Posts on Sunday, June 15, 2025

This Father’s Day, many families will fire up the grill, hand out neckties or whiskey bottles, and celebrate the steady presence of the men who raised them. We honor the sacrifices dads make — their hard work, protective instincts, quiet love. But for many fathers, especially those who’ve served in uniform or carried other unseen burdens, the greatest gift might be something simple but rare: a moment of real understanding. I was 24 years old when I led an infantry platoon into Iraq. We breached the berm on the Kuwaiti border and pushed into cities where the future of a war — and our own identities — was uncertain.

President Trump warned Iran that it would face the US military “at levels never seen before” if it attacked America’s forces or land in a scathing message to the Islamic regime. Trump said early Sunday the US was not involved in Israel’s overnight attack on its Middle East foe as the two countries continue to exchange aerial assaults on each other. “The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before.

The death toll grew Sunday as Israel and Iran exchanged missile attacks for a third consecutive day, with Israel warning that worse is to come. Israel targeted Iran’s Defense Ministry headquarters in Tehran and sites it alleged were associated with Iran’s nuclear program, while Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses and slammed into buildings deep inside Israel. In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country’s total death toll to 13. The country’s main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day.

In the opening days of April, Muslim Fulani terrorists slaughtered more than 60 Christians in Plateau State, in what Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang termed an ongoing "genocide." According to a local source, "More than 1,000 Christians were displaced during the attacks, and 383 three houses were destroyed by these bandits." — Morning Star News, April 8, 2025, Nigeria. "Eyewitnesses said the attack lasted more than an hour, leaving 103 households destroyed and the entire village displaced. Frustration mounted as residents reported a delayed military response and accused security forces of bias, disarming local Christian youth but not Fulani attackers."

The best friend and roommate of suspected political assassin Vance Boelter said that he got a chilling final text message from the suspected killer saying he would soon be dead just hours after Saturday’s bloodbath, a report said. David Carlson revealed that Boetler texted at about 6 a.m. Saturday, shortly after former Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed and Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot. Boetler texted Carlson and a third friend that he would be dead shortly and that he loved them, local KARE reported. “David and Ron, I love you guys. I made some choices, and you guys don’t know anything about this,

In wartime it’s particularly difficult to ascertain what’s happening. Governments have a natural and healthy instinct to hide from public eyes what is going on, even those fully democratic ones which in peace have some constraints on official censorship. Nevertheless, the fact that so many people around the world have video-capable mobile phones and access to the internet makes it harder to hide what is happening. All week long I’ve been looking at these videos, reading official IDF reports and statements by leaders of involved countries and they show that Stacey McCain and Lee Smith, whose takes I link to below, are in full

House Speaker Mike Johnson rightly stated that Sen. Alex Padilla's thuggy behavior, lunging into the personal space of Homeland Secuity Secretary Kristi Noem as she was trying to give a speech in Los Angeles, was well worth congressional censure. But that's not how the left saw it. The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by a leftwing lawyer-activist with this headline: Trump’s war on Latinos reaches a new low in abuse of Sen. Alex Padilla Rep. Ilhan Omar called the apprehension of the hulking apparent attacker on a slight woman giving a speech "lawless" and demanded an investigation.