The American Stalin
Trump
In war there are two kinds of misinformation -- the first is rumor such as we see on X and sometimes with LLMs. The second is simply lies which, in the US starts with the President, and drips down from there.
When Trump took office, he promised to drain the swamp –hence Musk’s purges of the NSA and the intelligence agencies for anybody who might differ with Trump’s line which, since it is constantly shifting is anyone who does not simply repeat what the “truth” of the day is.
Trump drained the swamp and replaced it with a cesspool.
This American Stalinism writ large. It is a ‘Yes-man” culture.
Of course, such mendacity makes it very difficult to know what is actually happening in West Asia right now.
Clearly, however, Iran is winning.
A war which was supposed to be over in a few days was extended to two weeks. Then to four weeks. Now they are talking about months, despite the fact that the US has used most of its inventory of advanced weapons and lost much of the electronic capabilities previously conferred by its now damaged bases. It appears to be having trouble shooting down even drones and older ballistic missiles.
So suddenly Trump is talking about a huge store of “gravity bombs”—that is, dumb bombs for dumb people.
The administration is bombing, but not in the usual sense of aircraft blowing up buildings. .
Of course, the USI, the United States of Israel, has had its successes. Just not the ones it claims to have but rather hitting non-military infrastructure – schools, homes, offices, and hospitals and an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka—gratuitous violence and terrorism.
But how about Iran?
Here’s what Will Schyriver says on X.
The IRGC Hasn’t Lied Yet
Let’s recap a few of the salient events of the past few days:
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a series of communiques in recent days wherein they declared they had:
🔹 Destroyed the long-range ballistic missile detection radar in Qatar ($1.5B);
🔹 Destroyed the billion-dollar radar equipment of the THAAD battery in the UAE;
🔹 Fired a small salvo of subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles in the general direction of the USS Fraidy Abe, whose escorts parried the obviously performative attack. But Fraidy Abe immediately skedaddled much further away from Iranian shores.
These IRGC claims were widely ridiculed in the media and here on X — and even by CENTCOM.
But, as it turns out, all three things are absolutely true.
But, here’s the kicker:
The IRGC put out another communique a little while ago. They claim to have launched a small salvo of anti-ship cruise missiles at a US destroyer in the midst of refueling itself beside a fleet oiler ship.
They claim to have achieved a strike with at least one of the missiles.
They claim fires were ignited on both ships, and that plumes of black smoke filled the sky as they hurried away.
Well ... maybe it’s just Persian bravado asserting itself.
But, if it is true, it is arguably the most shocking development yet in this war.
I don’t think hitting American ships would be the “most shocking development” -- rather, even if it didn’t’ happen this time, something like it is bound to happen eventually.. Right now Iran’s priority must first be destroying American bases and radars, along with as much of Tel Aviv and Haifa as it can. After that comes men and materiel.
Obviously, the US casualty count is higher than 6. I say ‘obviously” because Trump, Rubio, and Hegseth have been trying to prepare the public for more—when the losses become too large too hide,
An Iranian Strike hits home.
Maybe Trump and his goons can get some advice from the Ukrainians who claim the lost 55,000, instead of the 2 million or so that legitimate analysts count.
The Americans claim that they have crippled Iran’s ability to launch Iranian missiles
.
Fake launchers and decoys of all kinds. Yes, Iran’s launchers are still largely intact. They really have just begun to fight. Remember Iran lost almost 200,000 KIA in its war against Iraq, which was then the US’s proxy.
Of course, you will get questionable reports from Iran which are based on rumor or reports from regional allies or maybe just wishful thinking.
By and large though the Iranians have learned as the Russians did that they best way to counter political lies and propaganda when your enemy controls information space is just to tell the truth and not to exaggerate.
Actions speak loudest.
Jackson Hinkle (who has his critics) has done an interesting interview, with Ali Alizadeh which givef us a big dose of truth serum and to add perspective to this post.
Notice that the US has said it struck the girl’s school because it was “close” to an IRGC base when in fact it was a kilometer away— which confirms what I was saying in my previous post but adds an nuance — the US and Israel, unable to hit military targets— are attacking the most vulnerable.
As for Western information space…just flush — and wash your hands.
Note
With the war on Iran, I have not been able to get much work done on the next installment of my series of special articles which, as you know, is about the decline of Western Civilization, the rise of others and the evolution of new tools that redefine what it means to be human.
Trump’s war on the world gives me a lot of new ideas about these things. Trump says that the only thing that can stop him is his “own morality”. What he is saying is that he is the final arbiter of right and wrong, setting himself up as as a truculent Old Testament God. This is the age of false gods. But it began a long time ago .
Things will not be as they were.
My apologies to my coffee buyers for being so slow.
We need help in getting new subscribers. Please crosspost, and feel free to post urls on other blogs or X or other platforms. Every time someone does that, I get a new subscriber
Lyla and Ghost
Recently, Amos and his newly adopted go Lyla were outside when they heard “a commotion in the woods behind our house”—and upon investigating, found a kitten being “chased down by a much larger cat.”
“Lyla jumped into action and chased away the attacking cat, while the terrified kitten just hunkered down in fear. Once the threat was gone, Lyla trotted back to the kitten and started licking and cleaning her.
Ghost and Lyla. | Reddit u/TravelersTowel
Lyla and the kitten, who Amos fondly named Ghost, formed a strong friendship, with the kitten appearing every time Lyla was outside, “running to her unofficial mom” where the pair would cuddle and groom each other.
At first, Amos was unsure about officially adopting Ghost due to the costs that come with caring for a new pet—but, as he told Newsweek, he came to realize “we can’t tell Lyla ‘no’ about her new baby.”
“They’re attached together at the hip, so we will let Lyla complete the adoption process,” he said.
You’ve gone too far this time, Julian.
IN THIS HOUSE, STALIN IS A HERO!
Stalin turned a backwards agricultural country into an industrial superpower. And defeated the largest army ever assembled.
He was also an expert at personnel (“Personnel is policy”: Stalin) finding the best person for the job. And was an effective leader of highly skilled leadership team.
The politburo archives are full of reprimands from Stalin demanding accurate information without prettying up the facts.
There is simply no comparison with the moron currently in the WH.
If America actually HAD a Stalin, it wouldn’t be such a mess not taking orders from Tel Aviv.
Stalin put hus country before his family. You can read about his son being POW in WW2, and the failed exchange offers by the germans. Stalin still gets recognition and new monuments in his own country, 73 years after his death. Trump will be remembered as a bad dream at best.