Secular rulers who challenge religious leaders have problems. Medieval popes excommunicated rulers, who had to come begging to them on their knees for forgiveness. Robespierre fell, in France, after the Revolution, for trying to destroy Catholicism. Pope John Paul II helped bring down the Soviet Union. Lenin and Stalin would be horrified to see Tsar Nicholas II now worshipped as a Holy Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, after they murdered him and his entire family! #history #histodons

Trump is an entertainer. So, he pulls stunts like Project Freedom, and the US Navy escorts, at great expense, two merchantmen through a hail of Iranian fire, while Iran trashes the neighboring Gulf States, and the US can do nothing about it, because the Congress won't pay for any more missiles for the US Navy. He's trying to make it look like he's doing something. He's also trying to persuade other nations to put themselves in harm's way to do the same thing, which they will not do. #geopolitics

A gritty, painfully realistic and detailed treatment of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, in 1944, produced just 12 years later, in 1956. The paranoia, desperation and hopelessness in Germany at the time is lovingly recreated, there is no question to the viewers -- contemporary Germans themselves -- why this attempt was made. These were all loyal German citizens, but, they had been forced to the limits of their patience, and their tolerance. #history #histodons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8rHvP37nek

Trump is saying the Iran War is officially "terminated". This is to allow Trump to maintain large naval forces in the Middle East to try to influence Iran, without any congressional oversight. There is, though, a sense in which the war is terminated. Trump failed to eliminate the Iran regime, and, Trump failed to prevent Iran from taking over the Strait of Hormuz. He doesn't know what to do about it. There is no point to further military action against Iran, so, the war is over. #geopolitics

Two of my favorite quotes are from George Orwell: "Pacifists don't mind violence, as long as it's violent enough", and "Only an intellectual could believe something like that. No ordinary man could be such a fool." Orwell's paradoxes illustrate difficulties of understanding reality, and our own prejudices, in a world where nothing is as it seems. Adolf Hitler really was, when young, a "typical Viennese charmer", happily selling his charming paintings to Jewish art dealers! #linguistics #ethics

Economists don't understand war. Economics tries to define all human activity rationally. War is existential, and, therefore, irrational. Economics struggles to reconcile doing what makes money, with doing what is right, because there is no rational way to be certain what is right. So, economists can't understand Iran's stability and long term control of the Strait of Hormuz, despite an extremely expensive military assault by the US. This should be "economically impossible". #economics #ethics

Known as the Beryl accident, it was an underground nuclear test in 1962, that breached containment, irradiating French soldiers guarding the site. They were required to keep their exposure a secret, following eight months of hospitalization, in order not to "undermine French security". The French feel nothing is worse than War, and the purpose of this essential nuclear deterrent, is that France should never be threatened by war, again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzlZtAMHHNM #histodons #history #geopolitics

Trump has been playing his Apprentice President games with Iran, and the world as a whole, for a couple of months now, and as he vacillates wildly between threats of mass destruction, and promises of eternal peace and goodwill throughout the Middle East, most people, and very particularly the IRGC, are beginning to find it more and more difficult to actually take him seriously. We are approaching endgame in Iran --- The Emperor Donald Trump has no clothes. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tehran-never-cede-control-strait-211642790.html #geopolitics

Why was Shakespeare so obsessed with Sir John Oldcastle? He enjoyed under Elizabeth, freedom that was unusual, his "Fairie Queen" was using her authority with a lightness of touch that bordered on semi-democracy. So, he was grateful to the people behind this system. Martin Luther got lucky, and he knew it. Oldcastle was an early incarnation of Luther, who burned, so Shakespeare could write his plays. Falstaff is an ironic homage to his true hero.
https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12024/A02633/A02633.html?sequence=5&isAllowed=y #history #histodons

The Merry Wives of Windsor is not what it seems. Shakespeare was obsessed with Sir John Oldcastle. He is inverting reality, as nursery rhymes do. Falstaff seeks money and seduction, Oldcastle seeks religious reform. Falstaff escapes, Oldcastle escapes. Falstaff is beaten, Oldcastle is captured. Falstaff is pinched and burned with tapers, Oldcastle is hung in chains and burned alive. Falstaff is accepted at the end of the play, Oldcastle is accepted as a protestant martyr. #histodons #history