Chris Kempshall

I also used a similar argument in 1999 when trying to buy alcohol with a friend whilst underage.

"Suckers" and "losers."

And he’ll mouth words of honour and sacrifice. And he’ll riff and smirk. And then immediately forget about them. In his first term he ended up insulting at least one grieving widow on the phone and couldn’t remember the name of the soldier who’d died. That’s who Trump is. It always has been.

There is no America. There is only Trump. The embodiment of the nation and the regime. And those who die in service of it lose the type of transactional relationship that Trump views the world through. They get nothing for their deaths and he gets something.

You saw it in the pandemic. Trump was fine with his supporters dying from covid. As long as he didn’t die it was fine. He views the military (where he has many supporters) the same way. They’re not dying for America. They’re dying for Trump. And he’ll accept their deaths & hold them in contempt.

I’ve said before but an ongoing aspect found in fascist regimes - and therefore in Trump’s - is the fact that they want their own supporters to die for them. They don’t view it as a noble act but rather as providing a necessary service.

In Trump’s video about the American soldiers who have died you can see the exact moment where he stops reading the script. It’s his ‘that’s the way it is…’ line delivered with a weird riff and half smirk. A man who has always thought dead soldiers are losers who get nothing for dying.

Keir Starmer has the most ridiculous speaking style when he’s trying to address matters of National Importance. It’s full of the types of weird pauses that Blair used to do (but did better) that are seemingly supposed to imply some form of gravitas. Like you’re listening to the wireless in 1939.

Yeah he’s a very simple man - he likes blowing things up, killing people he thinks have disrespected him, and then bragging about it. It’s why he also doesn’t care if American soldiers get killed. He thinks they’re losers and he’s the one actually ‘winning’ the war anyway.

But Trump's lack of strategic planning and the nature of thoss factions mean it's pretty much a guarantee that there is no plan in place for anything beyond 'bombing Iran' and killing its leadership. That's the plan. All of it. There is no thought for the aftermath.

I think this is just more evidence of his lack of self-control and desire to act aggressively against those he perceives to be his enemies. It's also a further sign of the weird factions that exist in and around Trump's court. Some of them are avowed neo-con hawks who have always wanted this.

I will say that I don't believe what is happening in Iran is an attempt by Trump to distract from the Epstein files. I don't think he has the capacity for that sort of joined up strategic thinking and in his own mind he's been 'completely exonerated' so is in the clear.

Success!

Happy new episode day everyone!

Right. And if this is confirmed - what happens next? Civilian populations don’t tend to react well to having their leaders assassinated - even if they are unpopular. Are the Iranians also now justified in trying to stick a missile through Netanyahu’s bedroom window? Where does it end?

The Iraq War at 20: Anniversary Journalism, British Cultural Memory, and the Politics of Closure War anniversaries are important milestones that enable certain understandings of the violent past to be naturalized in the present. This article is the first qualitative analysis of British press c...

Feels like the article by @teachlearnwar.bsky.social and myself on how the press covered the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War is relevant again today…

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism vs. No It Won’t

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

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Cool news - I've been asked by the team at #ELVTR
to teach a second round of my EDITOR IN BOOK PUBLISHING course focused on fiction. A practical course built around what editors *actually do*

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#editorial #publishing
elvtr.com/course/edito...

And, again like with Iraq, what is the fucking plan here? Regime change? It doesn’t work. Not like this. And even if you topple the regime - what do you replace it with? That vacuum will get filled with violence very, very quickly. And it can take years. Look at Syria! Look at Afghanistan.

But you don’t have to be a paid up fan of them to believe that bombing other countries in violation of international law is unacceptable. That killing innocent civilians is not the solution to innocent civilians being killed.

Much like with Iraq in 2003, objecting to this new war in the Middle East will likely get framed by those perpetrating it in terms of ‘you’re defending a murderous regime that only a few weeks ago was murdering protestors’. And firstly - fuck the Iranian regime for murdering innocent people.

I’ve just discovered that the attacks on Iran are part of ‘Operation Epic Fury’. Because of course that’s its name. Because the occupant of the White House and his advisors are pathetic children who view things through a very specific social media edge lord prism.

Oh yeah, that’s true: the US and Israel rarely miss an opportunity…

Beautiful

Ah I do so love it when people sing the classics from 2003.

It’s just under a week until World Book Day, so for those of you with children - you don’t have long to finish making their Beaumont Kin costumes.

Historically something the Cubans have been notoriously chill about.

Never heard of this law before right this second but holy fuck if it does not 100% check out