We had a nice little snow yesterday afternoon, as you can see in Photo #4, the one with the sun popping. My favorite in this set though is #1. I love the "lake smoke." Photos ##2 and 3 speak for themselves with those loud colors. #2 is what I call a broiler. I like the bumpy embers. In #3, the bumps have smoothed out and cooled off.Write about whatever you like in the comments.
Posts
109 comments:
I would say vibrant by ymmv
There's something broody and medieval about morning fog on a lake or riparian scene. You expect some middle-earthly beast or being to emerge from it, bringing the terror of brand-new, previously unthought-of experiences.
It got up to 85 degrees here today. We even got in the outdoor jacuzzi for a dip. Hotter please.
Meade is the Scorsese of sunrises
Lake is to lacustrine as river is to riparian
We all came out to Mad'son
On the Lake Mendota shoreline
To take photos with a mobile
We didn't have much time
Ann Althouse and the Meade-man
Were at the best place around
But some stupid comment hogger
Burned comments to the ground,
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
But burning down
They burned down the Iran thread
It died with an awful sound
Funky Meade was running in and out
He was pulling comments out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
Wisc time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race, now
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
We ended up at the Sunrise thread
It was empty cold and bare
With the Corgan Pumpkin thing just below
Talking our music there
Few red lights and a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we'll never forget,
Smoke on the water
A fire in the sky
Smoke on the water
CC, JSM
I live in the mountains just north of Boise. We get some great sunrises, and even better sunsets.
But not a patch on what you post daily.
Today, young women in Iran defy their government by removing their hijab. But 47 years ago, their grandmothers and great grandmothers brought in the Islamist oppression in large part because veils had been banned in 1936 and they just assumed the Islamists would be reasonable.
We see this same gullibility in the women protesting in the US today.
This is from a 1997 interview at the Wilson Center:
HE [Haleh Esfandiari ]: The 1979 revolution brought out the masses of Iranian women who were demonstrating for the abolition of the monarchy and for an Islamic republic. They believed that an Islamic republic would give them total equality, removing all existing obstacles for participation of women in the affairs of the state. But in the excitement of that revolution, nobody paid much attention to what Ayatollah Khomeini was saying in Paris. He said women will have a role in the society but within an Islamic framework. Nobody bothered in those days to ask, "What is the Islamic framework?"
---Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution
The last one is very nice!
It seems we may have entered an era in which we destroy the leaders of our adversaries rather than slaughter thousands of young men until the unharmed leadership agrees to surrender.
You know who hates this new paradigm? Rulers. Also, those who want to be rulers. And especially those who make a living (or hope someday to make a living) from sucking up to rulers and would-be rulers.
You who doesn't mind this new paradigm? Literally everyone else.
"What goes 'round, comes 'round."
That's always been the reason that this hasn't been done, but now assassination is normalized.
You guys cheering on this unprovoked killing spree are maybe the majority of MAGA, but without the people who believed Donald Trump on his "no more endless war" promise, well you can't win elections, so this might be a regime-change boomerang.
"but without the people who believed Donald Trump on his "no more endless war" promise, well you can't win elections,"
So- go ahead and vote for Kamala or AOC. That'll show everyone.
Headline: “Iran Killed 869 U.S. Military Personnel”
If you are not squeamish, read the link. It reveals how some were tortured, then killed.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/iran-killed-869-u-s-military-personnel/
I like the top one best. They are all great however. The top three are sharp, crisp.
“47 years ago, their grandmothers and great grandmothers brought in the Islamist oppression in large part because veils had been banned in 1936 and they just assumed the Islamists would be reasonable.”
To be fair Iranian men were just as gullible. Both men and women were protesting the Shah, relying on promises that life would be better.
Bagdad Bob is back baby!
“unprovoked”? Ha ha ha ha ha! As if 47 years of murder and mayhem inflicted on Americans and their allies were not a massive provocation and justification!
And this guy was openly planning voting fraud two threads down (8:03am comment), encouraging his girlfriend or boyfriend (“SO”) as the case may be to vote twice in one election, casting both their ballots.
How many tankers full of Venezuelan crude have been seized in the last month, and how many million barrels of oil has been sold so far under the US flagship supply deal?
Looking at you, @Jaq.
The power supply at Kharg Island terminal has been hit in a strike for that purpose, thus disabling their ability to export oil, thus no revenue coming in. I wonder if the Trump administration has thought up a US flagship oil deal for Iran? I wonder how fast Army logistics can whip up a MW-level modular power supply and get it in place, so that Iranian oil exports can resume?
Unprovoked: Iran's Top 20 Attacks On The West
The targeted destruction of a state’s leadership by another state as a matter of deliberate policy marks a fundamentally new stage in world politics. This is not merely another episode of regime change. Even when compared with the brutal ends of Muammar Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein, the difference is stark. Gaddafi was killed by Libyan opponents amid internal collapse; Hussein was executed following a trial conducted by an Iraqi court, however flawed one may judge it.
Opponents of the US are entitled to draw two clear conclusions. First, negotiating with Washington is pointless. The only viable options are capitulation or preparation for a force-based resolution.
Second, there is no longer any safe retreat and nothing meaningful left to lose. In these circumstances, any remaining instruments, be they literal or figurative, become legitimate.
As far as gullibility goes you men and women who support Democrats - the best proving grounds are Democrat and Republican run states. What states are managed the best? Forget the rhetoric and look at the accomplishments.
The promise was for "no more endless wars." There are only four words, so probably none of them should be ignored.
(We will be skipping the "since nothing is technically endless . . . blah, blah, blah" equivocation, as that is tedious and dishonest. A decisive victory would not be an endless war, and neither would whack-a-moling hostile leaders from a distance until the adversary runs out of hostile leaders).
RCOCEAN, you’ve made some good points.
Insurers to cancel policies and raise prices for ships in Gulf and Strait of Hormuz ~ FT
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/12ce2dc3-b90f-42d6-a620-fe98c407912cInsurers told ship owners on
"Saturday they would cancel policies and raise coverage prices for vessels traveling through the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel attacked Iran.
War risk insurers on Saturday submitted cancellation notices for policies covering ships moving through the key oil chokepoint, brokers told the FT, with prices set to rise as much as 50 per cent in the coming days.
The unusual move to submit these notices before trading resumes on Monday underscores the pace of escalation after Iran launched retaliatory strikes against US bases across the Middle East."
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/12ce2dc3-b90f-42d6-a620-fe98c407912c
some things are more important than elections.
Human dignity - for one.
Only two days in, if that. It seems at this point unlikely that what there is left of an Iranian regime or its remnant forces can maintain an effective blockade of the straits.
Jaq: You guys cheering on this unprovoked killing spree are maybe the majority of MAGA ...
So, I may conclude you are OK with Sharia supremacism?
RC: The targeted destruction of a state’s leadership by another state as a matter of deliberate policy marks a fundamentally new stage in world politics.
No, it represents fundamentally new capabilities, with the consequence of making it more likely to be able to hold political leaders liable for their actions.
Before Gulf War I, John Warden, an air power theorist published "The Air Campaign" which advocated bypassing fielded forces in favor of, where possible, attacking as close as possible to the decisions makers.
That was nearly 35 years ago. And to the extend of our capabilities, we did that. Saddam discovered that his nuclear bomb proof bunker wasn't nearly a match for a precision guided artillery barrel packed with tritonal.
As for negotiating with Washington being pointless, you fail to address what it would have taken for the regime to avoid being attacked: meaningfully give up any semblance of a nuclear weapons program, and stop supporting regional proxies.
Why has the regime pursued those things? Because it aims to first wipe Israel off the map, and second go after the West.
Why does it pursue those things? The above mentioned Sharia supremacism, and the attendant virulent Jew hatred.
Which you seem to be OK with, because you never deign to mention it.
At 9:07 AM Instapundit published a picture of a young woman. She is wearing a hijab, with a blindfold over her eyes and a noose around her neck. The picture is incorporated into a tweet on X with a Spanish caption. Translated, it reads as follows: “Atefah Sahaaleh, 16 years old, was hanged by the Iranian regime. Her crime? She was raped. That's why today is a great day."
The Sharia "judge" ruled that she didn't fight hard enough to fend off her attacker. American feminists did nothing to protest the sentence of death. God damn all American feminists to some pit so deep in Hell that Satan himself has a twinge of pity. However undeserved the pity might be.
You seem to forget one thing. Until our sneak attack, we were not at war with Iran. IN fact, we in negotiations with Iran and they we were agreeing to our demands to scale down their nuclear program.
They didn't attack the USA, we attacked Iran and assassinated their leader. Why? We just didn't like him. So everyone now has gotten the word. Don't negotiate with the USA, its just a ruse to kill you unless you give in 100 percent.
Of course Yeehaw 'muricans think they'll never be any blowback. Or that two can play the same game.
I'm all for Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer fighting it out with the Iranian leadership with pistols at 20 paces, but I dont think that' how its going to work out.
I can remember as a little kid overhearing the adults still talking about December 7th 1941, a date that will live in infamy. Old people in the 70s still remembered and were upset at the "sneak attack". How dare the "japs" attack us while negotiating and saying they were "in favor of peace".
And here we are in 50 years later, and the USA is launching sneak attacks and assassinations. Like a nation of Gangsters!
’It seems at this point unlikely that what there is left of an Iranian regime or its remnant forces can maintain an effective blockade of the straits.’
Word around the campfire is that ten more days of carrier ops are planned. They’re launching nonstop from the Ford and Lincoln. There won’t be an effective anything after that…
You guys cheering on this unprovoked killing spree are maybe the majority of MAGA,
Nobody's cheering it, asshole. We're glad it's finally happening and lamenting it's taken 47 years to get to this point.
At least 10 more it seems. Trump says 4 weeks if needed.
10 years ago I watched some news with my Israeli friends here. Photos of the latest Hamas atrocity, and Gal said, you can bet that in that photo of leaders, at least two were Mossad.
He was right .
Latest I hear, is that dentists and doctors treating regime bad guys were Israeli.
American and Israeli planes are dropping conventional bombs now-Iran has no air defense left. All those Chinese and Russian miracle weapons have failed to work it seems.
Both Russia and China are suddenly unaware of who Iran or the Ayatollah is or was. strange.
"Until our sneak attack, we were not at war with Iran."
Nobody's buying it (well, except jaq).
Old people in the 70s still remembered and were upset at the "sneak attack". How dare the "japs" attack us while negotiating and saying they were "in favor of peace".
Here, I don’t think you have a point - their attack was understood as a declaration of war. That’s situation normal.
The attack on Iran is different (maybe).
Because if you make the argument that Iran has been at war with us for the past 50 years, then our actions are appropriate.
First three photos are quit something!
Quite not quit; something = special.
Rothko again.
Until our sneak attack, we were not at war with Iran. IN fact, we in negotiations with Iran and they we were agreeing to our demands to scale down their nuclear program.
You just keep ignoring the 869 Americans killed by Iran over the past few decades. As for those negotiations, it's clear they were not negotiating in good faith. They were just stalling for time while they got their nuclear program going again. You really think Trump wouldn't have preferred a deal if he thought he could get one?
"Because if you make the argument that Iran has been at war with us for the past 50 years,…
It's farfetched to argue otherwise.
Iran has repeatedly said that it would destroy the Great Satan - that's us. So we were at war.
Iran was not negotiating; it was playing with the negotiators as it had done many times before with others. It's strange that the "negotiators: didn't realize that Trump was unlike the others since that's what everyone keeps saying about him.
My favorite bit is the part where everyone in Iranian leadership trustfully comes out to a meeting in the upper unsheltered levels of the obvious place to look for them - because "the Americans always attack at night."
This had to be the least sneaky “sneak attack” in the history of the world. The Iranian theocracy was told that if they did not negotiate in good faith then there wouldbe consequences. They didn’t and there were.
Zelenskyy, Putin, and Xi should take note. Starmer, Macron, Merz, and Carney too.
Unless you can prove to everyone’s satisfaction that you pushed back against Obama and Clinton’s “kinetic military action” in Libya you have no right to say anything. Of one effing word.
"You just keep ignoring the 869 Americans killed by Iran over the past few decades. "
Oh, a "Few Decades". Thanks for being so specific. LOL. And how many of these "Americans" were dual citizens?
We've never invaded Iran. And Iran has never attacked US military forces in a war. So, there's never been a war. I can just imagine what absurd nonsensical convolutions the Israeli-Zionist propagandists used to get to the number.
BTW, have you forgotten Iranian Flight 655 where the US Navy killed 290 people in a passenger plane? By "Mistake" of course. Or the Iranians we killed in June 2025?
Maybe you can remember the Iraq-Iran war where we provided support for Sadaam to attack to Iran. Or maybe the 1953 CIA supported Coup. Or maybe our support for the Shah who was NOT a Democratic leader.
Funny how we could support him. I thought we were for "Democracy".
None of this Iran crap has anything to do with the National interests or defense of the USA. Iran is a small country with the GDP of New jersey. Its 5000 miles away. And if we'd leave alone, they'd leave us alone. But what fun is that? Yeehaw, lets have a war. Giddy minds and foreign quarrels.
The U.S. Missile Shortage: America can't build Tomahawks fast enough to keep up with Friday's launches. We have under 4,000 of these killers in inventory, and I invite you to count the number of dispatches from a single launcher. We can only build 600 per year for the next seven years, when we can go up to 1,000. The cost every time one leaves it costs us $1.4 million. Fire in the hole!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBcbbgEaQfE
From Perplexity:
On 8 January 2020, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Al Asad airbase and another base in Erbil, both of which were hosting U.S. troops, in an operation it called “Martyr Soleimani.
The US cant build more of anything. Patriot interceptor missiles are much more necessary than cruise missiles, and Raytheon has been under the gun to increase production since 2022 at least. They have full order books and cash in hand, and yet they have done nothing to increase the production rate.
The DOD should at the very least mandate a couple of non-Raytheon "shadow factories" to build Patriot. Perhaps one abroad.
Iran financed and supplied anti American forces, both Sunni and Shiite, in Iraq. Their proxy, Assads Syria, was doing the same. The Taliban was one fruit of that.
Iran also has been supplying the Houthis, who have been trying to close the approaches to the Suez canal, to everyone.
The Iranians have been fighting 4th gen warfare vs the US and their neighbors. 4th gen warfare depends, in part, on disingenuous denials of responsibibility.
One way to break that 4th gen disingenuous denial is to just kill the fakers.
RC - 1- you are a joke. A Jew hater and a joke.
2- have you heard of command control? That is what we are attacking. It’s like when. Hamas and similar animals use mosques and schools for command control centers. They lose the protection normally so afforded because they turned them I to command posts. We are attacking their command posts.
I know it’s hard but couldn’t you just be happy for USA when hockey won the gold? It’s like now. Can’t you be happy that a truly evil dictatorship is gone and be happy that liberty and freedom now have a chance?
What is wrong with you? And if it turns out that the world is a little safer for Jews, I know that really galls you, but can’t you just stand on the side of liberty and freedom for once? Even for just a minute? You really are a loser aren’t you?
RC I think you really do not actually appreciate this or perhaps even know this, but we have been at war with the Islamists in Iran since 1979. The fact that the United States never fought back despite Iranians murdering, our citizens does not change the fact. We have been at war with them since 1979. This is the first president who actually did something about it. You may celebrate the fact that they took our people hostage. You may celebrate the fact that they have been murdering our soldiers for almost 50 years. I think that is a disgusting viewpoint, but you hate Jews so much that it blinds you. Our country has a debt yet to be paid to those monsters.
RC WE KNOW TWO THINGS ABOUT YOU. YOU HATE JEWS. AND YOU ARE A LIAR. WHO DO YOU THINK WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHAPED CHARGES THAT KILLED AND NAMED ALL THE UNITED STATES SOLDIERS IN IRAQ? WHO DO YOU THINK TRAINED THE MALICIOUS THAT ATTACKED US? YOU ARE TRULY A PIECE OF GARBAGE.
"4th gen warfare depends, in part, on disingenuous denials of responsibibility."
And useful idiots to disseminate those denials.
’And if we'd leave alone, they'd leave us alone.’
Other than the nukes, right? lol
"BTW, have you forgotten Iranian Flight 655 where the US Navy killed 290 people in a passenger plane? By "Mistake" of course."
Of course you can back up this charge that it was purposeful.
Hey RC go F yourself.
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/well-713
These are the people you love.
Keith
Sadly soldiers are fair targets in wartime.
Civilians not so much... drone warfare has changed all...
In the real world, real world soldiers perfect their weapons, which are meant to kill? Dont like it? Don't become a soldier... keep your freedom and enlist
If only we still respected the Geneva Code.
Nuclear weapons are deterrents. Israel won't be the cocktail of the walk, and America won't have to keep protecting the Jews in perpeptuity. If you want an end to these wars of choice, pray for parity and that Israel and the American bases get pounded hard...
Something's gotta give.
The American people are sick of nonsense wars not in our interests. Voters have been trying to tell DC this for at least the last 3 elections (I would argue since 2008, since a lot of anti war people thought obama was the one, but a lot of people just credited him getting in as a historical first for his black skin.
Change is gonna come. Shame it will have to come via military losses and not better leadership because DC thinks they can ignore the American voters...
Ann is a liar if she thinks people voted Trump to represent Israel's interests over our own. She is still snooty white east coast jew lover like thay nttawwt, despite bedding down with allegedly working class, non college, midwestern meade... he's just dumb.
Endless wars really do not benefit America's uneducated white men and not everyone can be a kept man who allegedly married up.
A little too much Keith. Maybe you’re right, maybe not. But our actions in the middle east need to be discussed without the specter of being called all kinds of names.
A big mistake RC and his ilk make is that we are attacking "Iran". Khamenei and his henchman do not have popular support. That does not give us carte blanche to remove them, but when you combine that with 47 years of murder and mayhem directed against the West, it mitigates the charge that we are interfering in Iran's internal affairs. The citizens of Iran do not, by and large, support these thugs. We are not going against the will of a sovereign people.
None of the above assures that what we are doing will turn out well. That remains to be seen.
"The tropes go on forever and they are invented by people who want the west to lose, and who would rather be wrong but appear sophisticated than be right and appear crude."
L A R R Y
@LarryOConnor
14 years ago today, we lost a giant.
A great American patriot and a media visionary.
We miss you every day, Andrew Breitbart.
Every. Single. Day.
https://x.com/LarryOConnor/status/2028240925055463919?s=20
Andrew Breitbart said it all..
https://youtu.be/FhSy-6VqIww
I just heard of the passing of Dan Simmons, on Feb 21, a giant of American letters. He is best known for his classics, "Hyperion" and the other novels in the Hyperion Cantos, but his body of work is far more extensive than that. I am sad to say I have not devoured it all, as I am usually inclined to do with authors I like. I guess I should get cracking then.
"We are not going against the will of a sovereign people."
America is not made up of all Jewish people like you, Original Mike, and sympathizers like ann and meade.
This sovereign people doesn't have the will for this war, or its costs.
Get out and talk to real people, and yes, non Jews count as people...
Long ago, on the large frozen lake near where I grew up, each January local merchants would tow a junk car onto the ice in the middle. And the betting would begin as to the date and time in warming March that the car would break through and sink to the bottom. Serious money in local bars.
The event, rightly, fell prey to environmentalism. But I always thought it was a binder to the community, and a greener replacement could have been found.
RCOCEAN II SAID: “ Until our sneak attack, we were not at war with Iran.”
Funny, they declared war on us. More than once, in word and deed. It was time to dispose of their leadership.
Looks like three allied aicraft have been lost to friendly fire - two F15s, one USAF and one Israeli, and one helicopter. The USAF crew ejected and survived, no info on the rest.
In all cases they were flying in Sunni countries airspace, in one case over Kuwait. All these gulf countries are also allies, and they are being attacked by Iran, so I can understand the confusion.
Nick Fuentes on Trump's sellout to the globalists.
The thing about that video is that I think that there is a lot of wishcasting. If the first strike was really done by B2 bombers, who attacked Tehran with a decapitation strike undetected, well, Moscow can do the math on that one. If Israel really has free run of Iranian airspace... well, it's just a matter of time.
These same psycopathic globalists, when they win their final victory, which unless a financial crisis collapses their coalition, well, they firmly believe that the population of the planet is far too high. They have their own children, they are not talking about them.
…and for those who don’t loathe finance John Cochrane as per usual has some interesting findings from a conference on pricing, tariffs and labor et al. Stuff that’s wrestled with here quite often…
"globalists" is a stupid concept.
Its one big messy world, and the US is far too big and powerful a state and society to adopt the mentality of an isolated villager.
Trump was and is a "globalist" from the beginning. His business has been international for decades. I've been to the Trump Tower in Manila (2017). Bet you didnt know he had one there.
I think some people convinced themselves, or each other, that Trump shared their neurotic obsessions and are now unaccountably disappointed because he does not behave as they insist their worldview requires.
Nick Fuentes is, btw, a crank.
Big Mike said...
This had to be the least sneaky “sneak attack” in the history of the world.
No kidding. I called it in the thread with Hegseth discussing the Boy Scouts. They were evacuating the embassies and ordering Papa John’s. We were hearing daily reports on the position of the USS Ford. The only thing “sneaky” was showing the right fist and striking with the left, but they knew something was coming.
As for the implications of this current military operation - so far it isnt much of a war - its that it demonstrates the utter uselessness of Irans attempts to defend itself. Iran now exists helplessly at the mercy of the US and Israel. That is simply a fact.
If Russia has any idea of pressuring NATO, it hasnt a hope of success, their conventional technology wont help them any more than it did Iran. And China needs to think this through as well, they now have much better read on the technological balance.
Joe’s Pond in Danville still has a contest but ‘ice out’ has taken on new meaning for the meth addi…I mean, Vermonters, so not sure how much attention is being paid…
Why don't I have my own blog? Because to have a blog means having a point of view beyond a simple search for truth, as events happen that challenge your priors, and you have a dedicated blog, you stop searching for the truth, and start defending your priors. That's why "cruel neutrality" is kind of genius. For instance, I had believed that Donald Trump was telling the truth, when he said he was against endless war, well, maybe he was, but it doesn't matter, his personal weaknesses, whatever they are, IDK, they either exist, or he was lying about peace, have caused him to surrender control of the US military to the globalists.
BTW, China is providing up to day satellite imagery of our bases, which is exposing a lot of lies, but that's just noise in the trend. The only thing I have seen that makes me question the IDF claim of complete air superiority is video of Russian fighter jets flying over Iran.
It's war, the best analysis of claims in war is that they are likely bullshit, whichever side it comes from. Well, time will tell. Just look at Orwell's description of the war propaganda that he saw, the absurdity and brazeness of it. Well, he wasn't exaggerating.
One thing that is interesting is the Chinese satellite imagery. For example the Fifth Fleet HQ took a pretty big hit. This is a real war, it's the death struggle of a power, and you know what? When you are faced with regime extinction? No holds are barred.
Boy our LUCAS drone program sure ramped up quickly after Trump’s executive order last June. That swarm used in the opening hours of this conflict is a brand new tactic and capability that the mullahs were fatally slow to appreciate. Turns out we have learned a lot from the Ukraine War and put it to effective use already.
thanks wendybar
(Apparently) big street demonstrations in Tehran mourning Khamenei. I have never understood why we don't bomb the hell out of things like this. Same with pro-terror demonstrations in the 'Raq, the 'Stan, Lebanon, and Gaza. I would have thought Trump would be the one to break that taboo.
Maybe it's just time and distance. By the time you select weapons and fly them there, the demo's over? But we must be monitoring ShahidNet or whatever app they use to organize these things.
Just always puzzled me. CC, JSM
Trump's second term has veered into outright military interventionism. The most intense action so far has been the campaign against Iran —which, as widely noted, has little direct connection to core U.S. interests at home or abroad. In fact, the opposite is true: it has driven surging oil prices and already cost American lives, with more casualties likely.
Trump appears indifferent to long-term consequences. The Iranian (and earlier Venezuelan) people will bear the brunt of the chaos and rebuilding that follows his reckless actions, while MAGA supporters cheer the spectacle of military dominance and the destruction it brings—consequences that barely touch their own lives.
This is classic bread-and-circuses politics ahead of the midterms: mostly circus, as persistent inflation continues to erode Trump's domestic record.
At its root, Trump has embraced military adventurism because it's far easier than tackling the messy realities of domestic governance. Bullies rarely choose the harder path when a simpler show of force is available.
Hey Jaq, want to know who is smiling this morning? That would be author Salman Rushdie, through his one remaining eye. The Iranian regime issued a death sentence to him and nearly succeeded. Trump settled the “family business” for him.
Aggie: "I wonder how fast Army logistics can whip up a MW-level modular power supply and get it in place, so that Iranian oil exports can resume?"
Would be funny as hell if it was one of those portable nuke plants. CC, JSM
Trump has assets that are of no use in helping with domestic matters. So why not use them for foreign problems?
What he has done domestically, like deregulation, as these things go, have long lead times for perceptible results.
They have their paid crowds of groupies thats too be expected
An excellent historical summary of how we got here!
https://x.com/RandyEBarnett/status/2028199940728516921?s=20
’This is classic bread-and-circuses politics ahead of the midterms: mostly circus, as persistent inflation continues to erode Trump's domestic record.’
lol
Imagine people who take those screeds seriously
(Apparently) big street demonstrations in Tehran mourning Khamenei. I have never understood why we don't bomb the hell out of things like this
…we intervened on a small scale during desert storm. The roadside bombs would go off then a few guts with guns would show up and celebrate and mug for the media. So US faked a bomb, then ended the requisite celebration…
Just from the point of view of catching governments in lies, multiple governments lied about supporting the attacks, denying taking part, and the ChiCom satellite data showed them to be lies, but also social media, which caught Turkish bases being used as part of the operation, and now Turkey is being attacked by Iran.
This is kind of fascinating. There is also video of three or four F-15s augering in aflame, in Kuwait, which were probably flying drone and cruise missile patrol, and one of the pilots who survived is known to be American, I don't see how a couple of them could have survived, but the actual impact of the air defense missile was not shown, so they may have ejected. The claim is friendly fire, four of our own F-15s, friendly fire.
The above is all coming from the public internet, BTW, so it's not about OpSec, suppressing this info is about manufacturing consent.
Now that Turkey has been attacked, is it a NATO operation? You know, NATO, the "peaceful coalition" that always seems to have its fingers in unprovoked wars, wars of choice is the term they prefer we use, I guess, so wars of choice like this one.
Turkey has been a frenemy with Iran (check magic eightball)
BTW, there is no doubt that Iran is deeply penetrated by Mossad, but you know what else? The ME if full of hotel housekeepers, hospital orderlies, waiters, etc, who are Shia so they have a pretty extensive spy network too.
You are ignorant how things work, no matter how much we teach you timmeh
"Turkey has been a frenemy with Iran (check magic eightball)"
Erdogan is pissed off that his duplicity has been caught on camera. Like Saudi Arabia, they were publicly friends, but privately urging on the US to destroy Iran.
3/2/26, 7:59 AM
Well he is a sunni of the nasquabandi variety
"You are ignorant how things work, no matter how much we teach you timmeh"
You are like a pastor trying to convince me of the literal truth of the Bible by repetition and authority, and your biggest argument is "everybody who agrees with me agrees with me." If you read some book by a neocon, who was either ignorant, or an apologist, you gullibly accept it as the truth, and refuse to look further, and mark anybody who disagrees with you is stupid, or something.
You can chose to be informed or remain ignorant of the realities of war
I will say it one more time, then I am going to play 18 holes without my phone, if you are defending a point of view, you are going to reject or explain away with rationalizations, information you don't like. If I am interested in the truth, I am going to take data from wherever it is offered, and consider it in light of my priors, but also consider whether I have to adjust my priors, so if you are trying to convince me of a POV, don't bother. Just show me where the things I say are either logically or factually incorrect.
My first day of my first class in college was Physics 115, Newtonian Mechanics, and the first thing on the first day of this 8:30 class the prof said, Dr Davies, was "Don't believe anything I say just because I say it, make me prove it to you."
The markets woke up, looked around the Strait of Hormuz, didn’t see a shadow, and WTI is dropping back to $71 bbl, about $3 higher than 1 year ago and $3 less than when Trump took office (for context).
Helps that 200,000 barrels were added to the SPR in February with over 20 mmbbls added since Trump took office in 2025. Unfortunately, still 200 mmbbls less than when Trump left office in 2021.
buwaya said...
"The US cant build more of anything. Patriot interceptor missiles are much more necessary than cruise missiles, and Raytheon has been under the gun to increase production since 2022 at least. They have full order books and cash in hand, and yet they have done nothing to increase the production rate.
The DOD should at the very least mandate a couple of non-Raytheon "shadow factories" to build Patriot. Perhaps one abroad."
I was the designer and builder for a company that put threadlocker on screws. One of the most difficult thing to put threadlocker on is a nut. It just takes too much handling. So we come up with a machine to put threadlocker on a nut at a reasonable pace. Of course that was too slow for the owner. He asked if we could make the machine go faster so he could double production. We told him to build another machine.
Eva Marie I don’t entirely disagree. Might be too much. But when every bad thing in the world is because of JOOOOOOS and he portrays islaimists as nice guys who never did anything bad to anyone and why can’t we just leave them alone th Jews are obviously manipulating us into war - he’s like big brother in 1984. It’s like he is like Tokyo Rose or Lorde ha ha in World War II, advocating for the defeat of the west.
RC Is the warning from Isaiah. Woe to he who calls good evil and evil good.
Sad we are society has deteriorated a lot since World War II. Were this World War II, the 1940s, RC Advocating for our enemies, for the enemies of liberty and freedom would have been taken behind the school and beaten. But we are anonymous online, divided, and certainly patriotism is not today what it was once before. We are deteriorated as a nation. We certainly do not recognize good and evil with the clarity that we once did. RC Is the symbol of this.
Isaiah Says woe to he who calls good evil and evil good. His posts on this are emblematic of Isaiah’s warning. And he continues to lie, even after it is clear, the light could have represented misunderstanding before, but the truth is clarified and obvious, and he hopes others have not yet seen the clarification. He is an obfuscator.
His hatred of the Jews is so deep and broad and complete. It has really turned him into a shelf of a person. It seems to have drained his humanity. No longer full human. It seems to me. Hatred does that to a person. Especially jew hatred.
Keith, thanks for responding. I don’t see his comments in the same light so we’ll have to disagree on that.
However, if you want to persuade people (and I don’t mean just him but others reading comments) then a litany of insults is just not helpful. There are a lot of Americans who view our support of Israel to be excessive. You feel differently - make the argument, refute the points made.
Now granted, a lot of the anti Israel commentary in the press, on campuses - and maybe even here in the comments - is straight up propaganda. It’s still good to refute it with facts.
As a side note, when I mentioned that Jeffrey Epstein worked with intelligence services including Mossad, first comment was that I was an antisemite. No explanation, no refutation. Just throwing about a word that after a while becomes meaningless.
As a second side note the CIA gets blamed for more things than Mossad but on the whole (I think) people refute particular points rather than simply vent with insults.
I live in a booming sunbelt city where the population goes up by about 100,000 per year. In the 27 years I have been here that is 2.7 million people. Cranes have been with me the entire time.
The construction crane feels like the symbol of the growth and change of the built environment, as cities are sometimes described. The cranes mean something is being ended, too, perhaps a vacant lot or perhaps a building where years of living happened.
I have thought about cranes perhaps being analogous to budding trees, symbolizing growth. Maybe that is it, or maybe with a second character of being like mushrooms on a fallen tree, a symbol of endings.
He worked with parties like khashoggi and pottinger who worked for saudi and iranian interests
Epstein was an equal opportunity money launderer. He worked with the Saudis, the CIA, and with Mossad. Do I know that for a fact? No. What’s irrefutable is this: “Reports based on Epstein’s schedules and documents indicate that Ehud Barak met with Epstein dozens of times overall, including approximately 30 to 36 in-person meetings and visits to Epstein’s properties between 2013 and 2017 alone.” (Grok)
The insults are best when funny!!!
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