[SceneMag] "The Star Trek universe has taken a major step forward in LGBTQ+ representation with the introduction of Jay-Den Kraag, the franchise’s first openly gay Klingon. The character appears in the upcoming Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and is portrayed by 23‑year‑old actor Karim Diané."
...
"Veteran Star Trek actor George Takei has publicly supported the inclusion, calling the new character "meaningful" Of course he did..
and reflective of a long‑overdue step for the franchise. Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original 1960s series, noted that such representation would have been impossible during his early career."
...
"Gene Roddenberry’s guiding principle of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations Um, guys, can't find anything about Roddenberry specifically having this as a "Guiding Principal"; my research indicates it was a "Guiding Principle" of Vulcans, the arch-enemies of Klingons.
remains central to the show’s vision, one that Starfleet Academy’s creators say they are committed to honouring."
nuq 'oH jay'?!
Doubt it will play well with the pre-"Next Generation" fans.😵💫
#2
Old news. The rotting corpse of this show went woke long ago. Even on TNG the whole point of Worf was for him to get his ideas casually shot down and never get a chance to be a bad-ass warrior.
Star Trek still around? I thought the franchise died a log time ago.
There are more movie observers with the chops and time to break it down if you would like. In short, and this is good news:
This is not sci-fi, therefore not Star Trek. It is a high-school coming of age series, like Bring It On!, except there are so many more stereo types Thomas Dolby shit himself and the dance music is Moby in it's original Klingon. And Jay-Den Smith is not the most offensive 'character', and noted like that because each 'character' is just a theater kid being themself except with more make-up than Ru Paul. The story is inconsistent, the editing is crap, the writing is Modern Hollywood for Junior High Kids, which is the real target audience unless IQ's dropped while I was away. No, not Junior High Kids the people who pretend they are about to go into high school - the mid 30s single leftist woman.
#14
Star Trek died halfway thru the TNG. It was then that it became apparent that Picard wasn't even close to being Kirk, and that they intended to fight germs instead of Klingons and Romulans.
Further, the insertion of the Ferengis was a deathblow. They belonged in Disneyworld, not Star Trek. They were fake and gay.
Tucker just called Trump’s strikes on Iran "disgusting and evil," arguing the move will "re-shuffle the deck" in a significant way.
But that’s been Tucker’s goal all along. The war is just the pretext. He’s always sought to remake Trump’s 2024 coalition in his image pic.twitter.com/UEsUyW7rHy
An aside question, should you believe anyone's mental stability that calls war "a conflict”? Asking for George Orwell.
Mark Levin hammered Tucker Carlson following his comments. Regardless of what you think of Levin, he has a point.
I’ll deal with this deranged traitor, Tucker Carlson, more fully later. For now I’ll say he’s a disgusting Woke Reich lowlife. He trashes our country and president in the middle of a military campaign against an enemy that has murdered over 1000 Americans and maimed thousands...
Oh course Tommy Massie has to wade into the deep end.
I’ll deal with this deranged traitor, Tucker Carlson, more fully later. For now I’ll say he’s a disgusting Woke Reich lowlife. He trashes our country and president in the middle of a military campaign against an enemy that has murdered over 1000 Americans and maimed thousands...
#3
Quit giving meth a bad name. I used to do it, I don't think I was ever that stupid.
Posted by: chris ||
03/01/2026 2:43 Comments ||
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#4
Is the goal honesty or eyeballs?
Rhetorical question.
Carlson is following in the footsteps of PJ O'Rourke, Peggy Noonan, Bill Kristol, Jen Rubin, Mona Charen, Gene Burns, etc. Every single one of them - plus Carlson and Candace - have no core values, they only go to the place where they can max out their earnings. If something new came up next week Carlson and all the others (well, not Burns or O'Rourke who are dead) would turn their "morals" and ideology on a dime.
This is why hardly anybody in the media and pundit sectors are trustworthy any more.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/01/2026 9:14 Comments ||
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#5
This is a great victory. I will don’t care for Levin, Hannity or Lindsey Graham.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/01/2026 10:20 Comments ||
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#6
Same Super. One is bit of a wanker, Sean is an idiot and Gram Cracker is a 2 faced POS who actively hid the Russia gate crap.
The upside fun is like watching lemmings turn cannibals.
Even when I agree with them (often) I can't listen /watch them
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2026 11:29 Comments ||
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#8
The media references The Apprentice all the time to background Trumps inexplicable public appeal, but his career in wrestling promotion is illustrative. Very deep seated emotions to be tapped, there. Tucker Carlson is a heel turn for the ages.
[ZeroHedge] The 12 Temptations blog is an ongoing series examining how markets behave under stress. We deliberately avoid prediction and advocacy, focusing instead on structure, incentives, and behavioural dynamics.
Over the past 48 hours, geopolitical tension between the United States, Israel and Iran has escalated into direct military action. Air and missile strikes have been reported. Retaliatory measures have followed. Political leaders are issuing statements, and international observers are attempting to assess the scale and trajectory of events.
At the time of writing, it is still the weekend. Financial markets are closed. There are no live equity prices, no opening gaps yet visible on a screen, no formal repricing of risk in global indices. And yet the psychological repricing has already begun.
BEFORE THE BELL: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REPRICING
For many investors, this waiting period can feel more uncomfortable than the market reaction itself. There is no ability to transact, no price to anchor to, no confirmation of whether fears will be validated or contained. There is only information, speculation, and the awareness that when markets reopen, they will need to process a very real geopolitical shock.
This is where behavioural finance becomes particularly relevant.
Continued at the link.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
03/01/2026 09:29 ||
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[Townhall] The only thing unpredictable about the devastating air and naval campaign against the Iranian mullahs who have murdered so many people — including Americans — was the timing. We hit those bastards in broad daylight. Even though those sociopathic clowns knew it was coming, they didn't expect to be blasted into oblivion over breakfast. Now, there are some people I respect who have doubts over the mission — but they have no doubts about our country or our troops.
What was sadly predictable were the puny wails of the weak, stupid, and treacherous who have zero clue about what's going on, yet immediately howled in indignation over Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu's decisive decision to settle all family business. In case you missed it, Maduro was Tartaglia, Cuba will be Barzini, and the mullahs will be Moe Green relaxing on the massage table and reaching for his glasses. That Moe was Jewish will just make the jihadi goat molesters madder during the short time they have left.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
03/01/2026 02:54 ||
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[1775 views]
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#1
I'll not name them, but President Trump calls to mind the brand of leadership and action that went missing in many previous conflicts.
#2
The one where he has Flock of Seagulls hair is also good. I like the video of the smoking woman dancing with her friends. I was very surprised and delighted to see her alive.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/01/2026 9:54 Comments ||
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#3
Huh, an American flag as a head diaper was a bit much.
Faced with an unrelenting wave of terrorism, Pakistan had little choice but to take military action
WITH a breakdown in diplomatic channels, mainly because of the Afghan Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... ’s lack of will to control cross-border terrorism, and relentless attacks targeting Pakistain traced to its western neighbour, the festivities that broke out on Thursday between the two states were not unexpected.
Pakistain had long been warning the Taliban regime to take action against terrorist groups such as the TTP and IS-K based on Afghan soil. But clearly, these calls fell on deaf ears as attacks on civilians and security personnel in Pakistain continued.
It is under these circumstances that Pakistain took action on Feb 22 against terrorist bases in Afghanistan. Yet with Thursday’s attacks along the border, Kabul has shown that instead of addressing Pakistain’s concerns about violent mostly peaceful actors with seriousness, it has chosen to militarily engage this country, further aggravating already hostile ties. Pakistain has responded to the latest Taliban aggression by targeting military sites and terrorist bases at several locations in Afghanistan.
Faced with an obdurate neighbour and an unrelenting wave of terrorism, Pakistain had little choice but to take military action, especially when faced with cross-border attacks from territory controlled by the Taliban.
Now that Pakistain has demonstrated its ability to defend itself, and go after those who seek to do it harm, both sides should de-escalate. China has called for a ceasefire, while Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... has offered its good offices to both sides to help bring temperatures down. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has also discussed the issue with his Ottoman Turkish and Saudi counterparts. The fact is that while Pakistain must defend itself against all threats, in a region already on edge, more war is in no one’s interest. Yet the biggest irritant standing in the way of peace is the Taliban’s stubbornness and lack of appetite to confront the real problem: terrorist groups on its soil that threaten Afghanistan’s neighbours.
While some thought that Taliban 2.0 may have shed their rigid ways, these assumptions have proved erroneous. The group seems to have learnt nothing from history. In the past, its refusal to sever ties with terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda paved the way for the American invasion and two decades of war and suffering for the Afghan people.
It seems to be intent on repeating this dark chapter by continuing to shield the TTP and other banned actors. Pakistain has strong evidence that TTP and IS-K holy warriors based out of Afghanistan have caused havoc in this country, while Tajikistan has similar concerns. Even China has reportedly used diplomatic channels to let the Taliban know that they must take action against violent mostly peaceful groups. The need is for an immediate ceasefire and substantive negotiations, with the onus on the Taliban to rein in cross-border attacks on neighbouring states, and end this cycle of violence.
Pakistan’s Afghan policy has seemingly entered a decisive phase. But is there a long-term strategy?
Pakistan’s Afghan policy — an endeavour spanning the more than forty years since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan — of supporting a motley crew of local, Afghan and international jihadis in pursuance of its and Western allies’ strategic goals, has now come full circle.
The relationship between the two western neighbours stand ruptured and completely collapsed; the second such moment, perhaps, after the 1960s when the Afghans invaded Bajaur and Tirah in the Khyber tribal region.
Then, like now, border and transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan had remained suspended.
But this week’s escalation perhaps marks perhaps the first time since 1992 that the two countries have actually come to blows.
Such episodes occurred previously during the tenure of Dr Najibullah, Afghanistan’ People’s Democratic Party leader whose regime would occasionally fire Russian Scuds into Pakistan’s tribal regions.
DIPLOMATIC FAILURES
The current state of affairs, in the words of a senior Pakistani official, comes “after fully exhausting all diplomatic channels, including hundreds of meetings with the Afghan Taliban.”
Islamabad, the official says, had already put the Afghan Taliban regime on notice, saying Pakistan is tired of lifting coffins and burying its dead because of terrorism originating from Afghanistan.
“The October 2025 strikes inside Afghanistan, targeting Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) positions, should have made things clear to their Afghan patrons. They didn’t.”
Mediation by the Qataris and the Turks, following the October engagements, didn’t go well: Pakistan demanded written guarantees; the Afghan Taliban backed off from signing a document and confined themselves to verbal assurances.
The latest attempt came from the Saudis themselves. “It was a positive effort”, according to an official familiar with the efforts by Riyadh to bring about rapprochement between Islamabad and Kabul, but that too trailed off, predictably.
The Saudis had presented a draft of a possible agreement, the official said. The Afghan Taliban regime declined to put anything to paper, offering to provide verbal guarantees to rein in the outlawed TTP and other outfits operating from the Afghan soil.
The Saudis — like Pakistan, China and Uzbekistan — have their own respective lists of ‘individuals of interest’ in Afghanistan, according to the official.
“The problem with the Afghans is that they want to negotiate, but they don’t deliver. What is the point of talking when you don’t deliver?” the official asked.
While the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan remained largely intact last year, attacks by the TTP and other militant outfits registered a sharp uptick, putting renewed pressure on the already strained relationship between the two neighbours. The recent attacks on security forces triggered another round of response, which was to be expected. Strikes were carried out on what Pakistan insisted were TTP bases in the border region, while the Taliban regime claimed civilians had been targeted.
But what followed was rather unexpected. Pakistan watched as the Taliban regime amassed its forces in the border regions overnight. It was clear to Islamabad that, this time, it wouldn’t just small arms clashes and skirmishes.
Policy makers in Islamabad believe they have garnered moral support from the region and internationally, to defend themselves.
Much like the Taliban, who had publicly threatened to unleash a torrent of suicide bombers in retaliation to any Pakistani strikes, Islamabad made it clear it would target the regime’s military installations next, alongside those of the TTP and others.
Officials in Pakistan blame the Taliban regime for the escalation. “They upped the ante. We didn’t. We have lost close to 4,000 people. How much more restraint must one exercise?”
“This is not just escalation. This is escalation plus,” an official told Dawn.
Government officials don’t see an end to the current situation between the two sides any time soon.
Meanwhile, those dealing with the subject are now convinced that Kandahar — the spiritual headquarters of the Afghan Taliban — holds little sway when it comes to addressing the issue of TTP and other militant outfits.
Aides close to Hibatullah Akhundzada have reportedly conveyed to Pakistan that the Taliban supreme leader does not approve of the regime’s policy vis-à-vis the TTP and others.
While some figures within the Afghan regime see Pakistani militants as an increasing liability, it is the more powerful Haqqani-led cabal who could, if it wanted, deliver for the Pakistanis. Knowledgeable sources insist Islamabad is not seeking regime change in Kabul, but they are adamant that Pakistan is currently in no mood to back down. “We have crossed the Rubicon. Keep up the pressure and keep raising the cost until the regime there understands that their policy is counter-productive and non-sustainable.”
While Pakistan’s current Afghan policy has seemingly entered a decisive phase, many who are weary of Islamabad’s handling of its western neighbour still wonder whether there really is a long-term strategy.
There are also many who believe that Pakistan missed a trick working with the Ashraf Ghani-led administration, which in 2019 approved its National Security Paper, declaring the TTP a security threat to Afghanistan and jailed more than 2500 of them. “They understood. It was easy to deal with them”, said one source who experience dealing with the Ghani regime in the past.
But a combination of factors — including India’s growing influence and Ghani’s courting of pan-Pakhtun nationalism and larger strategic goals — led Islamabad to continue backing the Taliban.
“With 20/20 hindsight, backing Ghani’s administration would have been a good option. Pakistan fully backed him in his election. But this is in the past now. We are in a different situation, which requires a different approach. Now that the bullet has been fired, the level of pressure must not be reduced till the Taliban relent and give in.”
[Clarice @ AT] BLUF Day One was Israel completing its part of the operation -- the following day is America’s turn. We can expect that under the cover of and with the air power aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford sitting off Haifa and the USS Abraham Lincoln off the Gulf of Oman we will hit Fordow with penetrator bombs. Day One of the war, he says, “was the scalpel. The second day is the hammer. And the hammer does not need a runway in anyone else’s country to swing.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2026 10:28 ||
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#1
Reminds me of Stonewall Jackson (the Hammer) to James Longstreet (the Anvil).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/01/2026 12:33 Comments ||
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[Roger Simon substack via Insty] Many had come to doubt President Trump’s assurance weeks ago to the brave Iranian freedom fighters that "help is on the way." I admit I had moments I waffled over that time, though my wife, a stalwart, disabused me of them.
But Operation Epic Fury—called Roaring Lion by the Israelis and now roaring—appears to have been months in the most meticulous planning.
Now we know. Don’t doubt Trump. He’s a man of his word. The doubters, myself included to the small extent I was, can eat the requisite crow.
One way is to admit the truth: Donald Trump is no normal president. He is a historical figure of enormous proportions.
Of course, the naysayers came out almost immediately, from Ro Khanna to Tucker Carlson. Most were predictable. Trump is a slave of Israel. Trump isn’t America First, etc. Some claim Trump did not spell out his intentions when he certainly did, with total clarity, during his eight-minute speech announcing the attack.
It’s called regime change!
Whether these people were lying or simply deaf, dumb, and blind is hard to say.
The new MSM flagship, Axios, is already raising the flag for "off ramps" with the war not even a day old.
None of these, pols or media, that I know of, had spent much time, if any, with torture victims from Tehran’s Evin Prison as Sheryl and I had. These former democracy demonstrators’ faces looked like Picasso’s from the Cubist period, cheekbones bashed in, eyes plucked outm relative and friends having died in jail. I would like to think that if the naysayers had seen them, they would sing a different song, but I doubt it. They prefer to preserve the mullahs’ rule for their own partisan or psychologically disturbed purposes.
The military operations should be successful, perhaps more quickly than many predict, but the major question is not whether the US and Israel can succeed at war against a weakened opponent. It is what happens after. Can a new Iran be built?
It’s up to the Iranians, almost everyone, including our government, is saying. I take their point. But you’ll have to excuse me if I put an asterisk.
Because of my position as a co-founder of PJ Media at the beginning of this century, I have had more than a casual acquaintance with dissident Iranians. Our office was in Los Angeles (aka Tehrangeles, the epicenter of Iranian ex-pats), and our PJTV wing was among the first, possibly the first, to give many of these people a serious hearing.
I liked them, but they were an extremely disparate group, from leftists to royalists, not always in harmony with each other. (There were also regime agents embedded in the community). Even though Khamenei is apparently dead and the regime is, to say the least, on the ropes, whether these people can unite around the Shah or anyone else to form a new government is unknown. '
I’m far from the only person to observe this. We have the Soviet Union as an example of the difficulties of post-totalitarian reform, how it can lead to renewed despotism under a different label.
Avoiding this is not simple, but without personal knowledge, I would imagine US and Israeli intelligence are quite aware of this problem. The Mossad has been embedded in Iranian society for many years. It has many successes there, in part because the people's dissatisfaction was so great that it was easy to recruit them. They are well-placed to aid in this transition.
Help can also be given by Elon Musk, whose Starlink internet service can provide communication in a broken country.
But above all, we must all tip our collective hats, MAGA and otherwise, to President Trump. He may be the greatest foreign policy tactician of recent times. With help from his superb Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he has, in essence, realigned the globe in a matter of months.
First, with the exception of Ukraine and Russia, he has brought peace to five, or is it six, wars that had been raging for years. Then, with the capture of Maduro, he upended the power of what was left of the communist world, Venezuela gone as an enemy, and Cuba on the brink. In so doing, he undercut the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), India having already absented itself by making a huge trade deal with Israel. And now, with a desperate Iran firing missiles at its Arab neighbors, thus alienating them for the foreseeable future, the entire Middle East has a potential for real peace for the first time in any of our lifetimes.
This morning, as news broke, my phone line buzzed with friends. Where would you rank Trump among American presidents? Some said number three, after Lincoln and Washington. Others said number two.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
First, with the exception of Ukraine and Russia, he has brought peace to five, or is it six, wars that had been raging for years.
With operation 'Epic Fury' and France, UK, and Poland itching for more Ukraine involvement, Putin must be having a WTF moment or two.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The apparent death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after Israel dropped 30 bombs on his compound, is a political and religious earthquake for Iran. It leaves a dangerous vacuum that the regime he has dominated since 1989 must now seek to fill quickly to avoid utter chaos. There is no single obvious successor who has the support of all the disparate elements of Tehran's clergy, military and political leadership. And some of the potential new leaders may also have been killed in the strikes.
Numerous US and Israeli TV networks reported Khamenei was dead, citing Israeli sources. There was no immediate confirmation from the White House or Tehran.
In recent years, a favorite to succeed the 86-year-old Supreme Leader had been the hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, but he was killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024.
One contender, if he survived the bombardment, is Mojtaba Khamenei, 55, the Ayatollah's second-eldest son. However, while Mojtaba is a powerful and hardline figure in the background, he has never held government office.
Experts believe an increasing possibility is a takeover by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - leading to a military rather than clerical form of government. In recent weeks, the CIA assessed that, if Khamenei was killed in a 'decapitation strike,' he would likely be replaced by ruthlessly hardline figures from the IRGC.
Iran’s military commanders hold the country’s future in their hands,' according to Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program. 'That imperative could well expand their appetites, and when Khamenei passes from the scene - either as a result of natural causes or decapitation strikes - so too could any effort to sustain the pretense of religious legitimacy in favor of military rule.'
That would mean even more brutal responses to popular uprisings amid UkS entreaties for the Iranian people to overthrow their government.
It would also continue to frustrate US attempts to get Iran to denuclearize.
Alternatively, if it doesn't lurch even more into repression, the regime could appoint a figure who can deal with the United States, in the same way Delcy Rodríguez took over as acting president in Venezuela after the capture of former leader Nicolás Maduro last month.
#4
I don’t think the successor really matters. It looks like bombs are hitting local offices. I saw video of a mobile protest suppression force getting droned. If this is widespread, the operating system is being dismantled. It won’t matter who is at the keyboard.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/01/2026 10:11 Comments ||
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#5
Trump should send in Omar. I'm not kidding. I'm pay UFC pay for view prices for that one!
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Vasily Fedorov
[REGNUM] Hours after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iranian cities, a voice came from a Washington suburb of a man who had not set foot on Iranian soil since 1978.
Sixty-five-year-old Reza Pahlavi, heir to the dynasty overthrown nearly half a century ago, recorded a video message to his "dear compatriots." Rockets were still exploding in Tehran, Isfahan, and Karaj, but the Shahzadeh had already found a suitable description for what was happening: "humanitarian intervention."
"The aid the President of the United States promised to the brave people of Iran has arrived. This is a humanitarian intervention, and its target is the Islamic Republic, its apparatus of oppression and killing machine, not the country and the great nation of Iran," he wrote on social media.
By this time, a rocket had already struck the Shajare Tayyebeh Girls' Elementary School in the city of Minab, Hormozgan Province. Seventy students were killed and over 90 were injured. The victims were between 7 and 12 years old. There were 170 girls in the school at the time of the strike. IIUC this was an Iranian missile that failed to properly launch
Yes. But they tried to blame it on OrangeManBad as a matter of principle. Just like the Hamas-lovers blamed Israel for the damage caused by the quarter of their rockets and missiles that landed in Gaza. After all, the Israel-hating part of the world was perfectly happy to believe them.
"Humanitarian intervention"—that term carries a particular venom. In 1999, under that banner, NATO air forces pounded Yugoslavia for 78 days straight. The results of that bombing are well documented: 70 schools, 18 kindergartens, and 48 hospitals destroyed. According to Serbian estimates, between 3,500 and 4,000 people died, two-thirds of whom were civilians.
The operation's codename, "Merciful Angel," was a blatant mockery. NATO never received UN Security Council sanctions, and Russia still categorizes the campaign as an act of aggression.
The similarities with today's Iran are striking. Back then, they too promised "targeted strikes," they too vowed to protect "oppressed peoples"—but the result was burning residential areas, destroyed bridges, and a passenger train shot up on the railway bridge in the Grdelica Gorge.
And Yugoslavia is far from the only example. In the Gaza Strip, between 2024 and 2025, the Israeli army systematically decimated civilian infrastructure. By July 2025, 97% of school buildings had been damaged or destroyed. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed—and all this accompanied by rhetoric about the "right to self-defense."
Reza Pahlavi clearly memorized the lexicon of his patrons.
A PRINCE WITHOUT SOIL
The current pretender's grandfather, Reza Shah, began as a private in the Persian Cossack brigade. In February 1921, at the head of several thousand Persian Cossacks, he entered Tehran and forced the Qajar Shah to appoint a favorable government.
What followed was a meteoric rise: Minister of War, Prime Minister, and, in 1925, Shah. Incidentally, he initially considered declaring a republic, following the example of Atatürk. But the mullahs and the British dissuaded him, and Iran, instead of a parliamentary democracy, found itself with yet another autocrat.
His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi —the father of today's Shahzade—ruled harshly. The regime's backbone was the SAVAK secret police, created in 1957 with the participation of the CIA and Mossad. SAVAK executed dissidents, tortured prisoners with electric shocks and hanging, and recruited informants in universities and factories.
During his reign, at least 300 political executions were carried out. Newspapers were shut down at the snap of a finger, parties other than those pro-government were outlawed, trade unionists were imprisoned by the thousands, and instruction in Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and other minority languages was simply banned.
For the Kurds, Baloch, and the 35 million-strong Azerbaijani community—which accounts for up to 40% of the country's population—the Shah's era is remembered as a time of pogroms and discrimination. As political scientist Farhad Mamedov noted in an interview with Regnum News Agency, Azerbaijanis do not consider the Pahlavi dynasty legitimate, viewing it as imperialist stooges.
And what about the heir himself? Reza Jr. left Iran as a 17-year-old cadet—in the summer of 1978, he went on a flight training trip to Texas, and within a few months, there was no place to return. Forty-eight years have passed since then. During this time, he earned a degree in political science, got married, settled in America, and built his entire career on interviews with Western television channels and meetings with White House officials.
He has no party of his own, no real supporters within Iran, no coherent program—just his name and rehearsed talking points that his overseas sponsors put into his mouth.
But the prince is bold in his rhetoric. On January 10, he addressed protesters with a direct appeal: "Our goal is not just to take to the streets; our goal is to prepare to take and hold city centers." On January 11, he announced on Fox News his readiness to return and lead the "transition." And on January 13, he was received by Trump's special envoy, Stephen Witkoff.
BLOOD AS AN INSTRUMENT
External players turned economically motivated protests into a pretext for a military strike, and Pahlavi was appointed the campaign's public relations tool.
Remarkably, this scenario was already obvious six months ago. In June 2025, a Regnum news agency columnist warned : "If a long-term ceasefire is established, Washington and Tel Aviv are counting on a Yugoslav scenario unfolding in Iran. Back then, the strikes on the country caused significant damage and, although not immediately, paved the way for a color revolution and regime change."
The chorus of voices rang out in unison. Trump, announcing the start of "large-scale military operations," openly demanded that the Iranians "seize their government." Netanyahu echoed this: "Our joint actions will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into their own hands."
And then Pahlavi, in the same language and the same turns of phrase, appeals to the Iranian security forces with the demand to “join the people,” threatening otherwise to “sink along with the sinking ship of Khamenei and his crumbling regime.”
Three people make promises to the Iranians in unison. Meanwhile, the bodies of seven-year-old girls are being pulled from the rubble of a school in Minab.
THE OLD FORMULA FOR DECEPTION
Iran's tragedy is that its citizens are truly suffocated by an economic crisis provoked by stifling sanctions. Their anger is genuine, their pain is real.
But those who declared themselves the voice of this anger have nothing to do with it. Reza Pahlavi didn't stand in line for bread in Tehran or lose his savings to the rial's collapse. He waited out others' misfortunes from a safe distance—and waited for the moment when he could convert their suffering into his own political capital.
The world has long since learned the lesson of "humanitarian intervention." Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria—the list of countries to which "freedom" was brought, accompanied by bombers, speaks for itself. Not a single one became a "thriving democracy." Each experienced chaos, disintegration, and casualties disproportionate to the costs from which they were supposedly saved.
And Reza Pahlavi, recording video messages from America while Iranian schoolgirls are dying under missiles, is just a prop. Convenient, obedient, and completely irresponsible.
#6
If you don't get them, they grow up to be terrorists.
Neither the Israelis nor we Americans go after children, though a school or apartment block used for war purposes, whether as a weapons depot or concealing the entrance to a war tunnel, is fair game by the Geneva Conventions.
#7
The Iranian missile went up, malfunctioned and went back down into the school. I watched the video.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/01/2026 11:08 Comments ||
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#8
NATO air forces pounded Yugoslavia for 78 days straight. The results of that bombing are well documented: 70 schools, 18 kindergartens, and 48 hospitals destroyed.
Remembering that was Billy Clinton's war in support of the Islamics. No one mentions that anymore.
[Bee] TEHRAN — Iranian military leaders are reportedly "really kicking themselves" for not just having their latest meeting over zoom.
In hindsight, the Iranian generals who were still alive felt that perhaps gathering all of the military's leaders together in one physical location was a mistake.
"We may have made a bit of a boo-boo," said newly promoted Iranian general Heydar Rahimi. "You know, looking in retrospect, I can now see that maybe gathering all the top generals into one building was not that smart. They could have so easily just met on Zoom. But, the generals' pagers said to go, so they went."
Surveying the wreckage of the former military headquarters, Rahimi could not help but feel that their chronic annoyance with Zoom meetings had got the better of them. "No one likes Zoom meetings, but face-to-face meetings have their downsides - like everyone dying at once," said Rahimi. "It's annoying when the sound cuts in and out, or when some idiot changes his background. Still, it's not as annoying as our entire chain of command exploding in a massive fireball."
At publishing time, Rahimi had thought perhaps it was unwise to also have brought the Ayatollah to their get-together.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2026 00:00 ||
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#2
Dunno, after the whole pager/cell phone thing, they might have figured Zoom was too risky. Imagine watching the screen as one little box at a time flashes and goes black...
They did not bomb Iran. They waited for Iran’s entire leadership to sit down in the same room and then they bombed Iran.
Months of intelligence. Thousands of hours of surveillance and signal intercepts. One variable: the moment the Supreme Leader, the President, and senior… https://t.co/I5l7iUI2HUpic.twitter.com/RXZSsSb12l
… and senior military command gathered in a single location at the same time.
That moment was 8:15 this morning. Daylight. Every previous Israeli strike on Iran came at night. June 2025 launched in darkness. October 2024 after midnight. Iran’s entire air defense doctrine is built around the assumption that Israel attacks in the dark. Israel attacked in broad daylight because the target was not infrastructure. The target was a meeting.
Reuters confirms strikes targeted Khamenei and Pezeshkian. CNN confirms months of joint US-Israeli planning. Israeli officials confirmed the strike hit the location where Iran’s top officials were gathered. Whether Khamenei was moved before the strike or extracted after is the most consequential unknown on the planet right now. If before, someone inside Tehran’s inner circle told Jerusalem when and where the meeting would happen. If after, the strikes hit the room and he survived. Both scenarios are catastrophic for the regime.
Because Iran’s leadership now knows three things. Israel knew where they were meeting. Israel knew when they were meeting. Israel knew who would be in the room. And everything we watched over the past month, the F-22s at Ovda, the tankers at Ben Gurion, Al Udeid emptied to zero, 270 transport flights, all of it was the delivery architecture for one precision strike on one gathering.
Every future meeting of Iran’s senior leadership now carries one question: does Israel know about this one too.
This is not a military operation. This is the destruction of institutional trust inside a regime. Every general who sits with Khamenei tomorrow will wonder who told Jerusalem about today. Every IRGC commander who receives a meeting summons will calculate whether attendance is duty or a death sentence. Every secure facility in Tehran has been proven insecure.
In June 2025 Israel killed 30 generals in the opening minutes. That was brute force across dispersed targets. This was a scalpel. One meeting. One moment. Months of patience.
Iran fired missiles at six countries in retaliation. Most intercepted. One civilian dead from debris in Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia responded by pledging all its capabilities against Iran. The Gulf coalition that did not exist yesterday exists today because Tehran built it by attacking everyone simultaneously.
Israel traded one morning of precision strikes for the permanent destruction of Iran’s command cohesion.
That is not a battle. That is checkmate disguised as a first move. https://open.substack.com/pub/shanakaanslemperera/p/the-arithmetic-of-collapse-irans
And the Persians invented chess. Pwned!!
Posted by: Fleremble Pherese8783 ||
03/01/2026 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems like there is little need to make an Iranian deck of cards to match the Iraqi one. All the potential Iranian cards are already in the discard pile.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/01/2026 9:48 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Oh course Tommy Massie has to wade into the deep end.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The apparent death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after Israel dropped 30 bombs on his compound, is a political and religious earthquake for Iran. It leaves a dangerous vacuum that the regime he has dominated since 1989 must now seek to fill quickly to avoid utter chaos. There is no single obvious successor who has the support of all the disparate elements of Tehran's clergy, military and political leadership. And some of the potential new leaders may also have been killed in the strikes.
[Bee] TEHRAN — Iranian military leaders are reportedly "really kicking themselves" for not just having their latest meeting over zoom.
