Know Your Enemy

Don't believe anything anyone says about the whole stupid & unnecessary mess, from the Bible to Trump

More War

It never stops, does it? Or, "That blowed up real good."Good job by Trump setting this in motion; be nice if the Houthis could depose Lumpy's friend Crown Prince Bone Saw & the rest of the Saud family. PROTIP: Start w/ the oil fields.

"Fracture From Within"

This may be overstated by contrarians at the C.I.A. hoping to apper clever, but it's fun.

CIA Report Warns Israel Could Head Toward Civil War, Total Collapse

U.S. intelligence raises fears of civil unrest and state breakdown in Israel ahead of October 27 elections.

CIA experts pointed to a volatile mix of pressures converging ahead of Israel’s elections on October 27: economic crisis and soaring military spending; heavily armed veterans returning from prolonged combat, many carrying serious psychological trauma; growing fury over ultra-Orthodox men who are exempt from military service; escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fighting to hold onto power and igniting a constitutional crisis.

The CIA’s “red teams” are tasked with developing analysis and ideas that challenge prevailing assumptions and expose groupthink or blind spots that can take hold within the intelligence apparatus. “The writers of this are Israel experts,” a source in the intelligence community noted, “this isn’t a fantastical what if—with the upcoming election and the fissures in Israel we should take seriously their conclusion that Israel is one spark away from real internal conflict.”

C'mon Iran

Los Angeles & San Diego Love You Too,
You Fat Piece Of Dog Shit

Republican/Xian Naionalist/fascist sense of humor: They're cheering, not laughing. And every damn Republican will laugh it off w/ "Oh that Trump's quite the jokester, isn't he? Lighten up", if they admit to hearing it at all.

Los Angeles Times:
Trump suggests letting Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally  California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the president ‘deranged and dangerous.’  — The crowd in Grand Island, Neb., cheered the remarks about Los Angeles and San Diego.
Juan Cole / Informed Comment:   No, Mr. Trump, Iran can't “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego

Matthew Rozsa / Alternet.org:   Trump jokes about Iran destroying Los Angeles and San Diego

Brett Meiselas / MeidasTouch:
Trump Says to Let Iran ‘Take Out’ Los Angeles, San Diego in Nebraska Speech

Tom Wait / CBS News:   Trump suggests allowing Iran to “take out” L.A. and San Diego during campaign rally

Michael Luciano / Mediaite:   Rally-Goers Cheer as Trump Says, ‘Let Them Take Out Los Angeles’ or ‘San Diego’z

Siladitya Ray / Forbes:   Trump Draws Backlash For ‘Let Them Take Out Los Angeles’ Or ‘San Diego’ Iran War Remarks

Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:   Gavin Newsom, Jim Acosta and More Torch Trump After He Dares Iran to ‘Take Out’ Los Angeles or San Diego in Rally Speech

Paul Campos / Lawyers, Guns & Money: More thoughts from the mental acuity and youthful vigor candidate

Carter Schroppe / Washington Examiner:   Trump was ‘well aware’ of energy price risks before Iran decision, energy secretary says

And fuck the cheering Grand Island rally-goers. I'm sick of these hicks. Now can we have that war between the states?

Mission Accompished!

Iran's mission, that is.

“The U.S. removed all its B-1 bombers from the U.K.’s RAF Fairford air base, a decision made due to security concerns over suspected terror plots against the facility, American officials said Sunday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The decision represents a shift for the U.S. which has used the military base northwest of London as a hub for launching bomber strikes in Iran. Until their recent departure, a dozen B-1s had been stationed at the base.”

New York Times: U.S. rushes to withdraw bombers from U.K. air base after new threats.

All you have to say is "BOO!" & Hegseth's "warriors" run like the sissies they are.

An item from digby that links to Bloody Bill Kristol quoting Eco's "Ur-Fascism", which applies both to Whiskey Pete & our previous two items:

And it’s no accident, Eco further points out, that “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

"B-1 bombers in the ground ..."42 yrs. of increasing dread.

It's Yom Kippur!

Some people have one hell of a lot of atonement to do for war crimes & slumlording!

And stop believing in stories your ancient ancestors made up about sky-fairies who will forgive your sins & evil already.

Get Over It Already!

No Phony Patriotism Here

It's been 25 yrs., & you dumb Yankee s.o.b.s are still doing the same things & are asking for it now even more than before w/ increased unprovoked aggression across the region, possibly leading to serious all-out non-sissy fighting, like World War III. Can't think of a stupider fucking nation. You'll deserve anything & everything you get!

And remember, second-worst Pres. Bush let it happen. He never "kept us safe" from the beginning, & put us in greater jeopardy w/ his war-mongering. Thanks, Republicans!! You're the fucking best!!

Many other cartoonists' first cartoon was of a weeping Statue of Liberty. As one of the few who lived in Manhattan on 9/11, this was mine.

There it is, the truth Americans can't handle.

Those of you clinging to literacy can read what should have been done.

The basic American policy response to 9/11 should have been to liberate ourselves from fossil fuels. Without our dependence on oil, we would never have been entangled in the Middle East in the first place. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, citizens of an oil kingdom that we helped to build, our “ally.” The right reaction in September 2001 -- as I wrote to a friend in the White House -- was to fund fusion and other clean energy sources. Had we done so, we could have headed off global warming, prevented further Middle East wars -- and indeed prevented the rise of Vladimir Putin’s hydrocarbon oligarchy and his invasions of Ukraine.

Today we face the reality of rising oceans, vast fires, and resource conflicts. We were given a chance to halt all of that.

But we did not take it. George W. Bush became president of the United States, despite probably losing an election to Al Gore, after the Supreme Court stopped the counting of ballots in Florida. Gore was an environmentalist who cared deeply about global warming. Had 9/11 happened during a Gore presidency, he would have intensified the search for safe energy. Gore was also a more experienced and competent person than Bush, who came from a political oil family and had done nothing notable himself. Had Gore been president, 9/11 might well not have happened. But it did happen, on the watch of the inexperienced oilman. Bush’s White House was never going to link the terror attack to its basic causes.

As if the oilagarchy would have put up w/ that for even a minute.

Netanyahu Knew

Ooops. He lied, thousands died.

Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn't Brief Israel's Security Chiefs

As all decent people suspected. And then he chumped Trump into starting a war w/ Iran. Lovely. Governments run by fucking con men & morons.

Democracy is a joke!

Trains To The East

Where's The Outrage, You Fucking Hypocrites?

The condemnations, the calls for the entire government to resign? Is Netanyahu going to get Trump to go along, like he talked him into an unprovoked attack on Iran & an idiotic war? How many Palestinians will this kill?

Deportation of Jews in Bielefeld, Germany, on Dec. 13, 1941.
(Photo: Courtesy City Archive Bielefeld, CC BY-SA.) Text.

Peter Beaumont / The Guardian:

Far-right Israeli minister outlines plan for removal of all Palestinians from Gaza  —  Itamar Ben-Gvir claims proposal for illegal forced displacement of 2 million people is ‘realistic’ and ‘concrete’  —  Israel's far-right national security minister has set out a plan for the illegal forced expulsion …

Al Jazeera:   Israel kills 3 in Gaza as far-right minister plans for Palestinian removals

Israpundit:   Ben-Gvir's Gaza Exit Strategy

Antonio Pita / El País:   A traveling circus for the horror of Gaza

France 24:   Israel ‘organised and prepared’ to remove Gaza population if US gives green light, Katz says

Would they somehow disappear two million people for blood-stained resort developments?

Last paragraph from The Guardian:

As well as pushing for the expulsion of Gaza’s population, Ben-Gvir has called for the deportation of two MPs and others “who are disloyal to the state of Israel” – including Jews – saying he would promote such a policy if he is included in the next government.

No one is safe. Best to be a loyal citizen & keep your mouth shut, or your life will be ruined. Like this: UPROOTING AND DISPLACEMENT

Scared Much?

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Vice President JD Vance described Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic nominee for Senate, as “evil” during a campaign rally here Monday.

“I realize that there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today,” said Vance, addressing several hundred people at an event put on by MAGA Inc., a super PAC closely aligned with President Donald Trump.

“And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person — whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or Black or brown — but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others, and that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America,” Vance added.

Is he referring to white nationalist scumbags like himself & the other Republicans, who are interested only in helping wealthy white people get wealthier on the backs of working Americans?

Meanwhile ...

Embracing blatant Islamophobia, CBS News makes bizarre attempt to tie El-Sayed to 9/11

CBS News tried to scandalize Abdul El-Sayed's argument about 9/11 and the pandemic. His banal comments aligned with other mainstream commentators — and Trump too.

El-Sayed really puts the fear of Gawd in them, doesn't he? What exactly frightens them so about him?

Considering this is an intramural fight, why don't all three "Abrahamic" religions derived from the Big Book of Jewish Lies & Hallucinations just get lost? Enough is enough already. None of them actually worship their alleged Gawd, but instead kiss the asses of the three mentally ill, sun-fried desert dwellers who hallucinated all the lies & had them transcribed (Moses, Jesus & Mohammed, scam artists all.) I say all three are a complete fucking joke, like virtually all human activity. Stop wasting your time & effort.

And since you don't care what happens to it, why not give me all your money, pathetic chumps?

Get In The Streets, Sheep!!

Hundreds of people in Pakistan took part in nationwide protests and marches organized by the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday against rising fuel prices, high taxes, and soaring inflation. (AP video by Jahanzaib Aurangzeb)

Not a woman to be seen. C'mon America, it's not as if you have anything to lose, show these Islamist pigs how to do it. Men, women & children, pitchforks & torches! Insurrection now, insurrection tomorrow, insurrection forever!!

Smart People Getting Out

A bit ironic, innit?

Emigration of doctors, engineers, other highly educated Israelis hits record high

Israel Tax Authority research finds a near-doubling in five years of skilled, high-earning Israelis leaving; expert warns the trend risks becoming a spiral effect, difficult to reverse

Guessing many if not most of these people are decent humans, meaning the electorate is probably getting more bloodthirsty. Which will, in turn, drive more decent people out. Good job by all in destroying their nation.

[The Times of Israel]

Total Destruction

🎼It's Not Genocide, It's Just Fun!🎶

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen. By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

[image or embed]

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) August 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM

Proud of yourselves, murdering Israeli scum?

On Google maps, whenever new satellite images replace old ones, the erasure can be seen side by side with the adjacent older photo. I don't know how frequently they update.

[image or embed]

— Sandeha Lynch (@sandehalynch.com) August 5, 2025 at 1:24 AM

Will no one stop them before they reap the whirlwind?

Summer Re-Run

Rich Fantasy Life

Gee-ziz, read this: "Antifa". "MS-13". "They [sic] NWO will not have mercy on anyone." Sure. But how did they forget ISIS or whatever the Islamist threat was at the time?

Humanoids have been moronic, paranoid Bizarros since the beginning of human history. Did those post-election riots happen in 2016? Why, no. Not until 6 January 2021. EAIAC.

Cult Of Personality, Delusions Of Grandiosity

This reporter has seen many American propaganda films from WWII but I don't remember any images of F.D.R. or the Sec. of War., Henry Stimson. Here, a pair of compensating pin-dicks in a fascist video-game edit. No mention of silly ideas like protecting liberty & democracy against aggressors or oppression, just delusions of raw power & patheic posing. Tell us again how Iran no longer has a military. Or how murdering unarmed fishermen & detroying any evidence of drug smuggling in cowardly air attacks makes your United Snakes feared for its might.From Hullabaloo. Digby thinks mistakes might be made.

Today's News Yesterday

Or Yesterday's News Today

"Families Fear Double Cross"

Same bullshit, different century & millennium. It never fucking stops, does it?

Your Friend & Ally In The Middle East

"Burn, Baby, Burn!!"

Some dare call it genocide. Check the responses.

‘Hideous’: Left and Right Slam Israeli Minister Declaring ‘All of Lebanon Must Burn’

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sparked a firestorm of criticism on Friday by declaring “all of Lebanon must burn” after four Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah in the country.

“For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!” Ben Gvir wrote on social media, adding:

With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn. Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration.

He concluded that “in the Middle East, you don’t win with measured responses and restraint,” but instead you must “obliterate” your enemy to end terrorism. Ben Gvir has long been a highly controversial figure inside Israel and abroad for his ardently anti-Arab rhetoric, which often includes violent overtones. His Jewish Power party holds six seats in the current Israeli Knesset, but has been a key bloc holding together Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government since late 2022.

Why, some antisemite even suggested that "key Israeli officials speak and think like pure Nazis, if not worse".

Cry-Baby

Aw, Mr. Conservative Muslim finds out what the "conservative" party really is: Nazis for Jesus.

Renzo Downey / The Texas Tribune:
A Muslim Texan sought to find his place in the party at the state GOP convention.  He left in tears.  —  Muslim delegates and attendees hoping to participate in the state Republican convention were shunned and rejected by members as they espoused themes of party unity ahead of the November election.

Dallas Express:   Cornyn Draws GOP Fire Over ‘Anti-Islam’ Frisco Election Post

Not that Mohammed-worshippers aren't brain-dead fools like the Judeo-Xians. You Moses fans think the Jesus/Paul the Apostle-worshippers won't kill you after they're in charge? The hell w/ Abraham & his bullshit Killer Fairy in the Sky, & all the crap started in its name.

And just how dense are Texas's turkeys that they're swallowing the "Sharia Law" load of codswallop? An entire state of scared little monkeys flinging poop. Are there no actual problems in Texas they could solve?

Trouble At The Islamic Center?

An ambulance had already left w/ siren & lights going. Police SUV at Code 3 didn't seem related.

Send The Marines!

"We started the war with a good approach"

Wait a minute. We started it? A rather damning admission. Makes us an "aggressor nation", which once was a bad thing, but no longer under the "Peace Pres." More specifically, were competent military planners involved in what little planning was done? Is this the same Iran whose military has been destroyed several times over attacking us defending themselves, Second Amendment-style?

Now, here’s the land combat portion. Why haven’t we put a brigade ashore to sweep, say, a 5-10 mile deep swath along the length of the strait? As best I can tell, that would eliminate every remaining speedboat and most of the relevant combat facilities (weapons warehoused, radars, command and control facilities, troop housing/hideouts, etc.

Oh, but what if Iranian troops confront us? Oh no! What will we do? Well, how about we thank them for revealing themselves and gathering together in one place so that we can more easily and efficiently kill them?

A sweep would remove most of the remaining ability of Iran to harass shipping in the strait.

Are we so afraid of casualties that we won’t risk soldiers? If so, then this war isn’t very important. If it is important, then ground troops are justified. This would be a training exercise for a WWII battalion.

We started the war with a good approach but it’s devolved into a decidedly half-assed affair the last couple of weeks.

Obviously lusting for blood, but hasn't the admiral here heard the one about land wars in Asia? Or listened to any of the inane & contradictory crap Big Dopey Don spews every day? Or the actual Sec'y. of "War", who needs mental help too? How does he expect anything rational from these clowns?

[Navy Matters]