VIDEO: Minnesota civil war: it's not about ICE any more (Michael Matt)

Our old friend Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, lives in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He speaks today about what's going on -- an incipient international incident -- not 100 miles from his home.

Today, it was -20 F in the Twin Cities, yet tens of thousands – including many priests and rabbis — showed up for the #ICEout rally. Bivc-President J.D. Vance flew to Minnesota to tell the press that, although he wants more co-operation with local law enforcement, the Insurrection Act is not needed. 

Meanwhile, President Trump does a complete 180 and says the shooting of Renee Good was a "tragic accident." In this week's Remnant Underground, Mr Matt explains why so many conservative influencers agree that the ICE tactics are the problem. 

Joe Rogan compared the tactics to those of the Gestapo, and Bill O'Reilly said that if POTUS doesn't find a way to lower the temperature he's going to "lose the country." 

Mr Matt argues that this is not a Republican vs Democrat issue. There is a whole lot more going on here than mere immigration enforcement. What is happening in Minnesota right now could negatively impact the entire world. Why so much outrage? Where’s the Catholic Church? And what’s the connection between Minneapolis, Gaza, Greenland and Davos? If you scrolled past the "play" button, go back and hit it now.

What happens if Hamas refuses Pres. Trump's Gaza peace deal?

What did the Donald mean when he said all hell will break loose?

Meme created by Elon Musk. 👍

Book review: "The Jewish War" + BONUS VIDEO

Yesterday was the day fixed by President Trump by which Hamas had to accept his plan to bring an end to the unpleasantness in Gaza... or else! 

While we wait for all hell to break loose. let us consider the words of Jewish Roman historian Flavius Josephus ben Matthias, in The Jewish War. 

1950 years ago, Josephus wrote his contemporary account of the great Jewish rebellion against Rome. The insurrection began in 66 A.D. and lasted seven years.

The Middle East described by Josephus is perfectly familiar -- a politically fractionalized land populated with a humble of ethnic and religious groups, including Jews, Arabs, Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks, Italians and a tiny community of Christians.

Each detests the others. Extreme political and theological views prevail. Terrorism and assassination are commonplace. Alliances are momentary. Grudges, personal. And neither colonial subjugation nor local autonomy suffices to keep the peace.

The political events are familiar too. Rome first intervened in the region as a peace keeper, brokering a dispute between Seleucid Mesopotamia and Ptolemaic Egypt. Later the Middle East appeared vital to Rome because Roman trade routes passed through the region and because of the Parthian threat to the empire's eastern frontier. The Romans were lured into deeper military and political involvement, and this triggered continual insurrections.

The rebellion of 66 A.D., however, did not begin as a war of national liberation. It began as communal rioting in the seaport town of Caesarea -- Greeks verus Jews over an empty lot next to a synagogue. This inspired sympathetic rioting in Jerusalem, and a ham-handed Roman attempt to quell the disturbances worsened them instead. The result was one of those great wallows siege, massacre, treachery, persecution, revenge, plunder, and self-destruction to which the Middle East is so often host. 

The rising in Jerusalem set off a reaction among the non-Jewish inhabitants of the region, who indulged themselves in wild pogroms, with killings taking place as far away as Damascus and Alexandria. Roman forces were not sufficient to quash the rebellion. Jewish forces were not sufficient to defeat the Romans in open combat. Guerilla warfare ensured, with predictable consequences to the populace.

The Romans were noted for vigorous foreign policy responses. The Emperor Nero sent Vespasian and three legions to pacify Judea. Using a great deal of slaughter and some tactics, Vespasian drove the rebels back to the environs of Jerusalem. He was prevented from ending the war, however, by political confusion at home. Sound familiar? Nero was ousted and three worthless and short-lived emperors followed within the year.

The Jews made use of this breathing space by engaging in urban warfare with themselves and committing all conceivable and some inconceivable atrocities upon their co-religionists. Vespasian himself was finally proclaimed emperor by the Roman army, and the war was resumed under the direction of his son Titus.

After a prolonged and disgusting siege, Jerusalem was taken. And after another prolonged and even more disgusting siege, Masada, the last rebel stronghold fell. The Temple was destroyed, the Jewish upper classes were dispersed, and a Roman army was permanently stationed in Judea. Even then the peace did not hold, and rebellion would break out anew during the reign of Hadrian. 

Normally the patterns of history are reassuring. But in The Jewish War, the shock of recognition is just a shock. Here, sixty generations ago, is nearly the same cast of characters engaged in exactly the same obsessive, vicious, and fatal behaviour for the same terrifying reasons on the same cursed, reeking, ugly chunk of land.

Who fails to learn history is doomed to repeat it. But was seemed doomed to repeat this history anyway. 

This review is adapted from "The Two-Thousand-Year-Old U.S. Middle East Policy Expert", by the late, great P.J. O'Rourke, in a little-known libertarian magazine called Inquiry, c. 1979. While you're letting that sink it, here's a very à propos musical interlude.

France braces for another wave of Muslim "refugees"

[Cue theme music from Twilight Zone.] Imagine, if you will, that the population of your country is, by fiat of the United Nations (read: One World Government), increased by over 3%... overnight! Imagine too that all the newcomers don't speak your language, worship your God, or share your values. And they expect you to welcome them, feed them, house them, and ensure that they have a standard of living equal to that you've worked for all your life. 

If you live in France, what you're imagining could seen be your reality, as France's National Court of Asylum (CNDA) ruled yesterday that all Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip will be eligible for the first time to apply for asylum in France.

The CNDA ruled in favour of a Palestinian mother, a Muslim, who sought asylum in France in the wake of the October 7th terror attacks on Israel, for which other Muslims -- the Islamist Hamas -- were responsible. Makes sense, eh? Errr, maybe not. The court said the "war methods"” of the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza -- not the Islamists but the Israelis -- were "serious enough to be regarded as methods of persecution."

According to Le Figaro, the case paved the way for the CNDA to declare that all Palestinians living in Gaza should be entitled to asylum protection in France. All of them. All 2.2 million!

The court based its decision on the Geneva Convention, which says that people who face "persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion," should be considered "refugees". The court specifically cited the supposed persecution based on "nationality" faced by Palestinians in Gaza, even though France, like most other nations, doesn't recognize Palestine as a state. 

Nevertheless, the judges said that they possessed the "characteristics" of a nationality, which according to the Convention include belonging to a "group determined by its cultural, ethnic or linguistic identity, common geographical or political origins or its relationship with the population of another state." Those lawyers sure have a way with words, don't they.

While the ruling is novel in declaring that all Palestinians are "persecuted" by the evil Israelis, legal experts noted that it would likely only impact around 20% of the population of Gaza. Why? Because 80% of the "Gazans" are already classified as "refugees" by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)and are therefore already eligible for protection in France.

 Although the ruling was hailed by leftist groups such as Amnesty International, others expressed concern about allowing more Palestinians into France. One of the skeptics is Henda Ayari, a former Muslim turned anti-Islamist activist and female rights campaigner, who said, "While France is already grappling with explosive community tensions, it chooses today to unconditionally welcome refugees from Gaza, even though more than 30 Muslim countries refuse to take them in."

"Why," Ms Ayari asks, "should France, once again, play the role of humanitarian substitute while others categorically refuse to host these populations in their countries? We're talking about a region where Hamas recruits, where Islamist ideology and anti-Semitic, anti-Western hatred are deeply rooted, where many celebrated the massacres of October 7. 

"We cannot pretend to believe that they are all 'innocent victims.' Some of these individuals who will arrive in France may have participated in, supported, or condoned terrorism. And tomorrow? They will be housed, fed, and supported at the expense of French taxpayers… while our retirees are dying and our neighbourhoods are exploding."

"Free Palestine!" (the new "Allahu akbar!") in Boulder CO

Looks like "Free Palestine!" is the new "Allahu akbar!", at least in English-speaking countries. That's what Mohamed Sabry Soliman was yelling in Boulder CO yesterday as he used a homemade flamethrower [Ed., see if you can find a "how to" video on YouTube] to torch several Jews, including children, who had gathered to call for Hamas to release the Israeli hostages.

Kind of a strange look for a fanatical follower of the Religion of Peace, but the FBI has confirmed that Mr Soliman is a 45-year-old Egyptian national whose visa, granted during the Biden administration, expired in March of this year.  

They also confirm that he used a Molotov cocktails, shown in the photos, along with a flamethrower to attack elderly demonstrators belonging to "Run For Their Lives", a grassroots organization that facilitates global run and walk events calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. 

In a departure from the usual obfuscation about the motive being unclear, the authorities now concede that the dastardly attack was "targeted". They have so far refrained, though, from pronouncing the words "Islamic" or "terrorism".  

Mr Soliman is resting comfortably in hospital, recovering from minor burns, while the usual suspects organize mostly peaceful protests about racism, police brutality and the "Israeli genocide" in Gaza.

Funniest name of the year, so far

Although some of my best griends are Jewish [Really? Ed.] OK, start again... Although some of my best friends were Jewish... [Do you mean they used to be Jewish or they used to be your best friends? Ed.] OK, never mind...

My pool of knowledge of the religion of the Chosen People could be deeper. For instance, I was unaware that yesterday was Purim, a holy day in the Jewish calendar. Seemed to some of the looney left pro-Hamas types like a good day to stage a demonstration in support of calls for a ceasefire (read: We're losing so let's have a time-out) in Gaza.

This was in mid-town Toronto, the city that thinks it's world-class but is actually Democratic-American-class. Such demonstrations are almost daily occurrences in the Little Green Apple. They are marked by the shouting of anti-Semitic slogans, and the display of Palestine flags mingled with pro-queer, union, and indigenous banners.

There's occasionally a little violence, when Toronto cops try to separate the SWINE (Students Wildly Indignant about Everything -- Hello to Al Capp, wherever you are) from the pro-Israel types. Weapons are occasionally produced and sometimes (not often) the storm troopers make an arrest for littering or somesuch.

[Sorry to interrupt, but when are you going to get to the "funniest name"? Ed.] 

Hey, I'm coming to it!

Yesterday, the Toronto police said they received a complaint that a man at the demonstration had a knife concealed on "their" [sic - this is Toronto the Gay. Ed.] person. They then investigated, eh, found a large knife under "their" clothing, and took "him" into custody. 

In a news release, Toronto police said "Sodapop Liptrott" [sic], 25, of Toronto, has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, and is schedule to appear in court on May 2nd. 

I hope Agent 3 can get to the courthouse to find out if that's the accused's real name, or just something he told the cops. If it's his real name, what part of Ireland do you suppose he was from? And whose side do you think he's on? Will he change his name to "Mohammed" to get a slap on the wrist and be back on the streets in time for the next demo? Stay tuned.

VIDEO: "i know what the hell I'm doing!" sez Senile Joe

Last night, President Brandon decided [or was told. Ed.] to hold a presser in furious response to Special Counsel Robert Hur's bombshell report targeting his "hazy" memory. "I know what the hell I'm doing!" he snapped. 

Moments later, Senile Joe gave the lie to his own angry statement, calling Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi "the president of Mexico" while discussing aid for Gaza. Yes, we (along with every media outlet in the world) have the video.

The octogenarian President made the fresh gaffe after avoiding prosecution for mishandling classified documents. The special prosecutor, Rober Hur, said Brnadon was an "elderly man with a poor memory", whom no jury would convict. Case closed!

Walt says it's time to stop flogging the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the Excited States of America, and invoke the 25th. Proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in the aftermath of the assassination of JFK, that amendment provides the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation. 

Unlike the 14th Amendment, the 25th has actually been used within recent memory. The Watergate scandal of the `70s saw the application of these procedures, first when Gerald Ford replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president, then when he replaced Richard Nixon as president, and then when Nelson Rockefeller filled the resulting vacancy to become the vice president. 

The only drawback I can see in applying the 25th Amendment in this case is that Camela Harris would become President. But hey, it would all be over in a few months!

As I was saying...

...in "Who's really behind the Great Replacement" (WWW, 15/11/23)...

Dear readers, the Great Replacement is all part of the Soros/WEF/Schwab plan to usher in the New World Order. It began long ago, but this latest phase is far from the end. Who's going to stop it before it's too late?! The only person the conspirators are afraid of is... wait for it... President Donald J. Trump!

Who's really behind the Great Replacement

While you go out and about today, take a look around you. No matter where in North America you live, even in more remote areas like Greater Ford Mudge, you will see more and more people who are not like you. Go ahead. See for yourself. Try your local foodbanks and homeless shelters. Yes, dear reader, the Great Replacement is not a theory. It's a fact!

The latest phase of the WEF/Soros/Schwab plan to fill Europe and America with Arabs, Africans and other unassimilable minorities, misfits and leftist revolutionaries is the propaganda campaign to shame the West into taking in millions of refugees from the Hamas-Israel war. They are not wanted in Israel (obviously) or Egypt (the only country with a land border with Gaza) or Saudi Arabia or any of the other Islamic statelets in the region. So where should they go? Why, to the West, of course!

Who says so?! None other than Israeli Finance Minister (((Bezalel Smotrich))), who yesterday called on Palestinians to "voluntarily emigrate" to Western countries. Mr Smotrich was responding to an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal written by Likud MKs (Members of the Israeli Knesset) (((Danny Danon))) and (((Yesh Atid))) callin on Western countries to accept Gazan refugees.

In "Israeli minister calls for widespread Palestinian emigration to West" (Jerusalem Post, 14/11/23), Mr Smotrich is quoted thus:

"I welcome the initiative of voluntary relocation of Gazan Arabs to countries worldwide. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the whole area after 75 years of being poor refugees. 

"The majority of Gaza is fourth and fifth generations to 1948 refugees who, instead of being rehabilitated long ago like hundreds of millions of refugees around the world, were held hostage in Gaza in poverty and overcrowding and were a symbol of the desire to destroy the State of Israel and of the refugees' return to Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, and Tiberias." 

He went on to say this has bred the hatred for Israel and Jews "upon which the population in Gaza is raised and educated" and led them to believe that the only solution is the destruction of Israel. 

"The small area of the Gaza Strip, which doesn't have any natural resources or independent sources of income, has no chance of independent, economic, and diplomatic existence in such high density long-term. Therefore, the only solution to end the suffering and the pain of Jews and Arabs alike is for countries around the world who truly want what's good for the refugees to accept them along with support and economic aid from the international community, including the State of Israel."

Readers who are slapping their foreheads and exclaiming, "By Yahweh, he's right!" are invited to share their views with their representatives in Congress/Parliament/whatever. Don't just write or email. Get your traditional keffiyeh headscarf (available on Etsy for 30 pieces of silver) and join your comrades in the streets as they chant "From the river to the sea, you're welcome to our country!"

Sitting on the fence in the Hamas-Israeli war

If President 0 has spoken out on the latest Mid-East war, I haven't heard him. But this is the sort of mugwumpism I'd expect him to utter. Does it matter? Not if you believe that President Brandon formulates his own thoughts and policies. But if you think Barack Hussein just might be pulling Brandon's strings, it matters. The Democrats can't affored to alienate anybody, one short year before Judgment Day.

Getting back to the war between the Jews and the Muslims, which the Jews seem to be winning handily -- hence the pro-Muslim calls for an immediate ceasefire -- Mrs Walt asked me a good question as we watched video of the latest carnage: When Hamas decided to attack Israel, which has one of the strongest militaries in the Mid-East, if not the world, what did they think would happen?!

"Allahu akbar!" in Israel; whose side are you on?

So, it begins. Or, as President Trump said, "Here we go again!" I'm sure you've heard the news, so won't refry it. From here, the Hamas attacks -- already being described as "sneak attacks" or "Pearl Harbor-style attacks" -- on Israel look like just the beginning of the latest phase of a decades-long conflict. 

This chances of a quick resolution of any war between Muslims and Jews -- for that's what we have here, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 00 are slim and none. While we wait, I'm watching to see how the (((controlled media))) are playing this. 

Without exception the lickspittle media are taking the side of Israel, and all progressive, correct-thinking people are expected to see things that way. If you don't, you're an anti-Semite, just like those people who hung this banner from a bridge over Toronto's Gardiner Expressway earlier today.

What's odd about this is that the propagandists doing all the pissing and moaning about the evil Muslims are the same ones who for years now have been castigating those of us who have problems with the Religion of Peace as "Islamophobes". They're the same ones who tell us that Ukrainians are right to defend their lands against the Russian occupiers. Shome dichotomy there, shurely?

In Israel or Palestine (whichever you prefer) Christians are "the meat in the sandwich". In Africa they say that when two elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled. So I'm not taking sides in this one. I  just hope that the US of A (and Canada -- the B team) isn't called on to break up the fight. We've seen that movie, and recently too. It didn't end well.

Meanwhile, Blackie McBlackface, Prime Minister of all Canuckistan, bleats [Tweets, shurely! Ed.] "Canada stands with Israel!" Really? Isn't he the one who just yesterday (it seems) was shaming Canucks for their Islamophobia?

Image scraped from Blazing Cat Fur,

Iraq: Is calling in air strikes enough?

The Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq clearly needed help to resist the invasion by the Sunni Muslim terrorists who call themselves "the Islamic state" (ISIS). The word "genocide" springs to mind when 1000s of people are herded like sheep -- lambs to the slaughter -- to the top of a mountain and told that they must either convert to Islam or die.

Divine intervention is called for, prayed for. But God and the Pope have no divisions, as Joseph Stalin famously said, so help must come from those that do. Walt therefore applauds the decision of President Obama to authorise the bombing, by drones and manned aircraft, of ISIS artillery and other positions.

But a question nags at my mind [or what passes for such. Ed.] Can the air strikes be anything but a prelude to an invasion by ground forces? Air power first, tanks and troops next. That's what happened in Iraq the first time. And in Afghanistan. And in Vietnam. That's because air power, awesome though it may be -- remember those scenes in Apocalypse Now? -- is never, by itself, sufficient to enable a foreign power to defeat an army or guerrilla force of locals. Take Gaza as today's example. Hamas isn't beaten yet, and the Israelis know it.

If the Gaza argument isn't persuasive enough, consider the thoughts of Matthew Bunker Ridgway. General Ridgway held several major commands in the United States Army and was most famous for resurrecting the United Nations war effort during the Korean War. Several historians have given him the credit for turning the war around in favour of the UN side.

To quote from The Fifties, by David Halberstam (Villard Books, New York, 1993): In World War II and Korea, and in Korea particularly, [Gen. Ridgway] had seen what the Air Force had promised to do with strategic bombing and how limited, in fact, strategic bombing was as an instrument of policy. If we bombed, he argued, we would end up inevitably using ground troops. Ridgway saw air power as as a sort of high-tech aspirin; it gave some immediate relief, but it did not cure the underlying problem.

In Walt's view, we can no longer refer to the ISIS forces as just terrorists. They are a large, well-trained, well-equipped, battle-hardened army. They are in control of large chunks of Syria and Iraq. How they can be defeated without yet another Western invasion of those countries is our dilemma for today. If anyone has a solution, please don't write to me. Send it to the Prez, because neither he nor his advisors seem at all sure of what to do next.

Waiting for the balloon(s) to go up

This just in...

"President Barack Obama has approved targeted air strikes in Iraq, near the site where some 40,000 religious minorities are trapped on a mountaintop after fleeing from Islamic State militants who have threatened to kill them.

"Obama said the Iraqi government asked for U.S. help in fighting Islamic State militants, who have surged across northern Iraq in the country's Kurdish region, forcing tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis — a Kurdish ethno-religious community — to leave their homes or risk death."

Meanwhile, to the northwest, Russian troops are massing along the border with Ukraine. NATO has called on Russia to "step back", otherwise they will, errr, well... that's kind of unclear. If (God forbid) NATO wants to call in an airstrike on the Russkis, who're they gonna call? The USAF will, it seems, be occupied elsewhere.

And... yes, there's more... there seem to be two chances of a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, the two chances being slim and none.

What next? To be clear, Walt is glad the USA is coming to the defence of the Christians (etc) in Iraq. Better late than never. And Walt would support the use of lethal force to keep the Russians from gobbling up any more of Ukraine. The fear, of course, is that the Islamic militants and/or Russians might stand and fight. So what should we do? Walt's answer: Go big or go home! But...

Memo to Ed.: Remember that bomb shelter we built out in the back 40? Do you remember where I put the key?

69 years later

Someone sent us a chain e-mail being circulated on the Internet by "friends of Israel" and others being taken in by the pro-Israel spewings of Jewish propaganda machine ["mainstream press", surely! Ed.] It begs us to make sure the world never forgets the Holocaust, and to pass it on so that it reaches 40 million people.

NO. Walt will not be passing it on, and will not even say "sorry".

As regards the massacre unfolding in Gaza, I have no sympathy for Hamas, and even less for the Israelis. Israel was created by the United Nations because the Western nations felt guilty about the Holocaust, so decided to give the Jews their "promised land". But of course they didn't give away their land. No. Instead they took some land from poor ignorant Arabs -- the Palestinians -- and said, hey, you have to share this with the Jews because they used to live here before they got smart and moved to Europe, besides which "we" owe them...for the Holocaust, you know.

Have you ever tried sharing anything with a Jew? The Jews occupied the best parts of the territory they were given, then, not satisfied, occupied the West Bank, the Golan Heights, Gaza and the Sinai peninsula during the Six Day War of 1967. About 90 seconds after moving into the Sinai, they discovered there was nothing there but sand, so gave it back to the Egyptians.

Richard Gwyn tells us, in Nationalism Without Walls (McClelland and Stewart, 1995) that there are two kinds of "nations". One is a "state nation", in which the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are extended, more or less, equally, to all citizens regardless of colour, ethnicity, creed (etc etc). Almost all of the countries of North America and Europe [and Australasia! Ed.] fit that definition.

The other kind is the "ethnic nation", which is composed of people of a certain ethnicity/colour/creed, and in which people not of that ethnicity/colour/creed are second-class citizens in fact if not in law. The ethnic nation may exist only in the minds of its people (like Québec), or it may have sovereignty over a defined piece of territory... like Israel. No matter what the UN may have intended, Israel is the land of the Jews, not the Muslim Palestinians, just as Pakistan is the land of Muslims, not Hindus or Christians.

When Iran calls Israel "the Zionist entity", it is stating a fact which gets ignored in all the breast-beating and hand-wringing over Western liberal guilt about the Holocaust, and Israel's "right" to defend itself and its "promised land". The Jews tell us that God gave Israel to them -- just them -- but apparently He didn't make a very good job of it, so now it's their right to "defend" it. And if a few hundred Muslim civilians get taken out, well, that's because they won't get out of the way.

Walt wishes the Jewish propaganda machine -- read "lamestream media" -- would spare us these endless appeals to guilt and the culture of the victim. The body count, last time I looked, was about 20 to 1. That's 20 dead Palestinian Muslims (mostly civilians) for every dead Israeli Jew (mostly soldiers). If there's a Holocaust to be remembered, it's the one going on in Gaza right now.

Too much news for just one day

Summer is usually a slow season for news, so we reach for the silly season stuff, and occasionally go a few days without anything serious to talk about. Today is an exception... and exception-and-a-half. Walt is following three serious stories -- well, OK, one is quasi-serious -- and, while waiting for the other shoes to drop, can only manage these quick comments.

Senator Puffy charged with 31 offences under the Criminal Code of Canada
The chickens belonging to the "Honourable" Michael Dennis Duffy, erstwhile senator from Kanata [PEI, surely! Ed.] have at long last come home to roost. They say that the Mounties always get their man. In this case, they've got a man-and-a-half on 31 separate charges under Canada's Criminal Code, including bribery, fraud, breach of trust and criminal obesity. OK, just kidding about that last one. Walt can only regard this matter as semi-serious because, well, it looks good on the greedy Tory bastard! Start building the scaffold and make sure to use really stout timbers.

Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza
Damn Israelis being offensive again. But why not? Hamas and other Arabs aren't in any position to defend themselves, let alone mount a serious counter-attack, because they're too busy fighting amongst themselves. And who's going to come to the Palestinians' aid? Russia? In light of the third story, Walt doesn't think so. Iran? Already out on a limb in Iraq. Egypt? What, and risk another six-day defeat? Meanwhile, Israel can count on the support of its powerful ally Canada [Eh? Ed.], unless of course the USA tells Israel to cease and desist, which is about as likely as John Kerry saying anything meaningful.

And today's biggie...

Malaysian Airlines B-777 downed near Ukraine-Russia border
Why is it always Malaysian Airlines? Just a coincidence, surely, that it's the same plane, operated by the same airline, as the one which supposedly disappeared back in March. Already, rumours swirl around the wreckage. Was MH17 shot down? If so, by whom? It was supposedly flying at 10,000 metres (33,000 feet), at which altitude it could only have been hit by a large and sophisticated surface-to-air missile, not the dinky little handheld devices the Ukrainian (read "Russian") rebels used to shoot down two Ukrainian military aircraft this month. Alternatively, an air-to-air missile might have been used, but by whose air force? Whoever did the dirty deed must surely have made a horrible mistake, firing on a civilian airliner. Right?

But then... we don't know for certain that a missile hit was the cause of the crash. The plane might have exploded in mid-air for reasons unknown. Or it might have simply flown itself into the ground while everyone on board slept. Like MH370. Walt won't even speculate that there's some connection between the loss of the two planes -- and the lives of nearly 600 people -- but won't be all that surprised if that's how it turns out. That is, if we ever learn the truth.