since their first days on the plateau, from origins somewhere deep inside russia, and perhaps ukraine itself, the iranians have been a bellicose people; a warlike nation, and one amongst many to be clear, but one with the intent and desire to conquer and assimilate, of which they did. all of the middle east fell, including egypt and even greece.

and then arose alexander, who struck the iranians down in one fell blow and transformed the middle east and iran in the process. iran was thoroughly hellenized. but, from the fringes of central asia, these barbarians arose again and rode back in to the plateau to rebuild their former empire.

once again, the new iran is recorded in history as a pesky and barbaric people intent on quarreling with the romans, who were clearly their military superior, until they no longer were, and centuries of warfare led to a final apocalypse, one not dissimilar to the story told in the bible. this is not substantive prophecy, so much as it is the most basic and most obvious geopolitical analysis possible from classical israel; yes, they will come from the east, and they did. as both rome and persia lay in ruins, the arabs wandered in from the desert and repopulated, and thoroughly struck down iran, once again.

but iran would not fall into the disused pages of history, for it rose again as an islamic empire, and in fact as the cultural and intellectual centre of the islamic world. not content with itself, it picked wars with the people around it, once again, and sought to dominate and control those around it a third time, until a blood thirsty genocidal horde rode in from the east and burnt everything flat to the ground, to teach them the lesson that alexander would not and muhammad could not. this was a thorough level of annihilation and it took many centuries to recover.

but, again, iran is back, and it's up to it's old and predictable behaviour - it seeks to dominate and control those around it.

i do not wish nuclear war on any people. yet, if these people could not learn from alexander, from heraclius, from mohammad and from genghis and tamerlane, then who will they learn from?

perhaps it will be america that will teach them a final lesson, as they face yet another imminent round of destruction by their neighbours for their persistent aggression, might they be so foolish, as they clearly are.

perhaps that is process.

perhaps that is the outcome that is correct.

c'mon donald. where's my coyote at? this is easy.

krazy kamala.

kooky kamala.

camel toe kamala. would he use that one? hey, check the footage.

kamikaze kamala.

this isn't difficult at all. maybe trump needs some to get some sleep.

"the republicans suck at war" might not be the way you're used to hearing it.

but it's probably the simplest and most accurate way to actually put it.

the democrats are better at war than the republicans, but in recent years have also been more responsible about it. they have tended to be the less extreme capitalist party.

but the wsws is often the only source that really drops the bullshit.

(i'm not a trotskyist, but i can tolerate them better than stalinists, maoists or leninists, which doesn't mean they're really that much better. the theory is better. the activists usually aren't, really.)

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/07/ispf-a07.html

is tim waltz supposed to be a democrat?

could've fooled me.

i wouldn't vote for him.

mr biden has always struck me as a little crooked around the edges, and his position on this israel/hezbollah/iran thing is really a little curious.

as is this appointment.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/08/biden-elliott-abrams-iran-contra-venezuela

there's lots of songs about staying, but i don't want to get across the wrong idea, so we're going with this one.

expelling hezbollah from lebanon, or at least pushing them into the mountains, would be a major victory for the lebanese people. 

lebanon is very different than anywhere else in the middle east and far more similar to israel than it is to any arab country. it's half christian and used to be far more than half christian. it has relatively liberal laws and a relatively liberal culture. it does not want to be ruled by islamic extremists.

the reason the syrian people, who are moderate muslims on paper but in truth largely secular leftists, have continually supported assad and the dictatorship that props him up is that he is protecting them from sharia law. this is also the reason he's such a pariah in the middle east. in fact, the laws in syria are substantively more liberal than they are in iraq, jordan, saudi arabia or virtually anywhere else in the middle east. as one random example, i happen to know that the syrian government actually funds transgender people to go through full transition, which is more liberal than some european countries and certainly more liberal than the united states. assad was actually trying to de-baathicize the country and hold elections, but the civil war made that impossible. the saudis of course hate democracy and that is why the saudis hate the syrian government and have gone to such great lengths to overthrow it. but, they can't because the overwhelming popular consensus is that, whatever the problems are with assad and the baathist regime, at least it's not a saudi puppet state that wants to run the country out of the back of a koran. 

in lebanon, the christian militias essentially lost the fight against islamic extremism and are being ruled by these hezbollah imperialists that want to colonize the region and convert them all to islam. they sit down and be quiet to avoid hezbollah's wrath. it's a brutal rule by dominance and control and fear.

i hope that the lebanese military walks into any vacuum opening up. lebanon is a failed state, but it doesn't need to be a hopelessly failed one. this is some glimmer of hope in a long hopeless scenario.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-814331

we will know the rapture is upon us when we see 7-11 stores with signs that say

staff kindly asks patrons to remember: liquor before beer, you're in the clear.

clean-up nonetheless available only on request and as per staff availability.

it's just about the parade's sponsors not bds-ing.

riiiiight.

they aren't far-right extremists that hate gay people or anything.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pride-parade-montreal-2024-1.7291646

do we really need to put the bars out of business?

it's one thing to have sales in corner stores. i've appreciated that about michigan, especially regarding the hours. the liquor store in ontario closes way too early. you can get a mike's or something at the 7/11 over the bridge up to 1:00 am and pre-drink it while bicycling out to a late show or overnight rave.

it's another to have people drinking in bleach-mopped 7-11s with spotlights and perhaps in the middle of the day, like it's a supervised consumption site. i guess if you're really alcoholic, it'll have to do, but is there actually a market for drinking alcohol in the 7-11?

it would make more sense to let them sell pot and have a smoking section outside behind the store because then they're already at the 7-11. a couple of picnic tables. no need to get munchies. kids have been smoking behind the 7/11 for decades for exactly that reason in the first place.

my primary concern is whether this is going to hurt the bars, but i don't think it will. it's less opposition and more...like, who gets drunk at a 7/11, besides homeless people? in that sense, it is supervised consumption.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ontario-freakout-over-booze-in-7-elevens