The word "baseball" gets thrown around a lot these days. Why would anyone do that?

Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Laying Off Staff Following Trump Funding Cuts
June 26, 2025

□ [“A Weakened and Tired Looking Ayatollah Khamenei Declares Victory Over US and Israel"]

I see a couple of issues with this, starting with the fact that we simply have no way to trust any reports.  It's not even about news from the war always being wrong or at least incomplete.  We can't trust the media reporting the news, we can't trust the sources providing it, we can't trust the government.  Furthermore, we can't trust Iran or the ayatollah, and even if we could, we don't speak Persian so we'd have to rely on translators.

For that matter, given the recent thoughts about about our leaders having an impersonator, that could apply to Iran too.  We'd have even less reason to know why they're doing such a thing.  Is Khamenei dead?  Injured?  Is he being replaced by one of the factions or does the entire Iranian government know they're faking this but it's more important that they appear strong?

So, given all of that, this could be a sign that the regime is weakening.  I just don't think the ayatollah would be all that used to wartime requirements.  The military forces have to prepare for war and get through it on a daily basis, religious leaders don't.  Looking it up, Iran really hasn't been part of a war on their home turf in a long time.  There are rebellions and border disputes, but it doesn't look like they've had any real conflict since Saddam Hussein invaded and that was just after the mullahs took over.

So if this really is Khamenei, he's probably in major shock after what he's just been through.  The soldiers guarding him are probably in more normal condition because they've been through training.  Even the political leaders are probably in better shape because they had to keep track of what Iran was doing to others.  A lot of their buddies may have suddenly died but they can turn to the ayatollah for inspiration.  And this is what they get.

So the ayatollah is weakened, the politicians have suffered a major defeat, the military can't do much about it and they don't even have nukes to retaliate.  Iran's allies, particularly Russia and China, have found something better to do and the Muslim world isn't really devoted to Iran either.  Trump and his peeps have spent several years negotiating with all these nations and now they've shown military dominance over a long-time enemy, all without an actual war.

I know I'm just being overly optimistic but holy f*ck!  If the reports we're getting are reasonably true, this is a perfect opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow their oppressors and Make Persia Great Again.  And Democrats totally opposed that for almost fifty years.  There will be consequences.

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un to Open Gigantic Beachfront Resort to Boost Tourism
June 27, 2025

□ [“Supreme Court 6-3 Greenlights States to Cut Off Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood"]
□ [“Supreme Court 6-3 Upholds Texas Law Requiring Age Verification on Pornographic Websites"]
□ [“Supreme Court 6-3 Rules Parents Can Opt out of Classes with LGBTQ Books"]
□ [“Supreme Court 6-3 Rules Nationwide Injunctions by District Courts Exceed Authority"]

Not listed in some of the articles, but I'm pretty sure all the rulings had the same 6 people against the same 3.  I think that's going to come standard from now on, assuming it wasn't already.  The only exceptions will be if a right-wing justice caves in [Roberts] but I suspect even that will become minimalized.  After four rulings like this, he'd have to run out and declare P. Diddy innocent or something to protect himself.  Better off to stay where he is.

The two newest members, both female, are even bickering.  The black one keeps making it clear that she doesn't understand anything and there is audio to that effect, over 4 minutes just from this year alone.  It may be a coincidence but she also ignores that the Constitution doesn't give judges authority to rule for the nation like this, and that she openly skips the boring legalese.  Her job involves boring legalese, how does she not know that after several years on the bench?

Three cases about related to sex, with abortion, porn and child predators.  The other one covered Trump.  Officially it's about birthright citizenship and POTUS authority to kick illegals out of the country but the Supremes didn't even bother with that.  That's actually kinda amusing, I'm not sure what will happen there, but they have stated that this is about the limits of judicial authority.

I'm sure this isn't a complete overhaul but this will give Trump a lot more leeway with his executive orders.  And maybe (God willing) this will get Congress off their ass to actually start making better laws now that the lower-ranking judges can't just shoot them down.  I would like to see some genuinely positive results but overall this looks good, at least as a starting point.

So how are the lower-ranking judges going to react?  I'm thinking of the district court judge who already decided to ignore the Supremes.  At a guess, I'll assume he'll give in because the alternative will end his career.  But then what is the left going to do about this?  

Putin Praises ‘Courageous’ Trump, Says Relations With the US Are Beginning To Improve
June 27, 2025

□ [“Trump Announces a US-Brokered Peace Agreement Between Rwanda and Congo"]
□ [“Trump Terminates All Canada Trade Discussions Over Digital Services Tax on US Tech Companies"]
□ [“'We Just Signed with China Yesterday' – Trump Working on Trade Deal with India"]

What is going on?  I'm very distrustful of any trade deals with China or India, and distrustful of Trump for making them happen, but this just showed up without any warning.  The trade deals with Canada aren't really relevant, but it's our most infamous neighbor so it's a big deal to some people.  The Rwanda-Congo war was also a big deal for some people, but I haven't heard much about it over the last 30 years.

At some level, I don't even care if these are positive or negative developments, I'm just astounded that any POTUS is capable of accomplishing so many things across the entire world, and a lot of this isn't even noticed.  I can't say we're tired of winning because a lot of these aren't confirmed to be wins, but there are reasons to be optimistic.  But the left is just out there whining about what a tyrant he is and reciting their usual *woke* babble.  That's all they have to offer and they're deluded enough to think they can save everybody from this.

And it's barely been five months.  What are Democrats going to do if this is all successful?  For the last few days, I've been wondering that about Iran specifically, although it applies to most of these other events.  But what if the mullahs' only option is to run away now?  What would Democrats have to say about that?  They opposed it every step of the way so it's not like they can seriously turn around and say it's great.  And they'd still have to thank Trump for defying them in the first place, as he's done for the last eight years.

Massive Fireball Spotted Streaking Across Southeastern U.S. Skies
June 27, 2025

□ [“Transgender TikToker Goes Viral for Urging Followers to ‘Get a Gun’ and Kill ICE Agents"]

There's no evidence, but in the last week or so, I have gotten the impression that the left has withdrawn slightly.  Haven't heard about any more protests, not even the ones scheduled for next month.  They were all thrilled at the chance to fight for Iran but that doesn't seem to be working out well.  All they can do is support illegals and that leaves them with creatures like this.

Soon-to-be NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to defund police but fund Hamas and transgender children.  Standard leftism but this comes off as more of a last gasp.  It just drives people away because the problem isn't the marketing, it's the message itself.  And the left's first reaction to any problem is to attack someone, even other leftists.  We see this with the attacks on Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for agreeing there only two genres.  A conservative saying that would usually be ignored but another liberal must be publicly attacked.  It's not going to win over Rowling's fans or anybody else.

Basically it looks like the craziness has taken over the leftists in public so any of them with any sense - or who have handlers - are staying away from attention.  If Bernie and AOC are still doing a tour, it doesn't get any attention.  Nancy Pelosi is barely getting any more attention than Joe Biden and they're both quite old and weak these days.  Since they've never really built any replacements - they just assumed they could steal other people's kids - there isn't much in the way of followers who can take over.  At most there might just be some psychos like that trans telling people to go out and shoot government agents, but it's possible that modern leftism will just be 'past tense' in twenty or thirty years.

Ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman Blames N-Word for Blacks Suffering Obesity, Cancer, and Heart Disease
June 27, 2025

Explosions Heard in Tehran; Air Defense System Activated
June 27, 2025

Pulitzer-Winning Washington Post Editor Arrested for Possessing Child Pornography
June 27, 2025