Sermonette (Twelver Shi’ite Edition)

Blog Post
Larry-Lambert

Caption Photo: The Shrine of Fatima Masumeh, a Twelver Shi’ite shrine, located in the city of Qom. Will it survive the war?

GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (above)

 

President Donald Trump says American forces have conducted “very successful” strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan and that all US planes are now out of Iranian airspace.

Israel’s attacks on Iran continue, with Israeli forces targeting military facilities and nuclear sites. Iran responds by launching dozens of drones towards Israel.

President Trump reiterated by demanding Iran’s unconditional surrender to bring the hostilities to a conclusion. The Ayatollah said that they’d never surrender to Satan. The Iranian supreme leader named three unspecified senior clerics as possible successors to secure the future of the Islamic Republic in the event of his death. The limited open-source reporting about possible successors and the supreme leader’s view of his potential successors suggests that the three unspecified clerics are almost certainly equally as ideological as the current supreme leader. He put the X on three more people for Israel to end.

 

It’s an OLD Meme

Stalling worked for other US administrations.

 

Shifting Priorities for Kidon 

Kidon is a special operations unit within the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad.

The Mossad has orders to leave the terrorist hunt. The hunt for the Iranian elite begins; the intimate circle of Jamenei, many soldiers are planning to flee to the drug trafficker Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, although they will not be able to travel because the Mossad and the Kidon were given the green light for the elimination of Ali Jamenei. Kidon will eliminate them early. Maduro has offered them sanctuary in his rogue, oil-rich nation.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Jamenei (aka Ali Hosseini Khamenei, your favorite Ayatollah)  has been declared a target of Israel’s Operation “People Like a Lion” for the first time. This came after the Jewish State faced a fresh wave of Iranian attacks on the morning of June 19, which included the destruction of a hospital in the south of the country. While inspecting the missile impact sites, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared for the first time that Jamenei no longer has the right to live. According to him, as part of the military campaign, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) forces received instructions and understand that, to achieve all objectives, Jamenei must cease to exist.” “This is a person who has been at the forefront of a powerful nation for decades and has a huge ideological influence,” the Defense Minister explained. He uses it and openly declares his support for the destruction of Israel.

What will the Persians do when freed from the ayatollah’s yoke?

 

Bullet Points:

** How Iran Lost (Foreign Affairs) – not a bad article. It’s worth a look.

** In a pivotal June 18, 2025, decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to consolidate legal challenges in the favorable D.C. Circuit, instead directing cases like Oklahoma and Utah’s EPA disputes into regional courts—specifically the 10th Circuit.

Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas emphasized that the Clean Air Act requires disputes over state-specific EPA actions—such as denial of emissions plans under the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor” provision—to be adjudicated where they originate, not centralized in Washington. The ruling, viewed by The Federalist as a blow to entrenched “deep-state” judicial preferences, underscores a rebalancing of regulatory oversight and court venue selection.

** Sermonette: The Ayatolla doesn’t want to surrender to The Great Satan or the Little Satan unconditionally – but he’s losing. Is Allah testing him?

** USAID was shut down. The Democrat National Committee is facing bankruptcy. Coincidence?

** A British teenager found a clever (and hilarious) travel loophole when he realized that it was cheaper to fly from Essex to Berlin and back to Sheffield than to take a direct train. The roundabout route, which included international flights, still cost less than a standard rail ticket in the UK.

** Translating Southern speech, bless your heart.

** In the UK: Stop referring to them as ‘Asian grooming gangs’. They’re not Japanese. Call them what they are – they are Pakistani rape gangs.

** BATON ROUGE (June 19, 2025) – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has signed FPC-supported House Bill 407, which repeals residency restrictions and expands access to the right to bear arms in the state. HB 407 is a legislative response to an FPC right-to-carry lawsuit, Mate v. Wescott, that was filed as part of FPC’s work to eliminate unconstitutional residency requirements throughout the United States.

** BRM asks:  Are researchers perverts with official titles? I think that the answer is, “yes, they are.” Sec. Hegseth brought up the cruel and wasteful animal research during his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

 

Reverend Gene Scott (retrospective sermonette) 

If you were wandering around Southern California in the early 1970s and happened to come home late—like real late—after a long night of something between mild hooliganism and a deep philosophical discussion at Bob’s Big Boy, chances are your entertainment options were pretty slim. Most stations had signed off, leaving you with a test pattern, a national anthem, and a gnawing sense of regret.

Except for Channel 30, which served up something so bizarre, so inexplicably mesmerizing, it bypassed your brain entirely and went straight for the reptilian cortex: Dr. Gene Scott. (Doctor of what? Who knows? Who cares?) Dr. Gene Scott—the late-night televangelist who looked like Ernest Hemingway, wandered into a Salvation Army Surplus store and came out with a maritime fetish and a doctorate in divine insanity.

There he was, puffing away on a cigar the size of a chimney flue, glaring directly into the camera like he was mentally cross-examining you for not tithing. No choir, no organ, no “amen corner.” Just Gene. Sometimes, just sitting there. Staring. For a full 20 to 30 minutes. Not talking and not moving. Just… assessing your soul and possibly daring the studio lights to flicker. Televangelism at its finest.

He had a chalkboard. He had a Greek lexicon. He had a wind-up monkey with cymbals and eyes that bulged like they’d seen things no cymbal monkey should ever have to see. What was he teaching? I have no idea. None. Even at full volume, his sermons were like watching someone try to decode ancient Sumerian while doing a standup act for one very frightened intern. It didn’t matter. It was entertainment. The man could make reading from Leviticus feel like a hostage negotiation.

He didn’t ask for money like other TV preachers. He demanded it—sometimes via a scowl of interpretive meaning. Sometimes with props. Occasionally, with shouting. But always with a kind of confidence that made you wonder. The man was a spectacle. A leather-jacket-wearing, cigar-smoking, hat-collecting spectacle. I never saw him heal anyone. I never saw him dunk anyone in a baptismal pool. But I saw him scribble enough Greek on a chalkboard to confuse an entire seminary. And somehow, it worked. People sent money. He built a college. He bought satellites. He made “I don’t care what time it is, I’m watching this” a theological imperative.

In an age when religious programming usually involved soft music, pastel polyester leisure suits, a blousey blonde assistant (the higher the hair, the closer to God) and the occasional tearful confession, Gene Scott showed up like a theological bounty hunter who’d been double-crossed by Leviticus and was here to settle the score. I wonder who ended up with his hat collection and his humidor when he crossed the Rainbow Bridge?

 

Average Home Size In US States vs Western European Countries

credit: @StatisticUrban

 

Identify the Aircraft

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

Identify the Armor

5

 

End

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40 thoughts on “Sermonette (Twelver Shi’ite Edition)”

  1. Identify the Aircraft:
    1. Elbit Hermes 450
    2. Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master
    3. Aeronautics Defense Orbiter
    4. de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou
    Identify the Armor:
    5. Merkava MK 4

  2. Travel
    Back in the 1980’s one of my sister-in-laws used to fly from Brisbane to Perth for work.

    It was cheaper to fly to Singapore, go shopping then fly to Perth than directly.

    Direct is cheaper now due to deregulation and multiple airlines.

  3. Bombing Iran – we now have instant experts telling us either this is the most brilliant thing ever, or this is going to cause the world to blow up.
    BRM on researchers – anyone who thinks using marbles that way has to have lost their own.

    1. i’m told they believe allah will return to earth, wipe out the infidels and establish a holy muslim world just as they are about to be annihilated by us.

  6. Iran: I’m still waiting for HD oblique and vertical photos showing us how deep the holes are. My doubts about the GBU-57 digging deep enough are still awaiting proof.

      1. Newsweek published the photos saying they were taken last week, but I haven’t seen any other confirmation that the photos were current. The major news networks are not reliable on dating photos, in my opinion. During Vietnam, the Washington Post ran a photo numerous times with different captions. I asked for a retraction and apology and after a week or so, there was a tiny note saying the photo was a rerun.

        *If the Newsweek photos were correct and if the trucks were carrying fissionable material, sniffers should have picked that fact up. That would be the same if the GBU-57s cracked the facility open disrupting or destroying the material inside.

        *Note: For those who weren’t around during the Cold War, some Civil Air Patrol squadrons were tasked with sniffing duties over American cities with equipment that would fit in their C-182s or other planes. That was an inexpensive and effective use of the CAP.

  7. okay clue bat me……israel bombs them every week/month or two, nothin much happens. now all of a sudden, OMG ITS GONNA BE WWW3 WE ALL GONNA DIE NUKULAR WAR OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!!! the arabs washed their hands of iran and the pallies. china withdrew there folks quietly. russia said not their problem. so who’s supposed to nuke our asses back to 1870? the left trina say “iran never hurt anybody, why bad orange man gonna bomb them poor folks”. even tulsi says intel claims iran doesn’t have nukes? but then, intel missed every major thing since ww2 so……but seriously, why are we at odds w/ india now? i thought we were frintz.

    1. The Pakis have offered to send a grand Islamic peace keeping army into Iran to settle things down…

  8. Wow, now that’s an acid flashback. Gene Scot: I remember I got my first satellite dish in about 1982 or so. huge 12ft thing

    And one of the first things I ran across was Dr. Scott. And yes indeed he was exactly as you say.

    1. I don’t know why I found him interesting. Maybe it was the hour he was on – 3 am.

    2. I watched Gene Scott here in Michigan on cable a few times, trying to figure out the appeal.
      SOMEBODY was sending him money.
      And then he’d show off the horses and the trophy wife he had to support as if that was reason enough to support him.
      I mentioned him to some friends older than me and they replied that they knew him here locally when he was a rising young star of a minister in the Assemblies.
      Then he moved to California, like the House of the Rising Sun, the downfall of many a young man.

  9. Today, in 1941, Nazi Germany and it’s allies invaded the Soviet Union, initiating the bloodiest conflict of the Second World War, and possibly in the history of the world. Countless millions would die before the conflict ended four years later, dwarfing Allied casualties in the West, costing the USSR over 20-25 million dead and accounting for approximately 79% of all German military casualties in WWII.

    1. That casualty figure for the Russians. How many of those deaths were inflicted by… Russia?

  11. OMG… I had ‘hopefully’ forgotten Reverend Gene Scott! He was the only thing WORSE than Cal Worthington and his dog Spot, but at least Cal had movies (granted B, C, D, F movies), but still movies… We had one ASDO that would watch him for HOURS…

    1. Only a Navy guy could not enjoy Cal Worthington and whatever animal showed up as his dog Spot! Cal had fun with his car commercials.

        1. Good ol’ Cal. 1986 He had a Ford dealership in King County, WA. Suzuki came into the market and opened four dealerships. At the kickoff meeting, Cal arrived wearing a gaudy samurai helmet. One of the other dealers present owned the 11 Sound stores. He walked up to Cal, introduces himself, and Cal viciously cut him off (at this time I can’t come up with his name). He smiled and walked off. Soon, he informed all his manager that, make money or lose money, they were not to lose a sale to any Cal store. Call lasted four years in the Seattle market.

          1. Since I don’t see dealerships selling cars through TV advertising anymore, I can only opine that it’s a fad that came and went. As you (WSF) have said more than once, the guys who are trying to game the car dealer are almost always in turn, “gamed.” Worthington invited those people to show up at his car dealership and petting zoo to be flayed instead of only being sheared.

  12. Rather than join all the experts, armchair or otherwise, in analyzing the Iran strike, I’m just going with my opinion. First, it was needed. Second, all our people made it home safely. That is a win/win.

  13. So many things today…

    I cannot imagine any country giving Iran a nuke to lob around. Today’s friends being tomorrow’s enemies and all. And it’s not like the Russians aren’t themselves infidels. While Iran committed an act of war against the US in 1979 and has never settled that account, maybe that’s part of the subconscious here. Back then, a few wags took The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann and put the topical words Bomb Iran to the tune. Although Iran definitely had it coming, I am cautiously waiting to see if this really resolves anything at all.

    Ah, Dr. Gene; I recall him on a cable access channel in the 90s when we lived in Rancho Cucamonga. I always hoped that he was in on the whole ironic spectacle and not just a cunning(?) con artist using people’s faith for profit. Dr. Gene made an entrance into one of my favorite books: Science Made Stupid by Tom Weller. It’s long out of print, but used copies are available and I highly recommend it.

    1. I don’t think that Gene Scott was a dunce. He built a better moustrap on public access TV. I don’t judge his faith. And sanity is at best a scale. I found it difficult to take him seriously – in a clown church sort of way.

  14. Off topic, sort of. Recently you posted a photo of a WW2 German motorcycle with sidecar. I re-read Guderian’s book recently and he had a short mention of motorcycle troops preceding the tanks during the blitzkrieg. Does anyone know of any books which discuss the motorcycle troops? I asked a guy who runs a military history bookstore and he could not think of any.

    1. Avalon Hill published a series of books in the 70s that included specific books on weapons systems. I recall that one of those discussed German battalion-sized units called Aufklärungsabteilungen, attached to divisions. These units varied in composition depending on the type of division, with Panzer and Panzergrenadier divisions having fully motorized units and infantry divisions using a mix of motorized and horse-drawn elements. These included motorcycles (with and without sidecars) that did a blend of scouting and dispatch running.
      .
      Aufklärungsabteilungen were typically organized with an armored reconnaissance company, a domestic reconnaissance platoon, dismounted scout companies, and a support company. Panzer divisions used armored vehicles like the Sd.Kfz. 222 and Sd.Kfz. 234, while infantry divisions might rely on Sd.Kfz. 250 and Sd.Kfz. 251 half-tracks for transportation. Early in the war, the infantry used horse-mounted cavalry for that function. Reconnaissance units were the “eyes and ears” of their parent divisions, tasked with gathering intelligence on enemy forces, terrain, and other critical information.
      .
      The Fernspäh-lehr-kompanie 200 was a special forces unit focused on deep reconnaissance and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines. They too had motorcycles available.
      .
      The Brandenburgers, which were elite special forces units involved in reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines also had motorcycles available depending on the mission.

      1. I have not read this, but here’s one:
        *
        https://www.amazon.com/German-Motorcycles-War-1939-1945-Kradsch%C3%BCtzen/dp/1036100561/ref=sr_1_1?crid=A490DI43TLPI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cl67_QqA0Dq2pWKlMD1mJg.5YzZnxdRDRvysHBhrRD3nTr0hxevVCYS64BJenI5teE&dib_tag=se&keywords=German+Motorcycles+at+War%2C+1939%E2%80%931945%2C+The+Kradsch%C3%BCtzen+Truppen&qid=1750702823&s=books&sprefix=german+motorcycles+at+war%2C+1939+1945%2C+the+kradsch%C3%BCtzen+truppen%2Cstripbooks%2C98&sr=1-1
        – Kle.

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