Links - 14th March 2026 (2 - Iran War)

Benny Johnson on X - "MAHER: “Statement from the admin: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest”
SCHIFF: “Vague”
MAHER: “That was Obama on Libya”"

AUTHORITY TO USE MILITARY FORCE IN LIBYA - "the President had the constitutional authority to direct the use of force in Libya because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest"
Someone claimed "that's not what he said at all" then when I linked the source of the Obama administration saying this, didn't concede his mistake (and when someone else asked if he was real, claimed he wasn't "reflexively anti-liberal". Apparently if you're not "reflexively anti-liberal", you refuse to believe direct quotes from primary sources when they contradict the narrative

President Obama's Libya Intervention Hits 60-Day Legal Limit - ABC News - "The legal license President Obama used to justify U.S. military intervention in Libya expires today, and there's little sign the White House is working quickly to get it renewed."
That same person claimed that Obama followed the rules and went to Congress to get authorisation

Opinion | Obama's Illegal War in Libya - The New York Times - "IT has now been over three months since the first NATO bombs fell on Libya, yet President Obama has failed to request Congressional approval for military action, as required by the War Powers Act of 1973. The legal machinations Mr. Obama has used to justify war without Congressional consent set a troubling precedent that could allow future administrations to wage war at their convenience — free of legislative checks and balances.  When Mr. Obama first announced American military involvement in Libya, he notified Congress within 48 hours, as prescribed by the War Powers Act. This initiated a 60-day period, during which he was required to obtain approval from Congress; if he failed to do so, the act gave him at most 30 days to halt all “hostilities.”  Last Sunday was the 90th day of bombing in Libya, but Mr. Obama — armed with dubious legal opinions — is refusing to stop America’s military engagement there. His White House counsel, Robert F. Bauer, has declared that, despite the War Powers Act, the president can continue the Libya campaign indefinitely without legislative support. This conclusion lacks a solid legal foundation. And by adopting it, the White House has shattered the traditional legal process the executive branch has developed to sustain the rule of law over the past 75 years...  If the precedent Mr. Obama has created is allowed to stand, future presidents who do not like what the Justice Department is telling them could simply cite the example of Mr. Obama’s war in Libya and instruct the White House counsel to organize a supportive “coalition of the willing” made up of the administration’s top lawyers. Even if just one or two agreed, this would be enough to push ahead and claim that the law was on the president’s side."
The same person claimed ABC News was wrong because "American combat operations largely ended on April 4th, well within the 60 day window" and that "mostly providing humanitarian aid and non-lethal assistance to the NATO effort" didn't need "specific Congressional approval". I guess Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale, needs to go back to school. His response was to dismiss the people criticising Obama as "reflexively anti-liberal"

Defiant L’s on X - "Bill Maher: “We bombed Iran, and it’s going on now. If you expected me to say I hate it, I don’t. Sorry.” “You cannot name one horrible thing that has happened in the Middle East in the last 50 years and not connect it to this fascist theocracy.”"

Shahab on X - "I see so many Pakistanis defending these mad tactics by Iran. This is nothing short of state-level terrorist acts. God forbid IRGC pulls this off against Pakistan tomorrow (high chance given Iran has gone mad) then many of these ppl I see defending these acts will instantaneously see this as a problem. No US or Israeli soldiers are dying in these mindless attacks."
Tea Is Fantastic on X - "Why would Iran attack Pakistan when passing has no US bases?Iran is yet to attack a country without US base"
I keep seeing this cope from US haters. The next cope is going to be that Cyprus, Syria, Oman and Azerbaijan were attacked by Israel as part of false flag operations to get more countries to attack Iran

David Bernstein on X - "From what I've seen on X, a lot of people who think themselves to be well-informed have no idea that Iran sent assassins to kill Trump in 2024, and that the plot was uncovered during the Biden administration. They think that it's a Trump delusion.  (The conviction today was for one of two separate plots, see next tweet)."
To left wingers, the violence of the "oppressed" is not the same as the violence of the "oppressors". So basically the West never gets to defend itself from those who seek to destroy it. Left wing ideology is a sure route to civilisational suicide

William Hall on X - "Have you noticed the anti-ICE protests stopped, and Iran protests started? The entire Left is a lie."

Elica Le Bon الیکا‌ ل بن on X - "So let me get this straight.  Iranians who lived Iran have gotten it all wrong.  Venezuelans who lived Venezuela have gotten it all wrong.  Cubans who lived Cuba have gotten it all wrong.  But you—who have never left the four corners of your own sublime comfort—are the bearers of truth?"

Meme - Rob Henderson @robkhenderson: ""They." I'm old enough to remember when American politicians thought of themselves as Americans."
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamd... @NYCMayor: "Today's military strikes on lran - carried out by the United States and Israel - mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace."
If you suggest that immigrants don't think of themselves as American, you're racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic

Meme - Wilfred Reilly: "Traitor. Enough of this. The right can be crude, corrupt, even a bit racist. THE LEFT LET IN EIGHT MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS DURING ONE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION AND MADE UP LIES ABOUT HOW THEY WERE ALMOST ALL THE NEXT THING TO REFUGEES!!! THEY CALL AMERICA "THEY!!!" DO YOU SEE?!! DO YOU SEE?! So, anyhow, I'm a bit tired of people like this questioning my moral kana fides. "Don't you care about the country-men I love?" Dunno. Where would those be based? Gaza? Somalia?"
Rashida Tlaib @RashidaTlaib: "Both the U.S. and genocidal Israel doesn't care about the laws. This is who they are."

Meme - planefag: ""An era of historic peace." Time and again, I come back to the question of what leads an alleged intellectual to characterize forty-seven years of regional proxy war and global terrorism as "peace." Is it pure evil, self-serving lying, or legitimate psychosis? *Gazan rockets being met by Israeli interceptors*"
Oona Hathaway @oonahathaway: "Today's attack on Iran is an attack on the postwar legal order. Yet again, Trump has taken an action that threatens to end an era of historic peace and return us to a world in which might makes right. The cost will be paid in human lives."

Meme - "*upside down red triangle* Moment an Iranian missile hit the headquarters of the US Navy's 5th Fleet at Naval Support Activity (NSA) in Bahrain"
Jessica Costescu @JessicaCostescu: "The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Chicago is celebrating Iranian missiles hitting a U.S. Navy base in Bahrain. They included an upside-down triangle🔻—a symbol Hamas uses to denote targets  CC @FBIDirectorKash  @EDSecMcMahon  @HarmeetKDhillon"
NizNellie3 @NizNellie3: "This was the banner the SJP had on campus last year. *'Free Palestine. Bring *upside down red triangle* the Intifada Home' (O in Home replaced with star)*"

Meme - Alex @_alex_joshua: "Russia blew up a theatre full of sheltering children THAT LITERALLY WROTE "CHILDREN" ON THE STREET IN FRONT OF IT less than a month after invading Ukraine. The fuck are you talking about?"
Alon Mizrahu @alon_mizrahi: "Russia never hit a school full of children in over 3 years of war in Ukraine. Israel and the US do it on the first day"

Meme - Prof Ben saul - UN SR Human Rights & Countert.... @profbens...: "Disappointing that Ukraine, a victim of Russian aggression who expects international support, now endorses aggression against Iran"
Readers added context: "Islamic Republic of Iran provided armaments and support to the russian invasion of Ukraine. Since 2022, iranian-made drones are used to bombard civilians daily. Alabuga factory in Tatarstanis for domestic drone-building has been set up as russo-iranian joint venture."

Meme - Melissa Chen @MsMelChen: "Beyond parody"
Women's March: "Today, the US and Israel bombed a girl's elementary school in Iran. At least 85 girls are dead. They were between 7 and 12 years old. They were in class when the bombs hit. Backpacks and schoolbooks in the rubble. Call it what it is: war.  Trump bypassed Congress, violated the Constitution, and dragged us into a conflict we didn't choose and will pay for with lives and money that should be going to families, schools, and healthcare.  This is what "freedom" imposed by bombs looks like. It is not the place of the U.S. to decide the future of Iran or any soverign nation. Only its people can do that.  This is a feminist issue. Women and children bear the brunt of every war that men in power start. First displaced. First bombed. Last evacuated.  We are in deep solidarity with the everyday people of Iran. We grieve with everyone suffering. We oppose this war."
"No war on Iran. Feminists -vs- Fascists *Iran flag*"
Melissa Chen @MsMelChen: "Mostly amazed that the same people who are afraid of the US becoming the Handmaid's Tale got upset when the architect of the real one was eliminated"

Meme - Max K @MaxE2review: "You're 'proudly anti-war'? Funny, iirc you instantly took to social media to laud it as a 'fight back' when Iranian-backed jihadist death squads broke a ceasefire to invade a sovereign state, slaughter every infidel they could find, then vowed to do it again repeatedly. Fraud"
"Councillor who hailed 'end of white settler colonialism' on October 7 elected Green deputy leader Mothin Ali supported the right of 'indigenous people to fight back' in the wake of the attack and dedicated his local election victory to 'the people of Gaza'"
Mothin Ali - My Family Gar ...: "White supremacist european settler colonialism must end! #طوفان_الأقصى Palestine #freedom#" 07/10/2023
Mothin Ali @MothinAli: "I'm proudly anti-war. And to be anti-war that means looking to explore all possible diplomatic solutions. The US and Israel took a unilateral decision in the midst of negotiations to kill the Iranian leader, and opted for war. This is deplorable."
When left wingers claim to be anti-war, they mean they are against wars where the West wins

Meme - Nima Alidoust: "Ahmadinejad was a member of Iran's Expediency Council. The aftermath of his disputed election led to imprisonment and killing of many young Iranians. The problem with this genre of journalists is that they have a selective and surface level knowledge of Iran and its politics. They impress the reader by showing off this basic knowledge and this gives them an aura of legitimacy for whatever insights they subsequently propagate. But the half truths they share don't include e.g, the accounts of prisoners in Kahrizak during Ahmadinejad's time. Ahmadinejad is (maybe was) an integrated element of this regime who got into power fights with the other murderous members of it in the last few years. Casting him as a civilian is absurd."
Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan: "Trump murdered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former president of Iran, who - whatever you think of him - was a civilian, not in the military, and so it was murder, plain and simple. As illegal and as murderous as Iran bombing and killing, say, George W Bush at his home in Dallas."
Phil Stewart: "Trump tells @JacquiHeinrich that 48 Iranian leaders were killed yesterday"

Meme - Jon Levine @LevineJonathan: "ACTUALLY - Americans shouldn't have to live in fear of "predictable blowback terrorism" from Muslims in response to foreign policy decisions they are upset with @mehdirhasan"
Mehdi Hasan: "God help us all if we're about to see a repeat of the post Iraq 2003 era. Illegally invade a MidEast country, energize extremists, then get predictable blowback terrorism in the US. Americans Killed at home & abroad to serve the agendas of GOP presidents & Likud prime ministers."
New York Post: "Austin bar mass shooter possibly motivated by Iran attacks, Quran found in car as FBI eyes terrorism after 2 killed, 14 injured"
Noam Blum @neontaster: "Weird how no one expected predictable blowback terrorism from Hispanic people over Maduro."
Melissa Chen: "Also no blowback in the form of terrorism against Americans from the Japanese. Or the Vietnamese. Wonder why. Perhaps they didn't have a culture of grievance stoked by cynical religious leaders, political figures and activists."

Meme Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630: "These protesters were armed attackers of your own nation's embassy. From ghetto criminals to illegal alien rapists to Hamas warriors to rioting world mobs, you people will just automatically defend every natural enemy you have, eh? What's that brain parasite people get from cats?"
CODEPINK @codepink: "US Marines shot and killed at least 12 people in Karachi, Pakistan. More than 30 are injured. Where is the international outrage over these US soldiers slaughtering Pakistani protestors?"
Readers added context: "News reports indicate the injured and dead protesters Code Pinkis referring to were fired upon after attempting to storm the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. No military action appears to have occurred until the protesters attempted to overrun the consulate"
Left wingers hate the West and it's clear they don't believe the West has any right of self defence at all.

Yossi BenYakar on X - "x.com/YossiBenYakar/status/2013267404445389215/video/1  Flashback, August 2015. Barack Obama after the Iran nuclear deal: “Iran will gain access to $56B. Our best analysts expect it to improve the economy and benefit the Iranian people.”  That money fueled Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and Iran’s campaign to destroy Israel. Not schools. Not hospitals. Terror.  This is what “strategic optimism” bought the world. Good thing Trump was elected."

Noah Pollak on X - "The below is a fantastically well-done example of what has become a sub-genre of Democratic Party foreign policy discourse. For the past 15 years the Obama-Biden team has been working to empower Iran and its terrorist proxies and isolate Israel. Anytime someone points this out -- especially anytime an Israeli does, because they are supposed to take the abuse in dignified silence -- they run to social media or op-ed pages and stroke their chins concernedly and say, "By golly, we are so deeply troubled by these puzzling statements. They will only weaken the US-Israel alliance that we care so much about. Why are they forcing us to weaken the alliance we only want to strengthen?" Vomit."

Open Source Intel on X - "On January 12, 2016, while Barack Obama was president, Iran’s IRGC seized a U.S. Navy boat. Iran released footage showing American sailors humiliated, some kneeling and others in tears before Iranian forces. Five days later, on January 17, Obama sent $400 million in pallets of cash to Iran, followed by another $1.3 billion through additional transactions."
Eli Steele on X - "In a previous job, I had to cover this story. What amazed me was how the Obama administration built up the Islamic regime and the Revolutionary Guard to be this vaunted, indestructible force. They acted as if a nuclear Iran was inevitable. But the thing was that those in the Obama administration weren’t realists. They were enablers of a terrorist, liberationist regime that in reality was a paper tiger on the verge of becoming a nuclear armed tiger."

Meme - Bonchie @bonchieredstate: "You may be the most ridiculous person to ever exist in this site. This is you two month ago."
Bill Kristol: "The Trump administrations should be helping the brave people of Iran overthrow a cruel and terror- sponsoring dictatorship, rather than threatening our democracy ally Denmark. But that would require having an administration that supports American interests and principles."
Bill Kristol @BillKristol: "Maybe Rubio should stop inventing "imminent threats" to justify the war his administration started and get to work doing his department's job of helping Americans in the war zone they created."

Open Source Intel on X - "Iranian opposition channels report that over the past 24 hours, the IRGC and Basij have been turning schools, mosques, and hospitals into their bases.  They are abandoning their own headquarters due to widespread strikes on Basij camps and police stations, and relocating to civilian sites, using the same tactics as Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups. By doing so, the IRGC and Basij endanger civilians and effectively turn them into human shields.  @h3976a"

Meme - The Moderate Case: "Hey scholars and humanitarians, do you take any issue with IRGC leaders positioning themselves in civilian areas to make themselves effectively immune from military strikes? I've long been told the "human shield" argument is foolish and that this tactic is never actually used. So in that case, what's this?"
Iran @wewiltakeback: "Yes, true. Foreign Minister spokesman press conference held in a classroom! *camera rolling and black veil clad female students*"

Meme - "RELAX LEFTISTS! It WAS Mostly Peaceful lranian Bombing"

Meme - Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno: "Imagine an Iranian bomb had slaughtered 165 Israeli school kids. Imagine the response of the Western media and politicians. And note the lack of outrage and disgust here."
Max K @MaxE2review: "We don't need to 'imagine' - an Iranian-backed jihadist death cult DID slaughter far MORE than 165 people, including women, kids and pensioners, during a medieval-style massacre. People you regularly do media appearances with called that a 'day of celebration' (see next tweet)
Here are some of the responses from contributors and editors at the 'anti-racist' publication Novara, who Owen contributes to regularly, to the Oct 7 massacre. That genocidal jihadist massacre was, apparently, 'a day of celebration' and something we should 'support'."
Meme - Adam Ma'anit @adammaanit: "Novara Media's editors and contributors on Oct 7. Vile."
Rivkah Brown @rivkahbrown: "Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open- air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers' territory. The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn't apologise for it."
Barnaby Raine @BarnabyRaine: "Shabbat Shalom and may every coloniser fall everywhere"
Adam Ma'anit @adammaanit: "Sky News giving airtime to a man who tweeted this on October 7 morning:"
Michael Walker @michaeljswalker: "So guys, do we support the right of an occupied people to fight an occupier or not?"

Mepassistant (Quentin) on X - "So the French public TV decided to broadcast the movie Persepolis, an autobiographic movie about a girl and her family going through the 1979 revolution in Iran and the years that follow. It deals with the brutal repression of the opposition by the Shah prior to the revolution as well as the brutal social control imposed after the revolution by the mollahs. A great movie and a must watch/read (it's also a graphic novel).  But it is now being criticised by a number of leftist activists as "war propaganda", an islamophobic movie that depicts a caricature of Iran under the mollah and that actually most women are actually better off under their regime.  I'm starting to be convinced that part of the left actually wants the far right to come into power next year."
Oscar Ekman on X - "What is interesting is as the movie came out 20 years ago, there was no such controversy. Everybody including the left was against the Iranian regime, save for Islamists who were not emboldened enough to speak up."

tantum on X - "Also if Tel Aviv were actually a lake of fire they would be gloating and celebrating and hoping the war lasts forever, which is how they acted during the Oct 7 attack. Instead they're saying "Oh Drumpf you have to end the war, muh Tel Aviv, checkmate Drumpf" so... lying."
Thread by @memeticsisyphus on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "If Tel Aviv were burning they would celebrate, if one civilian building is hit in Tehran it’s a war crime, if oil tankers and refineries in the gulf are destroyed it’s brave resistance, if oil refineries in Iran are hit it’s an environmental disaster, if Trump continues attacks he’s a blood thirsty monster, if he stops he’s chickening out, Israel asking people to not film incoming barrages for security reasons is fearful suppression of the truth, Iran blocking all internet access country wide is… not happening?  You quickly see that they don’t actually care about the details, it’s why they don’t care they’ve fallen for an older video or ai for the 30x that morning. They just hate the west and hope it loses.
It’s true, a lot of guys on the right are doing it out of hatred of Israel, but they find themselves shoulder to shoulder with BLM activists, Islamists, and basically every stupid activists organization dedicated to tearing down the west.
Yes, people downplay when their side creates a tragedy and play up when their side suffers a tragedy, it is a tell of allegiance which was my point."

Roshan Rai on X - "US and Israel must be shitting in their pants after watching this video. A large Iranian crowd did not even flinch even after missiles were seen coming towards them. You can’t defeat a nation that fears nothing. This video is historic, Absolute Cinema."
Daniel Friedman on X - "Propagandists claim the reason Israelis run to shelters when air-raid sirens go off and Iranians don't flinch when US and Israeli planes and missiles are overhead is that Iranians are brave and Israelis are cowardly.  The truth is that Iranians don't flinch because they know the US and Israel don't bomb crowds of civilians, and Israelis have all those shelters and sirens because Iran and its proxies try to kill as many innocents as they can."

RazörFist on X - "I voted for Trump to secure the border and maybe bring the odd job back. Him going CommieSmasher5000 on all of the CCP's allies - and pissing off every talent-bereft faux-right podcaster I already despised - is the cherry on top of the cherry, really."

Partisanship on Iran Is Dangerous for America

Partisanship on Iran Is Dangerous for America - WSJ
Trump is doing the right thing for the U.S., and we Democrats should judge the war on the merits.

Every past president since Bill Clinton, Republican and Democrat alike, has declared that Iran couldn’t be permitted to develop nuclear weapons. Not one acted to prevent it. Every president since Ronald Reagan has condemned Iran’s role in terrorism against American citizens, interests and allies. Not one acted to stop it. Instead each president left his successor with a more dangerous Iran and a more complicated threat to address.

Last June President Trump undertook a limited military operation designed to interrupt Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and discourage the country from continuing its nuclear program. In the face of Iran’s refusal to forswear nuclear weapons and evidence that it was rapidly increasing the number, sophistication and range of its missiles, Mr. Trump began the current military campaign.

If he hadn’t acted, his successor would have been left with an even more dangerous choice than his predecessors left him. Three or four years from now, the Iranian missiles now hitting Iran’s neighbors could be hitting Berlin or London, perhaps even New York or Washington—perhaps with a nuclear device or at least a dirty bomb. 

No sensible person wants a war, a president least of all. Wars destroy lives, waste treasure and usually are unpopular. But the widespread hostility to this military action seems untethered to any serious discussion of the merits. What is the alternative? 

Obviously, few are prepared to say it is simply to permit religious madmen who swear “death to America” and back up their threats with terrorism to secure nuclear weapons and the capability to deliver them. The scope and scale of Iran’s response show how much its military capabilities have progressed, and how dangerous it would have been to permit them to increase further. 

For three decades we have tried everything that each president could think of. We’ve tried being nice, talking tough, moral suasion, negotiated agreement, economic sanctions. None worked. The problem is that there is only one language Iran’s leaders understand. 

I understand some of the hostility to Mr. Trump’s action. The isolationist wing of the Republican Party and the pacifist wing of the Democratic Party each are wrapped in the fantasy that we can afford to ignore the capabilities and intentions of enemies because they are thousands of miles away. Two hundred years ago that view was credible. One hundred years ago it was plausible. Today it takes only one missile carrying a nuclear or dirty bomb to get through our defenses, or one such device smuggled into this country, to devastate a city. 

I also understand—and deplore—the fringes of both parties that apparently hate Israel and Jews so much that they oppose any action to neutralize Israel’s enemies. 

What is harder to understand, and particularly troubling for our country, is opposition rooted simply in antipathy toward Mr. Trump himself. We used to say that politics stops at the water’s edge. That was never completely true; the willingness to bludgeon a president over foreign policy for domestic political gain is as old as Vice President Thomas Jefferson’s attacks on President John Adams. Yet for most of our history we have given the president the benefit of the doubt. 

More important, criticisms have historically been based on policy differences over the military action at hand, not knee-jerk opposition to the president himself. Many Republicans supported Mr. Clinton’s military actions and President Obama’s surge in Afghanistan; many Democrats supported President George W. Bush’s actions in Afghanistan and (at least initially) Iraq. More Republicans than Democrats probably supported President Lyndon B. Johnson’s actions in Vietnam.

More important still, even when we believed a president’s actions were misguided, we almost always wanted him to succeed if possible. Some efforts to curtail what the president is doing in Iran seem motivated simply by a desire not to give him a win—even if it means a loss for America.

When North Korea invaded South Korea President Harry S. Truman acted to stop it. It was so unpopular that Truman didn’t seek re-election in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower was elected on the promise that he would go to Korea and end the war. But while Truman was president, lawmakers on both sides supported Truman, even when he removed the popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his command.

Truman’s successful defense of South Korea began a four-decade bipartisan effort to contain, and ultimately end, communism as a global threat. One wonders what the result would have been if he faced a country as divided and partisan as today’s.

Republicans, including Mr. Trump, bear a share of the blame for the divisiveness and extreme partisanship that has stunted our ability to cooperate and work together. Those of us who generally oppose Mr. Trump but who recognize the threat Iran poses need to support the military action not because we owe anything to Mr. Trump but because we owe it to ourselves, our country and our children. 

If we opposed the war and succeeded in pressuring Mr. Trump to curtail it before the mission is accomplished, we would have the satisfaction of defeating someone we generally oppose, which might help ourselves politically. But America would be worse for it. 

America’s national security is too important to hold hostage to partisanship. We Democrats need to begin by asking what our position would be, and why, if the action had been taken by Mr. Clinton, Mr. Obama or Mr. Biden. I’m not counting on it, but maybe in 2029, when a Democrat is in the White House, our Republican neighbors will return the favor, and judge that president’s efforts to keep our nation safe on the merits and not merely obstruct. 

If we believe that Iran presents a serious threat, we need to support the president on this issue. There’s plenty to disagree with him about, and we don’t need to like or admire him. But on Iran we should be on common ground. Not primarily because we want to reduce partisanship in foreign affairs—although that is conceivable. Not because the voters will reward us for a more measured response—although I hope they will. But because it is the right thing to do for our country, our children and the Democrat who will succeed Mr. Trump as president. 

Links - 14th March 2026 (1 - General Wokeness)

Hold My Beer News on X - "PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST CALLS FOR NYC DOG BAN Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani said dogs should be banned as indoor pets in New York City, calling them "unclean" in a post on X. She later claimed the post was a joke, saying she was "laughing at the Zionists frothing at the mouth." Kiswani leads the pro-Palestine group Within Our Lifetime, which has called for Israel's eradication. The group suggested the October 7 attacks were justified, calling them "heroic Palestinian resistance." Kiswani has a history of controversial statements, including sharing material that venerates the militant group PFLP. Source: @DailyMail"

CityDeskNYC on X - "Nerdeen Kiswani’s “satire” only works because Mamdani’s entire network thrives on plausible deniability. She jokes about dogs being haram while his DSA allies push BDS, defund NYPD, and platform groups that call Zionists “colonizers.” Coincidence? Please. Mamdani’s pro-pet votes are performative smokescreens—like banning glue traps while his base cheers “globalize the intifada.” Real priorities? Letting activists like Kiswani normalize extremist rhetoric, then hiding behind “jokes” when called out. Adams kept the streets clean; Mamdani’s NYC lets dog waste and antisemitism fester equally. His record? Protecting “unclean” ideologies, not pets."

Republican congressman's anti-Muslim remark prompts calls for his resignation - "Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., prompted calls for his resignation from Democrats and a major Islamic civil rights group after suggesting in a social media post that he'd choose dogs over Muslims. "If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one," Fine posted to the social media platform X on Sunday. Shortly afterward, he added a photo of a post from Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, in which she called dogs "unclean" and said that "NYC is coming to Islam.""
Weird how it's good for women to choose the bear but Americans aren't allowed to choose the dog. You're only allowed to push the left wing agenda
If a Muslim attacks a Christian and the Christian defends himself, that's proof of Islamophobia and that Christianity is a violent religion

Yossi BenYakar on X - "According to Islamic law, dogs are considered “najis”, impure. In this video, a Muslim violently hits a woman’s dog and forces her out of the public area, simply because the animal is “unclean” in his eyes. This is what happens when extremist religious norms overpower basic human decency."
Instagram - "Muslim Man Orders Florida Woman With Dog to Leave - "Get Out of My Space!""

Josh Dehaas: We don’t need thought police in Ontario - " Durham Region, outside Toronto, is the latest Ontario municipality to create a program for recording “non-criminal hate incidents” (NCHIs) such as (to quote the website) telling offensive jokes, destroying religious texts or sending discriminatory text messages. The new Community-Based Hate Reporting program includes a form where people are encouraged to report such “hateful” incidents — anonymously if they wish — so that they can be connected with taxpayer-funded security or counselling, so that the region can better track hate incidents, and so that police can be informed. Waterloo Region, Ottawa, Chatham-Kent, Hamilton and Muskoka already have similar reporting tools. This is dangerous for freedom of expression. If a comment doesn’t meet the high bar set by the courts for criminal hate speech, and if there is no hate-motivated crime like vandalism by spray painting a swastika to report to police, then the government has no business collecting secret reports about it. The program’s very existence is bound to chill all sorts of protected speech. Who’s going to want to express themselves on controversial topics like immigration or all-gender changerooms if they know the thought police might be opening a file? Even more worrisome is the possibility that the reports, made to Victim Services of Durham Region, may be shared with the actual police. That’s how it works in the United Kingdom, which a report presented to Durham Regional Council cited as inspiration. Police recording of NCHI is part of what has set the U.K. on the path to becoming a real-life version of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Police officers are now regularly dispatched to respond to controversial but lawful speech. According to The Telegraph, 43 police forces in England and Wales recorded more than 133,000 NCHIs between 2014 and 2024. The threat of a cop showing up to question you about your speech is not only chilling to expression, it’s also an enormous waste of tax dollars."

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "The Church of England decided this week to cover the interior of the oldest cathedral in England in graffiti in order to represent the voices of “marginalised communities.” The Very Rev David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury, said: “There is a rawness which is magnified by the graffiti style, which is disruptive. It is unfiltered and not sanitised.” “This exhibition intentionally builds bridges between cultures, styles and genres and allows us to receive the gifts of younger people who have much to say.” It’s actually stunning how much the elite of Britain hate their own culture and civilisation. You couldn’t even invent this as satire. They are literally scrawling graffiti on the walls of ancient cathedrals. Everything beautiful is just torn down and destroyed."
JD Vance on X - "It is weird to me that these people don't see the irony of honoring "marginalized communities" by making a beautiful historical building really ugly."
Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Just explain to us why leftists see a beautiful ancient cathedral - a masterpiece of human design, ingenuity, artisanship, built over hundreds of years by successive generations - and think: “You know what this needs? Shitty urban graffiti.” It seems to be the same impulse that allows them to see a beautiful idyllic and isolated alpine village in Europe and immediately think “this place needs infinity amounts of desperately poor migrants from the third world”"
Bohumilo on X - "Beauty and excellence are fundamentally anti-egalitarian phenomena — they force the recognition of the existence of objective standards, that is, of a hierarchy that is not political in nature and not a matter of “power relations” (the lens through which Marxists, both old and new, interpret the world)."
Left wingers consider beauty tacky

Affluent White Female Liberals Are Living In A Made-Up World - "In a recent viral video, an angry mob (composed almost entirely of white women) hurled expletives at the staff of a Minneapolis CorePower yoga studio, berating them because they reportedly removed anti-ICE signage. While their verbal onslaught apparently worked in this case, these females revealed just how many women live in a Land of Make Believe where everyone magically bends to their will. This tiny glimpse into the world of make-believe perpetuated by Affluent, White, Female, Liberals (AWFL) has been a long time in coming; many are waking up to the saccharine dream where the AWFLs can do whatever they want, unscathed, while the rest of us must conform and then clean up their messes. For decades the West has built itself around the ideal life for these women, requiring very little by way of sacrifice, inconvenience, earnest effort, or real scrutiny. In today’s world, it is good to be a victim. It is a made-up world that most of us have grown used to believing is real... Without fear of famine, war, or natural disasters, we have had the luxury of following leaders down the rabbit hole into the Land of Make Believe. In it, there is room to become lax and lazy, disordered, and disagreeable. There is space to disparage authority, flaunt rules, and disregard natural law, especially when the personal cost seems negligible — food still arrives, salaries are paid, homes are heated. Life continues to go on while the Land of Make Believe takes over more and more real estate in our consciousness. Who cares if there are angry and bitter women ceaselessly campaigning against their own fertility (and their own children)? Who cares that criminals have been recast as victims, deserving every measure of entitlement, including placement into women’s prisons? Who cares that men, simply for being men, have been recast as villains and purveyors of toxic masculinity? Who cares that our desire for safety has become so swollen that any explanation that includes “for our safety” silences debate? And who cares that comfort and entertainment have become so monolithic that notions of sacrifice, discomfort, or boredom seem to evaporate into the wind? Restaurants stay open; planes still fly; fashion still sells; movies are still shot; and sports still played. Daily life continues. Meanwhile, the source and summit of our contemporary fears are embodied in The Protest. In the Land of Make Believe, there is scarcely anything worse. The angry crowds, shouting voices, slick signs and slogans, stopped traffic — all lead to the public humiliation of those on its receiving end. So effective is The Protest that protesters are no longer the stinky and organic grassroots of the 1960s; the protesting mob has become big business, mobilizing quickly, with a firm belief in its own righteousness. Astroturfed and ginned up, The Protest is the local mode of violence ending in viral scorn through the deeply superficial world of social media, screenshots, sound bites, and selectively edited content. And if one can’t take her grievance to the street, say in the workplace or academia, the Mean Girls (or the CorePower yoga women) are ready to step in, with the same general effect, just on a smaller scale — silencing opposition and canceling competitors. But what happens when the Land of Make Believe finally becomes too thin? Too ridiculous for anyone to take seriously anymore? When its own fevered pitch becomes so high that the bullets become real and the rhetoric hits reality? When the social cost becomes too great? When decades of emotional manipulation and contrived grievances reach a tipping point and the Land of Make Believe suddenly becomes, well, unbelievable?"
Aka Affluent White Female Urbal Liberals (AWFULs)

Bushra Shaikh on X - "Tell me why political Christianity is ok, political Judaism is accepted, political Hinduism is supported but political Islam is 'ISLAMISM' and dangerous..."
Rafe Heydel-Mankoo on X - "Political Christianity = Abolition of slavery, creation of human rights, welfare system etc.
Political Islam = Islamism, Sharia & the recreation of the Caliphate through violence, terrorism, oppression & persecution of minorities, suppression of free speech
Hope that helps."

Stu Smith on X - "🚨 What “mutual aid” really means (in far-left theory) When far-left activists like Beatrice Adler-Bolton talk about “mutual aid,” they’re not describing informal charity or neighbors pitching in after a storm. They’re describing alternative systems meant to replace the state. Listen to what she’s praising in Minneapolis:
-decentralized “crews” and “cadres” that “defy easy mapping”
-food, rent, housing, childcare, and medical support
-“rapid response” networks, “data collection and analysis,” and “community safety and defense patrols”
-neighborhood barricades that block ICE while “letting neighbors through”
This is intentional. The premise is that the state is illegitimate and oppressive, so communities should route around public institutions and build parallel networks for care, security, and coordination. Political theory has a name for it: dual power—building parallel institutions that compete with, undermine, and eventually replace existing ones."
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino on X - "These are revolutionary strategies designed to dismantle the country. When they talk about ‘revolution’ and ‘dismantling the west’ at their seminars and protests, this is part of the strategy they’re putting into action. Keep in mind none of this organizing would be possible without tens of millions in funding and the institutional support of academia and the nonprofits, nearly all of which is laundered tax money. We are funding the very people who want to destroy us. And it’s going to lead to a very bad place — for us and for them."

Basil the Great on X - "🚨Former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern explains he views on free speech 'Free speech is a weapon of war' 'Censorship is necessary to protect Free Speech' The clamp down on Free Speech is happening everywhere They know they're losing badly"
Rock Chartrand🤑 on X - "Speech is a weapon only to those who fear losing control of the narrative. If censorship is “necessary to protect free speech,” then free speech has already been redefined into permissioned speech. The entire premise of free speech is that it protects expression precisely when it is disruptive, unpopular, or destabilizing to those in power. The moment you argue that speech must be filtered to preserve social stability, you’ve shifted from protecting liberty to managing populations. That isn’t defense and rather an attempted containment of dissent."

End Wokeness on X - "BREAKING: Chicago Bears are moving out of Chicago, building a stadium in Indiana"
Seneca Scott on X - "All soggy progressive cities end up failing the exact same way:
1. Public Safety crisis from anti-police policies.
2. Homeless, drug and overdose crisis ensues due to the same.
3. School fail and children can't read or do math.
4. Public Sector Unions blur the lines between municipal governments and unions, forming a near perfect circle.
5. NGO compensation skyrockets while quality of city services plummet. Homeless, Immigrant and Drug Industry thrives.
6. Value is lost, businesses fail or flee.
7. Shocking corruption and fraud is discovered.
8. Taxes skyrocket, especially for property owners via parcel taxes.
9. Elected officials act surprise and blame Trump when their policies fail and the city enters a doom loop.
NEVER VOTE FOR SOGGY PROGRESSIVES!"

Luke Rosiak on X - "This is old news, but I somehow missed it. Ex-WaPo DEI hire & pervert Wesley Lowrey was put in charge of the Center for Public Integrity, a 40-year old investigative reporting org. Soon the entire thing was dead. One of the last things they posted before everyone was laid off:
'Public Integrity went from 85% white and majority men in 2016 to now majority journalists of color and women. Across the organization, at least 10% of our team identify as LGBTQI+, and at least 10% identify as having some kind of disability.'"
Coddled Affluent Professional on X - "Wow I missed that Wesley Lowrey, the ex-WaPo reporter who won a Pulitzer and wrote a famous editorial urging journos to forgo objectivity in lieu of ‘moral clarity,’ was chased out of his journalism professorship for multiple sexual assault allegations. It’s been a decade of normal people who are just trying to take care of their kids and be good spouses and go to work and get through the day getting told by people like Lowery that they are bad and racist and guilty of all sorts -isms and entitlements, while the whole time people like Lowery were engaging in execrable personal conduct."
J.T. Alexander on X - "Rittenhouse shot four Leftists in a crowd and hit a convicted sex offender, a convicted DV abuser, a guy charged with burglary, and someone with a warrant so big that he hid from the trial. When Charlie Kirk was murdered by a sex pervert, a random Leftist in the crowd staged a distraction on his own initiative and turned out to also be a convicted sex offender. The rate of criminal and extreme sexually deviant behavior among the activist class of Leftists in particular is apparently highly disproportional."

TRT World on X - "Teenagers at a high school in California gather in the school gymnasium to perform Friday prayers, as there is no masjid on campus"
Kangmin Lee | 이강민 on X - "Look at that, libs aren't freaking out how separation of mosque and state and keeping prayer out of schools. Almost like they just exclusively hate Christianity"

Albanese links Pauline Hanson to Islamophobia after refusing to link Grace Tame to antisemitism - "Anthony Albanese has directly linked Pauline Hanson’s rhetoric about Muslims to threats against a Sydney mosque, after refusing to condemn Grace Tame’s calls to “globalise the intifada”... Mr Albanese has refused to condemn Australian of the Year Grace Tame when she led a rally chant of “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalise the intifada” at an anti-Israel protest. The slogan was widely condemned, including by NSW Premier Chris Minns, as antisemitic and a call for violent action against Israel. Asked in the house of representatives by Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh if he would condemn Ms Tame’s "display of antisemitism", he declined to do so. “We need to not continually look for political opportunities from what is a devastating situation, we need to turn the temperature down,” Mr Albanese said. He also referred Ms McIntosh to his previous comments, including that “people have different views and very strong views about the Middle East”. “They're entitled to express those, and they're entitled to do that in a peaceful way. The Australian government does that as well.” Mr Albanese faced repeated calls to condemn chants of “globalise the intifada”, including from Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. “These were protests where we heard people calling for violence. ‘Globalise the intifada’ is a call for violence, let’s be clear,” Mr Taylor told Sky News Sunday Agenda. “I condemn a Prime Minister who cannot call out people who are calling for violence. 'Globalise the intifada' is a call for violence and this Prime Minister cannot condemn it.” “He has not got the leadership capacity, he doesn't have the moral clarity, he does not have the understanding of right and wrong that I think is important in a leader.”... Conversely, Ms Hanson has called for Ms Tame to be stripped of her Australian of the Year honour for chanting “globalise the intifada”. "Grace Tame remains an angry young lady whose rise to prominence went to her head," Ms Hanson said in a statement. "Since being awarded Australian of the Year, Grace has become a grievance tool used by the Greens and Labor. "She’s Australia’s version of Greta Thunberg who is trying to hold onto their 15 seconds of fame. Her language and views are a danger to herself and every Australian.""

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "I know it’s fashionable to smash Pauline Hanson over her comments about Lakemba but when I visited Lakemba in January I walked into an Islamic bookstore on the Main Street and immediately found books encouraging Muslims to murder Jews to bring on the apocalypse."

David Hollyoake on X - "Afghanistan-born Fatima Payman telling Australian-born Senator Pauline Hanson to pack her bags and get out of Australia is a perfect metaphor of what is happening in Australia right now."

Two new federal polls have One Nation gaining on Labor - "Two new federal polls by DemosAU and Fox & Hedgehog have the combined primary vote for Labor and the Greens dropping as One Nation continues to surge. There’s no sign of a boost for the Coalition from Angus Taylor replacing Sussan Ley... Anthony Albanese’s net positive rating was down three points to -17, with 46% giving him a negative rating and 29% positive. Taylor’s initial net positive was -4 (28% negative, 24% positive), up 14 points on Ley. Pauline Hanson’s net positive improved four points to -1 (38% negative, 37% positive)."

Andrew Kerr on X - "NEW: Another race hoax bites the dust. A jury just ordered the perpetrators of this one to pay $3.2 million in damages to the white child they publicly smeared in 2021 in a cooked-up scheme to raise $120k through GoFundMe. You may remember this race hoax. The mainstream media covered it breathlessly at the time. Summer Smith, the mother of a black middle schooler in Texas, said her child was abused by a group of white kids, who allegedly tricked him into going to a sleepover where they pelted him with BB guns while they forced him to drink their own urine. Smith's attorney, Kim Cole, said the black child was "tortured," BLM-linked groups called it a "racially-motivated hate crime," and Smith called the alleged white assailants "evil" on televised press conferences. Several major outlets including NBC, CBS, CNN, Business Insider, People, Daily Mail, Dallas Morning News and Good Morning America covered the story, helping Smith raise $120k in a GoFundMe that she said would be used to pay for her son to attend private school (spoiler: she spent less than 1% of the funds on private schooling) NONE of those outlets reached out to Asher Vann, the white kid alleged to have organized this heinous attack. This had very real consequences for Vann and his family. Vann told me he received thousands of death threats, and said protesters threw bricks at his house one night as the media drummed up outrage for clicks. And last month, a racially diverse Texas jury ruled the whole thing was a hoax. They ordered Smith and her attorney, Kim Cole, to pay Vann $3.2 million in damages for intentionally smearing him and tarnishing his future earning potential during their media tour in 2021. Vann and his family aren't expecting Smith to pay up anytime soon. That's because she spent almost all the $120k of her GoFundMe bounty on luxuries for herself, including a designer dog, dining and travel, beauty products, liquor, vapes, cell phones, car payments, and rent. She spent less than $1,000 of the funds on private schooling for her son. Smith maintains she told the truth about what happened to her son in 2021 and told me she plans to file an appeal. Smith's attorney, Cole, later went on to briefly represent Karmelo Anthony, the black student charged with first degree murder last year for fatally stabbing a white student at a high school track meet. Similar deal there -- Anthony's family raised over $500k in a GoFundMe and soon afterwards found themselves holed up in a $900k house with a brand-new car in the driveway. Cole left that case soon afterwards. READ:"

Konstantin Kisin on X - "The British Establishment has a simple rule: The problem is never the problem. The problem is people who dare to point out the problem. Grooming gangs, illegal immigration, terrorism, men in women's prisons, Net Zero. Same playbook every time: "racist", "denier", "Nazi". You'd think when you're calling a beloved children's author a Nazi, you'd maybe stop and pause. But no. Another part of the rule is that no matter how right the "bad" people turn out to be, they remain tainted by having been right. Feminists like JK Rowling were vilified for opposing puberty blockers being given to children. The government rowed back on the policy. But the women who spoke out against it are still considered bigots. Grooming gangs turned out to be racist anti-white hate crimes. If this had been done by an invading army, it would be rightly treated as a war crime. But the people who covered it up and ignored it are still the "good" people and the people who complained about it are still the "bad" people. The same is true of illegal immigration. Islamism. Net Zero. And this is why the country is screwed. Because we live in a society where the golden rule is that you must tolerate the intolerable or you'll be made a pariah for caring about the safety of British women and girls, for wanting a cohesive society, for wanting a strong economy. I've had enough of this and my sense is so have the British people. We won't keep quiet anymore. Call us all the names you want. It doesn't work anymore."

Max K on X - "This is absolutely standard practice. Call out Islamic terrorism and they’ll instantly accuse you of being far right. But commit jihadist atrocities and they’ll obfuscate and deflect endlessly. So many examples to choose from. Here are a few
1) After pub goers and bankers were stabbed to death by ISIS supporters, the Labour party decided to remove any reference to ‘Islamism’ from its manifesto, while explicitly mentioning far right terrorism repeatedly.
2)After Sir David Amess’ was murdered by a jihadist, his fellow politicians decided the real issue was a lack of ‘compassion’ in political life. One MP started rambling about Brexit, and the Observer asserted that it would be ‘abhorrent’ to ‘politicise the tragedy’.
3)After schoolgirls watching an Ariana Grande concert were blown up by Salman Abedi, leading left-wing figures took to the airwaves to tell us the ‘attacker was not Muslim’. Then talking heads queued up to virtue signal about how we must not look back in anger (what?), and the mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham rebuked a Muslim woman who sought to raise the issue of radicalisation on Question Time.
4) When Charlie Hebdo journalists were slaughtered, hundreds of liberal authors signed a petition - not against extremism, but rather criticising the decision to present the dead journalists with a bravery award because they were meanypants to Islam.
There are quite literally hundreds more examples I could give here."

Links - 13th March 2026 (2 - Iran War [including Khamenei's Death, Ramadan War])

Ζoë Booth on X - "In his 1996 book, The Clash of Civilisations, Samuel Huntington argued that post-Cold War conflict would be driven not by ideology or economics but by culture - specifically, by the irreconcilable differences between Western civilisation and Islam. Huntington would've viewed Shia Muslims publicly mourning Khamenei in Australia as a textbook case of civilisational fault lines playing out on Western soil. That is, a minority group asserting loyalty to a figure and a theology that are explicitly hostile to the society hosting them. So, can you follow Khamenei's teaching and uphold Australian values simultaneously? I don't see how. The Shia doctrine of velayat-e faqih holds that divine law must govern all of society and that the supreme leader is its earthly custodian. In other words, this is not a private faith that can be quietly compartmentalised. It is an explicitly political theology. Mourning Khamenei is a public statement. Australia is built on the premise that women, gays, atheists, Jews, Christians and Muslims are all equal, a premise Khamenei spent his life trying to destroy. You cannot venerate the man and honour the country at the same time. Pick one."

NSW Premier slams ‘atrocious’ vigils for Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei | The Australian - "you can always rely on one group to take the side of those who have been subjugated: progressive white women, for whom no cognitive dissonance is too great and no irony too glaring... Western Sydney Women chief executive Amanda Rose devoted her Channel 7 appearance to defending the legacy of a man whose regime imprisoned, tortured and executed women for the crime of showing their hair. Her organisation is a non-profit, built on the mission of helping women achieve economic independence and freedom. Despite the whitewashing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crimes, Rose did make one valid point: it is unreasonable to ask a religious organisation not to mourn their spiritual leader... The tolerance we’re asked to extend to those mourning Khamenei is itself a product of a civilisa­tion he despised: liberal plural­ism. It is a specifically Western concept, with Judaeo-Christian roots. It grew, haltingly and imperfectly, from the Hebrew prophets who insisted the king was answerable to God; from Christ’s injunction to render unto Caesar only what was Caesar’s; from the long and painful Christian argument about the limits of temporal power. Islam, in its Khomeinist iteration, gave the world the opposite: the absolute fusion of religious and political authority, with no gap between God’s law and the state’s. Of course, some Muslim-majority societies are more pluralistic. Dubai has synagogues and lights its malls at Christmas. But tolerance dispensed from the top by an absolute monarch is a different thing entirely from pluralism baked into the foundations of a civilisation. The West did not arrive at this pluralism by royal decree. It argued and fought its way there across centuries. These values are completely antithetical to what Khamenei preached. Friends of mine who grew up in Iran remember being made to chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at school. Khamenei’s terror was not confined to the Middle East; he orchestrated attacks on Australian soil. In August 2025, ASIO attributed the December 2024 firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue to IRGC-directed operatives. In October 2024, my local kosher delicatessen, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, was set alight in a related operation. Yet the dictator who orchestrated attacks on Australian soil had the audacity to lecture us on human rights. His official website cited the treatment of Aboriginal Australians as a “sanitised genocide”. He cited Nauru detention centres as “intentional torture”."

Meme - murk @peltolamentum: "former elizabeth warren aide btw"
calla @CallaWalsh: "The only real justice for Imam Khamenei and for all the martyrs will be the total and complete dismantling of the US and "Israel." Anything less is a capitulation."
Left wingers like Calla Walsh want to destroy the US and Israel. But of course if you say that you're a crazy far right conspiracy theorist spreading misinformation

Saul Sadka on X<.a> - "The Economist, in its “fighting back the tears” obituary for Khamenei, salivates with true depravity over Trump’s future death in grisly, if ecstatic, terms: “...when Mr. Trump’s body was ashes, eaten by worms and ants.” It makes the Washington Post and its infamous “Austere Islamic Scholar” obituary for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seem very quaint indeed. But I read the whole thing so you don’t have to. The key takeaways:
1. The USA is the Great Satan—no scare quotes.
2. For readers who don’t know what “Israel” is, the Economist helpfully translates it in parentheses as “the little Satan.”
3. Khamenei, otherwise known as “God’s Dictator,” had “divine right on his side” and had “countless reasons to hate the West,” which is an America-led “phalanx of morally corrupt countries.”
4. Khamenei was a sainted and humble man, dragged to power against his will, selfless and “heroically flexible” and unassailable—a “humble cleric from Mashhad who inherited the earth.”
5. Honourable in life, but perfect in death: what could be sweeter than delicious martyrdom? What could be “more deserving of paradise-to-come than to drink the pure draught of a martyr’s end”?!
6. According to the Economist, “Freedom, human rights, dress codes for women” are “tiresome Western tropes.” Yes, really.
7. All his troubles were economic: he was tormented by the West and by foreign enemies. All the crimes he ordered—beatings, killings, and so on—were, naturally, merely “a response” to those Western crimes.
8. He “rules by divine authority,” and “his tongue could channel God.”
9. He was just a ”mild-mannered cleric” gazed benignly from billboards and was a great teacher of forgiveness”.
We have now surely reached the apogee of the decay of the legacy media in the West. Surely it can't sink lower than this?"
One claim is that this is how the Economist always writes its obituaries. But the contrast with Silvio Berlusconi's and Rush Limgaugh's (not officially an obituary, but written like one) is telling. Those incorporates some of their worldviews, but are also pretty critical of them and their legacies ("Silvio Berlusconi duped Italians for years" and he was "perpetually dogged by scandal")

Meme - Drew Holden @DrewHolden360: "I'm merely asking NY Times to treat the passing of a known terrorist with the same invective as they gave Rush Limbaugh."
"AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, HARD-LINE CLERIC WHO MADE IRAN A REGIONAL POWER, DIES AT 86"
"Rush Limbaugh Dies at 70; Turned Talk Radio Into a Right-Wing Attack Machine. With a following of 15 million and a divisive style of mockery, grievance and denigrating language, he was a force in reshaping American conservatism."

Meme - End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "Dilbert creator vs Ayatollah of Iran"
"People: Scott Adams, Disgraced "Dilbert" Creator, Dies at 68
The New York Times: AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, HARD-LINE CLERIC WHO MADE IRAN A REGIONAL POWER, DIES AT 86"

Meme - Matt Forney @mattforney: "This is the Reddit version of pistols at dawn"
"No. We need to have reliable sources confirming his death."
"I would say the sources stating he died are pretty reliable"
"this is Wikipedia, not reddit"
"Not an objective fact, if you wanna say this go onto Twitter or Reddit. Wikipedia talk page isn't meant for people"
"still not confirmed"
"I believe the only ones who have said he's dead babe been the American and israel governments, the news sites saying he's dead only have their statements as evidence"
"Even CBS news is reporting He is dead. This really needs to be updated! It is becoming shameful that Wikipedia is blocking this accurate reporting!!!!!"
Eudaimonia @eudaimoniaEsq: "Wikipedia mods are mad and refusing to say Khamenei is dead. Go look at the "talk" section of his Wikipedia page lol"

Meme - Piyush: "> dedicated his entire life to a war against Israel and America.
> died on the first day."

Meme - Khamenei.ir: "The US President has said that for 47 years, the United States hasn't been able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. That is a good confession. I say, " You, too, will not be able to do this."
The Americans constantly say that they've sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.
The US President keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world. The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again."

Meme - "Khamenei spent 35 years funding militias that killed thousands of Americans across the world. Yet, the left calls his death an unprovoked attack. Khamenei hanged gay men from cranes in public squares. Yet, LGBTQ activists call his death an unprovoked attack. Khamenei's morality police beat women to death for showing their hair. Yet, Western feminists call his death an unprovoked attack. The world has less dictator today, one who had the blood of millions of people on his hand. Yet some people are upset about it, think about what that tells you."

Meme - "SO THE PROTESTERS THAT PROTESTED THE DEATH OF 2 PROTESTORS ARE NOW PROTESTING THE DEATH OF A GUY WHO KILLED 30,000 PROTESTERS"

Meme - Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN: "Iraq was attacked by the US during Ramadan and it sickening to know that the US is again going to attack Iran during Ramadan. The US apparently loves to strike Muslim countries during Ramadan and I am convinced it isn’t what these countries have done to violate international law but about who they worship."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "None of the Persian Gulf wars started in Ramadan. First Persian Gulf: 02/08/1990 which is 10th of Moharram 1411 of Islamic Lunar calendar. second Persian Gulf war: 20/03/2003 which is 16 of Moharram 1424 of Islamic Lunar calendar."

Brother Rachid الأخ رشيد on X - "Muhammad attacked a caravan during Ramadan, (Battle of Badr). He marched on Mecca in Ramadan. Muslim armies invaded Spain in Ramadan. And now Pakistan has attacked Afghanistan in Ramadan. Any comments on that?"

i/o on X - "Two things: (1) The Islamic Republic of Pakistan attacked and declared war on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan yesterday. (2) Iranians are the least religious Muslims in the region (according to prayer service attendance data), and would be far less "sickened" than Omar."

Adam Fisher on X - "Her ignorance is shocking.
1. It was during Ramadan that Muhammad led his army to victory in The Battle of Badr (Islam's first military victory) and later in the Conquest of Mecca. This created the precedent.
2. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched their surprise attack on Israel during Ramadan (and on Yom Kippur). Egyptians still refer to the war as the "Ramadan War."
3. In 1983, Iran launched a major offensive against Iraq during Ramadan called the "Ramadan Offensive" that included human wave attacks with children.
4. In 1988, on the first day of Ramadan, Iraq launched a surprise offensive against Iran called "Operation Ramadan Mubarak."
5. In 2010, during Ramadan, the Somali al-Shabab terrorist group launched what it called a "Ramadan Offensive" against the Mogadishu government.
6. Islamic State (ISIS) launched annual Ramadan offensives and called on its followers to attack during the holy month.
7. On Oct 7, 2023, Hamas with Iranian support, launched its invasion of Israel on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. No one outside of Israel saw the evil in choosing that date.
The US has never launched a war against any Islamic country during Ramadan, but Islamic nations and terrorist groups have done so repeatedly."

Meme - Gene Parmesan @dsonoiki: "lawyer here. bombing a Muslim country during Ramadan is illegal under international law. in a matter of hours, Trump WILL be arrested by international police"
Nerpho: "It was not an illegal strike, just undocumented. No strikes are illegal on stolen land."

Meme - ""Trump Has Spent Billions Striking Iran. California Could Have Built Zero Miles of High-Speed Rail With All That Money!" -Gavin Newsom"

Meme - Baldwin IV from Kingdom of Heaven: "SILENCE, IRANIAN A WHITE LIBERAL is talking"

Meme - Venezuela: "I consent"
Iran: "I consent" *Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby being touchy*
Soyjak Communist: "I DON'T!"

Meme - "Hard to swallow pills
Donald Trump has done more for oppressed people in the last 2 months than the entire global left has done in the last 30 years."

Pistachio 🇮🇷 🇵🇸 on X - "Iran has not attacked a country unprovoked in it's 5000 year old history. Israel has attacked six in one year. Who is the threat here?"
Ankit M (Currently Inactive) on X - "Nadir Shah attacked Delhi 270 years ago, reduced its population by a third and went back with a loot so great that he forgave collection of all taxes in Iran for a decade."
Shashank Shekhar Jha on X - "Nadir Shah attacked India. His army killed Hindus, Infact 30000 in a single day & took over 10000 women as slave. He looted Peacock Throne, Kohinoor, Daryaenoor diamonds as well as others which took 700 elephants, 4000 camels and 12000 horses to carry. All this was unprovoked!!!"
Haviv Rettig Gur on X - "Funny story: Most of the never ending expansions of the Roman Empire were carried out in what the Roman Empire was always careful to characterize as defensive wars. Every conquest. Every genocide. Rome always pretended to be provoked. Iran is one of the most brutal rampagers through this region, as most Arabs will tell you. And like the Romans, it is never not “provoked.” It was one of Hamas’s biggest early supporters, not to help the Palestinians, but to undermine the PLO and the peace process in order to ensure, over the bodies of dead Palestinians, Israel’s eventual annihilation. Iran won’t stop declaring its intention to murder my kids and my people. It has committed and enabled vast brutalities, the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the region, the slow demolition of nations through the building of non-state proxies — all because it is perpetually “provoked.” Well now I’m provoked. And a regime that has murdered and oppressed for 47 years, declared itself at war with the West and America constantly and repeatedly, from its founding ideologues to its present-day rulers, mass-murdered Marines in Lebanon and also Jewish civilians in Argentina — no longer gets to play the “provoked” game. You reap what you sow."

Meme - Rachel Moiselle: "This is an excellent point by Jonathan. Soral is France's most prominent anti-Jewish 'intellectual'. In 2025 it was discovered he was in fact an Islamic Regime asset and mere days ago he was sentenced for this crime. When the Iranian regime falls (for it is now only a matter of when), and the archives are opened, it will be fascinating to see how many people were on their payroll. They will all be held accountable."
Conspiracy Watch: "Antisemitic polemicist #AlainSoral was sentenced today to 2 years in prison without parole, with an arrest warrant, for criminal conspiracy due to his ties with agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran"
Jonathan Eric Lewis @LewisJonathanE: "The odious regime in Tehran will fall. The archives will open. And we will find out just who in the UK, USA, and Ireland have been on the..."

Meme - Kane: ""Survive the horrors of war"? Ilhan Omar's family was the one doing the horrors ffs"
"Nur Omar Mohamed was the father of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar... Career in Somalia: Before fleeing to the United States, he was a teacher trainer and a high ranking officer (colonel) in the Somali National Army under the Siad Barre regime"
Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN: "Trump has launched an illegal regime change war. As someone who has survived the horrors of war, I know military strikes will not make us safer; they will inflame tensions and push the region further into chaos...."

Sovey on X - "It Was Never About Iran or Venezuela: It’s About Weakening China, and It’s Brilliant
China’s economic ascent is tethered to a critical vulnerability: its reliance on foreign oil. Importing over 70% of its oil, China depends heavily on a few key suppliers. This reliance creates a strategic opportunity for the U.S. By influencing Iran and Venezuela, two of the world’s top holders of oil reserves, the U.S. can exert direct or indirect influence over their trade partnerships, thereby tightening China’s energy supply.
Key Points:
• Venezuela: Ranked 1st globally, holding around 17–18% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
• Saudi Arabia: Ranked 2nd, holding about 15–16% of global reserves. Although an ally, their reserves are pivotal.
• Iran: Ranked 3rd, holding around 12% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Combined, these three countries hold ~45% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Strategic Moves with a Broader Aim
While the public narrative focuses on removing dictators, curbing drug trafficking, and neutralizing Iran’s nuclear threat, the overarching strategy is clear. Ensuring these nations are not under the influence of U.S. adversaries limits China’s ability to secure its energy needs. Take Venezuela. Yes, drug trafficking into the United States is a serious issue. But Mexico remains the primary corridor for narcotics entering America, and China has played a documented role in supplying precursor chemicals that fuel the fentanyl crisis. Neither country faced comparable military intervention. If drugs were the sole driver, the strategic map would look very different. Now consider Iran. Stopping nuclear proliferation is a legitimate national security objective. Yet North Korea already possesses nuclear weapons and continues advancing its missile capabilities. The United States has not pursued direct regime removal there. The difference is not the level of authoritarianism or even the nuclear threat. The difference is strategic energy leverage. This strategic foresight is what makes the move consequential. By focusing on two nations that sit atop massive oil reserves and that have served as energy lifelines to China, the U.S. does more than remove hostile regimes. It reshapes global energy influence. The effect is subtle but powerful. Direct control is not required. Influence over leadership, trade policy, or export alignment can be enough to alter who benefits from nearly half of the world’s proven oil reserves. While the world debates the immediate justifications for U.S. actions in Iran and Venezuela, the broader picture reveals a calculated effort to weaken America’s primary competitor. Removing dictators matters. Stopping drug pipelines matters. Containing nuclear threats matters. But the main plot is strategic pressure on China. And seen through that lens, the move is not reckless. It is deliberate. And it is brilliant."

Richard Hanania on X - "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan discredited interventionism in the eyes of the American public. What the last few years have done in contrast is discredit anti-interventionism, or the idea that American power cannot be used for good. First came the Abraham Accords, where contrary to every prediction made by practically every Middle East expert, Israel signed peace treaties with several of its neighbors without taking care of the Palestinian issue first. Throughout the first Trump administration, the maximum pressure campaign had Israel, the Arabs, and the US all on the same side against Iran. The Syrian regime falls, the new leader in Damascus is pro-Western. We ended up fighting both Assad and ISIS, and defeated them both. Then you had the Venezuela operation. Without losing any American soldiers, we removed the Maduro regime, and replaced it with a government that has been freeing political prisoners and opening up the oil industry to American companies. Cuba will probably be overthrown without any cost next, ending the over half-century nightmare there. Now, after taking a detour during the Hamas war and wiping out Hezbollah's leadership, Israel along with the US slaughter the entire upper echelon of the Iranian regime. What's next in Iran? Who knows? But isn't there at least a chance it'll be better than the old theocrats? Why would anyone dismiss the possibility? People deny this is possible just because they want America and the West to fail. Russia and China remain problems and North Korea is an exception. But when it comes to weaker enemies around the world, we can just kill them and everything will be fine. As it turns out, we misunderstood the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan. The lesson wasn't "never do regime change" or "never kill bad people." The lesson we should've taken was "don't do social engineering through war." Killing bad people and removing bad government is fine, both in terms of American interests and from a humanitarian perspective. Now that we've seen how easy it is, we arguably have a moral obligation to keep doing it. There is a lot to be gained by just removing the worst of the worst. Going from Stalin to Khrushchev and Mao to Deng made things much better. Same with going from Maduro to Delcy, and the same is likely to be true with regard to whatever comes next in Iran and Cuba. Don't waste your time on micromanaging the country and having feminist art exhibitions like we did in Afghanistan. Just remove regime you don't like first, and then be pragmatic with the next steps. America is powerful and good. We just need to understand that it is ok to admit it."

Wilfred Reilly on X - "There are no ultimate rules. Humans are smart predatory apes. Order comes from power. It's good to try to civilize that reality a bit, but making up entire ridiculous moral systems that deny it and define weakness as a form of strength - from critical race theory and radical feminism to "demand making, post-colonial, International law" - is just a waste of everyone's time. A key point here: Iran or Hamas or the Taliban - or, for that matter, Black activists or separatist feminists - who had USA-level power would do far far worse things with it than the US leadership has. Seeing these people as GOOD because they are currently WEAK is delusion."i

Jay Fivekiller on X - "This whole war with Iran is Jimmy Carter's fault. He should have nuked Tehran a few days after they seized the embassy in 1979. The moral weakness of that simpering Holy Joe has caused America nearly 50 years of heartache and death."
Will Tanner on X - "Jimmy Carter was a Third Worldist. Whether the religious fanatics in Iran, the Central Americans demanding our canal, Mugabe and Nkomo in their war on Western civilization in Rhodesia, or the Weather Underground/Black Pathers/Black Liberation Army/FALN insurgency that wrecked America, he aided them in their fight against the West in the name of equality. He was by far one of America's worst presidents, and by far one of the most evil men to ever sit in the Oval Office"

Councilwoman Vickie Paladino on X - "There's a reason the leftist activist class goes into hysterics every time Iran is threatened -- a significant portion of their money and organizational support flows from or through Iran. Iran is a key node in leftist organizing, and they stand to lose a LOT with Iran off the table."

Clare Daly on X - "Physically sick at the diabolical attack on Iran by the US and Israeli terror regimes. Inexpressible contempt for fork-tongued EU "leaders", pretending in recent weeks to give a damn about civilians in Iran, now openly or tacitly endorsing their slaughter, but what's new? Deep shame that so many from the so-called "left" in Europe lent their voices to the propaganda spectacle last month, which was so obviously aimed at legitimising this hideous war of aggression. Do better. This is the world that was made in the hellfire in Gaza. Organise NOW to end impunity, restore international law and bring the criminals in Israel, Europe and America to justice, or all is lost."
Alan Shatter on X - "Strangely Clare Daly wasn’t “ physically sick” when her regime friends in Tehran executed 1,922 prisoners in 2025, hanged some in public, murdered thousands demanding an end to the regime’s oppression, imprisoned, tortured & sexually assaulted many arrested for protesting against the regime, beat up & blinded women who stopped wearing a hijab, praised Hamas’s barbaric Oct 7 atrocities, when Iranian sponsored Hamas terrorist murdered 22year old Irish citizen Kim Damti at the Nova Music festival & abducted then 8 year old Emily Hand from Kibbutz Be’eri, nor when she & Mick Wallace received the Ismail Haniyeh ( terrorist remembrance) award in Tehran. The sickness is strangely selective!"

Visegrád 24 on X - "🇪🇸 Spain's far-left PM Sánchez spoke against Israel and the U.S. military operation in Iran: “We have enjoyed decades of peace and prosperity that are suddenly being undermined. How is it possible to intervene by bombing hospitals or schools?”"
Aɴᴛ on X - ""We have enjoyed decades of peace..." Is the fucking cretin aware that the Iranian regime has backed terror cells across Europe and that in the UK alone MI5 has foiled over 20 IRGC backed terror plots? Seriously, once they're done with the operation in Iran, the US should seriously consider removing European leaders the way they did with Maduro. Sánchez is most definitely in the top three."

Bushra Shaikh on X - "I'd fully support Pakistan giving Iran a nuke right now."
Chris Rose on X - "Remember, British MSM present this woman as a “moderate” Muslim."

Sally Rooney’s God complex has just reached a terrifying level

Left wingers have no meaning in life, which is why they keep chasing Revolution. As Richard Dawkins observed, the retreat of Christianity has opened the way to worse things. And they still imagine they are brave and stunning for repeating left wing orthodoxy:

Sally Rooney’s God complex has just reached a terrifying level
The Irish novelist embodies the staggering vanity of pro-Palestine activism  

Move over God, there’s a new supreme being in town. And her holy goal – just like Yours – is to save life on earth.

Her name is Sally Rooney. You might know her as the celebrated Irish novelist. The penner of soppy books about angst-ridden Irish lovers who wring their untoiled hands over capitalism and climate collapse.

But she’s so much more than the sainted storyteller of Trinity grads and white girls in Dalston, who never leave the house without a keffiyeh around their necks and a Rooney novel in their tote bags.

She is also the aspiring saviour of humankind, the venerable liberator of us dumb, messy humans from our wicked ways.

At the weekend, she gave a speech in Amsterdam on the horrendous war in Sudan that has laid waste to so much human life. Only joking. She talked about Gaza. These people speak of nothing else.

She was speaking at The People’s Congress for the Hague Group, a cranky outfit hell-bent on dragging the Jewish State to the International Criminal Court to answer for the “crime” of fighting back against the army of anti-Semites that invaded it on October 7, 2023.

With ocean-going pomposity, she said we brave few who stand up for Palestine are standing up for the planet itself. Humanity’s very “future on this earth” depends on us, she said, with all the humility of Caligula on a bender.

Our “adversaries”, she continued, as if she were Boudica rather than a gold-collared luminary of the literary set, are the same people who are destroying life as we know it.

She rattled off these enemies of “Palestine solidarity”: the United States, Israel (natch), the military industrial complex, corporate finance and Big Tech.

These people who long to crush our valiant efforts to save Gaza are the “same forces” who are driving “catastrophic climate change” and “destroying the very basis of our shared survival”.

“By standing in solidarity with Palestine, we are learning how to fight for life on earth”, she said.

The egotism is off the scale. These are hitherto untapped levels of self-regard.

The Israelophobic smug set really does believe that, in boycotting Israeli oranges, it is helping to save earth itself from a fiery death at the hands of evil rich people.

Then the Marie Antoinette of Palestine solidarity did something extraordinary – she unwittingly confirmed that “Palestine” is now little more than a moral prop in the lives of bored middle-class millennials.

She told her fawning audience that Palestine solidarity is the great cause of our time because: “What else… can give us a reason to go on, to fend off despair, to live with ourselves, and to fight for our future?”

Standing with Palestine is the only thing that can “make our lives endurable”, she said.

This is a staggering admission. Rooney has pulled back the curtain – or keffiyeh, perhaps – on the depthless vanity of Palestine activism.

She inadvertently exposed that today’s hip cult of Israelophobia is as much about liberating moneyed Western Leftists from the hell of historical boredom as it is about assisting the Palestinian people.

It is self-reverence masquerading as solidarity. They wear Arab headgear and forcefield their lives from the unholy wares of the Jewish State, not because it will have any tangible impact in the Middle East, but in order to make a spectacle of their own virtue.

As Rooney says, it helps them “fend off despair”. It gives them a reason “to go on”. They’re so vain they think this war is about them.

Perhaps the most galling thing in Rooney’s self-flattering homily was her depiction of Palestine activism as a plucky stand against the “forces” of capitalism.

Please. Hating Israel is the great dinner-party prejudice of our time. It’s the moral glue of the cultural establishment. You’re no one in these circles if you don’t drape yourself in the keffiyeh and occasionally forswear brunch in order to rub shoulders with radical Islamists yelling “Globalise the Intifada”.

Rooney thought she was making yet another peacock-like display of her own ethical rectitude. In truth, she gave us a glimpse into the delusional narcissism that fuels “Palestine solidarity”.

 

Related: 

𝑻𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒂 on X - "I don’t know if this is funny or tragic. Sally Rooney’s life is only “endurable” because of Palestinianism."

Ζoë Booth on X

"What planet is Sally Rooney on?

She told her audience — fellow writers, artists, "public figures in the wealthy global north" — not to dwell on what they "stand to lose" by speaking out. "What else," she asked, "can make our lives endurable in times as dark as these? What else can give us a reason to go on, to fend off despair, to live with ourselves… despite the consequences?"

Firstly, it's tragic that she needs Palestine, the fight for Palestine against Zionism, to give her the will to live.

Secondly, again, what planet is she on? This idea that antizionists are being victimised is fanciful. There has never been a better time to be a pro-Palestinian activist in the Arts, and never worse time post WW2 to be Jewish in Arts/publishing.

Supporting Palestine is not the brave, embattled position. It is the orthodoxy. It is the price of admission to the rooms Rooney already occupies."

Addendum:

Di (Yee) on X

"I knew about the second half of her speech, but only listened to the whole thing now. The exaggeration & self-regard are laughable. In Vietnam, for example, dissidents & human rights defenders lose their jobs, lose their families, face harassment, get tortured, get imprisoned for years for speaking out about persecution. A family I often speak to, peaceful land rights activists, has 3 people in prison: 8 years, 8 years, 21 years. I have friends & acquaintances imprisoned for articles, social media posts, or peaceful activism. My own family had to flee Vietnam. I can no longer return to my own country. My uncle in Australia was stopped twice at the airport in Vietnam, not allowed to enter. People under other authoritarian regimes, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, would have similar experiences. Sally Rooney supports the most trendy cause right now—among celebrities & academia & the media & young people—ignoring everything else in the world, & she has the audacity to speak of the price she had to pay? Fuck her."

Disgustingly but unsurprisingly, someone mocked her for her and her parents still being alive.

Links - 13th March 2026 (1 - General Wokeness [including BAFTA Tourette's)

Jim Spence slams disgraceful John Davidson treatment - "The anger felt by so many Scots at the unjust treatment suffered by Tourette’s sufferer John Davidson at and after the Baftas has united the nation. There’s a wholly justified rage at the duplicity of the film industry and many of the luvvies in it, which has been perfectly encapsulated in their disgraceful treatment of John, from the Borders town of Galashiels. Tourette’s causes involuntary motor and vocal tics over which the sufferer has no control, and coprolalia – uncontrollable use of obscene language – affects some sufferers, including John, who has spoken about it publicly. Invited to the Baftas in midweek to celebrate the film I Swear, which portrays his everyday life struggles with the affliction, John shouted out the N-word when black actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage... the furore over the matter has exposed the vicious underbelly of many in an industry which chants the mantra of diversity and kindness. It seems that there are limits to those characteristics, and a hierarchy in which some folk are less equal than others. John Davidson’s neurological disability comes down the pecking order it seems. Only an industry located so firmly up its own backside could gather to honour a film illustrating the grim realities facing someone living with Tourette’s and then be so publicly aggrieved when the actuality of that illness – and the involuntary nature of its effects on those suffering from it – reveals itself in their midst. The debilitating effects of the illness were vividly illustrated by the fact that John felt sufficiently embarrassed that he excused himself from the main body of the hall to another part of the arena, after his uncontrollable outburst. Not only did John’s grim condition enrage the carefully crafted and tender sensibilities of some of those present, but we’ve also witnessed savage and unedifying attacks on a man who is imprisoned daily by a disease which has no cure and over which he has no control. The confected compassion in the world of those who espouse empathy and kindness has been brutally revealed for the sanctimonious guff that it is. It seems that for some superficial individuals who piously pontificate about equality, John’s neurological disability makes him less equal than some others. The BBC has been fingered as culpable in not editing the segment from their coverage. However, they may have inadvertently done us a favour in revealing the hypocrisy of an industry where some folk have more faces than the ancient Roman god Janus."
Once again, the "kindness" and "empathy" crowd are incredibly cruel and vicious. Wokeness is just the best way to bully other people right now

CMV: The John Davidson Incident Demonstrates a Substantial Hypocrisy Among Black Activists : r/changemyview - " The background: John Davidson is a disability activist with Tourettes. The most basic level of research into his medical condition will inform a person that John has zero control over his symptoms. Furthermore and unfortunately, his main symptom is a tic which quite literally and physically forces him to say the most inappropriate thing possible in a given moment. At the BAFTAs, this unfortunately led to him shouting out the N-word while two black individuals were on stage.
The reaction: While many are very understanding of John's condition, I have observed on social media, and particularly within spaces dedicated to advancing the interests of black people, a substantial amount of ignorant reactions. These reactions range from comments suggesting he wouldn't have said the slur if it wasn't part of his regular vocabulary (assumes control and malice: ableist), to suggesting he shouldn't have attended the event if he was aware of his tic (ableist), to suggesting he should have apologized afterward (he has, but also: ableist to insist upon; he has no control over it)... Why is this hypocritical instead of just wrong? Frankly, you don't have to look far to find a plethora of articles and posts by advocates of black issues about how it is not black people's responsibility to educate white people about racism, but white people's responsibility to be educated about it. A common theme in this type of statement is that it should not require education by black people, but empathy on the part of white people to become educated on black issues. Black people are the victim of racism and therefore should not be forced to bear the burden of educating others on their plight. And I strongly sympathize with this point of view, except that... If we are to apply this consistently, then the onus of responsibility is not on disabled people, but on the able-bodied, to have empathy for and become educated on the plight of the disabled. Able-bodied black people should not be excluded from this, and should be expected to have a level of understanding for neurological disorders strictly by virtue of empathy, unless we are to believe that black people are the only ones deserving of empathy.
What would change my mind?
A - Show me that (and how) the "he's racist/shouldn't have been there" reaction is only a fringe position among black people / black advocacy groups.
B - Show me that black advocacy groups by and large see it as the responsibility of black people and activists to educate and inform others as to their struggles. This would at least reduce the level of inconsistency here in my mind.
C - There is some key and material fact that I have missed, which changes how the consistency or merit of reactions to this incident should be interpreted.
Edit 2: Holy shit. I will not be responding further to comments making the case that he shouldn't have been there due to his disability. Assume he was fully within his rights to be there with your response, as any decent person should."

IG: olesoul57.2 ♉️ 5/12 on X - "Deon Cole: "If there are any white men in the room with Tourette's, I advise you to tell them to read the room, lord. It might not go the way they thinketh.""
Hadley Freeman on X - "On the one hand, two wealthy, successful men living their lifelong dreams get called a horrible name at the Baftas On the other, a man with a lifelong, life-crippling neurological condition now held up for global mockery. Hard not to see this as the endpoint of identity politics"

Meme - Anzu @quirked_up_anzu: "if I had tourettes my tics would be shouting "trans rights', "vote', and black lives matter" because I'm a good fucking person"
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "Coprolalia is an involuntary symptom that doesn't reflect a person's beliefs. Paradoxically, the more inappropriate they consider a word to be, the more likely the brain is to trigger it as a tic. The OP's post propagates harmful, ableist misconceptions."

la scapigliata on X - "The "woke" mob have been abusing and discriminating against the disabled for years. An autistic teenager was dragged out of her house and victimised by the UK police for saying a male-impersonating police officer looked likle her "lesbian nana". Another autistic man was prosecuted for asking another male-impersonator policemen if she was a "girl or a boy"? Offensive epilepsy-inducing zebra crossings, in the colours of the "progress" flag, spooking police horses, making blind and disabled people fall over when crossing the road - NOTHING DONE. This narcissistic ideological rot goes very deep in all our institutions, UK and US."

Meme - raine @_rainedrop: "As a person with Tourette's, no I will not wear a fucking muzzle out in public. We are not fucking animals. Go to hell."
Colin Swallows @heswallowswhat: "If it's a risk that you will offend a minority then you should be a decent enough human being to voluntarily put a muzzle on. This is no excuse for racism."

Liza Rosen on X - "In Pakistan, girls are considered a family burden, so Muslim fathers often discard newborn babies by throwing them into garbage piles. Headlines periodically emerge about this horrific practice after local residents hear cries and pull out the babies. Indeed, Pakistani Muslim fathers don’t even bother killing the infants before throwing them away. Almost all the dead babies suffered until their last breath, either from suffocation, being crushed under garbage, or dying of thirst. In Islam, women and girls are treated worse than animals. Not all cultures are equal!"
Allie Beth Stuckey on X - "Everyone should read the book, “When Children Became People” by historian OM Bakke. In it, he explains how the ancient pagan world justified the slaughter and mistreatment of children. Scholars believed at the time that a person’s worth was determined primarily by their possession of the “logos” or their ability to reason. Only the adult free male were thought to have the fullness of rational capacity, so women, slaves, and children were seen as inherently less-than. Children got the worst of it, as they were considered in the same category as animals and barbarians. Thus, children were, without qualm, aborted, murdered, trafficked and objectified. Unwanted newborns were left to die on what were called “exposure hills.” Babies would be left there —alive and screaming— to be exposed to the elements until they died. But about 2,000 years ago, the perspective on children started to change. Eventually, the practice of infanticide was stigmatized, then criminalized, then replaced— with orphanages, hospitals, and other means by which desperate parents could ensure their babies were cared for. Children became people. Slowly but surely, they went from a class of sub-humans to be discarded and oppressed to a special category of vulnerability deserving of love. Those of us in the West consider this sentiment the norm. Even with our raging debates on abortion and other child-centered issues, the Western instinct is still to show compassion for the child above and beyond the compassion we show for adults. But it was not always so, and it is not so in most of the world today. The game changer for children— and the impoverished, the sick, the elderly, slaves, and women— two millennia ago was Christianity. Christians changed how the world saw children. This strange and persistent group worshiped a man named Jesus, whom they claimed to be God. Yet unlike the pagan gods of the day, their God came to earth in weakness and meekness. In fact, He arrived first as an embryo. He was heralded by the kicks of a newborn John the Baptist. He was worshiped by angels and wise men as an infant. And, against the protestations of His disciples, insisted: “Let the children come to me, for such as these belong the Kingdom of Heaven.” This Jesus had another name— one with which the pagan scholars at the time would have been familiar: Logos. The Word. Pagan scholars said “logos” determines a person’s worth. But the Logos said, “Your worth is defined by me.” Christians popularized the concept of the Imago Dei — that all people are equally valuable just because they are people. And they preached this radically equalizing gospel that said that all people are dead in sin apart from Christ but all can be made alive in Him. Christians, through this message, because of Jesus, completely changed how the world saw people. You cannot have all the things we cherish in the West: compassion, dignity, human rights, and forgo the foundation upon which these things are built. Look to the non-Western world today and see the unbroken chain of oppressing women and children. Perhaps so-called “Christian nationalism” isn’t the bogeyman you should be most afraid of. Something to consider."

Wall Street Apes on X - "Steven Crowder in Dearborn, Michigan “What do you think would happen if we went into a Muslim bakery and asked for a gay wedding cake? No need to wonder. We did it for you.” Where are the outcries and lawsuits?"
NOVA Campaigns on X - "Every Muslim bakery in Michigan rejected making a homosexual wedding cake"

Nemets on X - "USSR in the Brezhnev era prosecuted its domestic enemies under Article 70 (Agitation) & Article 190-1 (Disinformation). 3,234 people were arrested under those articles from 1962-1985. The UK prosecuted 2,341 cases of internet speech in 2022 alone, with 1,816 convictions."
arctotherium on X - "Annualized, UK speech prosecutions are running at about 17x those of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev. Of course, the USSR had 4x the population, so more like 68x the prosecutions/person*year."

Meme - "Modern UK Speech Prosecutions Greatly Exceed the USSR Under Brezhnev. Annualized arrests under Soviet anti-speech articles vs. British internet speech prosecutions.
UK: 2,341 in one year (1,816 convicted). Offence Code 19607 2022 (single year)
USSR: ~141 per year (3,234 over 23 yrs). Articles 70 & 190-1 1962-1985 (annualized)"

Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 on X - "This is so incredibly dystopian. A UK govt PSA making kids terrified about sharing A LINK being a thing that will have all their devices raided and end their lives. I know their speech laws aren't as protective but my lord."

Sellafield worker jailed after sharing 'offensive' Facebook posts - "Prosecutor George Shelley said Dunn had posted three separate images. The first one showed a group of men, Asian in appearance, at Egremont crab fair 2025, with the caption: “Coming to a town near you.” The second also showed a group of men, Asian in appearance leaving a boat on to Whitehaven beach. This, said Mr Shelley, had the caption: “When it’s on your turf, then what?” A final image showed a group of men, again Asian in appearance, wielding knives in front of the Palace of Westminster. There was also a crying white child in a Union flag T-shirt. This was also captioned, said Mr Shelley, with the wording: “Coming to a town near you.”"
A left winger claimed, in response to a chart showing that the UK was prosecuting more people for speech than Brezhnev's USSR, that "They call you in for a talk, that in 99% of cases results in nothing. In the most extreme cases it's a fine, because of "public outrage". Nobody has been imprisoned for opinions, people have only been taken to jail because they made threats of violence (also illegal in the US, under call to action). Whoever posted this thinks you are a stupid idiot. There is no reason to be a stupid idiot. Europe is a superb island of civilization in a sea of evil. Why would you side with evil, if you are not a stupid idiot?"

Foreign Office fails to put Britain first. That’s why I’ve quit - "The dysfunction runs deep. In recent discussions about how the Foreign Office could improve productivity with AI, some senior colleagues were more concerned with the need for an environmental impact assessment than for any proposed gains. Colleagues in the Department for International Development (now merged with the Foreign Office) justified to me their refusal to limit working from home to two days a week on the grounds that they didn’t want to work in a “colonial” office building. This is not culture war mudslinging. It illustrates a civil service culture hopelessly distracted by the peripheral, to the neglect of its core mission... Government lawyers often see only risks, not solutions: when successive foreign secretaries asked me to help get our embassies and consulates serving more British produce to boost exports, I was told it would breach procurement law to favour British suppliers over foreign ones. The solutions are not complicated: more senior officials from the private sector and greater ministerial control over mandarins, including the ability to hire and fire. Results prioritised over paper-pushing. Above all, a more ruthless focus on what benefits the British people: our impotence on Iran and craven surrender over Chagos happen when the long-term national interest is sacrificed to unquestioning worship of international law, the demands of noisy activist groups, or the appeasing of sectarian voting blocs. Without reform of the civil service, these episodes will not be the last such ignominies.
Ameer Kotecha was British consul general in Ekaterinburg, 2023-25

The Foreign Office is an international embarrassment - "one watches the Permanent Secretary, one Olly Robbins of Brexit fame, boast to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about his “500 Fairness Champions” and the crackdown on “micro-behaviours”. Some of his predecessors, too, seemed to see their job as making more women and more visibly diverse staff into ambassadors, not about standing up for British interests."

Arizona Military Museum CLOSES after Vietnam vet founder, 80, told tour: 'Eventually they will replace me with some gay, black, woman woke Jew' and claimed mannequin with hand on its hip represented gay soldiers - "A Vietnam War veteran has been ousted from the military museum he curated for decades after suggesting he would be replaced by 'some gay, black, woman, woke Jew.' Joe Abodeely, 80, spent half his life overseeing the Arizona Military Museum which was a personal passion for the Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War - his own uniform was even on display. But for more than four months, the museum has been closed to the public, and the nonprofit overseeing it no longer has state support... Abodeely's remarks during the tour are at odds with posts on the museum's Facebook page where he condemned racists and spoke out about division in the country. 'It is not about economics, or politics, or ideology, or the haves vs. the have nots - it is clearly about RACE,' he wrote of the motivations behind the January 6 siege of the Capitol. 'Those people are simply ignorant, despicable racists; and their actions have brought the race issue to the forefront. It took a racist President and supporters to do it.' In an interview, he claimed he was being pushed out due to a personal vendetta held by Muehlenbeck, a claim that her spokesperson denied."

Fascism With a Smile - "In April of 2021 when Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion facilitator Kike Ojo-Thompson of the KOJO Institute was ripping into Richard Bilkszto in front of his colleagues and calling him a racist and a white supremacist for simply challenging her assertion that Canada was “a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism,” she was positively ecstatic. In referring to the incident the following week, she said with a chuckle, “I’m so lucky that we got perfect evidence, a wonderful example of resistance that you all got to bear witness to… because, I mean, it doesn’t get better than this.” She undoubtedly used this story in later meetings to drive home her point about how “systemically racist” our school systems are. A little over two years later, after Bilkszto's reputation and career were destroyed, and after his untimely suicide last month, I doubt Kike is still laughing. This is hardly the only example of this kind of bullying, though it’s the most extreme one I’m aware of. Diversity. Inclusion. Equity. Who could possibly be against such wonderful human endeavors? Aren't these the very principles our nation was founded on?... Canada is a welcoming nation and inclusion is what we do here. In spite of this, the meteoric rise of the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) industry and its consultants have succeeded in convincing people (for the low, low price of tens of thousands of dollars per session) that Canadian employers and their employees are wholly intolerant of any sort of diversity, completely against equality, and totally opposed to inclusivity. It's almost as if they think we're all fascists. Actually, I think they do... changing the definition of words is precisely what the current Woke movement has been doing for decades. This makes it ridiculously difficult to have an intelligent conversation with them because none of the words mean what you think they mean. So let's examine the word, “fascism” a little bit. In researching fascism, I discovered that there are many definitions of the word, but not many consistent ones. Some of these definitions actually mention that there is no universal definition... none of the generally accepted descriptions of fascism are specifically left or right politically - except of course when someone names it as a “far-right ideology”. That's a lazy description because it doesn't actually mean anything."

CatGirl Kulak 😻😿 (Anarchonomicon) on X - "🧵When they say Vance or republicans are “Weird” what they’re attacking is that they‘re White males. “Weird” or Wyrd is an ancient Anglo-Germanic word of multiple meaning, tied up with the runic alphabet, prophesy, fate, deep North European identity, and Odin. in effect the word means both Ancient white culture, traditional White masculity, and white identity. This is how Queer bipoc neurodivergent transexual, muslims can call them “Weird” and feel not a ounce of cognitive disonance that they, not Vance or Republicans are the ones straying from the norm…. Because in fact they are attacking them for being normal, they are attacking them for being heterosexual white males (the ideal default the rest of you losers are broken imitations of). And the choice of the word ”weird” that they wield so unintelligibly, and which almost no White person has even had much of a negative association with (Aren’t the best people rather weird? whether Napoleon or Bowie?), makes sense when you realize that it’s a scare word specifically for the non-white coalition that subconciously evokes Shakespeares weird sisters or the weird and the white wolf… or any number of a thousand folkloric and fantasy references than none of these people would get, but which they’ve subconsciously learned equates to white people being extra white and unashamed of it… This is how the most homosexual, limpwristed, unrespectable men you’ve ever seen can call a republican “weird”, and not feel an ounce of dissonance that they’re the ones who are queer as folk… because they’re actively trying to taboo white heterosexuality itself, such that in spaces they control only literal buttpirates and practical buttpirates like Walz will be allowed to exist… of course the solution is to call them faggots."
Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 on X - "White hierarchical individualistic men (WHIMs) really are weird Making up around 1/6th of the population, this cluster has markedly different views about risk, guns, environment, and more This sociological research from Yale professor Dan Kahan is fascinating"

Rabbi Poupko on X - "A young idealistic @davidhogg111 dreamed of going into politics to cure the scourge of gun violence. Having grown up a bit, demonizing Israel has become a top priority. A young idealistic @GretaThunberg dreamed of becoming famous to raise awareness to climate change. Having grown up a bit, demonizing Israel has become her top priority. A young idealistic @krystalball dreamed of going into politics to give all Americans access to healthcare. Having grown up a bit, demonizing Israel has become her top priority. A young idealistic @AOC dreamed of going into politics to give people healthcare and reduce income inequality. Having grown up a bit, demonizing Israel has become her top priority. A young idealistic @camkasky dreamed of going into politics to cure the scourge of gun violence. Having grown up a bit, demonizing Israel has become a top priority for him. Does anyone have a psychological name or explanation to this phenomenon?"

Zaid Jilani on X - "A lot of people might wonder what China is going to do. I think their strategy is to do nothing. America wastes trillions on the Middle East the past 25 years while China slowly exceeds us in every area. Do nothing, win."
bumbadum on X - "Every neoliberal is like this. They will glaze China and Singapore for being clean, orderly, and advanced. Then in the next breath they will oppose literally any of that being instituted here in the US. Zaid was chimping out about Trump deploying the NG to DC. Meanwhile in the far east they will throw you in jail forever for graffiti."

Curtis Houck on X - "WATCH: Montel Williams on CNN Thunderdome says the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination was "a love-torn child" likely in the throes of "his first real relationship and someone was disparaging the person he loved" and thus not "motivated politically".... "There are people who are trying to pigeonhole this as a leftist thing and a right thing and what we're really talking about -- hear me, because I'm going to throw you when I say this, we're talking about a love torn child, a kid. This is probably his first real relationship. And somebody was disparaging the person that he loved. He sat on that building for 30 minutes before he took the shot. Why do you wait until the first word trans came up? Then he took the shot. I think he could hear it. I think he also -- I don't believe he was motivated politically. I think this was motivated emotionally. I think this was a emotionally stunted person who literally, when I say it this way, just hear me, tried to defend his significant other, not trying to defend some ideology.""
eugyppius on X - "Remember: Whenever the officially demarcated victim classes of late-stage liberalism commit any crime, their motivation is always individual, specific and at most an artefact of their repression. Whenever the officially demarcated perpetrator classes do the same, their motivation and their guilt is always generalised to everyone sharing their ethnic/political identity. These rigid rules are applied again and again, whatever the facts and in the face of all countervailing evidence."

@amuse on X - "HATE CRIME DATA: FBI racial hate-crime data hides that nearly 50% of victims are white, 5,813 cases in 2024. The Bureau spotlights every group except whites. This is political data manipulation. Don't trust LLMs like ChatGPT and Grok when it comes to FBI hate crime statistics because they rely on the FBI's woke framing of the data. In fact, try to get Gemini to create a chart about the issue and it will flat out refuse to help. The FBI’s 2024 racial hate-crime dataset shows 11,679 cases, but only 5,866 are labeled by race, 3,004 anti-black, 797 anti-Hispanic, 408 anti-Asian, and 1,657 non-white. The remaining 5,813 cases are anti-white, almost half of all reported hate crimes. Critics say FBI's data scientists highlight only select categories to promote a political narrative while concealing the true scale of anti-white victimization. The Bureau’s selective reporting undermines public trust and distorts national policy debates. Time to clean house and present the truth to the American people. h/t @TruthFairy131"

Thread by @TheXReportCard on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "FBI’s crime data explorer has a new category called “not specified” this is different from “unknown”. Left is 2022’s homicide data and right is 2023's data with the new “not specified” category. Note: the 2023 numbers are now below 50% for black homicide offender. Important 🧵
I'm going to use Springfield Ohio to show you how weird this new “not specified” category is. All 10 homicide offenders race are listed as “not specified” for 2023. Notice no victims are labeled as white. Now let’s go through all 10 of these homicides and see WHO the suspects are
*clearly black suspects recorded as race not specified*...
With this new skewed data it now appears like blacks commit less than 50% of the homicide which I hope this thread just proved to you isn't the case."
When crime statistics are unreliable

Sean Nicholls on X - "Before the Bondi attack, LGBTQIA+ Sydney teenagers were the first victims of a new outbreak of public violence linked to the terrorist network that produced gunmen Naveed and Sajid Akram. By ⁦@seanrubinsztein⁩ #ABCInvestigations"
Claire Lehmann on X - "Buried halfway through this news report is an acknowledgment that @abcnews have known about Muslim youths attacking gay teenagers via Grindr but have waited 2 years to report on it."
John Macgowan on X - "A string of organised attacks on gay kids by Middle Eastern adherents of ISIS - in 2024. No one reported this was happening. In 2024, ABC published this piece, claiming "US religious bigotry" was to blame:"

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 on X - "Far-left group “Trans Justice Sydney” just put out a statement saying that they don’t want the ISIS terrorists who filmed themselves bashing and torturing gay kids in Sydney to be sent to prison. We instead need “non-carceral modes of accountability.” ITS LITERALLY FUCKING ISIS"
Simulator di tutti i Simulatori on X - "If an LGBTQ+ justice group comes out against the punishment of people BASHING AND TORTURING GAY KIDS, because the perpetrators are brown and the victims are white, there is no other explanation besides “the foundational principle of the modern left is the hatred of white people”"