Tuesday: Hili dialogue

March 17, 2026 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Cruelest Day: Tuesday, March 17, 2026, and it’s St. Patrick’s Day, honoring the patron saint of Ireland. The parades in Chicago were on the weekend and went on despite rain. As usual, the Chicago River was dyed emerald green by spraying nontoxic dye from boats. Here’s what it looked like when they dyed it during on the weekend.

It’s also Corned Beef and Cabbage Day (the traditional Irish meal), and Submarine Day, explained this way (it’s connected with St. Patrick’s Day):

On March 17, 1898, St. Patrick’s Day, Irish-born engineer John Philip Holland demonstrated a submarine he designed, the Holland VI, for the U.S. Navy Department, off the coast of Staten Island. During the demonstration, the vessel was submerged for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Holland launched the submarine the year before, on May 17, 1897, after it was built at the Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The submarine was noteworthy for having features that would become the standard for submarines in future years. It and other of Holland’s submarines are also noteworthy for being the first to run on electric batteries when submerged, but on internal combustion engines when on the water’s surface. We celebrate the Holland and all other submarines on March 17 each year.

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 17 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*The NYT’s war news summary.  Bombing continues from both sides. And our allies aren’t keen to join in at keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. Israel says it has killed the head of the Basij (Iran’s plainclothes police division) in a targeted strike.

American allies around the world have responded coolly to — or outright rebuffed — President Trump’s call to send warships to escort merchant vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf, illustrating the consequences of his dismissive approach to global alliances.

“You mean for 40 years we’re protecting you and you don’t want to get involved in something that’s very minor?” Mr. Trump said at a White House appearance, noting that Europe, Japan and others depend on oil from the Persian Gulf far more than the United States does.

He said that “numerous countries have told me that they’re on the way,” but when asked to name them, said, “I’d rather not say yet, but we’ll be announcing them.” And he expressed frustration that some nations have demurred on requests for military assistance, adding that he has long believed that, “if we ever needed help, they won’t be there for us.”

“We don’t need anybody; we’re the strongest nation in the world,” Mr. Trump insisted. He suggested his current request for assistance amounted to a test for allies: “I’m almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react.”

The sharpest refusal to his belated effort to build an international coalition against Iran came Monday from Germany, whose defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said, “This is not our war; we did not start it.” Top officials of Japan, Italy and Australia said Monday that their countries would not participate in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Others were noncommittal, including France, South Korea and Britain, whose prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his country would not be “drawn into wider war.”

Well, we are responsible to some extent for stemming the flow of oil by getting into a fight with Iran, so I suppose you can justify the U.S. being responsible for opening up the Straits.  I am not mad at our allies who don’t want to help out. Apparently some of them are helping but haven’t been named.  And on the continued fighting:

  • Israel strikes Iran: The Israeli military said on Monday it had launched a “broad wave” of attacks across Iran. Earlier, airstrikes again targeted the Mehrabad airport in Tehran, and a thick plume of smoke was rising from the airport, according to several residents of Tehran.

  • Iranian response: Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told CBS News on Sunday that the country was “ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes” and denied Mr. Trump’s claim a day earlier that Iran wanted to make a deal. “We never asked for a cease-fire, and we have never asked even for negotiation,” he said.

The NYT also reports that in the arguments over who would be Iran’s next Supreme Leader, there was a squabble (the NYT calls it a “full-on war of succession”) between the moderates and the Revolutionary Guards. Since Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen, the Guard clearly won.

*At the Free Press, Michael B. Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., tells us “How this war ends.”

 . . . barring an irrepressible popular revolt or a coup within the Iranian regime, neither of which currently seems probable, there is only one way that this war can successfully end. Decisively defeating Iran requires an initial application of massive military power followed by a long-term strategy of total containment. The model must not be the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, but rather the generational struggle against Soviet Communism—the Cold War that the United States ultimately won.

. . .Should the war end now, much of the Middle East would once again fall into Tehran’s sphere of influence. Confident that future American presidents will not renew major operations against it, the regime can resume its manufacture of ballistic missiles and reconstruct its nuclear facilities. The Strait of Hormuz will become an exclusively Iranian-controlled channel while terrorist attacks multiply across the Western world. The Gulf States, already afraid to alienate Iran by retaliating for its rocket and drone attacks against them, will rush to pay homage to the Islamic Republic. The people of Iran will be subject to unending and increasingly violent oppression. The international balance of power will also be skewed, with Russia and China reaching dangerous conclusions about America’s staying power.

To avoid that catastrophic scenario, the United States and Israel must deny Iran a victory by any definition. They must continue their intense bombing campaign to destroy Iran’s ability to produce, store, and launch missiles and drones. They must clear the Strait of Hormuz of Iranian mines, so that oil freighters can be safely escorted through its waters. Once defanged, Iran can be sealed by a hermetic naval blockade that will prevent the export of a single drop of oil and the entry of all but essential foodstuffs and medicines. Every effort should be made to ease the suffering of the civilian population while facilitating their ability to resist—and perhaps overthrow—the regime. It may take several years, but the Islamic Republic will fall. The Soviet Union eventually collapsed because outside pressure forced it to collapse in on itself. The same can be true of Iran.

None of this will require a single boot on the ground, nor certainly a prolonged military occupation. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is a long-established nation that America need not intervene in to rebuild. But like the Soviet Bloc, Iran represents an idea that must be defeated. And once that is accomplished, energy supplies can be safeguarded and Russia and China deterred. The U.S. can broker previously unthinkable peace treaties in the Middle East and help forge a strategic alliance stretching from the Mediterranean to the Ganges. Iran can rejoin the community of nations and rekindle its people’s hope for freedom. That, in answer to the interviewers’ most frequently asked question, is how the war must end.

Note that Oren says that this is how the war must end, not how it will end. His last paragraph is optimistic, but I still wonder how regime change, which is assumed, will be effected.  Will Iran, after a long period of being besieged, voluntarily adopt democracy? That’s what Oren assumes, but also says it will probably take several years to accomplish. What happens if we get a Democratic President before that?

*Trump is now going after radio stations, threatening to revoke their licenses if they don’t cover the war patriotically, but instead propagate “fake news.”

President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s threat to revoke broadcast licenses over news coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, calling media organizations “Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic” in a Truth Social post.

“They get Billions of Dollars of FREE American Airwaves, and use it to perpetuate LIES, both in News and almost all of their Shows, including the Late Night Morons, who get gigantic Salaries for horrible Ratings,” Trump wrote.

“As I used to say in The Apprentice, ‘FIRED,’” he added.

Carr, in his Saturday post on X, warned he would deny or revoke government-issued licenses if broadcasters run what the agency deems “fake news.” The warning was the latest salvo from the official who since becoming FCC chairman at the outset of Trump’s second term has relished the role of media enforcer.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” Carr wrote on X. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Here’s Carr’s tweet:

If it smells like censorship and walks like censorship, it is censorship.  This is an arrant threat to shut down broadcasters if they don’t toe the political line, and will surely bring on big-time lawsuits if it’s enforced. It is an unconscionable violation of freedom of speech.

*One way to severely impede Iran’s nuclear program is to seize the uranium the regime has already enriched. That would require boots on the ground, but could be done. The WSJ discusses the pros and cons.

President Trump has said preventing Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons is a central aim of the war he is waging. In the absence of regime change—or at least a deal to hand over its enriched uranium by Tehran’s leaders—that could mean seizing the country’s fissile material.

Accomplishing that in the face of resistance from Iranian forces would be a complex military operation that could require the deployment of hundreds of troops at one or more sites for days, former U.S. military officers and experts said.

The U.S. military has elite teams specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. But locating and seizing the hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium that Iran possesses would require an intricate choreography and could be fraught with risk.

President Trump has said he wouldn’t rule out sending ground troops into Iran if necessary. But on Friday, he signaled an operation to seize the country’s enriched uranium wasn’t imminent.

. . .Before Israel and the U.S. conducted a series of airstrikes on Iran in June last year, the country was believed to have more than 400 kilograms of 60% highly enriched uranium, and nearly 200 kilograms of 20% fissile material, which is easily converted into 90%-weapons-grade uranium.

President Trump has signaled that an operation to seize Iran’s enriched uranium isn’t imminent. Nathan Howard/Getty Images

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has said he thinks the uranium is mainly at two of the three sites that the U.S. and Israel attacked in June: an underground tunnel at the nuclear complex in Isfahan and a cache at Natanz. Around half the 60% material was in the Isfahan tunnels, Grossi said recently.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has acknowledged that Iran isn’t currently enriching uranium. Grossi’s agency hasn’t seen any signs that the Iranians have sought to move that material. Iran’s leaders insist publicly that they don’t want a bomb.

But if those caches remain in the hands of an Iranian government looking to ensure its survival, they could be used to pursue a bomb. The Iranians have centrifuges to enrich uranium and the capability to set up a new underground enrichment site, experts said.

. . .The White House could decide to leave the stockpile in Iran’s hands, with a warning that any attempt to remove it or to resume enrichment would trigger further U.S. military strikes. Given Israel’s penetration of Iran’s nuclear program and U.S. satellite reconnaissance, there is a good chance Tehran’s work would be caught.

If Trump decides to try to grab the uranium, retired Adm. James Stavridis, who served as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commander and the former head of Southern Command, said it could require “potentially the largest special forces operation in history.”

The article adds that it could take 1,000 personnel on the ground to deal with the material from just one site. For all the sites it seems an impossible task. This is something to worry about later, though we can be sure that the U.S. is already planning it now.  We surely cannot leave a theocratic Iran, bent on terror, with a stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

*And from the UPI’s odd news, a snack was auctioned off for a very high price (I love the phrase I’ve bolded):

Guinness World Records said the auction of Cheetozard — a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto shaped liked the Pokémon Charizard — resulted in a new record.

The record-keeping organization said Goldin Auctions’ March 2025 sale of Cheetozard ended in a final price of $87,840, earning the highly-specific record for the highest price paid for a video game likeness corn snack.

The 3-inch-long Cheeto is affixed to a custom “Cheetozard” Pokémon card and encased in a transparent box.

“Goldin specializes in rare and one-of-a-kind collectibles, and the Cheetozard is exactly this,” Goldin Auctions Head of Consignment Dave Amermanat told NBC’s Today. “Part of what makes this item so fun and unique is that it bridges two fandoms — Pokémon and Cheetos.”

The Cheeto was originally purchased on eBay for $350 by Paul Bartlett, owner of sports memorabilia company 1st & Goal Collectibles, sometime between 2018 and 2022. Images of the snack went viral on social media in 2024.

Here’s the highly valuable corn snack from Instagram (click to go to site):

 

I dare not reproduce the Charizard for fear of being sued for violating copyright, but you can see it here. I guess they sort of resemble each other.  I can see a hoax forming, when an employee of Cheetos deliberately makes one Cheeto that looks like another Pokemon character and then, for a secret cut, gives it to someone else to auction off for big bucks.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Andrzej is reassuring a worried Hili:

Hili: This garden once gave a feeling of safety.
Andrzej: Little by little, everything will return to normal.

In Polish:

Hili: Kiedyś ten ogród dawał poczucie bezpieczeństwa.
Ja: Powoli wszystko wróci do normy.

*******************

From Cats that Have Had enough of Your Shit:

From the Unitarian Universalist Hysterical Society:

From Now That’s Wild:

From Masih. Judge for yourself. For once the Netherlands was less woke than Germany. Sound up:

From Luana. Is the caption true?

From Barack Obama. This Center is very close to where I live, but I don’t think people will be able to make out the words that are high up:

Two from my feed. The first one is cute, but they won’t be lining up at the slaughterhouse. . . .

And a wickedly smart (and self-aggrandizing) crow:

One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:

And two from Dr. Cobb. First, a nice cuppa tea. Be sure to listen until the end. The “WVS” is the Women’s Voluntary Service and they’re talking about WWII.

So, BlueSky, one of my passions is the study of tea in WW2. I need you to watch this oral history from three ex-tea ladies from the Bermondsey WVS.Because you could guess for ONE THOUSAND YEARS and you would not guess where it is going… #skystorians #history #tea

— John Bull (@garius.bsky.social) 2026-03-15T20:06:47.614Z

And a historical irony (click on tweet to go there):

50 thoughts on “Tuesday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Gurwinder : “A nice reminder that everything you’re worried about is ultimately insignificant.”

    I saw that too —

    [ deleted lots of stuff ]

    Not captured by those spells anymore.

    Dawkins said “Stop worrying and enjoy your life” and “We are the lucky ones.” He’s got a good, positive point comparatively – and even more meaningful, as it is true it “ultimately” is predicted to be consumed by the Sun… or whatever… or escape it, on a space ship, etc…

    [ deleted more ]

    Man, touched a nerve!

    Reply

  2. I think it has been known forever that Iran can easily close the Strait of Hormuz. So not having a plan for keeping it open when you attack Iran seems like an oversight to me.

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    1. Sal addresses the issue in yesterday’s 15 minute episode of “whats going on with shipping”. Although he seems unusally frustrated he makes a couple of really important nuanced points toward the end about Iran quietly bringing ships through their territorial waters as the price of admission. Url should be

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      1. I’m watching him every day now.

        I truly wish this vile regime would fall. However, I give it longer odds than the Soviet Union because the they’re religious fanatics. They’ll be harder to dislodge.

        Also, it’s not just the Strait of Hormuz, it’s the whole 600+ miles of the Iranian coast.

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        1. From my systems viewpoint, FK, these behaviors are representative of an entirely transactional individual who treats the world as zeroeth order…that is, every action he does is fully isolated in what passes for his mind. I too check on Sal daily because he helps me understand what the higher order components of global shipping and the economy are and he brings historical knowledge and sometimes subject matter experts from other areas to the table.

          Reply

    2. I am curious what people think a plan to “keep” the Strait of Hormuz open would have looked like. In an era of explosive-carrying drones and antiship missiles that can be launched from a distance, it is not possible to keep Iran from threatening shipping to a degree sufficient to effectively close the Strait. Perhaps some politician somewhere thought, “Oh, they’ll never do that,” but I can assure you that the military has long had plans for Iran doing precisely that.

      The Strait being closed is not a failure of planning; it is an expected challenge with which one must deal. Iran’s capacity to strike at distance from both land and sea must be degraded to the degree that ship-based escorts are viable to defend against more localized attacks. That is precisely what both Israel and the US are doing. Please, tell me what more you think they should be doing. Are your criticisms about operational pacing? Target prioritization? Appropriate mix of strike assets?

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    3. It’s also possible that the American leadership concluded (correctly in my view) that the Strait of Hormuz is not crucial to American interests but degrading Iran as a nuclearly ambitious terror state is. It certainly figured in the strategic planning. Reopening the Strait will be nice to have, from America’s perspective, but since most of the oil and fertilizer going out isn’t bound for the United States (or Canada, for that matter), it’s kind of meh. It took the WW2 Allies the entire war to reduce civilian merchant convoy losses in the North Atlantic to safe levels and this required sinking the entire German Navy and kicking the Germans out of France, not just defending individual ships from torpedo attack. Doing so was crucial to the mission of liberating Europe which America took on as its own. (I’m not denigrating the efforts of non-American navies and air forces in sinking submarines specifically. I’m just referring to the European campaign as a whole.)

      President Trump might well be trolling America’s fair-weather Allies today about not helping. I’m sure he didn’t think for a moment that Canada or any other country would volunteer to send their aging frigates into the Strait even though convoy escort is what frigates are for. This is the kind of naval war that’s not won by shooting at arrows. You have to shoot the archers, or starve them so they can’t shoot straight.

      (I do wonder if the US Navy will start stopping ships in the Gulf of Oman before they reach Iran at all.)

      Reply

    4. I think the “not having a plan” business is a DNC talking point. There are certainly lots of plans, as there were when I was fighting in that area.
      Impeding, harassing, or stopping shipping in the straights is a daily activity for the IRGC.
      I think we could secure the area for shipping and bring the risk to each ship down to an acceptable level in a few days, but it would involve a different kind of warfare. One where great numbers of civilian casualties were expected.

      Or, we can be methodical about it. Remove the Iranian leadership, disrupt their C&C, gain air supremacy over the country, then eliminate military assets that could be used against shipping. Some of those are well hidden in populated areas.

      It is also not a binary safe/not safe issue. It has not been “safe” for decades. The first time I ever gave the order to fire live rounds at human beings, it was IRGC boats in the straits. It has been normal to listen to the radio in that part of the gulf and hear the IRGC calling ships, claiming to be military or coast guard, and ordering the ships to let them board or to enter Iranian ports.
      I am guessing we will not see much of that any more, but it may be a while before all the anti-ship missiles are removed or made safe.
      The need for gulf oil is rising, and the danger to shipping is likely dropping. At some point, the risk/reward ratio will tell us that the need for oil outweighs the risk to shipping.
      Since the US is the destination of less than 3% of the petroleum products traveling through the straits, it is reasonable to request other countries with modern navies to assist in protecting and escorting ships through the straits.

      Reply

  3. In addition to being St. Patrick’s Day, it is also St. Gertrude’s Day; she is the patron saint of cats.

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    1. That’s in the Hili post tomorrow, but if you look up St.Gertrude, you’ll see that the “patron saint of cats” monicker seems to have been added in the nineteenth century, though she died in the seventh century.

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  4. The text on the Obama Library is a terrible example of sign-making. There have been lots of memes about it. My favorite replaces what’s there with running text of Obama’s most famous quote: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

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  5. There’s a lot of disharmony in the (wildly differing) guesses as to Iran’s nuclear inventory. I thought uranium (by definition here enriched) stored for weapons production was in gas form (Hex gas) rather than what pictures often suggest: scary but routine looking silver discs or … like gold bars maybe?
    If it is in gaseous form, one theory goes, it could have been corrupted/escaped in our bombings of the facilities, no? Trying to get a grip on this, even though I’ve always liked reading about nuclear stuff.

    People in the neighborhood, Obama edition. I get in trouble for my appreciation of brutalist architecture but even I’m not wild about the new Obama library near PCC(E)’s area. I don’t like all the writing on it: brutalism isn’t about “adornment.”
    (my personal view only).

    D.A.
    NYC

    Reply

    1. I’d like to know what these guesstimates are based on. I can’t imagine any embedded sources at this point.

      And re. the Obama library, even tho I live in a Victorian place and have a lot of criteria there (the best have to have a tower, for starts; I also greatly admire Craftsman style like Greene & Greene, Deco and some Moderne) I’ve seen far worse Brutalism. But who’s supposed to go up there to clean out the pigeon nests etc? U Pittsburgh got in bed with that style for awhile but thankfully that phase has passed.

      Reply

      1. hahaha. Excellent, we see eye to eye on many things Mr. H.
        Obama could send his daughters up there to clean out the pigeon nests – they look like they could do with a little exercise. 😉

        Brutalism is a strong architectural drug – it has a big positive, dramatic effect but a little goes a long way: otherwise your city/uni will look like Minsk or Moscow.

        I’m always jealous of Victorian style houses, and a tower is top notch! I live in a (1980s) 20 story building, so I’ve got the view, but to sit and type, or just regard the world from one’s own tower is sublime!

        Brutalism (1950s-1980s) isn’t as “old and beautiful” as Victorian or Edwardian homes… yet. Which is why they’re pulling them down so cruelly all over the place.
        best,

        D.A.
        NYC

        Reply

    2. Thank you for that insight, David. The stored partially enriched uranium must surely be in the form of uranium hexafluoride because that’s what the gas centrifuges use to progressively enrich it. There would be no reason to reduce the UF6 to metal until it has been enriched by enough passages through the centrifuges to the desired proportion of U-235. Only if Iran had decided to put a moratorium/fatwa on further enrichment would it metalize its low-enriched stocks to make them easier to store indefinitely. (Iran is reported to have developed metalization technology, iirc.) Further enrichment then would require “backwards” regasification of metallic uranium which are not “normal” steps in the enrichment process. Uranium metal is chemically dangerous to work with because it is pyrophoric when ground up for processing. Casting the molten metal into the shapes for bomb parts (and reactor fuel rods and depleted-uranium projectiles) is about all you can do with it.

      At room temperature and pressure, UF6 is a solid but above 50 C it readily sublimates to a highly poisonous, corrosive gas, hence its utility in gas centrifuges. The official 30″-diameter steel cannisters for enriched UF6 weigh about 1500 lb empty — they’re 1/2 inch thick — and contain about 5000 lb. (two-thirds of which is uranium.) They don’t require lead shielding at the levels of enrichment typically stored as UF6 but a Geiger counter can detect the gamma decay radiation getting through the steel. (Iran might sensibly wrap its cannisters in lead to thwart detection efforts.)

      This tells me that Iran would not want to store UF6 enriched any further because it would become more radioactively hazardous. We would expect that further enrichment would constitute a race to a bomb, because storing it as highly enriched uranium metal (under lead) is more practical than bulky corrodible cannisters, or small ones that someone could safely walk off with.

      Curiously, if Iran is said to have 441 kg of 60%-enriched uranium (says CSIS, our spook agency), it could all be easily stored in one standard cannister, or a dozen and a half small research-level cannisters that hold up to 25 kg each. Talk about needles in a haystack, even if the needles are hot.

      Reply

      1. Thanks Leslie – I had to read that a few times but it helps. Boomers and GenXers often find nuclear stuff interesting given the history of our lives – younger people seldom find it interesting.

        I never “believed” the fatwa and they never gave answers to why they’d enriched it as far as they had (60%) when there are no OTHER uses for it than weapons.
        And all the work is in the beginning, getting it to 60% (or even 10%). From 60% to 90%+ is way easier.
        Yes, the hiding of it (in gas or metal form) wouldn’t be hard.

        Many (most?) people think building nukes is an easy proposition but it is far from it – HUGELY expensive, like economy wrecking expensive, and all the metallurgy, explosive lenses, bomb mechanism, krytons are very, very difficult. Still, doable if you’re rich, determined and driven by religious zeal enough.

        D.A.
        NYC

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      2. Thanks for that, Leslie. My uncle was a metallurgical chemist and actually part of the Manhattan Project (in what role I have no idea – the only snippet that survived was that after a top-secret meeting somewhere, the attendees went back out to the parking lot, some continuing in conversation. At one point one of them put his foot up on a bumper to tie his shoe and my uncle was horrified to note the license plate: U 238).

        But he died in 1957, so I never learned any of the details of enrichment etc from him, and haven’t delved into them on my own. If there’s a step in converting UF6 to metallic U whereby the F is released as HF, that would constitute a big hazard all by itself.

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  6. Paul Ehrlich, author (with wife Anne Ehrlich) of The Population Bomb and a butterfly ecologist, has died.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/books/paul-r-ehrlich-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T1A.HJph.Lww0fXkzneDo

    aside to Prof. Ceiling Cat (emeritus): minor error: your post reads in part “Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 2 Wikipedia page.” although today is March 17. The hyperlink also goes to March 2.

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  7. Masih’s posts vary between heartbreaking and inspiring.
    Heartbreaking because of what these women are suffering, and inspiring because of their courage.

    The subject of the post today is just disgusting. It illustrates the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of today’s feminist movements. The leaders of these movements and their supporters have made it quite clear that their goals have nothing to do with advancement of women’s opportunities, education, or freedom. They openly support those who actively suppress those goals.

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  8. Michael Oren knows the region very well. The Strait of Hormuz is the most potent card that Iran has left, and until we restore shipping through that narrow passageway, Iran will hold the world hostage.

    We should not seek a diplomatic agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait, as reaching an agreement will only prove that the Iranian regime still holds the card. The allies need to reopen the Strait by force. This is where we’re at.

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      1. And the Syrian war.

        The New York (Woke) Times prominently quoted him about “Israel and its powerful American lobby” and a “misinformation campaign” by high-ranking Israeli officials and the news media” and that he is a “Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a (Syrian) war manufactured by Israel”.

        These are indistinguishable from the rantings of a garden-variety antisemite, but fit to print.

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  9. “Well, we are responsible to some extent for stemming the flow of oil by getting into a fight with Iran, so I suppose you can justify the U.S. being responsible for opening up the Straits.”

    I do wonder though, why most of these countries remain in NATO. I mean, if they were attacked by a non-NATO country, wouldn’t they expect other democracies (including Turkey!!) to assist them? It all stinks of a deeply hypocritical antisemitism. So what else in new?

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  10. Some so-called allies, eh? Germany, Japan, Italy, and Australia all richly deserve to be called out for their perpetual unwillingness to ever fight for even their own nation, much less anyone else’s. What a bunch of losers. Even the despised “surrender monkey” nation at least had the guts to fight for a little while before chickening out. Make Aggression Great Again!

    Reply

    2. Yes, Barbara, true.
      Japan is a bit constrained by Art. 9 of their constitution which makes them leery of looking “aggressive”/militaristic in any form. Believe it or not it is probably the biggest “culture war” issue in Japan and has been since the war, esp this century. It is a squabble there in the same way DEI, abortion or guns are here.

      As for my original homeland, the Aussies are terribly shameful, lead by an incompetent, very “old left” PM and morally bankrupt party. 🙁

      My main disappointment is from the “Special Alliance” and the UK’s amazing unwillingness to help in any form, or late, and the sad decline of their country into what looks like an Islamic Republic.

      D.A.
      NYC

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    3. The Nato countries but not Turkey are pro Ukraine, for good reason. Putin missiles, drones, bombs, civilians and has zero regard for life beyond his own. Putin is an active perceived threat to Europe, UK.
      Trump is clearly pro Putin to absurdity, e.g. Trump blames Ukraine for starting the war!???.. these Nato friends are being threatened by a barbaric authoritarian while your blow hard leader supports him. How do you expect them to behave. My guess is they are waiting until the Israelis and US have show some plan to cool things down.
      They didn’t start it and never consulted on this Nato friendly attack.
      Before you tell us we are not willing to fight, have a look at Iraq, Afghanistan, and see who turned up and paid with their lives. Some like Denmark paid dearly and one kiwi received a VC for bravery in Afghanistan.

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      1. I am sorry I offended you.

        Sometimes my smart-arsed sarcasm is OTT. Before posting this one I considered and re-considered putting a ‘/s’ tag on it, against my longstanding policy of avoiding footnotes and tags announcing “this is a joke, ha ha”.

        For the record, iDJT is not and never was my blow hard leader. I emigrated decades ago, and am particularly glad of that now.

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          1. “She’ll be right, mate.” Collateral offensiveness is one of the costs of being a smart-arse. Usually it’s worth it, sometimes not — see the reply from the touchy Aussie below. [Cheap shot about convicts omitted 🙂.]

          1. Thank you very much. It’s nice to know I wasn’t completely outside the Overton window with this.

            [Although I am now well outside the comments limit. I hope the boss is in a particularly tolerant mood.]

      1. I am not sorry that my OTT sarcasm offended you. Your offensive reply is not welcome, even sarcastically.

        Being now a Commonwealth citizen I am well aware of Gallipoli, ANZAC day, the Boer War, etc. That’s why “perpetual” is in there — it’s a joke, son. Maybe you can start with getting some supplements for your irony deficiency.

        Another longstanding policy of mine is to avoid causing unintentional offence. The offensiveness here is entirely intentional.

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        1. I always include Kokoda, New Guinea (then part of Australia), in the list of Australian military accomplishments: the first time the Japanese army was defeated on land (with a little help from the US Army Air Corps.)

          Scottish-Australian folk-singer Eric Bogle wrote (with John Munro) a lovely song called “All The Fine Young Men.” Bits of two stanzas go,

          They told all the fine young men: ah, when this war is over
          In your country′s grateful heart, we will cherish you forever,
          At Tobruk, and Alamein, at Buna and Kokoda
          . . .
          They’re just forgotten bones, lying far from their homes,
          Forgotten as the cause for which they died.

          Which I don’t think is entirely fair. New Guinea (and the bombing of Darwin) was a near-death experience for Australia and surely that cause is not forgotten. Both Dolores Keane and Mary Black have covered the song, But they’re Irish, so their opinions on English wars don’t count, even if it is St. Patrick’s Day.

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        2. Oh Barbara, I wasn’t offended at all. Your initial comment did not come across as sarcasm but seemed to me to be serious.
          And how was I offensive? That’s a bit rich coming from someone derisively calling me “son” and claiming I have an “irony deficiency”. Who’s the touchy one, here?

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  11. Apart from the rest of his psychology, Trump’s crappy treatment of allies was one of my major reasons for not voting for him – even though I thought Kamala was so evil she glowed in the dark.

    B/c see… your friends will usually help you out if you treat them right. Bullshit about Greenland, tariffs, disrespecting all and sundry – including ours and our friends’ war dead – doesn’t encourage other leaders (NATO, Japan, Aussies) etc. to come to the party when we need them. (sigh)

    Nevertheless, unlike my hometown newspaper here, I hope we win and are able to cripple the Islamic Republic part of Iran.

    D.A.
    NYC

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    1. I agree that Trump didn’t help the U.S. cause by treating our allies badly, even in some cases humiliating them. Calling UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer “no Winston Churchill” is a prime example that helps no one. I can only hope that European and other leaders will ultimately do what’s in their national interest—which may be to help in the Strait of Hormuz, or maybe not.

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  12. Any feline using quantum superposition is taking a huge risk. It has been reported to have a high fatality rate. There are much safer ways to deal with the inside/outside duality.

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    1. I highly recommend the short story Space-Time for Springers by Fritz Lieber. It is easily found online.

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        1. Possibly. My personal favourite is Asimov’s The Last Question; and there’s no disputing personal taste (even though a lot of people try to).

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  13. not the arm of the right llama ringing a little bell

    Was something lost in translation – was it a pun on allama clocks?

    Reply

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