Joe Siracusa's hard-headed analysis of the "ceasefire".
Which I'm wary of, but hope for the best. That's all that can be said about it.
Hope for the best.
While knowing that the IRGC is going to rearm and that they're trolling America along. Something they've been doing since Jimmy Carter.
I'm a big "hmmm".... about this.
I remember the very first moon landing in July 1969. And now to see this. In Space, in the midst of Earth wars... So much going on, some good. Some bad. And some stupendous, like the mission and the photos above.
Is this too tough? Too far-right? Too extreme? Or is it a fair take of Australia? At least of the Left in Oz?
I confess to contemplating this from time to time: that Australia’s guilt at “Stolen land” is at once useless and dangerous.
The US spent $300 million to save one downed airman in Iran.
Australia meanwhile spent $300 million to prosecute our most decorated Afghan War veteran and charge him with war crimes.
Our government literally paid for billboards and newspaper advertisements in Afghanistan advertising rewards if random people came forward with war crimes allegations against Australian soldiers.
There is a sickness at the heart of our civilisation.
We are a country and civilization with no will to live.
Our political class believe that Australia is built on “Stolen Land” and that all white Australians are therefore stained from birth with the crime of genocide.
They therefore have no will to live. They wish they had never been born and that the nation never existed.
This is what it looks like when your elite hate themselves and hate the country. Drew Pavlou
I post this for the record.
Which could bolster a claim -- which I have not seen the U.S. make, but I think it could -- that it has been attacked by a country, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and therefore requires help from NATO members to take defensive action.
Despite which Capitulationists, like France, Italy, Germany and Spain have refused even the minimum help, like allowing overflight of US Airforce planes. Which I have a sneaking suspicion is partly because Trump posts hurty diatribes on his Truth Social. Now, he shouldn't do that, I reckon. But to get upset about it? As France's Emmanuel Macron has done? Get over it Emmanuel!
Here is the Grok summary of attacks on the United States since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. All of which amount to carrying out their declaration of war, given the regime's mantra: "Death to America!"
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| All Arab Muslim states are classified “Authoritarian” In the region, only Israel is Democratic |
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| 15 Flags with Islamic crescent. 30 Dlags with Christian cross One Flag with the Star of David |
For half a century, Western strategists have known that the Strait of Hormuz is the acute point where energy, sea power and political will intersect. That knowledge is not in dispute. What is new in this war with Iran is that the United States, under Donald Trump, has chosen not to rush to “solve” the problem. In Hegelian terms, he is refusing an easy synthesis in order to force the underlying contradiction to the surface.
The old thesis was simple: the US guarantees open sea lanes in the Gulf, and everyone else structures their economies and politics around that free insurance. Europe and the UK embraced ambitious green policies, ran down hard‑power capabilities and lectured Washington on multilateral virtue, secure in the assumption that American carriers would always appear off Hormuz. The political class behaved as if the American security guarantee were a law of nature, not a contingent choice. Their conduct today is closer to Chamberlain than Churchill: temporising, issuing statements, hoping the storm will pass without a fundamental reordering of their responsibilities.
Trump’s antithesis is to withhold the automatic guarantee at the moment of maximum stress.
I laughed at parts of this video. A giddy laugh. Thinking of the future in space. The next 20 years are going to be wild. One reason I do wish I weren't quite so old. I want to see it. It's the optimistic side of Humankind.
Mining on the moon, mining and manufaturing bysentient humanoid robots, sending manufactured high-tech stuff back to Earth, shot off by maglev slingshot rail, for zero cost, to anywhere on Earth.
Man oh man!
Listen to David Friedberg of the famous All-in Podcast talk about this, and how "there's everything" on the moon. Except for gravity and air. Which makes sending stuff back to Earth, easy and cost-free.
When I listened to all this, I laughed. With delight and giddiness. To think.... To think what's coming. To think of the excitement. Stay away from politics. Concentrate on the fun stuff. Rockets and space.
Friendberg said that just as the railways were the key to opening the west in the 19th Century, SpaceX is the railway of the 21st century.
Tesla will 100% merge with SpaceX, says Chamath (Palihapitiya).The combined company will have the ticker "Elon". We're long TSLA stock. Will never sell.
You can count on the All-in guys. They're tight with Elon.
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| Tel Aviv Mediterranean Beach |
Andrew Gold talks to Dave Rubin in Hungary. I've followed Andrew for many years. He's sound; a good analyst.
When I started this blog, 17 years ago, I did a spreadsheet predicting the Islamisation of various countries of Europe. I thought the Scandinavian countries would be first, then Germany and France, then the U.K. And my guess was around the 2050s and 60s.
I found this super interesting. As someone living in the region, Hong Kong, right by China Mainland and Taiwan. By “beating” Taiwan, they’re talking of the high-end Chip manufacturing.
Everything you value -- especially your iPhone! -- relies on chips from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
I didn't know how important to the manufacture of consistently high-quality high-tech Chips is the fact that Taiwan is sitting on an Earthquake zone. And has huge storms.
And grows "Dongshi" oysters...Phil Andrews explains.
Chinese influencer Li Chi flew from China to California for the sole purpose of experiencing Tesla FSD — Full Self Driving— firsthand. Here are his impressions:
“Flew 25,000 km — half the globe — just to personally experience Tesla’s smart driving and compare it with Huawei’s smart driving. “I’ll skip the detailed process and go straight to the conclusion: “Under normal weather and road conditions, Tesla’s vision-based routing is first-class. (I didn’t get a chance to test in foggy conditions). In certain scenarios, Tesla outperforms Huawei. For example, when activating smart driving, Tesla can reverse to avoid a vehicle parked on the left, then go around it and rejoin the road ahead — quite impressive. “Route selection capability is also top-tier. It doesn’t just follow conventional routes but can take shortcuts through residential roads. Acceleration is crisp and decisive, without hesitation… “In short, Tesla FSD is improving very quickly. Physically removing the steering wheel would already present no real obstacles. “ I hope China will soon allow Tesla FSD to operate domestically, enabling earlier adoption of L3 and encouraging competition with local manufacturers.”
You don’t win a war by leaving the battle ground. You can claim victory all you want, but the other side is going to say “we outlasted you”. Neither do you win a war by a ceasefire. At best that gives a “frozen conflict” like Korea. But “victory”? That’s when the other side gives up. That’s when you achieve your clearly-stated war goals.
The goals of Operation Epic Fury are clear. No matter how much CNN, BBC, MSNBC and all the rest may repeat “the war aims are not clear”; they are. The president and Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio have stated them repeatedly and clearly. Here they are, from my memory:
1. Destroy the Iranian Army. Tick.
2. Destroy the Iranian Navy. Tick
3. Destroy or decimate the Iranian ballistic missiles system. In progress
4. Destroy the military manufacturing systems, such that 1, 2, and 3 cannot be rebuilt. In progress
The projected result of these four aims >> an Iran that can no longer threaten the region and the world. An Iran that cannot build a nuclear bomb. The Iranian people an opportunity to rise up and build their own government.
ADDED: Marco Rubio sets them out, again, clearly, to George Stephanopoulos of abc's Good Morning America.
These are clear aims. I buy them. So do the vast majority of Republicans and a majority of all Americans.
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| Republicans on Iran war and Trump |
I’m speaking here as one who remembers clearly the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. In this household we were against both those wars. As Richard Clark, counter-terror czar, said at the time:
“Attacking Iraq after 911 was like attacking Mexico after Pearl Harbour”.
That sure stuck in the mind…
“This time it’s different”. Well, yes, it is. For a start the clearly-expressed aims are convincing. We were never convinced by the WMD excuse for attacking Iraq. We were not convinced by Colin Powell’s pivotal presentation to the United Nations. We were never convinced that “getting” Osama bin Ladin needed a full-scale war in Afghanistan.
Iran, by contrast does have uranium enriched to 60%; it does threaten the region and the world with death and destruction; it has killed thousands of Americans and people of all nations, and hundreds of thousands of its own people; it does support terror proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis; it does have a ballistic missile program aimed at Europe and the United States. It does threaten the world with nuclear annihilation. Even as that would annihilate Iran itself. Its religious lunatics are apocalyptic millenarians, ecstatically happy to be incinerated in a theocratic mushroom cloud.
Let’s also recall that in Iraq we did not lose the war. The war was quickly and convincingly won. We lost the peace. The whole process of “nation building” was ineptly handled; it should never have been attempted. There is no such aim in Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
That’s called “learning from experience”.
Emily Scheader makes my points better than me, in this video, Grok transcript summary below:
