We Lost, 25th Anniversary Edition

QED It does appear that my 9-11 post invoking a classic Sci-Fi novel is evergreen, so I am reposting it on the 25th aniversary of the attack on the Pentagon and Twin Towers bears repeating :

First, I do not think that Osama bin Laden thought that he could destroy the United States, if just because he though that the country was already on the path to destruction.

Rather, his goal was to hasten what he thought was an inevitable downfall of a corrupt and self-destructive society.

He knew that he could not directly destroy our society, but that he could trigger a response which would hasten the downfall of the west in general, and the USA in particular.

Osama bin Laden never planned on militarily defeating the United States, he planned to trigger a response that would lead us to destroy ourselves.

Once again, I would suggest that anyone who hasn't read Eric Frank Russell's magnum opus Wasp, in which a man is sent to be an agent provocateur on the planet of an empire at war with Earth, and his mission is not to collect intelligence or do damage, but rather to provoke a self-destructive overreaction by the authorities:

"Phew!" Mowry raised his eyebrows.

"Finally, let's consider this auto smash. We know the cause; the survivor was able to tell us before he died. He said the driver lost control at high speed while swiping at a wasp which had flown in through a window and started buzzing around his face."

"It nearly happened to me once."

Ignoring that, Wolf went on, "The weight of a wasp is under half an ounce. Compared with a human being its size is minute, its strength negligible. Its sole armament is a tiny syringe holding a drop of irritant, formic acid, and in this case it didn't even use it. Nevertheless it killed four big men and converted a large, powerful car into a heap of scrap."

………

"However," Wolf went on, "the problem becomes less formidable than it looks if we bear in mind that one man can shake a government, two men temporarily can put down an army twenty-seven thousands strong, or one small wasp can slay four comparative giants and destroy their huge machine into the bargain." He paused, watching the other for effect, continued, "Which means that by scrawling suitable words upon a wall, the right man in the right place at the right time might immobilize an armoured division with the aid of nothing more than a piece of chalk."

It's a straight line from 911 to the Great Recession, to Donald Trump, to our defeat in Afghanistan, to our emasculated public health apparatus mishandling Covid-19, to our corroding polity. 

They all have, to one degree another been trigger by our response to the 911 attacks, or by the neglect of our essential infrastructure that was driven by our world wide bug hunt for terrorists.

Osama bin Laden made us destroy ourselves.

It's Called "Rods from God"

Call me paranoid, but I think that Elon Musk's plan to set up a rocket based cargo delivery system sounds more like a ploy to provide a cover for developing an orbital mass driver with which he can hold the world hostage.

I'm pretty sure that this has been covered in any number of James Bond novels and movies over the past 80 years.

Elon Musk is officially a Bond villain.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on Tuesday to test a new reentry vehicle designed to deliver cargo anywhere in the world from low-Earth orbit.

The company developed the new saucer-shaped reentry pod, called Starfall, under a veil of secrecy. Its purpose is to support the “transport and delivery of goods through space,” according to an environmental assessment published by the Federal Aviation Administration last month.

The first demonstration of the Starfall vehicle began at 6:53 am EDT (10:53 UTC) with liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. At least one Starfall reentry pod rode to orbit on the Falcon 9, perhaps alongside another undisclosed payload. After circling the planet two times, the Falcon 9’s upper stage was expected to release Starfall for atmospheric reentry, targeting a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around 800 miles west of California.

On the brighter side, Elon Musk's history of actually executing on this sort of crap is profoundly bad.

 

Today in Bat Sh%$ Inane

First, we have Trump calling for Barack Obama's arrest again, basically, "Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, Russiagate," which these days is not particularly remarkable, and then we have elements of the Trump administration calling Tucker Carlson and Nuck Fuentes terrorists.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

Two right-wing figures — Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes — have been named by the White House as possible domestic terrorists, according to the Trump administration’s top counterterrorism official.

Sebastian Gorka, himself a former right-wing influencer turned National Security Council principal, has been making his rounds on conservative media, describing the meaning and purpose behind the President’s new National Counterterrorism Strategy (which I reported on previously).

Between grandiose monologues about his vision of a crusade to save Western civilization from “anti-American” and “anti-Christian” extremism, Gorka let slip that the administration’s war on “domestic terrorism” isn’t just aimed at the left. It targets anyone who isn’t in line with the broader MAGA agenda. While Trump’s national security directive NSPM-7 explicitly singles out the left with its list of so-called terrorism indicators, many of them could describe people on the right as well.

………

Asked by Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow if there’s any “right-wing terror” or “right-wing extremism” threat, Gorka replied by pointing to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and streamer Nick Fuentes — both of whom have become vocal critics of the Trump administration — arguing they aren’t actually conservatives anyway. Here’s the exchange:

MARLOW:  “ I wanna get your thoughts on any right-wing terror … Do you regard it as a threat at all or anything that's important to be considering right now?”

GORKA: “…I'm not sure that Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson are conservatives. If you are lauding Sharia law, if you are saying that there are Muslim states that seem to be better qualitatively than America in terms of freedom and prosperity, I'm not sure that means you're part of the conservative movement.  So if you remove those individuals and you understand that they're not conservatives, what's left?”

Gorka’s charge that Carlson lauds Sharia law is, to put it lightly, ridiculous.

To be fair, Carlson and Fuentes have been promulgating stochastic terrorism, wherein they realize that someone in their large audience will take matters into their own hands, but what Gorka is talking about is the idea that any criticism of Dear Leader is terrorism.

We really need to make sure that everyone in this corrupt administration sees the inside of a courtroom as a defendant. 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

It appears that a man rammed his explosives laden vehicle into Michigan synagogue.

Thankfully, the explosives did not detonate.

He was subsequently shot dead by security personnel.  He was the only fatality.

A man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and drove through a hallway on Thursday died during the incident, officials said.

There were no other serious casualties at the Temple Israel in West Bloomfield township, a suburb in Oakland county, and the FBI said it was treating the matter as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”. It was not immediately clear how the driver died, but officials said security staff engaged the suspect and at least one fired shots.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, on Thursday evening. A DHS spokesperson said Ghazali was born in Lebanon, entered the US in 2011 as a spouse of a US citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016.

DHS named the suspect shortly after Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit office, said in an evening press conference that it was too soon to identify him or specify a motive for the attack. Runyan told reporters the temple remained an active crime scene and the FBI would not be sharing further information about the driver “as our goal is to protect the integrity of this investigation”.

One security guard was injured by the suspect’s vehicle and taken to the hospital, and 30 officers were treated for smoke inhalation, said Michael Bouchard, the Oakland county sheriff.

Police responded to the temple, which is home to a pre-school and family center, just after noon. The temple is about 25 miles north-west of downtown Detroit.

The driver’s vehicle caught fire in the hallway, making it difficult for investigators to immediately determine how the suspect died, Bouchard said. Black smoke could be seen billowing from the large complex, local TV aerial footage showed. CNN reported that first responders found what appeared to be explosives in the suspect’s vehicle.

State Sponsored Terrorism

 

ICE murdered someone else in Minneapolis, 39 year old ICU nurse Alex Pretti. 

There are multiple videos out there, but I will not be posting them here.  I am writing opinions, and not news, and as such, I don't want to post this sort of media.- 

He was attempting to help someone up who had been knocked to the ground by ICE agents.

He was then tackled, and his (legally carried and never removed from his holster) gun was removed, and while on the ground he was shot 10 times.

Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

Not allowing medical aid to arrive seems to be a theme for these thugs.

DHS and the Trump administration have stated that the mere fact that he was carrying a weapon, even if it never left its holster, justified his killing.  Various ammosexual groups have taken profound exception to these statements.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has joined other gun lobbying and advocacy groups that are typically aligned with Donald Trump in calling for the Republican president’s administration to conduct a “full investigation” into the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was shot dead by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Pretti was reportedly legally permitted to carry a gun and is a citizen of the US, where it is a constitutional right to bear arms. Widely circulated video of his shooting death does not depict him ever holding a gun. It does show an officer reaching to Pretti’s lower back and stepping away with what appeared to be a pistol – and Pretti being subsequently shot to death.

The NRA waded into the national dialogue over Pretti’s killing after Bill Essayli – who was appointed by Trump to temporarily serve as a US attorney in California in 2025 – posted on social media: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

In response, the NRA posted: “This sentiment … is dangerous and wrong. Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

Gun Owners of America, a non-profit lobbying organization, also criticized that claim from Essayli – who is now an acting first assistant US attorney for California’s central federal district court.

“Federal agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm,” the group posted. It added that the US constitution’s second amendment “protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting – a right the federal government must not infringe upon.”

California governor Gavin Newsom’s press office responded to the NRA’s criticism of Essayli, saying on social media, “Wow. Even the NRA thinks Trump’s [justice department] stooge in California has gone too far for claiming federal agents were ‘legally justified’ to kill Alex Pretti.”

Newsom’s press office added: “Your position is truly horrible when even the NRA calls you out.”

Not only is the White House lying about what is going on, but Attorney General Pam Bondi is saying that she will pull ICE out of Minnesota if the state turns over their voter rolls in their entirety, so that the Trump administration can use this data to suppress votes from areas that they think will go Democratic Party.

Just hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state.

In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D) Saturday, Bondi blamed state and local leaders for the unrest ignited by the Trump administration’s expansive immigration enforcement operations. She claimed that Walz could “restore the rule of law” by complying with a list of demands, including giving the Department of Justice (DOJ) the state’s voter registration records.

“Allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960,” Bondi said in the letter, which was first obtained by Fox News.

The letter adds the state’s unwillingness to share voting data to a litany of grievances the Trump administration has leveled against Minnesota, which range from the local Democratic leaders’ rejection of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions to a longstanding welfare fraud scandal.

Bondi’s other demands included sharing Minnesota’s data on Medicaid and supplementary food assistance with the federal government, ending “sanctuary policies” and supporting and collaborating with ICE. This would allow the government to investigate fraud and curb “crime and violence” in the state, the attorney general claimed.

In sum, Bondi’s letter represents a major assault on Minnesota’s sovereignty, demanding that it forfeit its ability to make and enforce its own laws and maintain its voter rolls without oversight from the executive branch, which does not have authority over elections. 

This is blackmail, pure and simple.

Meanwhile, in an update to the Renee Good murder, at least 10 lawyers for the DoJ, 6 in Minnesota and 4 in Washington, DC, resigned over the government's refusal to investigate the shooting, as did the an FBI supervisor in Minneapolis.

Finally, and this may be the most important bit, is that extensive files on ICE incidents and personnel have been leaked.

Sensitive details of around 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees—including almost 2,000 agents working in frontline enforcement—have allegedly been released by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower following last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.

The Jan. 7 killing of the mother by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked nationwide protests and worldwide outrage, including among some DHS employees.

The alleged leak to ICE List, a self-styled “accountability initiative,” is believed to be the largest ever breach of DHS staff data. It appears to include names, work emails, telephone numbers, roles, and some resumé data, including previous jobs of federal immigration staff. 

I have not found a full downloadable version of this database.   ICE List is a Wikipedia style database, so the entire 

If any of my reader(s) know how to download the full database, do so, and post in the comments how to do so.

What Happened in Australia

In Sidney Australia today (or maybe yesterday, because of the whole international date line thing) 2 gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a Chabad Hanukah event on the beach,  killing at least 16.

Of note, there was a hero there, Ahmed al Ahmed a fruit stand vendor who tackled and wrestled a gun away from one of the gunmen.

It's important to note here that Ahmed is a Muslim and an immigrant from the Middle East to Australia, and he snuck up to the gunman unarmed and tackled him.

There are additional links if you want to go further, see here, here, here, and here.

Note that anything you read online is likely to contain misinformation, so double check everything, particularly AI slop. 

It appears that Elon Musk's Grok has set a new low in misinformation and bigotry, which should surprise no one.

If you are inclined to excuse this act because of Gaza, go fuck yourself.

Not Buying It

I do not believe that there is anything resembling a deal to end the Gaza War. 

Hamas promises to rel;ease all of the hostages, including the dead ones, and Netanyahu promises to stop bombing, "real soon."

This is not going to happen.  Hamas will not assent to being disarmed, which is a part of the proposal, and Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) will never end the war, because it would mean that he would be turfed out of office and thrown in jail for corruption.  (He is guilty as hell)

I do not share the optimism of a n OP/ED writer at Haaretx, "How Trump Humiliated Netanyahu, Rewarded Qatar and Quashed the Messianic Right's Fantasies." 

The war should end.

The war must end.

Unfortunately the two entities who have the most effect on this, Benjaman Netanyahu (יִמַּח שְׁמו) and Hamas see no benefit in ending the war.

Color me a pessimist. 

Damn

There was a car and knife attack on a synagogue during Yom Kippur services Manchester, England.

The only bright side to this was that it was not in the US, where the attacker would doubtlessly have carried a firearm and killed more people.

Authorities have described this as a terrorist incident, and arrested three people, "On suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism."

On the 24th Anniversary, Let Me Remind You That Osama Won

bin Laden won
QED

Here is a repost a have made in the past regarding 911:

First, I do not think that Osama bin Laden though that he could destroy the United States, if just because he though that the country was already on the path to destruction.

Rather, his goal was to hasten what he thought was an inevitable downfall of a corrupt and self-destructive society.

He knew that he could not directly change our society, but that he could trigger a response which would hasten the downfall of the west in general, and the USA in particular.

Osama bin Laden never planned on militarily defeating the United States, he planned to trigger a response that would lead us to destroy ourselves.

Once again, I would suggest that anyone who hasn't read Eric Frank Russell's magnum opus Wasp, in which a man is sent to be an agent provocateur on the planet of an empire at war with Earth, and his mission is not to collect intelligence or do damage, but rather to provoke a self-destructive overreaction by the authorities:

"Phew!" Mowry raised his eyebrows.

"Finally, let's consider this auto smash. We know the cause; the survivor was able to tell us before he died. He said the driver lost control at high speed while swiping at a wasp which had flown in through a window and started buzzing around his face."

"It nearly happened to me once."

Ignoring that, Wolf went on, "The weight of a wasp is under half an ounce. Compared with a human being its size is minute, its strength negligible. Its sole armament is a tiny syringe holding a drop of irritant, formic acid, and in this case it didn't even use it. Nevertheless it killed four big men and converted a large, powerful car into a heap of scrap."

………

"However," Wolf went on, "the problem becomes less formidable than it looks if we bear in mind that one man can shake a government, two men temporarily can put down an army twenty-seven thousands strong, or one small wasp can slay four comparative giants and destroy their huge machine into the bargain." He paused, watching the other for effect, continued, "Which means that by scrawling suitable words upon a wall, the right man in the right place at the right time might immobilize an armoured division with the aid of nothing more than a piece of chalk."

It's a straight line from 911 to the Great Recession, to Donald Trump, to our defeat in Afghanistan, to our emasculated public health apparatus mishandling Covid-19, to our corroding polity. 

They all have, to one degree another been trigger by our response to the 911 attacks, or by the neglect of our essential infrastructure that was driven by our world wide bug hunt for terrorists.

On a personal, and somewhat bizarre, note, the memory that is seared into my mind that day is my trip back home.  At the interchange between I-695 and I-83, the thought that went through my head was, "Traffic is never that good here."

The mind is a strange thing.

 

Next, They Will Drone Strike Journalists

Yes, the Trump administration is asserting that video taping ICE thugs brutalizing people is an act of violence.

There are decades of legal precedents saying that video taping law enforcement in public spaces is a constitutionally protected right.

But hey, who cares about the law of the Constitution? 

Snark of the Day

'Heavily Armed' Vance Boelter Taken Alive, Sounds About White

—Conover Kennard at Crooks and Liars, commenting on the capture of alleged Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter

The headline is a commentary on how when the shooter is white, they are taken alive, and in some cases taken to Burger King, (Dylann Roof), while the more darkly complected suspects end up shot.

If that headline were any darker, a member of the Minneapolis Police Department would be choking it out under their knee. 

So Classy

Donald Trump won't call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to offer condolences over the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmakerby one of his MAGAt supporters, because Trump is a miserable excuse for a human being.

OK, the actual reason he gave was that he thought it was, "A waste of time."

President Trump said early Tuesday that he would not call Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) after two Democratic lawmakers in his state were shot at their homes in a “politically motivated” shooting spree over the weekend.

“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from the Group of Seven (G7) summit. “Why would I call him?”

“The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, you know, I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” the president added.

Not only is this narcissistic and cruel, it is narcissistic and cruel and STUPID.

It makes Trump look like a psychopath, which, oddly enough, might be the most genuine and honest thing that Trump has said in about a decade. 

Mike Lee (R-UT) Should Have Been Drowned At Birth

 He's already making public jokes and baseless accusations about the assassination in Minnesota.

Not a good look for a human being, much less for a US Senator. 

To Quote Joseph Welch, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency??: 

Not Good

So, today we had massive "No Kings" protests, and Trump's birthday parade was a fizzle. and neither was the story of the day.

Instead the story of the day was right wing political violence. in Minnesota, we had the assassination of a Minnesota State Representative and the attempted assassination of a Minnesota State Senator:

Last night, a gunman impersonating a police officer and wearing body armor, murdered Minnesota State Congresswoman Melissa Hortman and her husband, traveled to State Senator John Hoffman’s house and shot him and his wife. Both politicians are Democrats.

After the first shooting, MN State Police did a proactive check on Hoffman’s house and saw the suspect come out the front door and flee on foot.

Both Hortman and Hoffman are members of an extremely divided Minnesota Congress. By taking out a member of each house, the gunman effectively flipped the state from Blue to Red.

The suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, is the owner of a private security company in Minnesota called “Praetorian Guards” which he runs with his wife.

………

The gunman had nearly 70 targets on a list to murder including a number of abortion providers, and numerous other Democrats including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Challenging the narrative of this event is the fact that in 2019 Tim Walz appointed Vance Luther Boelter to the bipartisan Minnesota Workforce Development Board, which Walz’s predecessor had also done in 2016. This perfunctory nomination by Walz is being spun by right-wing media into some sinister connection between the killer and Walz. Given that Walz was on a list to be murdered, it’s preposterous.

We have the resume of the alleged gunman here.

He definitely had ties to right wing Evangelical Christian groups, and in speeches he gave, he echoes the rhetoric of the Christo-Fascist New Apostolic Reformation cult.

Meanwhile, in Virginia and California, drivers deliberately drove into crowds at the "No King" protests, though in this case there were no deaths.

This sort of political violence is being aggressively fomented by Trump and his allies, though you cannot find any direct links.  

They are exhorting their followers to political violence, knowing that there is a statistical certainty that they will get their violence without direct ties pointingng back to them.

This is deliberate stochastic terrorism. 

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

In Boulder, Colorado, a man attacked people demonstrating for the Israeli hostages in Gaza with a make-shift flame thrower.

Eight people were burned in Boulder, Colorado, in a firebombing attack on a demonstration to draw attention to the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

At least one of the victims, who ranged from 55 to 88, was critically injured, according to authorities.

Police arrested one man at the scene. The FBI identified him as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, and said he had used a “makeshift flamethrower” in the attack, which the agency said it was investigating as an act of terrorism. Soliman yelled, “Free Palestine,” during the attack, according to an FBI agent.

An eyewitness account posted by a pro-Israel X user included video showed a shirtless man, holding spray bottles, yelling, “End Zionists.” Footage shared on social media showed smoke and people on the ground. Screaming was audible.

I just cannot get my head around this. 

Hard to Write About This

Two staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were shot and killed by a gunman who shouted, "Free Palestine."

Needless to say there has been a lot of freaking out in the Jewish community:

A young couple who worked for the Israeli Embassy were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington late Wednesday by a gunman who chanted “free, free Palestine” after the shooting, according to authorities. A suspect was in custody, D.C. police said.

The victims were exiting the museum in Northwest Washington after attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee when the gunman opened fire, authorities said.

Israel’s X account identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Israeli government officials said Thursday that Lischinsky was a research assistant in the Israeli Embassy’s political department and Milgrim organized missions and visits to Israel.

Needless to say, the Trump administration started trying to exploit this indecent to justify their policy priorities.

I just can't write about this any more, but I felt that I had to note this.

Yeah, This Ain't Good

We have missile and drone attacks and what appears to be the largest dogfight in decades, going on between India and Pakistan.

Given that both countries possess substantial nuclear arsenals, this is ……… How to phrase this? ……… Profoundly concerning.

India said early Wednesday that it had conducted several airstrikes on Pakistan, hailing a victory in the name of vengeance for the terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Kashmir last month.

But evidence was also growing that the Indian forces may have taken heavy losses during the operation. At least two aircraft were said to have gone down in India and the Indian-controlled side of Kashmir, according to three officials, local news reports, and accounts of witnesses who had seen the debris of two.

The Indian government said its forces had struck nine sites in Pakistan and on Pakistan’s side of the disputed Kashmir region, in what it described as retaliation for a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Kashmir. Pakistani military officials said that more than 20 people had been killed and dozens injured after six places were hit on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and in Punjab Province. Residents of the Indian side of Kashmir said at least 10 people had been killed in shelling from the Pakistani side since India carried out its strikes.

………

India said on Wednesday that it had struck Pakistan after gathering evidence “pointing towards the clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in last month’s attack on civilians in a tourist area in Kashmir. It said that its military actions had been “measured, responsible and designed to be nonescalatory in nature.” It added that it had targeted only “known terror camps.” 

In its own statement on Wednesday, the Pakistani government called the Indian strikes “an unprovoked and blatant act of war” that had “violated Pakistan’s sovereignty.” Pakistani military officials said they had begun a “measured but forceful” response, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that the country’s forces had downed five Indian aircraft — a claim that could not be verified.

In its own statement on Wednesday, the Pakistani government called the Indian strikes “an unprovoked and blatant act of war” that had “violated Pakistan’s sovereignty.” Pakistani military officials said they had begun a “measured but forceful” response, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that the country’s forces had downed five Indian aircraft — a claim that could not be verified.

One Indian official confirmed the crash of three aircraft, but cautioned that the reasons were not clear. Two other Indian security officials confirmed reports that some Indian aircraft had gone down, but would not elaborate on the details. They all spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of military action. 

News channels and witnesses said at least one aircraft had gone down on the Indian side of Kashmir. A second aircraft was reported to have been downed in the Indian state of Punjab, according to Indian news reports and a witness account.

Analyzing witness photos from one wreckage site, in the village of Wuyan in India-administered Kashmir, a weapons researcher identified the debris as an external fuel tank for a plane. The analyst, Trevor Ball, of Armament Research Services, said the tank was likely from a Rafale or Mirage fighter jet, both of which are made by the French manufacturer Dassault Aviation and used by India. Mr. Ball could not confirm whether the tank had come from an aircraft that had been hit by enemy fire.

I'm rather surprised that the Pakistanis appear to have done so well, not because they were using Chinese equipment, which they were, but because they were using relatively low end Chinese equipment, the Chengdu J-10 and CAC JF-17, and they took out a Sukhois and Rafales, which are not low end aircraft.

More concerning than aviation geekery though is that both sides have nukes, and this can go pear shaped quite quickly, and the fallout (pun intended) from uncontrolled escalation and literally go nuclear.

The Worst Possible Take On This Story

As many of you are no doubt aware, the Pennsylvania Governor's mansion was firebombed on early Sunday morning.  

The suspect is alleged to have hopped the fence, broken 2 windows with a hammer, and tossed in Molotov cocktails made out of beer bottles. 

It is unclear if this guy is a MAGAt, he might also have been motivated by Gaza.  (I'll update as more information becomes available, though I will note that as Governor of Pennsylvania, Gov. Shapiro has as much to do with Gaza policy as I do.)

That being said, the absolutely worst response to this came from (no surprise) The Atlantic:

The Attack on Josh Shapiro Endangers Democratic Norms

Oh No's! The Norms Fairy is upset!!!!!

While everyone is wringing their hands over the norms, our government is being dismantled, people are being disappeared or sold into slavery in El Salvador.

Whinging about norms is a statement that you do not believe that leopards will eat your face. 

It is remarkable just how ineffectual and incompetent the elites are.  (The author is the faculty chair of the homeland-security program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.)

Everyone wants to be the Master of Ceremonies from Cabaret, but they lack Joel Gray's talent and integrity.

Things That Make You Smile

When you read that the Proud Boys Lose have lost their trademark and all rights to merchandising to the Asbury United Methodist Church, which they vandalized.

I am sure that the Enrique Tarrio and the rest of his thugs will appeal, but this makes me smile:

The Proud Boys no longer have control over their own name.

Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020.

The ruling by the judge, Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church that was attacked, the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath. 

………

When the Proud Boys failed to turn over any money, lawyers for the church sought to satisfy the judgment by seizing control of the trademarked name and by enjoining the group from “selling, transferring, disposing of or licensing” any merchandise using the words “Proud Boys” or any of the organization’s symbols.

I'm thinking that the Asbury United Methodist Church should start selling Proud Boys merch with messages like, "Black Lives Matter," etc.

Twist that knife good.

Quote of the Day

We're in a pretty funny situation here, riught?

Indonesia and their Western backers you know don't want anyone talking about what they're doing in Papua, but at the same time, like domestically, the Indonesian media goes crazy, like their bot Farms go wild whenever,  a foreigner takes interest in it.

So we thought maybe we could use Indonesian sensationalist media against them, right?

If we can turn Kirsten into like a world famous terrorist like Bin Laden or Tony Blair then maybe we can get some more International attention on Papua. 

Gonzo Aussie Documentarians Boy boy

Long story, the video below is ½ hour long, but the short version is that their friend Kirsten went to Indonesian occupied West Papua, and was attacked by the Indonesian press, so they decided to try and make her a bow-wielding super-hero terrorist.

It worked.

The serious documentary which spawned this whole thing have a much more serious documentary here.

Mostly though, they owe a screen wipe for the Tony Blair comment.