Christopher Nolan’s take on the classic Odyssey has certainly stirred up a great deal of controversy here in Greece by portraying woke characters as Greek heroes. I believe he could have made a better film closer to historical reality had he used as similar format to that below.
Iran’s governmental disaggregation has enormous implications for how Washington deals with Tehran. It is precisely our success in so effectively shattering its leadership and destroying instruments of its state power that precludes the current “regime” from functioning cohesively. This conclusion (or hypothesis, if you prefer) is unpalatable to those who are determined to play down the damage caused by our attacks out of either sympathy for Iran or antipathy toward the U.S. or the administration. They fear admitting the devastation of authority in Iran, with the attendant repercussion that regime change might be near. Considering Iran’s behavior, however, certainly on national-security issues, regime disintegration is the only consistent explanation for its erratic post-strike actions.
Trump and Iran are confusing me….maybe that’s the point.
First of all, I thought all of Iran’s navy, most of its missiles, drones have been destroyed. So where are they getting all these missiles, drones, and boats now? I also thought all their air defense and radars had been taken out. Yet, the target list for the last few days has been exactly that.
Trump said “no tolls”, yet now he imposes a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait. Huh???
Finally, there are numerous reports of Iran redeveloping nuke sites with satellite images. If this is public knowledge, then the US/Israel already knew about such. If ‘no nukes!” is the primary goal, then why haven’t the B2s made a visit to these sites?
Way too many inconsistencies for me to be happy about the situation.
My training as an experimental physicist has me always questioning data; even the data in my own work. When I see such “data” in the public sphere, I become even more wary.
…maybe that’s the point…
I think yer onto something here.
Perhaps it’s best to think of it as a quantum-wave continuum, applied to psychopathic millennialists, and it all begins to make a kind of cosmic sense. Or as someone may have hinted in previous threads, it’s really Schrödinger’s Catch-22, but arse-backwards and upside AND down (AKA Trumpian foreign policy…); IOW, if you really need it to make sense—i.e., sensible sense—yer barking up the wrong oil derrick…
And so:
Taking confusion firmly into the next dimension?
Ambiguity ‘R US?
To boldly send Twelvers where no Twelver has gone before?
Having lived in the UK for five years – and having experienced British food – it is interesting to note when visitors from other nations visit this country and say “wow this is amazing”.
Years ago we invited a family from Kenya to our home for Thanksgiving and they had never tasted cranberry sauce. The husband thought it was delicious and asked for it regularly for the next few weeks.
I thought the idea of biscuits with gravy was revolting. Until I had it for the first time when visiting my in-laws in east Tennessee.
Made it every day for the next two weeks.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”
-Winston Churchill in a World War II radio broadcast in October 1939
Iran would be the same I think.
I was going to say that perhaps holding that world cup thingy in America was one hell of a shrewd move from a purely PR perspective. Yet only two (now three) out of six comments actually pertain to this post. Your new comment deal there have an indexing problem?
Open thread means Open comments too.
While looking at pictures we took on our trip to Egypt in 2008, I was struck by the comparison between the Egyptian carvings and the Assyrians from a previous post. The Assyrians were much more life like, and the Egyptians were stylized.
Yes, John Bolton is still writing editorials. In this one he discusses something I’ve been wondering about.
Bolton is one of the saddest examples of people who just couldn’t cope with Trump. Bolton represented the best of the second Bush Administration, but he just could not bring himself to come to terms with the reality of the collapse of the Establishment, and it broke him.
Another conundrum trying to understand the mind of leftists. I know…an impossible task. But someone explain to me why the ones I know enthusiastically cheer every drone strike the Ukrainians make on Russia? Why is that such a just war? I’m not saying it isn’t, but their hypocrisy in not supporting the US getting rid of the 50 year threat of Iran having a nuke. Ukraine good, US bad.
PG, your last two sentences sum it up. Pure cognative dissonance based on emotional “training”. They can’t help themselves.
”Why is that such a just war?”
The Russians invaded the sovereign country of Ukraine in a genocidal war of conquest. They have formally annexed the captured territory, and their stated objective is to destroy Ukraine as a nation, as a people, and as a culture.
To that end they have killed over 100,000 Ukrainian men, raped over 1,000 Ukrainian women as a matter of policy, kidnapped over 20,000 Ukrainian children in order to “make them Russian”, and leveled whole cities to the ground. They established torture centers in occupied cities and created mass graves large enough to be seen from space.
This is the important part: Russia has said Ukraine is only the first step. Lukashenko in Belarus and the deputy commander of Russia’s central military district (the rough equivalent of our CENTCOM), have both publicly stated that Russia intends to annex all of Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and parts of Poland and Romania.
”Ukraine good, US bad.”
Not quite. More like “the left good, the right bad.” The European governments and institutions most threatened by Russia are all controlled by the academic left (which is different than, say, the blue-collar left of traditional labor unions). So is the modern elite of the Democratic party. The academic left in America is descended from and draws its inspiration from the European left, so it backs the European left in solidarity.
This is also why so many MAGA back Russia. They see Russia as an ally — even a holy ally — to destroy first the European left, then the American left. The concept of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” is lost on them.
Like millions before me, I believe that rational thought is greatly overrated. Particularly regarding human relationships and interaction. Emotion drives the world. And emotion seeks only a few simple (biological) outcomes: survival, success, and status. These can be (and are) measured at the interpersonal level and the community (society) level. Everything else is secondary and mostly unimportant.
mkent:
Well stated. The taint of FJB also haunts Ukraine.
mkent,
MAGA supports Russia??? Since when? I certainly don’t, and I certainly have no illusions about what Russia is trying to do in Ukraine. I do agree with my leftist friends that I hope Ukraine continues to fight hard. So what is your take as to why Russia is an evil to be fought against, but Iran isn’t? That’s what they think.
I’ve got a new post up on the topic of the left, Ukraine, and Iran. See this.
”The taint of FJB also haunts Ukraine.”
Yes it does. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 coincided with talks by the Biden administration with Iran to re-establish Obama’s so-called Iran deal. Russia was the third party in those talks. The Biden administration was so committed to obtaining Russia’s help that in March of 2022 — a full month after the invasion — it offered Russia $10 billion to assist Iran with its nuclear program.
It was Russia that refused. It was only after that refusal that the Biden administration allowed lethal aid to Ukraine. Even then the aid was limited, never as much as the Congress allowed, and coordinated with Russia ahead of time — to the point that when the Biden crew finally allowed Ukraine to attack Russia proper with American weapons they warned Russia ahead of time so Russia could move their fighter jets out of range.
Biden saw Russia as an ally on the Iran deal, but his European allies were so threatened by Russia that he had to at least appear to help Ukraine or the whole alliance would unravel. It’s sad that Ukraine has never had fully committed allies. A lot of lives would have been saved if it had.
all these missiles, drones, and boats now?
Depends on the meaning of “all”. Iran moves stuff around, so they scrape up bits here and there and move them to the coast, radars and such. What we are mostly hitting now is infrastructure. You can better judge their state by the meager response we have seen. Like a patient etherized upon a table comes to mind. Ship traffic meanwhile seems to continue at a reduced rate of 20/40 in and out daily, about what is was recently.
Ah, so the need for Russia’s assistance vis-à-vis Iran might would have been the reason why sharp-as-a-tack Joe agreed—before it was “walked back”—that Putin could take over the Donbas region of Ukraine?
We’re also forgetting the huge kickbacks that the Democrats (Grift, Inc.) were receiving and skimming off the financial/military assistance sold/provided to Ukraine—gotta support all those bankrupt Blue states and cities somehow—turning off the grift spigot being just another reason why Trump and—especially—Elon Monk are so villified….
”MAGA supports Russia??? Since when?”
Yes. Since about a month after the 2022 invasion.
”I certainly don’t…”
No, but if I recall correctly, you, like me and most others here including our hostess, weren’t originally MAGA when Trump came down the escalator in 2015. Most here supported other Republican candidates such as Walker, Cruz, Rubio, or Carson. Most came around to Trump after he won the nomination because he was better than Hillary (he most certainly was) or better than Harris (ditto).
But many of Trump’s earliest and most fervent supporters backed Russia over Ukraine early in the 2022 invasion. Support was almost immediate in the most MAGA parts of the blogosphere such as the Conservative Treehouse, the Gateway Pundit, and the comment sections of Instapundit, Althouse, Red State, and PJ Media. Many others came around to it after Tucker Carlson’s interview of Vladimir Putin. (Tucker Carlson had much more influence on the right back then).
It had an effect on policy. Look no further than the formal 2024 Republican platform, which called for the capitulation of Ukraine “to prevent World War III.” Not just the president but also Don Trump Jr., JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr. have all issued blistering statements against Ukraine, some of which demonstrated a seething hatred of the country.
I’ve seen comments in the MAGA blogosphere calling for the death of every Ukrainian man, woman, and child. Others calling for them all to be burned to death. Others to freeze them all to death. I’ve seen MAGA calling on Russia to “nuke that shitty country out of existence.”
I’ve even seen MAGA calling on Russia to nuke American cities (This was during the Biden administration. Presumably they feel differently now). I’ve seen MAGA saying that if Russia and America went to war with each other that they would personally take up arms — against America! (Again, during the Biden administration).
These weren’t just internet trolls. The head of a local MAGA group told me in person that if Russia invaded Europe that we should join the fight — against Europe. “Russia is our friend. Europe is our enemy.” Another said we should invade Europe from the west while Russia invades Europe from the east and split Europe like Poland was in 1939.
And I mean “holy ally” literally. I not quite recently had dinner with a MAGA-clothing-wearing young lady who told me that the Russian army was “God’s holy army” that He was using to destroy Ukraine, Europe, and the United States for their support of “gays and trannies.” We had better repent before the Russian army destroys us.
I like the people here, especially our hostess. But I would say that if your view of MAGA is formed primarily from this site, you’re not getting the full MAGA experience.
mkent:
Depends what a person means by “MAGA.” Turns out it’s a very elastic term.
When Trump was first running, there were MAGA people who fanned out all over the internet to revile those who didn’t support him and to praise everything he did. They were verbally aggressive and very active. They were hostile to anyone who supported any other GOP contender in the primary. But they were only an especially intense subset of MAGA. He had other supporters.
And then there were people like me, who certainly never supported Hillary Clinton but didn’t trust Trump, and who supported other GOP primary candidates, but who felt that as president he was far better than expected and who came to support him fairly early in his first term. Are they “MAGA”? I don’t tend to use the term, because I just think it can mean nearly whatever a person wants it to mean, broad or narrow.
Then there were fake MAGA people like Tucker Carlson, who pretended to support him but apparently hated him, according to emails from years ago. Marjorie Taylor Greene would be another. Among them were people who basically were (and are) total isolationists and Jew-haters who supported Trump when they thought he agreed with that and no longer like him because they believe he diverged from that. They admire Putin as a strong man who will do what it takes to Make Russia Great Again – which they think is both a racial, religious, and territorial war that includes the seizing of Ukraine.
The “MAGA” people in the US who support Russia against Ukraine can mainly be found among the most intense MAGA people I described in the second paragraph, and the fake MAGA people in the fourth paragraph.
Better they stop at a home improvement store and take home a air conditioner
Interesting now that Marine LePen’s legally able to renter electoral politics, her opponents might want to consider how much to worry about this intrepid woman’s popularity and might.
(I understand that Jack Smith’s a bit busy at the moment…)
I am not MAGA per se. I am America First though.
Assholes in Russia say all kinds of things. I laugh and move on.
Considering their abject failure to accomplish the first objective and the fact that a bunch of those countries are NATO, and that would mean war with USA, I am more concerned with post Putin Russia because I don’t see how they can do any of this.
I support Poland by buying their stuff so they can buy our stuff. (COBI, lots and lots of COBI).
“COBI models are created with adults in mind. Our themes focus on what truly interests grown builders: history, aviation, military engineering, automotive design, and technology. These are not disposable toys — they are models meant to be built with intention and proudly displayed at home or in the office.”
“We work with globally recognized brands and institutions, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Maserati, and Jeep. Official licensing allows us to recreate iconic vehicles and machines with accurate proportions, markings, and distinctive details — delivering authenticity that collectors appreciate.”
“Our models are designed as part of complete, well-planned series. By maintaining consistent scales across collections, builders can expand their displays over time and create cohesive, visually impressive collections. COBI is not about single sets — it’s about building a system for passionate collectors.”
Testing, testing.
I think one of my comments got eaten.
Within the past week, our friend physicsguy replied to me, explaining that he is reading or listening to Propaganda Media sources in order to grasp the Left gone Far-left, to grasp its appeal.
I too have pondered this often . My not deep conclusion is that a great part it’s a combination of average IQs that have been siloed by repetition. Thus, conditioned not to be skeptical, and not to enquire any further. Why not join the cause of moral superiority!
Blame white Christians and feel good and superior!
I think my deeper search is rounded up with a few YouTube videos I share for the curious. The first one is a short featuring Ron Henderson explaining that socialism is a luxury belief.
I have taken the time to share its contents with written description.
262,443 views Jul 7, 2026
I’m told socialism is a working-class movement.
In reality, its biggest promoters live lives of privilege!
Political psychologist Rob Henderson has a name for this: a “luxury belief.”
An idea that buys the wealthy status [respect, moral superiority], while the poor pay the price of it.
Take NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. His socialist ideas make him popular, yet make life for everyday working people expensive.
That doesn’t matter to him. He grew up rich!
“He is the poster boy for luxury beliefs,” says Henderson, “He has a wealthy filmmaker mother, [and] an Ivy League professor father.”
Mamdani is not unique among socialists.
Congresswoman AOC, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and streamer Hasan Piker all have privileged lives.
In the video above, Stossel TV Fellow Leyla Taghiyeva breaks down the examples, and why it’s a problem.
___________
Next, in a fresh and considerably longer YT interview, Rob Henderson lays out his serious irritation over luxury believer’s hypocrisies. THEY NEED EXPOSURE AND CONFRONTATION,
I think sums up his case.
Rob does not deal with socialism as a luxury belief here. Instead, bizzare positions of the left like abolish the police! Let’s destroy stable marriage and families, stances by well if not highly privileged people who do not embrace these for themselves.
At the end, Rob explains that while he first published his “luxury belief” concept in 2019, he could have never imagined that 6 months later as COVID went crisis levels, that the Ruling Class would fully campaign for these dangerous causehead beliefs.
To add briefly, Triggernometry has an authority, Arthur Brooks, who argues that activism by the Left compensation for lack of meaning in personal lives. A new interview at YT.
But someone explain to me why the ones I know enthusiastically cheer every drone strike the Ukrainians make on Russia?
physicsguy:
My take is that the global liberal elites, particularly in the EU, are in a loose coalition with the left and Islam against the traditional conservative white Judeo-Christians of the West. We are their largest obstacle to power.
Putin threatens the EU elites, so his invasion of Ukraine is a problem. The American left falls into line with its ally.
Likewise the elites in the EU and America are working hard to bring in third-world immigrants, especially Muslims, to dilute conservative Judeo-Christian power. It’s working, though now the backlash has begun.
Supporting Iran is about supporting Islam and reducing Israel, which is fine with most of the elites, the left, and Muslims. Though Iran gets into the Shia-Sunni divide in Islam.
It’s not a clean set of distinctions, it’s not publicly affirmed and it’s not chiseled in stone, but that’s the hand I see being played.
Rick67
Years ago we invited a family from Kenya to our home for Thanksgiving and they had never tasted cranberry sauce. The husband thought it was delicious and asked for it regularly for the next few weeks.
Years ago I invited a friend from Argentina for Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. He wouldn’t even try my mother’s cranberry relish (w oranges…delicious). Nor would he try the oysters. “I don’t eat seafood.” I related this to his English teacher in Argentina, who was a native of New Hampshire: “Well, he’s from an underdeveloped country.”
Decades later I mentioned him to my sister. “Isn’t he the one who wouldn’t eat mom’s cranberry relish?”
Gringo:
Sometimes I wonder how Borges emerged from Argentina. Any thoughts?
I don’t understand the USA vs Iran conflict. That’s ok; I’m not responsible for its conduct. Having said that, I have an idea that President Trump is using carrots and sticks, hoping to wear the regime down til it buckles and/or breaks.
I have no love for the thug Putin. I do see the appeal of his reported support of Christianity and heterosexuality, differing from the Democrats and most of Europe.
Self says he or she does “not understand the USA vs Iran conflict.”
It’s simple, really. Iran has been at war with the US ever since the Mullah’s installed their Islamic Revolutionary Republic 47 years ago. (President Carter, thanks for doing nothing to stop it.) Israel is the “Little Satan” to them; the US is impediment and affront to Allah’s will, and therefore is the “Great Satan” to them.
Ergo, the US State Department has long held that 80% of world terrorism stems from Iran, or those funded by Iran.
We tolerated the Saddam led Iraqi War against Iran in the 1980s. And since their “Revolution”, virtually every conflict the US has entered somehow is tied up with Iran.
Finally, Israel and the many Persian Gulf states, who are the wealthiest nations in that region, have grown sick and tired of Iran’s constant terror-fight games. They want a peaceable region for economic development. Hence, their Abraham Accords to provide it.
And the US is tired of playing policeman in the region because of Iran. Thus, ending it likely means a change in government there.
But this will take time. If Iran can be cordoned off and isolated, that could be the best alternative to overthrowing the government.
We are at war with Iran because their government wants to kill us! Trump chose to defend us and the region by attacking the threat.
physicsguy writes that he’s confused about Iran. “First of all, I thought all of Iran’s navy, most of its missiles, drones have been destroyed. So where are they getting all these missiles, drones, and boats now?”
The first statement is true. Iran gets replacements a few ways. It gets missile and drone tech from Russia by their common inland sea. Iran can salvage damaged but reparable missiles.
Plus, they’ve adopted the mobile launch missile delivery system using heavy trucks like Russia and the Soviets did and China still does, of course, to evade destruction. Hence, the surprise at having more.
Although
I also thought all their air defense and radars had been taken out. Yet, the target list for the last few days has been exactly that.
Wikipedia has detail and origins and consequences of Iran’s “mosquito navy.” Small and speedy watercraft that can easily be hidden:
“In the 21st century, the term “Mosquito Fleet” has been applied to the small, fast attack craft of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N).[4][5] These vessels—often speedboats capable of exceeding 100 knots (115 mph)—are used in asymmetric warfare ‘swarm’ tactics to harass, board, or attack oil tankers and other commercial shipping, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.[6]
“Unlike Iran’s conventional navy—whose larger warships were largely destroyed in the 2026 Iran war—the IRGC-N’s fast boats are easily hidden in coastal caves and among civilian traffic, making them a persistent ‘disruptive force.’[4] The strategy originated in the 1981 – 1988 ‘Tanker war’ of the Iran–Iraq War when Iran increasingly turned to asymmetric methods after losing larger vessels in direct confrontations with the U.S. Navy.”
Lastly, “Trump said “no tolls”, yet now he imposes a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait. Huh???”
Think Trump “bargaining chip” that may seriously smite Iranian Revolutionary sensibilities, biting just as the reality of inflation crisis and economic failure beckons.
huxley
Gringo: Sometimes I wonder how Borges emerged from Argentina. Any thoughts?
For example, where did his anglophile tendencies come from? There is a not unsubstantial British influence on Argentina, though it is less than it was a century ago. English Argentines (Anglo-Argentines) came to Argentina in the 19th century with capital to invest. English built the railways. Consider Argentine soccer clubs: River Plate, Boca Juniors, and Newells Old Boys. Welsh immigrated to Patagonia in the 1870s. I met a Welsh-Argentine in northern Argentina, a thousand miles from Patagonia. Our Argentine partner was a Miguel Macadam, whom I called Miguel Macana.
But the biggest factor in the Anglophile tendencies of Jorge Luis Borges was that he had an English grandmother.
As a child, Borges spent many years in Europe, where his father searched for a medical solution for his failing eyesight. This was in an era when many Argentines had money to blow on living abroad.
But the biggest factor in the Anglophile tendencies of Jorge Luis Borges was that he had an English grandmother.
Gringo:
Good point! Works for me.
Borges was some kind of miracle in my book. His New Directions “Labyrinths” anthology made me get serious of about writing.
For those unacquainted with Borges try one of the most famous prose poems, short short stories, metafictions in all of literature:
…In the days when Argentina, with all its resources, was expected to be an economic and cultural powerhouse.
Though it didn’t quite work out that way….
(Maybe all they needed was a tenacious, patriotic, hard-headed visionary…with a chainsaw…)
huxley:
I was introduced to Borges’ work in college, and he’s been one of my favorite writers ever since. I’ve got a draft of a post I wrote long ago about his politics, but never published. Maybe I should dust it off and have it see the light of day.
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Christopher Nolan’s take on the classic Odyssey has certainly stirred up a great deal of controversy here in Greece by portraying woke characters as Greek heroes. I believe he could have made a better film closer to historical reality had he used as similar format to that below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGbEJz5_5CM
Pantene?? Man I sure hope that’s not a language issue. They try dipping a chicken wing in that and eating it they’re in for an unpleasant surprise.
Yes, John Bolton is still writing editorials. In this one he discusses something I’ve been wondering about.
Iran Is Too Weak to Make Peace
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/iran-is-too-weak-to-make-peace-4aabb236?st=y6A4Uo
Trump and Iran are confusing me….maybe that’s the point.
First of all, I thought all of Iran’s navy, most of its missiles, drones have been destroyed. So where are they getting all these missiles, drones, and boats now? I also thought all their air defense and radars had been taken out. Yet, the target list for the last few days has been exactly that.
Trump said “no tolls”, yet now he imposes a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait. Huh???
Finally, there are numerous reports of Iran redeveloping nuke sites with satellite images. If this is public knowledge, then the US/Israel already knew about such. If ‘no nukes!” is the primary goal, then why haven’t the B2s made a visit to these sites?
Way too many inconsistencies for me to be happy about the situation.
My training as an experimental physicist has me always questioning data; even the data in my own work. When I see such “data” in the public sphere, I become even more wary.
I think yer onto something here.
Perhaps it’s best to think of it as a quantum-wave continuum, applied to psychopathic millennialists, and it all begins to make a kind of cosmic sense. Or as someone may have hinted in previous threads, it’s really Schrödinger’s Catch-22, but arse-backwards and upside AND down (AKA Trumpian foreign policy…); IOW, if you really need it to make sense—i.e., sensible sense—yer barking up the wrong oil derrick…
And so:
Taking confusion firmly into the next dimension?
Ambiguity ‘R US?
To boldly send Twelvers where no Twelver has gone before?
Having lived in the UK for five years – and having experienced British food – it is interesting to note when visitors from other nations visit this country and say “wow this is amazing”.
Years ago we invited a family from Kenya to our home for Thanksgiving and they had never tasted cranberry sauce. The husband thought it was delicious and asked for it regularly for the next few weeks.
I thought the idea of biscuits with gravy was revolting. Until I had it for the first time when visiting my in-laws in east Tennessee.
Made it every day for the next two weeks.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”
-Winston Churchill in a World War II radio broadcast in October 1939
Iran would be the same I think.
I was going to say that perhaps holding that world cup thingy in America was one hell of a shrewd move from a purely PR perspective. Yet only two (now three) out of six comments actually pertain to this post. Your new comment deal there have an indexing problem?
Open thread means Open comments too.
While looking at pictures we took on our trip to Egypt in 2008, I was struck by the comparison between the Egyptian carvings and the Assyrians from a previous post. The Assyrians were much more life like, and the Egyptians were stylized.
— Mike Plaiss
Bolton is one of the saddest examples of people who just couldn’t cope with Trump. Bolton represented the best of the second Bush Administration, but he just could not bring himself to come to terms with the reality of the collapse of the Establishment, and it broke him.
Another conundrum trying to understand the mind of leftists. I know…an impossible task. But someone explain to me why the ones I know enthusiastically cheer every drone strike the Ukrainians make on Russia? Why is that such a just war? I’m not saying it isn’t, but their hypocrisy in not supporting the US getting rid of the 50 year threat of Iran having a nuke. Ukraine good, US bad.
PG, your last two sentences sum it up. Pure cognative dissonance based on emotional “training”. They can’t help themselves.
”Why is that such a just war?”
The Russians invaded the sovereign country of Ukraine in a genocidal war of conquest. They have formally annexed the captured territory, and their stated objective is to destroy Ukraine as a nation, as a people, and as a culture.
To that end they have killed over 100,000 Ukrainian men, raped over 1,000 Ukrainian women as a matter of policy, kidnapped over 20,000 Ukrainian children in order to “make them Russian”, and leveled whole cities to the ground. They established torture centers in occupied cities and created mass graves large enough to be seen from space.
This is the important part: Russia has said Ukraine is only the first step. Lukashenko in Belarus and the deputy commander of Russia’s central military district (the rough equivalent of our CENTCOM), have both publicly stated that Russia intends to annex all of Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and parts of Poland and Romania.
”Ukraine good, US bad.”
Not quite. More like “the left good, the right bad.” The European governments and institutions most threatened by Russia are all controlled by the academic left (which is different than, say, the blue-collar left of traditional labor unions). So is the modern elite of the Democratic party. The academic left in America is descended from and draws its inspiration from the European left, so it backs the European left in solidarity.
This is also why so many MAGA back Russia. They see Russia as an ally — even a holy ally — to destroy first the European left, then the American left. The concept of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” is lost on them.
Like millions before me, I believe that rational thought is greatly overrated. Particularly regarding human relationships and interaction. Emotion drives the world. And emotion seeks only a few simple (biological) outcomes: survival, success, and status. These can be (and are) measured at the interpersonal level and the community (society) level. Everything else is secondary and mostly unimportant.
mkent:
Well stated. The taint of FJB also haunts Ukraine.
mkent,
MAGA supports Russia??? Since when? I certainly don’t, and I certainly have no illusions about what Russia is trying to do in Ukraine. I do agree with my leftist friends that I hope Ukraine continues to fight hard. So what is your take as to why Russia is an evil to be fought against, but Iran isn’t? That’s what they think.
I’ve got a new post up on the topic of the left, Ukraine, and Iran. See this.
”The taint of FJB also haunts Ukraine.”
Yes it does. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 coincided with talks by the Biden administration with Iran to re-establish Obama’s so-called Iran deal. Russia was the third party in those talks. The Biden administration was so committed to obtaining Russia’s help that in March of 2022 — a full month after the invasion — it offered Russia $10 billion to assist Iran with its nuclear program.
It was Russia that refused. It was only after that refusal that the Biden administration allowed lethal aid to Ukraine. Even then the aid was limited, never as much as the Congress allowed, and coordinated with Russia ahead of time — to the point that when the Biden crew finally allowed Ukraine to attack Russia proper with American weapons they warned Russia ahead of time so Russia could move their fighter jets out of range.
Biden saw Russia as an ally on the Iran deal, but his European allies were so threatened by Russia that he had to at least appear to help Ukraine or the whole alliance would unravel. It’s sad that Ukraine has never had fully committed allies. A lot of lives would have been saved if it had.
all these missiles, drones, and boats now?
Depends on the meaning of “all”. Iran moves stuff around, so they scrape up bits here and there and move them to the coast, radars and such. What we are mostly hitting now is infrastructure. You can better judge their state by the meager response we have seen. Like a patient etherized upon a table comes to mind. Ship traffic meanwhile seems to continue at a reduced rate of 20/40 in and out daily, about what is was recently.
Ah, so the need for Russia’s assistance vis-à-vis Iran
mightwould have been the reason why sharp-as-a-tack Joe agreed—before it was “walked back”—that Putin could take over the Donbas region of Ukraine?We’re also forgetting the huge kickbacks that the Democrats (Grift, Inc.) were receiving and skimming off the financial/military assistance sold/provided to Ukraine—gotta support all those bankrupt Blue states and cities somehow—turning off the grift spigot being just another reason why Trump and—especially—Elon Monk are so villified….
”MAGA supports Russia??? Since when?”
Yes. Since about a month after the 2022 invasion.
”I certainly don’t…”
No, but if I recall correctly, you, like me and most others here including our hostess, weren’t originally MAGA when Trump came down the escalator in 2015. Most here supported other Republican candidates such as Walker, Cruz, Rubio, or Carson. Most came around to Trump after he won the nomination because he was better than Hillary (he most certainly was) or better than Harris (ditto).
But many of Trump’s earliest and most fervent supporters backed Russia over Ukraine early in the 2022 invasion. Support was almost immediate in the most MAGA parts of the blogosphere such as the Conservative Treehouse, the Gateway Pundit, and the comment sections of Instapundit, Althouse, Red State, and PJ Media. Many others came around to it after Tucker Carlson’s interview of Vladimir Putin. (Tucker Carlson had much more influence on the right back then).
It had an effect on policy. Look no further than the formal 2024 Republican platform, which called for the capitulation of Ukraine “to prevent World War III.” Not just the president but also Don Trump Jr., JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, and RFK Jr. have all issued blistering statements against Ukraine, some of which demonstrated a seething hatred of the country.
I’ve seen comments in the MAGA blogosphere calling for the death of every Ukrainian man, woman, and child. Others calling for them all to be burned to death. Others to freeze them all to death. I’ve seen MAGA calling on Russia to “nuke that shitty country out of existence.”
I’ve even seen MAGA calling on Russia to nuke American cities (This was during the Biden administration. Presumably they feel differently now). I’ve seen MAGA saying that if Russia and America went to war with each other that they would personally take up arms — against America! (Again, during the Biden administration).
These weren’t just internet trolls. The head of a local MAGA group told me in person that if Russia invaded Europe that we should join the fight — against Europe. “Russia is our friend. Europe is our enemy.” Another said we should invade Europe from the west while Russia invades Europe from the east and split Europe like Poland was in 1939.
And I mean “holy ally” literally. I not quite recently had dinner with a MAGA-clothing-wearing young lady who told me that the Russian army was “God’s holy army” that He was using to destroy Ukraine, Europe, and the United States for their support of “gays and trannies.” We had better repent before the Russian army destroys us.
I like the people here, especially our hostess. But I would say that if your view of MAGA is formed primarily from this site, you’re not getting the full MAGA experience.
mkent:
Depends what a person means by “MAGA.” Turns out it’s a very elastic term.
When Trump was first running, there were MAGA people who fanned out all over the internet to revile those who didn’t support him and to praise everything he did. They were verbally aggressive and very active. They were hostile to anyone who supported any other GOP contender in the primary. But they were only an especially intense subset of MAGA. He had other supporters.
And then there were people like me, who certainly never supported Hillary Clinton but didn’t trust Trump, and who supported other GOP primary candidates, but who felt that as president he was far better than expected and who came to support him fairly early in his first term. Are they “MAGA”? I don’t tend to use the term, because I just think it can mean nearly whatever a person wants it to mean, broad or narrow.
Then there were fake MAGA people like Tucker Carlson, who pretended to support him but apparently hated him, according to emails from years ago. Marjorie Taylor Greene would be another. Among them were people who basically were (and are) total isolationists and Jew-haters who supported Trump when they thought he agreed with that and no longer like him because they believe he diverged from that. They admire Putin as a strong man who will do what it takes to Make Russia Great Again – which they think is both a racial, religious, and territorial war that includes the seizing of Ukraine.
The “MAGA” people in the US who support Russia against Ukraine can mainly be found among the most intense MAGA people I described in the second paragraph, and the fake MAGA people in the fourth paragraph.
Better they stop at a home improvement store and take home a air conditioner
Interesting now that Marine LePen’s legally able to renter electoral politics, her opponents might want to consider how much to worry about this intrepid woman’s popularity and might.
“Le Pen Approval Rating Hits Record High After Appeal Conviction”—
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/le-pen-approval-rating-hits-record-high-after-appeal-conviction/
(I understand that Jack Smith’s a bit busy at the moment…)
I am not MAGA per se. I am America First though.
Assholes in Russia say all kinds of things. I laugh and move on.
Considering their abject failure to accomplish the first objective and the fact that a bunch of those countries are NATO, and that would mean war with USA, I am more concerned with post Putin Russia because I don’t see how they can do any of this.
I support Poland by buying their stuff so they can buy our stuff. (COBI, lots and lots of COBI).
https://cobi.com/products/cobi-northrop-b-2-spirit-stealth-bomber-set-5916
Here is some rah, rah from COBI.
“COBI models are created with adults in mind. Our themes focus on what truly interests grown builders: history, aviation, military engineering, automotive design, and technology. These are not disposable toys — they are models meant to be built with intention and proudly displayed at home or in the office.”
“We work with globally recognized brands and institutions, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Maserati, and Jeep. Official licensing allows us to recreate iconic vehicles and machines with accurate proportions, markings, and distinctive details — delivering authenticity that collectors appreciate.”
“Our models are designed as part of complete, well-planned series. By maintaining consistent scales across collections, builders can expand their displays over time and create cohesive, visually impressive collections. COBI is not about single sets — it’s about building a system for passionate collectors.”
Testing, testing.
I think one of my comments got eaten.
Within the past week, our friend physicsguy replied to me, explaining that he is reading or listening to Propaganda Media sources in order to grasp the Left gone Far-left, to grasp its appeal.
I too have pondered this often . My not deep conclusion is that a great part it’s a combination of average IQs that have been siloed by repetition. Thus, conditioned not to be skeptical, and not to enquire any further. Why not join the cause of moral superiority!
Blame white Christians and feel good and superior!
I think my deeper search is rounded up with a few YouTube videos I share for the curious. The first one is a short featuring Ron Henderson explaining that socialism is a luxury belief.
I have taken the time to share its contents with written description.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7n6injw8GI
7Jul26, 7m
StosselTV
262,443 views Jul 7, 2026
I’m told socialism is a working-class movement.
In reality, its biggest promoters live lives of privilege!
Political psychologist Rob Henderson has a name for this: a “luxury belief.”
An idea that buys the wealthy status [respect, moral superiority], while the poor pay the price of it.
Take NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. His socialist ideas make him popular, yet make life for everyday working people expensive.
That doesn’t matter to him. He grew up rich!
“He is the poster boy for luxury beliefs,” says Henderson, “He has a wealthy filmmaker mother, [and] an Ivy League professor father.”
Mamdani is not unique among socialists.
Congresswoman AOC, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and streamer Hasan Piker all have privileged lives.
In the video above, Stossel TV Fellow Leyla Taghiyeva breaks down the examples, and why it’s a problem.
___________
Next, in a fresh and considerably longer YT interview, Rob Henderson lays out his serious irritation over luxury believer’s hypocrisies. THEY NEED EXPOSURE AND CONFRONTATION,
I think sums up his case.
Rob does not deal with socialism as a luxury belief here. Instead, bizzare positions of the left like abolish the police! Let’s destroy stable marriage and families, stances by well if not highly privileged people who do not embrace these for themselves.
At the end, Rob explains that while he first published his “luxury belief” concept in 2019, he could have never imagined that 6 months later as COVID went crisis levels, that the Ruling Class would fully campaign for these dangerous causehead beliefs.
LINK for Rob Hendersons’ American Thought Leaders interview at the recent ARC conference in London
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkJwbF9dcLw
To add briefly, Triggernometry has an authority, Arthur Brooks, who argues that activism by the Left compensation for lack of meaning in personal lives. A new interview at YT.
LINK for Rob Hendersons’ American Thought Leaders interview at the recent ARC conference in London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkJwbF9dcLw
But someone explain to me why the ones I know enthusiastically cheer every drone strike the Ukrainians make on Russia?
physicsguy:
My take is that the global liberal elites, particularly in the EU, are in a loose coalition with the left and Islam against the traditional conservative white Judeo-Christians of the West. We are their largest obstacle to power.
Putin threatens the EU elites, so his invasion of Ukraine is a problem. The American left falls into line with its ally.
Likewise the elites in the EU and America are working hard to bring in third-world immigrants, especially Muslims, to dilute conservative Judeo-Christian power. It’s working, though now the backlash has begun.
Supporting Iran is about supporting Islam and reducing Israel, which is fine with most of the elites, the left, and Muslims. Though Iran gets into the Shia-Sunni divide in Islam.
It’s not a clean set of distinctions, it’s not publicly affirmed and it’s not chiseled in stone, but that’s the hand I see being played.
Rick67
Years ago I invited a friend from Argentina for Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. He wouldn’t even try my mother’s cranberry relish (w oranges…delicious). Nor would he try the oysters. “I don’t eat seafood.” I related this to his English teacher in Argentina, who was a native of New Hampshire: “Well, he’s from an underdeveloped country.”
Decades later I mentioned him to my sister. “Isn’t he the one who wouldn’t eat mom’s cranberry relish?”
Gringo:
Sometimes I wonder how Borges emerged from Argentina. Any thoughts?
I don’t understand the USA vs Iran conflict. That’s ok; I’m not responsible for its conduct. Having said that, I have an idea that President Trump is using carrots and sticks, hoping to wear the regime down til it buckles and/or breaks.
I have no love for the thug Putin. I do see the appeal of his reported support of Christianity and heterosexuality, differing from the Democrats and most of Europe.
Self says he or she does “not understand the USA vs Iran conflict.”
It’s simple, really. Iran has been at war with the US ever since the Mullah’s installed their Islamic Revolutionary Republic 47 years ago. (President Carter, thanks for doing nothing to stop it.) Israel is the “Little Satan” to them; the US is impediment and affront to Allah’s will, and therefore is the “Great Satan” to them.
Ergo, the US State Department has long held that 80% of world terrorism stems from Iran, or those funded by Iran.
We tolerated the Saddam led Iraqi War against Iran in the 1980s. And since their “Revolution”, virtually every conflict the US has entered somehow is tied up with Iran.
Finally, Israel and the many Persian Gulf states, who are the wealthiest nations in that region, have grown sick and tired of Iran’s constant terror-fight games. They want a peaceable region for economic development. Hence, their Abraham Accords to provide it.
And the US is tired of playing policeman in the region because of Iran. Thus, ending it likely means a change in government there.
But this will take time. If Iran can be cordoned off and isolated, that could be the best alternative to overthrowing the government.
We are at war with Iran because their government wants to kill us! Trump chose to defend us and the region by attacking the threat.
physicsguy writes that he’s confused about Iran. “First of all, I thought all of Iran’s navy, most of its missiles, drones have been destroyed. So where are they getting all these missiles, drones, and boats now?”
The first statement is true. Iran gets replacements a few ways. It gets missile and drone tech from Russia by their common inland sea. Iran can salvage damaged but reparable missiles.
Plus, they’ve adopted the mobile launch missile delivery system using heavy trucks like Russia and the Soviets did and China still does, of course, to evade destruction. Hence, the surprise at having more.
Although
I also thought all their air defense and radars had been taken out. Yet, the target list for the last few days has been exactly that.
Wikipedia has detail and origins and consequences of Iran’s “mosquito navy.” Small and speedy watercraft that can easily be hidden:
“In the 21st century, the term “Mosquito Fleet” has been applied to the small, fast attack craft of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N).[4][5] These vessels—often speedboats capable of exceeding 100 knots (115 mph)—are used in asymmetric warfare ‘swarm’ tactics to harass, board, or attack oil tankers and other commercial shipping, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.[6]
“Unlike Iran’s conventional navy—whose larger warships were largely destroyed in the 2026 Iran war—the IRGC-N’s fast boats are easily hidden in coastal caves and among civilian traffic, making them a persistent ‘disruptive force.’[4] The strategy originated in the 1981 – 1988 ‘Tanker war’ of the Iran–Iraq War when Iran increasingly turned to asymmetric methods after losing larger vessels in direct confrontations with the U.S. Navy.”
Lastly, “Trump said “no tolls”, yet now he imposes a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait. Huh???”
Think Trump “bargaining chip” that may seriously smite Iranian Revolutionary sensibilities, biting just as the reality of inflation crisis and economic failure beckons.
huxley
For example, where did his anglophile tendencies come from? There is a not unsubstantial British influence on Argentina, though it is less than it was a century ago. English Argentines (Anglo-Argentines) came to Argentina in the 19th century with capital to invest. English built the railways. Consider Argentine soccer clubs: River Plate, Boca Juniors, and Newells Old Boys. Welsh immigrated to Patagonia in the 1870s. I met a Welsh-Argentine in northern Argentina, a thousand miles from Patagonia. Our Argentine partner was a Miguel Macadam, whom I called Miguel Macana.
But the biggest factor in the Anglophile tendencies of Jorge Luis Borges was that he had an English grandmother.
As a child, Borges spent many years in Europe, where his father searched for a medical solution for his failing eyesight. This was in an era when many Argentines had money to blow on living abroad.
But the biggest factor in the Anglophile tendencies of Jorge Luis Borges was that he had an English grandmother.
Gringo:
Good point! Works for me.
Borges was some kind of miracle in my book. His New Directions “Labyrinths” anthology made me get serious of about writing.
For those unacquainted with Borges try one of the most famous prose poems, short short stories, metafictions in all of literature:
https://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Borges–Borges&I.htm
…In the days when Argentina, with all its resources, was expected to be an economic and cultural powerhouse.
Though it didn’t quite work out that way….
(Maybe all they needed was a tenacious, patriotic, hard-headed visionary…with a chainsaw…)
huxley:
I was introduced to Borges’ work in college, and he’s been one of my favorite writers ever since. I’ve got a draft of a post I wrote long ago about his politics, but never published. Maybe I should dust it off and have it see the light of day.