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Archive for 2025
June 19, 2025
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Millions of students dropped out as higher ed shifted focus from degrees to DEI.
WHEN THE NEW GOVERNMENT COMES IN, IT SHOULD DEMAND THAT FRANCE PAY REPARATIONS:
France helped to install Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 after hosting him in Neauphle-le-Château, from where he coordinated the Iranian Revolution. France even chartered an Air France flight for him to Tehran in 1979.
Now, France is offering to negotiate a peace deal to help… pic.twitter.com/sbUdFjeCXL
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) June 19, 2025
COLD WAR II: China’s nuclear arsenal surges 20% in one year, reaching over 600 warheads.
China has boosted its nuclear arsenal by 100 warheads in just one year, growing from an estimated 500 to over 600 warheads in 2025, according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Beijing now possesses more warheads than the UK and France combined, and is expanding its arsenal faster than any other nation. Since 2023, Beijing has added approximately 100 new warheads annually, marking a significant escalation in its nuclear capabilities, according to the research group.
As of January 2025 China had completed or was nearing completion of around 350 new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos across three desert regions in the north and three mountainous areas in the east. Depending on how China organizes its forces, it could match the ICBM counts of Russia or the United States by the end of the decade.
China has been engaged in a “strategic breakout” since at least 2021, but the Pentagon and defense contractors still can’t get their act together on replacing our 50-plus-year-old Minuteman III missiles
NO, SLAVES DID NOT BUILD AMERICA’S WEALTH: Today is Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the moment slaves in Texas first got word of Lincoln’s signing the Emancipation Proclamation. But the Left has taken what was before a celebration of freedom and corrupted it into a key part of the Great Lie about America.
That would be the lie that America is irretrievably evil because the Founders accepted slavery and in the decades thereafter it was slaves in the American South who built what has become the richest, most prosperous nation in human history.
Much has been written over the years about this lie, but nothing that this writer has ever read even begins to match the razor’s edge of fact and truth displayed in Rod Martin’s Substack column today, entitled “Juneteenth: No, America’s Wealth Was Not Built by Slaves – Slavery Held Us Back.”
KIMBERLEY STRASSEL: The GOP Tax-Bill Endgame: Don’t let the dire reporting fool you. Republicans are closing in on a legislative win. “The evidence that Republicans are close to sealing their tax-and-spending-cut megabill? The number of members claiming they are a ‘no.’ The Senate Finance Committee’s Monday release of its portion of the reconciliation bill was the final piece of the negotiation puzzle—all major positions are now staked. With Republicans intent on settling final intraparty disputes via a Senate product, members know now is the moment to make a last push for priorities. So don’t mistake the meaning of those “no” threats. The press will delight this coming week in claiming they represent deep division and imminent collapse. Consider them instead negotiating positions, members’ last efforts to notch their respective wins. And even these demands are somewhat on the edges. Sources report that most House and Senate Republicans are generally comfortable with the broad planks of the bill. The horse trading instead centers on more granular policy questions.”
Plus: “Here is a Democratic trend to watch: Prominent liberal politicians impeding federal agents who are attempting to arrest migrants, public displays of obstruction that are gaining steam. Though whether this is the “new look” Democrats want to present when it comes to the immigration issue is highly debatable.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Are the Good Iranian People About to Have a Moment? “For the last several years that I lived in Los Angeles, I was in a neighborhood that had a significant population of Persian Jews who fled Iran in 1979. I would occasionally hear stories about what a glorious country it was before the Islamic Revolution. There must be a lot of excitement right now in my old ‘hood.”
THAT OUGHT TO BE “HOW IRAN IS LOSING”: How Iran Lost.
On June 12, Israel unleashed a series of strikes that damaged Iranian nuclear facilities and missile sites, destroyed gas depots, and, critically, killed scores of top regime officials. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remains alive. But his most important deputies—including Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and Hossein Salami, the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—are dead.
A few years ago, the sudden, near-simultaneous killing of Bagheri, Salami, and a host of other senior leaders would have been unthinkable. Over three decades, the hard-liners who control Iran’s regime had built up what seemed like a formidable system of deterrence. They stockpiled ballistic missiles. They developed and advanced a nuclear enrichment program. Most important, they established a network of foreign proxies that could routinely harass Israeli and U.S. forces.
But Iran’s hard-liners overplayed their hand. After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, the regime’s leaders opted for a campaign of maximum aggression. Rather than letting Hamas and Israel fight it out, they unleashed their proxies at Israeli targets. Israel, in turn, was compelled to expand its offensive beyond Gaza. It succeeded in severely degrading Hezbollah, the most powerful of Tehran’s proxy groups, and eviscerating Iranian positions in Syria—indirectly contributing to the collapse of the Assad regime. Iran responded to this aggression by unleashing the two largest ballistic missile attacks ever launched against Israel. But Israel, backed by the U.S. military and other partners, repelled those attacks and incurred little damage. It then struck back.
With that, the foundation of Iran’s deterrence strategy crumbled. Its ruling regime became more vulnerable and exposed than at any point since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. And Israel, which has dreamed of striking Iran for decades, had an opportunity it decided it could not pass up.
They’ve certainly made the most of it so far.
I FIND YOUR TERMS ACCEPTABLE: Rock Singer Declares: ‘If You Voted for Trump, Do Not Come To My Shows.’
HMM: Starship destroyed in test stand explosion. “SpaceX provided no other details about the explosion. It took place as Ship 36 was being prepared for a static-fire test. However, the explosion occurred before the vehicle ignited its Raptor engines.”
UPDATE:
Just a scratch
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2025
This aged so well 😂😂https://t.co/kUGxZBPctN
— Space Sudoer (@spacesudoer) June 19, 2025
PERHAPS UNLIKELY, BUT NOT STUPID — BRINGING THE MONARCHY BACK DID HELP SMOOTH THE TRANSITION FROM FRANCO IN SPAIN: Iranians Chant for Shah’s Return As Terrorist Regime Collapses
IF THE INTIFADA IS GLOBAL THEN HE’S A LEGIT MILITARY TARGET FOR ISRAELI DRONES: Holocaust Museum Condemns NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani for Defending ‘Globalize the Intifada.’
GAIA CRIES: The Guardian Seethes Over ‘Carbon Footprint’ of Israel’s War in Gaza.
Anti-Israel journos with the intelligence quotient of a moth flying face-first into a bug lamp are just inventing stupid new ways to stir up furor at the Jewish State for daring to defend itself against terrorists obsessed with its obliteration.
The Guardian’s climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani put out a staggering piece of mind-numbing, fallacious eco-drivel May 30 that insults common sense. “Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries,” cried Lahkani.
Writing as if she found some kind of proverbial silver bullet, she flexed a new bonkers study to claim that the “carbon footprint of the first 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza will be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of a hundred individual countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.” She tied her nonsense to the typical climate agitprop: “Burning fossil fuels is causing climate chaos, with increasingly deadly and destructive extreme weather events forcing record numbers of people to migrate.”
Who in the bosom of Gaia has ever heard of a clean war?
The Grauniad has, that’s who! Why Genghis Khan was good for the planet. Laying waste to land scrubbed 700m tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
—The Grauniad, January 26th, 2011.
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THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF MOSSAD IN IRAN: The most unappreciated aspect of Israel’s remarkable success against Iran is the reality that for months before the current hostilities began, Mossad agents were roaming inside the former Persian empire.
Richard Pollock talked to somebody who knows a great deal of how this happened and continues happening today. Here’s a small sample:
“One who is talking about this omission and is dialed into this extraordinary military campaign is John Spencer. He currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and is Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project,
“Spencer told me that, indeed, Mossad is continuing to aggressively and freely operate throughout Iran. ‘Most mainstream media treat Mossad’s presence in Iran as something that happened in the past. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the current reality,’ he said.
“’Mossad has a long track record of building deep operational infrastructure inside enemy territory. There is every indication that those networks are still in place and active. They are likely supporting real-time targeting of regime leadership, missile systems, and mobile launchers, while also disrupting Iranian internal security from within,’ he told me.”
There is more, much more. Joshua and Caleb, veterans of a previous notable Israeli spy operation, are grinning ear to ear.
THAT’S REAL MONEY AND PROBABLY A DROP IN THE BUCKET: USAID: Guilty Plea For A Half-Billion In Fraud. “This story broke last week just as Israel was bringing the wood to Iran, so it might have flown under the radar, but a USAID employee and three contractors just pled guilty to a half billion dollar fraud case.”
ICYMI:
we're finding out how many licks it takes to get to the bottom of a self-licking ice cream cone… https://t.co/brDAMR0fdu
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) June 18, 2025
Related: Lawmakers shootings: Trump says calling Walz would ‘waste time.’
What they’re saying:
Trump said he hasn’t and wouldn’t be calling Walz because it would “waste time.”
Trump called the Democratic governor “slick” and “whacked out” and said he’s “not calling him.” Trump added, “The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess.” Trump said he could “be nice and call him, but why waste time?”
Remember:
Walz was the vice presidential running mate for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump.
The other side:
In an interview Monday with Minnesota Public Radio, Walz said he wasn’t surprised by the lack of outreach from Trump, saying, “I think I understand where that’s at.”
On Tuesday, Walz’s spokesperson, Teddy Tschann, said, “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans, but this tragedy isn’t about Trump or Walz. It’s about the Hortman family, the Hoffman family, and the State of Minnesota, and the Governor remains focused on helping all three heal.”
In the early 2000s, Mickey Kaus liked to talk about “the Feiler Faster Thesis, [named] after the guy I stole the idea from:”
The news cycle is much faster these days, thanks to 24-hour cable, the Web, a metastasized pundit caste constantly searching for new angles, etc. As a result, politics is able to move much faster, too, as our democracy learns to process more information in a shorter period and to process it comfortably at this faster pace. Charges and countercharges fly faster, candidates’ fortunes rise and fall faster, etc.
And how! In the old days, it took decades between when a Republican was declared Hitler by Democrat politicians and their media operatives with bylines, and when he was issued a new suit and allowed to leave the Führerbunker in Berlin to attack the latest Rethuglican Hitler. It took over 35 years between Richard Nixon being smeared as a Nazi by George McGovern in the 1972 election, and Roger Ebert and Paul Krugman rehabilitating him as a nuanced, thoughtful statesman to attack current Republicans. It took over 20 years between when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were declared Nazis by all thoughtful “Progressives,” before the Harris campaign aggressively sought their endorsements last year.
In contrast, it’s only taken Walz eight months from when he called Trump someone with “fascist tendencies” to now wondering when the sympathetic phone call to Saint Paul would be coming. And considering that Walz was calling ICE agents a “modern day Gestapo” only a month ago, the pace of change is accelerating exponentially!
WOULDN’T IT BE NICE IF DEMOCRAT VOTERS WOULD GO BACK TO ELECTING GROWNUPS? Democrats Walk Out of Hearing Probing Biden’s Mental Fitness When He Was in Office.
A FIELD THAT’S DUE FOR MAJOR CHANGES: A New Hope For Middle Eastern Studies. “It would be nice to have academic departments of Middle Eastern studies to turn to for understanding these days, but too many have traded scholarship for anti-Israel politics. No wonder most are now ignored, other than for their role in the self-immolation of U.S. universities since Oct. 7, 2023.”
For over half a century, “Middle Eastern Studies” has been driven by the Arab-Israeli conflict. Now Israel and the Arabs are on increasingly friendly terms, and Israel is on its way to being a normal country in the Middle East. I’m not sure the departments can adapt to this new world, but if they can’t they should be scrapped.
June 18, 2025
MICHAEL WALSH: In Praise of Instability.
UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!
OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.