THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING EX-PRESIDENT: Where’s Barack? A Legacy Lurking in the Back Row.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
June 17, 2025
HMM:
Reports indicate the Chinese Embassy is evacuating its staff from Tehran. https://t.co/1BQhpoS8jW
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 17, 2025
China buys 80-90% of Iran’s oil exports — often using questionable methods to avoids sanctions, and presumably at a discount.
Whatever change is coming, Beijing presumably isn’t happy about it.
THE ECONOMICS OF WAR: Israel’s air superiority lets it strike Iran on the cheap — and force Tehran into costly retaliation.
The effective Israeli strikes on Iranian air defenses and military airports “will degrade Iran’s ability to restrict Israeli operations in its airspace,” the Institute for the Study of War, a conflict studies think tank in Washington, DC, said on Sunday.
Weapons analysts have identified Israeli fighter jets armed with Joint Direct Attack Munitions. JDAMs, which are made by the US defense contractor Boeing, are dumb bombs fitted with relatively cheap guidance kits that turn them into precision-guided munitions. These weapons are not considered stand-off weapons.
Analysts have also spotted Israeli aircraft armed with SPICE bombs. Like JDAMs, guidance kits that turn dumb bombs into precision weapons. They are made by the local defense firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Open-source intelligence accounts have noted the use of JDAMs and SPICE — which stands for Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective — bombs in the airstrikes across Iran, including around Tehran. Israel’s ability to fire these munitions suggests it is less concerned about defenses and does not necessarily have to employ its more expensive missiles for high-value targets. It has more options.
It’s nice to have affordable options.
June 16, 2025
THE IDF SEEMS TO HAVE A HANDLE ON THINGS BUT IT’S NICE TO BE PREPARED IN CASE THE MULLAHS GET FRISKY WITH OUR PEOPLE: Uncle Sam Assembles A Big Stick. “A major military airlift appears to now be underway, as an unprecedented number of U.S. Air Force KC-135 and KC-46 Aerial-Refueling Tankers have departed from airbases across the United States and appear to be preparing to cross the Atlantic towards Europe.”
Much more at the link.
Update: Then again…
President Trump will depart the G7 meeting in Canada early, heading back to Washington DC tonight.
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 16, 2025
And:
🚨 President Trump has ordered the National Security Council to convene and remain on standby in the Situation Room.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) June 16, 2025
OH:
JUST IN 🔴
Iran’s state media main website is currently offline. pic.twitter.com/K5MVqFS6fq
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 16, 2025
IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Scientists find universe’s missing matter while watching fast radio bursts shine through ‘cosmic fog.’ “This previously missing stuff isn’t dark matter, the mysterious substance that accounts for around 85% of the material universe but remains invisible because it doesn’t interact with light. Instead, it is ordinary matter made out of atoms (composed of baryons) that does interact with light but has until now just been too dark to see.”
Dark matter always felt like a kludge to me.
HEH:
Epic trolling, after the French government ordered Israeli booths to be blocked at Paris Air Show. pic.twitter.com/dZU20995zZ
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) June 16, 2025
IT’S WEIRD HOW DEMOCRATS KEEP BLEEDING MALE VOTERS:
Introducing @KolbyDuhon, our new Vice-Chair for Finance of the Texas Democratic Party! pic.twitter.com/TOpAjNP9zU
— Texas Democrats (@texasdemocrats) June 15, 2025
And that’s just in Texas.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: The Funniest Fake Stuff From Operation Rising Lion (So Far).
WATERMELONS: Green group with ties to Chinese Communist Party part of network influencing U.S. policy. “A national-security watchdog group is asking members of Congress to take a closer look at an energy transition advocacy nonprofit that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to State Armor, the watchdog group, nonprofits are coordinating with U.S. climate groups to influence climate policy, advance the interests of the CCP and undermine U.S. national security.”
COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Salt Lake City ‘No Kings’ protest murder suspect pushed Antifa views.
Arturo Gamboa, the man charged with murder after a deadly shooting at Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest, appears to be a self-described anti-government radical who publicly supported Antifa, rejected the US electoral system, and once said justice should be taken “by any means necessary,” a Facebook page with the same name from Utah reveals.
While Gamboa did not fire the shot that took the life of 39-year-old Arthur Ah Loo, police say his armed and threatening behavior sparked the confrontation, says the Salt Lake Tribune.
Witnesses say Gamboa appeared at the protest wearing a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle in a backpack. He allegedly emerged from behind a wall and began running toward the crowd with the rifle raised.
A designated “peacekeeper” at the event, wearing a high-visibility vest, opened fire with a handgun—striking Gamboa and inadvertently hitting Ah Loo.
What a mess.
SOMETIMES, IT’S THE LITLE THINGS: This Might Be Britain’s Stupidest Fail Yet.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA sets new potential launch date for Ax-4 mission to ISS.
In a June 14 statement, NASA said it is working with Axiom Space and SpaceX on “reviewing launch opportunities” for the Ax-4 mission, with the earliest such opportunity on June 19.
The mission was set to launch June 11 but was postponed the evening before to correct a liquid oxygen leak in one of the engines in the Falcon 9’s first stage. That repair appeared to be ready to support a launch as soon as June 13, but NASA announced June 12 it put the launch on hold to allow the agency and Roscosmos to assess a “new pressure signature” in a Russian ISS module after recent work there.
The assessment involved a vestibule or “transfer tunnel” known as PrK at one end of the Zvevzda module, connecting a docking port to the rest of the module. That vestibule has had a small leak for several years, despite efforts by Roscosmos to seal it, and the vestibule is usually sealed off from the rest of the station.
NASA said that after the recent work, pressure in PrK remained stable rather than dropping slightly as previously detected.
Previously: ‘Possibility of a catastrophic failure’: Inside the space station leak problem that has NASA worried.
IT’S REMARKABLY LOW, CONSIDERING THE TARGETS: Israel’s Death Toll From Iranian Strikes.
COOL. NOW DO COLORADO: Trump’s DOJ Argues Illinois’ Ban on ‘Assault Weapons’ is Unconstitutional Under the Second Amendment. “In an earlier appeal reviewing a preliminary injunction against the Protect Illinois Communities Act (‘the Act’), this Court held that the Act was likely constitutional and reversed. But this Court made it crystal clear that its opinion was ‘just a preliminary look at the subject.’ Id. at 1197. Now after final judgment, there are three very good reasons why this Court should reverse course and affirm the district court’s injunction.”
POWERLINE: No Kings at the Old Folks’ Home. “They were leaving an assisted living facility. But still–they epitomize the demographic of those who turn out for Dem rallies. The Democrats’ violent rioters and looters, admittedly, trend younger.”
A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN THINKING THIS: Is Israel About to Do the (Almost) Unthinkable?
INCENTIVES MATTER: Nearly 1 million illegal immigrants have ‘self deported’ under Trump, which has led to higher wages.
One of those tracks relies on arrests and deportations of aliens unlawfully here, which at the outset has focused mainly on criminals (the “worst first” strategy).
The other track is more subtle but also cheaper for taxpayers and arguably much more effective —encouraging illegal migrants here to self-deport.
It began with an Inauguration Day Trump directive requiring DHS to ensure all aliens present in the United States — legal and otherwise — have registered with the federal government, and to prosecute those who don’t comply.
…
One way to track the program is by checking employment numbers. One financial wiz cited by the Wall Street Journal calculated a decline in the immigrant population of 773,000 in the first four months of Trump II.The Washington Post claims “a million foreign-born workers have exited the workforce since March.” The Post frames this as “a sign of the weakening labor supply.” Yet the paper also notes, “Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power.”
In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants, businesses had to raise wages to attract workers.
Unexpectedly.
RAYMOND IBRAHIM: The Queer Origins of Islam’s War on Dogs.
THE HORROR… THE HORROR…:
LOS ANGELES WOMAN SLAMS ICE: "I have friends texting me…my gardener didn't show up, housekeeper didn't show…farmer's market is closed…everyone's scared…you're gonna have to do your own dishes, clean your own house, mow your own lawn!"pic.twitter.com/yLQPoCUS6d
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 15, 2025
“Crazy Ladies Lecturing Their Selfie Cameras” is the worst show on TV.
“LOVE TRUMPS HATE” OR WHATEVER: Brookline Police launch hate crime investigation after brick thrown through kosher grocery store window.
“This morning we received a report from the owner of The Butcherie that a brick had been thrown through their window overnight,” Brookline Police said in a statement Sunday. … “Written on the face of the brick in large red letters were the words ‘Free Palestine.’”
Just after midnight Sunday, police said, multiple suspects in masks approached the local kosher grocery store at 428 Harvard St. from Coolidge Street and threw the brick through the window.
The preliminary investigation indicates that there were at least two suspects in the incident, though the exact number was no confirmed, Brookline Police stated. The suspects allegedly fled back down Coolidge Street to an unknown location after the vandalization.
No other businesses appear to have been targeted “as of now,” the police said Sunday.
Brookline Police identified the case as a “hate crime investigation” with malicious damage of property.
More to come, probably.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: You Know, I Rather Enjoy Being on the Side of Patriotism. “It was rather warm like that here all weekend, so we didn’t have a much of a ‘No Kings Day’ presence here in the Old Pueblo. Apparently, the kids were successful: I checked, and we don’t have a king. In fact, there are no extra kings anywhere in the world as of yesterday. Well done, ‘No Kings’ marchers.”