Who Is Dictating The Ceasefire?

Donald Trump described the ceasefire deal as 'total and complete victory' while Iran called it 'an enduring defeat for Washington' and they had 'Forced the US to accept its 10-point plan' but whoever claims the spoils, there is a two week ceasefire although the details are a movable feast.
We do know that America handed Iran a 15 point plan to end the war last week and Iran replied with a 10 point plan of their own and it is that 10 point plan which Trump said was 'a workable basis on which to negotiate'.
The list of 10 points, published by Iranian state media, include a number of conditions the US has rejected in the past and include the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, continued Iranian control over the strait of Hormuz, US military withdrawal from the Middle East, an end to attacks on Iran and its allies, full compensation for damages suffered by Iran during the war, the release of frozen Iranian assets and a UN security council resolution making any deal binding.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel supports the US decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but that the ceasefire does not include Lebanon but Pakistan’s prime minister, who brokered the ceasefire, said that the agreed ceasefire covered everywhere 'including Lebanon' and has accused Israel of violating it already but that is what Israel does, as shown in Gaza.
For decades Israel will agree a ceasefire and then go out of it's way to move the goalposts and violate it, since the ceasefire with Gaza in October 2025, Israeli planes have bombed and killed over 800 Palestinians and daily violations by the Israeli army as part of the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide in the region.
US Secretary of Defense and complete bell-end, Pete Hegseth, has warned that the US stands ready in the background to ensure that Iran upholds the terms of the ceasefire agreement but although Iran may need to be watched closely, it was America who has now twice attacked it while in negotiations and Israel who will be keen to see it fail and return to the slaughter.

Special Guest Blogger: Clodagh Rodgers

So, there I was, peacefully minding my own business in my sitting room, doing what I do best which was watching re-runs of Come Dancing from the 1970s and wondering why no one wears hats like that anymore, when i just suddenly stopped being alive.
Rather boringly, my life didn't flash before my eyes but if it did, the highlight would have been 1971 when sideburns  were wide and trouser bottoms were even wider, and when i sang for the United Kingdom at the Eurovision song contest.
I sang Jack in the Box, which, for those of you who missed it, or were born after 1975, was a proper pop triumph about a clown. I came fourth but not that the Irish Republican Army were celebrating because as a Roman Catholic female from Northern Ireland, they issued death threats towards me and called me a traitor.
It’s not like they erected me a statue or developed me a perfume afterwards but for three minutes I had an entire continent watching me perform in a costume with more polyester than is medically safe,  and then forgetting my name by breakfast.
Over the years, I had the pleasure of being semi-forgotten in the most charming ways. I did some acting and cabaret but i never became the household name like a Karen Carpenter or a Cher but I do have the knowledge that at least once, in 1971, I wore more sequins than a drag queen at a disco convention and nobody said a word.

Could Trump Be The Latest War Criminal?

Article 52 of the Geneva Convention:  Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives.
Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.
In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.

There are many names for Donald Trump such as Sex Pest, Pedophile, Fascist and Simpleton but we may be hours away from adding War Criminal to the long list as Lawyers queue up to tell him that if he he goes through with the threat to bomb power plants, Bridges and desalinisation plants, then he will be committing War Crimes.
Just today a spokesman for the UN Secretary General warned that attacking such infrastructure is banned under international law and several United Nations officials and scholars in military law have said the same.
More than 100 US experts in international law from universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of California said the conduct of US forces and statements ⁠by senior US officials 'raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential ‌war crimes' and the European Council pointed out that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian Generals for attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and said pointedly that: 'This applies to Russia’s war in Ukraine and it applies everywhere'.
It seems that all legal minds are of the idea that US attacks on the life-supporting infrastructure for 93 million Iranians would constitute a war crime and the Democrats published a video message recently telling US service members that: 'You can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders'.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said: 'Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure such as power plants is generally prohibited. Even in the limited cases that they qualify as military targets, a party still cannot attack power plants if this may cause disproportionate harm to civilians' and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, said: 'War on essential infrastructure is war on civilians. Deliberate attacks on essential services and civilian infrastructure can amount to war crimes.'
Even Michael Schmitt, a professor at the US Naval War College and an international law professor at the University of Reading stated clearly that: 'This strikes me as clearly a threat of unlawful action' so Trump could soon be joining his buddy Benjamin Netanyahu on the list of people the ICC would like to have a word with.

Special Guest Blogger: Michelle Trachtenberg

Hey there, folks! It's me, Michelle Trachtenberg, aka Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister from the hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
No, I didn’t have a dramatic run-in with a newly vampirised former child star. I wasn’t accidentally turned into a demon by a botched spell from a sketchy online witch. And, much to the dismay of every Buffy fan who ever wanted to throw me off a tower, I was not, in fact, consumed in a swirly green portal of mystical energy.
As they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or, in my case, when life gives you a fatal case of complications from diabetes, make a humorous blog post about it.
So, let’s raise a goblet of O-negative to the life and times of Buffy’s little sister. It’s about to get real.
I had some amazing experiences as an actress. My acting career began when i was just three, filming a commercial for Wisk detergent and then some bits parts in Nickelodeon projects until the big part in Sunnydale.
From playing the role of Buffy's sister to starring in films like Harriet the Spy and EuroTrip, I've had a blast. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend their days pretending to fight vampires and traveling the world? It had been a wild ride, folks, and I'm grateful for every moment of it.
The Dawn of… Dawn. You remember me, right? Barging into Season Five like a toddler who just discovered sugar. Suddenly, Buffy, the Slayer, the Chosen One, the woman who literally died to save the world, had a brand-new, highly-annoying, super-powered little sister.
I remember the fan reaction. And by remember, I mean my debut was not met with universal acclaim. It was more like, "Who is this whiny ball of angst interrupting our show? but I've had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented people. Like, have you met Sarah Michelle Gellar? She's hilarious, folks but Joss Whedon not so much, so toxic was he that he was not allowed to be alone with me in a room.
My last roles were in Gossip Girl and as the host of a true-crime docuseries Meet, Marry, Murder and in early 2024, there were rumours of my bad health after some people commented on my apparent weight loss and signs of jaundice so I reassured them that I was  happy and healthy and I was, mainly because i was just about to undergo a liver transplant.
The next time my name was seen was when it has the words 'found unconscious and unresponsive' beside them.

A Post About Global Economics

I don't pretend to understand Economics and especially the Reserve Currency but when people that do start saying the same thing, then i take it they know what they are talking about.
The US-Israel war on Iran is expensive in terms of human lives but at $12bn a week, it is costing the US which is manageable for a nation with a GDP of $36 trillion but some big players such as The Deutsche Bank and Europe's most high profile Economist, Yanis Varoufakis, are saying that America could be facing a much larger problem, de-dollarisation.
With oil ships backed up in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is requiring some ships to pay a toll of ¥2m in Chinese yuan and that is where the Economists step in to say that this poses real problems with a country with a national debt of $39tn.
As the owner of the World’s reserve currency, America can force the Swift communications network (the infrastructure used to connect banks around the world with one another)  to cut off and isolate countries and the cost of doing business rises dramatically putting America in a strong position.
Russia and China and a handful of other countries have been making efforts to replace Swift and the US dollar as the reference currency and Brazil, India and South Africa are said to be working to integrate with this system.
Now, Iran’s effort to shift trade through Hormuz from the dollar will succeed if Asia, which is where most of the oil and gas is bound for, chooses to pay in Chinese currency which then can also be used to buy Chinese goods and weaken global demand for dollars.
The Deutsche Bank assessment indicates that the conflict could trigger the decline of petrodollar supremacy while increasing the the petroyuan system, mainly due to the alternative mechanism already existing, CIPS, which provides a payment channel that allows banks to settle transactions without routing the money through the U.S. banking system and nations already agreeing to pay in Yaun to get their ships past the Iranian blockade.
As i said at the beginning, i don't know what all this means or if this is the start of the American Economy falling over but with Trump throwing around Tariffs, insults and starting wars, you can see why it might appeal to some nations who may want to move away from America and to be honest, everything Trump touches turns to crap so might be worth keeping an eye on. 

My Easter Post

I wasn't going to write an Easter post this year out of respect for the dog collar wearing partner of this blog because I know he posts my religio bashing posts with a wince and because Easter is pretty much the only Religious Holiday they have left.
Although it wasn't theirs to start with, Christmas and the Baby Jesus is gone, lost to the big fat man in the North Pole and his reindeer but they have successfully fended off the Easter Bunny to keep Easter as a Christian Festival.
Interestingly, that wasn't theirs to start with either, they copied and pasted their beardy guy over the Germanic Godess Eostre who was very popular with the Anglo-Saxon pagan brigade who worshiped her as the Goddess of the dawn but the Christians lazily kept her eggs which was her symbol of fertile purity and the bunny which was her sacred animal.
I say i wasn't going to write a post and to leave the Religio's alone but then today in Town I was hassled by some many Churchy people trying to engage me in discussions about God and hand me leaflets that if i could have reverse engineered all the paper thrust at me i could have made a tree but i politely shook my head said: 'No Thank You' and continued on my way.
If this was just this weekend i could accept it but the Religious do seem keen to stop strangers and force their beliefs on shoppers going about their own business which it quite rude, i wouldn't dream of stopping anyone and pushing my Atheism down their throat but they don't seem to have any qualms about it and I do sometimes question them on their beliefs and why they hold them if they are particularly badgering which usually ends with them ignoring me and waffling on about something or other they have prepared ready and then walking off when i refuse to accept it and delve into why they believe what they do.
Anyway, Happy/Merry Easter if that is your bent and hope you didn't eat too much Chocolate.

The Dark Side Of The Moon

Interesting that NASA are referring to the 'Dark' side of the moon and not the 'Far' Side because it does give the impression that the side we don't see is completely dark, which it isn't and receives as much light as the side facing us.
I was listening to a phone in show on the Radio and a discussion of how they will illuminate the surface to take the pictures which made me smile but it is understandable because they keep hearing is it Dark.   
The word 'Dark' is used in the same way that we refer to the Dark Ages as in not much is know about it and the first time we saw the Far Side of the Moon was when the Soviet's Luna 3 sent back sketchy pictures in 1959 although we have had many photographs of it since including the 1972 one from Apollo 16 above.
Interestingly, the Chinese have been sending probes to that side because the far side of the Moon provides a good environment for radio astronomy and listening to the sounds of the Cosmos as interferences from the Earth are blocked by the Moon, which makes sense.
No mention yet of the Artemis 3 and  4 mission which, on the successful completion of Artemis 2, is pencilled in for 2027 and 2028 and will land astronauts on the surface of the Moon with the Lunar South Pole the likeliest destination but as i own a piece of the Moon, I am keeping a keen eye on it just in case they land in my patch and then i can claim Owner Rights and take NASA for trillions (or a free t-shirt at least).  

Reigning Or Raining?

Donald Trump threatened to 'reign down hell' on Iran within 48 hours unless Strait of Hormuz is opened and peace deal is made and the use of 'Reign' can mean one of two things.
Either he means he will bring Hell to Iran once he is reigning in Hell and to be fair, that is exactly where Pedophiles, sex pests and liars go so that is very much a possibility but unless he dies within the next 48 hours, which again is possible as he is morbidly obese and has an unhealthy diet and god knows what all those weird bruises on him are, so those so if those two things come together then he very much could be reigning in Hell and bringing it to Iran.
The other thing is that he is a blithering idiot who used the wrong 'Reign/Rain' and as he has never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, this is far more likely what his teeny tiny little fingers typed out and the sycophants around him were too afraid to point it out to him.
Either way, i assume he means he will follow through with his threat to bomb the Iranian Power Plants and other civilian infrastructure which is of course a war crime but as America and Israel have been bombing schools, health centers and civilian homes, they are well into the War Crime territory anyway and Israel is already waiting to be hauled before a Court for their abhorrent murders in Gaza so we could see Trump beside him i the next cell.
That is unless he is dead by then and reigning down Hell of course, sending down Hell from Dante's Seventh Circle (Circle 7, Ring 3) which is reserved specifically for rapists and sex pests.

USA Leaving NATO

After almost every nation in the World answered the American Administrations request for help in the War they started against Iran with a big fat raspberry, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been pouting and said that: 'Washington may need to reconsider its relationship with NATO once the war against Iran is over' which echos the Mango Morons comments about leaving NATO.   
Unfortunately for the sex pest President and his hapless goons, going out through the exit door from NATO was made more difficult when in 2023 the Senate passed a Bill that meant any US President wanting to withdraw from NATO would require two thirds Congressional approval which would be unlikely to achieve.
The Sponsor of the Bill wrote that: 'No U.S. President should be able to withdraw from NATO without Senate approval' and 'We must ensure we are protecting our national interests and protecting the security of our democratic allies'.
So who was the sponsor of the Bill who wrote such wise words? Have a guess, go on, see if you can work it out.
Yep, rather brilliantly, the man who made it almost impossible for Trump to withdraw from NATO was the then Florida senator himself, Marco Rubio. Bit Awkward!

Special Guest Blogger: Stede Bonnet

Ahoy, ye curious scallywags! Gather ‘round the fire, pass the grog, and let me spin ye a yarn that’ll make ye chuckle, wince, and ponder whether you’ve got what it takes to be a pirate. Or a lunatic. The line’s thinner than a cutlass blade, I swear.
I’m Stede Bonnet, once known as the Gentleman Pirate. You see, me life was a comedy of errors and beginning in the posh drawing rooms of Barbados, ending with a noose and a last meal of bread pudding. And somewhere in between, I tried to be a pirate. It didn’t end well but by the sea gods, it was a doozy.
I was the son of a wealthy planter, a man made for gardens, not gunpowder. I had silks, servants and a parrot named George yet there I was, a pirate captain. How did it happen? Simple. I read a book.
See, in my youth, I devoured tales of derring-do by privateers, tales of pirate legends and the very romantic notion that piracy was freedom so I sold half my estate, bought a ship called the Revenge and declared, 'Avast! I seek fortune!'
My crew? A mix of disgruntled sailors, one guy named Black Dick who may or may not have been a spy, and George my parrot. My first raid? A merchant vessel, its captain so bewildered by my powdered wig and floral coat that he surrendered before I could wave a sword. I took the ship and renamed it The Flower of the Sea.
Now, I’ll admit I was no Blackbeard. The man had a beard like a tumbleweed hurricane and a crew that could pillage a village before the mayor could remember to panic while i meanwhile, once mistook cannon fire for a thunderstorm and ordered the crew to fetch the smelling salts.
But Blackbeard took pity on me. Or pity on himself for being stuck with me. One day, we crossed paths in the Carolina sounds, and the brute asked, “What’s yer business?” I replied, To steal treasures and terrify the masses. He roared with laughter and gave me the advice that I should go home.
I didn’t. Obviously. Because what pirate listens when told to go back to the life of leisure, tea, and polite conversation? But Blackbeard’s disdain stuck with me. If I couldn’t be a real pirate, I’d at least become a memorable one.
Alas, my crowning glory came in a most undignified form. In 1718, I commandeered the Sloop Industry, a snazzy little craft with the idea of raiding Spanish ships in the West Indies but the actual result was to get captured by the British and hanged along with me crew.
While I failed to amass gold, I succeeded in becoming a footnote in history books and a meme among sailors. Why? Because I was me. A man who wore silk shirts under armor, quoted Shakespeare before battles and once tried to ransom a captured ship by demanding a bottle of port and a decent dessert.
So, what’s the takeaway, ye landlubbers? Piracy isn’t for the faint of heart so Yarrr keep yer compass handy, yer spirits high, and aye, aye, matey.