One movie after another

The New Neo Posted on by

The Oscars are tomorrow, and about a week ago I watched the first half hour of the movie One Battle After Another, nominated for Best Picture and several other awards. I was visiting a friend who lives at one of those large complexes for older people, and they show a movie for free every week. She wanted to take a look at that one, and so I went too.

But after a half hour of the movie we both left.

Simply put, it was the worst movie I’ve ever seen, bar none. Let me count the ways in which it was bad – no, maybe that’s impossible, because it was awful in every way. Its terribleness was absolutely astonishing.

Since then, I’ve searched online for people who agree with me on this. There are many, but they seem to be outnumbered by those who loved the movie (at least, online). The movie’s box office hasn’t recouped its cost, and it’s considered a flop in that sense, although it’s gotten rave reviews from critics, and a slew of awards and nominations:

At the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards, it won three awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. It was also nominated for nine awards at the 83rd Golden Globes, receiving the most nominations of any film that year and winning four, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The film also became the most-nominated film in the history of the Screen Actors Guild at the 32nd Actor Awards, with a record-breaking seven nominations. At the 79th British Academy Film Awards, it led the nominations with fourteen overall, winning six, including Best Film and Best Director. Additionally, the film received thirteen nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and four acting nominations (for del Toro, DiCaprio, Penn, and Taylor), the second-most of any film that year.

Let me repeat that it wasn’t just that I didn’t care for the film. It was that it was deeply offensive, stupid, chaotic, ugly, and boring all at once. It made me and my friend recoil in a combination of revulsion plus embarrassment that anyone would write such a thing, film such a thing, direct such a thing, act in such a thing. It was repellent within the first five minutes, with a sexual scene so outlandish and distasteful and preposterous that it seemed the goal was to offend everything and everybody.

Before I saw the film I had looked it up and learned the very general outline of the plot although no details. I knew it was about 60s-style revolutionaries but set much later in time, and that after the first forty minutes or so it advanced about sixteen years into the future – which would bring it more or less to today’s present. But when I saw the opening minutes I couldn’t figure out what the makeup department was going to do when these characters are supposed to be sixteen years older, because they already looked long in the tooth (DiCaprio is now fifty-one – a bit old for a revolutionary – and Sean Penn is sixty-five, past retirement age for a colonel, which is the role he plays). I didn’t end up sticking around to see the part of the film where they’re supposed to become sixteen years older, but I’ve read that the movie makes no attempt whatsoever to age them.

I guess that’s one way to deal with it. But it’s a very minor quibble indeed in a movie so very bad.

Prior to seeing the movie I had also read that one of the main characters, a black female revolutionary, was scripted in a demeaning and cliched way that was aggressively hyper-sexualized. I figured this was just one of those overreactions by the politically woke. Well, I’m here to say that it was not an overreaction. If anything, the criticism was an understatement.

The acting seemed ludicrous to me although it’s been highly-praised – over the top except for DiCaprio, who looked to be on tranquilizers (at least during the portion I watched), and cartoonish and cliched, and yet without a satiric edge that would make that approach all right. I read that the film is supposed to be some sort of satire, some sort of comedy, but there wasn’t even a hint of that perspective in the part I saw.

It was as though the denizens of the future world of Idiocracy had made a movie.

One of the things that struck me almost as soon as the Sean Penn character appeared was that he was supposed to make the viewer recall the Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper character in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. And sure enough – at least, according to Google’s AI – “The character Colonel Steven J. ‘Lockjaw’ (played by Sean Penn in the 2025 film One Battle After Another) is described as a deliberate homage to Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangelove.”

That doesn’t even begin to redeem the film. All of the characters are offputting and deeply unlikable, whether they’re on the political left or right, although of course this being today’s Hollywood the ones on the right are even more evil and awful (and white) than the ones on the left. But who on earth wants to watch a two hour and forty minute movie with such characters and such action?

And it stands an excellent chance of getting the Oscar for Best Picture. Consider yourselves warned.

Just for fun, though, here’s one of my very favorite scenes from Dr. Strangelove. It features the Jack D. Ripper character, played by Sterling Hayden. He’s good, but it’s the brilliant Peter Sellers who shines here in one of his three roles in the film, that of RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. The ever-growing panic in Sellers’ eyes combined with his efforts at exquisite British politeness in the face of the utterly mad and terribly dangerous Ripper never fails to get me with its edgy humor:

[NOTE: Here are some people who agree with me about the film.]

Mamdani and the leftist mayors

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s the plan, according to this NY Post article:

The motley crew of capitalist-crushing Democratic mayors includes Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, Boston’s Michelle Wu, Oakland’s Barbara Lee, Seattle’s Katie Wilson and Los Angeles’ Karen Bass.

“Right now, we are the process of forming sort of a mayor’s coalition, much like district and state’s attorneys have formed to fight back against federal overreach,” Johnson said of the socialist sextet.

Mamdani “expressed a desire and commitment to work with the city of Chicago, Boston. We have Seattle on board. We have Oakland, Mayor Lee, Mayor Bass in Los Angeles as well,” added Johnson in a video posted Monday on X. …

“Nothing says ‘terrible idea’ like six cities famous for sky-high taxes and persistent crime deciding the solution is to compare notes,” said Bruce Blakeman, New York’s Republican gubernatorial nominee.

Mamdani’s reps said he’s in regular contact with many other mayors and governors across the country but insisted he’s yet to decide whether to join new coalition.

That would be quite the force multiplier.

One of Mamdani’s recent proposals is this humdinger, just one of many he’s considering:

The socialist mayor wants to drastically slash the estate tax exemption threshold from the $7 million limit to just $750,000, a drop of more than 90%, according to a memo City Hall recently circulated to Albany lawmakers. …

In addition to dropping the estate tax exemption — to what would be the lowest in the US — Mamdani is also pitching increasing the top rate to a whopping 50%, from the current 16%, in what he said would raise $4 billion combined, the outlet reported.

“This is a prime example of how the ‘tax the rich’ movement is actually all about taxing the middle class and those struggling to put food on their tables for their families,” Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R-Staten Island) told The Post of the proposal.

Staten Island is the only Republican borough of New York, the only one that voted for Trump (about 65% in 2024) and for Mamdani’s opponents (23% for Mamdani). But I would imagine that quite a few people all over New York City who did vote for Mamdani would not be pleased if such changes were ever enacted. Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars does not go very far in New York City.

Of course, many of Mamdani’s supporters have no estates to pass on and probably no hope of having any. Plus, many are young and a long way away from even thinking about leaving to descendants whatever money they do have or ever will have. They might be interested in inheriting their parents’ estates intact, though, if their parents have much of anything and live in New York state. But I think most of Mamdani’s young voters would be only too happy to confiscate the money of others through an estate tax of this magnitude. “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs.”

Trump’s message on Kharg Island and the Strait of Hormuz

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s Trump’s statement:

Moments ago, at my direction, the United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island. Our Weapons are the most powerful and sophisticated that the World has ever known but, for reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision. During my First Term, and currently, I rebuilt our Military into the Most Lethal, Powerful, and Effective Force, by far, anywhere in the World. Iran has NO ability to defend anything that we want to attack — There is nothing they can do about it! Iran will NEVER have a nuclear weapon, nor will it have the ability to threaten the United States of America, the Middle East or, for that matter, the World! Iran’s Military, and all others involved with this Terrorist Regime, would be wise to lay down their arms, and save what’s left of their country, which isn’t much! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

It bears the stamp of his distinctive style. It remains to be seen how it will play out, but for now he has chosen to preserve the country’s oil capacities because its people will need them in the future.

The left and the NeverTrumpers on the “right” (I don’t think they’ve been on the actual right for quite some time, for the most part) have been claiming – among other things – that Trump and his advisors had no plan for the Strait. Tom Cotton has tried to set them – straight:

As Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, let me make clear: whoever leaked this lied. CNN should do some fact-checking. The U.S. has planned for Iran to try to close the strait for decades.

Because the left’s narrative is (among other things) that Trump and his military advisors are hopelessly, abysmally, stupid, they can claim that Trump has never planned for this very obvious thing. And many people will believe it.

Whether the plans will work is quite another thing. I certainly hope they will.

However, I came across this startling bit of history:

While promoting his book The Art of the Deal in the United Kingdom in 1988, Trump discussed U.S.-Iran relations following the 1979 Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis. Mulling hypothetical military actions, Trump told The Guardian at the time, “They’ve been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools. One bullet shot at one of our men or ships, and I’d do a number on Kharg Island. I’d go in and take it.”

Seems he has become somewhat more cautious since then. But he was already thinking about the Strait and Kharg Island.

Another roundup

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) I recommend this article by Data Republican on the state of the Iran operation. Very comprehensive.

(2) This sort-of answers a question I was wondering about earlier today, when I wrote about the fact that Israel was destroying some of Iran’s IRGC and Basij agents by using drones, after Iranians informed them where the agents were. My question was: how does Israel verify the identifications? I still don’t know how, but apparently they do verify the information:

The [Israeli] official said Iranians on the ground have been transmitting information in Persian through Israeli social media accounts. According to the report, the information is first verified and vetted by Israeli authorities, and action is taken only after it is found to be accurate.

(3) There’s a lot of chatter online today about this judicial opinion:

Note that that was a dissent. The majority said it was perfectly okay to allow nude biological men into nude women-only spaces. In the intersectional hierarchy, declaring oneself trans trumps being a biological woman.

(4) DHS re-opening still hasn’t passed despite all the recent terrorist attacks:

A motion to proceed to a House-passed bill to reopen DHS failed Thursday when 46 Democrats voted against it. The lone person in favor of funding the department was Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).

A few Democrats are starting to relent, however. Perhaps they’ve been hearing from irate constituents?

(5) Hegseth’s remarks on Khamenei Junior:

We know the new so called, not so Supreme Leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement. He called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity.

Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why.

His father dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them.

Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.

But since Iran’s system of repression and missile launching is somewhat decentralized, it can go on for a while without a Supreme Leader in sight.

Regime change maybe

The New Neo Posted on by

There are terrible regimes all over the world. Most of them are in nations that confine the suffering to their own people. It’s sad, but we’re not about to start military action to change anything. The risks are too high, the costs too expensive, and the possible benefits to us too remote.

After 9/11, we realized that some people in far-off places wished to hurt us very badly and had actually done so. The rationale for invading Afghanistan was not the Taliban themselves, although they were theocratic tyrants. It was that they harbored al Qaeda and would not surrender them. We invaded but failed to get Bin Laden for a long time, and somehow the mission turned into regime change. However, attempting regime change made sense in at least one way: without getting rid of the Taliban government, wouldn’t the same thing just repeat itself?

Afghanistan proved very resistant to fundamental change. One big reason was cultural, although it wasn’t the only reason. To effect that sort of change was probably impossible, and it was certainly impossible without an enormous and long expenditure of time, money, and troops. We finally gave up, in particularly ignominious and costly fashion under Biden (or his controllers).

Iraq was somewhat different. There was a strongman tyrant who seemed to be developing nuclear weapons in defiance of an agreement for inspections post-Gulf War. It apparently was a pretense of Saddam Hussein’s, although we have argued about what the US knew and didn’t know in the leadup to the war. The Iraqi people were more sophisticated than those in Afghanistan (a low bar) and some pundits in the US argued that there was more appetite for democracy there and that it would be successful and Iraq would become an ally. Again, we can argue – and we certainly have – about to what extent the war had achieved at least some elements of success before Obama’s pull out, but I don’t think we would disagree about the fact that it left the vast majority of Americans on both sides with a strong aversion to wars with “boot on the ground” in order to effect regime change.

Which brings us to Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. And Trump.

Trump had criticized the Iraq War greatly. So far, he seems to have approached things differently. He determined that Venezuela not only was headed by a tyrant, but by one that hadn’t been properly elected, and – this point is key – the regime was a sort of linchpin in a current axis of evil.

Trump’s approach to Venezuela was and is creative; I don’t need to describe it here except to say it involved a single audacious raid which brought Maduro here to stand trial, and a way to make his successor dance to our tune, for now. The plan is also to institute fair elections that will lead to better things for the people there, but for now that’s not happening. It has led, however, to a domino effect that has effected the energy supply of other problematic countries.

In Cuba, nothing new seems to have been done except the disruption of Venezuelan oil shipments, but this may be having the desired effect on the rulers of a country that was already having severe economic problems:

Cuban President Miguel Di?az-Canel on March 13 confirmed his government is holding talks with the Trump administration, in the latest sign that the communist-run nation is open to signing a possible historic economic deal with the United States.

Di?az-Canel made the announcement in a video broadcast on national television and he also spoke in a subsequent press conference, where he addressed Cuba’s energy needs amid a U.S. oil blockade, saying no fuel has entered Cuba in three months. He said the talks with the U.S. have reached initial phases only.

Iran is very different. The mullahs have been at war with us for 47 years and shout “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” It’s an enormous country under the rule of clerics who believe it’s their duty to start an Armageddon that will end with their triumph over the Muslim world and ultimately the rest of the world, and the coming of the Mahdi (I wrote about this belief system in this post). They are deadly serious about this.

Trump has decided they were too close to obtaining weapons that could further hurt Israel, Europe, and the US, and that something had to be done about this. He worked alongside Israel to degrade some of Iran’s nuclear capabilities and air defense system last summer, but some capacity remained and the mullahs got right back on that nuclear/ballistic horse. Negotiations to change this situation failed completely when the mullahs made it clear they would abandon none of their goals.

And so the joint US/Israel air campaign began. A huge number of Iran’s regime leaders have been killed – with no US boots on the ground – but there are others willing, for now, to take their place. Trump says their weapons, launchers, and nuclear capacity have been further degraded. We could declare victory and leave – except for the regime change question. If the mullahs stay in place, the Iranian people will continue to suffer, but the leaders will also set about trying to re-arm. Again and again, like some Terminator horror movie. It will take longer than before, and they are weaker and poorer than before. But their belief system does not allow them to be practical and give up.

Is regime change therefore necessary? Is it possible? What would effect it? I’m not going to tackle that in this post, which is already long enough. But I think everyone agrees that if it could happen and something better were in place, it would be a good thing.

Another thing on which we can probably agree is that Iran is a big country with a somewhat decentralized system of tyranny in which the IRGC and the Basij (their enforcers) are the main mechanism by which the crackdown on the Iranian people is accomplished. These two entities must be defanged, and at the moment there are many reports that a program of drone attacks is starting to do that. I hope they’re true, because this is of the utmost importance in further weakening the regime:

Update on the two terrorist attacks

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: See this earlier post of mine today for background on the attacks.]

The Old Dominion shooter attacked an ROTC class, as I described in my previous post. Now the victim who died has been identified:

Lt Colonel Brandon Shah was identified as the person killed in the deadly shooting at Old Dominion University in Virginia. …

[The killer] reportedly entered a classroom inside ODU’s Constant Hall and asked if it was a ROTC class. Upon getting confirmation, he launched the attack, shooting the professor several times. The FBI said during a press conference that Jalloh shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ before opening fire. …

Brandon A. Shah is a native of Virginia. He served as Professor of Military Science (PMS) at ODU’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Shah enlisted into the Army in 2003 as an Aviation Operations Specialist. … Shah’s service included Active Duty Army, Army Reserves, and Virginia Army National Guard and he was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and a rotation to Atlantic Resolve. Shah had a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Military Science Minor from ODU, an MBA from the University of Georgia, and an MS in Engineering Management from the University of Kansas.

RIP.

I wonder whether the campus of Old Dominion is gun-free, because the killer Jalloh was fatally stabbed by one of the ROTC students:

A heroic ROTC student fatally stabbed the crazed ISIS-linked gunman who opened fire inside an Old Dominion University classroom Thursday, preventing further carnage, law enforcement sources said. …

“The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

The perp Jalloh was apparently a naturalized citizen, and therefore his previous conviction for ISIS support did not allow the US to deport him – unless he had lied about his ISIS leanings (or something else that is non-trivial) when he was naturalized. Ted Cruz has tried several times, beginning in 2014, to pass a law that would allow such citizens to lose their citizenship, but it never passed.

In the Michigan attack, which featured a car ramming a synagogue and in which the perp also died, there has been no official identification. Rumor has it, however (for what it’s worth), that he was Ayman Ghazaleh of Dearborn Heights, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon who claimed that relatives in that country had recently been killed by Israelis. As I said, none of this is confirmed. The article also said the car was loaded with explosives, which could explain the fire.

If the above turns out to be true, I have little doubt that much of the left and so-called “woke right” will try to justify the attack and/or make excuses for it as a retaliation for Israel’s supposed “genocide.” But whatever the facts turn out to be, the Trump-haters will blame Trump, the root of all the evil in the world.

Terrorist attacks in Virginia and Michigan

The New Neo Posted on by

There were two terrorist attacks today in the US. One was at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The shooter killed one person and injured two, and is dead himself.

I feel fairly confident in calling it a terrorist attack rather than “merely” a school shooting because the shooter has been identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36. And guess what? He was convicted in 2016 of ISIS ties:

In 2016, he was arrested for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to public court documents. He allegedly attempted to help procure weapons intended to be used in what he anticipated was going to be an attack in the U.S., the complaint said at the time. The complaint also alleged that he attempted to provide funds to individuals hoping to join ISIS.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 2024, according to the Department of Justice.

Although he didn’t serve the full eleven years, it seems he served close to eight years. Even eleven would not have been enough, however – although it’s hard to see how he could have been sentenced to more than that, because it was just an attempt. He is a US citizen; you can find a lot more information here. He apparently was radicalized by listening to recorded sermons of al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki, and then [emphasis mine]:

Following service in the National Guard, Jalloh traveled to Africa, where he stayed between July 2015 and January 2016. While in Nigeria, according to FBI investigators, Jalloh first established contact with an ISIS operative who later introduced Jalloh to the CHS [Confidential Human Source].* Jalloh told the CHS in April 2016 that he wished to carry out a domestic attack similar to the Fort Hood shootings carried out by Nidal Hasan in 2009.* Jalloh also allegedly spoke about targeting an unidentified person who had organized several “Draw Muhammad” cartoon contests.*

In May 2016, the CHS introduced Jalloh to an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS member.* During conversations on an unidentified mobile messaging service, Jalloh allegedly told the agent that it was best to plan an attack during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He allegedly believed such violent operations were “100 percent the right thing to do,” and he prayed to Allah to make him a martyr.* Jalloh allegedly gave the agent $500, believing it would reach ISIS’s coffers.*

On July 1, 2016, Jalloh entered the Blue Ridge Arsenal gun store and firing range in Chantilly, Virginia. According to security footage and the store’s owner, Jalloh allegedly tried to purchase a Bushmaster AR-15, but did not have adequate identification.* Jalloh returned the following day and purchased a Stag Arms 5.56 caliber assault rifle.* The FBI arrested him on July 3 and charged him with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Jalloh pled guilty on October 27, 2016.* He was sentenced to 11 years in prison on February 10, 2017. In a letter to the court, alloh reportedly renounced ISIS and its “superficial and dishonest interpretation of Islam.”*

That renunciation was almost certainly bogus and/or temporary. Note how Jalloh seems to have now followed his original plan: an attack on military people – such as the Fort Hood attacker’s victims – during Ramadan. It’s Ramadan right now. The “military people” part was fulfilled because of this:

The victims have not been identified. Two of them are members of the school’s ROTC program, NBC affiliate WAVY of Portsmouth, Virginia, reported.

“We can confirm that two members of the university ROTC program were shot and were taken to a local hospital to treat their injuries,” the U.S. Army Cadet Command told the station in a statement.

Officials said Jalloh allegedly targeted an ROTC class and was a former member of the Army National Guard.

That’s followed by “a motive in the shooting is unclear.” That seems extremely absurd at this point.

The day’s second attack involved a perp – also now deceased but as yet unidentified – who rammed a car into a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. Fortunately, no one but the perp was killed in this one, mainly because there were security officers on the scene who opened fire. The perp fired back and wounded one guard, and eight first responders are also being treated.

It’s not totally clear whether they killed him, he killed himself, or he died in a car fire.

We await word on his identity. Could be a jihadi, or could be just the usual Jew-hater on left or right. So many possibilities!

I doubt these attacks were coordinated with each other. There’s a lot of chaos and violence as well as incitement these days, all of which act as releasers for those inclined to attack. There’s certainly also the possibility of higher-up organization. However, I’d expect the latter to feature larger attacks.

Save the SAVE Act?

The New Neo Posted on by

So today it’s been announced that the SAVE Act will be brought up for a Senate vote, and it will almost certainly go down:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring the bill to the floor next week, but Republicans won’t take the route of launching into a talking filibuster despite pressure from President Donald Trump and the GOP base to do so.

“We don’t have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it,” Thune said. “But that is just a function of math, and there isn’t anything I can do about that. I mean, I understand the president’s got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do.” …

While the end result after an exhaustive marathon of debate would allow Republicans to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act at a simple-majority threshold, Thune has time and again warned that the votes aren’t there among Republicans to block Democratic amendments that could completely reshape the bill.

Still, Trump and a sphere of online conservative voices are demanding that the bill pass at any cost. Trump warned that if it does not, Republicans will fall flat in the upcoming midterm election cycle.

The online chatter is that the GOP doesn’t want to pass it. I think it’s much more accurate to say that a certain minority of them don’t, but they hold a lot of power because of the tiny margin the GOP has in terms of numbers.

But I am convinced that – although I strongly support the bill – people are exaggerating what it would accomplish in this election cycle, if passed. There would be immediate court challenges that would probably tie it up so that it couldn’t be implemented prior to the 2026 election.

If the Democrats win the House in 2026, they will impeach Trump again. But I have to say, who cares at this point? It’s meaningless unless they could convict and remove him, which they couldn’t because they would not have those kinds of numbers in the Senate, even with the Murkowskis of the world. Plus, removing Trump would give them Vance. Not really what they want, either.

And what if they do gain the Senate, too? They would definitely nuke the filibuster. But they wouldn’t get past Trump’s veto.

I think the whole thing hinges on 2028, not now. And yet everyone is so fired up about this that a failure to pass it could have the result of many voters on the right punishing the GOP in the midterms. That would be a real self-own, IMHO.

Peeking through Iran’s fog of war

The New Neo Posted on by

Where’s Khamenei the Younger? He has appeared in public recently as – a cardboard cutout.

I don’t think this is a spoof, although it looks like one [*see below]:

Reports are that he was wounded in the blast that killed Khamenei the Elder. We don’t know how badly, but that cardboard figure probably isn’t reassuring to his supporters. It gives new meaning to the term “figurehead”:

According to former Iranian news anchor Ehsan Karami, Mojtaba Khamenei has been admitted to Sinai Hospital in Tehran and is currently on a ventilator.

Karami alleged that Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously injured in the airstrikes that reportedly killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on February 28. He further claimed that Mojtaba remains in a coma and is unaware of the outbreak of the ongoing war or the deaths of family members in the bombardment.

Iran’s state television has not confirmed the hospitalization but recently referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as a “Jaanbaz of Ramadan,” a term commonly used in Iran to describe a wounded war veteran, confirming his injury.

I suppose, though, that it would be clever of authorities to appoint someone already deceased as Supreme Leader – then he couldn’t be re-killed.

There’s also this:

A report by The New York Times, citing three unnamed Iranian officials, said Khamenei had sustained injuries during the attacks, including wounds to his legs. Officials said he remained alert but was sheltering in a highly secure location with extremely limited communication.

I suppose it’s theoretically possible they don’t want any recordings that could be traced. But not even audio? Seems unlikely he’s “alert” enough to record a message.

At this point in time, is the IRGC being targeted by Israel and/or the US? It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening, but the IRGC seems to be in power at the moment. Israeli strikes have been reported on IRGC infrastructure:

The Israel Air Force has launched another “wide-scale wave of strikes” against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) infrastructure across Iran on Wednesday afternoon, simultaneously with strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the IDF said.

In addition, the IDF struck several IRGC infrastructure sites in Tehran and other Islamic Regime military strongholds throughout the country.

Does this include the IRGC personnel?

It is exceedingly difficult to penetrate the fog of this war plus the fog of the MSM – our own, and of course Iran’s. Just to take one example of so many, I saw a link to a CBS article that had the following headline: “Trump vows to end war soon as Iran hits ships, threatens banks, and toll on U.S. forces emerges.” Sounds as though Trump is saying he’ll cry uncle as soon as we sustain losses of any magnitude whatsoever. What is in the story, though?:

— Suspected Iranian drones hit at least three ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz overnight, continuing attacks that have paralyzed traffic through the vital shipping lane despite a stern warning from President Trump.
— President Trump has said again that the war will end “soon,” whenever he decides it should, as Iran says it’s ready for “a long-term war of attrition that will destroy the entire American economy.” Iran also warned that it would start targeting U.S.-linked banks across the Mideast.
— Drones hit Dubai’s airport overnight, wounding four people… The UAE said it was intercepting Iranian drones and missiles, too.
— Approximately 140 U.S. service members were wounded in the first 10 days of the war with Iran, the Pentagon said Tuesday, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. and Israel were “winning” the war and rapidly meeting their objectives.

Quite a difference between the headline’s implications and the article’s details.

Of course, the fear is that Iran has terror cells seeded all over the US and many Western countries, and that these will be activated. That could happen. There are also threats from Iran that it has ships that will attack California:

ABC claims to have read the [police] alert sent out. It says in part:

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran. We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

The New York Post describes it as an “army of drones” that could be launched from a vessel off the West Coast of the United States.

Seems to me that if Iran hasn’t done this yet, they might not have the capacity to do it. But it’s certainly troubling. Then again, I think the goal of the MSM is to terrify the American people and spread the word that Trump is endangering us and that Iran is stronger than ever. If he keeps the war up, they’ll say it’s a dangerous quagmire. If he leaves, they’ll say he cut and run before liberating the people. But the goal was always to degrade their missile and nuclear capabilities and kill much of their leadership; that’s already been accomplished. Trump always said regime change was up to the Iranian people.

And the war is apparently still continuing, with Israel and the US determined to keep bombing for at least a few more weeks.

[* Apparently the cardboard part wasn’t real, but the fact that Khamenei was only represented by a photo was true. See this, which also included some great memes.]