Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Victor Davis Hanson: What Critics Get Wrong About Homer’s ‘Odyssey’

 


Homer’s Odyssey was not written as a straightforward account of the Bronze Age. It emerged from centuries of oral storytelling that preserved faint memories of Mycenaean civilization, absorbed the customs of the Greek Dark Ages, and incorporated warfare, agriculture, politics, and language from Homer’s own time.

The collapse that followed the Trojan War transformed ruined palaces, forgotten tombs, and distant rulers into stories of Cyclopes, demigods, and legendary heroes. That complicated history also challenges criticism of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation, since Homer’s poem itself blends multiple eras rather than presenting a historically exact picture of ancient Greece.

Imagine America under Sharia


I am beginning to wonder whether we have become too dumb to survive and, given the Islamization of America, whether we are worth saving.

How we got here is hardly surprising.  One reason is that for the last 60 years, public schools have indoctrinated students into believing that the country, its founders, and its white population are evil.  Students are taught to believe they live on stolen land, that prosperity and wealth came from slave labor, and that the economic system is designed to produce inequities.  The entertainment industry and mainstream media have reinforced this image, as have churches infested with religious leaders whose beliefs and lifestyles mock and degrade the tenets of the churches they represent.  We even have politicians who proudly proclaim their allegiance to foreign countries, and others who openly engage in anti-American activities.  Adding to the problem are the millions who have infested the country with no intention of assimilating.

This has led to well organized and well funded protests aimed at destroying the country.  However, most protesters haven’t considered what will fill the void if they succeed.  Spoiler alert: It will be Islam, which has the money, organization, and committed followers.  We have already seen the Islamic conquest of cities, such as Dearborn, and Muslims elected to political office.  Next will be the implementation of sharia.

Although there are different schools of sharia and some significant differences, such as whether the Koran was created or is eternal, most are minor, such as whether a woman’s entire body must be covered when she leaves the home or whether her face and hands may remain uncovered.  Unlike our laws, which can change to allow for gay marriage and women’s right to vote, sharia is divinely inspired and therefore immutable, because truth doesn’t change.  Let’s look at what’s coming under sharia.

Circumcision is mandatory for males and for females.

Those who leave Islam are considered apostates and can be killed.  For those who kill apostates, there are no consequences, since apostates deserve to die.  Apostasy includes more than simply leaving Islam.  An apostate is also someone who believes that something could happen independent of the will of the Islamic god.  For example, if Muhammad picks up a stone and drops it, the Islamic god decides whether the stone goes up, down, or sideways or remains stationary.  Believing that gravity made it fall is apostasy.  It is also apostasy to criticize Islam or Muhammad.

Jihad is an obligatory war against non-Muslims until they convert, are enslaved, or are killed.  There are rules, such as not killing women, children, or men over 40 unless they are combatants (the October 7 butchers evidently didn’t get this memo).

A rebellious wife is one who answers her husband coldly, refuses to come to bed, or dislikes him.  The husband can remind her that it is religiously obligatory for her to obey him.  If she remains rebellious, he may hit her if he believes it will help her return to the right path.

Husbands have complete, lawful sexual access to their wives from head to toe.  A wife is obligated to have sex with her husband on demand unless doing so would harm her, in which case she may ask him to wait up to three days.

Without their husbands’ permission, wives are not allowed to leave the house unless there is a pressing necessity.  Wives are also forbidden from hosting anyone in the home, even close family members such as a sister or father, without their husbands’ approval.  When leaving the house, they must not wear perfume, dress up, or wear clothing that clings to their bodies.  It is considered immoral for women to wear clothing that reveals the contour of their bodies.  It is unlawful for women to leave the house unveiled.  Women who leave the house after beautifying themselves — such as by using perfume — do so with the intent of attracting male attention, which incites lust and desire.  Therefore, the is inviting adultery, making her an adulteress.  There is no expiation for killing those who commit adultery.

Except for those women a man cannot marry, such as a sister or a mother, it is not permissible for a man to look at women.

Ridicule is unlawful, and joking is forbidden.

Picture-makers go to hell.  Generally, making or obtaining pictures is unlawful.  Making a cookie shaped like an animal is unlawful, but buying the cookie to eat is lawful.

Molten lead will be poured into the ears of those who listen to a songstress, because songs cause hypocrisy to grow in the heart.  It is unlawful to use musical instruments.

The Islamic god curses women who have tattoos or remove facial hair because they are altering what the Islamic god created.  However, there are exceptions.  Women may remove excessive beard or mustache hair.  Also, nasal and armpit hair should be plucked, and pubic hair should be shaved.

Men are destroyed if they obey women.

The Islamic god curses men who are effeminate and women who are masculine and men who wear women’s clothing and women who wear men’s clothing.

If a sane adult commits theft, the right hand is amputated.  Subsequent offenses result in the amputation of the left foot, then the left hand, and finally the right foot.

Those in same-sex relationships are killed.

Wine and all intoxicants are forbidden.  For the first through third offenses, the punishment is 40 lashes.  The fourth offense is death.

There is no retaliation against a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim.  Nor is there retaliation against a father or mother for killing their children, nor against grandparents for killing their grandchildren.

Sharia governs nearly every aspect of life, from how you enter and exit a bathroom to the duty to spread Islam.  Under sharia, the Statue of Liberty would be regarded as an idol and destroyed, as would the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and Mt. Rushmore.  To demonstrate that no one has the right to be worshiped except the Islamic god, the Washington Monument would be kept intact, with speakers at the top broadcasting the Muslim call to prayer.

It is ironic that those attempting to destroy this country because of its history of slavery, white supremacy, racism, sexism, and colonization will see it replaced by Islam, which, since its beginning, has forcibly colonized and enslaved large parts of the world.  Islam also murders those with sexual identities it doesn’t like and considers women little more than a sexual apparatus.  And in place of white supremacy or white privilege, there is Muslim supremacy and privilege.

Looking at its possible replacement, Western civilization and white supremacy are looking pretty good.  If it were not for Western civilization, those complaining about the legacy of slavery wouldn’t be complaining, because they would still be enslaved.  Countries such as Germany and Japan would be our colonies, women wouldn’t be allowed to vote, and the alphabet people would be afraid to come out of the closet.


Podcast thread for July 28

 


'sighs'.

Were These People Always This Crazy?


It’s hard to know what “breaks” someone – which moment the person they used to be, or seemed like they used to be, disappeared and the shattered psyche shell that occupies the space in which they used to live now resides – but our country is full of broken people now. The vast majority of broken people seem to have been crushed by politics, ego or both. And nothing broke more people than Donald Trump. He didn’t do it, his existence did. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, and it has swept through both sides of the aisle. It begs the question: Were people always this way and we just didn’t notice?

While I enjoy social media (and you should follow me on Twitter, it’s quite good), and love podcasts (you should subscribe to mine, too, as it is excellent), I’m not sure they’re a net “good” for society. Yes, we have free will and what we choose, we choose, but we also can now create silos of seclusion where we construct a world to live in that is distinctly different from the real world. 

We can follow who we agree with and like and block everything else out. That does create a perverse world view because it’s not a real view; it’s incomplete. That changes the way people act toward others, especially those who disagree. 

While leftists tend to be most impacted by this – there are plenty of lists circulating on the left of who to block preemptively so as to protect their fragile world from dissenting opinions – they are not alone. It’s hard not to create a bubble, it’s comfortable. But you should step out of it, at least sometimes.

If you can’t defend your beliefs, you’re doing it wrong. If you won’t, well, that’s a deeper problem. Democrats generally won’t try, largely because they can’t but also because they no longer know how to. If you don’t use a muscle, the muscle wastes away. That atrophy impacts the brain too. 

If you watch MS Now, and I do recommend you flip to it every now and then to see what's new on Bizarro Earth, you will hear stories using English that might as well be in clicks and bell ringing. When a public school employee in Oregon was fired for displaying books titled “He is He” and “She is She,” inflicting the horrors of both biology and reality on students sent to public schools to learn about the personal sex lives and politics of their tattooed, septum pierced teachers and the near-infinite genders, normal people saw it for the insanity it is. Two Democrat federal judges saw it was oppression and “unprotected” speech. MS Now headlined their story on it, “Over Trump judge’s dissent, school can block employee’s ‘transphobic’ book display.”

The MS Now blogger described the situation, “After investigating a 2024 complaint, InterMountain Education Service District deemed the display a “bias incident” because it was a ‘hostile expression of animus’ related to gender identity. The school told Theis to stop displaying the books and warned him that noncompliance could lead to discipline, including firing. He was ultimately terminated.” 

When I was in school, not only were there only two genders, I had no idea my teachers existed outside the classroom. If you’d told me they slept in that room I might have believed you. It was weird to see one “in the wild,” like at the grocery store or at the K-Mart. I have no idea if any of them were married and their first names, largely, remained a mystery to every student. 

Now, the walls are filled with political-vomit inducing, seizure causing flags and every Monday begins with a lecture of how Mx. Rainbow spent their weekend catching and spreading monkey pox. Because what first grader isn’t itching to learn that “love is love” means throuples are a good thing?

Honestly, anyone who needs validation for their lifestyle or sex life from a student shouldn’t be allowed within a PGA tee shot of school, any school. But people like that have metastasized throughout the school system and the school boards, and they’ve insulated themselves from hearing anything negative about it.

I don’t know if social media created really horrible people blasting their insanity to the world or if it simply provided the pathway for the insane to expose to the world the fact that they were always there, but neither answer is good. Just like it’s unclear if TDS actually broke people or gave broken people the avenue they’d been seeking their whole lives to purge their worlds of contrary or original thoughts. Whatever the case, there is a disturbingly large percentage of our fellow Americans who are broken, possibly permanently. Maybe they always were and we just never noticed? 


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In Los Angeles and Portland, Anti-ICE Agitators Are Currently in the 'Find Out' Stage


RedState 

In June of 2025, RedState reported on anti-ICE rioters who were targeting, interfering, and obstructing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Los Angeles. As our Managing Editor, Jen Van Laar, documented.

For the second day in a row, people protesting without a permit have shut down Los Angeles roadways and assaulted police officers, and for the second day in a row Mayor Karen Bass has publicly ignored the situation and privately told officers to stand down and retreat.

The lawbreakers, many of them holding flags from Mexico and other Latin American countries, say they're there to protest ICE raids, which they claim are picking up sweet little abuelas and whisking them off to concentration camps. 

Because of the inaction by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D) and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, but not before one brain trust decided to ride his motorcycle into a skirmish line of LAPD officers. Randy Paul Ruiz was arrested and indicted by L.A. County District Attorney Nathan Hochman on two felony counts of assault upon a peace officer. 

On June 8, at about 3:40 p.m., police were holding a skirmish line at the corner of Temple and Alameda streets when Ruiz allegedly drove a motorcycle into the line of officers. 

A year later, Ruiz pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement operations during civil disorder. Ruiz is now in the "find out" stage. First Assistant District Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X about this conviction.

Randy Paul Ruiz, 28, of East Los Angeles, pleaded guilty today to 18 U.S.C. 111 for obstructing, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement during civil disorder, a felony carrying a maximum of five years in federal prison.

On June 8, 2025, two days after a wave of violence against law enforcement began, LAPD officers were stationed outside the Roybal Federal Building in Downtown L.A. to protect people and property threatened by violent agitators protesting enforcement of immigration laws Congress passed decades ago. The civil disorder closed a nearby freeway and federal offices.

Ruiz sat atop his motorcycle among the protesters. He then drove his motorcycle from the crowd into a skirmish line of LAPD officers. He was arrested and charged in state and federal court. His federal sentencing hearing is set for November 2.

Justice has finally come back to Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon is not far behind. U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford for the District of Oregon announced the plea of an anti-ICE agitator who assaulted a federal officer

A Gresham, Oregon, man pleaded guilty today after he was charged with assaulting a federal law enforcement officer during a declared riot near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in South Portland.

Ginovanni Joseph Brumbelow, 22, pleaded guilty to assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.

According to court documents, on June 14, 2025, Brumbelow struck a federal officer in the back of the head with a wooden stake while the officer was arresting another individual during a riot at the ICE facility in South Portland.

On July 15, 2025, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Brumbelow with assault on a federal officer, assault of a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and civil disorder.

Brumbelow is also in the "find out" stage. His sentencing is scheduled for October 19, where he "faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release."  Also as part of his plea agreement, Brumbelow will pay full restitution to the federal officer he admitted he assaulted.

Breaking: Portland Antifa militant Ginovanni Joseph Brumbelow has been CONVICTED for felony assault against an ICE agent.

Brumbelow, 22, of Gresham, used a wooden stake to strike the officer in the head, attempting to impale him outside the Portland ICE facility.

He faces 20 years in prison for the June 14, 2025, attack.

While some of the big fish Americans want to see on the hook have yet to be caught, these smaller, and extremely violent fish still matter. Americans are weary of symbolic arrests, hearings, and claims of justice being served without any real consequences being meted out. Ruiz and Brumbelow were once exceptions, but now are becoming the poster children for the rule of law being executed. Let us hope this continues.


Iran's Deranged Propaganda Video Gives Instructions on How to Assassinate Melania Trump


RedState 

A “news” outlet affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) posted a chilling video Monday titled “How to Kill Melania Trump” that called for the assassination of the first lady and the Trumps’ son Barron. It even provided instructions on how it could be achieved. 

It’s pretty sick stuff, even for them.

There are tweets on social media showing the video, but many others say “this video has been deleted.” That’s why I’m linking to one instead of putting it here.

The sickos behind the call to violence said that Melania’s love of fashion is her weak point:

'Melania's obsession with fashion has become her biggest weakness,' a narrator says in the harrowing video, according to its closed captioning.

Melania has a special interest in the luxury department stores on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan,' the video continues.

It specifically names Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue as Melania's favorite shopping hot spots.

'These places could be suitable for operations by global freedom fighters,' the video continues.

BREAKING: Iran just released a disturbing video encouraging the assassination of Melania Trump.

The propaganda clip, titled “Where to Kill Melania?!” shows her motorcade and shopping locations in New York and even suggests using a nerve agent on clothing she might purchase. 

It ends with a direct threat aimed at Barron Trump.

Note: Some translations of the title say "Where to Kill Melania," while others indicate that it means "How to Kill Melania."

The twisted clip goes on to name the exact spots of her favorite haunts, including their addresses, and suggests that one could attack her with nerve gas:

It then gives viewers tips about 'the advanced signs indicating Melania will visit these centers,' such as public trash bins missing from street corners and welded-shut manholes on the route the First Lady takes to go shopping.

It also floats multiple potential plots for would-be assassins to execute, including one to poison the First Lady and another to bribe her staffers for information on her.

“To contaminate clothes,” the narrator says, “you can use the nerve agent VX.”

At the end of the video, the president’s 20-year-old son Barron is also named. “This is just the beginning. Barron Trump, wait for us.”

It’s far from the first time the sadistic regime has threatened Trump’s family:

Both the first lady and Barron have full-time Secret Service details. All the Trump residences – the White House, Trump Tower in New York, the Bedminster golf club and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida – are heavily secured.

Last week, billboards appeared around Tehran demanding the death of President Trump and his relatives, including Melania and all his children: Don Jr, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany and Barron.

“Blood for blood,” it read.

Calling for the killings of the wife and offspring of your enemy? That’s pretty stone age stuff. If you ever wonder why the president is so obsessed with preventing the Islamic Republic from getting nuclear weapons, it’s because they keep proving over and over that they don’t give a damn about human life or basic concepts of decency.

Trump is right: if they ever got their hands on a nuke, in all probability they wouldn’t hesitate to use it.


Wait, What? Zelenskyy Says Ukraine Intends to Build Drone and Missile Factory in U.K (Portsmouth)


Watching carefully what Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, with an overlay of his contacts and travel itinerary, it appears the next phase in Ukraine weapon production will be to build missile and long-range drones outside Ukraine. That is to say outside the reach of proactive Russian attack.

Zelenskyy travelled to Portsmouth, U.K., today for a meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham.  Instead of meeting in London, the two met at a military base in Portsmouth, where 200 Ukrainian soldiers are currently completing maritime exercises.

In an interview with Sky News just before departing for the meeting, Zelenskyy noted the intention to use U.K. factories.

In mentioning a joint U.K-Ukraine “drone deal,” Zelenskyy noted [15:32 video] I want to build a big factory in Britain, while offering new technologies and sharing with our partners.

¹I don’t think Zelenskyy was supposed to say that out loud.

Zelenskyy noted the challenges for the U.K effort to support him essentially boils down to “money, intelligence and technology.

With the EU providing Zelenskyy with funds from the seized Russian sovereign fund; essentially loans with no payback provisions as forfeiture of the fund is intended to be wrapped into any peace negotiation with Russia; Zelenskyy is positioning Ukraine to spend the EU (Russian) funds in the U.K to manufacture authorized Patriot Missiles, U.K Storm Shadow missiles and drones to expand the conflict with Russia.

One thing is abundantly clear from the action over the past few weeks, Ukraine and EU/NATO are fully intending to expand the conflict with Russia and, if possible, pull the Iran conflict into the European dynamic.  That’s why Ukraine attacked the Iranian vessels recently.

LISTEN/watch CAREFULLY

¹You may need to use a VPN to watch this interview as the content was suddenly limited after it was on YouTube for a few hours.  I suspect the note I made above is directly related to this content control.



LONDON — Andy Burnham pledged a “close partnership” between the U.K. and Ukraine Monday after Volodymyr Zelenskyy became the first world leader to meet Britain’s new prime minister.

In a show of support, the pair toured a military base in Portsmouth, where 200 Ukrainian soldiers are currently completing maritime exercises.

Burnham said his meeting with the Ukrainian leader was “warm” and that he intends to visit the country soon. “We will build this and we will work through the different issues that President Zelenskyy has, many of which we’ve gone into today,” Burnham said.

The meeting came as Britain announced it would share intellectual property to help Kyiv’s war effort.

The new prime minister announced that the U.K. will share its “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system — devices attached to drones to help them evade detection — helping Ukraine to produce the technology on a mass scale. (read more)



Ahead of Anthony Fauci Testimony to Senate, Rand Paul Releases Files Outlining Serious Manipulation of COVID-19 Information

Dr Anthony Fauci the White House Chief Medical Advisor during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak under Biden, and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, has been subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this Wednesday, July 29, about his role and activity during the outbreak.

Senator Rand Paul has long argued that Dr Fauci misled the nation, and indeed the entire world, on the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak, and attempted to coverup the man-made components to the SARS-CoV-2 that created massive medical, social and economic turmoil.

[Rand Paul Reading Room]

Anticipating the testimony, Senator Rand Paul has released a massive dataset of records from Anthony Fauci that includes a personal diary written by Fauci during the timeframe in question. [FAUCI FILES HERE] The personal notes and records of Fauci indicate a serious intention to control all elements of what took place during the COVID-19 outbreak; painting himself in somewhat of a god-like position and arbiter of all covid truth.

The records released by Senator Paul are exhaustive and paint a disturbing picture of a medical bureaucracy who believed they were more important than any elected official.  Dr Fauci led that bureaucracy with visions of grandeur and an ego fed by a compliant media apparatus who consistently portrayed Fauci as the guardian of all medical truth.

The exact opposite of that altruistic narrative comes through in the details within the FAUCI FILES.  “Fauci’s personal diary reveals that as early as January 31, 2020, he was told by top virologists that the virus’s furin cleavage site raised real doubts about a natural origin, with about half the scientists on that initial call believing it looked “constructed.” Despite this early private uncertainty, Fauci spent the following years publicly and confidently dismissing the lab leak theory while insisting the science was settled. The diary also documents his private frustration and defensiveness over gain-of-function funding questions tied to EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology — even as he told Congress under oath that no such research had occurred.” ~ Rand Paul

It appears that Rand Paul gained much of the information for his release from ODNI documents previously, discovered, researched and released to congress by DNI Tulsi Gabbard.  It also seems like Acting DNI Bill Pulte continued to declassify and release the files.

President Trump realized on April 23, 2020, that he had been misled by the small group within the medical bureaucracy.  Dr Fauci noted in his diary….

[we] will be loved by the people we care about“…  Who exactly was that?

The scale of the fraud orchestrated by Anthony Fauci is jaw-dropping. All those so-called scientists, perched up high in their ivory towers, flapping their mouths to lecture and mock anyone who dared have an opinion on that massive gain-of-function experiment they unleashed. They were not doing science at all; they were stroking their own egos the entire time.

The hearing on Wednesday is likely to be very explosive; however, in accordance with the strategy of Democrats and Communists in both the House and Senate, there is a distinct possibility they may not attend the hearing in an effort to diminish the sunlight.


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