Welcome to The Cruelest Day: Tuesday, July 21, 2026, and National Junk Food Day. Let me put in a word for occasional enjoyment of “bad for you” food. You could live a long time eating just vegetables and cheese, but is that a life? Here is some junk food: a multi-layer carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting, which I ate two years ago in a restaurant. Is this junk food? It was terrific (note the candied carrot curls festooning the plate):
It’s also National Lamington Day, celebrating an Australian cake I’ve never had. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:
A lamington is an Australian cake made from squares of butter cake or sponge cake coated in an outer layer of chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. The thin mixture is absorbed into the outside of the sponge cake and left to set, giving the cake a distinctive texture. A common variation has a layer of cream or strawberry jam between two lamington halves.
Sounds excellent to me. Here’s a cream-filled Lamington from New Zealand; I never saw one when I was there. It looks like it needs a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the July 21 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Footy news: Spain won, that’s all she wrote, and the fat lady sang. This is from the NYT Times’s morning newsletter yesterday:
15
— That’s how many margherita pizzas Spain’s World Cup team ordered for delivery in New Jersey after the game. They also got 15 plain and 10 buffalo chicken pies, a specialty of the restaurant.
*Britain has a new Prime Minister: Labour member Andy Burnham. He promises change. One thing that will not change is the Number Ten Cat, as he confirms below:
Happy to confirm: pic.twitter.com/5ehjCY8CTK
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) July 20, 2026
Larry is living with his seventh Prime Minister.
*The attacks on Iran by the U.S., and vice versa, continued yesterday even as some people intimated that peace talks are continuing. And now the Houthis (controlled by Iran) are involved as well:
The Houthis, the Iran-backed armed faction in Yemen, said they would impose a blockade on Saudi ships, threatening to open a new front in the Middle East conflict and raising the pressure on volatile global energy markets.
The announcement was made as many in the region were tensely watching to see if the rounds of bombardment between U.S. and Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf would continue to escalate. The two countries traded new attacks on Monday, with Iran targeting countries that host U.S. military bases, despite efforts by mediators to calm tensions.
The latest hostilities initially focused on the Strait of Hormuz, but they have expanded into a cycle of attacks and counterattacks that have killed at least three American service members since Friday, hit Arab states across the Persian Gulf and damaged critical infrastructure in Iran and U.S.-allied Kuwait.
Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has reduced global fuel supplies, pushing prices upward, but Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, has been able to reroute some of its exports through the Red Sea. If the Houthis follow through on their statement that they will not allow Saudi vessels to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern portal to the Red Sea, it would worsen the global fuel crisis.
While U.S. and Iranian officials said that they were open to a diplomatic offramp, there was little sign on Monday of significant progress since a cease-fire agreed last month collapsed.
. . .The top U.S. and Iranian diplomats signaled separately that they remained open to negotiating even as the two sides traded strikes on Monday, more than a week into a spiraling escalation in their war.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said the country had “emerged as a significant interactional actor” from the war, which began in February, and had demonstrated its “resilience.” His comments sought to portray Tehran as having gained from the conflict despite the heavy loss of life and damage inflicted by months of punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes.
“The right time to negotiate is exactly when you have achieved reliable battlefield and strategic gains,” Mr. Araghchi said, according to remarks published by IRNA, the state broadcaster. He also warned against taking “risks with people’s lives and the fate of the entire country.”
Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian foreign ministry’s spokesman, said at a news conference that Tehran had received proposals from mediators who were “trying to prevent an escalation of tensions,” though he declined to provide details.
All the issues seem to have devolved to the Strait of Hormuz now; as I said yesterday, nukes seem to have dropped out of sight. No viable solution is in sight, but have a look at the next item:
*John Spencer is “a retired United States Army officer, researcher of urban warfare, and author. He currently serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirector of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point,” and on his Substack he has a new article called “What options does the United States have in Iran? Actually, many.”
The campaign imposed enormous costs, although those costs have not yet compelled the regime to accept American terms. Iran has continued to resist demands concerning its nuclear program and freedom of navigation. Iran’s conventional means have been badly damaged. Its will has survived. That is the problem the next phase must solve.
The next phase should place the regime under simultaneous military, economic, diplomatic, informational, and psychological isolation. Compellence is cumulative. Military action, economic pressure, diplomacy, intelligence, cyber operations, information operations, and support to internal resistance should reinforce one another until the regime concludes that continued resistance threatens what it values most: its power and survival. Iranian leaders should lose the ability to communicate securely, gather safely, move military forces freely, protect the coastline, observe the strait, generate military revenue, or assume that they can outlast American attention. Every day of resistance should leave the regime weaker, more divided, and less confident about its own survival.
There is no single operation that guarantees this result. The United States could select any of the following measures, combine several of them, employ nearly all of them over time, or reject those that do not fit the political and military circumstances. Their value lies in giving the president options and forcing Iran to defend against possibilities it cannot confidently exclude.
Possible actions against the regime’s wartime leadership include:
- Continue targeting senior regime and IRGC leaders. Military, intelligence, missile, naval, drone, nuclear, and command officials who direct or enable ongoing hostilities.
- Strike command posts, emergency headquarters, communications centers, and protected meeting locations used to direct the war.
- Force commanders to disperse, relocate constantly, restrict their communications, and abandon established headquarters.
- Use cyber, intelligence, information, and covert action to make senior leaders feel exposed wherever they operate.
- Publicize defections, internal disputes, corruption, failed operations, and leadership losses to deepen mistrust within the government.
- Make continued participation in the war personally costly for those directing attacks against American forces, regional partners, and international shipping.
The senior political and military leadership should not enjoy sanctuary while Iranian forces attack American personnel and attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz. Those directing the war should be hunted, isolated, and prevented from exercising effective command. Their military headquarters, communications systems, protective organizations, and operational networks should remain under constant pressure.
Spencer then gives further lists of possibilities: actions that go after Iran’s communications and transportation systems, and actions that physically isolate its regime, actions against military power and infrastructure, military industry and sources of wartime revenue, economic measures, restoration of freedom of navigation, and groundforce operations (these latter ones would cause an outcry). His maritime operations include two I like:
- Seize Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil export terminal, and suspend exports under regime control until Iran accepts negotiated terms.
- Destroy remaining military facilities supporting regime operations on Kharg and other strategic islands.
I don’t understand why Trump hasn’t yet threatened to take Kharg Island, though that would likely take “boots on the ground.” Spencer’s conclusion:
That pressure would still serve the limited objectives established at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury. The objective would remain a negotiated change in Iranian behavior, not the conquest or permanent occupation of Iran. The United States should bring overwhelming military, economic, diplomatic, and informational power to bear in an integrated campaign that leaves the regime with a single conclusion: accepting American terms offers the only realistic path to preserving the regime and their own survival.
The campaign should continue until Iran accepts those terms. Diplomacy may record the final agreement, but compellence will create the conditions that make agreement possible. The United States still has many options left in Iran. The question is no longer whether additional instruments of American power exist. It is whether Washington is willing to employ them in sufficient combination to convince Tehran that continued resistance is more dangerous than accepting American terms.
There’s the rub, for “Washington” is synonymous with “Trump,” who of course vacillates on a daily basis. I wish Trump would employ Spencer as a military advisor, for I haven’t seen any vacillation from Spencer.
*According to It’s Noon in Israel, there was a march by Israelis into Gaza yesterday, with their aim being to promote Israelis settling in Gaza. What a dumb idea! Fortunately, they are not in the majority of Israelis. (Bolding is Amit Segal’s).
Government ministers on Sunday joined thousands of settler activists in a march through a closed military zone to the Gaza border in a show of support for Jewish settlement of the territory.
The “March of Thousands,” marking 21 years since Israel’s evacuation of the Gush Katif settlement bloc inside the Gaza Strip, drew leading figures from the religious Zionist camp—National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich among them—alongside lawmakers from Netanyahu’s Likud.
The name isn’t mere aspiration. There is a real constituency of Israelis that holds settlement as the only durable path to security, and on Sunday they came out to say so. But there is also a reason they couldn’t call it a march of millions. They remain a minority: A majority of the public, Jews and Arabs alike, opposes Jewish settlement in Gaza, even as most of the right supports it in the abstract.
The more telling detail was the turnout of government officials: 28 ministers and coalition lawmakers, by the organizers’ count. Representatives of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit were a given—resettling Gaza is written into their platforms. But the march also drew more than 10 Likud members, in open protest against their own leader’s emphatic decision not to reestablish settlements in the Strip.
One imagines these members are hedging their bets—in case a war doesn’t cancel the primaries after all.
This is exactly the wrong thing to do if you want to stop terrorism. Yes, I agree that a two-state solution is not on right now, but settling Gaza, which Israel basically gave (as a “state”) to Palestinians in 2005, dismantling all Israeli “settlements” at that time. (I’m surprised that so few people know this). What you give to the Gazans stays in Gaza.
*Republican pollster and writer Kristen Soltis Anderson has a NYT op-ed in which she lists what she sees as the eight American ” political tribes,” or subspecies of existing political parties. Which one do you belong to?:
Based on new research by my polling firm, I believe America is better described as having eight political “tribes” — groups organized not just around demographics, party affiliation or even issue positions, but also around their postures toward institutions and societal norms.
Close to 40 percent of Americans fall into one of two groups that look like our traditional right wing and left wing. We describe them as the Loyal Left and the Loyal Right.
But most voters fall into one of the six other tribes that take some of their views from the right and some from the left.
Here are the groups (bolding is Anderson’s):
1.) Let’s start with the political left, since that’s where the action seems to be in this year’s primaries. We find that 21 percent of voters — including 42 percent of self-identified Democrats — fall into the Loyal Left, a group that is progressive on most issues and especially outraged by what its members see as widespread political corruption.
2.) Their closest cousins are what we call Electability Democrats. Making up 10 percent of voters overall (and about 19 percent of the Democratic Party), these voters are also fired up to vote in the midterms and progressive on economic matters. However, this group is slightly more ethnically diverse than the Loyal Left, which is overwhelmingly white, and also diverges sharply on several key cultural questions. Electability Democrats generally oppose the idea of defunding the police, take more conservative views on the participation of transgender individuals in competitive sports and are more middle-of-the-road on immigration issues. Asked which group I’d sort James Carville into, I’d put him here.
3.) The American Institutionalists, who represent 11 percent of all voters, are the most likely to have a high income or a graduate degree. They are whiter and older; more than half were born before 1965. They tend to get their news from broadcast TV rather than social media
4.) The Young and Disillusioned are pretty much the opposite. They are 9 percent of the electorate but an even smaller share of the Democrats’ most reliable voters because they are, as the name says, young and disillusioned. Social media is their top source of news, and politics is not a major part of their identity.
5.) On the right, first, look to a tribe we call Middle American Optimists, making up 11 percent of voters this year. They’ve little love for Democrats, and two-thirds voted for Mr. Trump in 2024. So far, they think he is doing an OK job as president, but they’re less than thrilled about the state of the economy.
6.) Critical to Mr. Trump’s reinvention of the G.O.P. has been our next group, the New Republican Populists, who are about 6 percent of the 2026 electorate. They are quite religious, live in more rural areas and oppose abortion, while rejecting much of the traditional conservative economic orthodoxy — they’re unlikely to say that you can just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
7.) That brings us to the Moderate Right, who are 13 percent of voters and a group whose members are fairly pro-establishment in contrast with their more anti-establishment right-of-center peers. They still subscribe to a more traditional conservative view on economics and are fairly socially conservative. But perhaps by virtue of being a more female-heavy tribe, they’re also moderate on the issue of abortion and more open to the view that sexism remains a problem in society.
8.) The Loyal Right remains enthusiastic about Mr. Trump and ready to turn out for Republicans in this year’s midterms, but its size — 18 percent of the electorate — makes it insufficient, on its own, for retaining a Republican majority.
Put me in Carville’s group. Actually, I don’t see much of a difference between #2 and #3, so I’ll dub myself a 2½. I’m not quite sure what this kind of subdivision accomplishes save, as Anderson’s claim that we don’t have a two-party system but a system of two coalitions. But didn’t we already know that?
*Over at Reality’s Last Stand, Colin Wright tells us “Male Senate candidate Ashley Webb says he ovulates and menstruates through his colon.” Webb is a candidate for the State Senate in Maine.
Ashley Webb, a man who identifies as a woman and is running for the United States Senate in Maine in the wake of Graham Platner’s sudden withdrawal, went viral recently for promising that he would never lie to or deceive the public. The remark struck many viewers as ironic, given that Webb made it while wearing a dress, presenting himself as a woman, and expecting voters to address him as one.
. . .Webb identifies not only as transgender but also as intersex. Earlier this month, he announced his run for the Democratic nomination in a post titled “Running Openly as Trans Intersex candidate for Senate in Maine.”
The account’s comment history contains some truly extraordinary claims.
Webb claims to ovulate. Webb also claims to experience a monthly period that began when he was 25. However, because Webb was born with “external male parts” rather than “the proper hole,” the supposed menstrual blood cannot leave through a vagina. Instead, Webb believes that a hidden female reproductive tract formed an “exit connection” with his colon, causing monthly rectal bleeding.
“When you don’t have the proper hole, it finds one of two exits,” Webb wrote. “My exit connection was made with my colon. Cause when I get this monthly pain, that is where the blood comes out of.”
Webb has not given any anatomical evidence for this claim. According to his other posts, colonoscopies have not found any such connection, while repeated CT scans have failed to reveal a uterus or ovaries.
Webb does not view these negative findings as evidence against his hypothesis that he’s actually female. Instead, Webb claims that CT scans “can’t find a uterus and ovaries when they enter your gender as male” because doctors supposedly “use a different scanning process for females.”
But that’s not how abdominal and pelvic CT imaging works. A uterus does not become invisible on a CT scan because the patient is simply listed as male.
And rectal bleeding is not a form of menstruation. Menstruation occurs when the uterine lining breaks down and blood and tissue pass from the uterus through the cervix and vagina. Ovulation occurs when an ovary releases an egg. For the blood coming out of Webb’s anus to be menstrual blood, he would need functioning ovaries, a uterus capable of cycling and shedding, and some abnormal passage connecting the reproductive tract to his colon. Those are not conclusions that can be drawn from abdominal pain and rectal bleeding.
Here’s the CT scan that Webb posted with the comments. There are no ovaries.
Such claims are, frankly, insane.
Webb also posted an image that’s supposedly one of his CT scans. He falsely claimed to be a 5’6’’, 26-year-old female. He’s 6’1’’, 40, and male. He asked other Reddit users whether his “ovaries” looked normal, and simply marked objects on the scan that he believed to be his ovaries.
He said he “just want[ed] to make sure nothing was wrong” with his ovaries, because he “want[s] to be a mom.”
Webb also makes bizarre claims about his chromosomes. In multiple posts, Webb says that a karyotype test came back XY—that of a typical male. Webb also says he was recorded male at birth. Nevertheless, Webb has written, “Pretty positive I am the XX type.”
And Webb’s claim about his chromosomes:
Regardless of whether you buy into this type of delusion, nobody should vote for Webb simply because he’s lying on many fronts.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili’s being arrogant:
Hili: Between the microcosm and the macrocosm, the cat is the perfect central point.
Andrzej: I doubt it.
Hili: You always have to be skeptical.
Hili: Między mikro i makrokosmosem kot jest idealnym punktem centralnym.Ja: Wątpię.Hili: Ty zawsze musisz być sceptyczny.
*******************
From Meow Incorporated:
From The Grammar Police:
From It’s an Apostrophe (when will they ever learn?):
From Masih, who was forced to watch a public hanging when a child:
Today, the world celebrates a 19-year-old، Lamine Yamal lifting the World Cup trophy.
In Iran, a 19-year-old champion, Saleh Mohammadi was lifted to the gallows.
I was seven years old when I thought I was going on a school field trip. Instead, they took us to watch a public… pic.twitter.com/JxojXPIuXA
— Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) July 20, 2026
From Luana via Michael Shermer; you can read the Quillette article, written by the former head of Canada’s Human Rights Tribunal, here. (The fine in US dollars is a measly $530,000!)
What is the price for saying people cannot change sex?
In Canada it is $750,000.
Justification:
“Transpeople are, by definition, people ‘whose gender identity does not align with the sex assigned to them at birth.’ If a person elects not to ‘believe’ that gender identity is…— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) July 17, 2026
From Barry, an excellent tweet:
Hunting skills: 0% Accuracy: 0% Confidence: 100%#Cat #Caturday #Catsofbluesky #LifuX
From Jeff Maurer. El-Sayed is running for the Senate from Michigan, and was endorsed by Elizabeth Warren. He’s a “progressive” Democrat, but
It’s easy to focus on how El-Sayed’s “people are sad in Dearborn today” comment is awful, but let’s focus on how it’s stupid: Assuming that Iranian-Americans were sad when the Ayatollah died is like assuming that Cuban-Americans were sad when Castro died. https://t.co/bAPy0tdv17
— Jeff Maurer (@JeffMightBWrong) July 19, 2026
Two from my feed. I couldn’t resist the first d*g post:
This is the best video you’ll see all day❤️ pic.twitter.com/Ts77Rp90tD
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 19, 2026
A lovely video (I hope it’s real). Her baby is ALIVE!
Mother chimp sadly goes to a towel to see her baby after two days which she thought was born dead. pic.twitter.com/fUZDu9WA0k
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 20, 2026
And one I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opinion/israel-gaza-palestinians-genocide.html
Finally, one from Doctor Cobb. I love this “tweet”:
Morning
— Odd This Day (@oddthisday.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T06:13:38.417Z
The biggest irony is that Ashley Webb said in a debate that he should be senator because he wouldn’t lie to people. 🤔🙄
Of course, I do not know Webb personally, but my impression is that he is ill and/or delusional. In other words, he is not lying. He probably believes the loopy things he is saying.
I’m sure that in his delusion, he believes it. Perhaps the worst person to lie to is yourself. I’m not familiar with the process to nominate senators, but surely he received some vetting before he was allowed to stand on the podium on behalf of a party? One look at his social media would show that he is not mentally well enough to stand.
He hasn’t won the nomination for the Dem candidate for Maine. Probably anyone can be a candidate.
He sounds like a complete fruitcake.
I was expressing surprised that he is even allowed to be considered for a nomination.
To stand for a party as mp here you have to be nominated by your party, and then people in that area decide by ballot which of the nominees is selected. Before the vote, you usually have hustings, so you get a chance to hear each of the candidates. They are normally private and for party members only. I suppose with a senator covering such a large area, that process would be impossible, but it still seems odd to me that someone with mental health issues can be allowed to speak on TV on behalf of a party. We have rules about who can stand, eg police and judges can’t, but we don’t have any restrictions on mental capacity either, but here we have the luxury of hustings in private to weed out the weirdos 🤔
Comment by Greg Mayer
My knowledge of the Maine Democratic Party procedures is limited to some quick internet checking, but apparently the qualifications are pretty close to, as Frau Katze put it, “anyone can be a candidate”. According to the Party’s website, candidates must:
The nomination is a multi-step process, and Webb apparently filed a declaration of intent by July 15, but either failed to get the signatures by July 20 or perhaps dropped out. As of Wednesday morning, there are only three qualified candidates for the nomination. According to news reports, support is coalescing around one of them prior to this Saturday’s nominating convention.
It doesn’t take a great deal to throw your hat in the ring; that doesn’t mean you have any real prospect of being nominated by the party. (And until nominated, a hopeful does not speak for the party.)
GCM
Seems to be a lot of that going around lately, e.g. another party’s Supreme Leader.
Once you get a few steps away from reality, a longer journey is easy.
Perhaps he should suggest to his doctors that they could find his ovaries using different types of scans. something like seances, ouija boards, or getting the radiologists to meditate naked at at the summer solstice at Stonehenge might work. We can look forward to groundbreaking research articles in publications such as Queer Theory and Journal of Transgender Studies.
Years ago I noticed that people who believe extraordinary things sometimes hold to a super-plus version of skepticism, in which they take the standard adage that “people see what they want or expect to see” and run it into bizarre territory. Natives of South America looked to the sea and literally didn’t notice the hulking Spanish galleons till they landed because they weren’t part of their familiar world. The ocean looked empty. Radiologists examine at lower torso scans and simply don’t observe a uterus and ovaries because they assume they are looking at a man. Stubborn to the point of delusion.
I suspect there’s projection there.
Conspiracy theorists seem to have the same problem with not accepting facts. It is very hard for them to change their minds and embrace reality. This link is an article on the topic that I have kept.
I suspect that it will be quite traumatic for Webb if he suddenly realises how deluded he has been. Not just in the delusions themselves, but speaking in a public forum to defend them.
It’s quite sad, and it is irresponsible of his party to allow him such a public platform to make these assertions.
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/believing-widely-doubted-conspiracy-theories-satisfies-some-peoples-need-feel
He has the scan and could compare it to others, or take it somewhere for a second opinion. Many of us are unfamiliar with the internal workings of our body. I had an echocardiogram recently, and my heart looked nothing like I expected from the pictures in books. Obviously i knew it was my heart as it was beating, albeit like blancmange, but if I’d had had any doubt, I would have investigated further, rather than just assume the doctor was wrong.
“Lived experience”.
Perhaps Webb aspires for a cabinet level appointment in the next Democratic administration, following the lead of Rachel (originally Richard) Levine in the Biden administration’s Department of Health. I myself am disappointed that the candidates for Senate nomination in Maine do not (yet) include any trans animals. Maine’s own state animals, the moose and the black-capped chickadee, surely deserve trans-representation in the corridors of power.
Ah, yes, the Bullish Moose Party.
” Gaza, which Israel basically gave (as a “state”) to Palestinians in 2005, dismantling all Israeli “settlements” at that time. (I’m surprised that so few people know this). What you give to the Gazans stays in Gaza.”
Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces and Jewish inhabitants from Gaza. It did not transfer its sovereignty over the area, or create a new border, or create a new state via treaty. It didn’t “give” anything to the Gazans or the PA or the Palestinians, except the opportunity to show the world that the Palestinians could be part of the civilized world.
Jews have lived in Gaza for 2,000 years until 2005. If brave Israelis want to resettle that area, they have every right and reason to do so. The idea that Jews can not live within the sovereign territory of Israel because of their religion is quintessentially racist.
I don’t think Andy Burnham will accomplish much. I see him as another Keir Starmer. He would (of course) disagree. However, the sad reality is that the UK declined under Keir Starmer and will continue to decline under Andy Burnham.
In other news, is it a mistake (in my opinion) to take Ashley Webb too seriously. The Democrats are not crazy enough to make her/him/it the nominee. Like Platner, Webb will be quickly forgotten.
The list of Things to Do by Spencer is all very well, but they mostly seem pie in the sky. It takes time to collect intel to target key operatives, for example, and time is one of the things we don’t have. Meanwhile, the key one of occupying Kharg Island just ain’t gonna happen.
I agree. I read there are 8k to 20k civilians on the Kharg Island. Invading the island would result in massive casualties of civilians and our troops.
I was surprised to read that our new prime minister Andy Burnham is our first roman catholic prime minister. Tony Blair converted to catholicism after he left office while Boris Johnson was baptised as a catholic but subsequently became an anglican. The political commentator Matthew D’Ancona thinks that this matters because of the failure of secularism. People apparently yearn for the spiritual. This however seems to be contradicted by census results. In the last census in 2021 for England and Wales, the proportion of people identifying as christian fell below 50% for the first time to 46% compared with 59% in 2011. On the other hand, the proportion of people identifying as non-religious rose from 25% in 2011 to 37% in 2021, so it seems wishful thinking to suppose that Andy Burnham’s religious beliefs have any real significance.
Speaking of wishful thinking, a large number of people who self-identify as whatever are, to put it mildly, mistaken. Identifying as “non-religious” does not make it so.
Just one note on Spencer’s 5th point, “Publicize defections, internal disputes, corruption, failed operations, and leadership losses to deepen mistrust within the government.”
Not really wise to do this, especially the “publicize defections” and “internal disputes” parts, because as soon as you expose those who might be willing to work against the regime, they will be killed. So, quite counter-productive. One has to deal with such elements clandestinely.
What’s more, how do you propose publicizing anything to a populace that doesn’t have a free press (newspapers/television) internet access, etc. Drop flyers from drones or something? It’s a ridiculous suggestion.
Since Trump isn’t willing to put boots on the ground, most of the suggestions are pie-in-the-sky as far as I can tell.
As an Israeli, I would say that establishing settlements in Gaza is about as intelligent as exchanging used needles with a CJD patient. This is not about rights, it is about intelligence. Establishing settlements with a few people amid millions of hostile people contributes nothing to Israeli security, and increases the burden placed on our troops needed to ensure the security of the civilians living in those settlements, which would include children. We do not need a civilian presence in Gaza to establish our sovereignty and legitimacy as a country.
Would it be fair to say that this was a stunt by people whose position is likely to include two ideas – 1) that a good chunk of Gaza is now controlled by the IDF and theoretically could be resettled by Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs who support Israel and 2) that this is the first step in a plan that would foster the deportation of Palestinians unwilling to live in peace with Jews?
I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t have a scoop of ice cream with a lamington, but a good one is already a very moist sponge cake drenched in chocolate syrup with cream provided. So some people consider ice cream unnecessary. However, far be it from me to get between someone and their ice cream when they need some.
Yes, a good lamington is sufficient unto itself, though it has to be fresh – one with dry, stale sponge cake may be perked up with a dollop of ice cream but would be best avoided altogether. I once had a lamington in Lamington National Park in Australia, cake and park both named after a Governor General who on his only visit to the park went big game hunting and shot a koala.
I keep reading headlines stating that U.S options in the Iran war are narrowing, but John Spencer’s Substack provides an entire recipe book for what we can do. I hope that people in the U.S. military have the same list. One thing to watch are the proxies—particularly the Houthis in Yemen. When the proxies come to realize that they are on the losing side and stop doing Iran’s bidding, we’ll have turned a corner.
I’m not clear on why we’re putting so much credence in “forcing Iran back to the bargaining table”* when bargaining with them is demonstrably fruitless. What would happen if we stopped trying to reach a deal and focused entirely on eliminating their ability to project power? Are we seeking a “deal” because we don’t have the ability to stop them any other way? And if we can’t stop them, what makes people think that a deal will help matters? After all, if we can’t stop Iran militarily, they don’t need a deal. They can just keep doing what they’re doing until we go away.
*A quotation I see so frequently that it doesn’t need a citation.
Peace-prize envy.
Thanks for posting about Canada’s Human Rights Tribunals. The real action is at the provincial HRTs, where Barry Neufeld (an elected school district trustee) was persecuted by teachers. There is a serious proposal to create a parallel provincial tribunal to adjudicate land claims by First Nations in British Columbia, with similar concerns about the quality of decision-making and influence by special-interest groups.
https://thehub.ca/2026/07/11/why-b-c-is-mired-in-first-nations-land-disputes-and-where-to-go-from-here/
For some reason (that I do not know), some people in Maine are crazy. Back in 2022, PCC(E) commented on this. See https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/10/01/professor-in-maine-demonized-for-teaching-that-humans-have-two-sexes-students-walk-out-and-demand-her-suspension/.
A person from Maine (Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain) also gave what may be the most famous order in US military history. See https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/defense-little-round-top.
One interesting thing about Maine is the Jackson Laboratories, which is an important center for biomedical research. They make and maintain a great many lines of different mouse strains, including transgenic mice carrying human disease genes.
Obviously, maintaining genetic strains of mice requires a large staff, each with technical breeding knowledge and experience. (And JAX, as they are known, are great professionals and provide excellent service, as laboratories around the world can testify.)
The point of this post in this thread is that some folks in Maine still understand that there are two sexes. With sex as a continuum, maintaining a breeding program would be somewhat……..difficult. While there are many strains of transgenic mice, it would be …..difficult…..to maintain a transsexual strain. Those who work at JAX seem to understand that.
“Sold By The Each” — This is industry jargon indicating that the product is in a box of (say) 12 in the wholesaler’s warehouse, but when it’s sold to the retailer the box of 12 is opened and shipped in units of 1. This is called “sold by the each” and has been so at least since I was working in the industry 35 years ago.
So the word “each” is used as a noun in that phrase, and we used the phrase “an each” while doing the programming for the code which allowed that box-opening to happen in the warehouse. Therefore I don’t think it’s ungrammatical. Whether inflicting that jargon on the customer in the supermarket is a good idea is a different question.
Thx for publishing John Spencer – he is a deeply impressive analyst. He specializes in urban warfare and I encountered him on Sam Harris’ show re: IDF in Gaza. He’s the GOAT.
Lamingtons are…. absolutely fantastic. The biggest thing I miss from my Aussie/NZ childhood. Well them and the kangaroo rides.
D.A.
NYC
Urban warfare? So how’s that expertise germaine to missle/drone warfare covering a few million square miles in the ME? Everyone seems to be an expert on this war. Probably a bad sign.
On lamingtons : bloody lovely. I prefer mine with jam.
On Iran : John Spencer didn’t mention a blockade. And by blockade, I mean a hermetic blockade – NOTHING goes in, NOTHING comes out. I believe that the first one was letting “humanitarian” aid through. In plain English, the U.S. was (is?) resupplying its enemy much as Israel was forced to do in Gaza🤦🤦🤦.
And can we all get over the diplomacy and negotiations codswallop? That’s been tried for at least the last 10 years if not longer. Let the blockade take its toll – along with precise military action – and starve them into submission. That’ll apply the blowtorch to the population to encourage them to overthrow the regime because regime change is the only thing that’ll end Iranian nuclear ambitions. Let’s not forget the Iranians overthrew the Shah so let history repeat itself.