[The Free Press] For some reason, everyone I know on both sides of the Atlantic seems to be devouring Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell, the biography of the famed political horizontale Pamela Harriman. Perhaps it’s because, with Trump cosplaying master and commander, we all want to be bunkered in those storied war rooms beneath the streets of Westminster, wreathed in her father-in-law Winston Churchill’s cigar smoke.
Born in 1920, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman was the luscious, wellborn redhead who, at the age of 19, and just two weeks after meeting him, married Winston’s appalling only son, Randolph, an abusive and misogynistic drunk, and soon gave birth to Winston Jr.
While the great man was consumed with winning World War II, Randolph was the Hunter Biden figure of Downing Street, whom the whole family—his three sisters and his ethereal mother, Clementine—tried to keep out of Winston’s way to avoid the inevitable scenes of rage and retribution. The marriage to Randolph collapsed after two years, leaving Pamela with nothing but her husband’s gambling debts, which forced her to flog off her jewelry and wedding presents.
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Winston Churchill's aristocratic daughter-in-law and confidante Pamela Harriman is considered "the greatest courtesan of her era". Decades after her death, she still divides opinion – was she a smart power player, or "shameless" and "repellent"?
Text taken from an article which appeared in alternatio.org
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] One can argue whether the Third World War is being prepared or is already underway, what phases precede large-scale military actions and whether they will happen at all, given the destructiveness of nuclear weapons, however, one way or another, any organization of large masses of people (whether it is the organization of the rear, the front or the entire country after the "nuclear apocalypse") requires mental, ideological preparation.
One of the factors of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was a systematic, planned, not only technical and technical, organizational, personnel, etc., but also ideological, mental preparation for war. The Nazi attack in 1941 was sudden and treacherous in the operational and tactical sense, but expected and inevitable in the strategic and political sense.
The Soviet people were prepared by the authorities for war. Tractor drivers in the MTS realized that the tractor would sooner or later be replaced by a tank. Members of numerous flying clubs - that gliders would be replaced by fighters and attack aircraft. Workers - that they will have to take up the rifle again, etc. MTS is an acronym for Machine Tractor Station, a peculiar accoutrement under Soviet collectivization in the 1930s, whereby machinery needed to cultivate crops on the larger Khokhols and Goskhols (collective farms and state farms respectively) were concentrated in Machine Tractor Stations, likely as a cost saving measure.
In the USSR there were cowards, there were alarmists, there were scoundrels, there were self-seekers and deserters but, firstly, they did not set the tone among the people, and secondly, even they clearly and distinctly understood the justice, sacredness and liberation character of the war. And not only because it was self-evident, but also as a result of many years of ideological pumping.
The difference in the presence and absence of ideological preparation for war, the political argumentation of the authorities is clearly visible if we compare the Korean (1950-1953) and Vietnamese (1965-1974) wars in American history.
The first was fought under the ideological pressure of McCarthyism and had virtually no effect on the state of American society and the stability of power, while the second led to a number of social crises. The objective side of American policy at that time — the hegemonic, unjust nature of wars — was thus smoothed over in different ways by the subjective factor of the state's ideological work.
Ordinary Germans also entered the war with the USSR voluntarily, driven by ideology and plans for the Nazi reorganization of the world, and until they got their teeth kicked in the teeth near Moscow and in Stalingrad, the realization of the objective failure of the concept of their racial superiority did not come. Historians note that after Stalingrad, the morale of the fascist front and rear was not at its best and was falling with each passing day.
Of course, the war of motors is primary, but the war of minds plays a key role when there is no multiple advantage in motors. Moreover, high motivation, a sense of danger to the Motherland, the inner spiritual core of the people, love of freedom, steadfastness and self-sacrifice, with the right organization, allow either to eliminate or neutralize the advantage of motors.
We can recall the recent history of the intervention of the well-armed, equipped-with-the-latest-technology, Saudi Arabian armed forces in Yemen. There are many videos on the Internet in which the Houthis in flip-flops, without armor and equipment, with only small arms in their hands, smash the strongholds of the tactical Saudis.
The lessons of the wars of the 20th century, the rare victories of Western countries and frequent defeats are analyzed in the United States and Europe. The conclusions are actively tested in controlled countries, in particular in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics.
So, a big surprise for everyone, including American tacticians and strategists, was that the rank and file of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a significant part of the Ukrainian people actually believed in the absolutely absurd idea of hostility between Russia and Russians towards Ukrainians.
The average Ukrainian, even if we imagine that he does not know Russian, is not threatened by the Russian Federation as a state. The very idea of "Russia is seizing Ukraine" sounds ridiculous, because the fate of Ukraine is being decided in the confrontation between the Russian Federation and the United States. That is, a significant part of Ukrainians preferred the distant and culturally alien Americans and Europeans, who do not know, do not understand, do not respect and do not love Ukraine and Ukrainians.
You can criticize and dislike the Russian Federation as a state as much as you like, but in theory no one except the hardened Banderites should want to die in the trenches for the yellow-blue trident, the Rada, the Zelensky-Poroshenko swindlers. But at least in the first year of the SVO there were many of them. This means that the ideological pumping worked brilliantly. What historical shame and disgrace awaits Ukrainians when they realize that they have fallen victim to the dusty Nazi myth of a horde of Asian subhumans threatening the eastern borders of civilization.
It must be understood that in 2022, the West put an end to the era of soft, glamorous, liberal debilitation of its own and other people's populations. There is a gradual transition to a rabid ideological mobilization in the spirit of a new Cold War with Russophobia, Sinophobia and all other phobias and uplifting myths.
In the United States, they are returning to McCarthyism, which historically was a creative reworking of Goebbelsism. No matter how the confrontation between the Trumpists and the chicks of the Obama-Biden nest ends, no matter how the break of the French, German and other European gardeners and vegetable growers between Atlanticism and sovereignty ends, the masses of citizens of Western countries will be mentally and ideologically prepared for a third world war.
A question may arise: why is their ideological pumping up Goebbelsism, while ours is the Soviet patriotism of the past or Russian patriotism of today? Why is it militarization and imperialism for them, while ours is preparation to repel aggression and the desire for freedom and security? This is an important point, which is speculated on by both the liberal emigration and some ironically cynical nationalists who complain: “We are not like that.”
Because we really are not like that. And the Chinese are not like that. And the Iranians are not like that.
I’m sorry, my dear editorialist, but both the Iranians and thr Chinese really, really are like that. Russia has enough problems right now that I’m not going to worry about you just now, though others here might.
All of us, countries that willingly and unwillingly oppose the hegemony of the United States and do not want to exchange it for the hegemony of the EU, are not like that. And the USSR was not like that.
I am willing to differentiate between modern Russia and the USSR, but your revolution was truly unkind to your people, as well as everyone entwined with it.
For various reasons, but the states opposing American imperialism are of a different formation, and so far none of them have been observed to strive for world domination, extermination of peoples, imposition of orders that are beneficial only to themselves, etc. In many ways, the reason is that the period of political formation and formation of states other than the “golden billion” coincided with the Cold War, which for them was an era of national liberation struggle.
The idea that a creeping rehabilitation of Nazism is taking place in Western countries has already been established in our literature and political agenda. This is clearly visible in the anti-Russian regimes in the border states (in Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland), that is, in those countries whose leadership has betrayed the interests of their peoples, turning the states into strongholds of pro-American military and political pressure on the Russian Federation.
Incidentally, the reorientation of the United States from Europe to East Asia is unlikely to weaken these regimes or cause their collapse. They will continue to enjoy the passive support of the United States and the active support of France, Germany and the EU. No one will lose such an asset for no reason.
The Nazification of public consciousness is taking place in Europe less clearly. Although, for example, Lavrov has explained more than once:
“There is no word that would characterize this phenomenon. It is truly (I am not being ironic now) incomprehensible to the mind how the European Union openly wants to renew the European ideology of Nazism, where it was born, where it was destroyed, categorically banned by the Nuremberg Tribunal (also on European territory).
Now it is being revived. Moreover, the leadership in this process belongs to the leaders of the Brussels bureaucracy. These are very sad events, very disturbing events. Of course, we will not put up with this, we will make every effort to ensure that this ideology does not raise its head, that it is destroyed once and for all and that Europe finally returns to its values.”
The point is that Nazism is only a form, a variety of ideological justification for world domination, which has always been the main value of Europe. Europe in general was formed as a place where empires arose.
…as was Russia, though like America, for most of its history it started later and concentrated on expanding within its own landmass.
In this sense, America was only catching up with Europe.
The United States, after all, was once an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist force. And in Europe, freedom and liberation (for example, the Great French Revolution) historically always only flickered on the horizon, quickly degenerating into imperialism, but remaining a subject of philosophical and poetic comprehension.
The situation is even less clear with America, especially with the advent of Trump, who situationally switches from Russia to China. The Nazification of American public consciousness was usually recorded through the imposition of Russophobia, the Russian threat. Since the priority has now changed, it is more difficult to notice.
However, both Europe and the USA have forgotten even the external decencies of pluralism, the tyranny of self-censorship and the artificially fanned flames of public censure are raging. Despite the fact that the "general line" sometimes fluctuates greatly, having an opinion different from the official one is indecent and dangerous. This in itself is a sign of ideological mobilization and preparation.
The key moment of Nazification in any country is the falsification of the history of World War II, the distortion of historical truth and memory, expressed in oblivion, belittling the role or defamation of the Soviet people, the Soviet state (USSR), the Red Army, Stalin.
World War II was an event that determined the appearance of the 20th century. The modern world in a political sense is a consequence and result of World War II. And in order to enter the slippery slope of preparation for a world war today, it will inevitably be necessary to resolve the historical analogy with the last world war. And this is all the easier to do, the more false its history is.
The US Presidential Proclamation on the 80th Anniversary of Victory in World War II does not mention the USSR:
"On this V-I Day, we celebrate the unrivaled might, strength, and effectiveness of the American Armed Forces and pledge to defend our sacred right to freedom from all threats, foreign and domestic... Without the sacrifice of our American soldiers, this war would not have been won, and our world would look very different today."
Trump's statements like these cannot be taken lightly:
"We did more to win World War II than any other country — incomparably more... We won both wars, and no one came close in strength, courage, or military skill."
"We won the war. Russia helped us. They lost 51 million people. And you know, we can't forget that."
"We must never forget that Russia helped us win World War II, losing almost 60 million people in the process."
These are not showman's quirks, but the result of a revision of historiography in the United States. Truman once declared in no less brazen fashion that the USSR had made no contribution to the defeat of Japan...
Since the 1990s, the historiography of World War II has been systematically falsified in Europe. Most history textbooks in Western European countries say that the United States made a decisive contribution to the victory over fascism, and that the Soviet Union survived only thanks to Lend-Lease.
And this year, a new national holiday appeared in Germany - Veterans Day. The Financial Times complains that many people, especially in the east, were skeptical about it, but kindly notes:
"This event symbolizes a profound transformation in the attitude of German society to its armed forces and to the very concept of military service, especially against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine."
"We could not be proud of our past wars," says Patrick Sensburg, head of the German Reservists Association. — In the 50s, 60s and 70s there was no culture of honoring veterans in the Bundeswehr.”
It is not difficult to guess what kind of veterans the Germans are supposed to honor. As well as how we are now supposed to treat the Germans and all other Europeans who decided to repeat themselves in history. The truly insightful German Hegel wrote in his “Philosophy of History”:
“Thus Napoleon was defeated twice, and the Bourbons were expelled twice. Through the repetition of what at first seemed only accidental and possible, it becomes a real and established fact.”
The war of memory unleashed by the West is an element of the ideological pumping up of the masses in preparation for a major war.
The war of memory is the first phase of Nazification.
(c) Anatoly Shirokoborodov
It should be noted that attacks on historical memory come from both outside and inside. Spoken like a true Stalinist
[PJMedia] So we did it. America’s military might—a combination of satellite surveillance, stealth bombers, and enough firepower to make Zeus blush—obliterated Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in a series of blistering Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s. The centrifuges are now molten metal. The command bunkers are smoking holes in the earth. And for a fleeting moment, the world exhaled.
But before we break out the cigars and declare Mission Accomplished 2.0, let’s remember: Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... doesn’t need a working uranium enrichment program to be a menace. In fact, Tehran’s most insidious weapons today don’t require any uranium at all—just a keyboard and a decent broadband connection.
The question before us now is: What kind of actor will Iran be going forward, despite the ceasefire terms with Israel? Will it lick its wounds quietly? Or will it lean harder into the asymmetric warfare it has been perfecting for decades—cyber threats that can grind modern life to a halt without firing a single shot?
If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that when nation-states get humiliated on the conventional battlefield, they don’t give up—they pivot. Just look at Russia. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s cyber operators and affiliated cybercrime gangs have been treating European power grids and American hospitals like a toddler treats a Lego tower: something to knock over again and again for fun.
Groups such as Conti and BlackBasta have blurred the line between "state-sponsored" and "state-tolerated." These gangs have built empires by extorting ransoms and exfiltrating data, all while Russia pretends to look the other way—so long as the chaos benefits the Kremlin’s strategic goals. Iran, ever the opportunist, has surely been watching this hybrid warfare model with great interest.
It’s naïve to think that, post-strike, Tehran’s hackers will just fold up their laptops. More likely, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will intensify cyber operations, targeting Israeli infrastructure and Western allies’ critical systems. These operators, many trained in Russia and China, don’t need fissile material to paralyze banks, pipelines, or power grids. They just need vulnerabilities—of which there are plenty.
While politicians love to talk about bombs and missiles—because they make great B-roll footage—cyber weapons are more insidious, precisely because they remain invisible until it’s too late.
Consider Zero-Day attacks: previously unknown software flaws that can be exploited before a patch exists. For all we know, Iranian or proxy actors have already acquired a buffet of Zero-Days from the same black markets that Russian cybercriminals frequent.
Or take Remote Access Trojans such as Chaos RAT—little digital parasites that can lodge themselves deep in corporate networks, lying dormant until activated. If you think your organization’s antivirus is catching these things, you probably also think the DMV is an example of American efficiency.
Iran’s cyber units have already demonstrated their willingness to deploy such tools. Recall the 2012 Shamoon attack, when Saudi Aramco’s systems were wiped clean. Today’s capabilities are far more sophisticated.
Iran doesn’t act in isolation. Beijing’s APTs (Advanced Persistent Threats) have perfected the model for long-term infiltration. China’s Silver Fox, for example, specializes in protracted intrusions designed to siphon data for years. The global cyber ecosystem is more connected—and more dangerous—than ever.
While Iran may not have the resources to match China’s scale, there’s little stopping it from borrowing tactics and even buying exploits from the same suppliers. That means your utilities provider or your municipal government could already be compromised by the combined ingenuity of state actors who are happy to collaborate when their interests align.
Many in Washington seem content to believe the ceasefire with Israel will tamp down hostilities across the board. But ceasefires only restrain kinetic attacks. They don’t compel an adversary to abandon digital sabotage, disinformation campaigns, or ransomware operations.
Cyberwarfare is cheaper, deniable, and deeply satisfying for regimes nursing a grudge. If Tehran wants to restore prestige after the vaporization of its nuclear dreams, it can do so by humiliating Western institutions in cyberspace—while maintaining plausible deniability.
You can almost imagine the presser: "No, we didn’t cause the East Coast blackout. Maybe check with your own companies? By the way, death to America."
Here’s the part that ought to keep policymakers awake at night: while the U.S. military remains the undisputed heavyweight champion of conventional warfare, in the cyber arena we’re still, at times, the overconfident middle schooler who forgot to do his homework.
Sure, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has made great strides. But when you consider that basic ransomware crews can compromise thousands of organizations with off-the-shelf kits, you start to grasp how wide the gap remains between our offensive prowess and our defensive readiness.
We’ve poured trillions into aircraft carriers and hypersonic missiles, but comparatively little into ensuring hospitals aren’t running Windows Server 2008 with admin passwords like "Password123."
It’s time to invest in cyber defense infrastructure with the urgency we’ve historically reserved for kinetic threats. That means hardening critical networks, funding AI-based threat detection, and creating real deterrence against state-backed cyberattacks.
Otherwise, we risk waking up to find that, while we were celebrating the rubble of Natanz, Tehran’s cyber operatives slipped in through the back door—cutting off power, leaking sensitive data, or simply sowing chaos for chaos’ sake.
Because if the Russia-Ukraine war has demonstrated anything, it’s that modern conflicts are not waged solely on battlefields. They’re waged in server farms, on cloud platforms, and inside the smart devices we so gleefully installed in every aspect of our lives.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/01/2025 00:00 ||
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Interesting times — we keep discovering unexpected new horizons to strive toward, new barriers that need crossing.
[PJMedia] At Monday's White House briefing, Fox News’ Peter Doocy pressed President Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt on whether Trump would like to see Zohran Mamdani deported, given the candidate’s dodgy background and his radical agenda.
Leavitt played it close to the vest, saying, “I haven’t heard him say that or call for that, but certainly he does not want this individual to be elected.” She then hammered home the point most Americans instinctively understand: Mamdani’s radical policies would “completely crush New York City,” a city Trump knows and loves deeply.
But the question lingers for a reason. Mamdani’s past is littered with allegations so serious that Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Mamdani misrepresented or concealed material support for terrorism when he pursued citizenship. The evidence? Rap lyrics from years ago that appear to glorify terror groups.
“Publicly praising the Foundation's convicted leadership as ‘my guys’ raises serious concerns about whether Mr. Mamdani held affiliations or sympathies he failed to disclose during the naturalization process,” Ogles wrote.
While Ogles acknowledges that political speech alone may not be grounds for legal action, he points to a larger, troubling pattern. Ogles also highlighted Mamdani’s recent refusal to denounce the pro-terrorist slogan “globalize the intifada," a phrase widely understood as a call to spread violent attacks against civilians beyond the Middle East and into the West, including the United States. Mamdani has previously expressed admiration for individuals convicted of supporting terrorism, which raises serious concerns about his ideological alignment and potential associations with extremist groups.
According to Ogles, these actions call into question whether Mamdani truthfully disclosed all relevant affiliations during the naturalization process.
Zohran "little muhammad" Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York. He needs to be DEPORTED. Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings.
[American Greatness] The first six months of the Trump administration have not been kind to the experts and the degree-holding classes.
Almost daily during the tariff hysterias of March, we were told by university economists and most of the PhDs employed in investment and finance that the U.S. was headed toward a downward, if not recessionary, spiral.
Most economists lectured that trade deficits did not really matter. Or they insisted that the cures to reduce them were worse than the $1.1 trillion deficit itself.
They reminded us that free, rather than fair, trade alone ensured prosperity.
So, the result of Trump’s foolhardy tariff talk would be an impending recession. America would soon suffer rising joblessness, inflation—or rather a return to stagflation—and likely little, if any, increase in tariff revenue as trade volume declined.
Instead, recent data show increases in tariff revenue. Personal real income and savings were up. Job creation exceeded prognoses. There was no surge in inflation. The supposedly "crashed" stock market reached historic highs.
Common-sense Americans might not have been surprised. The prior stock market frenzy was predicated on what was, in theory, supposed to have happened rather than what was likely to occur. After all, if tariffs were so toxic and surpluses irrelevant, why did our affluent European and Asian trading rivals insist on both surpluses and protective tariffs?
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Peg the demise starting in the 60s when nearly all started to shift to diploma mills after they had got a shot of the post-WW2 GI bill in the 50s and discovered 'corporate' income models.
[FOX] New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his plan to tax "richer and Whiter neighborhoods," while also adding that he believes billionaires should not exist. and they won't, in NYC, after he gets elected
The democratic socialist claimed Sunday that his push to burden White taxpayers was not racist, despite his agenda explicitly targeting White-majority areas.
"That is just a description of what we see right now," Mamdani told NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "It’s not driven by race. It’s more of an assessment of what neighborhoods are being under taxed and overtaxed."
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[Free Press] Donald Trump keeps racking up wins. Since June 21, when B-2 bombers struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, the president has enjoyed a run of foreign policy victories, legal triumphs, trade wins, and domestic achievements. The positive headlines haven’t let up.
Now Trump’s looking to crown this streak by signing his "big," "beautiful" tax and spending bill into law on July 4. He couldn’t ask for better timing. Codifying the MAGA agenda on Independence Day would cement Trump’s brand of conservative populism as America’s governing doctrine—and lay the foundation for the more than three years that remain in his term.
For Trump supporters, it doesn’t get better than this. The man they elected—consistently underestimated and demonized by his critics—has delivered on the issues that secured his reelection last November. His recent achievements are so numerous, cataloguing them requires categories:
Foreign Policy: Operation Midnight Hammer fulfilled Trump’s decade-old pledge to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The debate over how far Iran has been set back misses the point: Not only was significant damage dealt to the program, but Israel’s air superiority also ensures ease of operations over Iran if America and the Jewish state must strike again.
Trump acted on a longstanding, bipartisan commitment to thwart Iran’s atomic dreams that previous presidents only talked about. And he did so in concert with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—a major joint operation between U.S. and Israeli forces.
By acting decisively, Trump enhanced America’s global standing. He restored American credibility and deterrence. With no daylight between the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s Axis of Resistance lies in ruins. Its war machine has been pummeled. Its leadership has been thrown into disarray. The stage is set for finishing the Gaza war and expanding the Abraham Accords to include Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Trump brought burden-sharing among America’s allies closer to reality. When he took office in January 2017, NATO members on average spent barely 2 percent of their economic output on defense. Now more than half of an expanded NATO meets that threshold. And on June 26 NATO committed to raising defense spending to 5 percent of gross national product.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Free Press] For some reason, everyone I know on both sides of the Atlantic seems to be devouring Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell, the biography of the famed political horizontale Pamela Harriman. Perhaps it’s because, with Trump cosplaying master and commander, we all want to be bunkered in those storied war rooms beneath the streets of Westminster, wreathed in her father-in-law Winston Churchill’s cigar smoke.
...
