“I was obeying orders!”

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War Studies: Iran-Israel-USA 28th February 2026

Terrorists and politicians love pre-emptive attacks. They are spectacular hits on an enemy’s leadership. Despite 400 years of failure the passion hasn’t cooled. In January 2026 the USA kidnapped Venezuela’s president. Maduro’s party remains in power.

The USA had a triumphant success in ‘decapitating’ the entire Iranian leadership on 28th February 2026. If Clausewitz and Bismarck1 had been in the White House Situation Room they would have implemented their diplomatic strategy immediately. Anything to avoid a competitive war.

Trump should have declared victory on 1st March 2026 and sent diplomats to meet the surviving Iranian leaders. The phrase ‘Shock and Awe’ was entirely apposite on The Next Day’. Iran was reeling. The decapitation was a foregone success. There had been many targeted assassinations elsewhere and a whole-hearted quasi-rehearsal in the 2025’12 Day War’.

Trump’s use of American power would have incentivised the new leadership to negotiate. Instead, the USA and Israel continued their futile bombing campaign.2 They are now buried in a geopolitical nightmare, which looks which like an attritional war. Attritional warfare is the usual antecedent of a forever war, which will wreck the world economy.

Instead of a 24 hour war the USA didn’t plan for success and is facing a stronger Iran.

Notes

1 Germany and the Cause of the First World War | Odeboyz’s Blog

2 War Studies: Bombing Japan, 1945 | Odeboyz’s Blog

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Jim smiled at Sarah

Jim was travelling on a train and smiled at a Sarah. She smiled back. They started chatting and Sarah said, “Every time you smile at me I want to invite you to my place.”

Jim was very, very pleased because Sarah was beautiful.

Sarah continued, “You see I’m  a dentist.”

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Holier than thou! Foodie superiority

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Book Review: Andrew Cartmel ~ The Vinyl Detective: written in dead wax (2016)

Two things need to be noted up front. (1) I’m a very longstanding jazz fan and (2) I adore quirky novels, which destroy customary formula. There isn’t a maverick Detective Inspector anywhere in this novel. In fact, there are no police officers of any kind. Nonetheless it is thrilling thriller.

*Vinyl* is what LPs looked like before cds and cassettes and streaming. Geek purists cannot believe that anyone could prefer convenience over the excitement of a vinyl record. And they attract flocks of collectors who push up prices to eye-watering levels. The *Vinyl Detective* spends his time hunting through car boot sales, jumble sales, charity shops and second-hand record fairs: and on-line sites. He then sells them on. The story is about a mysterious (lucrative) commission to source an ultra-specific record from an obscure 1950s Californian record label. A record label that produced just 14 records in one year before folding and disappearing into oblivion.

Needless to relate this triggers mayhem in London and LA. A wonderful story based on jazz records and artists. Lots of technical detail, which adds to the geeky joy of the novel. Anyone who loves a really good read will love it. Warmly recommended

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Black Lives Matter: Muhammad Ali refuses to go to war, March 1967

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?

No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.

But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here.

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Can it be true? Oh, Yes.

Screenshot
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Why Jim didn’t get married

Jim explained, “In my youth I stepped on Sarah’s scarf nearly choking her.” She shouted at me like a wounded animal. “Bloody Hell. Are you blind or something?”

Jim said he started stammering and apologising like mad being mortified.

Then Sarah looked at him with a sweet look and smiled. “Oh! I’m sorry for over-reacting. I thought you were my husband.”

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Trump goes to war

Sadly there will be more, before it ends…That’s the way it is. Trump 1st March 2026
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Britain’s Two-tier Justice

The 53-year-old [retired banker] travelled from near his £2million home in Orpington to London Bridge before continuing to his Canary Wharf office…. 

He [the judge] described the fraud as ‘discreet’, committed against a large private company rather than an individual, and said Molloy had a distinguished career and was a devoted father active in his church and community….

He [the judge] branded the offending ‘persistent and serious’ and said its sophistication merited jail but suspended the sentence due to strong mitigation. 

Source: HSBC banker dodged £5,900 in train fares using ‘doughnutting’ ticket scam on journeys from £2m home

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