Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 6. Two things greater than all things are edition.

It's been a while since we hand an entry in this category as the rank stupidity of King Donny has put the entire Middle East at war while he simultaneously declares its not a war, it is a war, and that we've won and haven't won, while asking for help from Allies and declaring we need no help. 

That's what happens when the formerly most powerful nation in the world elects a demented narcissist octengenarian to office.

While the rest of the world watches the United States circle the drain, the following has been going on.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom

Matthew, Chapter 24.

When spring-time flushes the desert grass,

Our kafilas wind through the Khyber Pass.

Lean are the camels but fat the frails,

Light are the purses but heavy the bales,

As the snowbound trade of the North comes down

To the market-square of Peshawur town. 

In a turquoise twilight, crisp and chill,

A kafila camped at the foot of the hill.

Then blue smoke-haze of the cooking rose,

And tent-peg answered to hammer-nose;

And the picketed ponies, shag and wild,

Strained at their ropes as the feed was piled;

And the bubbling camels beside the load

Sprawled for a furlong adown the road;

And the Persian pussy-cats, brought for sale,

Spat at the dogs from the camel-bale;

And the tribesmen bellowed to hasten the food;

And the camp-fires twinkled by Fort Jumrood;

And there fled on the wings of the gathering dusk

A savour of camels and carpets and musk,

A murmur of voices, a reek of smoke,

To tell us the trade of the Khyber woke. 

2 

The lid of the flesh-pot chattered high,

The knives were whetted and—then came I

To Mahbub Ali the muleteer,

Patching his bridles and counting his gear,

Crammed with the gossip of half a year.

But Mahbub Ali the kindly said,

“Better is speech when the belly is fed.”

So we plunged the hand to the mid-wrist deep

In a cinnamon stew of the fat-tailed sheep,

And he who never hath tasted the food,

By Allah! he knoweth not bad from good.

We cleansed our beards of the mutton-grease,

We lay on the mats and were filled with peace,

And the talk slid north, and the talk slid south,

With the sliding puffs from the hookah-mouth. 

3 

Four things greater than all things are,—

Women and Horses and Power and War.

We spake of them all, but the last the most,

For I sought a word of a Russian post,

Of a shifty promise, an unsheathed sword

And a gray-coat guard on the Helmund ford.

Then Mahbub Ali lowered his eyes

In the fashion of one who is weaving lies.

Quoth he: “Of the Russians who can say?

“When the night is gathering all is gray.

“But we look that the gloom of the night shall die

“In the morning flush of a blood-red sky.

“Friend of my heart, is it meet or wise

“To warn a King of his enemies?

“We know what Heaven or Hell may bring,

“But no man knoweth the mind of the King.

“That unsought counsel is cursed of God

“Attesteth the story of Wali Dad. 

4 

“His sire was leaky of tongue and pen,

“His dam was a clucking Khuttuck hen;

“And the colt bred close to the vice of each,

“For he carried the curse of an unstanched speech.

“Therewith madness—so that he sought

“The favour of kings at the Kabul court;

“And travelled, in hope of honour, far

“To the line where the gray-coat squadrons are.

“There have I journeyed too—but I

“Saw naught, said naught, and—did not die!

“He hearked to rumour, and snatched at a breath

“Of ‘this one knoweth’ and ‘that one saith’,—

“Legends that ran from mouth to mouth

“Of a gray-coat coming, and sack of the South.

“These have I also heard—they pass

“With each new spring and the winter grass. 

5 

“Hot-foot southward, forgotten of God,

“Back to the city ran Wali Dad,

“Even to Kabul—in full durbar

“The King held talk with his Chief in War.

“Into the press of the crowd he broke,

“And what he had heard of the coming spoke.

“Then Gholam Hyder, the Red Chief, smiled,

“As a mother might on a babbling child;

“But those who would laugh restrained their breath,

“When the face of the King showed dark as death.

“Evil it is in full durbar

“To cry to a ruler of gathering war!

“Slowly he led to a peach-tree small,

“That grew by a cleft of the city wall.

“And he said to the boy: ‘They shall praise thy zeal

“So long as the red spurt follows the steel.

“And the Russ is upon us even now?

“Great is thy prudence—await them, thou.

“Watch from the tree. Thou art young and strong,

“Surely thy vigil is not for long.

“The Russ is upon us, thy clamour ran?

“Surely an hour shall bring their van.

“Shout aloud that my men may hear.’ 

6 

“Friend of my heart, is it meet or wise

“To warn a King of his enemies?

“A guard was set that he might not flee—

“A score of bayonets ringed the tree.

“The peach-bloom fell in showers of snow,

“When he shook at his death as he looked below.

“By the power of God, who alone is great,

“Till the seventh day he fought with his fate.

“Then madness took him, and men declare

“He mowed in the branches as ape and bear,

“And last as a sloth, ere his body failed,

“And he hung as a bat in the forks, and wailed,

“And sleep the cord of his hands untied,

“And he fell, and was caught on the points and died. 

7 

“Heart of my heart, is it meet or wise

“To warn a King of his enemies?

“We know what Heaven or Hell may bring,

“But no man knoweth the mind of the King.

“Of the gray-coat coming who can say?

“When the night is gathering all is gray.

“Two things greater than all things are,

“The first is Love, and the second War.

“And since we know not how War may prove,

“Heart of my heart, let us talk of Love!”

 Rudyard Kipling, Ballad of the King's jest

March 23, 2026.

Pakistan v. Afghanistan

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fighting a border war.  

March 28, 2026

Mexican Drug Wars

Self defense militias are forming in the cartel ridden portion of Mexico, armed with military style semi automatic rifles, AKs and ARs, smuggled in from the US.

This actually provides a good example of the utility of something like the 2nd Amendment.  Mexican civilians are having to illegally arm themselves, which in the US they would not have to.

Russo Ukrainian War

If we had to be fighting a war, we should have been fighting this one.  But then, Donald Trump loves Vlad Putin.

Ukraine Is Starting To Wage Systems Warfare

The US Might Consider Paying Attention

April 6, 2026

Sudanese civil war

April 21, 2026

Russia is losing more men per month in Ukraine than it can recruit.

This war has seemingly been forgotten in the US, but then the US is now an aggressor nation as well.

April 30, 2026

A second U.S. Ambassador has resigned over the embarrassing American conduct towards the embattled country.

Donald Trump, whose declared that the US has won the war its losing against Iran, declared that Ukraine lost the war its winning against Russia.

Trump repeatedly shows himself to be one of Putin's best friends.

Ukraine destroyed a Russian oil facility in a major long range drone attack and followed it up with a second drone attack yesterday on a different facility.

Last edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2026. Part 5. Trump's forever war. King Donald's War, Part 1.

Labels: Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, King Donald's War, The Second Trump Administration, United States and Israel v. Iran, War, Wars and rumors of wars

Sunday, March 31, 1946. Arresting Nazis, Russia pays up, you have to wonder about Дональд, Field Marshall Gort passes.

7,000 Allied soldiers served warrants on Nazi officials.  Ausgezeichnet!

The first Greek elections since 1936 took place, with the Communist Party of Greece refusing to participate.  

Russia, as a political subdivision of the USSR, paid its U.N. dues of $1,725,000, under the thesis that the USSR had multiple representation in the UN.

Trump would probably support an effort of Russia not to pay, which was feared at the time, sending the leader of the nation a Я люблю тебя, Дональд note, like he does in an implied way to the current leader of Russia constantly.

What's up with that?

Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort became yet another World War Two senior officer to die following the war, albeit his death was due to liver cancer.

He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War One.

Last edition:

Monday, January 14, 1946. Wartime and Post War foodstuffs.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Army, Cartoons, Iran, J.R. Williams, Mountain Troops, Personalities, The Cold War, U.S. Navy, United States, USSR, World War Two

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 114th Edition. The Armed Citizen and ICE. He never served but they did. Geographically ignorant. He's demented. Canada comes to the US's aid. . . again.

Trump Tweet.  My prediction is that gun control is coming for the very reasons that the NRA always warned us about, and the NRA is going to roll over like a pet dog. (Note, this later proved to be a bogus tweet, but Trump said things that were relatively close to it).

Killed while carrying, you don't need that gun after all.

For years and years the National Rifle Association warned us about "jack booted thugs" working for the Federal government.

It also told us that part of the reason we needed a Second Amendment was to protect ourselves against a  repressive government.  It runs a column on its site every couple of days extolling the virtues of being an "armed citizen".

The Armed Citizen® Jan. 19, 2026

Yesterday a Border Patrol Agent in Minneapolis took offense, apparently, along with another officer to Alex Jeffrey Pretti filming their activities.  They started pushing people around and pepper spraying, actions which with municipal police forces would get the department and the officers sued.  They wrestled Pretti to the ground.

He was a permitted concealed carry holder, and he was carrying a concealed handgun.  According to one news source, the officers had secured his handgun before shooting him, which they did.

Apparently, once again, more than one shot was fired.  Apparently, ten shots were fired.

Ten.

I know what the defenses are going to be and what is going to be claimed.  Videos are always a bit difficult to discern and so we really don't know what the officers saw.  Here's what a witnesses affidavit states:

I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting.

On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value.

I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE.

I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on.

I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle."

It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground.

I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack.

I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video.

An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk.

The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun.

Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.

Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes.

The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.

14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.

15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1.

16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground.

17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.

18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.

What we do know is what the NRA told its members, like me, is now revealed to be complete crap.  Where are the outcries from firearms permit holders (and I am one).  I don't blame Pretti for being armed when this group of Brownshirts is around.

The lesson is clear.  Interfere with ICE at the risk of being beat up or killed.

And the message from the defenders of freedom on the right wing are clear.  They never meant what they said, or they'd be outraged by the gunning down of a man who was legally carrying.

For years I've been warning that the result of the NRA's slavish support for Trump would be an irony, the Trump Administration will come after legal gun owners.  It's starting:

Peaceful protesters do not have 9-millimeter weapons with two extra magazines.

Rep Van Drew, New Jersey.  There you have it. What used to be a position of the left.  You don't really need that gun.

It's only one step to, you don't need that gun, give it to me.

And the NRA is just going to stand there and do nothing whatsoever.  They've simply become a fundraising branch of MAGA.

I'm not, I'll note, the only one who holds this view.  After I first posted this I came across this:

Exercising Your 2nd Amendment Rights Is Not A Death Sentence

ICE just executed an American in Minneapolis for legally exercising his Constitutional rights

In that article, Siler states:

The shooting is troublingly reminiscent of the 2016 murder of Philando Castile—a black man—who was murdered by police in Minnesota for exercising his Second Amendment rights. During a routine traffic stop Castile, who also possessed a valid Permit to Carry, informed the police officer that he was in possession of a firearm. The officer instructed Castile not to reach for that firearm, to which he responded, “I’m not.” The officer then fired seven shots at point blank range, hitting Castile five times.

In the wake of Castile’s murder, so-called “gun rights” organizations like the National Rifle Association failed to issue any substantial statement, or to call for any changes to police training, procedures, or similar. As of the time of writing, the NRA has yet to issue any statement about this execution.

I’ve been making the point for years that the real purpose of so called, “gun rights” organizations like the NRA has nothing to do with gun rights, but is instead to radicalize low-information Americans into voting for tax cuts for billionaires using guns as a nexus of radicalization and disinformation. The NRA’s language has nothing to do with its actions.

Take, for instance, this commercial which sets out to recruit members for the NRA. It expressly argues that immigrants need to own guns in order to defend against torture, assassination, and, “hanging the people in the streets.”

Well, NRA, masked government thugs are executing law-abiding Americans in the streets, in broad daylight, in front of cameras. And they say they’re doing that because we’re exercising our Constitutional right to self-defense. Where are you?

FWIW, if I went anywhere near one of these protests, I'd be carrying.

And make no mistake. We're about to get massive gun control. The Dear Leader has decreed that only criminals carry guns in the street.

The coffins of Danish troops who died in Afghanistan following the US invocation of Article 5.

The man with no service slanders our allies.

Following the entire demented embarrassing episode over Greenland, Дональд Трамп has had an entire series of demented rages.  I use the term "demented" here advisedly.  

Donald Trump was of military age, and a graduate from a military school, during the Vietnam War.

Trump was initially classified as 1-A in 1966.  He received four educational deferments during the war, the chickenshit policy of the draft at the time that let the upper class and middle class get a bit of a free ride to avoid the draft.  In 1968 he was given a one year medical deferment for a bone spur.  In 1969 he received a high lottery number, making it unlikely that he'd be called.

The real question is the bone spur item, and whether he really had one or not.  He was, reportedly, in pretty good shape back then.

Trump has a track record of insulting service members, and it's pretty clear, in spite of what he's said this term in office, that he basically regards them as losers.  And that comports with his world view, where the only people that matter are the rich. Rich people don't join the service often, although there are exceptions.

The Трамп rages this time insulted NATO and claimed that NATO had never done anything for the US. This brought an immediate rebuke from Denmark and the UK.  Трамп  tried to then say that sure, they'd sent troops, to Afghanistan when we invoked Article 5, but they'd stayed behind the lines a ways.

What a hugely ironic statement for a man who stayed so far behind the lines, he wasn't in the same country as the lines.

He's now apologized to the UK.

The man is an idiot.

FWIW, our NATO allies fully supported us in Afghanistan.  Many of the same nations supported us in Iraq, twice.  In the Vietnam War, the one that Дональд didn't go to, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea sent ground troops.  Spain sent medical troops. Canada sent a hospital ship.

A meme only an ignoramus could post.

Penguin stupidity

Трамп is still smarking overy his humiliation over Greenland.  The man who wrote the "art of the deal" appears to have secured the exact same deal we had in the 1950s.  That's some negotiating.

Anyhow, a hallmark of the Трамп  administration is the use of social media, and this was released.

Penguins don't live in the Arctic.  Somebody in the Trump administration is do dumb not to know that.

Nonetheless, the members of the Administration stood right up to be counted in the ranks of morons and all posted their own penguin themed memes, making the entire administration look stupid to anyone with an education, and the entire country look stupid to people who live elsewhere.  A really clever retort about coveting Austria (which so far Trump hasn't) is here:

It's gone on too long

Anyone who eyes to see knows that Trump's mental status is rocketing into oblivion.  Why does Congress and the Cabinet allow this madman to continue to be in office.

Well, the Cabinet you frankly can't expect much out of.  Probably only Rubio is ready to flip the 25th Amendment switch, and he's been invisible recently.  Scott Bessent tends to get sent instead, and always appears scared.

Congress could do something, but Republicans just can't seem to do so, so afraid of the aging senile man are they.

Helping after being insulted.

Canadian electrical service companies are sending linemen into the US to repair storm damage.

This after the demented clown in the White House says Canada (which has defeated the US twice in war, I'd note) wouldn't exist bur for the U.S.

Being neighborly is a Canadian thing.  It used to be a U.S. thing, but right now being a complete asshole is a U.S. thing.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 113th Edition. Some things you aren't hearing much about right now and some things that require explanation that we're not getting. The Venezuelan Distraction Edition.

Labels: Donald Trump, Economics, Epstein Scandal, Espionage, Greenland, Harry Dexter White, Judaism, Russo Ukrainian War, Stephen Miller, United States v. Venezuela, Vladimir Putin, Weather, Zeitgeist

Donald Trump is a Russian Asset. Дональд Трамп — агент России.

 

There is utterly no doubt, whatsoever.

Nor is there any doubt that Trump is a betrayer of American values, and an enemy of the best of Western values.

Дональд Трамп — агент России.  Дональд  did not help the Russian bear take Ukraine, although he sure could help Ukraine defend itself more.  No, what the real question is, is why do so many of his actions help the Russians.  The horrific demands on Denmark for Greenald are a prime example.

The only question is whether is because he sympathizes with the Russians, or perhaps Putin, naturally, or if his collaboration with underlying Russian goals is accidental as he's an ignorant demented open vessel to 19th Century views, or if they have something on him.

We don't know.

We do know that he's betraying the nation's values.  Indeed, he's betraying the nation itself.

The only question is why.