<![CDATA[Elisberg Industries - Blog]]>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 09:28:29 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[You Can Call Him Al]]>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 07:00:00 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/you-can-call-him-al2880745
The guests on this week’s Al Franken podcast are foreign affairs expert David Rothkopf and Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq War vet and CEO of the Independent Veterans of America.  As the show writes, “America is at war with Iran. It's the eighth time that Donald Trump has attacked another country since he began his second term (despite pledging "no new wars" during his campaign). To break it all down, we're joined by David Rothkopf and Paul Rieckhoff.

“We take a look at the difficult history between America and Iran along with the current military campaign Trump has started in the region. Trump and his administration have yet to outline exactly WHY we are fighting, and with Americans already dying, it's no surprise that this war is extremely unpopular. Not to mention, this is costing our country a billion dollars a day and will only become more expensive as the war expands.

“David and Paul discuss the long term impact this might have for America and the Middle East and how it may escalate in the region and could signal a scary moment for the global nuclear arms race.”
]]><![CDATA[Today's Piano Puzzler]]>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/todays-piano-puzzler4167827From the archives.   This week’s contestant is David Harris from Farmer City, Illinois.  I didn’t have a clue with the hidden song, and it’s very well-known.  I’d say it was very well-hidden, too, but the contestant got it right away.  But even when pianist-composer Bruce Adolphe played the piece again, I could barely hear it, except for a few notes.  And I had no idea what the composer style was, since the music wasn’t the style I most known the composer for.   You may do better.
]]><![CDATA[The Weekly Stewart This Week]]>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:30:00 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/the-weekly-stewart-this-week8941126On this “The Weekly Show” podcast with Jon Stewart, his guests are Ambassador Wendy Sherman and CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.  As the show writes, “As American strikes intensify and Iran retaliates across the region, Jon is joined by Wendy Sherman, who negotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement that Trump later withdrew from, and CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Together, they analyze Trump's decision to choose war over diplomacy, assess what the administration is trying to accomplish through military force, and examine the possibilities ahead for the Iranian people and the region. Plus, Jon talks about the merger aftermath and his Last Meal order!”
 
As I’ve noted, the show provides a "breakdown" of when specific topics are covered during the conversation, so you can jump to the sections that most interest you.  If you watch the video on YouTube, those time codes are hyperlinked to the video and will jump you automatically to the right spot.
 
00:00 - Introduction
02:20 - Christiane Amanpour & Wendy Sherman Join
05:17 - Military Planning vs. Political Strategy
08:38 - Regional Escalation and Retaliation
16:48 - The "Venezuela Template" for Regime Change
20:01 - Iran’s Power Structure Explained
24:35 - Negotiating with a Theocracy
36:26 - International Law vs. "Might Makes Right"
45:48 - The History of Grievance and the 1979 Revolution
55:01 - Possibility of a "Berlin Wall" Moment
01:00:01 - Unifying a Fragmented Opposition
01:06:41 - The Role of Saudi Arabia and Gulf States
01:13:30 - The Path to Lasting Peace
01:19:08 - Breaking Down the Discussion

]]><![CDATA[The Movies Rides Again]]>Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/the-movies-rides-again9772520The past few years, on Oscar weekend, I wrote the following, about a quest I'd been on.

A long while back, I was on a mini-mission to get the Motion Picture Academy to open their Oscar broadcast with a particularly wonderful song that, though it had a bit of shelf-life in country music (reaching #10 on the country charts), I figured they wouldn't know.  I actually came close -- not to accomplishing my task, but having access to making the suggestion -- when my former boss at Universal Studios, Bob Rehme, years later was made president of the Academy.  Alas, I didn't have the contact information that would have helped and didn't make the effort -- which probably wouldn't have been too difficult, even it was before Google searches -- to track it down (hence never getting beyond being just a "mini-mission").

The idea time has long-since passed, since the group who sang the song, the Statler Brothers, have retired, and also some of the references in the song -- while many are still classic -- aren't all likely as impactful on today's audience.  Still, it's a very fun song, with clever, overlapping references (as best as I can quickly count) to 51 movies, as well as a jammed-in handful of actors and characters, and would make an enjoyable number in the middle of the broadcast, sung by a cobbled-together group of movie stars singing.  And classic movies are just that – classic. 

(Hey, the Statlers themselves could even have come out of retirement.  They did briefly a few years back for an event when elected into a country music Hall of Fame).

But no, it wasn't likely to happen, and now it won't.  But it doesn't stop me from at least presenting the song on the weekend of the Oscar broadcast.  So, here it is -- one of the most affectionate and truly clever songs I've heard about movies. And it fits perfectly into the portfolio of "list" songs that the Statlers were so well-known for.

Indeed, the name of the song is "The Movies."

There's one change from the initial years.  For a long time, when I've posted the song initially, it was a video with Jimmy Fortune who had replaced Lew DeWitt who'd had to retire for health reasons.  But as I mentioned in 2021, I found a video with all four original Statlers, all the more notable since it was Lew DeWitt (on your far right, with the guitar and wearing tinted glasses) who wrote the song.  And that’s the version I get to post now.

]]><![CDATA[Oh, for Pete's Sake!!!!!]]>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:02:26 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/oh-for-petes-sake5149287Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just said the following: 

"​The only thing prohibiting transit in the Straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping.  It is open for transit should Iran not do that."

Yes, really.  

And I'm sure many people might think I'm making that up or misquoting him -- and for something this insane, you'd be right to wonder -- so, here is the video:
The only thing prohibiting me from walking across the 405 Freeway is a barrage of cars barreling at 60 MPH hitting me. It is open for walking across, should cars not do that.

The only thing prohibiting the U.S. military from putting feet on the ground and taking full control of Iran right now is Iran shooting at the soldiers.  It is safe should Iran not do that.

This is the unqualified incompetent, wannabe macho faux-tough guy -- who once had an unsecured operational SignalChat that accidentally invited in a reporter, and who still hasn't released the second video of a suspected war crime bombing of a boat and man in distress -- who is heading the war effort!!!

A drunk and accused rapist who was put in charge by Trump, an unqualified incompetent felon and adjudicated rapist with dementia which is degenerative.  Enabled by MAGOPs in Congress,

By the way, putting aside the utter, brain-numbing stupidity of his "It's safe, except for the bombs" admonition, Pete Hegseth also got two things factually wrong. 

First, it's "the Strait" -- not "Straits," there is only one Strait of Hormuz.  It's really good to exactly know your military target, especially when trying to tell people it's supposedly safe.  And no, this isn't semantics.  Accuracy in war breeds confidence that you know what you're talking about.  Is he saying there are "two" straits that can be crossed?  Precise accuracy matters.  Even just slight inaccuracy turns bombing a military facility into bombing a girls school and killing over 150 children.

Second, "the only thing" stopping safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz is not bombs from Iran.  Another thing stopping it would be that three days ago (it was in all the news), Iran announced it had started placing mines in the Strait.  Y'know, again, it's why that whole "accuracy in war breeds confidence" is a real thing.  Because even just slight inaccuracy keeps a safe trip from total destruction.
]]><![CDATA[Mr. Trump's Wild Ride]]>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:00:00 GMThttps://www.elisbergindustries.com/blog/mr-trumps-wild-rideYesterday, there were three terrorist attacks in the U.S., including one by a man with ties to ISIS (the group Trump said in his first term he eliminated) who had been in prison and previously under FBI observation until, for whatever reason, he wasn’t.  Another was a cyberattack directly related to hackers from Iran.
 
So, it seems like maybe Trump and Kash Patel shouldn’t have fired 45 counterterrorism agents from the FBI, including a dozen whose expertise was specifically monitoring threats from Iran – just because years ago they’d been assigned to investigate Trump.  And, especially, fired only days before the administration knew it would be attacking Iran in Trump's war.  In all, over 300 national security agents have either been fired or left the FBI since Trump took office, more than 50 of them in leadership roles.
 
But that’s just my opinion, I’m not an expert on Iran.  Though at least that puts me on the same footing as Trump and Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Markwayne Mullin, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
 
In fairness, perhaps calling this “going to war” against Iran is unfair to Trump since he says it is only just an “excursion.”  Sort of like going on a family trip to Disneyland.
 
And from all appearances, Trump does seem to see it as an "excursion".  After all, he thinks he can just declare victory and that “the war is over” when he says so.  Unfortunately, wars don’t work that way – there’s always another side.  With bombs, drones, soldiers, guns.  And if you leave before they’re done fighting, they really might just continue fighting you.
 
Further, Trump and his crackerjack team of saps at the White House keep putting out infantile videos that look like video games, meant to show supposedly (I guess…) how great the “excursion” is going.  They’re montages of sports moments and movie clips and AI generated mumbo jumbo where we see, for example, a bowler making a strike, and a golfer hitting a hole-in-one, and bombs exploding and…they are all just utterly mind-numbingly childish.
 
They come across like Trump and his MAGOP enablers seem to want all of America to think that war is a video game. But of course, war is not a sports event. It's not a video game, it’s not what we see in movies where there’s a script that everyone follows. It's not an AI meme. War is deadly serious -- with emphasis on "deadly."
 
But this is what happens when unqualified incompetent, wannabe macho civilians are in charge.  Posturing, swaggering, fist-bumping.  War is serious. People die. Costs rise. Life is disrupted. And no matter how much claims he can just declare the war over, it's still going on because there's no exit strategy.  Nor goal.
 
This is also what happens when the commander-in-chief says something contradicted by everyone around him, and when asked why he’d said what he did when none of his team says it, replied – "I don't know about it."

And this what happens, too, when the commander-in-chief thinks it's just an "excursion" and a video game and he can declare victory and tell oil tankers that have stopped going through the Strait of Hormuz to just "Show some guts. There's nothing to be afraid of."  But then, there's never anything to be afraid of on an "excursion" and easy to show guts when playing a video game.  But two tankers did try to go through two nights ago and got blown up.

The International Energy Agency said the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz -- through which 20% of the world's oil is transported -- as a result of Trump's "excursion" is the "largest supply disruption in the history of global oil market"!

This is a good time to toss in a reminder that -- 1) We had a nuclear deal with Iran that Trump tore up, and 2) a few months back Trump said that we had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear arsenal.  So, none of this -- the war, the disruption of oil, the resultant rise in gas and products that rely on gas, the deaths, the accidental bombing of a girls school and its 170 deaths -- none of this was necessary.  

But at the very least, Trump and Kash Patel -- knowing they were going to attack Iran -- shouldn't have fired all those counter-terrorism agents, especially the experts on Iran.  Even if you thought it was just an "excursion."
 
Expert analyst David Rohde of MS Now said yesterday morning that Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has turned aspects of Trump's war against Iran in their favor – not that Iran is necessarily winning, he made clear, but that it was inexplicable that U.S. leadership has no answer for Iran’s action.
 
Probably because unqualified incompetent, wannabe macho civilians are in charge and act as if this war is just an "excursion" into outer space for a war battle against aliens in a video game.  And if you bomb the wrong target and hit a girls school and over 170 people die, well…you can always chug another beer, hit "redo", and circle back to try again.
 
Until you find out the other side is real and will attack back.
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