The clearest analysis of Trump's insane war is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcXfcXJvMXg
Robert Pape knows what he's talking about. Listen to the man. It's a long-play information dump that we need right now.
No diesel in my little town today, and a cap on petrol/gas. The sheer scale of Trump's ineptitude and his trailer-park hillbilly administration is staggering. He's killing everybody.
This post made possible by Ignorance and Greed, two reassuring constants in a world of change.
As ever, either turn YouTube comments off or don't look at them. Unless you like willful stupidity for its own sake.
ReplyDeleteYou misspelled "Israel's insane war"
ReplyDeleteUh-huh. But it's Trump's involvement that pushed it to the next level. Israel is at war with everyone else on the planet.
DeleteTLDR (as I understand it):
ReplyDelete- Obama had a deal with AK, under which Iran's enriched weapons-grade plutonium was removed under strict observation.
- Ayatolla K. issued fatwah (religious edict) that no nuclear weapons were to be made.
- Trump killed not only A.K. but the the people around him who could have replaced him and shared his policy.
- A.K's successor, the new Supreme Leader, does not support the A.K's fatwah, and Iran now has every reason to manufacture nuclear bombs (the Americans are killing them, basically).
- Iran's limited but growing stockpile of plutonium is hidden deep in the mountains. The US has no idea where - cannot make a strike at it.
- The war is already a "world war". Not in the sense of bombing and troop deployment, but global economics. Iran has a stranglehold on global oil distribution. The straits of Hormuz are controlled by Iran and effectively closed.
And this is why I can't refuel my truck. Thanks, Obama!
If you did have a squint at the comments, they're mostly hammered out by illiterates who don't understand the role of advisor. Advisors don't make policy decisions. This reminds me of the nearly unanimous online reaction to the Steele pee tape "dossier", due to a fundamental ignorance of what Steele did, which was to pass on intel from his trusted sources - "what we're hearing is this ..." It was never a conclusive fact-filled "dossier", it was an intelligence report. A nuance way too fine for the internet sludge mind. But yeah, YouTube comments are a useful indicator of how deeply ignorance runs. The human race is fucked, but it probably always has been. The end of the world as we know it is an ongoing situation, the war that never ends.
Another nuance that flies over too many heads: Judaism v. Zionism.
DeleteNUANCE!! there is no longer sucha thing!! we have been saved from the nuisance of nuance. let the buildings of understanding fall upon us.
DeleteI should have put "nuance" in quotes, signifying "irony".
Delete#Tangerinetwatwaffle MAGA Equals Mariam Adelson Governs America
ReplyDeletehttps://www.forbes.com/profile/miriam-adelson/
DeleteWhat a sweetheart.
There is one thing that I think people misunderstand about tRump's pronouncements. While he often proclaims that he may be the last US president, implying that he will cancel upcoming elections and rule in perpetuity (he's 80!!), I think he might mean something else entirely. He will avoid responsibility at any cost. Any cost. He might just mean, "after me, the abyss," as in little fingers on the button. His administration is nothing else but destruction, of norms, infrastructure, health dept. is a death cult . . . etc. And Americans all tune in like it's a fucking game show. Being voted in once is indictment enough, but twice?? --Muzak McMusics P.S. And Netanyahu is more of the same mold, only the people he made deals with are true messianists.
ReplyDeleteIt is an established theory that he is intent on "taking everything with him when he goes". He is that vain. And there are millions (although that number is eroding) who'd be quite happy with that. "If I can't have it, nobody will." He is beyond reason, driven by self-love and lust for power, surrounded by carefully-picked dunces and arselickers. All of which is bad enough, but to have no real opposition on the "left" (or the corporate version that passes for it) means he can do exactly what he wants with no consequences. As Eric said elsewhere, "things will get worse before they get worse". They have so far - at no point did it ever look like he was capable of doing the right thing by his position and country, or even know what the right thing was. The shitification of the nation has extended into the world.
DeleteBut hey! The libtards got owned.
Miriam Adelson a billionaire philanthropist ??? isn't that an oxymoron ??? wikipedia just can't get it right with its listing of power players can it ???
ReplyDeletewoody
SPEAKING AS AN AMERICAN- this morning i go to vote in the primary which is primarily composed of evils. i just hope i get lucky and chose at least one lesser evil. that's the best we got. lesser evils. sounds like other countries don't have it much better.
ReplyDeleteIf degrees of evil are accepted as a necessity, they quickly become indistinguishable and normalized. At the end of the day, we’re still choosing evil.
DeleteWe aren’t choosing between the lesser of two evils. One political party, the GOP, believes in fascism, oligarchy, white supremacy & Christian nationalism. The other party the Democrats, for all their faults believes in democracy, diversity, equal rights & economic fairness. The difference between the two sides is clear as night and day. That is our choice.
DeleteGbrand
Yeah but Kamala laughs weird.
DeleteYeah, she has that annoying cackle, doesn't she?
DeleteBrexit, was really stupid, I didn't think it would happen.
DeleteVOTE PEOPLE.
Sorry about the cap lock FT3, that was instead of a stream of expletives.
non-voters got us the MOST evil result. if your back is to the wall and you got no other choice but to try for the least disastrous outcome you either do it or wind up with what we got. even if we spend the next 50 years rebuilding and cleaning up the destruction it will take a hundred to rid ourselves of the stink. we also need new and more powerful words to describe the vile and loathsome characters in our comedy of disaster.
DeleteGotta admit, the Orange 'Tard is world class in the Loathsome Moron League, and has made his way into the history books for this already. But he's being played by rather more subtle / even more evil minds as a useful idiot talking head, and when the time comes, will be easily sacrificed as bad/ demented. Then watch everyone who supported him move on and pretend it didn't happen. If we are all still here, of course. America, look up what happened to the UK regarding Suez in 1956. Your President has just done the same for the USA.
ReplyDeleteNot the biggest fan of this group, but this one song hit me hard when it was first released. Somewhat timeless and not in a good way. Oh, and my son is a spitting image of Matthews. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr983MfFvk
ReplyDeleteI put this up as a link to what I thought was some valuable "content" - the internet term for anything - and I hope now you're all Hormuz experts like me.
ReplyDeleteI think at least Trump watched the clip, because he said this yesterday:
ReplyDelete“Maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all.”
This is the third time I’ve tried to write something here to express how I feel about the situation we now are in. I failed again because I think it is really too bad and I don’t like my conclusions to were we are going. Europe is hanging on, and I hope we can hold together.
ReplyDeleteSo I gave up again, here’s some song lyrics, I’m The Slime is pertinent, just swap tv/video for social media. Waiting For A Superman, well that’s how I feel right now, and I’m furious.
It’s getting heavy.
Frank Zappa - I’m The Slime
I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set
You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help... no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold
That's right, folks...
Don't touch that dial
Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor
I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go
I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor
I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go
———————————
Flaming Lips - Waiting For A Superman
I asked you a question
I didn't need you to reply
Is it gettin' heavy?
But then I realized
Is it gettin' heavy?
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be
Is it overwhelming
To use a crane to crush a fly?
It's a good time for Superman
To lift the sun into the sky
'Cause it's gettin' heavy
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be
Tell everybody
Waitin' for Superman
That they should try to hold on best they can
He hasn't dropped them
Forgotten or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift
Is it gettin' heavy?
Well I thought it was already as heavy as can be
Tell everybody
Waitin' for Superman
That they should try to hold on best they can
He hasn't dropped them
Forgotten or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift
Please note that "anonymous" comments will be deleted if I think they'd be more at home on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteI confess I just had to kinda sit this one out, y'all. It is simply fucked up beyond all recognition--though we can recognize it when we see it--and will get worse before it gets worse. As for "all Rs are crazy, stupid, evil," you didn't hear that from me I know and am related to a set who aren't. But they largely concur that that's a fair description of their fellow folk who voted for Cheeto Jesus. I am also amused, for wont of a better term, by these voters who suddenly seem to to have buyer's remorse at how they voted in and his Eee-vile henchpeople. Dark. Dank.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have people asking my "professional" (lol) opinion about Donny Darko taking Cuba whenever he wants...just as he did with 30 or so woman who've accused him of rape...
He has even managed to stir shit in our neck of the woods, here in South Africa, promoting various inflammatory racist views concerning an alleged "white genocide" that is being perpetrated by the "evil black communist government". The fact is that there is freedom of speech in South Africa, and a wide range of political viewpoints, ranging from fringe extremist elements whether white supremacists or black populists and everything in between. Most people are happy with the new South Africa, despite a few problems with corruption in business and political offices and a lot of poverty induced crime. The biggest arseholes in our land tend to be the less than thirty percent of the white inhabitants who wish for the good old days of Apartheid. The true situation is that living here is a lot better than many other places.
ReplyDeleteYou also have the best food. That was a surprise.
DeleteAh, jeez, I know better, but I'm going to say something anyway. What I find missing from the usual everyone-agrees-Trump-bad discussion is there is only rarely any self-reflection on the part of those of us who didn't vote for Trump
ReplyDeleteIn 2016, 200 counties that had voted twice for Obama shifted and voted for Trump.
Starr County, Texas, voted 79.1% for Clinton in 2016. They voted 57.7% for Trump in 2024. Starr County is 97.6% "Hispanic or Latino of any race" and 1.78% "white alone."
What I see regularly is the Trump's a racist explanation, which is true, but there's no effort to explain things like Starr County, or why the "racists" voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
As a general rule, my party and the dopes speaking for it on television do not make any effort at understanding, explaining, or engaging with rural America.
In other news, I got hit with bear spray set off in our apartment building off by a mentally ill former tenant. For the budget minded terrorist, this stuff is a good value for money; you'll never get in trouble when you turn in your receipts to H.R.
For a cannister you can buy on Amazon for less than $20.00, she emptied a 24-unit apartment building, closed a major thoroughfare and bus route, tied up every fire engine in town (Oakland had to send units to cover our fire stations, eight police cars, plus the county haz-mat team. I spent four hours in "quarantine," which sounds impressive but was just the parking lot of the doughnut shop across the street. We were not allowed to leave as they didn't know what we'd been sprayed with ("it could be a nerve agent." I said, "she's a dopey meth-head, not the friggin' KGB.")
How and why people vote is inexplicable and unpredictable, pretty much like everything else. I love the snapshot of US life your In Other News gives us. Should you ever want a guest spot "In Other News Dept." - you're free to write what you want. A slightly-expanded version of this story would definitely be welcome.
DeleteI'll see if can bash something together; I should record the details, as it's not every day you discover you can be knocked over by air. I'm a two-fisted he-man but one whiff of bear mace and I'm coughing my lungs out.
DeleteMy skepticism about online political stuff is that the vast majority of it is pointing out that the Other Side is stupid, or evil, and it's usually a gaggle of left-of or right-of, with maybe one or two people shouting the opposite view from the other side. There's very little EXPLANATION of what's going on, and a lot of "owning the other side," and plenty of ad hominem attacks.
As I don't unfriend my friends who are foolish enough to vote differently than me, but I'm also a fact-checker by nature, I know that my most politically motivated friends of both parties...the ones who never post a picture of their food, or mention a movie they just saw...the ones who relentlessly, day in, day out, post pro/anti Trump "news..." I know that they are easily fooled by spurious stories, faked images, incorrect statistics...and that any gentle admonition that perhaps they should check the math makes you a supporter of the Other Side.
Follow up: on Monday, her bail was set $165,000.00. Today, the D.A. released her on "O.R." For those of you not living here in paradise, that means, "A release on own recognizance (O.R. or R.O.R.) is a pretrial release option where a defendant is freed from custody without posting bail or a bond. Instead, the individual signs a written promise to appear at all scheduled court hearings and comply with any conditions set by the court. This type of release is often granted for minor, non-violent offenses or for first-time offenders who demonstrate strong ties to the community." Note that she was arrested in 2024 in Berkeley for the illegal use of tear-gas, and this time she put a nine-year-old girl in the hospital.
Deleteif you can find a good side to a maggat ,then mister you're a better man than i. i am willing to listen but i am not willing to be stupid. pretending that they are just of a different opinion is how we got here.
ReplyDeleteAs a pubic cervix, I have combed through the luxuriant tresses of the comments to scissor out unsightly knots of YouTube dialog, with particular attention to "anonymous" comments, which have absolutely no agency when proclaiming political views. In doing so, some comments that didn't deserve to be cut - such as mine own - have fallen to the floor. Harsh? I don't make the rules.
ReplyDeleteAnd...there's another reason I'm reluctant to engage, two of them, actually...the first is that if I were to develop a strong argument for my position, these words are but fluff on the wind, they're gone in a click. And the other? Well, in forty years of flame wars back to the BBS days on an XT computer, I've never seen anyone actually convince someone to change their minds. Everyone who thought Pantera did not rock were left unconvinced by the Pantera rocks guys, in spite of the vituperation and death threats. I could explain to Anonymous why about half of my cousins are Trump supporters and the other half are not, but it would not affect him in any way. So it goes. :)
DeletePantera will be featured at Koen's new blog!
Delete