President Trump's address regarding the current Iranian campaign

 

[VIDEO] An address he delivered last night at the White House heralding his accomplishments with the month long military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran and his main goal which is to prevent that regime from gaining nuclear weapons. I'm sure he wants this to come to a swift end, however, the regime change hasn't happened yet.

I have to see where things are with that regime, Trump had claimed they were seeking a ceasefire and that the Islamic Republic is coming to the table. This inspite of the fact that they claimed they will never negotiate.

I do wonder who's actually in charge over there.

The airstrikes on Iran

 After watching Elimination Chamber this evening and following the news primarily online in addition to TV news regarding the strikes on Iran. These strikes are substantial and see that amongst other gov't officials killed in Tehran, the strikes claimed the life of Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei.

All I can say to that is wow. I was watching the emergency PBD podcast this morning and the Iranian regime seemed to announce that the Ayatollah has planned to speak, however, later on Saturday the regime confirmed that the Supreme Leader was killed. I was looking for some official confirmation as President Trump said he was killed in these strikes, and the Israeli gov't said he was dead.

Now I see that there were some retaliatory strikes by Iran on American military targets in the Middle East and Israeli targets.

At this point the only thing I can ask is what now? Will the Islamic Republic of Iran survive these airstrikes? Will the people of Iran rise up against the regime as they had been since about December last year?

Does this mean that the Pahlavi dynasty will return? 

Oh yeah a little history the Pahlavi family ran iran until 1979 when Iran was known as the Imperial State of Iran - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the King before he was overthrown in a revolution. In Pahlavi's place was the previous Supreme Leader of Iran the Ayatollah Khomeini. And we had well over 46 years of a very theocratic gov't that was considered a state sponsor of terrorism.

These airstrikes were as a result of stalled talks on Iran's nuclear program. The concern is that the theocratic regime would acquire nuclear weapons and use them. Last year in airstrikes US & Israeli had struck a severe blow to the Iranian nuclear program.

Either way most of the day on Saturday sees the emerging military operations over the skies of Iran and how long with this continue since the sitting executives of the gov't there had essentially been decapitated.

Here are President Trump's remarks on the airstrikes on Iran [VIDEO]

O'Reilly: Reaction to Trump's Gaza Victory

 The big news over the weekend. The ceasefire in Gaza Strip between the Israelis & Hamas. It looks like Trump will have his dream of turning that part of the world into a resort. And of course the hostages come home and no more bombing and terrorism.

Check out Bill O'Reilly's take [VIDEO]

You know the peace has been broken before so I'm in trust but verify mode. However, time will tell if this sticks. The President has shown a willingness to retaliate decisively if he must.

O'Reilly: The real Iran story

 

[VIDEO] Since the weekend what has been dominating the news are Donald Trump's airstrikes targeting the Iranian nuclear program. It was in the world's best interest that the radical theocracy of Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons. The nation itself is also considered a state sponsor of terrorism.

As a matter of fact before the past weekend's U.S. airstrikes, Israel has been performing their own airstrikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran which had also targeted Iran's nuclear program. After the Israelis and the U.S. conducted their airstrikes.

By June 23, 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was declared. There were some violations of this ceasefire and when President Trump spoke to the press at some point after this he dropped an F-bomb. Not very presidential but hey he's keeping it real.

Tweet from June 21, 2025

Casey Neistat: Jew

 

[VIDEO] YouTuber Casey Neistat - Van's younger brother - discusses the horrendous attack that took place in Israel over the past weekend. There were some serious reported attrocities that Casey notes in his most recent video and it gives me pause.

And even noted is that many in the West seems to support this. You see a brief clip out of Sydney, Australia of "Hamas supporters" talking about "get the Jews" or "gas the Jews". And it was amazing to see White House Press Secretary Karine-Jean Pierre taking "The Squad" to task for their evident support for the attacks on Israel civilians near the Gaza strip.

The State of Israel unfortunately has been in a hostile neighborhood since it had been founded in 1948. Hamas is a terrorist organization bar-none. It's sad that they have supporters in the west who believe they're supporting an "oppressed" group. Why would they condone violent acts not against a state or a military, but against unarmed civilians and innocent children or babies.

That strikes me as ignorance in the worst way just being uninformed. Now if there are those who believe this is OK and are informed, I'm just plain speechless. :( 

ABL: Ukraine Asks Congo Refugee To FIGHT Russia, Here's His RESPONSE!

 

[VIDEO] Anthony Brian Logan discusses a man on the street interview in Ukraine with a Congo refugee. This refugee thinks he'll be a target if he involves himself in the fighting there and it might not necessarily be racial. Well I'm being a bit literal here, however, he's going to be seen as a foreigner that is easily identified. I suppose that's the point being made here.

The refugee himself may not feel the need to stick his neck out for a nation that has played host to him. All one could say is that it's his choice to fight or not, he chooses not to then that's fine. If he's not a native Ukrainian, and isn't trying to become a citizen there then he has no obligation.

Regardless what a messy situation.

The fall of Afghanistan

 The news from over the weekend. The President of Afghanistan flees, US diplomatic mission destroys classified documents and evacuates, and Afghan citizens concerned about a return to Taliban rule want to flee. This is starting to be called President "Sleepy" Joe Biden's Saigon moment. The President had already announced that he had planned to remove U.S. troops from there by Sept. 11, 2021 - oh wow!

20 years after some devastating terrorist attacks on U.S. territory resulting in a huge loss of life. We went there to  eliminate Al Qaida and remove the Taliban regime from power. In 2001 the Taliban largely had control of a huge swath of territory there, I suppose classic might makes right if you got the guns and troops what can anyone else do about it. Then American forces came and held the territory for just about 20 years and fought a lethal insurgency there.

The Taliban never really went away. Al Qaida is actually still around they're less one important leader who Seal Team Six killed in neighboring Pakistan in 2011. Wait what's his name again?

And now we have the disaster of Afghanistan under Sleepy Joe's watch. I can never really appreciate the Vietnam situation and the fall of Saigon and how it came to be. However it seems what's happening in Kabul over there seems quite needless and have only served to reverse what we hoped to accomplish after the deadly terrorist attacks of 20 years ago.

How did this come to be CNBC writes about an intelligence failure

The Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, including its capital and the presidential palace, suggests that U.S. military intelligence failed in its assessment of the situation, according to Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“This is an intelligence failure of the highest order,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday, adding that it’s the “biggest intelligence failure” since the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, a campaign of devastating surprise attacks on the U.S. and its allies in 1968.

Roggio said the Taliban pre-positioned equipment and materials, organized, planned and executed a “massive offensive” since early May before beginning its “final assault,” while U.S. officials said the local government and military forces should be able to hold out for six months to a year.

Last week, Reuters reported that a U.S. defense official saw Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, falling in 90 days. Instead, that happened on Sunday, less than 10 days after the first provincial capital of Zaranj was taken by the Taliban.

Would this be any different under a President Trump? Under that orange man so many people hate so much that they wanted Sleepy Joe in power! 

O'Reilly: Palestine is beholden to terrorists

 

[VIDEO] Why is Israel being attacked by rockets? Could it be that the Palestinian Authority have wedded themselves to organizations such as Hamas or to a troubled nation like the Islamic Republic of Iran who definitely are sworn enemies of the Jewish State of Israel? And think about this why isn't "Palestine" a member of the community of nations on equal par with the State of Israel?

Could it be that Palestine has no functional infrastructure and no will to finally create such infrastructure? And the Palestinian Authority are so wedded to these outside forces that this is low on the list of priorities?

Well lately Bill O'Reilly takes a look at the recent attacks on and retaliation by Israel.

Howard students can't name a war the US had fought in

[VIDEO] I'm sorry to have missed this video from Campus Reform from the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC (a prestigious HBCU).

Found this via Marathon Pundit where I commented that HBCU students shouldn't be insulated from the significant events of the world. It turns out I was a tad off base.

Many of these students don't believe any war fought by America is justified. Some cited the Civil War - it helps that Howard was created after the conflict which freed the slaves. Otherwise many of these students are really just anti-war.

The 2nd World War comes up but many students can't even justify why we must fight the evil regime of Nazi Germany at the time.

"They Shall Not Grow Old"

[VIDEO] Earlier this month I saw the masterpiece that is They Shall Not Grow Old. It's a documentary that features 100 year old footage from the first World Ward - one of two of the most deadly human conflicts fought in the 20th Century.

The beginnings shows men signing up and then being mustered into the armed services of the British Empire and then we get into the true artistic vision of the film. Footage from the battlefield remastered colorized and then set to modern speed as the many soldiers who fought on the western front during that war spoke to us about their experiences.

When I think of silent film often my mind is of people walking around like penguins. How the people move in those early films for my eyes aren't normal motion. Sometimes its the technology of the time also as when cinematographers shoot the moving pictures they're using a hand-cranked camera. Sometimes it might be faster or slower.

The director Peter Jackson - many of you may know him from Lord of the Rings - gives us a featurette at the end of the movie about the process of directing the film. It's absolutely fascinating how much work they did to make this movie. To integrate old interviews with the many soldiers who served on the western front with the century old footage.

It's not an academic look at the war - this is a history film for non-historians. Perhaps someone who saw this movie had relatives who fought in this conflict. My own family had their own connections to the conflict who went to Europe once America declared war on the German Empire. All the same the film allows those old vets who recorded their interviews during the course of the mid 20th century to share their thoughts about the war and why they served and their experiences.

We hear a lot of men say they had a job to do they were professionals and they did it. Some said they had nothing going on at home so they signed up. It wasn't uncommon also to be caught up in patriotic fervor. Some still admitted they were too young to serve but were accepted anyway for service.

What's strikingly familiar with these WW1 vets is that once they got home from the western front, most Brits were ready to turn the page from this conflict. They might have been happy that the vets in their family returned home, but they just seemed to want to forget about the war. I could say it might've been similar to the experience of Vietnam veterans once that conflict drew to a close.

As much as the British citizens were glad that the war was finally over it was all for naught. As history records the harsh treatment of the former German Empire which suffered a change in regime and other economic hardships as a result of a treaty that formally ended the war only lead to another world war. The supposed war to end all wars, didn't do the job unfortunately.

Veteran's Day

I've always known this day as a holiday and never always appreciated this as a day for our military veterans. Also I also never know that this holiday was at first known as Armistice Day.

Armistice Day marks the end of the first World War on this day in 1918 - 100 years ago. I found this tweet that marks this day an ad from the old John M. Smyth Company courtesy of Chicago's Extinct Businesses.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Here is an ad for John M Smyth Company. It was located on W Madison St east of Halsted St. From The Chicago Tribune November 11, 1918. #WorldWar1 #WWI100 #VeteransDay2018 pic.twitter.com/2qe0RA3cyR

— Vanished Chicago (@vanishedchicago) November 11, 2018

Lately I will admit that I had been looking up YouTube videos with regards to the first World War. Here's my favorite.

Peter Jackson is doing a first World War movie that is to be told from the perspective of the soldiers of over 100 years ago. The footage has been colorized and the movements of those soldiers have been set to the right speed. Almost as if the film was the same speed as today's footage. [VIDEO]

I always portray black & white silent film footage from the early 20th century as mostly people who walk around like penguins. And probably more accurately they mostly walk a bit faster or they walk slower. The footage you see here I can't believe that this footage was shot between 1914 & 1918 but I also know that they manipulated the footage to make these soldiers seem more real.

Dunkirk

As briefly written at E.M. this film was my Saturday movie and one that was very heavily promoted in movie trailers for the last couple of months. Dunkirk is a French town near the Belgian border where allied forces of Britain and France were surrounded by forces of Nazi Germany. That situation and the Hollywood depiction of this battle were without a doubt bleak.

Knowing history you already know the conclusion of this story, however, just remember that in 1940 when these events took place the second World War wasn't looking very good. The armies of fascism and militarism had been expanding in Europe and the Pacific. With the collapse of France and Britain all alone with the United States staying out of the war yeah it was hard to say the Allies was going to win the war in 1945.

It became clear why it was very important for Britain to get their army back from Nazi occupied France, English military leaders recognize that they're next. The air Battle of Britain was coming after this and if the British couldn't hold their airspace soon Great Britain could be the next nation occupied by Nazi Germany. If you remember history, you also would know how that turned out!

The story was broken out in three parts to start the story began with the infantryman perspective, then we saw the airmen who tried to protect the ground troops from the air - and just think the troops on a beach waiting for evacuation were being harassed by German planes with bombs and bullets, and finally we see the story of one civilian mariner who set off for Dunkirk to do their part for Britain to help evacuate Allied troops from a bleak situation.

It seems many of Christopher Nolan's film masterpieces are known for being long at least over two hours. To my surprise Nolan kept this historic movie short at least slightly under two hours. It told the story it needed to tell and certainly it was wonderfully shot. The story was simple if the Allied forces fighting against the Nazis were to survive they needed to get out of France which had already fallen.

I would recommend this war movie if you will. Hopefully you'll go out and see it while it's out at a theater near you. Perhaps you should look up anything on Dunkirk before you purchase that movie ticket.

So 100 years ago...

The last weekend in June marked the 100th anniversary of the first world war. It was triggered essentially but the assassination of an heir to an imperial throne which by the end of the war no longer existed. This event triggered a series of alliances that quickly involved many of the major European powers.

Needless to say as a result of this devastating war, the world changes. The losers - who included the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire - had ultimately experience regime changes and lost some of their territories. What this means is that the Allied Powers - winners include Great Britain, France, and the United States - would gain some of the colonies of the Central Power nations. Also this means that the world map changes again.

The Central Powers nations had significant European territory of their own and essentially these territories were carved up and become independent states. For example, Poland as we know it today didn't exist before 1918 and of course that wasn't the only example.

Unfortunately the war ended in 1918 and was settled with the Treaty of Versailles, however this treaty proved to help cause the 2nd world war. The Treaty punished Germany and that nation struggled between the end of the 1st World War and the 2nd World War.

Often I've heard of this war as being a war that ends all wars, but because the world was plunged into war again that proved not to be the case. Sadly the world is still engrossed with many conflicts though thankfully nothing that reached the scale of last century's two world wars.

Washington Post: 9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask

International affairs isn't often a frequent subject on this blog. A friend asked about Syria - and also made sure to note that I'm a political science major as kept up with this news much more often than I have - he wanted to know what was going on there. My best answer for him was that the regime there was losing control of the nation.

He mentioned how Russia and the United Kingdom have rejected involvement in any type of intervention there. Although let's say for certain that the UK is more of an ally at this point than our friends over there in Russia. So basically the UK & Russia doesn't believe Syria is their fight.

It looks like the US is about to engage in some intervention because in attempting to re-assert control of Syria the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has utilized chemical weapons. This almost seems like Iraq all over again although it's hard for me to think of Assad in the same terms of Saddam Hussein who was his fellow Ba'athist.

All the same, I'm woefully ignorant of everything happening there. Hopefully this brief reader of the situation in Syria will educate myself and you the reader.

Let's be clear, I consider myself a domestic guy however let's remember that no matter how not good things may be here in America somewhere in the world is a deadly conflict. Let's hope Syria can finally have domestic tranquility.

Back in 2003: Warriors among them

[VIDEO] This video produced by Evan Coyne Maloney features a group known as the Protest Warriors (PW). The PWs schtick if you will is to infiltrate protests with signs using the left's slogans against them at gatherings such as the San Francisco anti-war rally you're watching above.

This occurred close to 10 years ago and Maloney took a trip to the west coast to ask more questions of the anti-war crowd. While Maloney is still active as a filmmaker, PW doesn't appear to have survived. Founded by Kfir Alfia & Alan Davidson (or Lipton) they were once known for having a very active forum where people of different political ideologies debated. Unfortunately the forums were shot down on two occasions and it appears unlikely that they will return. An online store that sold merchandise has been shut down. Also while Kfir has moved on to other interests it was reported that Alan has since passed away!

I stated three years that PW would've been perfect for the events of the tea party and of the Occupy Movement. If only there had been some infiltration of Occupy rallies that occured last year and the year before that. Also the idea of infiltrating the events of the opposition may seem to be very passe now, there surely are just as many ingenious individuals such as Alan & Kfir who are able to protest those with whom they agree in such hilarious ways.

BTW, forgot to note the signs PWs used well it's safe to say the people to whom they were directed didn't take to them very well. It probably shows in the video above.

10 years ago: Protesting the protestors at an anti-war rally

[VIDEO] The video you see above was produced by Evan Coyne Maloney and published February 18, 2003 on his website brain-terminal.com. It caused quite a stir at least amongst right-wing circles as this video put an eye on the anti-war protestors.

Maloney's purpose was to go beyond the hype seen in the mainstream media. They weren't going out of their way to speak to the protestors perhaps they were more interested in showing who were opposed to the war in Iraq. Showing their numbers as opposed to showing what these dissidents were really about.

This is in connection with the commencement of the controversial war in Iraq 10 years ago that I had chronicled earlier this week. In fact Chicago's public radio affiliate remembered the anti-war protest that shut down Lake Shore Drive during the same time period. What Maloney ran into in NYC a decade ago, I'm sure could've been seen in that crowd as well.

There's another milestone in this worth talking about and soon there will be another posting on this in the future.

Iraq war started 10 years ago

[VIDEO] I was reminded while watching FOX's The Five that President George W. Bush announced the beginning of military operations to oust Iraqi President Dictator Saddam Hussein.This has been proven to be a very controversial decision and I'm sure opinion in various circles have been 50/50 in favor or opposed.

Still most would probably agree that Hussein was a bad guy who abused his people in his former nation and had engaged in some form of genocide. Which would lead to the one success of this operation at least Hussein himself was eventually captured and ultimately put to death for his crimes.

I'm not sure if there is any agreement over whether or not this action was justified. There's not entirely a lot of agreement over whether or not there were WMDs in Iraq. There may not be a whole lot of agreement as to whether or not Iraq or even the Middle East is better off without Hussein in power.

All the same it's a good thing to me that Hussein isn't in power over there. Iraq is now an experient in bringing a democratic republic to a predominantly Arab and Muslim nation. Let me just preferace that by saying that Iraq is a multi-religious society. Even in Hussein's regime he had some Christians in high level positions and at that Iraq had been described as a secular society.

If I may go backwards in time for a second. That night that this started I was home alone (yeah real scary right) and it was dark outside although it was probably 5 or so o'clock. Anyway I heard what was thought to be a thunderstorm explosion but as it turned out it was only thunder.

I began to believe the hype about how the terrorists were really going to put some American casualties on our soil. Of course to think reasonably if any terrorists were going to strike I was far away from such a target unless they had something far worse in mind. Anyway at least for the duration of our War on Terror operations in both Iraq and even Afghanistan most of the casualties suffered were over there involved our forces. A campaign point for many who supported these operations was that there wasn't another terrorist attack here on American soil.

In the future my goal is to share some examples of the hype. Some of the materials I'd like to share are reasons why I'm blogging today and of course most of them will be partisan in nature. Hopefully you will see some truth in them.

Finally, I got a chance to see "Lincoln"

On Christmas Eve I finally had a chance to see Skyfall, the lastest James Bond effort. On New Year's Eve I finally had a chance to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. This needs to become a recurring tradition!

Lincoln could be a film in the same vein as say The American President - well aside from the romantic comedy aspects it's still a film that involves politics. I also have compared Lincoln to The West Wing TV series. They all did tackle some issues that were important to the eras that they had been set in.

In the case of Lincoln it was slavery and the Civil War. Basically what we saw in this film was President Abraham Lincoln securing the votes in Congress for the 13th Amendment. Not only that he also had to contend with ending the Civil War. In fact news of representatives coming from the Confederate States of America wanting to talk about the end of the war figured in the political machinations of enacting an amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery.

We also learned more about the other players involved other than Lincoln. Many members of Congress - Representatives & Senators - played a role in making the 13th Amendment a reality. Just like the effort it took to make many of today's policy objectives a reality. For example look no further than "Obamacare" as one example of many.

Granted it's not the most exciting movie to watch. There's only one scene of the movie that was action packed which is mainly of Black soldiers fighting against the Confederate army. Then there's a scene that shows the bombardment of a Southern city although we didn't see anyone in that scene. It's a movie for the history buffs and President Lincoln (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) does come alive for us in this movie as well as the many other players in this drama!

When I came to see this movie again at River East there was a packed theater to see this movie. This movie and Skyfall has been out since November and people are still coming to see it. Spielberg must have done something right for it to have the appeal it does. :)

Today is Pearl Harbor Day

I feel like I wrote about Doris "Dorie" Miller here years ago, but this feels like an appropriate way to remember Pearl Harbor day. He was the first Black to be awarded the Navy Cross and it was for his activities on that very day. Alas he didn't survive the second world war as he was presumed dead after a torpedo attack on the ship he served on USS Lipscombe Bay November 24, 1944.

Anyway the attack on Pearl Harbor took place on this day December 7, 1941 and helped to bring the USA into the second world war in both the Pacific and European theaters.'

Miller is seen on the right in a recruitment advertisement during the war. After being awarded the Navy Cross, he had been on a war bond tour and gave speeches in Oakland, CA, his hometown of Waco, TX, and even spoke to Black recruits at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in IL.

Today I honor the heroics of Mr. Doris Miller and all who died in the Japanese Attack on this day back in 1941.

The Reality Of War, Ctd.

This image shocks me. At first I thought it was a dismembered head, but it turns out this pretty young girl was merely buried in some rubble. Unfortunately she's a casualty of the new war in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Will that war ever come to a peaceful conclusion?

You can read more details at The Daily Dish!