The Daily Donnybrook, and other fine things

Posted on July 6, 2026July 13, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Welcome to Ye Aulde Colde Furye Blogge’s shiny new open-comments thread, where y’all can have at it as you wish, on any topic you like. New posts will appear below this one. There will be blood…

Mike @Substack

New Eyrie posts go up every Monday and Friday, although the time of day may (and most likely will) vary. Mike’s latest Eyrie offering is available for perusal here: “Screamin’ meemie Monday!“ Links to archived Golden Oldies are findable down at the bottom of each post.

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Shut ’em down, Marco!

Posted on July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

“Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of ‘international law.'”—Marco Rubio

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is going down. At least, it is if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has anything to do with it.

“Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which U.S. soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents, and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America,” Rubio wrote in an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “But that is what the International Criminal Court now claims the power to do.”

If you’re unfamiliar, the ICC, which is located in The Hague, Netherlands, was established in 2002 under the Rome Statute to handle the absolute worst crimes in the world, like genocide. It claims it can investigate people of any nation if it feels their own government won’t, and the United States has never bought into this ridiculous idea that is simply a globalist slippery slope.

“Both of our major political parties opposed the prospect of handing a distant global court the power to prosecute and jail our own citizens,” Rubio writes. “President Clinton refused to submit the Rome Statute (the ICC’s founding charter) to the Senate for ratification due to his ‘concerns about significant flaws in the Treaty.’ Two years later, a bipartisan Senate supermajority passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, authorizing the president ‘to use all means necessary’—including military force—to prevent the ICC from detaining or arresting Americans.”

I was vehemently opposed to it myself back then, which opposition led me to compose one of my most popular CF parodies ever: ICC and the Dark Lord, ostensibly a Grauniad report on Frodo Baggins being tried at the ICC for wantonly destroying the One Ring.

Frodo Baggins of Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth, has been called before the International Criminal Court to answer charges of war crimes brought by Sauron the Dark Lord and Saruman the White in a joint filing.

Baggins refused comment on the matter from his home at Bag End, simply moaning and holding his head. But his former valet and gardener (now mayor of Hobbiton) Samwise Gamgee spoke with reporters from his “bit of garden,” saying that “you people ought to know better, coming here bothering my master and trampling my taters and all. This is just about the dumbest thing I’ve heard of since Master Merry and Master Pippin started up that Broadway show of theirs. That didn’t work out so well, either, but all’s well as ends better, as my Gaffer used to say.” Gamgee was referring to the spectacular failure of “Mount Doom – the Musical,” which debuted on Broadway last year and closed the same night, bankrupting its producers and principal investors Meriadoc Brandybuck of Buckland and Peregrine Took of the Tookland, both in the Shire.

The charges brought by Sauron and Saruman are serious and were commented on at length by the Dark Lord himself at a press conference held after he delivered the formal papers to the Court. As a full signatory to the Court’s original charter, Sauron is legally entitled to bring charges before the Court, and the Court’s decision will be binding on Mr. Baggins, per the charter establishing the authority of the Court over the entire world, whether the particular defendant lives in a member country or not. The Shire has repeatedly refused to ratify a proposal to join the Court; the proposal has languished in the legislature, bogged down by stalling tactics employed by right-wing and unilateralist legislators intent on blocking it. Gondor and Rohan have likewise not joined the ICC, for similar obstructionist reasons.

Heh. I slay me.

Was he or wasn’t he?

Posted on July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Mike 2 Comments

Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

The (Pink) Elephant in the Room: Why the Whisper Campaign About Lindsey Graham’s Sex Life Matters
I worked in South Carolina talk radio in the early 2000s. (Shout out to 1250 WTMA, “Your news-talk leader in the Low Country.”) At the time, the sexual escapades of South Carolina politicians were fodder for gleeful gossip — especially our nonagenarian senior senator, Strom Thurmond. More than one Capitol Hill staffer told me his behind-the-scenes nickname was “Spermin’ Thurmond” — and his eye for (much younger) ladies was the stuff of legend.

This was a few years before Lindsey Graham became a senator. Back then, he was still just a congressman, but everyone in South Carolina already knew who he was.

Rep. Graham was an ascending superstar; his political talents were obvious. From pressing the case in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial to his (nonstop) visits to TV studios, Graham was inescapable.

As were the rumors that followed him.

Because I certainly heard them. WTMA’s reporters heard them. Our audience heard them.

It was an open secret: Lindsey Graham was gay, but he stayed in the closet to protect his political career.

Yet despite this rumor’s enduring popularity, it’s entirely possible it wasn’t true at all. Who knows for sure?

But Lindsey Graham stayed scandal-free. He never embarrassed his supporters.

Not even once.

His body is still warm, but some very nasty allegations are already being aired.

Of course, it’s also possible that these allegations are bull[expletive]. It’s easy to lie about someone when they’re not around to defend themselves.

Still, the contrast between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is glaring. For all the talk of the GOP’s “homophobia” and “closed-minded Christian morality,” Sen. Graham was welcomed into the Republican Party with open arms. He was so welcomed that he confidently ran for president in 2016.

He was treated as an individual — instead of as a cardboard cutout for a preassigned special interest group.

Sen. Graham carved his own identity as a military hawk, an unapologetic interventionist, and a global champion of freedom. If you were an ally of America, Graham would defend you until his dying breath.

And now, he’s gone. But he won’t be forgotten.

That’s safe enough to say, I reckon. Gay or no, he was indeed one of a kind; there never was any sort of template or mold to force-fit him into. He went his own way always, which you gotta respect.

Update! Sen Graham’s fill-in replacement has been named.

We now know who will replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who suddenly passed away over the weekend. Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the late senator’s younger sister, to take his place in the Senate until the election in November.

“Lindsey has always been there for me, and now I will be there for him,” Nordone told reporters at a press conference with McMaster on Monday afternoon. “It is such a privilege to get to finish some of his important work, and I promise to work hard over the next several months to support the president and carry forward the efforts of my brother on behalf of the citizens of South Carolina and the United States.”

“To Lindsey, I miss you more than I can even put into words,” she added. “But I’m going to do this. I got it.”

Of course, Nordone’s name came up when President Donald Trump suggested that McMaster nominate her in a post on Truth Social: “I recommended, to Governor Henry McMaster, Lindsey Graham’s wonderful sister, Darline, to serve as interim Senator from the Great State of South Carolina. This would be a fabulous tribute to Lindsey, who loved her dearly! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Pretty unequivocal endorsement, woontchasay?

Iran Prez Mahmoud Ahmajihadi: Israeli spy…?

Posted on July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Ace brings us the deets of an extremely intriguing, if unexpected and wildly improbable, tale.

A rector from the University of Budapest sent an invitation to Ahmadinejad to attend a “climate change” conference. His hope was to get him close to Israeli delegates so that they could talk and maybe eventually broker a peace treaty.

The yearslong effort to groom the former Iranian president as an intelligence asset culminated in a dramatic effort to take him to an Israeli safe house in the early days of the war. But the plan fell apart.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s 2024 visit to the university and a second one the following year were part of a yearslong Israeli effort to groom him as an intelligence asset who, when the time came, could be installed as Iran’s new leader, according to both American and Iranian officials familiar with the operation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive intelligence.

Recruiting Mr. Ahmadinejad was of such priority for Israel that the country’s then-spy chief David Barnea even traveled to the Hungarian capital in 2024 to meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad personally, according to former American officials. Soon afterward, they said, Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, notified the C.I.A. that it had been in contact with Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Israel’s decision to build a regime-change plan around Mr. Ahmadinejad is an extraordinary twist in the saga of the country’s relations with the former president, who was known for accelerating Iran’s nuclear program, calling regularly for the destruction of Israel and denying the Holocaust.

In recent years, according to American officials, Israel secretly paid money to Mr. Ahmadinejad for housing and travel, and Israeli operatives met him abroad on several occasions, including during his trips to Budapest.

The effort culminated in late February of this year — during the first days of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — with an audacious operation to relocate the former leader, who had been living under strict surveillance in Tehran. The goal: to set in motion the plan to topple the current regime and install Mr. Ahmadinejad.

The plan failed.

On Feb. 28, an Israeli airstrike hit Mr. Ahmadinejad’s compound, targeting the building of his bodyguards and his armored vehicle. After the strike, according to four senior Iranian officials, a black Peugeot car arrived, picked up Mr. Ahmadinejad and whisked him away at high speed from the chaotic scene.

American and Iranian officials with knowledge of the operation said the car had been driven by Mossad operatives, who took Mr. Ahmadinejad to a secret safe house in Iran.

But the former Iranian leader was upset about the frantic rescue operation, and he appeared to be disillusioned about the Israeli plan to return him to power, according to people with knowledge of what occurred.

He eventually left the safe house under circumstances that are still unclear. Mr. Ahmadinejad was not seen in public again until last Monday, when he made a brief appearance at the funeral procession for the slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His current status remains uncertain. But four senior Iranian officials said that Mr. Ahmadinejad was in the custody of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence wing, under house arrest now that Iran has learned about much of his interactions with Israel.

A key part of the plan was that Kurdish Iranians would march on Tehran.

But, as Trump lamented months ago, that never happened. That was supposed to be the ground element which is absolutely essential in actually winning a war.

The story continues from there, and it’s all fascinating stuff.

Sen Tim Scott, class act

Posted on July 13, 2026July 13, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Shitlibs, take note. Not that you ever will, natch.

Watch: Friend and Fellow SC Sen. Tim Scott Sends Off Lindsey Graham With Lovely In Memoriam
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was one of those members of Congress you figured would live forever, like the late Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas or someone else of that generation of elder statemen in the GOP. It seems like he’s always been around Washington to this Gen Xer. But as readers likely know, he passed away on Sunday at age 71 after a brief, sudden illness. (Later in the day, we got a little more information on Graham’s death, in case you missed it.)

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday morning, in part to send off his fellow SC senator – and friend – with a beautiful and poignant in memoriam. It’s worth watching in full, but I’ll share some excerpts below.

Vidya at the link, excerpts from Scott’s segment below.

…[O]ne of the most important stories about Lindsey Graham is that, when I was a new senator, he welcomed me in.

He knew that my path was different. He understood the power of change in South Carolina and how much our state had changed. But he was one of the first folks in the Senate to welcome me in with open arms. And I will say that I do a South Carolina prayer breakfast there every year in D.C.

And I called Lindsey the first time. And Lindsey says: “Tim, if this thing starts before 10:00 a.m., I’m not coming, because I’m not going even if Jesus comes back before 10:00 a.m.”

And I just laughed out loud, and, of course, it started at 8:30. And he [sic] walked in the door at 8:31? Lindsey Graham. He was just the kind of committed person that you don’t really appreciate how much — how committed he was to America.

Because of the pain of his past, his father dying of a massive heart attack at I think it was 69 years old, his mother dying of cancer, Lindsey Graham had a passion for so many of the important issues around cancer research and around taking care of people.

He didn’t want anyone to feel invisible in his presence. And he used levity and wit to help people go through really hard times. And I got to tell you, it’s just a devastating loss for our state of South Carolina, and, frankly, for me as an individual.

Scott goes on from there to discuss Graham’s relationship with Trump, which was quite rocky in the beginning but later matured into a very cordial friendship as…go on, take a wild guess…uhhh, GOLF BUDDIES?!?

…[A] lot of times, friendships happen not at a kitchen table, not, frankly, in the Oval Office, but, for them, it happened on the golf course. And these two guys loved golf. I think Lindsey would say, the president wins more than I do, but he played pretty aggressively against the president.

And I think it was that competitive spirit that they both loved and admired about each other. And Lindsey was super smart and witty. He had the ability to make you laugh, but he was making a point in the midst of it.

And President Trump really understood that, and their relationship over the next 10 years, so to speak, from the time they were running against each other, became something that Lindsey could count on, and President Trump could count on too.

I can tell you, they played golf together more than any two other folks in public office at any time of, I think, in history.

Well, whatever floats your boat, I suppose. Good for them.

Update! Another eulogy from Kruiser:

Lindsey Graham is the man who launched a thousand opinions. Nobody was neutral when it came to Graham, which I think is one of the highest compliments that anyone can receive. You could find the full gamut of opinions among just Republicans. He could be infuriating at times, then he could be the GOP pitbull that you needed to send after the Democrats.

I Will freely admit that I never much cared for the guy, by and large considered him just another all-sizzle-no-steak Vichy GOPe blowhard, and didn’t hold back on ripping him to kibble and/or bits here many times over the years. Then again, though, there was his stellar performance during the Kavanaugh dustup:

Graham was absolutely on fire during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in the summer of 2018. The Democrats were frothing at the mouth with their “Believe All Women” nonsense, and Graham was having none of it. At one point, he refused to yield his time and UNLOADED on the Democrats.

Matt wrote about it in detail and summed it up well here:

Make no mistake about it, Graham aimed that speech at three audiences at once. President Trump was watching, and Trump responds to the fighters. Undecided Republican senators needed cover after Ford’s performance rattled the room. The American public needed someone to say out loud what everyone on the right was thinking.

It worked. Kavanaugh’s odds of confirmation had been sinking before Graham spoke. Afterward, it looked like he had a chance again, and sure enough, he ended up on the Supreme Court. Graham deserves as much credit as anyone for that outcome.

I remember exactly what it felt like watching that hearing live: Kavanaugh looked cooked, and then, in less than five minutes, Graham changed everything. He stopped Democrats from smearing a good man out of a seat he’d earned.

Whatever misgivings any Republicans may have had about Lindsey Graham prior to that vanished right then. As Matt said, it was his “greatest moment.”

I don’t expect to have to agree with any politician all of the time. It was easy to overlook any disagreements I had with Graham after that, because the wave of goodwill he was riding after the Kavanaugh confirmation was so big. I remember how spitting mad that I was back then, and the “HELL YEAH!” feeling after Graham teed off on the thoroughly evil Democrats.

Greatly to his credit, for sure and certain. Godspeed, Sen Graham.

The way things is

Posted on July 13, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Our old chums over at Flopping Aces lay it all out for us.

America’s ruling class has performed another miracle.

They took the most basic truths in human civilization … crime needs punishment, borders need enforcement, schools should teach, welfare should be temporary, families matter, merit matters, and taxpayers should not be looted by professional parasites … and somehow rebranded all of that as “extremism.”

Incredible work, really.

Apparently, a “compassionate” society is one where the violent repeat offender gets another chance, the victim gets a candlelight vigil, the taxpayer gets the bill, the schoolkid gets passed along illiterate, the fraudster gets a grant, the NGO gets another contract, the illegal alien gets services, and the working American gets told to shut up and be more inclusive.

What a beautiful system.

Soft justice did not stay in the courtroom. It metastasized. It became soft borders, soft schools, soft parenting, soft welfare, soft standards, soft men, and soft bureaucrats explaining why every obvious solution is “too harsh.”

Lock up predators? Cruel.
Deport illegals? Hateful.
End generational welfare? Lacking empathy.
Punish fraud? Complicated.
Restore merit? Problematic.
Teach kids to read? Probably colonialism by Tuesday.

A serious country protects the innocent from the guilty. A decaying country protects the guilty from consequences and makes the innocent finance the experiment.

That’s America’s real crisis.

Not poverty. Not “root causes.” Not another fake expert panel.

Consequences.

We stopped imposing them on the people destroying the country, so now the country imposes them on everyone else.

That’s merely the Twitter/X-cerpt from the full, somewhat lengthier article, findable here and eminently worth your while.

Jagger to Springstein: shut up and “sing!”

Posted on July 13, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Love him or hate him, he’s right, and you damned well know he is.

Mick Jagger Just Said What Millions of Concertgoers Have Been Thinking
Mick Jagger has spent over 60 years commanding stages, reading crowds, and understanding why people leave home to hear live music.

His conclusion isn’t complicated: Fans came to escape their problems, enjoy the music, and have fund.

They didn’t buy tickets to hear lectures.

Asked about Bruce Springsteen’s habit of attacking President Donald Trump from the stage, Jagger said performers shouldn’t preach to their audience. A Rolling Stones concert should let people forget their mortgages, work pressure, and daily troubles for a few hours.

While I do certainly get the concept of artistic expression’s potential for changing minds, provoking thought, and, ultimately, moving mountains, I also have no patience whatever with entertainers possessed of a certain ideological bent indulging the presumptuous assumption that I’ll ever be willing to sit still for a political lecture from them during a rock and roll show. Sorry, O Great Gazoo, but…NO.

Jagger’s point is sharp because he doesn’t demand political silence from musicians. Songs have carried social and political messages for generations.

He draws the line at turning a paid performance into a speech delivered to people who can’t respond without abandoning seats that may have cost hundreds of dollars.

Springsteen repeatedly crossed that line during his Land of Hope and Dreams tour. He called Trump “reckless, racist, incompetent, and treasonous” and accused his administration of destroying the American idea.

And the beat goes on:

Fans who arrived expecting “Born to Run” also received several minutes of Bruce Springsteen’s keen political analysis.

After all, for the previous many decades, Springsteen has lived among the unwashed, uneducated, and unwitting yocals, listening to us everyday Americans struggle through life.

Pfft!

Of course, he has every right to hold those (überliberal) beliefs and express them. Fans also have every right to wonder why they paid premium prices to hear opinions available free on television, podcasts, and social media.

Some 2026 Springsteen tickets started near $200 for New York shows. Other markets saw resale prices climb far higher, depending on the date and seat. At those prices, promoters might consider adding a warning besides “limited view” and “service fees”; tickets include political commentary whether requested or not.

Of course, it must also be mentioned that any Springstein-licker willing to pony up for said exorbitantly-priced tickets not only well knows beforehand that lectures, Leftard hectoring, and Wokester sermonizing all come along with the price of admission, but also most likely approve wholeheartedly of the opinions they’ll hear their third-rate idol express between BROOOOOOCE! groaning out the tuneless medley of hit “songs.” Such low-IQ refugees from a Pavlov behavioral-science experiment are far more likely to be singing along with every grunt, belch, and incoherent mumble—clenched fists waving and tears streaming down their stubbly cheeks—than to be annoyed and insulted by all the t’ween-songs speechifying.

Personally, I’d rather go to Dearbornistan and sit, shackled and chained to my chair, through a three-hour recording of the Mooselimb call to prayer at high volume than be subjected to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” yet another gott-damned time. But hey, that’s probably just me, right?

Q: Can the no-referee, no holds barred Death Match inside the traditional padlocked 30-foot cage featuring the Mickster and the aging, addled ex-Boss be very long in coming? Will said match be viewable gratis on a regularly-scheduled WWE broadcast, or will it be a PPV exclusive? Enquiring minds want to know, McMahon.

Famous flyboys of Star Trek

Posted on July 12, 2026July 12, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Never knew this about Roddenberry, but the story of Worf’s aviation addiction I’ve red of before.

From the Star Trek Set to Flying Jets
In his high school days, Gene Roddenberry borrowed a copy of Astounding Stories from one of his classmates. This was to become the start of Roddenberry’s fascination with science fiction.

Not many people know that Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, started his career as a military pilot flying 89 combat missions on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. During his military career, he was involved in two aircraft crashes and was awarded the Air Medal and the

Distinguished Flying Cross
It was in the South Pacific where he first started writing, selling stories to flying magazines, and later poetry to publications such as The New York Times. Upon leaving the military Roddenberry joined Pan-Am, flying long-haul on the Clipper Eclipse for four years. One day he was deadheading on a Lockheed L-049 Constellation when his plane experienced an engine failure and subsequent fire.

Crashing in the Syrian Desert with 36 people on board, seven crew members and eight passengers were killed in the crash, and Roddenberry, aged 25 years old at the time, was the ranking surviving flight officer.

Taking command of the situation, he was credited with saving the lives of the remaining passengers and facilitating their rescue. After this event he resigned and began writing for television, and Star Trek was born.

Now to that half-breed Klingon bastige.

Acting in Star Trek Leads to Aviation
Fast forward a few years to the second Star Trek series, ‘The Next Generation’ and we get to the star of our story, Michael Dorn who plays Worf, the first Klingon to serve in Starfleet.

Dorn’s Worf would become a fixture on the show, appearing in 175 episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ between 1987 and 1994, and in 102 episodes of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ between 1993 and 1999.

He appeared on the big screen in ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ (1991), ‘Star Trek: Generations’ (1994), ‘Star Trek: First Contact’ (1996), ‘Star Trek: Insurrection’ (1998) and ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’ (2002). As Worf, Dorn appeared onscreen in more Star Trek episodes and movies as the same character than anyone else. He recently reprised the role of Worf in Season 3 of Star Trek Picard.

Dorn had always had a fascination with aviation, leading him to many air shows and a collection of years’ worth of Air Classics Magazines. In 1988, Greg Benson, a friend who worked on the show with him, suggested he take up flying. This coincided with a writers’ strike, giving him a five month break from the show, so Dorn contacted Gunnell Aviation at Santa Monica Airport to work towards his license.

His journey into flying began the same way many do, in a Cessna C172. He still recalls the nerves he felt ahead of his first solo flight. “You pull over to the side, [the instructor] gets out, and he says, ‘OK, take it around’.

“I got to the end of the runway and was getting ready to take off, and I thought to myself, ‘OK, Mr Big Talk, you wanted to learn how to fly. Let’s see what you can do’.

“I was nervous the whole time until I came around and landed. After that first landing, it was just like one of those things where you say, ‘OK, I can do this’. I just kept going around and around. In fact, they had to tell me to stop.”

Then, one day, he got a phone call inviting him to fly with the Blue Angels. They had contacted Woody Harrelson from ‘Cheers’ to go down and do one of their media flights, and he had bailed at the last minute. Somebody had told them Dorn flew and they called him.

Dorn really enjoyed his flight with the Blue Angels, and, realizing it was possible to own an ex-military jet, he started down an adventurous and rewarding new path.

He damned sure did at that, living the dream via owning, among quite a few others, a YT3 Shooting Star, a Cessna Citation 501SP business jet, and the crown jewel of his collection: this gorgeous F86 Sabre.

From where I sit, Dorn looks to be one hellaciously lucky sumbitch.

Gracias, mucho gracias

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Most humble thanks to esteemed author and former Frogman Matt Bracken, for kindly including the Eyrie in his Substack “Recommended by…” section. I’ve glommed so many new Eyrie subscribers off Matt’s recommendation, I don’t have even a vague idea of how many of them there’s been. But It’s a crap-ton, I do know that much; like, ten or more per day, every dang day. Thanks again to ya, Matt.

1

Lather, rinse, repeat

Posted on July 11, 2026July 11, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Same old same old.

Alarming new satellite images show signs Iran may be trying to rebuild suspected nuclear facilities
Alarming new satellite images show signs that the Iranian regime appears to be rebuilding its suspected nuclear facilities at Pickaxe Mountain and Parchin.

Footage of both areas – which sustained extensive damage during US and Israeli-led bombing campaigns that began in late February – reveal “major signs” of activity, according to CNN, which obtained images from private firms.

Such construction likely runs afoul of the Memorandum of Understanding that Iran and US negotiators reached last month during a cease-fire that President Trump called “over” following Iranian attacks on shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

US and Israeli forces repeatedly targeted the Parchin site, which the Iranians had covered with a protective concrete shield, in the joint air campaign that was launched on Feb. 28.

But a series of large blast holes, which were clearly visible on June 10, had been covered over 12 days later.

By July 7, the damage was covered with mesh material and concrete mixer trucks were visible at the ready nearby.

Hate to say I told ya so, but…

Update! Snippet from a comment:

If this is indeed true then it’s time for Midnight Hammer 2!! Iran will only listen to the sound of bombs dropping. Enough diplomacy and let’s get the job done.

Indeed. It’s like this, see:

Dunderhead opens yap, DeSantis slaps it shut

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Not at all surprising that America’s Governor would have a Silent Cal quote ready to hand with which he could fire back at MomCommie’s intentionally-insulting 4th of July remarks.

Compare Calvin Coolidge on America’s 150th anniversary:

“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore… https://t.co/yTbh1DK6jm

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis)

July 3, 2026

Show more defiance:

…that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”/p>

I still maintain that Calvin Coolidge was the greatest US President since Jefferson, possibly the GOAT. Likewise, Ron the Great is perhaps the best Governor of them all, ever; it’s a measure of how very far we’ve fallen that I can’t think of a single Gov to compare to him right offhand, much less rival him. I think it safe to say that his reverence for Coolidge parallels my own, and for the same excellent reasons.

The Thrubbles ’26

Posted on July 11, 2026July 11, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Proud Boys honcho brings enheartening news from the Emerald Isle.

Preview: Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Exclusive Interviews from Northern Ireland with a Warning to the West- ‘Belfast: A New Menace Rising’
In exclusive footage and raw interviews from the streets of Belfast and Ballymena, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio captures a story the mainstream media won’t touch: native Irish communities — once divided

The mini-documentary, ‘Belfast: A New Menace Rising,’ lets the people on the ground tell the story.

At its heart are four powerful voices: Richard Inman, a veteran activist who has worked with Tommy Robinson, and a former UKIP/Advance UK figure, delivers a boots-on-the-ground account of escalating tensions.

Sarah White, a prominent female voice in patriotic circles, offers an on-the-streets perspective from recent protests.

Clifford Peeples, a battle-hardened loyalist pastor with deep Ulster roots, connects Troubles-era history to today’s shared defense of their homeland.

Dean, founder of the Concerned Parents group, represents the everyday working-class resident fighting for family safety and community stability.

The film examines the June 2026 stabbing incident in Belfast that sparked widespread unrest, contrasting it with the protection of a long-integrated Sudanese family to argue the issue centers on failed assimilation and integration — not race.

Old enemies (Catholic and Protestant) are shown setting aside historic grievances to confront what they see as a common threat to their culture, safety, and way of life.
by the Troubles — uniting against a new wave of violence tied to mass migration.

“What THEY SEE as” etc? Not hardly, laddie-buck; what UNQUESTIONABLY IS a common etc.

The threat is real, the menace ongoing, the enemy stronger than he’s ever been across a millennia and a half, quite literally. Time to wake the fuck up, man the fuck up, and take care of some long-neglected business, then, all across the West entire.

Candace Owens, Tuqr, misc other conspiracy whackjobs bent over, rogered

Posted on July 11, 2026July 11, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Well, THAT’S gotta smart some.

New Courtroom Video Allegedly Shows Charlie Kirk’s Killer Taking the Shot
On Friday, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) contributor Jack Posobiec, in an on-the-spot interview with Turning Point USA’s Taylor Hansen, gave some vivid details of another video shown in the preliminary hearing of Tyler Robinson, who is accused of the murder of TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk.

The new video reportedly shows the Kirk assassin actually moving into position and taking the shot.

Here’s how Mr. Posobiec described the video, which has not been released to the media.

I think everything’s been proven. I think it’s I think it’s I think it’s proven. It’s, I would say, beyond probable cause at this point. I think that the question for me is, how do you even get reasonable doubt when there’s so much evidence?

But the thing that I do just have to say is that I know that you guys watching on live stream couldn’t see the the last video that was shown. Well, it wasn’t edited. It was zoomed in. It was zoomed in from the surveillance video off campus, specifically, the part of the Losee Center, the roof. And… you see everything. You see everything. He climbs over. He assembles the gun, he runs over to the edge, you know, gets down in a prone position, and you see the time.

And we all know what time. And it just, it was like so slow, just watching those seconds. Click, click, click. And then you see him take the shot. And he takes the shot. and then immediately runs. And we’ve seen that video already, but I wasn’t… I knew we were gonna watch that, but I wasn’t, I wasn’t prepared to see this side of what happened because we’ve never seen it before. We saw the other end of the shot, obviously, but this was, this was a whole other level of just evil, and I got very upset watching it, and obviously, the family was very hard for them to watch, and I looked over, and I saw Tyler wasn’t even looking. He wasn’t even looking. See what he did.

And I would just say that I do wish… I wish the public could see that. I hope that video is made public, not because I want it to happen. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I hate all of this. I hate being here. But people need to see what happened. People need to see the other side of this because this is a case. We need to see the truth. We need to see the facts. And this is it’s, it’s the video of the sniper taking the shot. It is exactly what you think it would look like, but it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to watch, probably since the initial, when this happened, the first video.

Mr. Posobiec gave every indication of being somewhat shaken by the video, which is perfectly understandable.

Hell, it’s not entirely easy to just read Posobiec’s account, honestly—much less watch the danged vid, which I have no great desire to do. Over to you for more obnoxious dementia, Candace.

1

Whose fault? Why, TRUMP’S fault, of course!

Posted on July 10, 2026July 11, 2026 by Mike 2 Comments

Who else?

QUELLE SURPRISE! NY Times Blames Platner on — You Guessed It — President Trump
Here’s my biggest problem with the current state of looniness on the left these days. It’s not just that the Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media have had sanity in their rearview mirrors for years now; it’s that they’ve become criminally boring while doing so. We’ve all seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; we know that there are crazy people out there who are fun to watch. The 2026 Democrats are just an endless parade of yawn-inducing predictability.

It’s a given that no Democrat will ever take responsibility for anything that he or she has done wrong; personal accountability is anathema to them. Although it has always been a devout hive mind, the Democratic Party did used to be good at properly throwing one of its own under the bus when it served its purposes. Now, thanks to Stage 4 Trump Derangement Syndrome, Dems and the MSM propagandists are obligated to make excuses for any one of theirs who has fallen by the wayside, no matter how aberrant the behavior. More precisely, they are obligated to make an excuse, and that excuse is always the same.

It’s President Donald Trump’s fault.

Virtually everything written in the Times’ Opinion section is a cry for a coupon book to electroshock therapy.

One thing that I do like about the Opinion pieces in the Times is that there is never any tease or slow build-up before the whole thing goes off the rails. The crazy guy spitting up goldfish crackers in the corner while banging his head against the wall doesn’t do nuance. Here’s Yglesias kicking off this one:

Michelle, last fall, you went to Maine and walked away impressed by Platner’s charisma. You’d later write that he was “nothing like the edgelord caricature” you’d encountered online. I met Platner last summer, right after he announced his campaign, and also found him incredibly charming and charismatic, even though I didn’t really agree with his populist pitch. Alex, you have spoken to him too. Is it possible that many of us were somehow too informed on this story, and people who hadn’t interacted with the candidate saw things more clearly?

I’m certain that I could have Yglesias talk me through the “too informed” thing for a week and he’d never adequately explain it. That’s only because he’s incapable of being honest with himself. He couldn’t possibly admit that what he did there was position himself as being intellectually superior to his readers while at the same time telling them that he was too stupid to see what was in front of him.

The general vibe here is that Platner is the only Dem candidate in recent years who has any, shall we say, rough edges. As I wrote in the Morning Briefing at the beginning of June, Platner is definitely not an outlier in the Democratic Party. They accepted him simply because he is them. Dems are in their sixth decade of making excuses for Teddy Kennedy; covering for awful people is part of the party’s DNA.

Commie radicals; pedophiles; rapists; noxious bigots; gender-addled sexual deviants; dimestore dictators; violence-prone narcissists: they don’t merely COVER for awful people—for the most part, they ARE awful people. It’s why the spectacular Platner self-immolation has them so fretful and perturbed of late; by plumping so hard for an obvious creep early on, their true colors were on open display for all to see, leaving them nothing to hide behind, no more masks or disguises to don, no plausible excuses and rationalizations to crouch beneath until, with lots of MSM assistance, the whole self-generated shitstorm blows over and is forgotten.

Anybody with even half a lick of sense knew what these dirtbags were all along; now, after this debacle, EVERYBODY does. It’s an extremely ugly picture, and there ain’t no unseeing it.

Update! Larry Correia expresses it a helluva lot better than I can.

Don’t let them distance themselves now. These shit heads knew Platner was scum the whole time and made excuses for him.

Who could have possibly imagined that a dude with a nazi tattoo on his chest would have a history of poor life choices? Not the DNC. This was a shocking revelation. Shocking I say. This is my shocked face.

The democrats are so desperate to get a straight white male figurehead to distance themselves from the stink of failure that is the Kamala era DEI/Box Wine Cat Lady Party, that if you look even sorta like a traditional man they’ll run you for office.

Except the democrats are so fundamentally opposed to traditional, working class masculinity all they can scrape up is closeted weirdos like Walz or Talarico, and psychopath prep schoolers like Platner. Then they try to cosplay as normal, but since they’re democrats, normal is impossible for them.

Annnnnd BINGO. Nailed it, clean and tight.

1

Burning questions

Posted on July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Whatever pitiful handful of old-school Ainglishters may still be left ain’t gonna like the answer much, I bet.

What would Churchill think of the land of Lucy Connolly and Henry Nowak?
THE emergence of vigilante patrols on the streets of Rochdale following the release from prison of a convicted grooming gang ringleader is, at first glance, a local story. Such episodes are easily dismissed as spontaneous expressions of public anger, the predictable consequence of a controversial criminal case. Yet to do so would be to overlook the more interesting question. Why are citizens beginning to assume responsibilities that belong exclusively to the state?

The significance of vigilantism in Rochdale and elsewhere in Britain lies not in the number of people involved but in the assumption that underlies it: that the authorities either cannot or will not perform one of their most elementary duties. Political legitimacy depends as much on what citizens believe governments are capable of doing as on what governments actually do.

Taken in isolation, the events of recent years in Britain prove very little. Western democracies periodically experience shocking crimes, controversial court decisions and failures of public administration. No single episode tells us much about the condition of a nation. The picture changes when exceptional events begin to accumulate with unsettling regularity.

The Southport murders, where three young girls were killed and many others injured, sent shockwaves throughout the entire country. Beyond the horror of the crime itself came intense scrutiny of the state’s capacity to prevent such atrocities. The public debate that followed was as much about confidence in government as it was about one criminal.

None of this means that Britain stands on the brink of civil war as some commentators suggest. Such a conclusion is unsupported by the available evidence. Hyperbole makes for clickbait, after all. But what if vigilante patrols are not an isolated incident, but the first visible symptom of a broader crisis of confidence in the British state’s capacity to perform its essential functions?

One cannot help wondering how Winston Churchill, the historian rather than the statesman, would read Britain’s present predicament. In A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, he chronicled Britain as a nation shaped by successive waves of transformation. The native Britons gave way to the Romans. The Romans departed. Angles, Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans each left their mark upon the island. Civil wars, religious upheavals, industrialisation, imperial expansion followed in turn. Britain’s story did not end there. The post-war decades brought new waves of immigration from the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and Africa, adding yet another layer to a nation that had always been shaped by change. To Churchill, these were not interruptions in Britain’s story. They were Britain herself.

Would he regard today’s anxieties as merely another chapter in that long and often turbulent history? Or would he conclude that something more fundamental is taking place – not simply another transformation, but a gradual erosion of the confidence that has long enabled Britain’s institutions to absorb change without losing their authority?

Time alone will answer that question.

Yeppers; like it or not, it most certainly will. Actually, it’s my own belief that it already has, and that it is now much too late for No-Longer-Great Britainistan to have any real hope of reversing course and saving itself.

To date, no civilization, however mighty, wealthy, successful, and/or rigorously defended has endured forever—not the Greeks, not the Romans, not the Ottomans nor the Mongols nor the Picts nor the Saxons etc etc etc. Our English cousins had a darned good run for sure, several centuries at or near the top o’ the global heap. Alas, that run is now well and truly over, and the British future now looks for the most part swarthy, anarchic, Moslem, and frankly, bleak.

No shit, Dick Tracy, where’s the fuckin’ squad car?

Posted on July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 by Mike 4 Comments

Trump FINALLY figures it out. Well, kinda-sorta, I suppose.

President Trump Signals End of “Waste of Time” Ceasefire With Iran
There is a moment in every failed negotiation when one side finally says out loud what everyone else has been thinking. That moment arrived Wednesday in Ankara, when President Donald Trump, seated beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s annual summit, was asked about the status of America’s tentative ceasefire with Iran. His answer required no translation from diplomatic language because he refused to use any.

“For me, I think it’s over,” Trump said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s just a waste of time.”

Trump’s frustration was not with the terms of the deal but with the character of the men across the table. He accused Iranian negotiators of agreeing to terms in private and then denying them in public, a pattern anyone who has followed four decades of Islamic Republic diplomacy will recognize instantly.

“They’re liars. We make a deal. … They go outside, talk to the press. They say, ‘We never even talked about it.’ … As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

He left the door open for his negotiators to keep meeting with their Iranian counterparts, then promptly explained why it would accomplish nothing. “They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time. They’re liars, they’re cheats. They’re sick people.”

“Left the door open”? Yeah, you might say that…unfortunately.

The United States Is Still Talking to Iran After Big Strikes
Technical talks between the United States and Iran are ongoing despite recent strikes and apparent rising tensions.

A United States official confirmed to Townhall that “the United States is still committed to finding a resolution, and technical talks continue,” adding that “Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”

Yeah, well, until you mouthy jackasses recognize once and for all that A) no “deal” you ever reach with them will be worth the simple chronic halitosis expelled during the “negotiations,” and B) the Mad Mullah regime can NOT be trusted, will NEVER negotiate in good faith, and is SUPREMELY uninterested in what the political leadership of the Great Satan might think about their insane ambitions, then an Iranian nuke isn’t quite the practical impossibility certain Administration personnel would have us believe.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: as long as there remains a political entity in the ME called the Islamic Republic of Iran, then the job isn’t truly done. And until such time as Amerika v2.0’s political leadership has the intestinal fortitude to see that project through to the bitter, painful end, we shouldn’t even be dicking around over there at all.

Love him or hate him, Trump is only human, and as such is every bit as capable of making a mistake as anybody else. It’s my carefully considered opinion that he’s made a YUUUUGE one here, and needs to try, try again until he gets it right. It’s only the whole world that’s at stake, that’s all—no pressure or anything, Mr President, sir.

Mike @Substack

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