Vaxed&Taxed Lloyd

The attempt to destroy Iranian knowledge Yesterday, March 26th, the Isfahan University of Technology was targeted. Today, the 27th, the Tehran University of Technology also came under heavy bombardment. These events reinforce my previous point that one of the primary objectives of this conflict is the destruction of Iranian academic and scientific knowledge.

@pati_marins64 They have an interesting array of scientific equipment for educational purposes. Not available to me when I was studying.

Iranian Technology Goes Far Beyond Missiles The country rank in the global 5 in six critical technologies 
 Iran has established itself as a major power in missiles, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. The country also competes with global powers in several other technological markets. Although it still faces historical bottlenecks in investment in basic sectors, resulting in critical deficits in electricity generation and potable water supply, the situation is changing. Iran has woken up to these vulnerabilities and is now directing billions of dollars toward restructuring its essential infrastructure. However, it still needs to prove that domestic infrastructure is a higher priority than funding militias in foreign territories. The most impressive phenomenon, however, is occurring in the field of knowledge. Just a few years ago, anyone who predicted that Iran would surpass powers such as Germany, Japan, and India in frontier areas like nanotechnology would have been laughed at. Today, the data confirms that this is the new geopolitical reality of science. When we examine indicators such as SCImago Journal & Country Rank, StatNano, Web of Science, Nature Index, and the ASPI Critical Technology Tracker, Iran ranks among the world’s top ten scientific powers in several fields. Global Research Ranking – Iran (Top 10 Worldwide) According to consolidated indicators of scientific output and academic impact, Iran belongs to the global elite in the following disciplines: •Nanotechnology: 4th to 6th place
 •Artificial Neural Networks: 6th place
 •Industrial Engineering: 7th place
 •Aerospace Engineering: 8th place
 •Mechanical Engineering: 9th place
 •Analytical Chemistry: 9th place
 •Surface Science: 9th place
 •Energy Engineering: 10th place
 (These positions come from a compilation the rankings of SCImago Journal & Country Rank, StatNano, Web of Science, Nature Index, and the ASPI Critical Technology Tracker.) Strategic Breakdown (ASPI Critical Technology Tracker – 2025 Update) The ASPI report shows that Iran not only publishes in large volume but also with high impact. The country ranks in the global top 5 in six critical technologies, including: Aircraft engines and hypersonics, where it competes directly with major global powers Biofuels and smart materials, areas in which Iranian scientific production is considered world-class; Nanomaterials and advanced coatings, directly linking basic science to defense and heavy industry Smart materials; All of this has been achieved despite international sanctions, which have ironically helped Iran become one of the fastest-growing nations in technology worldwide. This progress is driven by an internal ecosystem of elite universities, such as Sharif and Tehran, that have turned isolation into a powerful engine of technical self-sufficiency. Iran has reached a technological level where, even if it abandoned its current nuclear project, it could restart and complete it in just a few years. This gives the country the ability to make its own choices and chart its own path. The West needs to recognize the technological advances Iran has made over the past three decades. Which Western nation possesses hypersonic missiles with short, medium, and intermediate range? Not even the United States has this capability with fully domestic technology, something Iran has already achieved. In addition, Iran belongs to the select group of nations capable of manufacturing its own satellites and placing them into orbit using indigenous launch vehicles. However, Iranian technology goes far beyond aerospace.

@baoshaoshan Ashamed but their pockets will be full.

A bad decision from day one on the back of trumped up threats. The subs will never come, the bills will never cease. Those who agreed to this path & continue to back it should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

After 8 years of war between Iraq and Iran ended, Iran tracked down and killed every Iraqi pilot who bombed Iran. They are more impatient now. Justice for the dead children of Minab School is swifter. “The killing of the American pilot #Taylor_Jaeger in an Iranian rocket attack on the Al-Kharj military base in #Riyadh, which ended the lives of many soldiers and included losses of fighter jets and fuel tanker aircraft. Taylor Jaeger, the perpetrator of the first airstrike in #Tehran and accused of the war crime of bombing a girls' school whose victims were 150 female students.”

Australia’s national interest trashed — this is what we get for following US orders. They were certainly “orders” dressed up as an ‘offer’ — as after Albanese had a short briefing the night before it was announced by Dutton, he instantly agreed to the #AUKUS pact. No consideration, no detailed evaluation, no risk assessment, no defence liaison, no proper consideration, no public discussion, no public trust. No independent thought. A fait accompli. An order.

Pentagon “Skims” European Money: Allies Pay, But Weapons Don't Arrive The United States is facing growing dissatisfaction among allies due to delays, cancellations, and the redirection of funds intended for the purchase of American weapons. Resources meant for supporting Ukraine or modernizing allied forces are being used, in part, to replenish the Pentagon’s own stockpiles, which have been depleted by recent conflicts, particularly in the Middle East. According to The Washington Post, Europe has already sent approximately $750 million via the PURL (Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List) program to purchase American weapons intended for Ukraine. However, the Pentagon now plans to use part of this money to replenish its own arsenals instead of delivering the promised equipment. U.S. officials admit, in private conversations, that the Europeans 'likely didn’t fully understand' where the money was actually going. It is the same mechanism that has been criticized in the past: allies pay, but the final destination of the resources shifts according to Washington's priorities The case of Switzerland clearly illustrates the tension. The country had ordered Tomahawk missiles years ago, but the U.S. informed them they would be unable to deliver. In response, Bern decided not to pay. … Read more joining my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/global21/p…

America…? A moral compass…? *clears throat* The United States was built on genocide and ethnic cleansing In 1898 it declared itself a ‘global power’ by crushing independence movements in the Philippines, killing at least 200k Filipino civilians From 1912 to 1933 it occupied Nicaragua, violently suppressing nationalist movements From 1915 to 1934 it invaded and occupied Haiti, essentially legalising slave labour From 1916 to 1924 it done the same to the Dominican Republic In 1945 it needlessly dropped two atomic bombs on civilians days before they knew Japan was to surrender, in a ‘display of strength’ to the Soviets In 1953 it overthrew Iran’s democracy in an act of pure self-interest In 1954 it overthrew Guatemala’s democracy leading to decades of violence In 1965 it backed mass killings in Indonesia, enabling the murder of up to a million people In the 1960’s and 1970’s it carpet-bombed Vietnam, killed millions, and poisoned the land From 1969 to 1973 it also carpet-bombed Cambodia with similar effects In 1973 it installed a dictatorship in Chile through a military coup From 1979 to 1989 it armed and funded Afghan militias, destabilising the country for decades In the 1990s it strangled Iraq with sanctions, devastating millions In 2003 it invaded Iraq on a lie, leading to a million dead In 2011 it destroyed Libya, turning a functioning state into a failed one where slave markets now exist In the 2020s it continues unabated, funding and arming the Gaza genocide and more atrocities across the Middle East This is not even close to an exhaustive list of US crimes So, what’s very, very important to understand is not that the United States has lost its ‘moral compass’ — it’s that it’s lost its ability to rewrite history in real time because the internet exists It has lost total control of the narrative Or, in short, now we’re able to see what it really is, and always has been

6. The fact that Coyne magnifies blunt language & 'unsafe interactions' as the evidence of 🇨🇳 aggression whilst not citing a single example of the millions killed by 🇺🇸 aggression highlights just how pathetically weak his argument is...

The Two Tongues of Anthony Albanese. Albanese to Australians: We have not made a constructive contribution to the Iran war. Trump to Albanese: You have not made a constructive contribution to the Iran war. Albanese to Trump; We have made a constructive contribution to the Iran war. Therein lies the problem.

@EYakoby For everyone's benefit: This is a lie, and you should never trust anything @EYakoby posts. x.com/owenjonesjourn…

So far Israel and the USA have completely destroyed over 600 schools in Iran. Which puts the "targeting mistake" of killing the 170 schoolgirls in perspective.

ICYMI 2/2 #auspol michaelwest.com.au/aukus-submarin…

There is a mythology the U.S. built around the American War in Vietnam. It goes like this: Young idealistic soldiers were sent into an unwinnable situation by confused politicians. They came home broken and unappreciated. It was a tragedy. A mistake. A lesson learned. Notice what that story does. It centers Americans. Their trauma. Their confusion. Their homecoming. Their feelings. In this story, the Vietnamese people are a backdrop. A jungle. An obstacle. An abstraction. Three million dead Vietnamese people are the scenery for a story about American self-discovery. They made hundreds of movies about Vietnam. The Deer Hunter. Apocalypse Now. Platoon. Full Metal Jacket. Born on the Fourth of July. Hamburger Hill. Count how many of them center a Vietnamese character with a full human life, a family, a name you remember after the credits roll. They turned our genocide into their coming-of-age story. They lost the war and still managed to make themselves the main character. And then, with extraordinary arrogance, they put their soldiers' names on a wall in Washington and call it a memorial, as if the dead to be mourned were the people who flew 10,000 miles to do the killing. Where is the wall for our three million? There isn't one. Because in their telling, we were never quite real enough to mourn.

How many more Minns' are being groomed right now? How do we identify them before the next election?

🤦‍♂️ Israeli generals are at least as clueless as American generals. I will state the simple facts clearly: ANY island the US attempts to seize in the Persian Gulf will produce no meaningful military advantage, and will result in the slaughter of the US troops that attempt it.

Of course Australia's deals with the USA wouldn't be in jeopardy? Would they?

@imetatronink Has the lack of Israeli radar etc. assisted Hezbollah? Or is their success based solely on their own strategies?

🔥 Merkava Massacre Even worse than they got smacked around in late 2024, the IDF is getting absolutely smoked by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Almost 100 Israeli Merkava main battle tanks have been destroyed during the month of March. militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israel…

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH HAS A DARK SECRET For decades, Human Rights Watch simply hired staff directly from the US government and replicated US foreign policy against China, Russia, Iran, and others, while pretending to be an independent global pressure group. When anyone tried to point out the problem, staff pointed to the fact that HRW regularly criticized Israel, saying that this proved it was not aligned to the US government. And that’s why the recent refusal of the group to publish the work of their own Palestine/ Israel desk blew their cover. . NOT MEANT TO BE FAIR Enthusiastically pro-Israel founder of HRW, Bob Bernstein, never wanted the group to be "fair" to everyone. He believed HRW, which came together from a cluster of smaller organizations in 1988, was not intended to be evenhanded, but should serve the US and the “free world” in the west against societies which chose a more “closed” path, mostly in the east. So, except for HRW’s Israel criticism, which annoyed him, Bernstein was happy with the way it worked. Washington DC thinks the Iranians are bad guys? So does HRW. Washington DC makes a ridiculous claim that China has genocided one of its minority groups? HRW will provide an “independent” view that Washington got it right, as usual. By 2000, a pattern had formed. The US government would criticize Russia or some other “adversary” and the western mainstream media would “independently confirm” the allegation with a statement by a Human Rights Watch staffer—while conveniently forgetting to mention that this source was a US government employee until ten days or ten minutes earlier. HRW rarely criticized Washington, so the distortions built up. . CASE STUDIES Example 1: When shocking news broke out in the early 2000s that the US had for years been the global master of illegal cross-border kidnapping (hidden under euphemisms such as “extrajudicial” or “extraordinary” “rendition”), HRW chose not to criticize them. . Examples 2 and 3: When the US was accused of involvement in a coup in Haiti in 2004, and when the American military was involved in a highly controversial operation of destruction in Libya in 2011, HRW looked the other way, whistling. No criticism in either case. Example 4: Looking at the 2009 Ethiopia case in more detail is instructive. That year, Human Rights Watch echoed the US government in painting a horrific picture of apparent war crimes committed by Ethiopian authorities trying to clamp down on subversion. Stung by the unfairness of this, Ethiopian civil servants organized an investigation into the HRW claims. They produced a new set of findings which were summarized by the Economist: “The government report found ‘no trace’ of serious human-rights violations. People reported to have been killed or tortured were said to have been found alive and well. Villages marked down as torched were said to be unscathed.” But who believed them? The western mainstream media (including the Economist) were dismissive of the new findings, because they came from government claims, while HRW was not a government body but “a pressure group”. (It's easy to fool the western mainstream media, because they so desperately want to be fooled, and have a self-imposed news blackout on mentioning CIA or NED funding). . REAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS COMPLAIN By 2012, the absurd claim that HRW was independent of Washington had become so patently ridiculous that people (outside the media) started to complain. In 2014, two winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire, wrote a letter pointing out how unfair HRW was to the world outside the west. It was signed by 100 genuine human rights activists, plus academics specializing in international relations. A global human rights organization could not be the real thing if it had “revolving-door hiring practices” with the US government, the critics said. But HRW rolled out its defence: Look! We criticize Israel, even defying our founder to do so! Yet Bernstein had retired by that time, and died in 2019. I could go on, but you get the picture. HRW's China Desk is a shocking story in itself...

@wickedfairysad @BRONewsReports @ProudSocialist So there is hope for the rest!

@BRONewsReports @ProudSocialist He is American born, only learnt that recently!

Marandi: “Your regime is aiding the US in carpet bombing our country. And as it does you make false accusations against Iran to legitimize the aggression against us & that makes you complicit in war crimes.” UK reporter: “Me personally?” Marandi: “Yes you’re a propagandist.” 🔥