Israel Hits Iran Hard

When Raisi got hit, which was supposedly an innocent helicopter crash, it became pretty clear that there were traitors deep within the Iranian government and it would hardly be surprising if these traitors, probably compromised in some manner to do Israel’s bidding, currently have a controlling interest within the Iranian government, meaning that though they can’t get 100% of what they want, they can prevent 100% of what they don’t.

–

Some folks are astounded at the rate of moral degradation of the Western political class. I think what’s happening is that in the past the Western politicians would get elected and then “moved” in certain directions once they got in through bribery, blackmail, and/or being misinformed and misled by compromised staff.

Now, however, the politicians are often compromised before they ever even run for office … they basically have to “step-in-it” before they get backing for their campaign … and then the “donor class”, which consists primarily of Jewish Supremacist Zionists … which I have often referred to as the Jewish Zionist Mafia (JZM*) … financially and structurally supports their campaigns to get them elected.

*Note: The JZM is a small subset of Jewish people and the vast majority of Jewish people are not JZM members and there are obviously Jewish people who are fighting in some manner against the JZM’s power and Israel. In fact, a lot of the alternative media folks who most effectively point out the immorality and hypocrisy of Israel are Jewish, such as Norman Finkelstein, Katie Halper, Glenn Greenwald, Gabor and Aaron Maté, Max Blumenthal, etc..

Z

I have been saying that the so-called Resistance is dithering and indecisive for a long time now, to general opprobrium and all manner of name-calling.

I wish I had been wrong.

Your statement is clear and pitiless (as are the circumstances, so it fits), Iran is led by old men, evidently cowardly or in denial of what was coming.

However, this will in the long term be a Pyrrhic victory for the Zionist Entity, and for Trump, who “authorized” but did not very much directly participate in the decapitation strike. Indeed, The Duran guys who have been gullible and stupid on one thing, thinking that Trump was sincere about “America first” and not a Zionist puppet just like all recent presidents except Bush I, who was ousted with AIPAC money for Bill Clinton after mistakenly thinking US is the dog, and Israel the tail. They did say definitively today (well, Mercouris did) that “Trump’s presidency is over.” He has betrayed his base who mostly do NOT love Israel first (some are actual anti-Semites) and is now exposed as a feckless puppet of a foreign power.

I am only a human being and can’t always anticipate the future, even despite a thorough study of history. The Actors (those with power) now are totally irrational and insane. One thing that helped me is studying various systems of mysticism, I started studying the Yi King at least 3 decades ago, I favor the Wilhelm translation.

Scoffers can scoff or ignore what I share here. It’s fine, I don’t care. I’ve thrown the sticks 1,000s of times and only gotten less than a dozen bad or seemingly wrong calls.

Yesterday, Due Dissidence predicted an Israeli Attack approved by Trump on Iran, I consulted the Oracle, asking “Do Izzys/Netanyahu soon initiate wider Mideast war with Iran?” Response had 2 moving lines: #1 was first Hexagram with 2nd and 5th line changing; thus movement went to #30. Both were “doubled”, First is big Yang, “Creative”, start of Power (poss. Demiurge); 2nd and 5th moving lines both very favorable, both entirely favorable to the initiating power, 2nd is Fire of Fire.

This scared the shit out of me. It proved entirely correct. So this morning I asked the follow-up question. “Do Iran and Arab World (& Russia) stand strong or face extinction?” (I should’ve included China in query, no morning tea yet, it’s tacit anyway.) Answer was #50, “Ting”/ Cauldron, only first line moves, progress to #14, Possession in Great Measure”, Supreme Success. In the Cauldron hexagram, line 1, the cooking pot is overturned, spilled on the ground = “Removing of stagnating stuff.” My interpretation is that the US installed family dictatorships are on a knife’s edge now, principally Jordan and Egypt, thus only Yemen stands strongly for survival of Muslim culture and civilization (Great for many centuries, in decline since the rise of European Empires). Even Saudi populace is 98% pro-Palestine anti-extermination, but the Royal family isn’t. I believe some dominoes will fall here, that is what’s conveyed. In Hexagram #14, there is only one split/ yin line, in the 5th, occupying the place where “the Ruler” is supposed to be, per Taoist convention. paradoxically, Wilhelm comment notes, “This line is empty and central . . . capable of possessing all the yang lines. . . Commentary is that “The yielding receives the honored place in the great middle, and upper and lower correspond with it.”

There are clearly many traitors and clowns in the RoW leadership, especially in the weak, corrupt, scummy Gulf States and the other puppets Egypt, Jordan, NATO Turkey. They can collaborate with their paymasters in being exterminated one by one, or Unite. Just as your graphic shows– wonderful graphic, but I wish the artist had included Ukraine, Israel & US pocket flags on Mr. Death’s black suit. Oh Death knows who he works for!!

Like I said, scoffers feel free to scoff. The Yi has steered me right over many, many years. I agree with CG Jung’s claim (which originally I thought was absurd) that the Yi King is a sort of transcendental and eternal consciousness, it is AI invented by ancient mystics, but unlike AI it is largely insightful and possesses “Intelligence.”

Oh, Mercouris reminded me– Happy Friday the 13th!! And tomorrow is the No Kings protests against Trump. There is one in my little town. I have been ignoring and not attending the Shit Lib fake “Resistance” faux “protests” here (fund Ukraine!!), but since tomorrow is the anniversary of the MIC’s formation plus Diaper Donny’s birthday, I will go. The former is the reason– I hate the War State. The US is the kind of Country that has 3 holidays devoted to War (July 4, Memorial Day, Veterans Day) and only one for Labor, deliberately moved to fall and not on May 1 even though Haymarket Square in Chicago was the worldwide inspiration for Labor Day held in every civilized country in the world on that day.

Trump is an Accelerationist; the Crash & Burn is much closer than 48 hours ago.

Bibi the Butcher can now sharpen his knives to murder more Palestinians now that so many eyes and ears are turned towards Iran.

Probably not a coincidence that this happened yesterday:

Gaza has been plunged into a complete communications blackout after Israeli forces struck key infrastructure, the Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced on 12 June.

The authority warned that the deliberate targeting of telecom facilities has left the region digitally isolated, cutting off one of the last remaining links between Gaza and the outside world.

https://x.com/MintPressNews/status/1933232377133682918

Z

Perhaps Iran’s only successful propaganda campaign was convincing –almost– everyone that they have a massive stockpile of missiles. Do they actually have them or the few times they attacked did they utilize everything they had?

In hindsight it’s obvious Iran has a large amount of people who think laying on their stomachs is the best option. The current president –elected in 2024– campaigned on improving ties with west and “negotiating” with America.

I guess we’ll see if Iran decides to keep playing kabuki theater or fully realizes they’ve been in a war for a while and not a reality TV drama. Contingent of course on if they actually have the capabilities it’s been assumed they have.

It’s looking increasingly like Iranian air defences have been sufficiently degraded that the IAF is conducting daylight operations (including mid-air refuelling in Syrian airspace).

Given that most Iranian ballistic systems seem to be liquid fuelled, I suspect they’re going to be executing a combination of whack-a-mole on pop-up targets and attacks designed to bottle Iranian TELs in their hardened bases, while also conducting a strategic campaign against nuclear infrastructure. Mass MRBM attacks like we’ve seen Iran conduct in the past may prove to be quite difficult, if the IAF can establish sufficient presence in or near Iranian airspace.

And I believed you didn’t need nukes nowadays. You’ll do better with oreshniks. Or so it’s said.

This link is quite long. I post it here just in case it has not come to someones attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrpDb8MkF5I

I think Israel made a mistake in killing a bunch of leaders. Never worked for the US in Afghanistan. The only leader anyone has killed in the Middle East lately that made a lick of difference was Hassan Nasrallah. Well, maybe Soleimani. But in this case, it’s if anything probably counterproductive–if those guys they just killed were any good, the situation would be different right now. So who’s going to replace them? Probably someone younger and fiercer who wants to make a mark.

Hey L & S, it’s interesting that you pay so much attention to and want to respond to my post despite all the sensible things that others, Z for example, say that you could also respond to. I don’t know whether to be flattered or to feel stalked.

In any case, your latest communique contains what I have learned to expect from you over the short period you’ve been posting on this site. I will simply mention the chief 2 vices you display: shocking historical ignorance is #1, and disingenuous statements which rise to the level of deliberate bad faith– a rhetorical trick that some debaters use, but which is the opposite of helpful is your 2nd feature. Why is your little dance unhelpful? You are not seeking truth (the main reason I come to this site, where many bright and insightful people teach me things in areas which I haven’t studied), you are simply trumpeting your own ignorance and (vainly, as far as I can tell) seeking attention. Or to be more direct, Trolling.

I taught history professionally for over 3 decades, at the High School level only, not the College level. Additionally I have a Masters degree in MLIS (look it up) which taught me very thoroughly how to do actual research.

If you ever choose to actually educate yourself about Russia rather than just jingoistically jeer at the (subhuman in your eyes?) scary Asiatic monsters (something the Germans often project onto them), I would recommend that you start with a book from the 1990s by Peter Hopkirk, called The Great Game. (Very favorably reviewed, now recognized as a classic.)

This is just a preface to rebutting a single absurdity you throw at me– We think alike because we both feel disgust for Military Celebrations. Well, no, we do not think alike at all, to paraphrase Public Enemy, “No we’re not the same, coz you don’t know how to play the game” (of unprejudiced scholarship and a search for truth.) Your knowledge and your rhetoric are bigoted, shallow attempts to score points, unsourced by and disconnected from any quality of veracity.

Let me just share some broad points here, though they may be far over your head–

1. Russia is a very ancient culture that has been influential and even a superpower in Eurasia for very many centuries, in fact several centuries before the US even existed.
Even under a Communist regime, Russia excelled in science, the arts (music, ballet, etc.), the culinary arts, engineering in a harsh climate, agriculture, diplomacy, exploration including space, mathematics and physics, and many other areas too numerous to list here.

2. The US is a very “young” society, and had a sudden rise to Power after a disgraceful founding, as a genocidal enterprise against Native people, fortified by people stolen from Africa to work as slaves. Btw, are you aware that the word “slaves” derives from Slavs, going way back to the glorious period of Islamic ascendancy across the world from Europe through North Africa and across the Mediterranean continuing on to East Asia as far as India’s borders. https://reifshistoryclasses.weebly.com/islamic-expansion.html

Since you evidently “don’t know much about history” and I will assume geography either, a reason I recommend the Hopkirk book to you. The US became a vicious, united, white-supremacist state stretching across North America including the Northern half of Mexico, stolen from Spain in the late 19th century. “How dare anyone in Southern California publicly fly a Mexican flag!” you sniffled on an earlier post here. Well, demography can be destiny (to a point) and people and cultures are not as easily annihilated and thrown into history’s dustbin as a white Chauvinist like yourself might wish. (I’m making an assumption based on your comments; feel free to correct me if mistaken.) Are you by any chance a reader of the alleged Classics expert and white supremacist author Victor Davis Hansen? Look into him if you don’t know him, as far as your approach toward “wetbacks” or “beaners” goes you share a lot with him.

Okay, to be fair the US did become an international Empire starting with the McKinley’s (a Diaper Donny favorite) Presidency and continuing to “Invade other people’s countries, see beautiful sites, and kill them” as the Army recruiting line goes. The Philippines, Marshall Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, huge chunks of Latin America, destroying Haiti over and over, occupation of Germany, interventions in too many places to name to install faithful, Right Wing (usually dictatorships) regimes, to loot natural resources, as I expect even you know.

Back to Hopkirk– in its region, Russia had confrontations with neighbors both friendly and not: Prussia, Iran, the British Empire meddling endlessly, the Mongols, Napoleon and the French, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Balkan Chihuahuas, Sweden, Finland, the Caucasian “-stan” areas, Turkmenistan and the others, Poland, etc. etc. (I only started the list, no need to beat a dead horse.) The French philosopher Diderot, mostly credited for the early Encyclopedia, spent time at Catherine’s court. (The Swedish queen had to content herself with causing Rene Descartes’ death of pnuemonia.)

Now even you may know (if I take the dislike of US Military Ceremonies as sincere) that the US never showed respect for the cultures of its dependencies. I’ll cite only recent examples: Ronald Reagan traveling to Europe to do tribute to Nazi dead (see the Ramones’ song “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg”) made a point of telling the Euro-flunkeys how superior the US was in every respect to what Donnie Rumsfeld later deprecated as “Old Europe.” American GIs did take French or German wives, so there’s some actual cultural interchange there, but they had to speak English once here.

I object to ‘Murican military parades because I was a teenager during the Vietnam War and I saw friends’ older brothers come home as junkies, basket cases, alcoholics, or Chauvinist pigs like yourself. (“Speak English you dirty Mex’cun, and don’t wave that stupid flag. Do you know where you are?” This kind of sniping makes you sound more like a Trump fan than you seem willing to admit?) I’ve seen the US start and fail in dozens of wars there, though they do “succeed” in creating failed states: they lost Vietnam, they lost in Korea (a truce) while killing 2 million plus people, which they bested in Vietnam by half a million or more additional. Btw I don’t know if you know who General William Westmoreland was? A dumb fat boy like Trump, he said something that you basically paraphrased during one of your anti-Russian tirades the other day. While we were exterminating the “gooks” in Vietnam and Korea, he reassured the folks at home that these deaths didn’t matter because “Life in the Orient is Cheap”, also “the Asiatic doesn’t value life like WE do”!! (Sickening from someone who literally murdered millions of “Asiatics.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9vFzN5MbFk)

Here are some words from you dehumanizing Russians, showing exactly the kind of colonial arrogance that Westmoreland flourished: “It’s clear to me at this juncture there will be no peace deal. Putin will have to take Kyiv and that will mean another half a million to a million casualties although it’s also clear all those casualties don’t sway Russia like they would in the West.” Oh, those monsters, they have no hearts they don’t value their dead!! Oh, and going to the thread and finding this colonial smear, I note many others here, Sorodemos, Mago and others are on to you. May I suggest you try the Lawyers, Guns and Money site to you? Those are really your people, more your speed, but they certainly are enthusiastic about certain genocides (against Russians, Palestinians & Muslims etc. ‘coz “We are the good guys!”)

So I was gratified to see you finally responded to my point about the “Chicago Boys” killing 5 million Russians prematurely after 1991, but OF COURSE you had to attribute some of the deaths to the evil Asiatic Russkies themselves. This is sickening and would be like a Nazi at their war crime trial noting that the Kapos killed some of their own to stay alive– true enough, but not a moral justification. Incidentally, just to do some math, if the Russians had to sacrifice 1 million people (your absurd exaggeration) to take Kiev, wouldn’t that sacrifice make sense so that THIS time when Russia is broken, the German pigs and others don’t kill 10 or 15 million. The Imperialist powers are not known for moderating their carnage over time.

So to conclude, I stopped standing for the Pledge of Alliegance by 10th grade at the latest, because I never much liked the Empire, the overt racism (my dad was a racist and anti-Semite, he did marry a Spanish brown woman, an odd omission which just reminds us that “The heart wants what it wants.” My dad trained me very well and at a young age to despise fascism as he exhibited its pathologies to (and often against) me.

Why, then, am I not triggered by Russian Celebrations– I’ll simply quote Marshall Zhukov here: “We have liberated the world from fascism, but they will never forgive us for it.” Your slapdash smear has a tiny piece of veracity in that the Russians sacrificed 23-27 million people to destroy the Reich. As professional historians have largely agreed, Russia was responsible for the deaths and removal of 83% of Reich soldiers on the Eastern front, the US did nothing like that. I watched the Victory Day celebrations for about 2 hours this year– interesting that neither Israel nor the US, much less Germany showed up, isn’t it, and that Zelensky a couple days prior threatened dignitaries like Xi Jianping that “my government will not protect your safety if you attend.”

I’m a humanist and a universalist. I don’t hate people indiscriminately based on a national label, I hate those who I see bullying others or supporting that. Nationality is one thing, and character is quite another. You can’t acknowledge that, evidently.

I’ll close with something from a site that I found the Zhukov quote explained in to close– you may not appreciate the point, but others will:

“The western imperialists financed and cultivated Nazi Germany to destroy the Soviet Union and refused to ally with the Soviet Union to fight Hitler. Stalin in one of the most masterful feats of statecraft saw the writing on the wall and signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler who then invaded the western imperialists and allowed the Soviet Union to move all their western factories east to the Urals leaving nothing for Hitler once they did invade. Now the western imperialists were compelled to fight Hitler who sought to plunder everyone. Over 20 million soviets died to raise the flag of the USSR over the reichstag and bury Nazi fascism. The western imperialists will never forgive the USSR for killing their Nazi lovechild.”

Bob Dylan lamented in an early song, “With God on our Side”, “I was taught to hate Russians.” That wasn’t always the case in this country. I’m no fan of Stalin, obviously, he was a monster, but not quite on the level of Hitler and his buddies. Here’s a gospel song from 1943 when it was okay to not just support but even to love our wartime allies–

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI3u80z1qKo

(Oh, and to patient readers here. I gave a lot of energy to demolishing a shallow Troll. I promise to spend my time and yours more productively in the future, talking to the mentally and morally blind and deaf is a waste of time, I know. )

The U.S. is on the Brink of War with Iran… Why and for Whom?

https://youtu.be/XuNXbcol9Gs?t=86

Jewish organizations [not ‘Israeli’ or Zionist] show wall-to-wall support for Israel’s strike on Iran

Groups voice ‘unwavering solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel’ and call for strong global support in the face of Iran’s nuclear threat

Jewish organizations [not Zionist or ‘Israeli’] from across the spectrum came out in strong support of Israel following the launch of its preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities early Friday morning.

After long years of warnings about Iran’s nuclear program and intensive preparations, Israel’s offensive against the Islamic Republic struck nuclear sites, military facilities, missile bases and senior leadership, with startling success in the first wave of attacks.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) sent a message of strong support for the mission, saying that “Israel’s action to cripple Iran’s nuclear program is a service to all civilized people.”

“America must stand with our ally at this critical moment as it takes action to protect its families and the world from a nuclear-capable Iran,” the pro-Israel lobbying group said in a statement. “The Administration and Congress should ensure that Israel has the resources and support needed to defend itself from any Iranian response.”

On its X account, AIPAC thanked numerous political figures who showed support for Israel’s operation, including House Speaker Mike Johnson; senators Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, John Boozman, James Lankford, Jim Banks, Steve Daines, John Thune, Jim Risch, Bill Hagerty and Jon Husted; House Representatives Elise Stefanik, Josh Gottheimer, Nancy Mace, Don Bacon, Michael Guest, Mark Harris; and others.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement that the attack was an act of self-defense, noting that it follows decades of Iranian violations confirmed by the UN nuclear watchdog of its nonproliferation commitments.

“A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential and grave threat to Israel, the region, the global community, and as demonstrated on many occasions, lethal threat to Diaspora Jewry,” the ADL said on X.

The Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella organization representing 350 communities across the US, said in a statement that it stands “in unwavering solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel — as we have throughout our shared history — praying for their immediate safety, strength, and well-being, and for the protection of future generations to come as Israel defends itself from Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and other threats posed by the Iranian regime.”

The UJA Federation of NY, one of the country’s largest Jewish philanthropies, offered a similar message in a separate independent statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Israel as they once again seek shelter from the threat of incoming fire,” the organization said. “We stand with Israel as it takes all necessary and justified action to defend and protect its citizens in the face of this mounting peril — and to ensure its survival.”

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) announced that “We stand with Israel in its right to self-defense and in anticipation of any Iranian military or proxy response,” in a statement on X.

In a statement by the Democratic Majority for Israel, the advocacy group’s President and CEO Brian Romick called on the US to support Israel.

“We urge President Trump to give Israel all of the necessary support, resources, and assets to protect its citizens,” Romick wrote. “It is essential that the President and all American government officials send a clear, unambiguous public message that in the event of a counterattack, America has Israel’s back unconditionally.”

At the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem, Chairman Doron Almog said, “The entire Jewish world is joining forces in the struggle to shape the future, not only in Israel and the Middle East — but throughout the world, strengthening Israel in this historic hour.”

He said the Jewish Agency has opened a situation room in Jerusalem to closely monitor and assist Jewish populations around the world.

“The embrace from Jewish communities worldwide is strongly felt and reminds us that the partnership we have built is deep and enduring,” added Jewish Agency CEO Yehuda Setton. “This is not just support, this is true mutual responsibility between the Jewish people wherever they live.”

[Evidently those are just the secular Jewish groups – not the religious crazies]…:

Among religious groups groups, the Orthodox Union called on constituents to pray for the safety and security of Israel, the success of the IDF, and “for a true and final end to the evil Iranian regime’s ability to sow terror and destruction in and around Israel and the world.”

The Chabad movement, the ultra-Orthodox Agudath Israel, and representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements also issued prayers for Israel’s safety and success.

[Reform is allegeldy ‘progressive’ but then what’s the difference]

The Secure Community Network (SCN), the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America, called on Jewish communities to stay on high alert and strengthen security measures.

“While there is currently no credible or specific threat against the Jewish community, this development occurs amid an already intensified threat environment,” SCN noted.

European support……

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-organizations-show-wall-to-wall-support-for-israels-strike-on-iran/

https://xcancel.com/MintPressNews

Iz Ministry of “Defence” hit,
Iz Naval commander maybe,
1 or 2 Iz pilots seized in Iran after AD shootdowns,
Iran AD working again,
Infiltrators in Iran with drones seized,
Pakistan in support of Iran, warplanes in theatre.

Looks like it’s official now. The much maligned Iranian AD has taken down 2 Zionist F35s.
No idea if it was done with an S400 or something homegrown.

The Day Stealth Died: Iran Becomes First Country to Destroy F-35 Jets in Active Combat
https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/aviation/the-day-stealth-died-iran-becomes-first-country-to-destroy-f-35-jets-in-active-combat/ar-AA1GH44a

To NR: Nobody can yet say with any certainty how successful this Iranian missile attack/retaliation was or was not. Certainly, some 24 plus hours later, it seems that the results of the Israeli air attack on 06/13, apart from the killing of a handful of senior Iranian officers and nuclear scientists (the latter would be considered civilians btw), were more than a little overhyped.

And most importantly, this was only the first salvo from Iran. The Zionist colonial settler state can expect many many more barrages to follow in the coming weeks.

I’m often mesmerized by the stuff that I get to learn from this blog. Off late I find that the comments section has become just as precious as the writing itself.

Thank you ML for your valuable comments. Currently reading through Jung’s introduction to the Wilhelm translation of the i-Ching.

About the rusting Russian military, by strange fortune, I stood on the shore of the frozen ocean at Vladivostok in the late 1990s and saw some of the rusted, abandoned Soviet Navy.
The Bolsheviks/Communists, as good Marxists, were students of history and extremely well aware of how Napoleon had used his military position to usurp power and were vigilant against any would-be Napoleon of their own. They always kept their military very tightly under civilian control. Wisely so.

>They could either join the nuclear club or submit, because only nukes guarantee the continued existence of their country and form of government.

Having nukes is a necessary but not a sufficient condition.

You also need delivery systems that can reach the continental US, i.e. ICBMs. And you need those to be survivable.

Because otherwise the game is the following:

1) Israel attacks Iran
2) Iran strikes back (we are here now)
3) Israel nukes Iran
4) Iran nukes Israel
5) Then a couple US SSBNs fire their salvo from the Arabian Sea at Iran and Iran is no more
6) Iran cannot strike back.

Iran loses, so do Russia and China, the US is intact, the Israeli proxy is gone, but there are more Jews in the US than in Israel, so they take the loss and reconstitute later on.

It can go a bit differently:

1) Israel attacks Iran
2) Iran directly nukes Israel

But then we end up with the same outcome.

So again, nukes plus proper ICBMs.

Which is what North Korea did and nobody is touching them as a result.

But even nukes plus ICBMs are not a fully sufficient condition. We see that with Russia. Nobody has more formidable weapons than Russia, yet it is attacked by the US. Which is happening because of internal dysfunction and weakness.

North Korea doesn’t have that because it is a closed society that has removed the corrosive outside Western influence.

Russia and Iran didn’t do that and are paying the price.

So quick replies and thanks to site posters who responded to me, and also to smart, careful critics like Jessica.

Thanks to Z for the infrequent comments. I remember many years back when I thought Z was too Russophile. I learned better, reality can always call you up short. The first time in the SMO I got off the fence and decided I totally support Russia was when the UK Guardian blatantly lied about the conquest of Mariupol. The Nazi forces had been hiding for days or weeks in the Azovstal complex underground until they were basically starved out and surrendered. The Guardian (which many years ago was a legit source) lied that the Ukrainians were being “evacuated” and not strip-searched (for Nazi-adjacent tattoos), and the Azov thugs taken into custody. There was an excellent journalist named Abraham Stein who filmed the Nazis removing shirts and showing off their Black Sun, Mustache Man, 88, swastika, etc. tattoos. (I think his name indicates why he may have had an interest.) I lost a pro-Ukie friend who I pointed this out to. He made excuses, “Maybe the journalist was just dumb, doesn’t understand the difference between ‘evacuate’ and ‘surrender’!! Then when I pointed out that BlackRock and Goldman Sachs owned much of the country, he started saying “Aren’t those good groups?” I realized he was dishonest and possibly terminally stupid himself, easy to let that friendship go.

One thing I don’t like is being lied to. It really triggers me. I feel like the liar is insulting my intelligence, which makes me angry. Despite usually being “Level” headed. I’m not especially pretty (though when young I was popular enough with the ladies, I’ve got kind of a tough, punk rock vibe despite being a gentle scholar once you get to know me a bit.) Side note to MJ, who I have been critical of at times– I take you at your word that you are more “difficult” (my word) online than f2f, I’m sure that’s true of 95% of any survey. Anyway I often tell liars, “If you want to insult me, say something about my looks, I don’t care.” Anyway, by now I have nothing but respect for Z’s prescience and expertise, as well as the brevity of his takes (a skill I’m obviously poor at.)

Finster is brilliant not just here, but on MoA (where I am banned), possibly YouTube as well. I just criticized someone here for not having my values. I can talk to someone who doesn’t if the debate is not dishonest and is civil. I don’t think I would ever suffer this dilemma with Finster. Some people are just kindred spirits.

Which mago clearly is as well. When I took the risk of outing myself as to the practice of mysticism, I had a tacit assumption that Mago was in the know. And yes, I had some really good teachers back in the day, I was rigorously warned and trained to use “a proper portion of perfect caution” and not over-indulge praeternatural resources, or to surrender to “tyranny and superstition”. Yes, sometimes we have to walk away from a valuable resource and work on areas we’re not so strong in. That was another part of my early training.

I’ve learned a lot from Oakchair about health, epidemiology and related issues. Diet is about the only area I haven’t learned much from him in, because I had a very delicate stomach and was kind of fragile as a child. I only blossomed my senior year in high school, and then being forced to work in physical, blue collar jobs (and forced to learn to fight rednecks who attacked me), I toughened up a lot and did well with diet, experimented on myself. My first out-of-body experience was when I wasn’t getting treated for severe constipation at the emergency room. Leaving your body is weird! When I was 23 years old and still drinking soda (my stupid Midwestern upbringing) I developed severe hyperglycemia. (The opposite of hypoglycemia.) If I ate something sugary, I almost immediately had a headache, mouth dry as a desert, and little red itchy spots would appear on my extremities (fingers and toes). Ironically, when I was picking coffee in Nicaragua, I stopped drinking coffee, because they drank a brew that was 60% sugar and 40% cafe, I would’ve been dead of diabetes or other maladies by now if I drank that swill more than once. It was the first time since I was 17 that I was off caffeine, and it was fine.

Climbing a small mountain and being in the Sun, picking coffee much of the day and having a very simple diet benefited by health hugely. We lived of tortillas de maiz, arroz y frijoles, little bits of queso, & lechuga 6 days a week. (Rice, beans, cheese, lettuce in a corn tortilla.) As I’ve shared recently, first time I saw a cow killed, gutted etc. (not being a farm boy like my dad) I wouldn’t eat meat the one day, Sunday, it was offered. My body became a fine-tooled machine. In fact, I would have one bowel movement daily, at exactly the same time, roughly 10:15 a.m. I could time it by the Sun’s position in the sky. Not a lesson about simplicity I ever would’ve learned unless I’d left the “First World.”

Mexico and Nicaragua had wonderful little panaderias (bakeries) with tasty sweets. I always had a sweet tooth. After the hyperglycemia, I taught myself a self-conditioning technique (I must’ve read some BF Skinner or other behaviorists in passing), I would look at the goodies through the store window and picture them as la mierda or little skulls of death. I would think, that’s poison, don’t touch it, don’t eat it!! It worked. Years later I went back onto small amounts of candy or cake, but I would eat a piece over 3 days or so. I would only eat Ice Cream when I had a girlfriend and we could split it, they often teased me about my fastidiousness. I am a whiny wimp when it comes to illness, and pay close attention to my body. It has served me well over time.

To Danill Adamov– thank you for, like Z, teaching me more about Russia. I am far from expert, my interest ramped up recently. Having lived in a country that was terrorized by US Blackbird Spy Planes and US-paid terrorists, my sympathy with Russia bloomed over time. I already quoted Marshall Zhukov, what more can I say?

To Salman, enjoy!! It might work for and appeal to you, it might not be your cup of tea. Jung was brilliant, I have a younger friend who is nearly illiterate (he had severe undiagnosed vision problems as a child and was put into Special education, by the time they fixed his vision it was almost too late, so he developed other skills to compensate. He is highly psychic and sensitive to subtle cues from people around him. When we first started hanging out, having studied mysticism myself, he impressed me greatly. I’ve studied the Sepher Sephiroth (& Islamic gemmatria via Idries Shah, Peter Lamborn Wilson, and some of the Sufi luminaries, like the dietary restrictions, Judaism & Islam share a common source) and my friend had developed his own English gemmatria, “0h (letter) = 10) and despite not being a reader kept spitting out the names of Sephiroth to me, Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, etc.) like an Adept. Despite his challenge with literacy, he wanted to borrow a copy of Jung’s “Dreams” when I showed him my library. It has lots of illustrations. He told me he’d had no difficulty with it whatsoever. Returning to Nicaragua for a moment, during my 1983-84 trip, my then-girlfriend, Diane was along for the first 2.5 months until her money was running low and she went back to USA. We were always Oil and Water, when we first met I was an Anarchist and she was a Communist. So when I got back to the US, shortly before our relationship ended, she commented on the fact that I was reading Jung’s “Modern Man In Search of a Soul” during the trip, with a passive-aggressive attempted insult: “I always felt like I was traveling with a 14th century alchemist during that trip!” I took the intended insult as a compliment.

The Greeks highly valued the irrational, the rational goes only so far. I will use either tool just as I will use my left or right arm and hand, based on the circumstance. Over-reliance on either is, imho, like wearing blinders.

To Ian, thank you for the compliment. Yes, I know I am quite prolix and can push the envelope a bit at times (mainly when insulted, just wanting to reply.) Your fine home/ way station here enriches the guests, me included. There’s no place on the ‘Nets I can go for political/ social/ historical/ philosophic/ sociological debate that I am aware of that is as simpatico to me as here.

To bruce wilder. Many times I want to say something on a topic but you have beat me to it, and with greater depth and insight. So thank you for that. I know there are times when I disagreed with one of your takes, but I don’t think I have ever gotten angry or annoyed with you. You have a fine mind, I have learned much from your insights.

To someofparts, thank you for your insight on language and the youth of “the West” relative to Asiatic cultures. I am not very expert on the Ottomans, but know a bit. Not long ago I read a wonderful book about the Arabian Nights Cycle, Marina Warner’s “Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights”, Harvard U Press, 2011, about the West’s fascination with and (mis)-Interpretation of that classic work. I probably stumbled across a London Review of Books piece that Harper’s shared that led me to it.. 540 pp., incl. colored plates, bibliography, etc. It really blew my mind, and I learned so much about the Courts, food, myth cycles and borrowings, etc. She put my mind at ease very early in the book when she talked about Dr. Edward Said’s work on Orientalism, and the care that must be taken for (most) Westerners to encounter “Eastern” thought. I have always had a huge fascination for story cycles, a weird occultist friend introduced me to the 3 hour 1965 Polish film The Saragossa Manuscript directed by Wojchiech Has which embeds stories within stories, and is very Orientalist, though mostly in a good way. It’s considered Poland’s best movie by the Poles, per Wikipedia. It’s in black-and-white, but features electronic music which I never would’ve expected from Poland in 1965. I soon read the book by the weirdo Polish Count Jan Potocki, a dedicated Esotericist and self-proclaimed Lycanthrope who killed himself with a silver bullet, fearing he’d be stuck as a wolf if he didn’t. There is only one reference to Polish vampires in the entire book, he set the story in Spain, with a young, arrogant Noble trying to travel through the Sierra Morena mountains on an assignment. He stops at a haunted inn, is warned not to sleep there by the departing owners, “ghosts” inhabit it. He does so anyway. In the night, 2 beautiful Muslim sisters appear from the basement and seduce him. After a night of ecstasy (only suggested at, not detailed) he awakens under a gibbet, with 2 dead brigands hanging above him. He tries to continue his journey but keeps getting sidetracked. All kinds of figures throw different options at him– a young mathematician who he’s most sympathetic too, an Alchemist who takes him in whose beautiful sister also seems to want to seduce him, Gypsies who are exalted as the most powerful people in the area, etc. etc. Eventually a great Sheikh (who earlier appeared in the guise of a scolding Christian priest who warned him of “sin”) reappears to announce that he has 2 daughters with the beauties. The most fun story in the movie was of a chronic Scopophiliac lowlife who takes a weak, nerdy rich boy under his wing and finds a beautiful woman for him to marry, so as to gain a patron and enrich himself. Endlessly entertaining. Years later (2004) I visited the 14th century (I think) Mosque in the City of Zaragoza, to which the title refers. An exquisite place, the Alhambra was also quite a find.
Anyway, I highly recommend the book and movie. The elaborateness of the book reminds me a bit of what Robert Bolanyo achieved in his final book, 2666.

Oh, and I totally agree with you on provenance, usually best to go back as far as you can. The Romans were materialistic interpreters of the Greeks, the Greeks learned and borrowed so much from East Asia. The more “foreign” and mystic elements that the increasingly materialistic Westerners abandoned, the more deracinated the culture got, I think. Oh, and before I abandon the subject, Rabelais is my favorite writer of the contemporaneous triad of Shakespeare, R, and Cervantes. He’s great for the humor, but stole a lot from the Islamic classics, e.g. the story of the poor man sued by a restaurant owner for “stealing” the delicious scents inside while eating his meager bread, and certain other scenes. Also, supreme rationalist Voltaire did a nice story of a traveler who meets a dangerous alternately hero and villain “Angel” borrowed directly from the Islamic world.

Now to Jessica– thank you for your correction. I generally agree, but will defend my generalization a bit by noting that like the classic story of the 3 blind men and the Elephant (as you concede) it depends on when and where we start measuring. And yes, having lived in NorCal for over 30 years, I know the Spanish claimed a large amount of territory that they may not have even seen and only knew by legend. As I drove north to meet a Mendo-Area pot growing friend of mine from Oakland, Santa Rosa is generally agreed to be the farthest North settled by Spanish Speakers. The Russians didn’t keep the “Russian River” area north of there for any appreciable period of time, also obvious. Yes, you are 100% right, the Mexicans never strongly populated their Northern declared territories, a mistake that permanently impoverished them when the Anglos came in to grab as much as they could. As big a mistake as the Native chief who protected the earliest white colony in New England in return for “protection” against a competing tribe. I’ll differ from you a bit on earliest Russian history, Hopkirk covered Ivan III’s expulsion of the Mongols in 1480, a very important declaration of independence that allowed Muscovy, which he was Prince of, to emerge as a Central Point around which neighbors would ally. And I agree with your quibble about “even” 100%. A culture that genuinely honored worker power and ingenuity, hard to imagine given late Neoliberal rot.

Oh, and in closing as much as I have deprecated Ukraine for its recent history–the only country not to have economically progressed one whit from 1991 to the 2014 Maidan coup, known for its corruption, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and etc. Pretty sure I have read in MoA and elsewhere that Brezhnev, born in Ukraine, was generous in upping its profile and granting lands (which Russia has too much of) to his homeland as a sort of gift. (Could be wrong about this, feel free to correct.) Bernahard regularly uses that historic colored map to show pieces added to Ukraine linked to chronology, but I have never memorized it. Anyway, Ukraine was known for its great folklore and literature. So I will praise 2 authors I revere, Gogol (a kind of pre-Surrealist) and even more Mikhail Bulgakov for The Master and Margarita, an anti-Soviet fantasy with Satanic forces as the “good guys”, punishing the Soviets for their stupid pedantry and materialism, and a sorcerous femme fatale who turns her horny neighbor into a swine and rides him to Witches’ Sabbaths at night. Dark v. Darker, and darker wins.

Oh, if I forgot anybody, my apologies!! Just riffed off of this thread, mainly.

Mark Level,
I don’t think Mexico (or the Spanish running Nueva Espana before them) made a mistake by not populating the lands eventually taken by the US. They just weren’t able to. Large parts of that region were not taken from their native populations until late in the 1800s, i.e. long after seizure by the US. Even the California mission settlements that are big cities now, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, were established in the late 1700s, over 200 years after Santa Fe.
The inability to take its northern reaches from the indigenous people there is why Spain established a defensive line near the current US-Mexico border and also why Mexico invited Americans to settle Tejas. Mexico hoped the Americans would fight the Comanche but knew that the Americans, mostly Southern slave owners, were not trustworthy. Mexico only invited them in because it was desperate.
Crimea was transferred from the RFSFR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by Khrushchev who had a strong association with Ukraine. I have been unable to find out exactly why he did this. Even learned historians claim not to know. In any case, the effect at first was minimal because within Ukraine SSR, Crimea was an autonomous republic. That meant that it reported directly to Moscow, not to Kiev. And in the 1950s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union controlled both Moscow and Kiev anyway.
Sometime before 1991 (can’t find out when either*), Crimea lost its autonomous status. Also, by the late 1980s, the national republics such as Ukraine SSR were more and more autonomous from Moscow. That was a major factor in the collapse of the USSR.
*I have been surprised that straight-forward information, such as when Crimea lost its autonomy from Kiev, would be so hard to find in the Internet age.
The westernmost part of Ukraine was transferred to the USSR from Poland during WW2. This is the area where Bandera’s organization murdered around 100,000 Poles.
Donbas (and I believe Odessa also) were added to Ukraine by Lenin in 1922. The Bolsheviks may have wanted to dilute the Ukrainian population with some Russians, but they definitely wanted to add workers into what at the time was an overwhelmingly peasant population. Donbas was one of the three main industrial areas of Russia at the time.
What should have happened in 1991 and could have happened if the US had insisted on it was a series of referenda, oblast by oblast or even finer grain, so that areas could chose whether to be in Russia or in Ukraine. This would almost certainly have resulted in much smaller but more coherent Ukrainian state. Building a nation state from a people is hard enough even without an infestation of oligarchs and a split between those wanting an ethno-nationalist state and those wanting a multi-ethnic state.

Jessica:

It might seem too obvious, but Wikipedia will give you a basic timeline. It helps, in using Wikipedia, to know that the editors generally multiply and separate articles when there is controversy and opposing camps of potential “editors”. So, there are now separate articles on the Russian Republic of Crimea and the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the geographic peninsula and, of course, the SMO and so on.

There is long history within Crimea of seeking autonomy and various factions, who seek autonomy for conflicting reasons. Crimea and Sevastopol and the Kerch strait were fought over in the Second World War. Stalin felt that the Crimean Tartars were insufficiently loyal to the Soviet Union and removed them elsewhere and not incidentally stripped the Crimea of its administrative autonomy. The variety of administrative status for oblasts and republics in the Soviet Union was more complicated and arcane than it currently is in the Russian Federation, where almost all “subjects” of the Federation share the same status. Autonomy was restored, at least symbolically, under Gorbachev and Crimean Tartars were allowed to return, but nothing was done to restore property to the Tartars though vague promises were made and the Tartars have done some political lobbying and squatting.

At the time Ukraine declared independence, Crimea also tried to declare independence. A tug of war ensued between Crimea and Ukraine, with a constitution for Crimea written and rejected, and Crimea acquiesced to being an “autonomous republic” within Ukraine at least symbolically but fully subject to Ukrainian law. Sevastopol, the largest city on the peninsula, was more of a condominium shared with Russia, with Russia having a lease on their part of the naval port. The Sea of Azov was also a condominium, not international waters but of course is now entirely controlled by Russia.

After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine took over the association of Crimean Tatars, ousting the long-time chief in favor of a young Ukrainian politician with some dubious claim to being a Tatar. Putin, as I understand it, is quite hostile to the Tatars and especially hostile to their land claims. It would be impossible to assess sentiment now.

Between annexation and the SMO, Russia invested quite a bit in Crimea and incomes rose considerably during that period. The one sore point is that Ukraine cut off the water used for agriculture.

@elkern,

For video from the ground, @bonzerbarry on twitter has been collecting videos on Iran’s missile strikes in Israel collected from various accounts and Telegram channels as they come in. There aren’t too many of these otherwise from ‘official sources’ due to the imposition of military censorship in Israel atm. The xcancel link (needed if you don’t have twitter) is https://xcancel.com/bonzerbarry

Shoutout to Ian who’s on there apparently also 🙂 https://xcancel.com/iwelsh

As for regular developments, much as I dislike them Al Jazeera’s english channel is about as good as any for covering latest statements from each side, announced hits, official death tolls, Trump’s rantings, etc . https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/6/15/updates-death-toll-grows-as-iran-and-israel-continue-to-trade-attacks Click on the “auto update” to keep the feed going.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/06/laith-marouf-on-irans-escalatory-path-and-its-expectations-of-a-long-war.html

From NC last night. Good Rachel Blevins interview with Laith Marouf on Iran.