The Way of the Scorpion

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

As I write this, Israel has gotten back all the living kidnap victims. Unfortunately there’s only twenty of them.

Also fortunately Trump managed to get in the treaties that Hamass doesn’t get to stage its repulsive rallies or give “souvenirs” to the hostages.

Both of these are great and good. But I flinch a little when I hear about the “peace.” I don’t think Trump is stupid. I don’t even think he’s as naive as he was in his first term. Surely he doesn’t expect it to hold.

Or maybe he does. He had his son in law, Jared Kushner, negotiate the “peace” and frankly the man reminds me of a golden retriever for a reason. Maybe Kushner believes that he really negotiated lasting peace, and maybe Trump is crossing his fingers and hoping.

I’d be glad to eat my words on this but I don’t think I will: I will be shocked if the peace lasts till the end of the year. It won’t last long after. And if the domestic terrorists Antifa sponsors Democrats by any means win the midterms next year, Hamass will definitely trike immediately after. (Not that I think they’ll wait that long.)

There is a reason for this, and it’s not just “I don’t trust them” or “I have a memory longer than 20 minutes.”

The reason is simple: Hamass won’t hold the peace, because it can’t.

Eric S. Raymond has made similar observations about Antifa, the armed wing of the Democrat party, and he’s not wrong there either, but it’s even more so for Hamass.

We’re not dealing with a normal country. We never were. And it’s not just because normal countries don’t elect a terrorist group for its leadership. (I’ll pause a moment while you think about that, because that’s the edge we skate on as we speak.) It’s that “Palestine” as constituted, the country the kleptocratic bureucrats of the EU are so all in on recognizing, doesn’t have … anything. And I’m not talking about “oh, they’re despoiled.” I like the rest of you remember what they did to the infrastructure they found in the West Bank when they took over. There were functioning, producing greenhouses they ripped apart to use the plumbing to make rockets to lob at Israel. No, what I mean is that Palestine makes nothing, produces nothing, grows nothing. They can’t feed their own people. They can’t even educate their young, and send them to “schools” staffed by UN “teach-a-terrorist” units which indoctrinate them in the way of the suicide bomber.

All that keeps Palestine that appendage of Hamas and the people it indoctrinates/propagandizes/holds captive going from day to day is that euphemistically called “international aid.” If they didn’t get food/money/clothes shipped in, they’d be running around naked and starving in the desert.

They are a “people” (not really in any way but legally, btw) held together and governed and more importantly PAID for the simple purpose of making war on Israel. There is no other purpose, no other reason, nothing else that can get them paid or provide a purpose to their existence.

Given that, they can’t avoid breaking the truce. Even if their leaders understood they had to do it. Even if their leaders wanted to do it, it would never happen, because the entire ethos of the people, perhaps not down to the infant at the breast, but definitely down to the toddler, is to attack Israel.

They’re a people gathered, taught and governed as a living weapon to make war on Israel. They have no other purpose, no other interest, no other culture. They have no other reason for existing.

So, no, sorry President Trump, they won’t hold the peace. But remember you gave your word. And when they break it, all the brakes should be taken off Israel’s response.

Because we can’t have a people in the world whose whole purpose is to destroy another nation. We already have communists for that.

And that’s all. Right now the best I can wish the people of “Palestine” is that any remaining sane ones (if any remain) take off and make it to saner places (not here, thank you. We already have enough indoctrinated terrorists) and forget their “identity” before what is ultimately inevitable.

Today though? Today we celebrate that Jewish people more abused than any since the end of World War Two made it home.

And we gird our loins for what’s to come.

Nothing left to do.

As in the old Russian fable, the scorpion will sting the frog that’s carrying him across the river, even if that means they both die because it’s its nature. It can’t do otherwise. Same for the Palestinians.

113 thoughts on “The Way of the Scorpion”

  1. Hamas is the Scorpion but I suspect that the “Good And Caring” nations that allowed Hamas to keep control of the Gaza just want Isreal destroyed (as long as their hands are clean).

    Liked by 1 person

  2. It’s a crossroad event. If they break the peace, Israel will destroy them. If they don’t, Israel will eventually have most assimilate into their society. I lean more to the first. Hamas is full of those that are trained to hate, murder without remorse, and terrorize even their own to continue the monetary support from those that hate Jews.

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  3. They are not inevitably scorpions. They aren’t born, they are made. They are taught, deliberately and relentlessly, this consuming hatred. They can be taught something else.

    The sane Gazans/Palestinians don’t need to flee. They need to be identified, kept where they are, and be given responsible positions. They need to teach the following generations their sanity. It’s the best way for this people to become something that doesn’t need to be locked away or chained up like (to mix animal similes) a vicious dog. I suppose sending in foreigners to do the teaching could be tried, but it would work better coming from their own, and I would not trust the educators that most nations would assign not to be carbon copies of the UN-approved scorpion-makers.

    And once we’ve reformed the education system of Gaza, maybe we can try it here.

    Republica restituendae, et, Hamas delenda est.

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      1. Ham-ass has its own problems with the local clans. There’s a link on the Ace sidebar to a story about it:

        https://jihadwatch.org/2025/10/hamas-out-to-destroy-the-gazan-clans-that-oppose-it

        My take on it is that these local clans are not as one might assume “pro-Israel” or even “pro peace” so much as they are anti- Ham-ass. Use the word “clans” as near synonymous with “tribes” and you may get what I mean. I remain healthily skeptical of anything coming out of Gaza, no matter how enticing it may at first appear.

        Should Ham-ass actually divest themselves of their weapons in any significant fashion, the clans will eat them alive. And should that happen, I suspect the clans themselves will start trying to settle old scores with each other, posthaste. Ham-ass kept the lid on with brutal tactics and terror while they were in charge. They tortured, raped, and murdered their way through any perceived opposition.

        Are there any sane Gazans left? Precious few, if so. And even if so, then unlikely to be powerful AND ruthless enough to subdue the clans and keep order. Glassing the place would be especially foolish considering how bloody tiny a geographic area we are talking about, even if tempting for those who haven’t looked into it with any depth.

        The next conflict in Gaza may not see the IDF involved at all. Pray for the innocent, brothers and sisters. And may you all set your own lives in order. No sane man wants conflict. But, strife and catastrophe have a way of finding the unsuspecting. All we can do is be prepared, and act accordingly.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. Hamass came to power by killing everyone – and by everyone I mean children and women first in front of the men, who Hamass then killed, all recorded for wide distribution – who was a clan candidate, or publicly supporting their own clan candidate, for elected office in the then-upcoming election, which just so happened to end up being the only elections held ever.

          So yeah, the clans have an issue with Hamass. And as Hamass no longer has a monopoly on guns, things have become kinetic.

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      2. And furthermore there is no identifiable handy Son of Heaven figure to tell them, from the heights of the Imperial throne, that the nation has (past tense) laid down its arms in honorable surrender.

        Or as the Americans might say, “no off switch in sight.”

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Apparently Hamass and others are already moving to make sure there are no sane Palestinians.

      Meanwhile, reports from the Jerusalem Post detail how the same internal Gaza violence that killed al-Jafarawi erupted when the Doghmush clan ambushed Hamas operatives near the Jordanian hospital in Gaza City. Hamas responded by executing members of the clan in Sabra—including, reportedly, children.

      https://pjmedia.com/michaelcantrell/2025/10/13/mamdanis-wife-laments-after-fellow-palestinians-kill-notorious-hamas-terrorist-n4944809

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    3. I would say that the “sane” Gazans need to be removed to clear the way for employment of Daisy Cutters and FAE weapons to clear that area out once and for all. The they can move back in to rebuild.

      While I have deep respect for the abilities of the IDF and acknowledge their right to finish the job, when Hamas breaks the treaty they made with Trump (everyone else is a side boy, who are we kidding) then the US should launch at least the first of the retaliatory strikes. Then we can fall back and let the IDF finish up (especially in the ground phase).

      People need to unlearn what they have been taught (going back to the days of ignoring Soviet arms control violations, and reinforced by the Light Bringer/Xou Bai Den administrations) about the consequences of violating an agreement guaranteed by the the USA.

      Liked by 2 people

    4. They’re people, they have a choice.

      The same methods that let them sneak in to Israel to kill? Could let them sneak out and escape.

      Especially if they show up and go state’s evidence, effectively– the f’ers put remote detonators on the “suicide bombers” to take out Israelis because it was happening too much.

      Israel figured out how to jam the signals. (There’s snuck out video of the kids they strap the bombs too. Usually disabled. Usually not as disabled as Hamass thought, because they managed to ask for help, and got it.)

      They absolutely do not need to be kept in a location that exists so the neighboring countries could try to wipe out Israel with plausible deniability.

      Liked by 5 people

    5. If they are over 5 years old, they already have it on parental authority that Jews and Israelis are evil and should be killed. It might be possible to deprogram them, but if they’re older than 10, forget it.

      Liked by 1 person

    6. Even if you could find the necessary people in Gaza, I suspect they would just end up like the political class in Japan in the early 30s. i.e. dead at the hands of those who wanted war (specifically, lower ranking officers in the military), and a population cheering on the killers.

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    7. The important thing, imo, is that the hostages are being released. And it’s been done in a way that doesn’t leave the Israelis humiliated.

      Maybe Hamas breaks it again next week. But if so, they won’t have the hostages.

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    8. “They can be taught something else.”

      hmmm,, not unless they are under 10 years old they cant, its kinda like someone saying they can make you un see Raquel Welch running around in a fur skirt in that old movie, cant remember the name but i remember her!

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  4. “They’re a people gathered, taught and governed as a living weapon to make war on Israel. They have no other purpose, no other interest, no other culture. They have no other reason for existing.”

    2 years back, right after the atrocities, I made a guest post here on my take. I noted how the inhabitants of Gaza had been raised on nothing but “death to all Jews” from early childhood, and would take years of propaganda to remedy. The interesting thing that Trump has done is convince the rich Middle East sponsors of terrorism that they’re not safe from the repercussions. With eyes open and fingers crossed, I’m hoping that it just might work. No, I don’t think it likely, but it just might, and hopefully Trump has a big enough stick to hit the, “Bad dog! No!” shock collar. Of course that all depends on electing somebody who continues his policies in 2028, not Mr. No New Taxes (until I get elected) or someone similar. I have hopes for Mr. Vance. Again, we’ll see.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. “They’re a people gathered, taught and governed as a living weapon to make war on Israel. They have no other purpose, no other interest, no other culture. They have no other reason for existing.”

      I’m reminded of a DC comic where Batman died and when the Joker heard he pretty much instantly became sane, stopped committing crimes and adopted a new ordinary boring life. Because the Joker cannot exist without Batman. The only reason the Joker exists is to oppose Batman. If Israel magically disappeared instantly or announced “OK, you win, here are the keys to the Holy Land we’re all moving en masse to a a colony on the moon.” Palestine would cease to exist too. Palestine only exists to oppose Israel. Without Israel they would have no purpose. They would instantly start fighting each other and their neighbors and be swiftly be destroyed.

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    3. “They’re a people gathered, taught and governed as a living weapon to make war on Israel. They have no other purpose, no other interest, no other culture. They have no other reason for existing.”

      I’m reminded of a DC comic where Batman died and when the Joker heard he pretty much instantly became sane, stopped committing crimes and adopted a new ordinary boring life. Because the Joker cannot exist without Batman. The only reason the Joker exists is to oppose Batman. If Israel magically disappeared instantly or announced “OK, you win, here are the keys to the Holy Land we’re all moving en masse to a a colony on the moon.” Palestine would cease to exist too. Palestine only exists to oppose Israel. Without Israel they would have no purpose. They would instantly start fighting each other and their neighbors and be swiftly be destroyed.

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  5. I ran all out of sympathy for the Palis about twenty years ago. And after October 7th … well. Not a shred left. The Israelis can’t live next to them. (Neither can the rest of us, but that’s another story.)

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      1. Note that the implementation force in the accepted agreement is made up of the various “fed up with your…” Arab countries that have already signaled their patience with Hamass is pretty much done, and who have all declined to accept any “displaced Gazans”. We might be seeing Arab-style, rather than Euro-UN style, “peacekeeping” – see the way Egypt dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood there after Barry’s “color revolution” guy got the boot.

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        1. A lot of them also absolutely hate Hamas’ parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been trying to overthrow the current governments of many of those Arab nations for decades. It was the MB who murdered Sadat, because he made peace with Israel. The MB, founded in 1928, has in its charter the same express call for the global genocide of Jews that Hamas has.

          It should therefore surprise no one that Obama absolutely adored the MB, and that his operatives in the Biden puppet regime were equally big admirers of the MB. The MB’s hatred of Jews was of course a feature and not a bug for that crew.

          Liked by 1 person

  6. Factchekc: the scholarly consensus is that there will be peace in our time, and that everyone will be home in time for christmas, and that certain academics definitely are not a bunch of scammers gone savage and ignorant.

    Frog and scorpion analogy is a little bit stronger than I prefer, but not because I am unconvinced that there will be war. There will be war, I am sure.

    TRump has struck me as fairly silly in terms of thinking that other parties can and will deliver on peace. But, I am too prone to irrationally making the opposite judgement. I’ve had to settle down into a mellow medium of waiting on the other party to offend, instead of predicting the offense, and trying to work towards a preemptive remedy.

    So I have not taken the nominally my faction triumphalism seriously enough to think it needs to be refuted.

    Kofi Annan literally was awarded the peace prize, for the opposite of what he accomplish. I don’t even pay attention to nobel lauraetes in the sciences. (The Fields medalists are maybe useful for me to look into. Lots of more minor awards, that don’t have as much profile for politics entirely outside of the academic world.)

    Kofi Annan was literally a Secretary General of the UN.

    In conclusion, I am a pissy little bitch when it comes to certain diplomats, and to certain persons who think that diplomats are worth spit.

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    1. me thinks there are some big ole carrots dangling before both parties who are supposed to remain “Peaceful” , the palestinians make nothing, do nothing provide nothing so rely entirely on others, the Israelis rely on handouts as well however to a lesser degree because they have people like schumer in CONgress sending them money on the down low,

      peace? How long have the tribes of David been at war with eachother?

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  7. I’ll give it till the end of the month. If the “truce” lasts longer than that, it’s just more rest/regrouping/rearming.

    Frankly I’m surprised that any hostages were still alive after two years. I guess the Pallies love them some torture “toys”. Now that leverage is gone and the range is free.

    99% chance of “Gaza delenda est” when the idiots start the nonsense again.

    As for the ” indoctrinated terrorists” and the “fellow travellers” here in the States, let’s pray that law enforcement can handle the majority of the foot soldiers and funders.

    Even with the progress the current adminstation is making, there’s a lot of darkness and unknown in my crystal ball. Ugg…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. This. I am convinced that everyone in the near area is so comprehensively tired of the Palis sh*t that they wouldn’t really care if the IDF turned the whole place into glass. Oh, they might weep and wail a bit for the TV cameras … but honestly I believe the Palis have no friends left in the world save for a) Muzz who don’t live anywhere near them and b) stupid Western activists by so-called leaders who might be getting paid under the table anyway

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  8. OK, at some point supposedly Gaza comes under control of a “neutral” force.

    How about let the Jordanian army do it (if they are crazy enough to take the job)?

    After all they have a long history of cultural exchanges with the Palestinians.

    (And I’m sure that whole September 1970 disagreement has been forgotten. Right?) <insert evil grin here>

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Heard some rumors that India might be wanting to give it a go. Oh sure, they’ve got their issues with the Pakis next door, but they’re nothing like the idiots that named themselves after a pig’s rear end, right? Right?

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  9. The Gazans (I refuse to call them Palestinians) really only have two choices at this point. At least from their perspective.

    Wage war on Israel again, and likely be destroyed.

    Resist attacking Israel and be destroyed by internecine fighting.

    The third option, actually maintain the peace and work to improve Gaza is completely incomprehensible to them.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. They’ve been told since at least the 1950s that they are owed, and that the Jews are to blame for everything.

      Those who disagreed fled early on, and their kids and grandkids often don’t want anything to do with the disaster “back there.” Those who disagreed later are probably dead, or hiding in other countries.

      Liked by 5 people

      1. Sadly, yes on this.

        The Gaza coastline might have been the resort pearl of the eastern Med. A tourist mecca. An economic Monaco. Might have been drawing tourists from everywhere, for seafood, the beaches and all.

        But no – the Palis got drunk on Jew-hate and revenge, and being used.

        Sucks to be them. Sorry, I ran out of sympathy for them in about 2005.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. They hated Jews before modern Israel was established. Well before, in fact. That is because their objection is to the presence of Jews, in any number, anywhere. That is why the love to reference and recite the Hadith that refers to killing Jews after rocks tell them “there is a Jew behind me, kill him”. For the Jihadists and their supporters, it is literally a religious duty to kill Jews

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                1. Naw, just a batshit crazy Arab. In a sane world, Mohammed would have been locked up for everybody’s safety. And sanity.
                  ———————————
                  “Oh, no. You can’t-a fool me. There ain’t-a no Sanity Clause!”

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                  1. In a sane world, Mohammed would have been executed for everybody’s safety. And sanity.

                    FTFY. There’s people that are too dangerous to have around kinfolk.

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      2. TX, we got people here in our country who think the gazans have done nothing wrong, basicly they are anti semetic aka Jew haters, some of them quite surprising too, like Matt bracken, sorta surprised about that one, honestly, that schitt causes me to lose all respect for these peeps spouting off about how wrong the Israelis are, like i said before, you lob bombs at me randomly for decades dont whine when i flatten your entire world.

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    2. Think you mighta misspelled “impossible” there, but it works as stated, too.

      Best thing that could happen to Ham-ass, from their perspective, would be war at this point. Somebody else starting a war with Israel, I mean. Which would be monumentally stupid of them at this point, but when has the M.E. ever been level headed and smart the first time? Probably not Egypt nor Syria, Iran’s broke as a joke, let’s see… Turkey, mayhap?

      Crazy leader? Czech. Hates Isreal? Double check. Has enough military to do the dirty deed? Debatable, but eh, maybe. There’s always the possibility of another nutjob that think’s he’s the second coming of Islamic Rommel with a side of Temujin.

      Eh. It’s still an outside straight, but gamblers gonna gamble. We’ll see. Hope for the best and all.

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      1. Has enough military to do the dirty deed?

        With the force multiplier of a) he’s a NATO member and b) could provide the Russians and Chicoms with a fair amount of tech (presuming he hasn’t already).

        Not to mention just allowing the Russians / Chicoms free passage through the Bosporus.

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  10. I suspect someone will stir up something by the end of this year, if not sooner. The Muslim Brotherhood, PA (Mahmood Abass needs to go into retirement already), or someone will kick things off again. That’s their entire justification for, well, everything.

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    1. Everything after the first phase that all the regional powers agreed to in Egypt is currently unacceptable to Hamass, so I expect things to go kinetic outside of Gazan-on-Gazan firefights in weeks not months. And if the PA tries to horn in by sending troops over, even under the cover of the peacekeeping Arab forces, that will light things off right there.

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  11. For a while I had a Great Courses subscription and was listening to the talks on the American tribes. One of the issues they ran into was after the chiefs made peace with the settlers, they had pretty much zero control over the young men raiding and hunting livestock and people.

    Because their society simply had no concept of binding agreements. The old men did their talking and the bucks did whatever they did regardless.

    And the tribes that could not figure this out had to be destroyed by civilization. Because civilization cannot function of only some of the people follow the rules. Just does not work.

    I expect Hamas is the same but worse, because on top of that, they seem to have adopted their own version of needing to dip their spears in blood to be recognized as anything in their tribe.

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    1. Because civilization cannot function of only some of the people follow the rules. Just does not work.

      As we’ve seen here and in the UK over the past 10 -20 years. Though I would change that to “the same set of rules”.

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      1. Well, empires can work with special rules for special groups.

        Bottom up peace consensus between peer citizens?

        Yeah, screwing over evenhandedness and ‘the rules apply to everyone’ too much undermines the peace consensus.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Different rules for some and others for others is still the same rule book. When a subset says “no rule book applies to us” is when they either have to be ruthlessly suppressed or things fall apart.

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    2. Yes.

      Varied a bit with the tribe.

      either the Cherokee were not actually civilized enough, or the Georgians forged documentary evidence for evil reasons, and Jackson’s policy was still optimal. If the Georgians had done the removal on their own, and more slowly, could have escalated many things, and it was only twenty years or so prior to the ACW, less for bleeding Kansas.

      The Great Plains Indians were explicitly unusually special in this way. Their war bands were politically independent. The reservations and the reservation schools were probably the least murderous feasible method of obtaining peace with them. With all ills of the reservations and reservation schools acknowledged.

      Fundamentally the wrong question not asked by a lot of the modern histography was ‘does what we understand of the culture mean that both sides were in a position to deliver on peace?’ If neither side was equipped to deliver on what we understand now is possible, by moderns, then indiscriminately defecating on one of those potential factions for that failure is unmeet.

      The indians signed papers, and could not understand delivering what the other parties might have expected.

      Americans then did not have the level of forceful and social enforcement over ‘American’ whites that Americans do now, and pretending that they could have chosen and did not is frankly dishonest or insane.

      It is especially so when the factions not so bound were responding to indian failures to deliver on peace.

      Basically, all in all, American instincts on this stuff were more good than they were ill, and a lot of the academic consensus is wildly off base.

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    3. In Stirling’s Emberverse series when the new Sioux join Montival and a group of Sioux cross into the area that is Alberta, it comes up that the Sioux have been engaging in “time honored” counting coup. Which involved horse stealing. It is pointed out that while that couldn’t be stopped. Neither could the consequences should the Sioux get caught, especially if someone was killed in the process. Put a damper on the concept. That maybe counting coup should be culturally redefined, so to speak. That some “traditions” really shouldn’t be indulged with those needed for survival on the high plains desert under the conditions imposed.

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  12. I think Trump is aware that the likelihood of Hamas keeping the peace is low at best–but he very much does seem like a “hope for the best but plan for the worst” kind of guy. And this does put Hamas into a no-win situation: they HAD to agree to the deal (Qatar and Egypt both told the leader, basically, “You say yes, or we are booting you out of ALL protection, and we’re not covering for you diplomatically or in any other way anymore”), and they’re cut off from support from Iran (who is also persona non grata in a big way in the ME right now). On the flip side, if they now violate said deal, they’re not likely to get ANY support from their former protectors (like Qatar and Egypt) because now they’ve made their sort-of-buddies lose face, AND it largely puts their idiot supporters in the West in a position where it’s gonna be even harder to gin up support* when Israel and its allies can point right at the peace deal and say “They signed it, and they broke their word. We warned them what would happen” and then Israel hopefully utterly destroys Hamas and “Palestine” unto the fourth generation.

    *Oh, they’ll still try, especially the idiot college kids. But some of the governments, like France, are gonna have a hard time “supporting” Palestine if Hamas blatantly violates a peace treaty after all this time spent shrieking how much they wanted a “ceasefire” and the governments pushing for “peace.” They’ll lose face too, and that will likely make them a good deal less sympathetic.

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    1. Also: Hamas releasing the hostages means that Israel now can go full gloves-off if need be, AND they no longer have any leverage…but keeping them was ALSO losing them leverage. They really were in a no-win, and it remains to be seen if they realize that they are now locked into that no-win scenario.

      Because you better believe that even if the Euroweenies and Canada and the UN throw a hissy fit if Israel goes full boot-up-the-arse on Hamas if/when they break the treaty, the US definitely will NOT and the Trump administration will certainly offer full approval and support for whatever Israel opts to do. Trump, I think, is prepared to “lose face” if Hamas violates the deal–because it also gives him a full on reason to say “TOLD YOU SO” to the rest of the West and flip them the finger…and no one can accuse him of not doing everything possible to make peace. It basically boils down to “If Hamas breaks the deal, it’s now been set up so that no one but the total moonbat crazies can say that it’s anyone’s fault other than Hamas”

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        1. Yes…I frequently find myself cackling at their abject stupidity…and then praying fervently that they continue to entirely fail to learn from their mistakes!

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      2. Bingo. Without the hostages, “humanitarian concerns” are the only thing keeping Israel from turning Gaza City into the set for the next Mad Max film. And after the fighting down in Khan Younis, Hamass seems to be discovering that they have other enemies besides the IDF.

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      3. Look who was there in Egypt to sign the thing. Outside of Israel being excluded because Erdogan is an ass, that is who matters on this deal. HamAss was not there thus they do not matter.

        Getting all the funding and sanctuary sources signed on was the big deal.

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        1. I saw an interesting commentary the other day, though I forget who it was. They pointed out that one of the big reasons Trump has been so successful where decades upon decades of our foreign post-WW2 policy has not is…he doesn’t delude himself about “shared morals” or believe that we should try and impose our morals (or rather, our view of governing) on anyone else, particularly countries with cultures that are quite alien to Western values (like much of the Middle East). What he DOES believe, with ample evidence, is that pretty much everyone likes making money and being prosperous. So that’s what he offers. He also doesn’t pretend he isn’t interested in putting his own country first–it’s just that he presents the amazing and glorious concept of enlightened self interest: yes, we’ll put ourselves first on the world stage. But that goal is only helped along by YOU doing what helps YOUR country prosper too. I mean…I realized shortly after he took office the first go around that apparently what we’ve needed since forever in a President was an honest to goodness BUSINESSMAN, but this go ’round he is making that even MORE obvious. Even better, the folks he’s setting up as his potential successors in the future seem to be taking good notes (Vance, in particular–there’s a guy I will happily vote for!)

          Saw something else that made me a little sad and wanting to give Trump a hug, too: Peter Doocey mentioned to him a few days ago something about Trump’s recent joke about how ending the Ukraine/Russia conflict might actually get him into heaven, and Doocey asked Trump if he thought ending the war in Israel might not do that too. And quite seriously (and quietly, for Trump) Trump said it was a nice thought, but he was pretty sure he would never qualify for heaven. (I think he’s wrong–in that I think he’s a good man doing his best, and he’s trying to be a good believer–but it was an unexpected moment of humility. I’ve never thought Trump a narcissist, but no one would deny he has a big ego–and usually well earned, at that. But he looked so sad when he said it, it made me want to hug him!)

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  13. I’m right along the lines of what sarathered said right before I could log in! But since I already wrote my two cents worth you all get to readit (or skip past it) too.

    Trying to think WAY outside the box, so I can catch a glimpse, off in the far distance, of what Trump thinks…but what if Trump (and the other signatories to the “treaties” both Arab and Israeli) are assuming that Hamass will indeed break the treaty? Others have noted what I too recall from the initial announcements, in that the alternative to keeping the terms specified is utter destruction.

    I kind of assume that is what will end up happening, because the scorpion has to scorpion. My only question is how many (not “if” but “how many”) Arab nations join in the task.

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    1. The scorpions will sting, and the frogs (the people who keep insisting that Palis are victims) will drown along with them.

      But I should do the only thing I can do, which is pray that the Holy Spirit visits them with a cluebat.

      Like

  14. Part of the reason that Gaza has the treaty is between Israel and the US the top terrorist leadership have been neutralized (killed). Plus the money has been shutdown (Iran/Russia embargoes).

    Treaty itself? Trump sounds like he believes it will work. But there is a reason why there are 20 benchmarks. Trump explicitly stated that should Gaza, or Ham-ass fails to deliver, then Israel has full green light and US support to “finish the job”. Put the fear of G O D, whom even in the muslim religion is still above YKW.

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    1. The Reader thinks that if Hamas has a clue, they will remember what happened to the Iranian nuclear program earlier this year after Trump warned them to come to the table.

      Like

  15. Hmm. In general, never “trust the plan…”

    However, if Trump needed a peace deal, and violations thereof, to prep the battlespace for going against the UN and our ‘allies’, sorta might happen this way.

    I do figure Trump is being overly trusting.

    Like

    1. “I do figure Trump is being overly trusting.“

      –

      I figure Trump is projecting being overly trusting.

      Truly believe that this is the best path? Yes.

      Project belief it will work? Yes.

      Believe it will actually work? No.

      2016 – 2024 taught Trump better than to be trusting.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. Ham-ass is using the U.N. for reasons (and funding. Lots and lots of funding). U.N. is using Ham-ass for reasons (they’re not-so-in-the-closet anti-Semites). The U.N. is commie central. They’re communists first, and the muzzie crazies are there to be a tool against their ideological opponents. This is classic commie tactics. Use a disposable tool to destabilize a thriving country, sweep in and read the sweet sweet loot out of it.

      Put it another way: each group would happily murder the shee-ite out of the other, were we and the Israelis out of the picture- in space, say. They each have very, very different goals. But are very willing to use the other for short term gain.

      Liked by 1 person

  17. And now for something completely different.

    Official support for MicroShaft WIN-BLOWS 10 ends tomorrow. Wasn’t it just a few years ago they assured us that #10 was the final, ultimate, forever version of MS-WIN-BLOWS? That it would last for eternity? Welp, I guess eternity ends tomorrow.

    Everywhere you go, you are told “Upgrade to Windows 11!” My one computer that runs MS-WIN-BLOWS tells me that. When it’s not booted into Linux, anyway. But if I click on the ‘Upgrade’ link, it says “Your computer does not support Windows 11”.

    Ah, no. They are lying. What they really mean is that MS-WIN-BLOWS 11 does not support my computer. Or something like 400 million other perfectly good computers which we are now supposed to scrap because ONE F*KING EEEVUL CORPORATION has chosen to make them ‘obsolete’. There is no technological reason why MS-WIN-BLOWS 11 can’t run on all of those computers. The only ‘problem’ with them is that MicroShaft can’t assert the level of control over them that they want. They can’t monitor everything you do with YOUR computer.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Not sure if everyone can get it, but I was offered (and took) a one year extension, where for MS 10 they will still provide security updates until October 2026 (Oct. 13 2026 is the end date for that).

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Yep.

        Literally all you have to do is fully update the system software, while logged in to a Microsoft account which is an administrator on that machine, then click “accept.”

        Like

        1. … in fairness, that required going back to edit the registry to undo the regedit I’d done to keep it from auto-updating to 11.

          Because no, I am not “upgrading” to something that removes basic features like “move the task bar” and after five freaking years goes “oh, we fixed it– look, you can align the hieroglyphics to left!”

          Nope, nope, nope, I like my bar on the left, with labels, so at a glance I can pick one of the dozen documents I have open.

          Like

    2. I got ticked off at MS when Win 7 hit end of life. For a while, I had a laptop that ran Win 10; hated it, and in 2018 it got converted to Linux. As I told a boss back in the Win 95 days, “I don’t do Windows.”

      Yeah, there are things I can’t do as easily in Linux. Shrugs. I get by.

      Like

    3. The Reader’s household is now left with 2 Win 11 machines (one a backup for the other) so that the Reader’s better half can continue to use Quicken to manage household finances (open source alternatives require you to roll your own with regard to financial institution downloads and said institutions change their interface parameters randomly). Everything else is now on Mint Linux, which the Reader found easiest to install and adapt to of the various distributions he tried.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I use Quicken too. For the same reason. Dang subscription model.

        We’re all on Win11 because I do not want to have to maintain everyone’s Linux installations, regardless of flavor.

        Son is in the middle of upgrading/rebuilding his gaming desktop so he can install Win11. Needs it anyway. Hardware is 10+ years. Weirdly his laptop just shutdown the other day. Now that is still under warranty through Costco. He took the air compressor to it to clean out pet hair and dust, and it is behaving (so far … we’ll see).

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  19. There is a milestone (almost typed ‘millstone’ there) approaching. Next Wednesday, if the government is still shut down, Socialist Security payments will be delayed. I’m sure the Democrats will screech and weep crocodile tears about how the Republicans are denying Grandma her SS check.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Democrats will screech and weep crocodile tears about how the Republicans are denying Grandma her SS check.“

      –

      And the grandma’s and great-grandma’s will reply “It is the democRATS that are delaying our checks! Idiots!” Then hit them with our cane and walkers. (Not a grandmother yet, darn it. Do have a cane these days.)

      Liked by 3 people

    2. It is my understanding that Social Security payments are and will be going out as usual. It is supposed to be coming from a different pot of money or some such. We will see if it shows up in my account this coming Wednesday.

      I don’t think the democrats are stupid enough to piss off a block that contains so many of their people.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. My Social Security is posted on the 3rd of each month (unless the 3rd is on a weekend).

        Like

        1. Hmm. Mine’s the second Wednesday, $SPOUSE’s is the third Wednesday. My money program doesn’t understand “nth Foo-day of the month”, so I have to tweak the payment schedules each month (I don’t do online). All the rest of the bills/payments are on more-or-less fixed days of the month. (Weekend exceptions at times. Not always.)

          Like

          1. The Android calendar is capable of 3rd Wednesday of the month. Why can’t Quicken and equivalent? We have the same problem. For the last few months it actually has been the Friday before 3rd Wednesday, or the 2nd Friday.

            We have a different problem with a standing annual date. Saturday the weekend before Memorial Day weekend in May. (Private family graveyard cleanup.) Which can be either the 3rd or 4th Saturday, depending on the year.

            Like

      4. Our’s are suppose to show up *3rd Wednesday of the month. Lately it has been showing up the Friday before 3rd Wednesday. This month is posted the Thursday before. Auto pay if that makes a difference.

        (*) Based on when your birth day falls within the month. Hubby’s is 19, and mine is 20, so that means “3rd Wednesday”. Mom gets hers the 1st of the month (dad’s birth day was 4). Don’t think her auto deposit changed.

        We’ll see what happens next month.

        Agree. The usual suspects cannot afford to piss off a big chunk of their base. Not that I know of many in the silver crowd that have TDS (know of one, her spouse and children do not have it).

        Liked by 1 person

  21. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » HOWEVER, I CAN’T SEE HOW THIS LASTS:  The Way of the Scorpion.

  22. https://instapundit.com/750623/

    Factcheck: Well, akshully, ‘a man’ I ‘know’ his age doesn’t have an anonymous gaming group, so that one case totally casts doubt on the statistical estimate, despite that the man in my example does have a lot of anonymous or anonymous enough handles.

    I mean, there’s a remote chance that Vance is somehow too stupid or too technically illiterate to have understood the surveilance and social circumstances when he was young and forming his habits. I do not see anything suggestive of that, but there almost certainly are forty year olds like that.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. I suspect that what changed in the “Mideast” was

    1) The USA blowing to hell and back the deep under-mountain bunkers of the Iranian nuclear program, in a manner that said “easy-peasy”, any time, any where.

    2) Israel blowing to hell and back the penthouse suites of the Ham-ass “leadership” hiding in Dotha Qatar, in a manner that said “easy-peasy”, any time, any where.

    In other words, if/when someone decides to make a foe extinct, the capability exists and is demonstrated. One can posture and threaten, but the other side can put a period on your statement at any point desired. And scaled up, any tribe/clan/group could be rendered extinct, or worse yet easily conquered by their neighbors, thus subject to the usual abusive and humiliating behaviors.

    then 3) Trump offering face-saving carrots to enough of the players to get them to go along, however much they might posture and protest.

    The game changed. Bigly.

    Like

    1. If you look at the bunker bombing, it was a Death Star setup, right down to targeting the heat exhaust piping. I happen to know a member of the military* got a commendation for two years of drone surveillance to help make that mission possible, so somebody in the chain of command was thinking ahead.

      *That’s as much info as I will give here.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The things can utilize existing holes. They also make them, then repeat on them to make the hole deeper. In theory, a large number of bombers serially engaging a single target might seemingly crack through crust into mantle.

        And any of the subsequent knock-knocks could instead be 150kt of canned sunshine. But hardly necessary in most cases.

        But kudos to the Geek that found the thermal exhaust port.

        Womp (rat) Womp (rat)

        Liked by 1 person

        1. If the bunker is deep enough, the hole eventually fills up with rubble and more bombs just blast the pieces into smaller bits. What is needed is a way to deliver bombs into the interior before they detonate.

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          1. The ones used in Iran were dropped in pairs. #1 hits the vulnerable spot, or best guess location, It makes a hole and blasts out much mass. #2 of the pair follows it down and flies into the new larger/deeper hole, and repeats. -way- further underground than one alone.

            I am inferring the weapons use a shattering charge to break solids, plus a significant charge of something like ANFO, that is more shove then shatter (lower brisance). ANFO is routinely used to clear mass out of the ground for a “cratering charges”. I can envision a dual warhead per weapon much alike the Hellfire anti-armor missile has a small charge to pre-detonate reactive/explosive armor, then the main charge breaches the static armor.

            In theory, one might use 3 or 4 weapons before the explosive couldn’t throw clear enough mass.

            I am speculating, but I estimate zero chance the US Air Force has not already applied similar precision guidance packages to the B-61 gravity bomb. (much as the common GBU weapons use laser or GPS guidance kits added to otherwise dumb-iron bombs) The B-61-Mod11 is already hardened for penetration and seems ideal. It also yield 340kT on max setting, which would produce quite an upheaval at the bottom of a deep hole. (grin) Also spectacular fallout, as I am assuming it would crater Yugely.

            After the Iran raid, every owner of “bombproof” bunkers must have reviewed the result and ordered “start digging deeper”.

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  25. I fully expect some people in Gaza to break the terms. Nobody can control every individual in any area (and those people are less controllable than most)

    But what made Hamas a problem was not that there are violent people there, but that they had support from the outside

    providing a lot of money

    providing weapons

    providing cover/defense

    At this point, we have a lot of countries in the region who have had it with Hamas and are not going to be providing these things

    When (not if) there is the next violent attack, do the people making the attack get to brag about it to the world (remember 10/7 was live-streamed by the attackers and there are tapes of people calling their parents “I just killed a jew, aren’t you so proud of me”) and have everyone support and protect them? or do they get shunned and turned over to Israel or other police forces?

    There has been enough pain this time that there is a chance that it will hold for at least a little while.

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    1. I would imagine the saner Israelis living near Gaza are arming up like Bubbas on no-tax-holidays.

      It also occurs to me that some of the former residents of Syria that appealed to Israel for help might consider relocation to Gaza-adjacent Israel a reasonable trade. Druze tend to be rather loyal to any regime that treats them decently. IDF already has a bunch of Druze Israelis, and they have a good rep as soldiers.

      A repeat of 7 October is unlikely for the same reason as the unlikelyhood of repeat of 11 September. The would be victims will not be following the same script.

      (If, for example, some fool tries to hijack a US Airliner with a box cutter, he is likely to get dogpiled, immobilized, and possibly gelded.)

      Like

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