Posted on 05/10/2026 7:50:36 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Failed regimes are faltering while political and military reality is asserting itself with unmistakable force.
For more than 20 years, Robert J. Lurtsema (1931–2000) hosted a classical music radio show on the Boston station WGBH. He typically began the show with a bit of birdsong. He followed that soothing introit with a brief recap of the news, which he wrote up himself and delivered in his unmistakable, sonorous baritone (like “warm fudge,” said one admirer). I liked the timbre of his voice, at once calming and authoritative. I also liked Lurtsema’s good humor. Occasionally, when a paucity of noteworthy events warranted, he would declare that there really wasn’t any news that day and go straight to the music.
Those were good days. I wish other news outlets would follow Lurtsema’s lead and indulge us with an occasional moratorium on their blather masquerading as news.
That said, honesty requires that I point out that recent days are not good candidates for such studied omissions. A lot is happening. Here are just a few of many noteworthy items from the last few days.
In England, the Labour Party all but ceased to exist. “Shock By-Election Result Sends Political Shockwaves Across The UK” screamed one headline. As of this writing, the vote is still being counted. But it looks as if Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s party lost as many as 2,000 council seats (out of a total of 5,000) in the local elections on May 8. Congratulations, Keir! That’s a record. Labour also lost Wales for the first time in a century. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” said one news commentator. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform Party picked up more than 1,400 seats.
Stepping out of this bloodbath, Starmer tried to look defiant. I am “not going to walk away,” he said. The novelist J. K. Rowling spoke for many when she observed that “sprinting away would also be acceptable.” Starmer is not required to call a general election until August 2029. I suspect he will be hustled out of office by autumn.
There is some recent election news in the US as well. In last week’s primaries, Trump-endorsed MAGA candidates trounced their RINO opponents. In Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy took some 85 percent of the vote, winning in every single county. “Oh, but that’s just the primary,” quote the brethren. “Just wait for the midterms. MAGA will be soundly beaten.” Want to bet? The Democrats thought that redistricting chicanery such as that practiced by Gov. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia would save the day. The thinking was, “If I can’t win honestly, I can at least squeeze into victory via geometrical gaslighting, aka that old chap Gerry Mander.”
Not so fast. In Virginia, the State Supreme Court said, “Nope. Your ‘redistricting’ wheeze won’t fly.” The ruling was, as NPR reported, tears in its eyes, a “major setback for Democrats.
Not as big as the setback just delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States, though. On April 29, the court ruled 6–3 in Louisiana v. Callais that the states may no longer use race to draw congressional and state legislative districts. The decision will have plenty of penumbras and emanations. Among other things, as James Piereson notes, the decision “signals the end of a six-decade experiment, going back to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, during which judicial and administrative doctrines enforced racial and other preferences in nearly every area of national life.” I agree with those many commentators who reckon that the decision will net Republicans some 8–12 additional House seats in the midterms. In other words, Republicans will not only hold the House; they will also expand their majority.
What else? One tidbit from the lexicon of rhetorical subterfuge, division of politicized euphemism. CBS reported that a Frontier Airlines plane “fatally” hit a “pedestrian” on the runway of the Denver, Colorado, airport. “Pedestrian”? The comments were brutal about that, since the fellow in question was a trespasser, not a pedestrian in any normal sense of the word. CBS deployed the word in order to suggest that he was just an innocent bystander. In fact, the fellow had climbed the perimeter fence at the airport and then made for the runway. Not your common or garden variety “pedestrian” out for a stroll. The CBS story then went on to say that there was no news on the condition of said “pedestrian.” Since CBS also said that interaction with the airplane was of the “fatal” variety—some reports said that he had been sucked into an engine, making a mess—one didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to pronounce confidently about his condition. It was terminal, and I am not talking about the airport building.
Then there is Iran. I have several times echoed President Trump: The war is over. Janitorial work is tidying up the debris. Operation Epic Fury gave way to Project Freedom, which gave way to the cat-and-mouse game we see unfolding now. Donald Trump, for those keeping score, is the cat. The Iranian regime is fielding the mice. CENTCOM just reaffirmed that the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “continues to be fully enforced.” “As of today [May 9],” their bulletin reports, “CENTCOM forces have redirected 58 commercial vessels and disabled 4 since April 13 to prevent the ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports.”
The cat is there, but the mice don’t care. They send speed boats, drones, and missiles to harass shipping and US vessels. In so doing, they expose a panoply of military assets from IRGC-linked positions on shore to drone and fast attack boat staging sites. ”For years,” one commentator observed, “the Islamic Republic relied on concealment, deniability, underground infrastructure, dispersed launch systems, and swarm tactics designed to complicate retaliation and avoid direct conventional confrontation.” This time, however, their attacks
exposed elements of that network in real time and allowed the U.S. to rapidly strike supporting infrastructure behind it without a prolonged escalation cycle.
This is modern military strategy at its most effective: force the enemy to reveal hidden systems through aggression, map operational networks instantly, and destroy critical nodes before they can reposition or disappear.
The cat has responded as cats and responsible dramatists always do. “If Iranian boats threaten Americans,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday, “they’re going to get blown up.”
The apparent hiatus in hostilities may seem like limbo. If you are part of the Iranian regime, it will seem like hell. The U.S.S. Missouri is anchored in Tokyo Bay. The surrender papers are laid out on the desk. The Iranians just need to find someone with authority to sign. “Is the ceasefire with Iran still on?” a reporter asked President Trump after the US Navy sunk several Iranian “fast boats” attacking them. “Yes,” he replied, “They trifled with us today. We blew ’em away.” Should the ceasefire end, POTUS continued, you won’t have to ask. “You’re just going to have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran. They better sign their agreement fast.” Good advice.
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I should check to see what the Las Vegas odds are for Starmer holding office through the end of this year.
As of May 10, 2026, betting odds suggest an 87% probability that Keir Starmer will leave office before the end of 2026, with bookmakers pricing his exit at 1/3. This reflects political pressure and poor polling for Labour
Nicely written summary of big events.
US and IDF and other gulf states oughta’ get enough weaponry into the hands of Iranian patriots and Kurds to effect a severe purge of the mullahs. I am supposing that the current lull in the action is to assure that the final purge of the mullahs is being mapped out to eliminate any chance for the mullahs to massacre the opposition before they, themselves, are captured, and executed.
Wouldn’t be surprised if undercover IDF forces are “on the ground” in Iran already.
Whoa....
I hope that armed civilians and the regular army can team up to take out the IRGC and the mullahs. That should be the goal. There has been some activity with civilians taking out IRGC at checkpoints on roads.
“Failed regimes are faltering while political and military reality is asserting itself with unmistakable force.”
Goodness, win one battle that doesn’t stop it, and credit for success is thrown around like a baseball.
This “victory” they are mistakenly claiming is just a bump in the road for the islamists. One they have had to step over before and have been doing since the middle 300’s.
They are terrorists. That’s what they do. They do it over anything else up to the point of death which they welcome. They even speed up that welcoming wearing suicide vests to do their work.
So we got them to consider backing down right now. We got the same thing for this type of terrorist in Iraq, Afghanistan, and a number of other countries in the middle east.
isis is still very active especially in Syria and Afghanistan. The taliban has regrouped and is thriving in Afghanistan after regrowing in Pakistan. Al-Qaeda has “subcontracted” out with new names like The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) in Algeria that was replaced by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which then rebranded as al-Qa`ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria. Or the AQAP, based in Yemen.
Groups supported by Iran have repeatedly survived territorial defeats or political setbacks, often rebranding to remain involved in local politics. Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH): Created in 2006 to fight the U.S. presence in Iraq, was later rebranded as a “nationalist” resistance movement to fight ISIS, maintaining its influence under the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is an umbrella group of militias that became highly active in 2024, operating around the Syria-Jordan border after previous incarnations were dismantled.
Reasons they can return, three basic ones:
The core belief systems of these groups persist even after territory is lost.
They regain power in areas where central government control is weak or following the withdrawal of foreign forces.
The forming of detention camps which hold thousands of former fighters and family members, such as Al-Hol in Syria, serve as fertile ground for recruitment.
The war with islamist terrorist groups will never end until every one is gone. And that will never happen as they have been accepted as a group in most countries in the world to include the US. The only difference here is that they either operate steathy or are allowed a voice in our politics. And they lie.
wy69
It’s time that the Trump Administration should realize that the only way to secure a “Deal” with Iran is to destroy the IRGC. Together with Israel they need to make that Objective number one before they go any further.
Congrats to Vivek on his outstanding primary win in Ohio. 85% votes and every county in state? That is amazing win.
Agree. The killing of the non Shia populace is what I would expect the IRGC would do once their regime is being dismantled. So the IRGC and regular army needs to be destroyed. We don’t know how many of those are in IRGC and army for the money or other non regime reasons, so cutting off their pay might change their allegiances. But the general population needs to be able to not only defend themselves, but go on the offensive.
IMHO
Trump has been taking out the mullahs and the IRGC leadership. He has left the Army untouched. It seems like he does not think the Army is radical like the IRGC.
They need the right General to stand up and take action.
Reform’s victory could have been much bigger, but they ran a lot of foreign nationals most of which got smoked. Native Reform candidates won big, foreign Reform lost big.
Minority pandering doesn’t work in Britain either.
“This is modern military strategy “
1) Fight million dollar missiles with thousand dollar drones. When one side runs out of missiles, the other side can still produce drones in 24 hours.
2) China sucks the US into the next Iran side non-war. The US concentrates all its forces on that “next Iran” and expends all its ammunition on that “nest Iran”. China can then take Taiwan with few US forces available to worry about.
Maybe the end of the week, not year.
“Then there is Iran.”
There’s no putting lipstick on that pig. It’s been and continues to be a disaster. The worst geopolitical setback for the US since Jimmy Carter. Well Trump was warned against it by all of his advisors (except Hegseth who was for it) but chose to listen to Netanyahu who told him we could achieve regime change in a matter of weeks.
You are totally delusional. Quit watching Fox news it’s rotting out your brain.
I am not rooting for the USA to lose. The muzzards started this war and this war between good and evil will never end. The best we can do is keep evil at bay. The worst we van do is give up and let evil win.
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