Welcome to the last Friday of the month: it’s March 27, 2026, and National Spanish Paella Day. When I gave a talk in Valencia (the Home of Paella) in 2011, I was taken to a small building out in the country that was supposedly the best place to get paella in that paella-famed town. There was an old man cooking the paellas over wood, constantly moving about to tend them and the fire. Here’s a photo of the man at work and the finished product that we ate:
It’s also International Whisky Day, World Theater Day, and Quirky Music Song Titles Day. Here’s one of those:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 27 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Today’s war news from It’s Noon in Israel:
- The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command are developing plans for a “finishing blow” against Iran, according to four senior American officials and sources familiar with internal discussions. Four main options are on the table: invading or blockading Kharg Island; seizing Larak Island, which anchors Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz; taking control of Abu Musa and two smaller islands near the strait’s western entrance; and intercepting Iranian oil tankers on the eastern side of Hormuz. The military has also prepared plans for ground operations deep inside Iran to seize enriched uranium from nuclear facilities. Donald Trump has not made a decision, and the White House describes all ground options as “hypothetical”—but sources say he is prepared to escalate if diplomatic talks fail to produce results soon.
- Trump claimed this morning that despite Iran’s public posture of merely “looking” at the U.S. proposal, Tehran is privately “begging” for a deal. He closed with a warning: Iran had better get serious about negotiations, because once it is “too late” there will be “no turning back.”
- Iran’s ambassador to Japan made clear today that Tehran will not accept a U.S.-imposed peace plan. “It’s not the Americans who will determine anything. It’s Iran,” he said, adding that any unilateral imposition is “not acceptable.” The statement comes as Tehran continues to publicly deny that negotiations with the United States are even taking place.
- Staff Sergeant Uri Greenberg, 21, from Petah Tikva, a fighter in an elite Golani Brigade unit, was killed in battle in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military fatalities have now risen to three.
As we approach the weekend the war has come to a crossroads. Donald Trump has three paths available:
- Continue with his current direction and we end this war with a negotiated settlement.
- Return to his original plan and continue pounding the regime.
- Walk away altogether, a unilateral ceasefire.
The article considers #2 the most likely, and so do I. If Trump has any military brains left, #1 and #3 should be off the table. Only unconditional surrender and the dismantling of the regime are acceptable. Despite the view that Iranians value victory more than their lives, they aren’t gonna get victory and member of the IRGC continue to leave the country.
*At The Free Press, Yoav Gallant (a former IDF officer and later Israel’s Minister of Defense) wrote an article I couldn’t resist reading, “How to finish the job in Iran.”
And yet, Iran has found a way to fight back. How? By closing the Strait of Hormuz, and shifting the battlefield from military targets to the global economy.
Roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and a significant share of liquefied natural gas pass through that narrow waterway. Iran brought traffic to a near standstill not with formal naval blockade, but via selective drone strikes on tankers, the threat of mines and anti-ship missiles, and the resulting collapse of insurance coverage. Tanker movement has dropped by more than 90 percent. Brent crude has surged to as much as $120 a barrel. One of the largest disruptions to global energy supplies since the 1970s is now underway.
This was a predictable move. Iran has threatened to close the Strait for decades, and the logic was always clear: If the regime is struck hard enough, it will use its geographic position to inflict economic pain on the entire world. The question was never whether Iran would try. The question is what we should do about it.
. . . You must take from Iran something it cannot afford to lose.
Kharg Island is a small strip of land in the northern Persian Gulf, roughly comparable in size to lower Manhattan, sitting about 25 kilometers off Iran’s coast and several hundred kilometers northwest of the Strait of Hormuz. The main terminal for close to 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports, Kharg Island is the economic backbone of the regime. It is also, critically, the primary source of hard‑currency revenue for the military and security services, which control and sell a significant share of those exports.
Disrupting energy operations on Kharg Island is regarded by analysts as a doomsday scenario for Iran’s economy, with far‑reaching consequences. Iran’s economy depends in practice on two main sectors: oil and gas. Disruption would trigger a chain reaction throughout the energy system, creating acute shortages of gasoline and diesel inside a country that sits on some of the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. Iran would also lose billions of dollars a month in oil income. Without the flow of dollars and yuan, the central bank would struggle to defend the rial, driving hyperinflation and eroding the savings of an entire society.
Economic pressure on this scale would dramatically increase the likelihood of popular unrest. Iran’s population has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to take to the streets. The demonstrations of January 2026 were one of the most significant since the 1979 revolution. A regime that cannot pay its security forces or fuel its own economy faces a fundamentally different internal reality. Its ability to support proxies and sleeper cells throughout the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. would also be compromised.
Of course this “solution” will impose hardship on the Iranian people for a limited period—a lack of energy and oil revenue. What is crucial here is that the Iranian population must still have the “willingness to take to the streets,” despite the regime’s promise to shoot them on sight. All we can do is wait.
*According to the Times of Israel, Israel has struck down another Iranian military bigwig, this time the head of the Revolutionary Guard Navy, the man responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Other targets have also been “neutralized”:
Israel said Thursday that the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, Adm. Alireza Tangsiri, had been killed in an airstrike, the latest senior Iranian official targeted in a relentless hunt-and-kill campaign. The Israel Defense Forces later said all of the IRGC Navy’s key commanders had been killed in the strike.
However, Israel took Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf off its hit list after Pakistan requested that Washington not target them, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters. Qalibaf is reportedly the “top man” with whom US President Donald trump said Monday he has been indirectly negotiating on terms for ending the conflict.
“The IDF eliminated the commander of the IRGC Navy, the person directly responsible for the terror operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a morning assessment with military officials.
Katz said the strike was a “message” to the IRGC: “The IDF will hunt you down and eliminate you one by one.”
“We will continue to operate in Iran with full force to achieve the objectives of the war,” he added.
Later, the IDF confirmed the killing and said that in addition to Tangsiri, the strike also killed the IRGC Navy’s intelligence chief, Behnam Rezaei, and the rest of the navy’s top leadership. The military did not immediately name other top commanders killed in the strike.
Tangsiri was targeted in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas while meeting with senior commanders of the IRGC Navy, according to the military.
“Over the years, Tangsiri was responsible for attacks on oil tankers and commercial vessels and personally threatened the freedom of navigation and trade in the Strait of Hormuz and the international maritime domain,” the IDF said.
During the current war, the IDF said he “led efforts to close the Strait of Hormuz and advanced terror attacks in the maritime domain, one of the primary figures responsible for disrupting the global economy.”
I am amazed at Israel’s ability to track these people down, but that, and the fact that Israel can confirm the deaths, suggests that they have reporting sources inside Iran (they used street cameras for getting rid of the last Ayatollah). The other IRGC bigwigs, as well as politicans, must be very apprehensive.
*Also at the Times of Israel, human-rights attorney Gerald Filitti writes, “Harvard got sued. Why it deserves it.” , subtitled, “The Trump Administration’s new Title VI complaint is more legally serious than its critics will admit, and Harvard’s own record makes the case for them.” This refers to the very recent lawsuit filed against Harvard by the administration for allowing antisemitism to pervade the campus.
The government’s theory has two distinct prongs, and both are well-constructed.
The first is deliberate indifference. Under Davis v. Monroe County, a federally funded institution violates Title VI when it has actual knowledge of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and responds with deliberate indifference. Harvard’s own Presidential Task Force – commissioned by Harvard, staffed by Harvard, published by Harvard – concluded that Jewish and Israeli students faced “dire” conditions, were subjected to “social exclusion,” experienced “widespread” discrimination by peers and professors alike, and that Harvard’s complaint mechanisms lacked even “foundational awareness” of how to handle antisemitism reports. Harvard’s own task force said that. The government didn’t manufacture that record. Harvard produced it.
The second prong is more interesting and, in some ways, stronger: intentional selective enforcement. The complaint documents a pattern of Harvard enforcing its rules vigorously against everyone except those targeting Jews. In 2017, Harvard rescinded ten admissions offers over offensive private Facebook messages. In 2022, it canceled a lecture by a feminist philosopher over her views on transgender identity. When a gay law student was assaulted, Harvard sent a campus-wide email condemning the attack the same day. When a Jewish student was assaulted – physically attacked while trying to film a demonstration – Harvard awarded one attacker a $65,000 fellowship and named the other a Class Marshal. That is not indifference. It is the inverse of indifference.
Under Arlington Heights, discriminatory intent is established through circumstantial evidence of exactly this kind of differential treatment. The complaint’s factual record on selective enforcement is, frankly, devastating. And it draws almost entirely from Harvard’s own documents.
. . .Here is what most of the coverage will miss entirely: this complaint is not the same legal action as the funding freeze Burroughs struck down last September.
When the administration unilaterally froze $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research grants, it skipped the mandatory Title VI enforcement process. There was no notice, no investigation, no opportunity to respond, no judicial involvement. Burroughs correctly found that violated both the statute and the First Amendment. That ruling was about how the government acted, not about what Harvard did. It was a ruling about process, not about the merits.
Today’s complaint is the opposite procedural posture. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) opened its investigation in February 2025. It issued formal findings of violation in June 2025. It met and conferred with Harvard in July 2025. It negotiated for eight additional months. When those negotiations failed, it filed in federal court and asked a judge to order relief. That is textbook Title VI enforcement. Same statute. Right procedure. The Burroughs ruling does not govern this case, and treating it as dispositive is an error.
As for what comes next:
The case is assigned to Judge Richard Stearns, a Clinton appointee who handled Shabbos Kestenbaum’s Title VI lawsuit against Harvard and is known as a careful, precise jurist without an ideological axe to grind. He will read the Burroughs opinion. He will also be aware that this complaint followed the procedure Burroughs said the prior action violated. The legal question before him is narrower than the culture war questions the press will insist on litigating: did Harvard violate Title VI, and did it breach its contractual compliance certifications? On those questions, Harvard’s own record is its worst enemy.
. . . . But here is what should not get lost in the noise: Jewish students at the most prestigious university in the world were spat on, stalked, and physically assaulted. They hid their yarmulkes under baseball caps to walk across campus. They reported their assailants, and their assailants were promoted. They asked Harvard’s diversity office for help, and its staff had locked the door.
I think that summary is about right. You can go to a pdf of the complaint by clicking on the screenshot below:
*Reader Loretta pointed me to this article in the Washington Post, “The Mideast pushed out the Muslim Brotherhood. Here’s where it landed.” She noted this: “I’m surprised the Post published this piece, given their own biases, but I’m glad to see it. There don’t seem to be any comments yet, but I’m sure the usual progressive baying crowd will chime in.”
Arab states spent decades learning to contain the Muslim Brotherhood. Europe has yet to begin. The result is a dangerous irony: As the radical Islamist group’s influence wanes in the Middle East, it is growing stronger in Europe by the day.
For years, security experts in the United States and Europe have warned about the organization. And yet, outside of Austria, no E.U. state has taken decisive action. Most Western states tolerate the group’s political wings, citing its peaceful integration into political systems. In the United States, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. But there has not been a concerted Western effort to counter the movement’s ideological threat.
In Britain, the United Arab Emirates cut scholarships for Emirati students, concerned they could be radicalized by Islamists in the country. In Belgium, neighborhoods have become parallel societies. In Germany, despite the government raising concerns, the group continues to grow in its cities. In Sweden, the Qatari-funded affiliate has turned the country into a hotbed of Islamist ideology.
. . .Last year, a French government report on the Brotherhood called out the danger and warned of the group’s spread in European society. The report was picked up and repeated in European capitals, where academics and civil society dismissed it as alarmist.
Why the complacency? Western conventions against interfering with religion are one reason. But that bias for tolerance has served to give mosques tied to the Brotherhood free rein to spread messages of intolerance and hate, including some that exalt jihadist violence, in many Western cities. The group’s spread also threatens the cohesion of European states by exacerbating racial tensions and establishing alternative social structures based on its interpretation of sharia.
The modus operandi of the Brotherhood is patience — it waits until it is confident in its strength, then moves against the established state structure.
It’s considered “Islamophobic” everywhere to be wary of the erosion of a culture in favor of Muslim culture, but who wants Islamism (the politicization of the faith) when it’s authoritarian, ridden with religion, and misogynistic, as well as intolerant of non-Muslims, atheists, and especially apostates. This is also happening in the U.S. (viz., Minnesota), but “progressives” would rather die than call attention to it.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is being a real Princess:
Hili: Could you lay a carpet here.
Andrzej: A red one?
Hili: Whatever, as long as it’s soft.
In Polish:
Hili: Mógłbyś tu położyć dywan.
Ja: Czerwony?
Hili: Wszystko jedno byle był miękki.
*******************
From Funny and Strange Signs:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff:
From The Language Nerds:
Masih tells us that Iran can now recruit soldiers as young as twelve years old:
This is deeply alarming.
According to statements from an IRGC official, Iran’s regime has now lowered the minimum age for participation in war-related roles to just 12 years old.
Let’s be clear:
Recruiting children into military activity is a violation of international laws… pic.twitter.com/3zlAxjktOf— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 26, 2026
Luana sent this one; I hadn’t heard about it on the local news, but that’s because it was late last night:
Let’s check in on Chicago last night.
About 400 teens ran amok downtown on State St. and Michigan Ave.
CPD said some teens had mace and tasers. Teens were tasing people.pic.twitter.com/zcSfzeI3uS
— Spitfire (@RealSpitfire) March 26, 2026
From Emma. The relevant article from the International Olympic Committee is here, and announces this:
- Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening.
- Evidence‑based and expert‑informed, the policy – applicable for the LA28 Olympic Games onwards – protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category.
The policy is not retroactive, but this is a move in the right direction.
Hello @NCAA https://t.co/goenGi77T3
— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) March 26, 2026
The announcement from the IOOC:
Two from my feed. First, some great dancing:
Fred Astaire once said that Rita Hayworth was his favourite dance partner. You can see why.. pic.twitter.com/snybjOISJm
— Goldenagehollywood (@oldmovieactress) March 25, 2026
You’ll want to watch the pair here, too. This may be my favorite Astair pairing. I’ve watched it a million times and could watch it a million more times.
And I had to post this one:
The Islamic regime has confirmed the death of 18 year old Melika Azizi was carried earlier today. Melika told the judge: “You let so many young people bleed. How can I remain silent? I don’t care just kill me”
She was a brave young lady!
Now gone.
A crime to humanity. pic.twitter.com/z3F3J5AXs0— Amanda🌍 #FreeThemAll (@Amandalavan1) March 25, 2026
Lagniappe: a great video from Science Girl:
In only 63 days, a mother bird builds a perfect nest and raises a beautiful brood of chicks. A quiet masterpiece of nature.
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) March 26, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This German Jewish engineer was gassed to death immediately after arriving at Auschwitz. He was 45. https://t.co/SaDffgGBPZ
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) March 27, 2026
. . . and two from Dr. Cobb. First, catroaches! But don’t squash ’em!
How to get disowned by your family.Available on Amazon for $13.94.
Three liters of vodka? Seriously?
Not a fan of defacing works of art, but the picture is hilarious. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/article…
— Meepy (@floweroflondon.bsky.social) 2026-03-25T13:23:22.921Z
I welcome the IOC’s decision.
Unfortunately, quite a few leading German media outlets (on the left and among liberals) are reacting ideologically and with a lack of understanding. Biology does not count; political correctness and scientific ignorance, on the other hand, are the order of the day.
So we had the ancient olympics, then in 1896 a revival we call the present “modern olympics”. Perhaps these German media outlets and their friends are looking to start a “post-modern olympics”. Would also serve as a good example to help me explain and illustrate post-modernism philosophy to people.
https://reduxx.info/germany-sex-education-group-recommends-daycares-create-sexual-games-and-nude-exploration-rooms/
Actual proposal for German preschoolers to have “nude exploration rooms” which apparently only got canceled because parents found out and went nuts.
This convinced me Germany has very strange ideas regarding sex (in every meaning of the term) and so opposition to the IOC’s decision seems to be in line.
This does not apply to Germany as a whole, but was a preposterous idea proposed by the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo) in Hanover.
The State Youth Welfare Office put a stop to the plan as the educational concept jeopardized the well-being of the children.
A lovely start to the morning with big band sound, Astaire, and Haworth…I will enjoy that now and get to reading the serious Nooz in a few minutes. I do not know if it is part of the choreography, but could not help but notice the admiring looks of the chorus of young dancers behind them throughout their routine in the first video.
No ai, car chases, or laser battles…just a wonderful performance by two stars of the day.
Now, to Amit and Yoav and the real world this morning….
Crushing the Muslim Brotherhood (est. 1920s Ismailia, Egypt) is vital, something Egypt started under Nasser (who was, simultaneously one of the worst humans ever…), the Gulf (ex Qatar) some decades later. There is no more poisoned organization in the world and it is exceedingly powerful. The West has NO IDEA how toxic and dangerous this ideology is.
Iran putting kids into battle. Recall the Iran-Iraq war (est. dead 800K) where repainted London busses were used to send 13 year old volunteers (willing!) with plastic “Keys to Paradise” to clear Iraqi mine fields and swarm Iraqi machine gun nests. “Martyrs.” One of these busses is on display in the Military Museum in Tehran. That’s a few miles from the Countdown to Israel’s Destruction clock (2040) in Palestine Square.
Beating the Islamic Republic is the most urgent moral challenge of our lives.
D.A.
NYC
According to a Middle East Forum webinar I attended, which had ME specialists whose professional lives involve keeping track of Islamist organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood per se hasn’t really existed for a decade or more in the West. Instead, it has transmogrified into hundreds of NGOs, etc who enjoy financial invisibility while funneling donations to terrorists, universities, workshops, and politicians in the shadows. All rather terrifying and very worthy of governmental intervention.
At least with Iran and Qatar we have entities rooted to geography with human faces we can point at. And I agree with you about the moral challenge – these people are serious and seriously good at what they do. And they are playing a very long game with the fanaticism that only fundamentalist religion fosters.
I’m afraid that George Bush was right – we really need to be fighting the 4th Crusade.
Keep in mind that Hamas is essentially a Muslim Brotherhood organization.
Back when Sheikh Yassin ran Hamas, he expanded the suicide bombing attacks to include female bombers. Certain sources said that not all of those women were willing: that suicide bombing missions were a way to avoid “honor killings” for perceived immodest sexual behavior. In other words, avoid the disgrace of “honor killing”, and die as a martyr for Islam.
Shortly before his death in 2004, Yassin sent a young boy (around 14, IIRC) with a suicide vest to walk toward Israeli soldiers. The boy, who was mentally handicapped, failed to detonate the bomb, and the soldiers succeeded in disarming it.
Googly eyes improve anything.
✅‼️👀
And placed after consuming MDMA and 3 liters of vodka! – I’m surprised she lived through that.
That is a fantastic dancer!!!
The fella ain’t too bad either.
It was said of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
I was wondering if you’d tried “Agua de Valencia” while you were there. I’ve seen it being enjoyed on Travel Man and it looked nice.
The IOC ruling is great news and way overdue. I’m also glad to see that the IOC has said that they’ll pay for the test. I remember reading some earlier criticism (from 2025) about the fact that the test cost $250, and female athletes complained about having to bear this additional cost themselves when they weren’t the ones causing the problem to begin with.
I don’t think there is any way out of this war that will result in a positive outcome. The argument that Iranians will take to the streets again and cause regime change ignores the pride of Iranians; these things usually cannot be imposed from the outside. We are supposedly hoping the Iranians will fight for their “freedom”, but Trump’s rhetoric shows that he has no interest whatsoever in the true freedom of the Iranian people; he just wants a government that is subservient to the US (see Venezuela). The war permanently tars the opposition with the label “traitor”, and many of the real Iranian lovers of freedom will resist the impositions of the US just as they resist the Islamic fundamentalists. These kinds of military operations almost always cause a rise in nationalism and enmity against the US.
And as for the war’s effects on nuclear proliferation, every country will be watching and will realize that their only protection against unchecked US aggression is a nuclear bomb.
I think we will all sleep easier if we just accept that establishing freedom for Iranians is not really a war aim. The freedom movement might take advantage of Iran’s military defeat and topple their government, maybe even install something better. (We wish!) But whether they do or not is not a metric to assess the war’s success.
For the reasons you adduce, it’s better if the United States doesn’t try to install a better government in Iran. No matter how it works out, the U.S. will indeed be blamed by the various anti-colonial agitators around the world and in Iran. So let the Iranians succeed or fail by their own devices, as the 13 Colonies did.
I disagree about nuclear proliferation. Every country should take the lesson that if they pursue nuclear ambitions in a way that threatens the United States or its allies, they will be destroyed by American enforcement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, whether they signed it or not.
I think all three positive outcomes: elimination of Iran as a capable terror state, de-nuclearizing it, and getting the Strait of Hormuz re-opened as an international waterway are eminently possible.
“Every country should take the lesson that if they pursue nuclear ambitions in a way that threatens the United States or its allies, they will destroyed by American enforcement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, whether they signed it or not.”
That is not practical, as shown by North Korea, and the fact that the treaty signatories did not stop Israel, India, and Pakistan from getting nuclear weapons.
Pakistan vs India and US vs Russia/China are bitter rival nuclear powers, but they don’t nuke each other because it would be suicide. Both Iran and Israel are perhaps even more bitter rivals than those, so maybe things would not turn out the same with them, but I don’t think we can really stop a country from getting nuclear weapons, and we cannot bomb the whole world.
Both Israel and Trump have been lying about how close Iran was to having a bomb. Ever since the 1990s Netanyahu has been saying that Iran was very close to having a bomb.
For some clips of Netanyahu lying, see time stamp 7:04ff on this video:
This suggests to me that the real reasons for the war are different from what has been stated publicly.
Da Roolz say I should stop here.
Actually, the clip says 2012, not the 1990’s.
Meanwhile, today’s Hili Dialogue speaks of the elimination of the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, Adm. Alireza Tangsiri.
Here is a clip of him admitting that the Islamic Regime was trying to build an atomic bomb all along (from 1979), in secret, so they could be “like Pakistan”: (see from 5:00 to 7:30)
A 2015 report from Germany’s equivalent of the CIA documents Iran’s secret efforts to obtain atomic bomb triggers and tons of carbon fiber to further purify their stockpile, both of which were expressly forbidden by the JCPOA.
The inspectors (IEAE) say that Iran has ~1000 lbs of 60% U-235, and that is the number everyone quotes. I’d like to know how they know that, since they have not been allowed in Iran since 2022 and never knew anything about Iran’s secret facilities where the real work was being done.
Lastly, 1/2 ton of 60% U-235 is enough to make 6 or 7 Nagasaki-sized bombs right now, today, if they have the personnel and triggers. Hopefully, they don’t have the personnel, because Israel took them out a few months ago. Netanyahu may have exaggerated (we really don’t know), but what we do know is that the Islamic Regime has been lying through its teeth for decades.
1996:
https://www.c-span.org/clip/joint-session-of-congress/user-clip-netanyahu-on-iran-in-1996/4530115
Lou, I read each section. I do not see him telling a single lie about Iran having a bomb. Perhaps I missed it?
How’s he’s going to get rid of the nuclear capability or the terror state?
Israel cannot get rid of Hamas in a tiny area they effectively control.
Hard to reconcile your belief that Iranian’s don’t want outside military help with the videos out of Iran of locals cheering every time another American or Israeli bomb drops on a regime installation. I recommend you check out some of the recent footage under the “Live” tab on Tousi TV.
Yoav Gallant is smart as a tack. The war cannot end until the Strait of Hormuz is opened. Opening it through negotiation would only prove that Iran retains the power to hold the world economy hostage, paving the way for more blackmail in the future. This cannot be acceptable. The Strait must be opened by force. Taking Kharg Island by force—as Gallant recommends—would effect a reopening by cutting off the regime’s source of financing and strangling the head of the snake. Other options may be available, but whatever option is chosen must use force. The regime will not negotiate itself out of power.
Keeping the Strait closed is a violation of the International Law of the Sea.
It should not be tolerated at all.
That means going to war, and inflicting military defeat on the country that presumes to close it. You’re clear on that, I trust. If you can’t beat them, you have to tolerate the violation of ILotS as fact.
He never should have started the war in the first place.
It seems strange that there seems to have been no planning to keep the Straits open before the bombing given that closing by Iran must have been foreseen.
Where does Israel get its energy supplies from?
Not for defacing public statues! But I do endorse googly eyes for fun. Do you have a family picture? They go great with those! Wait until other people notice, and it may be decided that they should stay on.
Regarding the WaPo article on the Muslim Brotherhood, the top comments DO NOT support the Brotherhood.
The top comment:
“Progressives in Europe, (like those in the US), live in a state of denial about the threat to Western values from radical Islam. Much like their 20th century forebears who sought to accommodate the Facists and Communists in their midist, they would rather surrender their culture than fight for it. Democracy, property rights, due process, limited governement, equal rights for women, and freedom of thought are not Muslin values, they are Western values. Protect them or lose them. (Yes, and protect them from threats from modern Facists like Trump and his ilk too)”
Yes, that comment is spot on. I think these so-called progressives suffer from a “Noble Savage 2.0” syndrome – the savager the nobler.
And that’s why they’d never accept something like the Muslim Brotherhood from domestic i.e. “white” religions.
Fantastic bird nest video! They fledged eight youngsters! The bluebirds in my nestbox rarely fledge more than three or four. Anyone know what species they are?
Eurasian blue tit.
Thanks.
Some of you may like this article about cassowary colours in UV light – I forget who it was who shared their cassowary photos last year… I suppose I should put this link there…
Ultraviolet light illuminates species-specific biofluorescent casque patterns in cassowaries (Casuarius)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-40230-1
This “excursion” has no good ending. Time for TACO. However, I think Leslie’s comment, “So let the Iranians succeed or fail by their own devices, as the 13 Colonies did,” is a bit strange. We had lots of help with our revolution, and it’s not beyond possibility that Iranians could also get help to topple their government–but not from us. Kurds? Iraqis? Saudis? Regardless, our involvement is simply a disaster. Please, no more American deaths. TACO time, indeed.
But your helpers didn’t take over your revolution and install a government to their liking (which would have been colonial because your allies were all royal imperial powers), which is what America would be tempted to do if it were to pursue regime change. I think we agree that Iran is for Iranians to figure out, by maybe recruiting on their own initiative sympathetic allies with some shared interests, just as you did from 1776. It’s not for Americans to take over and set up a new government in Iran, no.
That said, I think you do have legitimate military goals in the region if you choose to pursue them. The war could justifiably continue until you achieve them, or have to admit you can’t, and you should certainly shame or intimidate your allies into helping whether they like you or not. (That, of course, is all for the US Administration to decide.) TACOing and forfeiting those interests after so few military casualties is just not what great powers do.
I don’t see any disaster in the Gulf. Do you, really? The North Atlantic Ocean stayed “closed” by Germany from 1939 to 1945. Control became more and more successfully contested by Allied navies and air forces after mid-1943 but it was never fully “opened” until V-E Day. Some convoys suffered disaster but the anti-submarine effort eventually succeeded. And that wasn’t really “America’s war”, either.
(Roolz now kick in.)
The problem is not limited to Harvard. Over at Yale, students attacked a professor (Nicholas A. Christakis) in 2015. Yale gave them the Nakanishi Prize. The prize was awarded to Alexandra Zina Barlowe and Abdul-Razak Mohammed Zachariah.