The show must go on:
More on the Iran deal – maybe
I continue to be disheartened as news like this comes out. I try to wait for the actual unveiling on Friday – and even after that, to see how it plays out in reality, which is the most important thing of all.
But how can this possibly be reassuring? Is it even correct, though? It’s based on Israeli sources, and I imagine Israel knows quite a bit, but who are those sources and what is their agenda?
Anyway, here’s some of the story:
Newly revealed details of the secretive US-Iran MOU lay out that it would extend the cease-fire to Lebanon, allow Iran to manage the Strait of Hormuz, temporarily waive Iranian oil sanctions and establish a pathway toward a comprehensive peace agreement, Israel’s Channel 12 reported Tuesday.
The framework, which would serve as the basis for broader negotiations between Washington and Tehran, outlines commitments on nuclear issues, sanctions relief, maritime security and the eventual withdrawal of American forces from the region.
Channel 12 is called both mainstream and center-left, but the NY Post reporting the story is on the right.
At any rate, it sounds like the agreement is just an agreement to ease pressure on Iran in order to have some future negotiations. Why? Is this mainly a temporary measure about oil prices?
There are 12 points listed at the article, but the points were revealed by Axios. That doesn’t automatically make them wrong. But we’ve had so many articles and supposed revelations of this type that have turned out to be wrong, and so I refuse to believe the report until the official word comes out.
Trusting Iran on anything seems like a fool’s errand to me, however.
I hate reading articles like that. But my Inbox is bombarded with them, with titles like “worst deal ever.” I remind myself that we still don’t know. But all the reports resemble each other, and so I wonder if that’s because they’re based on the real thing.
News roundup
(1) Trump turned 80 on Sunday. Whatever you may think of him, he’s doing pretty darn well physically for 80. USA Today marks the occasion with an article purporting to say “what happens to your body at 80.” Bodies age at different rates, and we can all observe that quite easily. Well, guess what? That’s what the article says, too. Fancy that.
(2) On Trump’s birthday, there was this event at the White House, although it wasn’t billed as a birthday celebration for Trump but rather one for the US:
Mixed martial arts fighters squared off on the White House South Lawn for UFC Freedom 250, culminating in a main card fight between Georgian-Spanish Ilia Topuria and American Justin Gaethje for the undisputed UFC lightweight championship. Gaethje defeated Topuria. The main card streamed on Paramount+, which is owned by Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS News.
Despite the threat of storms, thousands turned out to watch the fights, which took place in an eight-sided cage beneath a massive canopy known as “The Claw.”
Not my cup of tea. But I heard commentary saying the matches were very exciting. The left was not happy about any of this. Trump delights in confounding snobs.
(3) Hillary Clinton blames Biden for the 2024 debacle. I have to say she’s not wrong, but it wasn’t Biden alone – he had plenty of help, and Kamala Harris was a terrible choice as his replacement:
Hillary Clinton said former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection in 2024 was a “terrible mistake,” arguing that Democrats could have defeated President Donald Trump had he stepped aside earlier and opened the field to a competitive primary.
Maybe Hillary thought she would have won that primary.
But the Democrats had the chance to “open the field” to a competitive nomination process; not a primary, but a convention. They chose a Kamala Harris coronation instead.
(4) Ukraine has fully autonomous killing drones.
(5)Terrible crash of B-52 Stratofortress kills 8 at Edwards Air Force Base:
This sad loss at Edwards Air Force Base stands as a heavy reminder of the risks carried by those who defend our nation.
God bless the eight crew members who were dedicated to duty.
It turns out the SPLC was in bed with Nazis – literally
Well, allegedly anyway:
A top Southern Poverty Law Center official is accused of helping funnel $1.2 million in donor money to an informant in the National Alliance white supremacist group — who was also allegedly her lover.
The Department of Justice filed a superseding indictment against the SPLC accusing it of funneling donor cash to hate groups they were then telling donors they were fighting. …
Based on the details in the June 2 superseding indictment, “Employee-2” is believed to be Heidi Beirich, a 58-year-old fascism expert who was the director of intelligence at the Alabama-based anti-extremism nonprofit between 2012 and 2019.
The indictment alleges Beirich was very close to the informant known only as “F-9” who “infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization National Alliance.”
“[Beirich] was also in a romantic relationship with F-9. During this relationship, [Beirich] and F-9 shared a house and two bank accounts,” the indictment alleges.
It’s been clear for a long time that the SPLC is nothing more than an effective tool to spread anti-right propaganda by classifying even benign and mainstream people and organizations on the right as far-right hate groups. That allowed the left and MSM to refer to those groups that way, citing the SPLC as though it was some sort of objective judge. The SPLC traded on its name, among other things, which was a form of virtue-signaling: Southern Poverty Law Center.
But what we only learned fairly recently is that the SPLC was actively stirring up extremist racist groups and paying them to cause trouble, in the form of “informants” who were highly active in racist endeavors. And now we have this cozy couple, which at this point comes as no surprise.
Open thread 6/16/2026
Have people gone stark raving mad?:
Hating Elon Musk; hating Boomers
Though shalt not covet is one of the Ten Commandments. When I was young I didn’t quite understand what “covet” meant, although later on it was explained to me that it had to do with envy. It didn’t occur to me yet that the prohibition had political repercussions, although as I’ve gotten older I realize that of course it does.
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
Now that Elon Musk has become a trillionaire, the already-virulent hatred for him has increased, and people aren’t shy about showing it. For example, we have this from Hasan Piker:
Trying desperately to sound profound, the current darling of the Left [Hasan Piker] began: “Meritocracy is a lie. Lying is OP [gamer slang for “overpowered”]. And money is fake. This story that we are watching unfold in front of us is a great example of all three of those classic Hasan Minhaj tropes that I advance over and over again. Okay?
He continued:
Elon Musk is a f***ing failure and yet, in spite of his failures, because he lucked into a, uh, initial — because he happened to be at the right place at the right time, he has failed upwards with his endless wealth. He’s a horrible person, an unbelievably insecure person, and yet he’s the richest person on the planet. Right? We know he doesn’t f***ing work hard because he tweets all the goddamn time.
This is what passes for thought these days from an “influencer.” Piker himself benefited from nepotism, so it’s especially ironic that he’s down on Musk as just happening “to be at the right place at the right time,” as though it was pure chance and there was no thought or agency involved at all.
This type of thinking seems to appeal to a lot of people, though. Some of those people also hate Boomers for living so long and not giving them their stuff quickly enough; I wrote about that sentiment in this previous post, and to a lesser extent in this one.
It’s hard to overestimate the rage towards Boomers felt and expressed by a lot of commenters (or bots? or paid shills?) online. You can see some if it in the comments to this piece at City Journal, which refers a book by Yale law professor Samuel Moyn entitled Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth – and What to Do About It. Although City Journal’s readers are generally somewhat to the right (at least, that’s been my impression in the past), the article is sometimes favorable to Moyn’s book although it critiques it as well.
The comments there are mixed; some defend the Boomers and there are also examples of the Boomer-hate I’ve been talking about. See this, for example:
So you trust the boomers who bequeathed the world yawning income inequality and the housing crisis more than the generation tasked with fixing it?
You shall know them by their fruits and the boomer fruit has been poisonous.
They are the first generation in the history of the world whose children have shorter lifespans than they do.
They are destroyers of the world, both literally and figuratively.
They are the weak men who create hard times.
Is this a real person? Hard to say, but I see such sentiments often online. Here’s a typical response from a Boomer:
Boomer here.
You whiners just can’t wait to put another socialist government in power; one that, once all of us Boomers are dead, will rob you of the trillions in hard-earned wealth we’re leaving you.
We worked for our money. Try it, you might like it — and it will be a new experience for many of you.
In the meantime, quit whining about what we Boomers have. Get your own. You can begin by not being silly, wasteful people. Starbucks and designer foods have never been necessary. Neither is a 60″ TV screen.
I did a search on whether Boomers actually had more wealth than previous senior generations. Here’s Google AI’s reply, for what it’s worth:
The Numbers: The typical (median) household headed by a Baby Boomer boasts a net worth of $432,200 (in 2024 dollars). In contrast, households headed by older adults in 2001 (Silent Generation) had a median wealth of $335,900, and those in 1983 (Greatest Generation) had $185,300 in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.Historical Luck: Boomers entered the housing and equity markets just before two massive, 40-year asset appreciation cycles. They purchased homes at younger ages and significantly lower prices than younger generations, allowing them to ride decades of compounding real estate and stock market growth.
Historical Luck: Boomers entered the housing and equity markets just before two massive, 40-year asset appreciation cycles. They purchased homes at younger ages and significantly lower prices than younger generations, allowing them to ride decades of compounding real estate and stock market growth.
The Education Divide: While college-educated Boomers possess vastly higher wealth than previous generations, Boomers without a college degree have median net worths similar to, or even lower than, their predecessors of the same education level.
Unequal Distribution: The “wealthiest generation” title is heavily skewed by the top echelons. The top 10% of Boomer households control the lion’s share of the generation’s collective wealth.
One of the main articles cited for some of those statistics is this from Pew
Iran now, Iran then
You can read all about it – supposedly. The most common point of view is that the Iran Deal which Trump has negotiated is the worst thing ever. Some say no, it’s not; it’s okay although not fabulous. Trump himself hypes it to the skies, of course.
Take your pick, because at the moment we simply don’t know.
As I wrote over the weekend, I have a bad feeling about this deal. But I freely admit I simply don’t have enough reliable information to know if that feeling of foreboding is based on anything other than the present uncertainty and my own tendency to pessimism.
So I’ve decided to re-post something I wrote in June of 2008 – back when Bush was still president – and recently rediscovered. The rest of this post consists of that essay, which you can also find here. It was called: “The problem of pre-emptive strikes against evil empires: how to deal with Iran?” Note the question mark.
Here’s the post:
Michael Ledeen writes in the WSJ about the problem the Allies had in recognizing, taking seriously, and then mobilizing against the danger represented by the Nazis prior to WWII.
He likens this inaction to the current muddled response of the West to Iran, and locates the problem in our presumption that people and regimes are generally the same (like us, that is), are basically good rather than evil, that anti-Semitism still thrives, and that there is a tendency towards inertia and inaction in democracies.
Although I certainly think Ledeen’s points are well taken, I think he’s leaving out some important factors that also militate against the West doing anything against Iran until some unequivocal and terrible step is taken by that country. The problem is that we don’t see many good options against Iran. Continue reading →
Open thread 6/15/2026
Today’s Iran news
Yesterday I wrote this about rumors of a deal with Iran close to completion. There were five points involved, and I remarked:
It’s a nice wishlist, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
And then what? If a Democrat gets elected president, will everything go out the window? Isn’t that what the Iranian regime – which plays the long game – is counting on? How would the Trump administration be able to guarantee a deal would last long enough to matter? I don’t think they’re unaware of the problem. But I hope they’re very creative about the solution.
Then again, the deal may fall through again, and the war resume.
Today Trump says it will happen tomorrow:
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 13, 2026
Is Trump a chump or a wily fox? Lucy, football? Obama-deal lite? Something that will last and actually mean something?
I have a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about this. I don’t think the current leaders of Iran can be trusted, and it feels as though this gives them a reprieve and that Trump has been played. Then again, I don’t know. I really, really, really don’t know, and people who say they do are wrong – unless they are on the inside, and maybe not even then.
I think it will be a while before this plays out and we can even being to tell what it means, but I am filled with trepidation at the moment.
The leader of Tren de Aragua is no more
At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth. Before I returned to office, Joe Biden opened our Southern Border to millions of Illegal Criminals, and allowed this foreign army to rape, maim, and murder American Citizens with total impunity. During my Campaign, I pledged to expel these monsters from our Country, and bring Justice to the families of those they slaughtered, including the precious 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, 22-year-old Laken Reilly, and countless other beautiful souls. With this action, the United States Military has brought retribution for them, their families, and their loved ones. Early in my Administration, I delivered on my promise to designate Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, deport thousands of evil criminals, and wage war against the Cartels, who have long been waging war against our Citizens, while weak leaders left America helpless and defensive. This action was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.
Several things are coming together here: the changes in Venezuela, and the designating of Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization. Venezuela was active in this operation:
The strike happened earlier this week alongside Venezuelan security forces, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.
He did not give a specific date, but said the strike targeted a compound housing Tren founder and leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero. …
“We extend our gratitude to the Venezuelan security forces for their support to the successful joint operation against a Tren de Aragua compound that resulted in the death of the narco-terrorist organization’s leader,” said Gen. Francis L. Donovan, head of US Southern Command.
“Guerrero was a wanted fugitive charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with ordering, directing, and facilitating acts of terrorism and violence in the United States,” he said.
So much has been going on lately that it’s easy to forget the developments in Venezuela that began with the arrest of Maduro.
Enoch Powell again: on how third-world immigration to Britain got going
Yesterday I mentioned that I was looking for a video of Enoch Powell explaining the start of substantial third-world immigration to Britain. This isn’t the video I was looking for, but it’s similar. A bonus in this one is hearing how British-y William F. Buckley’s speaking style is. In some ways this clip, made in 1969, seems archaic – even to me.
This first clip is two minutes long:
This second clip is about three and a half minutes long
That’s from 1969, and a lot has happened since then, as you might imagine. Here’s a short summary:
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the former territories of the British Empire and the member states of the EU and EFTA. Since the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, migration from countries outside the European Economic Area has dominated immigration to the UK. The British Nationality Act 1948 granted residency rights to all colonial subjects, approximately 800 million, enabling mass post-war immigration. The Commonwealth Immigrants Acts (1962, 1968) and Immigration Act 1971 rescinded these rights by introducing work vouchers and ancestral requirements that favoured those with parent or grandparent to have been born in the UK. The British Nationality Act 1981 abolished the 1948 citizenship status.
Since the United Kingdom acceded to the European Communities in the 1970s and the creation of the European Union in the early 1990s, people have migrated from member states of the European Union, exercising one of the European Union’s Four Freedoms. Migration to and from Central and Eastern Europe increased since 2004, following the accession of eight Central and Eastern European states to the European Union. Following the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020 at 11 pm GMT, this freedom of movement ceased. Citizens of EEA+CH member states no longer had an automatic right to move to or reside permanently in the UK without a visa. A smaller number have come as illegal immigrants, many of which have claimed asylum. …
The UK Government can also grant settlement to foreign nationals, which confers on them indefinite leave to remain in the UK, without granting them British citizenship. Grants of settlement are made on the basis of various factors, including employment, family formation and reunification, and asylum …
Long-term net migration is estimated to have reached a record high of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023, with immigration at 1,469,000 and emigration at 525,000. According to the Office for National Statistics’ provisional estimate, released November 2025, long-term net migration in the year ending June 2025 was +204,000 … Total immigration was 898,000: non-EEA+CH nationals accounted for 75% of total immigration (670,000), British nationals comprised 16% (143,000), and EEA+CH nationals constituted 9% (85,000). The top three nationalities from non-EU+ countries immigrating on work-related visas were Indian, Pakistani, and Nigerian.
It’s complicated, to say the least.
David Hockney dies at 88
David Hockney has died at the age of 88:
Over a seven-decade career, Hockney explored and reimagined classical portraiture, landscape painting and pop art, working in painting, collage, photography and digital drawing.
Hockney was born in the north of England but lived much of his life in Southern California, making its sun-drenched suburban views a major motif. …
Historian Simon Schama said it’s no mystery why the appeal of his work endures.
“His work is admired — loved is not too strong a word — by the millions who, worldwide, flock to see it because it presupposes an expectation of pleasure,” Schama wrote in an essay accompanying a 2025 Hockney exhibition in Paris.
I was not a big Hockney fan, but his work seemed pleasant enough. However, having lots of friends and in-laws in Southern California, I was and I remain exceptionally familiar with those “sun-drenched suburban views” in real life.
But I must say that this quote from that article endears Hockney to me:
In 2019, he moved to Normandy, where during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown he produced joyous iPad drawings of springtime for his friends. His message — “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” — was emblazoned in neon across the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris when it hosted a huge Hockney exhibition that opened in April 2025.
RIP.