Feminism

It seems that the schoolgirls were probably murdered by the US Navy and a missiles from USS Abraham Lincoln, which was last seen getting away from the Iranian navy which we were told had been destroyed.

More from that article in the Daily Beast on Trump's press conference

"Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capabilities to go far longer than that. We’ll do it."

“Somebody said today, they said: ‘Oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly; after that, he’ll get bored’. I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this… No, I don’t get bored. I never get bored.”

...The president’s remarks on Iran lasted about 10 minutes. Immediately after, he pivoted to his pet project—his $400 million ballroom renovation—and how much First Lady Melania Trump despised the noise.

“See that nice drape?” he asked the audience as he pointed to the East Room decor. “In about a year and a half from now, you’re going to see a very, very beautiful building.”

It's very early to say but so far it looks like America will lose this war

General G.D. Bakshi is useful because he is neutral between Iran, the Gulf states, Israel and America. 

He says the Iranians were fooled by the negotiations, lost 48 of their "top brass" but there won't be regime change unless there are 500,000 American troops on the ground. 

He and former CIA Officer John Kiriakou have heard that America asked Spain to ask Iran for a ceasefire on Sunday and Iran gave a dusty response. 

It sounds as if things are going terribly for America if they want a ceasefire. 

If oil rises to $130 a barrel it means a recession in the Western world, which is bad news for most of my readers, but will enrich Iran and Russia. It would make Europe (sans Hungary and Slovakia) look even more absurd and trivial

Again I quote this example of very black humour. "Historically, when Americans suddenly care about women’s rights in a Middle Eastern country, those women are about to be bombed" (Annette Mullaney). 

149 schoolgirls were murdered by missiles possibly fired from the SS Abraham Lincoln. The Western media say nothing, like they ignore Gaza. The crimes of Russia and Iran are covered extensively.

Emmanuel Macron tonight said although Iran “bears primary responsibility” for the war, the attacks were “outside the bounds of international law”. 

America is entirely to blame but two cheers for France.

I missed this from Iranian-Swedish conservative journalist Trita Parsi on Sunday. "The announcement of Khamenei's death opened a window for people to pour onto the streets and seek to overthrow the regime. Though expressions of joy were widespread, no real mobilization was seen. That window is now closing, as the theocratic system closes ranks and establishes new formal leadership."

Trita Parsi said yesterday that Iran’s strategy had shifted.

“They were targeting Israel, but the real target now is the United States,” he said, speaking to the Daily Beast.

“Their calculation, their metric of success, is not that they necessarily can win the war. They just need to get as close as possible to destroy Trump’s presidency before they lose the war.”

Tucker Carlson says the attack on Iran was “absolutely disgusting and evil.” So do many others but the mainstream media gets behind it obediently

Donald Trump tonight. 'Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain. Spain actually said that we can't use their bases. And that's all right. We could use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody's going to tell us not to use it.' 

What will Trump's legacy be?

Had Donald Trump won in 2020 much would have been better than what did happen. Most importantly, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine.

Winning a second consecutive term would have meant his first was not a blip but mattered. Yet I imagine that his second term would probably have resembled his first.

We would never have known about the bad things that Biden did that Trump's victory had saved us from.

What would his legacy have been? 

It would have been much bigger than had he been a one term President like Carter and Bush 1 but in the imaginary universe where he won in 2020 politics as normal might very well have resumed in 2025 under President Pence or, save the mark, President Kamala.

Instead Donald Trump went back to Mar-a-Lago, faced the very real risk of going to prison and more than one assassination attempt.

He knows that but for a split-second turn of the head he’d be dead and many would have been delighted, the many who rejoiced that Charlie Kirk was killed.

He is four years older, prolix, forgetful and clearly showing signs of incipient dementia, an old man in a hurry in the phrase Lord Randolph Churchill applied to Mr Gladstone.

What will his legacy be? 

Obviously it's impossible to know.

His obsession to leave a legacy has led him not to be a peace president - Coolidge and Hoover are not remembered or not with gratitude - but to use the US armed forces to murder or kidnap the leaders of countries that defy American hegemony.

He may be be remembered mostly for doing so much to benefit Israel. 

Some people say the attack on Iran is not for Israel's benefit but he himself said in September, 'Nobody has done more for Israel than I have, including the recent attacks with Iran, wiping that thing out'.

He'll be remembered for threatening other countries including allies like Canada or Denmark and for making America openly rather than covertly lawless. 

In other words, making America another Israel.

European countries protest in defence of Denmark, understandably, but not say nothing when Middle Eastern countries or Venezuela are attacked.

Trump will be remembered for raising the issue of illegal immigration and this time trying to deport illegals. But then he backed off when two protestors were killed. 

A Napoleon would not have minded about a whiff of grapeshot

Trump's cavalier way of ignoring the constitution when it comes to tariffs or acts of war is Napoleonic and was described by Chas Freeman as the end of the American republic.

We shall see what he leaves behind and when he goes. He may be impeached and thrown out of office by Congress after the mid-term elections.

Now he has something he did not have in 2020, an heir in JD Vance.

Epstein's pal and lawyer Alan Dershowitz praised Trump for the assassination (a nicer word then murder) of the Ayatollah but expressed regret about the three members of his family, one of them a baby. That was decent of him. 

Murders are normal for US Presidents. Apart from the murder of Osama bin Laden Obama authorised 540 drone strikes that killed an estimated 3,797 people, including roughly 324 civilians, one of them an American. George W Bush authorised only a modest 50, Biden authorised 555, a number almost equalled by Trump in the first 5 months of his second administration. 

So that's another achievement.

Enoch was right. 'We simply do not need to go chasing up and down after the vagaries of the next ignoramus to become President of the United States"

I passionately agree with Enoch on this. I don't want to be ruled by Washington any more than by Berlin. Perhaps even less. 

I am very disappointed that the Reform Party have turned out to be neo-cons. Neo-conservative means pseudo-conservative and pseudo-patriotic.

Matt Goodwin who stood for Reform and came second to a Green plumber in the Gorton and Denton by election is no Powellite. He accused the Green Party vice-president of attending a pro Iranian rally when it was a rally against an attack on Iran, complained that a leading Green politician said that Hamas did not commit any rapes on 7 October 2023 and so on.


I cannot forgive him for making me defend the Greens but common sense on foreign policy makes strange bedfellows.




I thought this worth quoting too. 'I can't take the gaslighting, guys. I really can't. Conservatives are now running around saying "Iran has been waging war on us for 47 years." Okay then why didn't any of you call for an attack on Iran at any point until now? Why didn't you make a case for Trump "ending the war, not starting it" until precisely the moment when Trump did it? You and I both know that you are latching onto a talking point you never used until 45 seconds ago. You and I both know that almost every conservative influencer in the business was opposed to war with Iran until just now.' Matt Walsh, an American conservative with common sense.

Alastair Crooke doesn't think Trump's got an easy way out

I recommend Alastair Crooke speaking to Judge Napolitano today here.

He says the decision to attack Iran and the week when it would happen was taken by Donald Trump on 29 December. The negotiations with Iran were a subterfuge.

The Ayatollah was not in hiding but at home when he was assassinated (another word for murdered). He refused to hide. Mr Crooke admires him for this but his decision led to the murders of his daughter, son-in-law and 14 month old granddaughter, so I am not impressed.

!

 

A whited sepulchre: she condemns Iran and Russia but is silent about Israel and the USA. Europe, which until 1939 ruled the world, has come to this.

Hilda von Ein in John Buchan's Greenmantle was much more dangerous and impressive.

England and America

"The US is a monarchy disguised as a republic and we are a republic disguised as a monarchy."

The Sunday Times. Obviously true of Trump's USA.

"... my main takeaway from travelling around the United States was that, for better or worse, the British actually have far more in common with our neighbours than with our Anglophone friends across the Atlantic. The United States is a remarkable place, a beautiful country full of the most generous-spirited people, but it is alienating to a British visitor in a way that Germany, France or the Netherlands aren’t."
Ed West

'Epstein was not the brains of the op, he was just the manager'

Whitney Webb@_whitneywebb

If you don't have time or interest in reading my book, here are some clues. Wexner has been training "young leaders" that now run AIPAC and top figures in Israel's government since the 1980s, Wexner took control of the Iran-Contra drug smuggling airline SAT at a time when Epstein was meeting w the Clinton White House specifically figures there who helped facilitate arms smuggling into the US from China and the sending of secret US military tech to China ( no one covers that scandal except conservatives and they leave these parts out bc Israel was involved ), Wexner's tax attorney was shot in the face in broad daylight the day before he was due to testify to the IRS about tax evasion and a local police report blamed Wexner and Wexner's mob ties, Wexner got the report censored and was never investigated or charged. Epstein was not the brains of the op, he was just the manager. The fact that no one will go after Wexner should tell you all you need to know about how politicians and influencers cherrypick aspects of the case for often partisan benefits.

6:05 PM · Oct 22, 2024

Is America the rogue state?

My guess is that Trump will stop this unprovoked war quickly and declare victory like he did in Venezuela. After all he wants to overthrow the Cuban government too, which may be easier.

What happened to this man?

How Churchill and Roosevelt enabled the Bolshevik conquest of Eastern Europe and China - from the conclusion to Sean McMeekin's Stalin's War (2021)

Professor McMeekin does not say so explicitly but leaves the reader with the clear impression that he thinks Great Britain should have gone to war with Communist Russia as well as Germany in 1939 and that continuing the war until Germany's unconditional surrender was a mistake.

His book is the perfect companion to the late John Charmley's that make it clear, without saying so explicitly,  that Great Britain made a great mistake in going to war with Germany in 1939.