Jerry Boyle

“The peace of the dead is dearer than gold, no one can rob you.” — Jeffers

Judging by the head count, I’m guessing they’d prefer Larijani as the devil they know. But that’s betting on two wild cards, one institutional, the other personal.
It’s risky af, odds aren’t good.
It’s why the use of force should be constrained.

Screenshot of front page. SUN TIMES MARCH 1 2026 KHAMENEI KILLED Iran's supreme leader is dead following major attack by U.S. and Israeli forces a COMPLETE COVERAGE, PAGES 28-11 IN CHICAGO: PROTESTERS CONDEMN ATTACK: WAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION

The Head Of State Doctrine, making it a crime to kill a head of state, is founded upon ruthless pragmatism, not morality. Better the devil you know. . .

My Irish eyes trick me, make me read ‘BRITISH’ for ‘BRUTISH” 😜

“The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediated.”
— Adorno

Schumer looking asleep/dead. “If Chuck Schumer were alive this attack on Iran wouldn’t have happened.”

Be careful what you wish for. This choice should be up to the Iranian people, not the US government, which has its own agenda.

People wore paper bags over their heads at protests so they wouldn’t get ID’d and attacked, or their families back home tortured.
You’d better believe I supported them.
But, though leftists and bourgeoisie provoked the revolution, religious reactionaries ended up in charge.

You never know what will come of regime change. I was young, but remember the stream of leftist refugees we got under the Shah. Savak, the secret police, followed them here with permission from the US government.

Trump gets that. Hit ‘em from every angle, all at once. See what sticks, and keep hitting. Swarms are stronger than flying columns.

It’s not an either/or. It’s both, and lots of other things too.

“No, you’re right. US military doesn’t belong in that part of the world. That’s what we’re for.”

So I did a sanity check, made a call to a guy who was retired Israeli military: “Everyone’s saying invading Iraq is illegal and immoral, but I’m saying it’s stupid. Am I fuckin’ nuts?”

I think of the run-up to the Iraq War. Everyone was denouncing it as illegal and wrong, and they were right. But the bad guys take legal and moral constraints as dares to be taken.
So I was denouncing the war as stupid. But that registered with no one, right or left. I doubted my sanity.

Before those Nazis got tried at Nuremberg, they lost a war they never should have started, and their people suffered horribly for it. Stupid.

Operation Epic Furry

The thing about waging an aggressive war is that it’s not just illegal; it’s stupid, self-defeating. We have multiple recent examples of that.

Protest flyer. Image of Iran in red. EMERGENCY PROTEST TODAY HANDS OFF IRAN TODAY, SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 28, 5PM FEDERAL PLAZA | 230 S DEARBORN ST Logos of many co-sponsors.

Chicago action today. I’ve opposed the Iranian regime since it was established, but the US military is absolutely the wrong solution to that problem.

the congressional authorization thing is bad but honestly for me the whole "the crime of aggression is the supreme international crime" thing is what keeps me up at night

Screenshot of NYT headline. Justice Thomas Bemoans Incivility as Security Prompts Cancellation of In-Person Speech The justice participated remotely in a closed-door session of a legal conference, a reminder of the heightened threats facing jurists in recent years.

Well, cry me a fucking river, Clarence. I might feel sorry for you if the goon squads you authorized fire pepper bullets, and hurl gas and concussion grenades, at you, like they have at me and my neighbors. Civility is a toxic value.

Updated Monopoly board corner square, with person blowing whistle, holding sign: “Chinga La Migra” DON’T GO TO JAIL

Sure, pass Go if you wish, and collect $200 from George Soros. 😂

I don’t think I was responsible for dropping the editorials. I think lots of folks pointed out the flagrant disconnect.
The old school editorial board needs to retire before the paper editorializes again.

More recently, that paper, augmented by the public radio station, did a phenomenal job of covering DNC ‘24 for a mainstream outlet.
But their editorials on DNC ‘25 sucked, like they weren’t even reading their own reporting.
I said exactly that when they asked for my review of their coverage.

In Chicago our local public radio station took over one of our failing newspapers. It’s improved the quality of the paper though, yeah — those norms.
They no longer do editorials, for instance. But their endorsements kind of sucked before, so 🤷‍♂️

Yeah, and even when you’re out on bond your liberty is restricted.

But I’m an Irish Republican, so I see nothing worthwhile in the Anglophone punishment system.

I’d go further, say the process is inherently abusive. It’s working as designed.

Monopoly square with cop blowing whistle. GO TO JAIL.

We’ve flipped the script. Now the whistle means: “DON’T GO TO JAIL.”

It was cops who used to blow whistles. We hijacked their discarded trope.