Category: War

How much will Venezuela cost U.S. taxpayers?

by philg

It seems as though old-style United States is back in Latin America. We’ve removed a leader we don’t like and will install a U.S.-friendly replacement. We aren’t going in like the Romans, though, and expecting to make a profit by taking the new colony’s resources (oil). So how much will we spend on Venezuela over the next ten years? Or can we argue that we can’t resist taking in Venezuelan asylum-seekers, each household of which costs $100,000 per year in welfare, and therefore we will actually save money via intervening, even if we do also give Venezuela $100 billion (enough to fund at least 6 Somali day cares?)?

The new U.S.-picked leader of Venezuela identifies as a woman (Delcy Rodriguez) and we have two additional Venezuelan migrants living in the U.S. One might expect American progressives to be delighted, yet apparently they are not.

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Cloud-AI relationship translated into fighter jets (France-Ukraine)

by philg

The relationship between cloud service companies and AI companies transcribed for military hardware… “France Wants to Build Jet Fighters for Ukraine. Neither Has the Cash.” (WSJ):

Separately, the article says that it will take at least 10 years for these fighters to be produced:

Dassault Aviation, the French aircraft manufacturer of the Rafale, would struggle to produce 100 jet fighters within the next 10 years, said Léo Péria-Peigné, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations. Manufacturing a Rafale takes around two to three years, and the company said last month it still had 233 jets on order that it aimed to deliver over the next five years.

Does this mean that people expect the Russia-Ukraine war to continue for at least 10 more years?

Related:

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Titania McGrath on the Israel-Hamas deal

by philg

From the Islamic Republic of Britain:

Separately, I’m amazed that Donald Trump was able to address the Knesset today. I get jet lag just thinking about a trip to Israel. #NotMyPresident is 79 years old. How does he have the energy?

In case the author is arrested and imprisoned and all of her content memory-holed, a screen shot:

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María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize

by philg

Progressive friends who never previously mentioned María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician, now celebrate her winning a Nobel Peace Prize. I wonder how carefully they’ve researched this lady. First, let’s have a moment of silence for Hugo Chavez, whose premature death robbed him of the Nobel Peace Prize that was his due. Perhaps we can reflect on the words of Noam Chomsky when he met this lion of democracy and peace:”I write about peace and criticize the barriers to peace; that’s easy. What’s harder is to create a better world… and what’s so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela is that I can see how a better world is being created.”

(Collectively, of course, the Venezuelans created such a great world in Venezuela that the Biden-Harris administration decided that 100 percent of Venezuelans were eligible to live in the United States, thus enabling them to replicate their success on a larger scale.)

Let’s see how truly peaceful the heiress to Barack Obama’s Mantle of Peace truly is. An unbiased “news” article from America’s journalists at The Week:

… many have started to point out that the 58-year-old is a strong ally of Israel and openly backs the country’s decision to bomb the largely unarmed civilians of the Gaza Strip. While there is no known evidence to argue that she supported the one-sided attack on the Palestinian civilians, Machado is undoubtedly an ally of Benjamin Netanyahu. In the past, the centrist-right leader had even declared that if she gains power, she will restore diplomatic relations with Israel.

It’s a fact that Israel launched a “one-sided attack on the Palestinian civilians” and this fake Peace laureate somehow supports the attackers rather than the unarmed and Peaceful Gazans.

(The Week’s article is a little confusing, actually. The “civilians” of Gaza are “largely unarmed”. Does that mean that some civilians in Gaza are armed with rockets, machine guns, etc., but are still considered “civilians” because they don’t also have tanks?)

Related:

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White House plan to help Gazans prep for river-to-the-sea liberation

by philg

“Here Is the Full Text of the Gaza Plan Released by the White House” (NYT):

Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough. [Gazans can put 100% of their efforts into military activities because outside capital will fund repairs to all damage done during latest war.]

Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. [The most experienced Gazan fighters will soon be back in the Gazan military.]

Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries. [The next attack against Israeli civilians can be a lot more brutal than the October 7th attack because amnesty will always be available.]

Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the Jan. 19, 2025, agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads. [Gazans can put 100% of their efforts into military activities, have 8 children each, etc. because US and EU taxpayers will fund all of the essentials for daily life.]

A special economic zone will be established with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries. [The Swiss, who last perpetrated a war against neighbors in 1815, are subject to a 39% tariff. Gazans who took and held hostages, on the other hand, will enjoy most favored nation status.]

The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field. This force will be the long-term internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. [Gazans who killed and raped Israeli civilians will now be paid to carry guns around inside Gaza.]

Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. [Gazans can start wars and have a chance in each new war of winning some territory, but unlike for any other group of humans on this planet who’ve ever waged war, there is never a risk of losing any territory.]

Given that the above are the consequences of starting the October 7, 2023 war, why wouldn’t the Gazans rationally rearm and start another war a few years from now? The plan promises a continuation of a fully-funded lifestyle for Gazans: shelter, food, health care, education, etc. With US and EU taxpayers funding all of the day-to-day essentials, Gazans will be able to devote 100 percent of their productive efforts to rearming and planning their next attack.

Loosely related, here’s the kind of pot belly that a resident of Gaza can suffer from after two years of “starvation” and “famine” (Reuters, September 20, 2025):

Also in the NYT, “Tony Blair Emerges as Potential Figure in Postwar Gaza”:

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has emerged as a potential figure in the reconstruction of Gaza.

He has been trying to build support for a plan that would create a Gaza International Transitional Authority, a U.N.-mandated administration that would include a multinational security force to stabilize the war-torn enclave. Now he has emerged as a candidate to head that authority.

Every group of Brown people, in other words, needs a white man as a leader.

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Robot tugboats to repel Greta Thunberg’s selfie flotilla and similar?

by philg

Climate change no longer being an issue, apparently, Greta Thunberg and friends have spent the past month headed for a visit to the noble Gazans via diesel-powered flotilla (“Global Sumud Flotilla”). It’s a strange situation because the flotilla participants seem to have no respect for Palestinian religious and cultural norms, e.g., they permit females to roam the decks of their yachts without wearing hijab. The photo below could perhaps be a prostitute with two clients by Gazan standards:

Israel has established a blockade against its military enemy in Gaza and, therefore, under international law can repel (or sink, if necessary?) any ship that crosses the dashed red line below.

But Israel gets a lot of bad press when it uses standard military procedures. What about robot tugboats that could intercept the selfie yachts and push them out of blockade area? That would deny Greta Thunberg and other diesel-powered climate activists the photo opportunities that they seek. The flotilla folks claim that to be unarmed so they don’t have any means of destroying robot tugs. Robot tugs could be built in different sizes to match up to the different size yachts in the flotilla. They’re intercepting uncooperative vessels so should have a higher top speed than conventional tugboats. The Israelis could start with simple skiffs equipped with modern outboard engines. Since the skiff doesn’t have to hold any cargo or humans it could hold a tremendous amount of fuel for endurance. Surround the skiff with used car tires so as to get some extra points for recycling.

For maximum reliability with minimum fuel consumption and pollution, the Israelis could use Honda’s only V8 engine (350 hp; Mercury makes one with 600 hp if necessary):

Loosely related, Israel has invited the hostile vessels “to dock at the Ashkelon Marina and unload the aid there”, which would certainly be anticlimactic compared to a climate activists-v-robot interaction!

As of September 24, 2025, the yachts had survived 14 attacks by warships and warplanes, without sustaining any damage, and were using their inoperative radios to report a “communications jam” that has rendered their radios inoperative:

See also “Posing with Hamas chief, activist who’s joined Greta on Gaza ‘freedom flotilla'” (Daily Mail):

Grinning as he gives a Churchillian ‘victory’ sign, the spokesman for Greta Thunberg’s Gaza ‘freedom flotilla’ poses with a Hamas chief weeks before setting sail.

Wael Nawar was draped in a scarf emblazoned with the terror group’s emblem as he stood with other pro-Palestinian activists beside Youssef Hamdan, who runs Hamas’s North African operation, during a meeting at its Algerian headquarters in June.

Mr Nawar is listed alongside Swedish campaigner Ms Thunberg as part of the 13-strong ‘steering committee’ orchestrating the Global Sumud Flotilla, which left Spain last week to deliver food and medical aid to Gaza.

Another committee member, political activist Marouan Ben Guettaia, was also a guest of Hamdan a few days after and later posted a picture of the pair sitting in front of a Hamas flag.

A third committee member, Brazilian Thiago Avila, attended Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut in February and praised him as an ‘inspiration’.

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Is it legal for the U.S. to destroy a Tren de Aragua boat in international waters?

by philg

If we accept the White House’s tweet as true, the U.S. military has destroyed a boat, some drugs, and some Tren de Aragua members (before they had a chance to enrich us via immigration):

Even if everything that the White House says is true, how is it legal to do this? We didn’t know for sure that these noble enrichers/merchants were heading to the U.S., right? They could have been going to some other country. Maybe there is some country on this planet where whatever cargo was in the boat was legal to possess. Or maybe the enrichers were going to dump the cargo overboard prior to docking and meeting for margaritas with Maryland Senator Van Hollen?

We were informed that we couldn’t drive an AC-130 up and down the coast of Somalia and destroy pirate vessels from the air, thus ending the Somali pirate industry at a negligible cost. We had to use multi-$billion Navy ships and board the Somali vessels, take the noble future Minneapolis residents into custody, etc. But now we’re allowed to do “Death from Above” in international waters?

I asked ChatGPT “Can a military legally destroy a boat that it knows to be carrying drugs if the boat is in international waters?” and it gives a long answer with the following conclusion:

A military cannot simply destroy a drug-carrying boat in international waters under international law. The lawful course is to seek flag-state consent, board, seize, and possibly scuttle—but not to sink the vessel outright with people or cargo on board. Destruction without consent or imminent threat would generally be illegal.

Maybe part of the answer, which eludes our future AI Overlord, is that the U.S. has refused to sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. We are, literally, lawless (see “Unmoored from the UN: The Struggle to Ratify UNCLOS in the United States”).

Loosely related…

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How does the Gaza Health Ministry operate with no food, building, electricity, or Internet?

by philg

Today’s question is how the Gaza Health Ministry operates. This organization is as authoritative for progressives today as Anthony Fauci was during coronapanic.

We are informed by CNN that Gazans are starving. Maybe if they walk 10 miles they can get a few scraps, but probably they will be shot by Israeli “snipers” if they approach the feeding stations. We are informed by the New York Times and CNN that all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. We are informed that Gaza has no electricity or Internet. So a group of people (the “Ministry”) with no food, no building, and no Internet manages to work together all day every day and produce reliable precise-to-six-digits statistics and press releases. Here’s a recent example from taxpayer-funded PBS… “Over 60,000 Palestinians have died in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry says”:

Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said the death toll has climbed to to 60,034, with another 145,870 people wounded since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. … An additional 14 Palestinians were killed while attempting to access aid near the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund site in central Gaza, according to local hospitals. … Gaza, which has teetered on the brink of famine for two years

A starving double-chinned woman and a starving man (gender assumed based on wearing of abaya/hijab or not) in a yellow shirt with an ample belly lead off in this August 21, 2025 video from the Guardian:

Underneath the video, the journalists quote the ministry that works without an intact building, food for its employees, or Internet yet gathers precise statistics:

On Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said eight more people had died of malnutrition and starvation, raising deaths from such causes to 289 people, including 115 children, since the war started.

From the Islamic Republic of Minneapolis, “Gaza Health Ministry says more than 63,000 Palestinians killed as Israel-Hamas war drags on” (Star Tribune, August 29, via AP):

Gaza Health Ministry says more than 63,000 Palestinians killed as Israel-Hamas war drags on.

But they don’t say where this ministry is located or where its press releases are to be found?

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Support for Hamas among anti-Hamas New Yorkers

by philg

Except for a handful of Deplorables, New Yorkers whom I met recently were 100 percent aligned with Hamas in terms of what they’d like Israel and the Israel Defense Forces to do. At the same time they say that they are “anti-Hamas”. How does it work? Note that most of these folks are non-observant Jews whose principal current religion is expressing hatred for Donald Trump and contempt for Americans in “Red States” (they’re stupid and unproductive and survive only as parasites on the hard workers and heavy taxpayers in Blue States).

The New York Righteous say that, yes, Israel has the right to try to arrest or even kill Hamas fighters, but only if there is no possibility of injuring a civilian or a child. In other words, a Hamas fighter who keeps a child strapped to his chest would be permanently off limits. They accept at face value assertions that Israel is starving the Gazans, not noticing that the moms of the purportedly starved children have double chins. Here’s the most persuasive photo that CNN could find, for example:

One New York Jew in his 60s, despite being a 100 percent loyal Democrat and frequent spontaneous expresser of Trump hatred, seems to have found an area of agreement with Marjorie Taylor Greene of Jewish Space Lasers fame. He believes that Israel knows exactly where each Hamas fighter is located and has weapon systems capable of killing those fighters without harming anyone else. For reasons that aren’t clearly specified, Israel has chosen not to push the buttons in a control room somewhere that would result in the deaths of 100 percent of Hamas-affiliated Gazans. Israel is instead bombing and shelling Gaza for no reason other than Israelis enjoy killing civilians and making the noble Gazans suffer. So… he says that he is “anti-Hamas” but also that he is “pro innocent children” and that the IDF is free to fight Hamas so long as it does so in a way that no other military in the history of the world has managed to fight or win.

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After two years of famine and genocide, cafés in Gaza are “bustling” (BBC)

by philg

Here’s a recent BBC story from a part of the world where, our media informs us, the entirely peaceful population has been subjected to starvation/famine and genocide. The BBC tells us that there was an explosion at “a bustling seaside cafe in Gaza City”:

The article goes on to refer to apparently reliable power and Internet within Gaza: “We were sending reels to each other.” We’ve been informed that all of the hospitals in Gaza were destroyed, but the BBC tells us that people wounded in the café explosion were taken to a hospital and, if necessary, received surgery. The BBC article also tells us that Gazans aren’t afraid to sit right next to Hamas fighters:

In a quiet corner of the cafe overlooking the sea, a Hamas operative, dressed in civilian clothing, arrived at his table, sources told the BBC.

Nobody ran away in fear as soon as the Hamas operative showed up even though the people who were there, interviewed later, said that they recognized him.

Here’s another example of our critical-minded journalists (NBC):

The doctor was “renowned”, but a Google search doesn’t yield any results about his achievements prior to being killed. (Nor is there any source for him having been killed by Israeli fire other than “a Palestinian monitoring group”.)

What is actually known about this person who met a violent end?

Sultan was the director of Indonesian Hospital, one of the largest medical facilities in northern Gaza,

Since Hamas has been running Gaza (after winning a free and fair election, according to Jimmy Carter and the EU), it seems that he was a Hamas-approved manager.

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