Mencken’s Forgotten Wisdom on War
by Jim Bovard | Jun 25, 2025
As a stampede of weasels just sought to con America into supporting another Mideast war, it is time remember America’s most underrated critic of bellicose folly. H.L. Mencken is famous for his smackdowns of politicians and ridicule of government and of much of American culture. But he also offered sage advice for citizens judging officialdom itching for carnage.
On May 9, 1939, The Baltimore Sun published Mencken’s essay on “The Art of Selling War.” This piece, included in the Second Mencken Chrestomathy published in 1995, deserves a far higher position in the Mencken and antiwar pantheon.
In words that are painfully relevant for today’s news, Mencken warned, “The fact that all the polls run heavily against American participation in the threatening European war is not to be taken seriously.” Mencken continued:
“Wars are not made by common folks, scratching for livings in the heat of the day, they are made by demagogues infesting palaces…The very unpopularity of war makes people ready to believe, when they suddenly confront it, that it has been thrust upon them…because their own demagogues have been pretending, all the while, to be trying to prevent it.”
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/menckens-forgotten-wisdom-on-war/
WOW 🚨 The Republican Party is protecting Ilhan Omar from accountability
Rep Nancy Mace “I tried to subpoena her immigration records, her brother husband's immigration records, and IT WAS REPUBLICANS that killed my motion”
It’s a Uniparty. One Big Club.
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2029691279555305592?s=20
Iran War & Fuel Rationing – are “Energy Lockdowns” on the way?
The war in Iran is having the impact that most people with any sense knew it would have: The price of oil is going up, and the supply of oil is going down.
Of course, whether or not the latter of these is actually true we will never know, and it’s beside the point. Oil companies will natural take the slightest excuse to price gouge and contrive scarcity for the basest of profit motives.
It also serves a political motive as well, since we know the global political machinery is –
against free travel…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2026/03/16/iran-fuel-rationing-are-energy-lockdowns-on-the-way/
That means that of the 2.1mn tonnes of urea — the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser — that would normally have been loaded for export over the past two weeks, about half has been disrupted.
At the same time, more than 1.1mn tonnes of fertiliser and fertiliser inputs, including 570,000 tonnes of urea, is currently stuck in the Gulf, either being loaded or already on ships, according to Kpler data.
Nitrogen fertilisers, which underpin about half of global food production, are made from ammonia using natural gas, which has soared in price since the war began last month.
The shortages have begun during the northern hemisphere’s planting season, leading industry executives to warn of lower harvests for staples such as rice.
If the disruption continues, “this will be much worse than 2022”, said Veronica Nigh, senior economist at The Fertilizer Institute, a US-based trade group. “The longer the conflict goes on, the more dire the situation will become.”
The Middle ...
With reference to the University of Kent meningitis outbreak. All exams being conducted atm are to be taken online. Campus is open as usual. Outbreak was traced to a canterbury nightclub called club chemistry , popular with students in which 2 students (1- UKC student, 1- Faversham college student) have sadly died.