Accelerating Trends

The war has accelerated or made evident a trend that was already there, which is that the whole Trump administration is about a kind of rebalancing of power, so that we are less powerful and our rivals are more powerful.

Timothy Snyder

There is no featured post this week.

Ongoing stories

  • Trump’s assault on American democracy. The Hungarian election has no direct effect on the US, but Viktor Orbán’s landslide defeat (after Trump and Vance pulled out all the tops to support him) has to worry the Trump regime. Orbán was the prototype, and he failed.
  • Climate change. The difficulty opening the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting $100-per-barrel oil should motivate more countries to transition away from fossil fuels.
  • Israel/Palestine. The focus of conflict has moved to Lebanon, where Israel is applying a tactic it used in Gaza: domicide, i.e., to “systematically destroy and damage civilian housing to render entire areas uninhabitable”.
  • Ukraine. One winner from the Hungarian election is Ukraine. Orbán was Putin’s man in the EU, and his objection was standing in the way of the EU making a 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine.
  • Epstein. The Iran War had gotten the Epstein scandal out of the headlines, but Melania put if back in. What was she thinking?

This week’s developments

This week everybody was talking about the “peace” talks with Iran

One downside of taking a vacation is that I have missed my chance to say “I told you so” about the ceasefire and negotiations, because I did not in fact tell you so. During my vacation I told other people that Trump would announce a fake ceasefire, falsely claim that Iran had agreed to all kinds of concessions, and then resume the war when the reality became clear. But I have no written record to point to.

The reality is this: Trump badly miscalculated when he started this war. American air power can destroy anything it wants in Iran (other than the deeply buried uranium stocks), but it can’t make the Iranians surrender.

Trump, though, lives an in alternate reality where his power is absolute. J. D. Vance’s mission was doomed from the start because he went to Islamabad not to negotiate peace, but to dictate terms to an enemy Trump falsely insists is defeated. Vance explained his failure: “They have chosen not to accept our terms.” Of course they wouldn’t. As pummeled as Iran’s military currently is, the nation is not defeated. Defeating them will require either hundreds of thousands of ground troops or a willingness to commit genocide.


Increasingly, however, Trump’s alternate reality is being taken seriously in mainstream media. After Vance’s entirely predictable failure, The Washington Post wrote:

The involvement of Vice President JD Vance had raised hopes around the world that the weekend negotiations in Pakistan would solidify the ceasefire with Iran and put an end to the war within reach.

Really? Bill Grueskin commented on BlueSky:

In what universe did this take place?

The WaPo article went on to describe Vance as “President Donald Trump’s most high-profile war skeptic“, which is probably how Vance will try to pitch himself in 2028. But there is no evidence that his pre-war self-description as a “skeptic of foreign military interventions” actually resulted in any protest once Trump started bombing.


As many people have reported, Trump went into the war with his Venezuela adventure as a model: A quick decapitation strike would convince the new leaders to do whatever Trump wanted.

Trump understood the Venezuelan leaders, because fundamentally they are like him: They are interested primarily in their own wealth and power, so there is nothing they are willing to die for. Iran’s leaders, on the other hand, are willing to lose everything including their lives. So Trump has no idea how to deal with them.

So Trump’s latest idea is to blockade the Strait of Hormuz himself. He didn’t like the idea that Iran could profit by charging tolls on the Strait, so he’s going to block everything, no matter what that does to the price of oil. And that would make sense if the Iranian leaders were motivated by profit the way Trump is. But they’re not, so Trump is essentially doing their job for them: Iran intended to disrupt the world economy by driving up the price of oil, and now Trump is helping them do it.

In a few days it will be clear that this move didn’t work either, so Trump will go back to threatening to kill Iran’s “whole civilization“.


Two points:

  • Ending a country’s “civilization” is a war crime. And since the world does not recognize a Nuremberg defense (“I was just following orders”), Trump will be involving members of the American military in war crimes. If anyone you care about is in the military, this should worry you.
  • Like Netanyahu before him, Trump has fallen for the fallacy that if your opponent is evil, you can’t become the bad guy. But you can. Hamas is certainly evil, but nonetheless Netanyahu became the bad guy in the Gaza War. The Iranian regime is likewise evil. But if Trump’s unprovoked attack on Iran turns genocidal, he will be the bad guy.

For a high-level view of the Iran War and its place in geo-political strategy, I recommend listening to an hour-long conversation between Timothy Snyder (author of On Tyranny) and Phillips O’Brien (author of War and Power). That’s where the quote at the top comes from.

One scary conclusion they come to: The Iran War proves we would lose a non-nuclear war with China over Taiwan. Modern war is less about the big, expensive systems the US military is based on and more about manufacturing large numbers of cheap drones and similar devices. In World War II, the US was “the arsenal of democracy“, because we could manufacture planes, tanks, ships, and other munitions in larger quantities than anyone else. We’ve lost that edge. In the Iran War, we are firing advanced munitions like Tomahawk and Patriot missiles many times faster than we can build them.

Conversely, if you want to manufacture large numbers of things quickly today, where do you go? China. In a war with China, if we couldn’t win in a week, we would run out of weapons and lose.


Snyder and O’Brien both like the nonprofit foundation Come Back Alive, which supplies the Ukrainian military. As they describe it, CBA connects what the Ukrainians need to garage-level workshops that make drones and anti-drone tech. Their tech evolves constantly and is currently some of the best in the world.

and Hungary

The model for Trump’s Project 2025 and his overall attempt to strangle American democracy has been what Viktor Orbán did in Hungary: change election laws to favor his party, get legal immunity from a corrupt judiciary, use government power to push the media into friendly hands, turn the universities away from objective scholarship into pro-government propaganda vehicles, tame big business through corrupt government regulating and contracting, and so forth.

The goal, at least immediately, is not a Hitler/Stalin style dictatorship where political opponents can be killed at will or arrested and sent to concentration camps. Instead, the government establishes a soft autocracy that maintains the appearance of freedom and democracy, but stacks the deck in ways that prevent the formation of any effective opposition. Vox sums up:

The basic goal was to create a system where the government doesn’t have to formally rig elections, in the sense of stuffing ballot boxes. It could generally rely on the background unfairness of the system, the structural disadvantages opposition parties face, to reliably maintain a constitutional majority. Political scientists call this kind of regime “competitive authoritarianism” — a system in which elections are real, but so unfair that they can’t reasonably be termed democratic contests.

… The result of all this has been a remarkably durable authoritarian system. In the 2014 and 2018 elections, Fidesz [i.e., Orbán’s party] managed to retain its two-thirds majority in parliament with less than half of the national popular vote. In 2022, the various opposition parties united around a single candidate and party list to try and overcome its structural disadvantages — and Fidesz actually improved its vote share, easily retaining its two-thirds majority.

The flaw in that model is that if the public gets sufficiently united against the government, the official thumb on the scale might not be heavy enough.

Sunday, Hungarians took advantage of what power they have left to oust Orbán. After 16 years in power, his party was decisively swept out. The opposition has won a 2/3rds supermajority in Parliament, which is big enough to undo the constitutional changes Orbán made.

I happened to be in Budapest Thursday, on a tour I arranged last fall without any journalistic motive. I don’t speak Hungarian and had little opportunity to talk to the locals, but I did see the election posters dominating every flat surface, and workmen setting up for a huge opposition concert Friday. I worried about a violent outcome to the election, so I was not sorry to get out before the action started.

and the astronauts

Sadly, the Artemis II mission all but vanished from the headlines. I’m showing my age here, but I remember when the whole nation was transfixed by each new space flight. One of the few things my grandfather and I were both interested in was watching the countdown for John Glenn’s launch. In school, we took time out of class to watch an unmanned mission that did nothing more than stick a TV camera onto a rocket and slam it into the Moon.

The four astronauts of Artemis II looped around the Moon, went farther from Earth than any human ever has, and successfully returned to Earth on Friday.

and you also might be interested in …

The week’s most mysterious story is why Melania called a news conference to read a statement saying that she was not connected to Jeffrey Epstein. She was not responding to anything obvious in the news cycle, so her main accomplishment was to start people wondering whether what she is denying is actually true.

New York magazine speculates:

The most logical explanation: The First Lady is trying to get ahead of forthcoming story about her ties to Epstein. But there are no specific rumors about such a story circulating on social media; it’s all just conjecture based on Melania’s statement.

But The Guardian’s Arwa Mahdawi offers a simpler theory:

I have another possible explanation. And that is that the Trumps aren’t just morally bankrupt, they’re also very, very stupid. A lot of people seem reluctant to acknowledge this about the president; they will tie themselves into knots trying to argue that his erratic actions actually represent a genius playing four-dimensional chess. He’s not really a madman, they insist, he’s just playing one on Truth Social! I understand why people want to believe this: it’s comforting to think there’s some sort of method behind the madness. But if there is any sort of method, I certainly can’t see it. All I can see is a man who thinks he can bully his way through life.

Here’s the thing: even if you are blessed with “a very high IQ”, when you are as rich and powerful as the Trumps, you can easily lose perspective. People rarely say “no” to you. Your employees don’t tell you that your ideas are ridiculous because they don’t want to lose their jobs. Melania may not be the president, but she is in the same sycophantic bubble as her husband. It’s possible she just thought she could hold a press conference and command all us plebs to stop talking about her, and we would immediately obey.

It’s hard to top The Onion’s take on this: “Melania Trump Slams Baseless Reports Linking Her To Wrong Wealthy Pedophile“.


US Congressman and recent top contender to be the next governor of California Eric Swalwell has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least four women so far. He has denied the accusations, but a Democrat can’t ride something like this out the way Republicans can. He has suspended his campaign for governor, and I’ll be surprised if he hangs on to the House seat.

I’m always amazed by candidates who imagine something like this won’t come out. How do you recruit people to spend two years or more trying to get you elected, when you know that something you’ve done could result in all their effort being wasted?


As Congress returns to work, there is still no plan to fund DHS, and Trump really wants action on the vote-suppressing SAVE Act.


The regime revealed plans for Trump’s “arch of victory” monument, which is planned to be 250 feet tall. This motivated The Contrarian’s Tim Dickinson to review all the things Trump wants to name after himself.

All this self-aggrandizement is futile. As soon as he’s gone, everything he’s done will be reversed. The Kennedy Center will be the Kennedy Center again. Trump class battleships will never be built. The White House ballroom will be repurposed and renamed.

As for the money he’s planning to add his signature to, I think we can shame him out of it. You can get little stamping pads to add comments to currency. I think every Trump dollar should have “is America’s worst president” added to it.

Remember what Conan O’Brien said at the Oscars: “Welcome back, we are coming to you live from the Has a Small Penis Theater! Let’s see him put his name in front of that.”

and let’s close with something far out

The Artemis II crew got some new views of the Earth and the Moon. Here we see how everything is relative: the Earth setting over the Moon looks tiny.

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Comments

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 13, 2026 at 1:11 pm

    Please take care to use inclusive language—for example, “uncrewed” instead of “unmanned”.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 13, 2026 at 1:35 pm

    I am a big fan of your blog and have been reading it since Obama was elected. I have really big reservations about the word “evil.“ It’s part of dualistic thinking and leaves no shades of gray. The reason that some of these empires that you call “evil“ exist is in part because of things that were done in history, some of them by the United States. Labeling them with an adjective that has no redeeming values obscures history. I hope you will stop doing that.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 13, 2026 at 7:34 pm

    I read a report (which now I can’t locate – shazzbat!) that defined the threatened blockade differently. The target is apparently not the Strait but Iranian ports, while minesweeping efforts by the US Navy continue.

    The only flaw I see is that Iran has access to hundreds of small boats along its coastline, and those could be used to seed further mines or act as explosive drones to be aimed at any vessels the regime chooses to target.

    • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 15, 2026 at 12:38 pm

      I couldn’t find my original reference but CNN provided a more recent one (Analysis by Brad Lendon, CNN senior global military affairs reporter on Wed, April 15, 2026):

      …the blockade covers all Iranian ports, both inside and outside of the Strait of Hormuz, but not the strait itself. Traffic not related to Iran may cross. Blockading an international waterway is illegal under maritime law.

      A subtle difference maybe, but an important one. Some vessels have already transited the strait, apparently.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 13, 2026 at 7:39 pm

    You make it sound like Israel is bombing Lebanon for no reason. Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, has been firing missiles at Israel for years, and like Hamas, they’re embedded in civilian infrastructure. There is unfortunately no other way to remove them.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 13, 2026 at 8:31 pm

    I wonder if “anonymous” is a bot? Or just a real know-it-all?

  • moshe kerr's avatar mosckerr  On April 14, 2026 at 5:53 am

    An Israeli perspective of Arab dhimmi racism and its impact on the post Shoah guilty European bias which hates the continued existence of Jews; as expressed through classic church/new Israel replacement theology; Romans 10:12–13 – “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Tawhid & Nicene “Monotheism”, both theology creed belief systems violate both the first and second Sinai commandments. A fundamental distinction separates the chosen Cohen seed of Avraham Yitzak and Yaacov from either Yishmael or Esav – only Israel accepts the local tribal god of Israel. Universal monotheism unilaterally declares prophets sent to all nations and Goyim grafted on to the chosen Cohen inheritance.

    Today Israelis stand and remember “Yom Ha-Shoah”. We Israelis renew the post Shoah oath “Never Again”. We remember the ping-ball custom, practiced by both European and Arab societies, to arbitrarily “solve” their racist “Jewish Problem” throughout the Ages – “Never Again”. The Nazi ‘inferior race’, Arab racism denies Jewish equal rights to achieve כוח ריבוני-Political Independents as an Independent Jewish State in the Middle East. Pre-war White Papers coupled with post war British forced encampments of Jewish refugee survivors, returned to Germany or Cyprus – further amplifies the Israeli post Shoah oath of “NEVER AGAIN” which Yom HaShoah remembers. Both European and Arab/Muslim ‘good name’ reputations shattered with the ’48 forced expulsions of Jews from Arab countries, combined with all Arab states refusal to repatriate their refugee on par with how Israel repatriates Jewish refugee populations. Not a single Arab country has agreed to accept Gazan refugee populations who want to leave destroy Gaza and become “citizens” in other countries. Diplomacy among nations classically entails cutting a political alliance. Such a political alliance stands upon mutually shared trust and interests. The UN spectacularly fails in building on ‘trust’; UN Resolution 1701 serves as a strong proof long before UNWRA joined Hamas on Oct 7th 2023.

    The capacity for Jewish self-defense and political independence – defines modern Zionism. Israel “recaptured” Samaria from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. After 1948 “Palestine” ceased to exist. Jordan, named its illegal – according to the UN condemnation – “occupation” of its “West Bank”; only Pakistan and Britain recognized the Jordanian nationalization of its “West Bank”. Never once from 1948 – 67 did Jordan validate a “Palestine” of its illegally occupied “West Bank”. The UN did not pass a single resolution titled “Condemnation of Jordan,” it refused to recognize the annexation. Even Yasser Arafat’s PLO Charter did not view Jordan’s illegal occupation of its ’48 “West Bank” as “occupied Palestine”. In international law, non‑recognition of an annexation is the mechanism for declaring it invalid. No different from the UN rejection of Indonesia’s ‘East Timor’, Turkey’s ‘Northern Cyprus’, Russia’s ‘Crimea’. The PLO Charter of 1964 likewise did not view Egyptian rule over Gaza as “occupied Palestinian territory”. The collective UN position was unmistakably that Jordan had no sovereignty over the West Bank; but starting with the purposely vague language of 242 “territories occupied in the recent [1967] conflict”, perfectly clarified by 2334 the UN declares sovereignty to Palestine; despite the cold hard fact that Israel – not a protectorate mandate territory and that Arab Israeli wars determine its borders! Therefore, the post‑1967 terminology is a political invention, not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal reality.

    But post ’67, BBC propaganda screamed “occupied Palestinian territories” – inclusive of both Samaria and Gaza! Britain had no mandate, and therefore no legal claim to make this condemnation of Israel. The same equally applies to the UN through its 242 “all States” propaganda; which serve as the foundation for UN condemnations of Israeli “illegal” settlements of “Palestinian lands”; UN 2334 and the UN open recognition of the “Palestinian State” – proof of propaganda. Never in all human recorded history has their ever existed a “land of Palestine” – not under Ottoman or Arab empires.

    The characterization of land as “occupied Palestinian territories” by both the UN and BBC and French propaganda evokes strong reactions, particularly among those who view this language as delegitimizing Israel’s claims, primarily based upon the 1923 British establishment of Trans-Jordan bordering “Israel” at the Jordan river. The application and interpretation of resolutions, such as UN Resolution 242, initiated to “international claims”/”competing narratives” by foreign outside States regarding “land rights and statehood” with a pro Arab bias which fundamentally rejects dhimmi Jews equal rights to achieve self-determination in the Middle East post the 1917 Balfour Declaration which served as the basis for the League division of Lebanon and Syria awarded to France and Palestine, Trans-Jordan awarded to Britain – based upon the secret accords known today as Sykes-Picot.

    No Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” exists in reality because post the declaration of Jewish national Independence in 1948 the UN “protectorate” over “Palestine” ceased to exist. No different than this mandate ceased to exist as a “British mandate territory” officially ended after it turned that “mandate territory” back to the UN in 1948. From that moment on the British Crown had no more say in the determination of Israeli Independence than it does to determine the Capital of Austin Texas. This equally applies to the post WWII established UN.

    Post-1948, no separate national entity represented as “Palestine” in international law or governance, particularly under Jordanian control of its illegally occupied West Bank and Egyptian control of Gaza – until 1967. The phrase “recaptured” to describe Israel’s actions during the 1967 Six-Day War reflects a perspective that emphasizes a historical and religious connection to the land. This contrasts with views that describe the action as an occupation of land that was already controlled by Jordan — which the UN itself condemned as illegal in 1950.

    UN Resolution 242 and consecutive resolutions employed as Foreign State imperialism propaganda rhetoric which seeks peace. War the result of all British two state solutions! India/Pakistan, Iraq\Kuwait, and two Koreas and two Vietnams glaring examples of ‘great power’ foreign national interests imposed upon “conquered” lands. Great Power international “diplomacy” – the British labelled as “maintaining the balance of power” – which suited British [לאו דווקא] strategic interests.

    The UN’s later recognition of a Palestinian state a further attempt to rewrite historical claims and narratives that do not acknowledge the complexities of sovereignty and self-determination in the context of this region. The framing of successful Israel national Independence by media outlets – such as the BBC and other organizations – have promoted wars not peace. Shalom requires “trust”, peace simply a propaganda “label” of rhetoric. The success of Allied propaganda during WWI which unilaterally declared the Germans as “the Hun barbarians at the gates” produced profound effects on public perception. Critics argue – propaganda rhetoric language that injects “occupation”, aligns with Arab narratives which switched the term Nakba from Arab disastrous military defeat unto Arab stateless Palestinian refugees. No Arab country has yet to end or terminate the refugee status which UNWRA promotes and serves this particular political foreign ‘Great Power States’ imperialist agendas.

    Propaganda that Israel repeatedly violates “international law”, simply another gross example of UN Great Power manipulations expressed through BBC and MSM propaganda arms of foreign states attempts to ‘control the narrative’ through words. Israel as an independent nation – its international borders determined through wars and the diplomacy its establishes with regional state powers. Neither the Parliament of London or any other distant foreign power determines where Israel establishes its Capital much less its international borders with other nation states which share common borders.

    From 1948-67 no recognized sovereign “Palestine” in international law. Jordan and Egypt did not treat their respective areas as “Palestine,” and the UN did not recognize their sovereignty there. Therefore, the later phrase “occupied Palestinian territories” — not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal language, but a post‑1967 political construction.

    UN SC 242 (1967) inserts the phrase “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,” not “all the territories” and not “Palestinian territories”; UN SC 2334 (2016) morphs into “occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,” and labels Israeli settlements there as having “no legal validity.” This effectively retrofits a Palestinian sovereignty claim onto areas that, pre‑1967, had no recognized Palestinian state and no recognized Jordanian/Egyptian sovereignty either. 2334 and the UN’s recognition of “Palestine” as a non‑member observer state (2012) represent a political re‑narration, not a neutral continuation of Mandate‑era law.

    Post‑1967 BBC usage of “occupied Palestinian territories” mirrors the UN’s later terminology, not the earlier legal reality. Britain, having ended its Mandate in 1948, has no legal standing to define Israel’s borders or capital, yet its media and diplomacy still act as if they are arbiters of legitimacy; a continuation of Great Power narrative control—the same mentality that carved up the region under Sykes–Picot and Mandate arrangements. Language like “occupation,” “illegal settlements,” “Palestinian territories” is not neutral description; it’s weaponized vocabulary that encodes a particular political and historical judgment.

    The Abraham Accords invalidates European Middle East politics. In strict legal terms, the Middle East and North African conflict, while acknowledging both terrorist violence with its consequential suffering consequence domino-effect/impact, in strict legal terms, this ongoing-conflict most basically pits Israel against neighboring Arab states rather than Arab nationalist Palestinian nationalist movements. While the Romans renamed Judea unto Palestine, the Roman empire long since dead. The Arab empire uprooted the Roman empire – hook, line, and sinker. Therefore 19th Century French maps sold to the ‘sick man of Europe’, as empty as the deceased Ottoman empire. No different from the dead League of Nations “Palestine mandate”, and the dead British, French, Nazi, and USSR communist empires; their world order no long exists – even the flies not interested in the dry bones of their corps. The League of Nations, and how much more so the post WWII UN have no power to create pre‑existing sovereign “Palestine”. Despite the UN or Britain\French propaganda, continuous retroactive attempts to resurrect – like Jesus on the 3rd day – this dead Roman corpse from its grave.

    UNRWA and its permanent Arab refugee status of both ’48 and ’67 Arabs who sought to complete the Nazi Shoah by throwing the Jews into the Sea, such propaganda rhetoric – employed as a deliberate political tool, not a humanitarian necessity—sustaining statelessness to maintain a grievance narrative whose evil intent exploded on Oct 7th 2023 when UNWRA officials participated together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in the massacre of 1200 or more Israelis; coupled with the Red Cross refusal to visit for some two years the captured Israeli hostages held under barbaric conditions. The League “Palestine Mandate” stood upon the foundation of the Balfour Declaration. Post ’67 UN declarations changed the goal-posts. Immediately after the declaration of Israeli Independence, the UN had no protectorate over “Palestine”; anymore than did Britain after it returned the League mandate back to the UN.

    The post‑Shoah European narrative toward Israel reflects a convergence of Arab dhimmi attitudes toward Jews, Christian supersessionist theology, and Great Power political interests. This convergence has produced a persistent bias that frames Jewish sovereignty as an anomaly to be corrected rather than a legitimate expression of national self‑determination. The language of “occupation,” “illegal settlements,” and “Palestinian territories” is not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal reality but a political vocabulary constructed after the Six‑Day War, retroactively projecting sovereignty onto a territory that—between 1948 and 1967—neither Jordan nor Egypt treated as “Palestine,” and which the UN itself refused to recognize as belonging to either state.

    The Abraham Accords further expose the obsolescence of European frameworks, demonstrating that regional peace emerges from regional actors—not from external powers imposing narratives rooted in outdated colonial assumptions. The UN’s and European states’ continued use of “occupied Palestinian territories” reflects not legal continuity but political reinvention, shaped by post‑colonial guilt, theological inheritance, and geopolitical interests.

    Power politics affects which situations are pursued and how strongly. The UN does not repeatedly condemn Turkey’s acquisition of Cyprus, or Russia’s nationalization of Crimea. Its continued employment of “West Bank” in fact supports the illegal Jordanian nationalization of Samaria. Therefore, the swarm of UN condemnations of Israeli “illegal occupation of Palestinian territory” – wholly invalid.

    The weakness of the UN system proves itself to exist as but a fig leaf which conceals ‘great power imperialism’. ‘West Bank’ treated as a geographic descriptor tied to current diplomatic frameworks, simply UN legal jargon propaganda which raises red-flags concerning the “neutrality” of the UN; placed on par with the corrupt UNWRA post Oct 7th 2023 and the failure of the Red Cross to visit the captured Israeli hostages for the entire two years torture.

    Selective enforcement ⇒ the UN’s determinations – wholly invalid; starting with the Korean War which directly violated the US Constitution and directly led to the Vietnam War – totally invalidates the UN as a legal body. These fundamental, most basic contradictions, not minor or petty “debates”. But rather the Institutional failure and total collapse of the UN legal doctrine. The combination of selective enforcement, bloc politics, and evolving terminology undermines the perceived neutrality of UN determinations – among Israeli has destroyed all “trust” and we equate the UN on par with the dead League of Nations.

    This idea that “A rule can remain legally valid even if applied inconsistently” serves as a despicable example of “Do as I say but not as I do”. In legal practice the UN treats “West Bank” as a current operational/geographic term that recognizes a Palestinian state! This blatant hypocrisy – “contradictions + political bias ⇒ total collapse of UN legal doctrine, Israelis view as part of the Yom HaShoah “NEVER AGAIN” oath that perpetuated the “Jewish Problem” Nazi “Final Solution”. No UN condemnations ever over Nassers and other Arab leaders repeated attempts to throw the Jews into the Sea.

    Legal forums often dismiss Israeli self-determination “outright”. What else is new? Starting with the famous 3 No’s Arab state absolutely reject the “claims” made by Zionist Crusaders that dhimmi Jews share equal rights to achieve Independent self-determination in the Middle East; even in a land about the size of the State of New Jersey! UN post ’67 politics reflects a NT ‘nation divided against itself cannot stand’ Roman imperialism; especially as viewed from the perspective that the Apostle Paul served as Rabban Gamliel’s agent provocateur injected into Xtian circles to undermine the influence of this false messiah notion by declaring circumcision null and void – similar to Reform Judaism. And travelling to Rome and declaring JeZeus as Lord savior son of God when polytheistic Roman theology recognized Caesar as the son of God!

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 15, 2026 at 12:54 pm

    I appreciate that Contrarian post alerting me to the existence of the Trump Poop Coin.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 16, 2026 at 5:29 pm

    I have been saying since day one of this war that China will be the big winner, possibly followed by Russia. They have been winning the soft power battle since the end of USAID. I could see the Chinese saying that they would run the strait in exchange for no sanctions on Iran. They already have a relationship with Iran, so closer ties is not out of the question.

  • Unknown's avatar Anonymous  On April 16, 2026 at 5:39 pm

    Like Israel’s war with Hamas their war with Hezbollah has the same problem. The civilian death toll is very high. No one is saying that either organization is good but the high death toll of civilians and in Lebanon the civilians that are being killed are not Palestinian and many are not Muslim. Yes it is hard to root them out but doing scorched earth as you advance makes you the bad guy and brings up calls of genocide. The other thing that doesn’t help Israel is allowing their soldiers to post video of themselves killing civilians and cheering those actions. Then they look like a different kind of army one committing genocide.

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