Holiday Weekend Wrap-Up

Iran, Finland, and fraud

Hello Screamers and welcome to this extremely late update of what’s been going on in the world! A nasty bug is currently sweeping through the house (Covid ‘26?), so my day/night cycle is a couple hours of “uptime” before crashing out again. But today (tonight? this morning?) I feel well enough to write up a quick run-down of recent events. (Yes, this is technically Monday but I haven’t actually fully gone to sleep on Sunday yet, so I’m grandfathered in.)

First, the elephant in the room — the ongoing war in Iran. The good news is that after being shot down over southern Iran, our missing airmen have been saved via an impressive rescue mission!

U.S. officials had previously told CBS News the jet was carrying a two-person crew when it was downed by Iranian forces Friday.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards took credit for the strike, alleging the jet was brought down in southwestern Iran Friday morning. Photos of debris that Iranian media said showed the wreckage of the downed U.S. fighter jet appeared consistent with an American F-15, two weapons experts told CBS News.

The pilot of the F-15E had safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters, U.S. officials earlier said, but the second crew member, a weapons system officer, had remained missing.

Although we had to blow up two transport planes that become stuck in the unforgiving Iranian sand, the loss of equipment is much better than the loss of Americans! President Trump is holding a press conference at 1 pm EDT where he’s expected to provide further details of the mission. (Including how much ass we kicked. Spoiler: It was a LOT of ass.)

But’s not all sunshine and roses out of the Middle East:

Kharazi was gravely injured and his wife was killed in the attack. So far I’ve seen no official word on who actually carried out the strikes, but blowing up the people trying to negotiate with you is a terrible way to bring about an end to the war. I have to believe at least some of the parties involved know this, which is exactly why “we” keep targeting negotiators. (Both Iran and Israel seem perfectly happy to continue this war forever, making me wonder how exactly we’re going to stop them from continuing.)

The ongoing stalemate seems to have gotten to Trump, who posted this on Truth Social this morning: (really)

This is not the way. Iran doesn’t care about cussing on social media, and if they were going to submit because of Trump’s tough talk, they would have done it already. Trump’s just drawing a bright red line in the sand that Iran’s going to ignore — “forcing” Trump into attack Iranian infrastructure. (Winning so many hearts and minds!)

But as bad as Trump’s post was, Lindsay Graham continues to be the most vile warmonger in America. Listen to this Middle Eastern Senator as he salivates over YET ANOTHER military campaign…

How is this guy still in office?

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In Finland, a large study has found (surprise!) that people seeking gender reassignment have very high levels of mental illness both before AND after “transitioning.”

The Gender Dysphoria (GD) subjects, regardless of gender and Gender Reassignment (GR) status, needed specialist-level psychiatric treatment for ≥ 2 years after the index contact more commonly than controls of either sex. From before the index date to ≥ 2 years later, considerable increases in the need for psychiatric treatment were seen among those adolescents who had undergone medical GR, particularly among those seeking change towards female, while changes among the controls and the GD subjects who did not undergo medical GR were minor.

From the outside, this seems EXTREMELY obvious because the medical profession has been treating gender reassignment as some magical cure-all that fixes a problem that isn’t even physical. When the reality of the situation sets in after gender reassignment, patients are EVEN MORE likely to have mental issues. (Extreme buyer’s remorse.)

These issues lie SOLELY at the feet of the medical “experts” who lied to these patients and their families. (“Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son” was particularly heinous, and whoever came up with it should face justice.)

Lying to people is never the answer. Hiding the data is never the answer. Being honest and upfront about the reality of gender reassignment is the ONLY way that we can actually help the people who need help — so at the very least they don’t expect their problems to vanish with their cock-and-balls.

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Finally, the anti-fraud taskforce has swept into California with the intensity of 10 Nick Shirleys, and (some of) the fraudsters are getting shut down and arrested.

The California Post reported that the FBI and SWAT teams arrested a number of individuals in California Thursday morning as part of a blitz on fraudulent businesses in the Los Angeles area.

That included the arrests of two individuals behind an alleged $7 million in fraud.

Arrests and shutdowns are great, but with perpetrators getting the equivalent of a slap on the wrist, I’d bet new fraudulent businesses spring up within the week — there’s just too much to gain for seemingly little to lose.

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Oh look, I have room for one Easter meme…

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