It's a good thing that (once) Great Britain has declined into irrelevance, because this is bad news for that beknighted country; fortunately, it will have no affect on the real world

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No Starmer’s downfall will have no more effect on its slow collapse than Canada’s switch from Trudeau to Carney, or Chicago’s Lightfoot to Johnson

Fail, Britannia: Meet the New Commie, Worse Than the Old Commie

The U.K.'s most destructively feckless prime minister (since the last one) is history, but Keir Starmer's likely successor could prove Britain's final undoing — if the radical Liberian-born advisor who serves as Andy Burnham's "brains" gets her way.

Burnham, former Mayor of Greater Manchester, won the Makerfield by-election on June 18 with an impressive 55% of the vote — a full rebuke of Reform U.K., too — sending him to Parliament where he'll make a run at Number 10 Downing St. At least one potential rival, Wes Streeting, stood aside and endorsed Burnham on Monday, pretty much clearing his path.

In his endorsement, Streeting said he wants Labour to pursue "a progressive capitalism focused on wealth creation as much as wealth distribution," but nobody seems to have told the "brains" behind Burnham: the Liberian-born daughter of lefty radicals, Miatta Fahnbulleh.

CutMyTaxUK reported last year that Fahnbulleh "was born in Liberia as part of a prominent leftist revolutionary family, has served as a junior energy & housing minister in the Starmer government before resigning to support Burnham." Previously, as the "former head of the far-left New Economics Foundation," she proved "adept at churning out socialist policy proposals."

Or as CMT-UK put it, "Keir Starmer has appointed a Housing Minister who hates private housing."

Another U.K. publication, Guido Fawkes, put all of Fahnbulleh's most radical proposals in one handy list on Sunday:

  • A wealth tax and yet another windfall tax on oil and gas.

  • Mass nationalization e.g. of land, transport, and energy.

  • Extending national [welfare] insurance [tax to include] to investment income.

  • A cap on interest rates and charges on every form of consumer credit.

  • Hiking capital gains tax to income tax levels.

  • Hiking the dividend tax to income tax levels.

  • Abolition of the upper earnings limit for national insurance.

  • Huge expansion of the benefits system, including a “minimum income guarantee” paid to everyone apart from the rich.

  • Nationalization of banks and creation of new “green” banks with taxpayer funds.

  • Block on private banks lending to anyone with a “large amount of greenhouse gas emissions” and “penalization of banks that provide too many carbon-intensive loans.“

  • Forced sale of existing businesses to employees.

  • A tripling of the stamp duty [property tax, basically] surcharge to 9% for multiple homeowners and an increase to 6% for non-residents.

So, apart from urging the destruction of the energy industry, banking, and investment, ending private ownership of industry and housing, and a massive expansion of Britain's welfare state, she's practically a right-winger.

Cough, cough.

He knows that he’s lying; he also knows that his moronic followers will believe it

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You can't blame them for not believing his bluster because at this point, who does?

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Shot:

Trump Warns Iran on Strait of Hormuz, Says U.S. May 'Take Over'

President Trump was raising the heat on Iran, which said Saturday it was closing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz because of fighting in Lebanon.

Trump told Fox News that he spoke with Iranian officials over night and warned that if they close the Strait they "won't have a country."

Fox correspondent Trey Yingst said he spoke with Trump today, and Trump described the phone call with Iranian officials to him. "We may take over the strait if we have to."

Chaser:

President Trump issues severe threat — and now Iran is responding

Iran mocks Trump's Hormuz threat, says US can't control waterway

Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission spokesperson on Sunday dismissed President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, saying his claims of taking control of the waterway were “empty bluffs.”

“Trump is complaining about the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and has threatened that he might take control of the strait and become its guardian angel!” Ebrahim Rezaei said in a post shared on X.

"Only a fool could make such utterly empty claims, he added before stating that the “shelf life of these bluffs has expired.”

“If you had the guts, you would have seized control of the Strait of Hormuz (even for a moment) during over a hundred days of war — you wanted to, but you couldn't.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy had announced Saturday that it was closing the strait and warned ships to stay clear of the critical shipping lane.

Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday that the United States could impose tolls if negotiations in Switzerland fail to produce a lasting agreement before the 60-day ceasefire expires.

It strikes me that the 60-day ceasefire expired at least 60 days ago, but whatever.

On the other hand, Victor Davis Hanson disagrees, and says that it’s the Iranians who should be worried. He’s a lot smarter than me and most of his critics, so I hope he’s right.

I hope.

Victor Davis Hanson dissects how critics completely misread the Iran deal

Historian details how crippling sanctions, severe infrastructure damage broke Tehran's leverage

He may be a liberal, retarded (redundant, I know) transvestite child molester, but he’s OUR liberal, retarded transvestite child molester, so vote him in! And again! And again again! Harder!

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besides, how is any of that different from the ususal politician’s qualifications?

New Hampshire Democrats turn out to be no so different from Maine’s when it comes to accepting less-than-perfect candidates.

[Barry] Laughton was first charged in 2023 after the police department in Nashua, New Hampshire, received a report that he had sent child sexual abuse images to another individual. Disturbed, that individual brought the images to police, who confirmed that Laughton had sent four images depicting the genitals of extremely young children to this individual via text. NPD then interviewed Laughton, who admitted to receiving child sexual abuse images from his former partner, Lindsay Groves, who was an employee at the Creative Minds Early Learning Center in nearby Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.

Speaking with police, Groves admitted to taking the images, and stated that Laughton had asked her to do so after expressing a sexual interest in children.

According to court records, police obtained a search warrant for both of the suspects’ devices, and found they had exchanged over 10,000 messages that included explicit discussions of the sexual abuse of children.

But what about the retardation defense?

Laughton’s defense includes an assessment by Dr. Joseph Plaud, a clinical forensic psychologist, who reportedly confirmed that he was developmentally disabled. References to a 1999 psychological report were also included, in which the assessing doctor had determined that Laughton’s intelligence quotient was trending downwards towards retardation.

REDUXX reports that Laughton was first elected in 2012, but bailed when a 2008 felony conviction for identity and credit card fraud and falsifying physical evidence came to light. After the sentence for that felony conviction, Laughton was allowed to run for office again in 2019. He was elected selectman in 2011, 2019, and 2021, but resigned less than one month after winning the election following scrutiny for being charged with the violation of a stalking order that had been placed against him by a woman in his community. Laughton violated the order just one month before he was elected.

The specific details of what Barry and his friend got themselves up to are too distasteful even for this blog (surprised you, eh? Yes, we do have (a very few) standards), but you can follow the link if you care to:

First “Openly Transgender” State Legislator Sentenced To 33 Years In Prison For Child Sexual Exploitation

She May be Right

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Well, probably not great again, but could it get any worse than it already is?

Sodom and Gomorrica: UK Greenlights Experimental Chemical Castration of Hundreds of Children

Eleven-year-olds to be injected with chemical castration drugs in ‘experiment’

Via Daily Mail (emphasis added):

Transgender children as young as 11 will be able to join a controversial puberty blocker trial after regulators watered down their objections.

The launch was dramatically halted in February when the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency expressed safety concerns and indicated it wanted to restrict the trial to kids aged 14 and over.

But researchers today revealed they will resume recruitment from August 1 after officials agreed to the lower age threshold.

Furious campaigners will now urge the courts to shut down the 'unethical experiment' by launching a judicial review.

Some 226 kids are due to be given drugs to stop their body’s natural development as part of a trial commissioned by former health secretary Wes Streeting.

Inspirational thought for the day: I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes; then I met a man who had no socks

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At least, I think that’s how the preacher told it.

(Update: Reader Burning Maldolf offers the brilliant suggestion that this picture, converted to an oil painting, would make the perfect accessory piece hung over the fireplace of a Greenwich mansion ; or, I’d add, a Yacht Club’s mantle, but the humor, thin as it is, only works if the viewer is familiar with that old sappy aphorism, “I was sorry for myself because I had no shoes — then I met someone who had no feet” — judging from the puzzled reaction of a friend I suggested the new, improved version to, not everyone has.)