“It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.“ — DT, 28 Feb. 2026
“I might have forced [Israel’s] hand. If we didn’t do it, [Iran] were going to attack first.“ — DT, 03 March 2026
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough“ — DT, 08 March 2026
“There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.“ — DT, 06 March 2026
“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up in a deal. And so we’re giving it five days and then we’re going to see where that takes it.” — DT, 23 March 2026
“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side” — DT, 20 March 2026
“[The Iranian Government] want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too.”— DT, 20 March 2026
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.” — Pete Hegseth, 02 March 2026
“So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.“ — DT, 16 March 2026
“[NATO countries] don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” — DT, 20 March 2026
Archive for nationalism
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, autoritarian, baby Trump, Bahrain, BBC, cliffs, Derailed Trump, designators, Donald Trump, European Union, humanism, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, nationalism, populism, Qatar, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, UAE, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes on April 3, 2026 by xi'an
πάντες γὰρ οἱ λαβόντες μάχαιραν ἐν μαχαίρᾳ ἀπολοῦνται [verbatim]
Posted in Uncategorized with tags anti-fascism, antifa, far-right ideology, French politics, Front National, Godspell of Matthew, Insoumis, Le Monde, Lyon, nationalism, Paris, Science Po', suprematism on February 23, 2026 by xi'an
Last week, Quentin Duranque, a young neo-fascist militant (and incidentally a data science student) was killed during a street fight between far-right and far-left groups, in conjunction with far-right protests against a conference at Science Po’ Lyon by the LFI euro-deputee Rima Hassan. This tragic event reminded me of the mirrored death of the far-left militant and Science Po’ student Clément Méric in June 2013, who also died during a street fight between far-right and far-left groups in Paris. Beyond the ghastly nonsense of such deaths, alas made possible by the will to engage into meaningless physical clashes (hence the quote from Matthew as a title), the political exploitation of the killings by French parties was appalling if predictable. The almost identical statements from leaders of both far-right (FN) and far-left (LFI) parties following both deaths are striking in that respect:
“Le climat créé par l’extrême droite conduit à ce genre de drame (…) L’extrême droite porte une responsabilité morale dans ce qui s’est passé. C’est le résultat de la banalisation des idées d’extrême droite (…) Les fascistes ont tué.” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Juin 2013
” Ce drame est le résultat direct du climat de haine entretenu contre les patriotes (…) Ce meurtre est le résultat d’années de diabolisation de nos militants. Ceux qui désignent nos militants comme des ennemis prennent une responsabilité terrible.” Jordan Bardella, Fév. 2026
“Je condamne évidemment cet acte odieux (…) Il est scandaleux de tenter de récupérer politiquement ce drame (…) Ce drame est le résultat de l’affrontement de groupuscules violents. Le Front national n’a rien à voir avec ces individus.” Marine Le Pen, Juin 2013
“La violence ne peut jamais être une solution. Toute violence est condamnable, quelles qu’en soient les victimes ou les auteurs (…) La responsabilité est individuelle, pas collective.” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Fév. 2026
“Il est irresponsable d’instrumentaliser ce drame. La responsabilité est celle des individus impliqués.” Manuel Bompart, Fév. 2026
lost science
Posted in Books, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags @ScientistTrump, Agent Orange, book review, capitalism, China, globalisation, grants, greed, indirect costs, liberalism, mirror workshop, Mondrian forests, nationalism, Newspeak, NIH, NSF, public funding, student visa, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Trump 2.0, Trump administration, UCS, University of Ottawa, US Congress, US research on February 22, 2026 by xi'an
On the 2026 US budget prospects, the battle between the Trump administration and the US Congress will a.s. (hopefully!) continue, incl. the cuts to indirect costs, the politisation of grant panels, the drop in foreign student applications and conference attendees. The maps are making much more sense through Nature interactive page than on paper. Since the Mondrian-like maps that represent grant cuts and cancellations according to state, funding source (NIH, NSF—from which direction our Ottawa U friend Panchanathan resigned last April), court reinstatement, and topics. Still, the dynamic change of colours and the lack of scale make these poor or even terrible graphs. Over-optimistic scientists consider reimagining higher education towards public needs (to be distinguished from populist and conspirationist calls on which ground?!), turning to philanthropic support (with highly uncertain long-term prospects, seeing how quickly high-tech moguls turned their jackets under Orange pressure!), and the remaining entries are just wistful thinking… The UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists) is reported documenting 536 attacks of the Trump administration on science and scientific integrity, not counting harassment and intimidation, but this pales against the several thousand federal scientists who have fired and the remaining ones who (still) work in federal agencies under several swords of Damocles, from abruptly cut funding, to newly prohibited domains of research, like health disparities and sexual diseases, to firing, and to visa cancellation… Not a comforting read, this 22 Jan issue of Nature, when realising how massive, deep, long-term-impacting, the havoc the Trump administration has wreaked (or wrought!) on science as much as economy and international relations.
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, BBC, cliffs, Denmark, Derailed Trump, Donald Trump, European Union, global warming, Greenland, humanism, Kyiv, nationalism, NATO, Nobel Peace Prize, Norway, populism, quotes, snowstorm, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, truth social, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes, xenophobia on February 1, 2026 by xi'an
“The United States [of America] needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. (…) NATO should be leading the way for us to get it (…) [and] becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States [of America]. Anything less than that is unacceptable” — DT, 14 Jan. 2026
“Yeah, there is one [limit to my ability to use American military might]. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me. I don’t need international law.” — DT, 08 Jan. 2026
“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration. Now, after Centuries [sic], it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!” — DT, 17 Jan. 2026
“Considering your Country decided [sic] not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS [sic bis], I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the US. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland” — DT, 19 Jan. 2026
“Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain – whatever happened to global warming?” – DT, 23 Jan 2026
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. It was very nice. A lot of people almost didn’t believe it, but they were very happy about it because they are struggling badly.” – DT, 29 Jan 2026
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, Brazil, Chinese universities, cliffs, climate change, Cop30, Donald Trump, foreign students, French students, House of Representatives, humanism, intellectual property, Jamal Khashoggi, liberty of press, nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, populism, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, unilateral nuclear disarmament, US elections 2024, US politics, xenophobia on December 11, 2025 by xi'an
“The Green New Scam would have killed America if President Trump had not been elected to implement his commonsense energy agenda – which is focused on utilizing the liquid gold under our feet to strengthen our grid stability and drive down costs for American families and businesses” — Taylor Rogers, White House spokeswoman, 31 Oct
“It’s not that I want [Chinese national students], but I view it as a business. [Draconian cuts to hiring international students could] destroy our entire university and college system.” — DT, 17 Nov. 2025
“The president being frank and open and honest to your faces [by cutting off Catherine Lucey by `Quiet, piggy!´], rather than hiding behind your backs, is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.” — Karoline Leavitt, press secretary, 18 Nov 2025
“You’re mentioning someone [Jamal Khashoggi] that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But [Mohammed bin Salman] knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guests.” — DT, 19 Nov. 2025
“Do you think the French [students in the US] are better [wrt spying and stealing intellectual property], really?… I’m not so sure” — DT, 10 Nov. 2025
“The writer of the [New York Time] story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,”— DT, 26 Nov. 2025
