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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Elon Musk has announced the closure of the White House. President Trump was too busy texting to notice when he and his desk were bodily removed from the Oval Office and placed in a skip.
"Any essential functions of the Executive Branch will be handled at our Californian HQ," announced a Tesla spokesperson. "We have plenty of spare capacity."
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Did you know the founding principle of NATO was in fact bogus from the very start?
| NATO's Article 5, the cornerstone of the alliance, states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all, obligating other members to assist the attacked ally, potentially including the use of armed force. |
What is never mentioned is Article 4
| All NATO decisions are made by consensus, after discussion and consultation among member countries. |
In other words they have to be unanimous. So if X attacks Y and Z doesn't want to do anything about it, Z just applies its veto. So go ahead, Russia, do what thou willst. You've got Hungary in your pocket if Donald Trump doesn't oblige.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Donald Trump has announced he is going after the remaining ISIS assets with everything he's got. Go get 'em, big guy!
Other Washington news One of ISIS 's chief sources of revenue was the sale of looted Iraqi antiquities to western collectors prepared to buy known-to-be-illegal (because they didn't have official Iraqi export licences) goods. The chief one being the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
| 'If you lean out of the Oval Office with your air rifle, Mr President, it's that big building...' | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The man behind the Museum of the Bible is Steve Green, the billionaire owner of Hobby Lobby. He was bang to rights on smuggling hookey gear through US Customs on multiple occasions. Not to mention being filmed in cahoots with local scumbags in Iraqi hotel rooms.
As a fundamentalist Christian he was held to a lower standard and let off all criminal charges.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | Donald Trump has announced he is going after the remaining ISIS assets with everything he's got. |
This may be a justification for seizing control of yet more oil fields in Syria. To "protect" them.
| President Donald Trump says he expects the United States to benefit by millions of dollars per month from Syria's oil revenues while US troops remain in the country. |
That was in 2019, and they are still there.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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In other Washington Not Reported News it was revealed that it turns out the looting and forging of Middle Eastern antiquities had actually been going on since the 19th Century, was accelerated by the chaos caused by the Arab Spring but TBH nobody really gave a toss as it's not really what folks want to hear.
The story only seems to have gained populist appeal when it featured a terrorist group and a rich naive evangelical Christian.
I wonder why?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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There is another way of looking at it. If this stuff is left to the tender mercies of its legal owners, the people of Iraq, it will either be lost, neglected or ignored. If it is 'brought to' the west it will be seen by millions, studied by thousands and preserved sine die in air conditioned opulence.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Re the looting and forging of Middle Eastern antiquities.
I'd like to hear from Irving Winkel whether this happens with his beloved cuneiform clay tablets.
Perhaps one will turn up, allegedly from c. 3,000 years ago, prophesying the arrival of UFOs and The Donald Trump.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| rich naive evangelical Christian |
You got the first word right.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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As you know, RevHist argues there are no Christian artefacts of any kind predating 1000 AD. So it was heartening when the BBC asked the head honcho of the Museum of the Bible how many 'really ancient' Christian bits and bobs were left after 17,000 items had been, ahem, returned.
| "Pre-fourth century? Probably less than fifty. Easily. Maybe less than twenty-five." |
Still, that's more than zero so I've got my work cut out. Jesus lives!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Odd goings on in Myanmar
The Chief of the Military Junta has announced 'free and fair elections' will be held in December this year. The last time they announced this they got such a raspberry from the electorate they had to install a military junta.
But that's not their worst problem. They only hold uncontested sway over a third of Myanmar at the moment so getting the ballot boxes through to the other two-thirds will be a tricky logistical exercise. Even so they may be in with a shout if what Al-Jazeera says about them is true
| "The army was extremely popular when it overthrew the former colonial overlords." |
The colonial overlords have a slightly different slant on these events. Because as part of the general ending of the Raj
| The British parliament approved the Burma Independence Act on December 10, 1947, and Burma formally achieved its independence from the United Kingdom on January 4, 1948. | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Odd goings on in Guyana
You may know that Venezuela has had a longstanding claim to ownership of the Essequibo region of Guyana and that Britain has to do the occasional gunboat rattling to keep her quiet. The International Court is due to rule (almost certainly in Guyana's favour) this autumn but meanwhile Maduro is rattling some claims of his own.
He is threatening to hold elections in Essequibo! That'll be a turn-up for the books. The evidence points to a 100% vote by the natives to stay exactly where they are but that's never stopped El Mad-uro.
The only reason he's interested in the area is the oil deposits. Despite Venezuela having the largest proven reserves of oil in the world (or some such claim) it has to import oil from Iran for its gas stations because its own oil infrastructure has turned to socialistic rust.
Presumably Maduro hopes to take over Exxon's infrastructure whole and undamaged after the Venezuelan army has surged across the border. They have nothing to do presently save keeping Maduro in power. Which does, I suppose, demonstrate a fair amount of efficiency.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Odd goings on in the West Bank
Al-Jazeera showed some really distressing footage of the aftermath to the latest IDF foray into town planning. But on this occasion the Israelis had made the elementary mistake of letting the natives back in to have a look at--and film--what had been done to their homes by their recent visitors. Like sticking the kids toys in a bath full of human excrement.
It was quite chilling because it shows not what soldiers are capable of--all soldiers are brutish--but that the IDF have now given up on any pretence of decency. Or any disguise of their intention to drive the Palestinians out of Palestine. By whatever means it takes.
Since Trump's official Middle East envoy has said he sees 'no good reason' why the West Bank should not become Judea-Samaria, it could come quicker than anybody might reasonably anticipate.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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A Blast From The Past
A "spot the difference" competition.
2024
| “We’re bombing Yemen. You know, here this idiot is again bombing, bombing. When I came in, they were bombing. I got it stopped. You don’t have to bomb. Every bomb is a million dollars, you know that. One million, every time you see a little flash it’s a million. But more importantly, you’re killing a lot of people. You don’t have to kill the people. We don’t wanna kill people. We want a solution to things.” |
2025
The Houthis want peace because they’re getting the hell knocked out of them’ ...
“The Houthis have been horrible to the world. They’ve killed a lot of people and knocked out a lot of ships and planes and anything else… They have been hit harder than they have ever been.” ...
But I can only say that the attacks every day, every night… have been very successful beyond our wildest expectations… We’re going to do it for a long time. We can keep it going for a long time," | |
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Where the news is being reported sometimes tell you more than the news itself.
| US State Department approves $2 billion arms sale to Qatar. The arms include eight MQ-9B Predator drones, which cost around $30 million each, can fly at altitudes above 40,000 feet for over 30 hours. |
Was it the BBC?
No.
| Qatar has long served as an intermediary for Washington in dealings with the Taliban, Iran, and Hamas. |
Was it the Washington Post or NY Times?
No.
| The deal includes 200 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, 300 500-pound general-purpose bombs, 110 Hellfire II missiles, Seaspray 7500 maritime radars, and SAGE Electronic Support Measure systems from Leonardo. |
Was it Reuters?
No.
| Qatar is the second-largest buyer of US military equipment after Saudi Arabia and has previously acquired F-15 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, and missile defense systems from the US. |
OK, where was it?
The Jerusalem Post, in a quietly approving tone.
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