra says.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the women “were moved to a safe location” by Australian police. He said other squad members had been told they were welcome to stay in the country.
This was only done after Trump called on Australia to be a good humanitarian otherwise they would be welcome asylum in the USA. Trump woke up the PM at 2 am to save the girls.
I like my tasty pastry confections, but some are better than others. And so it is with fancy coffees which I also enjoy. I much prefer to get my chai latte or mint mocha from a local chain (Biggbys), rather than Starbucks. They are larger at my favorite chain, and they are simply better than starBucks in every way. I am doing my small part to help civilization fall apart.
“I cannot abide Mamdani, who seems to be both an Islamist of the worst stripe (a cryptic one) and an antisemite. I hope the New Yorkers who voted for him expect more of this, because that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
The people who put him in office were young people, particularly young liberal women. They thought he was going to lower the cost of living in the city. And they associate Islam with the religion of the oppressed, which tracks with their Manichean view of the world.
When Mamdani came into office, I regarded him as undercooked and naïve but was holding out hope the he was at least intelligent and had a decent character. Somebody who would grow up quickly and start to govern in a responsible manner.
But events like these, and the recent revelations of his wife’s support for Hamas, are closing the door on that hope, and revealing the true nature of Mamdani.
He deliberately distorted the events of the protest and the bomb throwing in his initial statement; it was worded in such a way that suggested that it was the group of protestors who threw the bomb, not the Islamists (who were not named). Again, entirely deliberate. This was calculated to placate his real constituency, and that is the Islamists and their useful idiots on the far left.
This will only encourage more violence and we will start to see a much more visible Islamic presence in the city. There are almost 800,000 Muslims in NYC, and the goal of Mamdani is to solidify that constituency which will keep him in power.
So, my current assessment of Mamdani is someone with middling intellectual capabilities, but possessing high levels of cunning. And he does not possess a good character.
I just read an eye-opening article about Mamdami’s party, the Democrat Socialists of America, in the National Review (yes, NR has lost its soul to Trump, but I think the article stands on its own). The article has this quote:
After the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, meanwhile, the DSA IC rushed to affirm “Iran’s right to self-defense” on its website. “Iran has long been targeted by the U.S. and its allies for its efforts to establish national self-determination and champion Palestinian liberation,” the group declared.
Good and evil are interpreted entirely in terms of what’s good or bad for Palestine. The party calls America, as well as Israel, a genocidal nation, but tacitly approves Hamas’s overtly genocidal agenda by never condemning it. They leave little reason to doubt that if Iran obliterated the nation of Israel, along with its millions of Jewish citizens, they would celebrate. They’re morally depraved.
I’ve never heard of “white supremicist Jake Lang,” but given that this description came from Mamdani I’m withholding my judgement on whether he is, in fact, an actual white supremicist, or just a New Yorker getting sick of putting up with crap like public broadcasts of Muslim prayer and folks throwing bombs at people who object to crap like public broadcasts of Muslim prayer.
During the election, Mamdani tried to convince the electorate that he had “modified his radical views. Of course, it was easy to see that that was not the case, given his association with the DSA.
Mamdani was not radicalized by his time in college. He learned his antisemitism at an early age: look at the politics of his parents, especially his father. No one should be surprised at his embrace of antisemitic Muslims, including members, supporters, and financiers of the most violent groups.
And like so many of these “democratic socialists”, he is a nepo baby. The guy has never worked outside of politics. Workers of the World, indeed.
‘Here’s a Wikipedia drawing labeled, “A detail from the Cantigas de Santa Maria showing bagpipes with one chanter and a parallel drone (Spain, 13th century).”’
Yes, bagpipes (“gaita”) are played a lot in the northern Spanish provinces of Asturias and Galicia (and Cantabria, too, I think).
One reason, I read for the demo that was terrorized (again, 2 separate maniacs, two bombs, the same time!)… was to protest the Azzam call to prayer which can be heard, in public, on some streets in Brooklyn.
Fellow readers/WEITs: how are you with hearing “Allaaaah Akbaaar!!” at sunrise next to YOUR house? Our maniacs-a-deux were bombing the people protesting that recent phenom.
To steelman this, I wonder if church bells are considered the equivalent of a “call to prayer”, as in an allowable public demonstration of a religion. Therefore, can Muslims argue that they aren’t doing anything different than what Christians are permitted to do?
Even so, none of this justifies bomb throwing. It is telling that violence and intimidation this is too often the go-to strategy of Muslims in when dealing with criticism.
Church bells starting at dawn five times a day seven days a week? That’s more steel than I’m going to give the Muslims. We know they are doing it to intimidate us, just as their ostentatious praying in public spaces does. If they were good neighbours they wouldn’t do it. They could have their faithful set discreet alerts on their phones and watches.
I can’t remember the last time I heard a church bell in our little town with several (mostly empty) churches, even on Sunday. Maybe it’s different where you live.
Oh, I agree with you. I just trying to fully interrogate the position. Another thing about church bells; they are just bells, pleasant sounds. A call to prayer is actual speech of a clear religious nature.
Mamdami is very proudly showing all his stripes now. To follow up on deliberately obscuring the Islamist terrorists with the anti-Islamist protestors, our mayor decided it would be a good time to host Mahmood Khalil, the pro-Hamas, 35-year old ‘student’ who lead the protests at Columbia U last year:
There are hints that President Trump will soon end the war, probably because the military has run out of targets. Yes, there are more places that the U.S. could attack, but that risks turning Iran into a Gaza-style rubble pile and eliminating any possibility that the opposition would have anything to work with even if they were to seize power.
The U.S. seems ready to declare that it has met the objective of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Has the war gone far enough? Time will tell. The U.S. hasn’t completely destroyed Iran’s ability to mobilize proxies, such as Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. Nor did we achieve regime change—which I regarded as extra credit—but we’ll see what happens when the U.S. backs off. Maybe the opposition will mobilize when bombs stop falling.
As for the Israelis, their goals are aligned with those of the U.S., but are not identical, as it seems that the Israelis are aiming for regime change. The Israelis will certainly keep up the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but they may also continue to try to overthrow what’s left of the Iranian regime. The risk to Israel is existential.
Norman: your thoughts please: had the hostages been returned after a month or so of bombing, would Bibi have persisted in creating the rubble piles? How do you think he weighed full destruction of hamas vs getting the hostages home?
Bibi did not have, and does not have, a strategy for Gaza. Or if he does, he has not shared it with the Israeli military or other security and intelligence organizations tasked with defending the country.
His strategy is based only on his political survival, for which he is entirely dependent on the messianic nationalists in his own party and government. (Bibi is not messianic.) He cannot, however, openly join those folks for fear of offending other supporters, as well as the US government including Trump. So he has to walk a very fine line, and cannot articulate a strategy (assuming he has one).
I do not mean to imply that the Gaza war was not necessary, or that the IDF commanders lacked strategic plans. However, strategy is determined by the political echelons, and without strategic plans for “the morning after”, the IDF was/in difficult circumstances.
I won’t post any more on this topic: roolz r roolz, and I don’t want to be punished with a venti decaf latte with gender-neutral milk and 3 squirts of rhubarb flavor.
Reply to starwolf: thanks. i understood what you meant…just scary because it is so trumpist…at least to me.
Hard to say, Jim, if Netanyahu had a strategy that early in the conflict or whether he was simply adapting to events. Maybe, as Starwolf opines, Bibi had and has no strategy at all, but I don’t think that’s true.
Netanyahu had historically avoided war with Hamas (and even supported them early on, a bad move meant to limit the influence of the PA), opting to contain the terrorist group by “mowing the lawn” when needed. But killing so many innocent Israelis and brazenly taking so many innocent hostages on October 7 was enough to convince him and the Israeli public that mowing the lawn was a failed strategy.
Even if the hostages had been returned within a few weeks (your hypothetical scenario), I don’t think that the Israeli public would have accepted the returns as enough to stop the bombing. After all, the entire episode clarified for everyone that Hamas had a strategy, and that was to kill Israelis and destroy the State of Israel. I don’t think that any Israeli leader would have stopped with just the return of the hostages, leaving Hamas—now unambiguously a bona fide terror state and existential threat—free to attack again.
Ultimately, we will never know, as (at least some of) the hostages were held for 738 days, forcing Israel to keep fighting at least that long.
“…it seems that the school was hit independently, by a missile that was not one of those that struck the base, i.e., not a Tomahawk missile.”
I think the conclusion is agnostic towards the type of missile that hit the school. The photographed Tomahawk seems to have arrived just after the school was blown up, as if both were part of the same attack. The suggestion is that the missile which hit the school was also probably a Tomahawk from the same attack.
The latest news is that shrapnel from the explosion was identified as coming from a Tomahawk, though I assume this evidence came from Iranians so it is not solid proof. I hate to say it but Iran has more credibility than Trump on these matters.
It is important for some groups of people to believe that this was a deliberate strike by the US.
I still do not understand why it is more or less universally accepted that the missile shown is a tomahawk. Even Trump, when asked about it by the press, said that lots of countries use Tomahawks, which is not really accurate.
Iran has been building similar cruise missiles for years, including the Hoveizeh, the Soumar, the Paveh, the Talaeieh, and more.
They also have access to North Korean and Russian versions.
Exactly what sort of munitions were used at the school and the adjacent base are key issues. Exactly what sort of munition is in the video is also important to determine, as well as the question of whether the strike in the video is related at all to the explosion at the school.
That we strike targets near civilian structures is a given. That we can do so with little collateral damage is a technological marvel. I read one story from inside Iran where a small military station on a crowded street was hit without damage to the adjacent houses. The writer lived on that street, and wrote that they were all out dancing afterwards.
It couldn’t possibly be traced to Secretary of Lethality Hegseth’s dismissive disregard for “stupid rules of engagement” (as evidenced by his harangue at flag officers at Quantico last year) and prior proper updating of prospective targets – i.e., “faulty intelligence,” information about the girls school having been publicly available since 2016? Have I correctly read that that good Christian Hegseth reduced by 90% the number of personnel in the office or activity dedicated to reducing collateral civilian casualties resulting from military combat actions? Is it true that the chairman of the Conservative Political Action Committee, Matt Schlapp, said words to the effect that the deaths of the Iranian school girls was positive to the extent that their deaths prevented them from becoming Muslims? As if the U.S. were doing them a favor?
“And from the WSJ:
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader defies President Trump . . . .”
How dare anyone defy Trump. Especially the majority of the members of Congress. When will Congress ever again declare war since 12/8/1941.?They couldn’t even agree to merely debate whether to evoke the War Powers Act in relation to the current situation.
I share your disgust with Matt Schlapp’s comment and Hegseth’s maniacally enthusiastic attitude towards war.
Now there is a new problem: either the US or Israel is allegedly attacking Iranian desalinization plants, and Iran is doing the same. Every civilian needs water; I suspect this may be a war crime, and if it continues on a large scale in Iran I fear we will lose the hearts and minds of the Iranian people, as the US usually does in its recent wars.
My last comment on this thread.
About desalination plants, AI says,
“Iran uses desalination plants, particularly in southern coastal areas like Qeshm Island, but does not rely on them as heavily as other Gulf nations. While countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait depend on desalination for up to 90% of their water, Iran primarily relies on rivers and dams. However, recent severe water shortages have increased Iran’s interest in this technology.” Deeper dive available using search query: does iran rely on desalination plants. Edit: Elsewhere I see a figure of 3% for the de-salinated portion of Iran’s water.
It would seem neighbouring countries are at greater risk of water shortages if they retaliate against Iranian strikes against their de-sal capacity, should Iran escalate. As to whether it’s a war crime by either side, that depends on who wins and is physically able to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice at some sort of tribunal. The victor judges, but only if he controls the territory where the vanquished are hiding out.
Fancy coffees all part of the me-too movement (the clue is in the name). More disturbingly, one sees overweight after overweight young teens (girls more than boys) pounding down high-caloric Starbucks drinks). Just go to any Starbucks in any town or city.
Other Susan, I don’t understand the me-too comment. ? Maybe I need some more coffee. I drink it black strictly for effect.
Mamdani is proving himself to be even more despicable than I expected, and that’s saying something. The media coverage is irresponsible, portraying the bombers as a couple of wacky Pennsylvania teenagers in the big city. Dude, Where’s my Bomb?
But it’s a glorious warm day here, the sky is blue, the birds are singing, and that mantis is spectacular!
Time reported a few days ago that the bombed school in Iran had previously been part of the adjacent military facility:
According to Amelirad [Shiva Amelirad, a Canada-based representative of the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations], based on reports from locals in Minab, the school had previously been used as a military facility but was later converted into a school attended by children from a mixture of military and civilian families attracted by lower tuition.
This foreigner’s view is that it doesn’t much matter if the hit on the school was from an American munition or not. If it was American, of course it was a tragic accident. The United States is not going to be deliberately murdering school girls. The idea is preposterous. Even if it wanted to, Tomahawks are expensive for the purpose and not in unlimited supply. The military value of school children is nil and the propaganda value of killing them is strongly negative. There is simply no reason for the United States to do this deliberately.
If it was an American munition, the American command will try to figure out where the target identification error or mechanical malfunction occurred. Mistakes happen in war. Wars are full of them. You don’t expect truthfulness from the leadership of either side when one happens. If it’s useful to blame the other side for one’s own mistake, that’s what you do until the public forgets about it. I realize this plays to popular views of President Trump’s character, but “Meh.”
“As specialty coffee consumption has surged (84 percent since 2011), so has the loneliness epidemic. Just a correlation?”
I LOLed.
I’ll also defend Starbucks. The store on my walk from home to work is a franchise, the employees are all members of a big food service workers union, many are long-time employees, even the part-time jobs come with medical and dental benefits. And the espresso is just fine.
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei is yet another mistake on the part of Iran. The Shah was a hereditary monarch and rightfully criticized as such. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (now dead) opposed his son for the top job fearing that his appointment would look too much like the Shah. He was right.
As it is International Bagpipe day, here is a funny story I heard told recently by the chess grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. He was approached by a deaf society in Seattle asking whether he would be willing to do a simultaneous display for them and he said that he would be very happy to do so. The event took place in a sports hall, which was divided in two by a curtain: on one side was the chess; on the other was a bagpipe competition! Of course, all of Seirawan’s opponents were completely deaf.
Getting the internet back up, somehow, should be one of “our” joint goals in Iran. People can’t rise up if they can’t co-ordinate. A lot of what keeps people down in dictatorships is solving the collective action problem.
On the straits, China is today’s us (the west) of the 1970s. We have shale, big stockpiles, more allies, etc. China will start to panic if the Straights are constipated much longer and (if they’ll listen) they’ll monster Tehran.
The spice must flow.
D.A.
NYC
If Starlink was available they could use that to co ordinate a movement. Paying for the service could be worked in later if an overthrow came about or, favourable concession to Starlink… that sort of thing.
The feds are investigating the NYC terror attacker at Gracie Mansion. Hopefully, the terrists will be brought up on federal charges. I would not trust Mamdani and his AG to prosecute these terrorists (no other word applies).
Diane Morgan and Ricky Gervais video is great!
I presume it must be an outtake from Afterlife.
There are reports that the two Muslim terrorists had not met prior to the event and were unknown to each other. It seems that Ibrahim Kayumi, who made the bomb, handed it to Emir Balat to throw.
In other words, support for terrorist violence is so high among the sort of Muslim who would attend such an event, that one Muslim can simply turn to those around him and immediately find another Muslim also willing to be a terrorist.
(And it comes to something when supposedly satirical websites such as the Babylon Bee can simply say it as it is.)
Two Islamic maniacs, with two separate bombs. See why I love New York so much?
Nobody does it better.
And see what I mean about our atrocious, communist, lefty-version-of-Trump mayor?
D.A.
NYC
Let’s not be so hard on the foo-foo confectionery beverage drinkers at Starbucks. One must add something to that black concoction they call coffee to make it marginally palatable.
The Morris piece was a pleasure to read. It went down well with my morning coffee. Black, as real coffee was meant to be.
Yes, let’s be hard on people who want a liquid candy bar instead of coffee. I’ll go as far as a latte, but I almost never buy them at Starbucks (with the emphasis on “bucks.”)
RFK jr has made these sweet coffee drinks his latest cause. He’s taking Dunkin Donuts to task, in particular (Bulwark has a funny video about it). The amount of sugar in those drinks can be astounding – up to 180 grams. They only differ from candy bars in being much worse. For example, a Snickers bar only has 28 grams of sugar.
I like Benny Morris. His book on the 1948 war, “1948”, is a detailed account with maps of many of the battles and skirmishes of that war (he calls the Pan-Arab Invasion) plus a contextual account of the civil wars and politics that led up to it. The final chapter (11) is a good summary. The book is archived at
https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/islamichistory_201406/1948.%20A%20History%20of%20the%20First%20Arab-Israeli%20War.pdf
After reading the chapter 11, from the free archive, I bought the paperback so that 1. I could make notes in margins, and 2. To try to get Mr Morris his monetary just rewards for this excellent work.
Crowd source request please: I am now reading Michael Oren’s book on the six-day war, but am still looking for a fair and authoritative book on the Yom Kippur War …. Can a reader help me out and recommend one please?
I have read several books about the YK war, written by Israelis, Egyptians, Brits, and Americans. I also have access to Israeli military archives, and read extensively about Israeli military history.
Based on that knowledge, I think that the best book by far is The Yom Kippur War, written by Abraham Rabinovich, published in 2004. There are other books about specific aspects of the war, such as the tank battle for the Golan, the US airlift, the Egyptian army buildup from 1967 onward, etc. There is also an account based on dispatches from the Insight Team of the Sunday Times.
Overall, the Rabinovitch book is the best general history of the conflict, taking into account that. It is written from an Israeli perspective — just as is Oren’s book.
Thank you. I had just ordered Rabinovich…based on Oren’s and Morris’ reviews of it. So your write-up is very helpful reinforcement. Thanks again.
Five Iranian female soccer players have requested asylum in Australia. They were granted visas by the Australian government.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy8e978xl8o
Those in danger ofcourse are their relatives back home in Iran.
This was only done after Trump called on Australia to be a good humanitarian otherwise they would be welcome asylum in the USA. Trump woke up the PM at 2 am to save the girls.
https://x.com/DrewPavlou/status/2031023310679765009?s=20
Unfortunately they were not protected by the Australian government. They seem to only like to bring back ISIS brides.
https://x.com/DrewPavlou/status/2031345783392579611?s=20
This is Australia’s shame.
Love the cow role-call!
I like my tasty pastry confections, but some are better than others. And so it is with fancy coffees which I also enjoy. I much prefer to get my chai latte or mint mocha from a local chain (Biggbys), rather than Starbucks. They are larger at my favorite chain, and they are simply better than starBucks in every way. I am doing my small part to help civilization fall apart.
“I cannot abide Mamdani, who seems to be both an Islamist of the worst stripe (a cryptic one) and an antisemite. I hope the New Yorkers who voted for him expect more of this, because that’s exactly what they’re going to get.”
The people who put him in office were young people, particularly young liberal women. They thought he was going to lower the cost of living in the city. And they associate Islam with the religion of the oppressed, which tracks with their Manichean view of the world.
When Mamdani came into office, I regarded him as undercooked and naïve but was holding out hope the he was at least intelligent and had a decent character. Somebody who would grow up quickly and start to govern in a responsible manner.
But events like these, and the recent revelations of his wife’s support for Hamas, are closing the door on that hope, and revealing the true nature of Mamdani.
He deliberately distorted the events of the protest and the bomb throwing in his initial statement; it was worded in such a way that suggested that it was the group of protestors who threw the bomb, not the Islamists (who were not named). Again, entirely deliberate. This was calculated to placate his real constituency, and that is the Islamists and their useful idiots on the far left.
This will only encourage more violence and we will start to see a much more visible Islamic presence in the city. There are almost 800,000 Muslims in NYC, and the goal of Mamdani is to solidify that constituency which will keep him in power.
So, my current assessment of Mamdani is someone with middling intellectual capabilities, but possessing high levels of cunning. And he does not possess a good character.
I just read an eye-opening article about Mamdami’s party, the Democrat Socialists of America, in the National Review (yes, NR has lost its soul to Trump, but I think the article stands on its own). The article has this quote:
Good and evil are interpreted entirely in terms of what’s good or bad for Palestine. The party calls America, as well as Israel, a genocidal nation, but tacitly approves Hamas’s overtly genocidal agenda by never condemning it. They leave little reason to doubt that if Iran obliterated the nation of Israel, along with its millions of Jewish citizens, they would celebrate. They’re morally depraved.
I’ve never heard of “white supremicist Jake Lang,” but given that this description came from Mamdani I’m withholding my judgement on whether he is, in fact, an actual white supremicist, or just a New Yorker getting sick of putting up with crap like public broadcasts of Muslim prayer and folks throwing bombs at people who object to crap like public broadcasts of Muslim prayer.
During the election, Mamdani tried to convince the electorate that he had “modified his radical views. Of course, it was easy to see that that was not the case, given his association with the DSA.
Mamdani was not radicalized by his time in college. He learned his antisemitism at an early age: look at the politics of his parents, especially his father. No one should be surprised at his embrace of antisemitic Muslims, including members, supporters, and financiers of the most violent groups.
And like so many of these “democratic socialists”, he is a nepo baby. The guy has never worked outside of politics. Workers of the World, indeed.
‘Here’s a Wikipedia drawing labeled, “A detail from the Cantigas de Santa Maria showing bagpipes with one chanter and a parallel drone (Spain, 13th century).”’
Yes, bagpipes (“gaita”) are played a lot in the northern Spanish provinces of Asturias and Galicia (and Cantabria, too, I think).
One reason, I read for the demo that was terrorized (again, 2 separate maniacs, two bombs, the same time!)… was to protest the Azzam call to prayer which can be heard, in public, on some streets in Brooklyn.
Fellow readers/WEITs: how are you with hearing “Allaaaah Akbaaar!!” at sunrise next to YOUR house? Our maniacs-a-deux were bombing the people protesting that recent phenom.
D.A.
NYC
To steelman this, I wonder if church bells are considered the equivalent of a “call to prayer”, as in an allowable public demonstration of a religion. Therefore, can Muslims argue that they aren’t doing anything different than what Christians are permitted to do?
Even so, none of this justifies bomb throwing. It is telling that violence and intimidation this is too often the go-to strategy of Muslims in when dealing with criticism.
Church bells starting at dawn five times a day seven days a week? That’s more steel than I’m going to give the Muslims. We know they are doing it to intimidate us, just as their ostentatious praying in public spaces does. If they were good neighbours they wouldn’t do it. They could have their faithful set discreet alerts on their phones and watches.
I can’t remember the last time I heard a church bell in our little town with several (mostly empty) churches, even on Sunday. Maybe it’s different where you live.
Oh, I agree with you. I just trying to fully interrogate the position. Another thing about church bells; they are just bells, pleasant sounds. A call to prayer is actual speech of a clear religious nature.
Mamdami is very proudly showing all his stripes now. To follow up on deliberately obscuring the Islamist terrorists with the anti-Islamist protestors, our mayor decided it would be a good time to host Mahmood Khalil, the pro-Hamas, 35-year old ‘student’ who lead the protests at Columbia U last year:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mamdani-hosts-columbia-u-anti-israel-protest-leader-khalil-at-mayoral-residence/
There are hints that President Trump will soon end the war, probably because the military has run out of targets. Yes, there are more places that the U.S. could attack, but that risks turning Iran into a Gaza-style rubble pile and eliminating any possibility that the opposition would have anything to work with even if they were to seize power.
The U.S. seems ready to declare that it has met the objective of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Has the war gone far enough? Time will tell. The U.S. hasn’t completely destroyed Iran’s ability to mobilize proxies, such as Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. Nor did we achieve regime change—which I regarded as extra credit—but we’ll see what happens when the U.S. backs off. Maybe the opposition will mobilize when bombs stop falling.
As for the Israelis, their goals are aligned with those of the U.S., but are not identical, as it seems that the Israelis are aiming for regime change. The Israelis will certainly keep up the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but they may also continue to try to overthrow what’s left of the Iranian regime. The risk to Israel is existential.
Norman: your thoughts please: had the hostages been returned after a month or so of bombing, would Bibi have persisted in creating the rubble piles? How do you think he weighed full destruction of hamas vs getting the hostages home?
Bibi did not have, and does not have, a strategy for Gaza. Or if he does, he has not shared it with the Israeli military or other security and intelligence organizations tasked with defending the country.
His strategy is based only on his political survival, for which he is entirely dependent on the messianic nationalists in his own party and government. (Bibi is not messianic.) He cannot, however, openly join those folks for fear of offending other supporters, as well as the US government including Trump. So he has to walk a very fine line, and cannot articulate a strategy (assuming he has one).
Well, that’s really scary! Thanks.
I do not mean to imply that the Gaza war was not necessary, or that the IDF commanders lacked strategic plans. However, strategy is determined by the political echelons, and without strategic plans for “the morning after”, the IDF was/in difficult circumstances.
I won’t post any more on this topic: roolz r roolz, and I don’t want to be punished with a venti decaf latte with gender-neutral milk and 3 squirts of rhubarb flavor.
Reply to starwolf: thanks. i understood what you meant…just scary because it is so trumpist…at least to me.
Hard to say, Jim, if Netanyahu had a strategy that early in the conflict or whether he was simply adapting to events. Maybe, as Starwolf opines, Bibi had and has no strategy at all, but I don’t think that’s true.
Netanyahu had historically avoided war with Hamas (and even supported them early on, a bad move meant to limit the influence of the PA), opting to contain the terrorist group by “mowing the lawn” when needed. But killing so many innocent Israelis and brazenly taking so many innocent hostages on October 7 was enough to convince him and the Israeli public that mowing the lawn was a failed strategy.
Even if the hostages had been returned within a few weeks (your hypothetical scenario), I don’t think that the Israeli public would have accepted the returns as enough to stop the bombing. After all, the entire episode clarified for everyone that Hamas had a strategy, and that was to kill Israelis and destroy the State of Israel. I don’t think that any Israeli leader would have stopped with just the return of the hostages, leaving Hamas—now unambiguously a bona fide terror state and existential threat—free to attack again.
Ultimately, we will never know, as (at least some of) the hostages were held for 738 days, forcing Israel to keep fighting at least that long.
Thank you, Norman.
“…it seems that the school was hit independently, by a missile that was not one of those that struck the base, i.e., not a Tomahawk missile.”
I think the conclusion is agnostic towards the type of missile that hit the school. The photographed Tomahawk seems to have arrived just after the school was blown up, as if both were part of the same attack. The suggestion is that the missile which hit the school was also probably a Tomahawk from the same attack.
The latest news is that shrapnel from the explosion was identified as coming from a Tomahawk, though I assume this evidence came from Iranians so it is not solid proof. I hate to say it but Iran has more credibility than Trump on these matters.
It is important for some groups of people to believe that this was a deliberate strike by the US.
I still do not understand why it is more or less universally accepted that the missile shown is a tomahawk. Even Trump, when asked about it by the press, said that lots of countries use Tomahawks, which is not really accurate.
My point is that there are a bunch of missile types in that theater which look very much like the Tomahawk. Here is one- https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/07/25/707703/Iran%E2%80%99s-Army,-IRGC-naval-forces-take-delivery-of-homegrown-Abu-Mahdi-cruise-missile-
(scroll down to the 3rd or 5th image)
Iran has been building similar cruise missiles for years, including the Hoveizeh, the Soumar, the Paveh, the Talaeieh, and more.
They also have access to North Korean and Russian versions.
Exactly what sort of munitions were used at the school and the adjacent base are key issues. Exactly what sort of munition is in the video is also important to determine, as well as the question of whether the strike in the video is related at all to the explosion at the school.
That we strike targets near civilian structures is a given. That we can do so with little collateral damage is a technological marvel. I read one story from inside Iran where a small military station on a crowded street was hit without damage to the adjacent houses. The writer lived on that street, and wrote that they were all out dancing afterwards.
I don’t think many people believe we did it on purpose. If it was us, probably it was either due to faulty intelligence or a tech failure.
It couldn’t possibly be traced to Secretary of Lethality Hegseth’s dismissive disregard for “stupid rules of engagement” (as evidenced by his harangue at flag officers at Quantico last year) and prior proper updating of prospective targets – i.e., “faulty intelligence,” information about the girls school having been publicly available since 2016? Have I correctly read that that good Christian Hegseth reduced by 90% the number of personnel in the office or activity dedicated to reducing collateral civilian casualties resulting from military combat actions? Is it true that the chairman of the Conservative Political Action Committee, Matt Schlapp, said words to the effect that the deaths of the Iranian school girls was positive to the extent that their deaths prevented them from becoming Muslims? As if the U.S. were doing them a favor?
“And from the WSJ:
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader defies President Trump . . . .”
How dare anyone defy Trump. Especially the majority of the members of Congress. When will Congress ever again declare war since 12/8/1941.?They couldn’t even agree to merely debate whether to evoke the War Powers Act in relation to the current situation.
I share your disgust with Matt Schlapp’s comment and Hegseth’s maniacally enthusiastic attitude towards war.
Now there is a new problem: either the US or Israel is allegedly attacking Iranian desalinization plants, and Iran is doing the same. Every civilian needs water; I suspect this may be a war crime, and if it continues on a large scale in Iran I fear we will lose the hearts and minds of the Iranian people, as the US usually does in its recent wars.
My last comment on this thread.
About desalination plants, AI says,
Some background,
https://nationalpost.com/news/attacks-on-water-systems-emerge-as-a-dangerous-new-war-threat-in-middle-east
It would seem neighbouring countries are at greater risk of water shortages if they retaliate against Iranian strikes against their de-sal capacity, should Iran escalate. As to whether it’s a war crime by either side, that depends on who wins and is physically able to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice at some sort of tribunal. The victor judges, but only if he controls the territory where the vanquished are hiding out.
I’ll leave this too.
Fancy coffees all part of the me-too movement (the clue is in the name). More disturbingly, one sees overweight after overweight young teens (girls more than boys) pounding down high-caloric Starbucks drinks). Just go to any Starbucks in any town or city.
Other Susan, I don’t understand the me-too comment. ? Maybe I need some more coffee. I drink it black strictly for effect.
Mamdani is proving himself to be even more despicable than I expected, and that’s saying something. The media coverage is irresponsible, portraying the bombers as a couple of wacky Pennsylvania teenagers in the big city. Dude, Where’s my Bomb?
But it’s a glorious warm day here, the sky is blue, the birds are singing, and that mantis is spectacular!
Time reported a few days ago that the bombed school in Iran had previously been part of the adjacent military facility:
https://archive.ph/qDdcX
This foreigner’s view is that it doesn’t much matter if the hit on the school was from an American munition or not. If it was American, of course it was a tragic accident. The United States is not going to be deliberately murdering school girls. The idea is preposterous. Even if it wanted to, Tomahawks are expensive for the purpose and not in unlimited supply. The military value of school children is nil and the propaganda value of killing them is strongly negative. There is simply no reason for the United States to do this deliberately.
If it was an American munition, the American command will try to figure out where the target identification error or mechanical malfunction occurred. Mistakes happen in war. Wars are full of them. You don’t expect truthfulness from the leadership of either side when one happens. If it’s useful to blame the other side for one’s own mistake, that’s what you do until the public forgets about it. I realize this plays to popular views of President Trump’s character, but “Meh.”
LM, Please post a disposable Email address. Do NOT post any Email address you want to keep.
“As specialty coffee consumption has surged (84 percent since 2011), so has the loneliness epidemic. Just a correlation?”
I LOLed.
I’ll also defend Starbucks. The store on my walk from home to work is a franchise, the employees are all members of a big food service workers union, many are long-time employees, even the part-time jobs come with medical and dental benefits. And the espresso is just fine.
The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei is yet another mistake on the part of Iran. The Shah was a hereditary monarch and rightfully criticized as such. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (now dead) opposed his son for the top job fearing that his appointment would look too much like the Shah. He was right.
As it is International Bagpipe day, here is a funny story I heard told recently by the chess grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. He was approached by a deaf society in Seattle asking whether he would be willing to do a simultaneous display for them and he said that he would be very happy to do so. The event took place in a sports hall, which was divided in two by a curtain: on one side was the chess; on the other was a bagpipe competition! Of course, all of Seirawan’s opponents were completely deaf.
Haha, thanks for this! Seirawan has so many great stories highlighting the surprisingly fun side of chess.
Getting the internet back up, somehow, should be one of “our” joint goals in Iran. People can’t rise up if they can’t co-ordinate. A lot of what keeps people down in dictatorships is solving the collective action problem.
On the straits, China is today’s us (the west) of the 1970s. We have shale, big stockpiles, more allies, etc. China will start to panic if the Straights are constipated much longer and (if they’ll listen) they’ll monster Tehran.
The spice must flow.
D.A.
NYC
If Starlink was available they could use that to co ordinate a movement. Paying for the service could be worked in later if an overthrow came about or, favourable concession to Starlink… that sort of thing.
Starlink is active and free in Iran, thanks to Musk, but of course the government does everything it can to disrupt signals.
Given that, plans may be afoot all the while, if so, the very best of luck to them.
The feds are investigating the NYC terror attacker at Gracie Mansion. Hopefully, the terrists will be brought up on federal charges. I would not trust Mamdani and his AG to prosecute these terrorists (no other word applies).