Quotations

"Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most." The Buddha

“This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realise it is play. “ Alan W. Watts, a "philosophical entertainer" who interpreted Eastern thought to Western audiences.

"Since every day a little of our life is taken from us — since we are dying every day — the final hour when we cease to exist does not of itself bring death; it merely completes the death process." Paul Tillich

"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield." George Orwell

"The story of France is a story of gradual irrelevance." John Mearsheimer at the 2012 International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in San Diego, California.

“If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, … impeachment’s not even the biggest concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they’ll go after the president’s family, the cabinet, his donors and friends—half of you in this room will be targeted.” US House Speaker Johnson on Friday at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference

From 1991 to 2026 the arc is complete (acknowledgements Mario Nawfal)

 TRUMP'S HISTORIC DEFEAT: THE END OF AMERICA'S UNIPOLAR MOMENT

Professor Pape argues that the war in Iran is not simply another lost war. It marks the strategic culmination that brings America’s entire unipolar era to an end. The same country that once demonstrated absolute escalation dominance now watches its preeminent power collapse in real time, and the president in the chair when the history books slam shut is Donald J. Trump. THE HISTORY BOOK VERDICT From 1991 to 2026 the arc is complete, and Trump sits at the final chapter. The first Gulf War proved U.S. precision revolution supremacy with only 147 American dead against the fourth-largest army on earth. That splendid victory shaped decades of global order. Trump's war is erasing it. He will not be forgotten. He will be remembered as the president who delivered the biggest strategic loss in American history, larger in consequence than Vietnam itself. THE POWER VACUUM EXPLOSION America's marked decline in regional dominance has created a power vacuum far more dangerous than anything that followed Vietnam. North Vietnam simply unified the country. No lasting vacuum. No global economic crisis layered on top. Today every actor is racing to fill the void: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, the UAE, and more. Rivalries, preemptive spirals, and proxy contests are already accelerating because power vacuums never stay empty. IRAN'S STEADY RISE While America oscillates, Iran advances drip by drip, consolidating leverage as oil inventories drain and economic pressure mounts. Its goal is clear: force every American troop, base, and naval asset out of the region. That trajectory continues whether Trump escalates or freezes, because the vacuum itself invites Iranian expansion as the rising regional hegemon. THE BOTTOM LINE Trump inherited the peak of American power and is presiding over its dramatic regional collapse. The power vacuum now unfolding is wider, more chaotic, and more consequential than the aftermath of Vietnam. History will record the date range and the name of the president who closed the unipolar chapter. This is the sound of an empire's dominance ending in real time.

There was no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square in 1989, according to US Government cables

James Titcomb, Technology Editorof the Daily Telegraph which is very close to MI6 wrote this in an article on. 6 June.

'If you ask ChatGPT what happened at Tiananmen Square, it will provide a brief history of the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on protesters in 1989. Ask DeepSeek, one of China’s top AI systems, and it is far less forthcoming.

'“I am sorry, I cannot answer that question based on the information I have,” the bot answers.

'It is not that DeepSeek is incapable of answering the question. The AI will answer almost anything you throw at it, from obscure sports trivia to complex scientific questions.

'Instead, the system has been neutered by its developers so as not to fall foul of Beijing’s censors.'

No doubt this is true but I was astonished to find the Telegraph itself published an article on June 2011 under this headline:

Wikileaks: no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square, cables claim

Secret cables from the United States embassy in Beijing have shown there was no bloodshed inside Tiananmen Square when China put down student pro-democracy demonstrations 22 years ago.

It seems there is evidence that the CIA were responsible for the violence in Beijing in 1989 as they and the Mossad were for the violence in Iran in January of this year (as extensively reported since the end of April in the Israeli press). 

I have not had time to read up on it extensively enough to come to a conclusion about whether it was another attempted regime change operation by the American empire but many apparently think it was. 

I shall research it with my eyes open to how the CIA and the USA operate.

I always wondered why the protests in Hong Kong 2019-20 were so violent. As Donald Trump was in office then and was still the old America First, anti-deep state Trump I imagine that that was not a CIA operation.

Veteran CIA man Ray McGovern today reminded us that Iran never tried to develop a nuclear weapon

How nice to see the dear man here ten days after he retired from Judging Freedom.

'All your audience knows the background of the Iranians are on record as not seeking a nuclear weapon. The CIA and othe reputable agencies when they were telling the truth reiterated that judgment since 2007 having said that Iran stopped working on a nuclear weapon at 2003. Okay. Were they working on a nuclear weapon before 2003?

'My best friend Gareth Porter, who wrote the book on this literally, says no. It was all from Israeli intelligence for God's sake. They persuaded the CIA to say, "Well, they could get a nuclear weapon in five years." That was 1990.

'In 1995, well, they could maybe get it in four or five years. It was laughable until this honest manager of intelligence came in. His name is Tom Fingar. He's from the State Department. He shepherded the estimate that was honest and said that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapon. That was 2007. Okay?Unanimous. All 16 intelligence agencies at the time expressed with high confidence and that there was no indication that they had resumed work since 2003.

'That was reiterated. I know this is tiresome for those who have heard it before, but isn't it important? every estimate and this is why I thought we wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. The bathwater being the operations part of CIA, the baby being every now and then they got something right and prevented the war that Bush and Cheney planned on their way out in 2008. It's on the record. It's in Bush's memoir for God's sake. Okay. 

'So what I'm saying here is that up until this year, Tulsi Gabbard and others reiterated that judgment. This year, Tulsi waffled a little ... hoping to stay to stay in place. Of course, she got canned anyway.'

Books

A woman is like good literature, accessible to all but incomprehensible for limited people. Gabriel García Márquez

 
It doesn't have to be the truth, just your vision of it, written down. Virginia Woolf

Truth is the first casualty of war

Professor Marandi (Tehran) to Piers Morgan: 

Piers, allow me to offer some advice. I'm not going to debate who is right or wrong – Russia or Ukraine – right now. That's not the point. I simply want to say that your media outlets have been misleading the public for two years, constantly claiming that Ukraine is winning. And then suddenly, it turns out that it is on the verge of collapse. Imposing false narratives ultimately becomes a disaster for yourselves – for the people of England, Europe, and America. Your endless wars, which are based on these false narratives and disinformation, create massive waves of refugees that are overwhelming your own countries. And all of this is happening because of your own actions.

Retired Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani

“The long two-thousand-year record of Chinese history clearly shows that China is fundamentally unlike America as it is reluctant to use the military option first. It is also fundamentally different from America in another regard. It does not believe that it has a “universal” mission to promote Chinese civilization and encourage everyone else in humanity to emulate it.”
Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy

'The worst case of imposter syndrome in history'

"In order to have a negotiated end, the Iranian side is going to require President Trump to give up some big things upfront, before Iran does anything, and I can’t see the president doing that. He would have to acknowledge that we had lost, by submitting to Iranian demands for giving things like lifting sanctions and releasing frozen funds BEFORE Iran does anything. I just can’t see him agreeing to that. But what he can do, is just claim that we have inflicted so much harm on Iran, that it will “take decades to recover,” and therefore we just walk away. Claiming we succeeded when we didn’t, and just walking away won’t change the reality, but it will open the SOH to traffic, and yes, that will mean Iran will be in control of the SOH and be charging a fee indefinitely. But the SOH will be open, and oil and gas, and all the derivatives will start to flow again – and most of all, we will avoid the catastrophic outcome of the exchange of devastating attacks on oil and gas infrastructure on all sides. President Trump needs to take care of this last this opportunity, because it may be the last chance to avoid disaster."

Daniel Davis an hour ago

Journalist: "What have you done with the $13 billion you've taken from Venezuela?" 

Trump: "I think we've taken even more than that, we've paid for the war many times over, and that will happen with Iran also."

Today Alastair Crooke says 'America has effectively lost the war with Iran' and quotes 3 devastating things said by Israelis

'Former IDF Ombudsman Maj. Gen. Yitzak Brik predicts (Ma’ariv, 26 July) that the crisis engulfing the Israeli intercept inventory “is only the prelude to the catastrophe that is looming over us”.

'"In the coming wars with Iran, the threat will increase tenfold to the point of a complete loss of the ability to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles. These missiles are expected to hit us: in population centers, strategic targets, production and economic infrastructure, science and technology institutes, educational institutions, hospitals and vital industries, and completely crush us”.'

Tucker Carlson and Justin Trudeau

"We just turned Iran into a global power, and it will remain a global power for the rest of our lives, at least."

Tucker Carlson yesterday.

"Netanyahu says he defends Western civilisation. No. He’s its enemy — literally its main enemy." Tucker Carlson on the Shawn Ryan Show, November 24 2025

[America has become an enemy of the West, exactly what Trump wanted to change but has made worse.] 

"He [Netanyahu]’s not the only world leader who’s evil and destructive by the way again, but he is. And he’s hurting the United States and he’s destroying his own country. And I think he imperils the world. Okay, so I think that clearly they’re going to try and blow up Al Aqsa Mosque, I believe that, on the Temple Mount to build a third temple, and then you’ve got global war." Tucker Carlson talking to Elizabeth Lane, October 16 2025

“We all know people who are a little hesitant (about vaccination), and we’re going to try and convince them, but there are also people who are fiercely opposed to vaccination; who don’t believe in science, who are often misogynists, who are often racist as well … There, one must make a choice as a national leader, do we tolerate these people?”

Justin Trudeau during a French-language interview on the Quebec talk show La Semaine des 4 Julie on September 16, 2021.  I didn't see this back then.

People often forget that we were given Palestine by the League of Nations in trust for her people, meaning the Arab inhabitants

Alan Dershowitz, lawyer to OJ Simpson, Epstein and Trump, on Piers Morgan's show:

“Will you at least admit that Iran murdered, in cold blood, as many as 50,000 innocent protesters? And would you admit, if that’s true, that that comes close to the genocide? That anything that Israel is confused of doing in self-defense after its people were raped, kidnapped, murdered on October 7th, would you at least admit that the Iranian regime has killed many, many, many thousands of people?”

'Ukraine War Narrative collapses. Europe Starts Panicking.'

Here's a good Neutrality Studies podcast in which former British diplomat Ian Proud (in Moscow 2014-2019) talks to Pascal Lottez.

It's worth hearing. I agree with both these men.

Mr Proud points out that European leaders have completely abandoned real diplomacy, demanding an unconditional Russian ceasefire while refusing to talk directly to Russia or address her long-standing concerns—such as Ukraine's NATO ambitions. 

The US 5th fleet is an Iranian hostage. America's humiliation in Iran 'empowers China and the BRICS forever'

Former British spy Alastair Crooke delivers a blunt assessment of the Iran conflict on Daniel Davis's YouTube podcast Deep Dive. I thought this summary on X deserved quoting in full.




What was long treated as unchallengeable American military power has been exposed as brittle and limited. The consequences reach far beyond the region and are already strengthening the rising influence of BRICS.




THE SHREDDED US STANDING

➡️ This war is shredding the standing of the US military presence.

➡️ It was thought to be invulnerable, unable to be contested or attacked. That has all been proved wrong.

The Trump Administration is an idiotocracy, as an insider told Michael Wolff

As all informed observers knew except Donald Trump, the US does not have enough missiles. 

It therefore has had to pause its agression against Iran. 

The Pakistanis are trying to get Iran to agree a ceasefire, I presume at the USA's request. 

I hope Iran does not fall for this ruse again.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz admits on TV that the weapons stockpiles are heavily depleted but he blames Biden for that.

“We have to take a step back here. A lot of our stockpiles were depleted because of Biden."

He then says they are not depleted but he also adds that people leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.

It's like a black comedy film except it is not funny.

Quotations

"We're seeing the ending of an era, not a decline, but an abrupt change. And this change is not stemming from without: The ending of the American power did not result from any foreign civil war or other war against American dominance. The end came from the United States itself." Professor Michael Hudson

"Nobody can take us back to the 1970s, but for millions it was a time of plentiful jobs, affordable housing and safe streets. The Tories shouldn’t knock it." Peter Hitchens (Conservatives accuse the current and last Labour Prime Ministers of wanting to take Great Britain back to the 1970s). 

"Like love, faith is also, more often than not, a mess-making force." Lamorna Ash

“Globalisation is all about wealth. It knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Without borders the world will become – is visibly becoming – a howling desert of traffic fumes, plastic and concrete, where nowhere is home and the only language is money.” Peter Hitchens

Samuel Ramani: Trump can stop the war now. He’s already won

'While the US’s next steps remain unclear, Trump could end the war today and credibly claim victory. Although the Islamic Republic remains in place, its grip on power has eroded and Iran’s military capabilities have been severely degraded. After years of one-sided nuclear negotiations and passivity in the face of Iranian regime repression, Trump has restored deterrence and asserted American power in a way that will resonate with other adversaries.'

Dr Samuel Ramani wrote this in the Daily Telegraph on 10 March 2026 when it was already clear to people who listened to Max Blumenthal, Professor Marandi or Douglas Macgregor that it was very wrong. 

Almost the whole of Iran is now united, the government was not so strong for decades and American power is at last in what could be steep decline. 

These things are surprising but clear and it is also surprising but clear to most people that American decline is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

"After years of one-sided nuclear negotiations" - Obama's nuclear deal was a good one and Trump tore it up saying he could get a better one and couldn't. 

"And PASSIVITY in the face of Iranian regime repression" - what business is it of America's on the other side of the world - or any foreign country - to be active if the Iranian government represses Iranians? 

Hezbollah is not passive when Israel attacks Lebanon - they fight, which is their business since they are Lebanese and is within international law - but people in high places in London call them terrorists.

Dr Ramani continues to spill out propaganda about Iran and Russia. 

He teaches Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford, is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and he contributes regularly to The Washington Post, the BBC World Service, Al Jazeera and CNN.

People who have power take this man seriously. 

The future elite at Oxford do. 

Everything else at Oxford is woke but Politics and International Relations sounds as if it is taught from the point of view of Anglo-American governments. 

But this is not in fact as contradictory as it sounds at first - the Anglo-American empire is woke. 

The head of MI6 complains about lack of LGBQ rights in Russia.

Woke is what we are if not fighting then paying Ukrainians to fight for 

Please stop reading the Daily Telegraph or Washington Post or believing the BBC or CNN, if you do.

Al Jazeera is better by some way but equally biassed against Iran, the Houthis and the Shia.

Chas Freeman on the American sphere of influence, a more subtle form of dominance than an empire

The former US Ambassador to KSA is a very acute analyst. This is from a talk he gave to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University on 2 April 2016. He explained ten years ago what is happening today.

Americans like to forget we ever had an empire or to claim that, if we did, we never really wanted one. But the momentum of Manifest Destiny made us an imperial power. It carried us well beyond the shores of the continent we seized from its original aboriginal and Mexican owners. The Monroe Doctrine proclaimed an American sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere. But the American empire was never limited to that sphere.

In 1854, the United States deployed U.S. Marines to China and Japan, where they imposed our first treaty ports. Somewhat like Guantánamo, these were places in foreign countries where our law, not theirs, prevailed, whether they liked it or not. Also in 1854, U.S. gunboats began to sail up and down the Yangtze River (the jugular vein of China), a practice that ended only in 1941, when Japan as well as the Chinese went after us.

Lawrence Wilkerson doesn't think the Jewish state will survive in the long term

'I think from every indication that I have, there is no more division in Iran. It is wrong to say that there are hardliners, moderates, soft ones, whatever. There is no IRGC. There is no Iranian military. There is no Guardian Council. There is no Ayatollah. There is no Majlis. They are one. They are Persia, if you will. And they are 93 million strong, being killed every day by us in war crime after war crime after war crime, about which Hegseth said nothing. But they are resolute.


'And here’s what I said earlier. With the help of a very sophisticated Chinese satellite, and probably backups from Russia, Iran has the capability to deliver some of the most sophisticated ballistic missiles in the world on targets throughout the region at their direction. In other words, you have a first list of targets that they have hit now. You have a second list of targets that they have hit a number of. And then you have a third list, which they’re just starting on. I think they have a fourth and a fifth list, and I think those are the lists that will throw the world into global depression.

Quotations

Elon Musk: 

Money won't matter in 2036. What do you want money for? You want money for goods and services: food, housing, transport, entertainment. If robots and AI are providing more goods and services than any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for in that case?

Brian Berletic:

India... has maintained a balancing act between West and East - but of course the US will settle for nothing less than full submission and servitude.

What are the PRIMARY tools the US uses to change the direction of a targeted nation's policies? Of course - "color revolution." 

Ray McGovern's last Judging Freedom podcast

Ray McGovern, 86, a very loveable former CIA man, and another former CIA man of a much more recent vintage, Joe Kent, agree that 99.44 percent of the intelligence the US receives about Iranian nuclear capacity comes from the Israelis 'and this was the same with Iraq'. 

Israel invented fears of an Iranian bomb in the 1990s to keep the US in the region. 

I doubt they believed in the Iranian nuclear weapons threat until the current war, but it's probably going to be a self fulfilling prophecy now.

I have seen several former intelligence officers say Israel is the main reason the US invaded Iraq and that this has been hidden since the consequences were what they were.

Ed and David Miliband are not the first brothers to be British Foreign Secretary

Ed and David Miliband are not the first brothers to be British Foreign Secretary

The Marquess Wellesley and his younger brother the Duke of Wellington both were, the latter very briefly. He held all principal ministerial offices concurrently for three weeks in November–December 1834 while the country waited for Sir Robert Peel to return from Italy, where he was on holiday, and then remained Foreign Secretary under Peel till the government collapsed in April 1835.

Sir Austen Chamberlain and his half brother Neville were both Chancellor of the Exchequer and both leaders of the Conservative and Unionist Party (both were Liberal Unionists originally).

Edward and Oliver Stanley were both First Lord of the Admiralty.

Ed Miliband in his first remarks overseas as Foreign Secretary at ASEAN condemned Russia's "aggression" but not the USA's or Israel's, and spoke vaguely of the "suffering" of the Palestinians. 

I suppose Great Britain is not a free agent but has to toe the American line. How different things were when Wellington or Wellesley were Foreign Secretary.

Avoid the words terrorism and genocide

I try to avoid the words genocide and terrorism and wish everyone would. The word terrorism is impossible to define - the word genocide has a definition but discussing it changes the subject from what happened to a legal dispute. I read a left-wing historian recently saying the word genocide is used for polemical purposes not for spreading understanding. The word holocaust on the other hand means a burnt sacrifice so that word is straightforward.

My country is going to war on the wrong side on the orders of foreign governments and the advice of the deep state

Of course the new British cabinet has to do what it's told.

Israel apparently is going to take part in what may be a big and disastrous war. We as so often will be on the wrong side. Meanwhile the British Chief Rabbi wants it to be illegal to wish death on the IDF though not on the IRGC.

Achieving immortality

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 

Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.

Shakespeare's Sonnet LV