And the Republican Party will lose in November because of it. Hint to Trump: You ran on lower prices and no new wars. That's what you got elected on, so maybe you should stick to it. Pass that on, Glen. I am sure you are well connected within the administration. Maybe even getting paid by them?
I am getting the feeling he is not willing to do what it will take to prevent Iran from getting a nuke, as likely it will require taking over the country, and no country has ever been taken over by air power alone. Troops on the ground will be necessary. Politically, he's between a rock and a hard place.
Planter wrote: "no country has ever been taken over by air power alone".
The only time it ever came kinda close was against Japan in WWII.
Not one Allied boot hit the shore of the Japanese home islands until after their unofficial surrender on August 15, 1945.
Up until then, B-29s bombed their cities into ash.... our carrier-based aircraft destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy....there's the airpower.
But our fleet cut off the supply lines to Japanese bases in the Pacific while our submarine corps completely wiped out their merchant fleet. Two atomic bombs sealed the deal...
One of the saddest things today is we don't get any "loyal opposition" from anything Trump does, which leads to Trump doing things that might be directionally correct but have too many flaws and other rough edges in execution.
If good ideas that haven't been thought through and fleshed out get thrown in the Orange Man Bad bin without a hearing from the other side, then that's what we get. Part of Congress's job is to take decent ideas and make them better, refining them through fire. And Congress (on both sides) stopped that a while back; maybe during the Obama administration, maybe as far back as sometime during Bush the Younger.
I'm guessing the Dems are refusing help to make Trump and the GOP land flat on their faces.
Of course, if the Dems take over after the elections, turnabout is fair play.
So the Iranians and their proxys have been at war with us for decades. Multiple bombings, Beirut, NYC, and then the most diabolical of all, 911. All the while, they've been plotting and planning and developing their nuclear bomb. Imminent danger, well I think so, but don't all of these aggressions prove the point? It's a lot to consider. These other countries, like North Korea, haven't actually directly attacked us, have they? And we've got the hotshot Hegseth screaming kill the bastards, while I believe the Iranian people are praying for the US to kill the bastards.
19 if the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, not Iran. But they give money to Trump so that is forgiven. But you are right. 9/11 was the most diabolical. Should we bomb Saudi Arabia?
From 9/11 commission report: The 9/11 Commission concluded in its 2004 report that there was no evidence Iran or its proxy, Hezbollah, were aware of the specific details of the 9/11 plot or provided direct operational support for the attacks. However, the report detailed a history of contacts between Iran and Al-Qaeda dating back to the early 1990s. Al-Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah while Osama bin Laden was in Sudan.
ALL potential and actual assassins of political figures in the United States have been Democrats or Leftists. But they support your ideology, so that is forgiven. Should we bomb the DNC headquarters, and ban the Democrat, Socialist, and Communist parties?
Tucker Carlson has a stream of people being interviewed and like him, none have mentioned the Mahdi and the Twelvers. Who has been chanting “Death to America, Death to Isreal”?
Iran needs a regime change. It is a religious military dictatorship and has been since 1979.
North Korea has been contained. Pakistan is coming around. Russia is a bigger lift, and we're giving them the business economically, kind of like the endgame of the Cold War.
Good morning, MAGAs! Since there's not much to discuss here this morning and you folks are rarely exposed to the truth, I thought it might be interesting to share what your Orange Jesus was really up to this weekend, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson. Enjoy!
Trump's Weekend, PART II - The Rest
As Trump’s popularity has sunk to new lows, he has renewed his efforts to remake Washington, D.C., into a monument to himself, almost as if he is trying to anticipate history by making future Americans think that he must have been great because of all the tributes to him in the capital. Part of that effort has been his decision to paint the reflecting pool bright blue, like a swimming pool, at a cost of about $2 million in taxpayer money.
Yesterday, Rick Maese and Dan Diamond of the Washington Post reported that one of Trump’s top fundraisers is collecting money to turn the heavily used, low-cost East Potomac Golf Links on the Washington, D.C., waterfront, one of three D.C. public golf courses the administration is taking over, into a championship golf course and to establish Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes nearby. That imagined sculpture park will feature about 250 Americans Trump believes are significant to our history.
The plans have not yet been made public, nor have they been approved by Congress or gone through the federal review process. The new golf course would erase the area’s public bike paths and open recreational space. Spokesperson Davis Ingle said: “President Trump continues to beautify and honor our Nation’s Capital during America’s historic semiquincentennial celebration.”
The Trump administration planned to take control of the East Potomac Golf Links today, shutting it down for the renovation. Today, Democracy Forward, a watchdog group, asked a judge to stop the administration from going ahead with plans that would shut down the course.
Trump’s alterations to the capital seem to be a welcome distraction for the real estate developer from the crises around him. His claim that he has “all the cards” appears to be a boast about his dealings with Iran, but that is a wildly optimistic version of events.
On Thursday, Iranian officials sent a 14-point offer for a resolution to the war to mediators from Pakistan. An Iranian official said that Iran hopes to end the war and resolve questions around the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports now and deal with Iran’s nuclear program later.
On Friday, Trump said he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s offer but did not say why he disapproved. Then, at 6:47 yesterday evening, he posted: “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.”
And yet, Iran said today it had received a response to its offer from the U.S. and is reviewing it.
The Trump administration continues to look for a way to open the Strait of Hormuz. Today Trump announced that on Monday the U.S. will launch “Project Freedom,” an effort to escort stranded merchant ships through the strait. U.S. Central Command said tonight that Project Freedom will include “guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members.” Iran has said the use of U.S. Navy ships for the escort would be a violation of the ceasefire; it is not clear if Navy ships will participate.
As Barak Ravid of Axios notes, Trump says the attempt is “humanitarian”—ships stuck from the strait’s closure are running low on supplies and are facing sanitation problems—but it’s clear the administration is trying to challenge Iran’s control of the strait. It is also worth noting that Trump often makes announcements that appear designed to move the market, and the price of oil dropped after the announcement of Project Freedom.
As Chandelis Duster of NPR reported today, gas prices jumped more than thirty cents a gallon last week. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), regular gas averages $4.446 a gallon. Two days before the Iran war began, the average price per gallon was $2.98.
Last week, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “[t]he Americans obviously have no strategy” and suggested that Iranian officials were outwitting the Trump administration, saying the U.S. was “being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” Trump didn’t take that comment well, posting screeds attacking Merz repeatedly and claiming, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
On Wednesday, Trump talked to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin for an hour and a half—the twelfth phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office a second time—and just hours later posted about removing U.S. troops from Germany. Putin has wanted to weaken the U.S. commitment to Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a long time. As Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary, and Stefanie Bolzen of Politico note, European officials worry that Putin is making plans to attack a NATO country.
On Thursday, Trump suggested to reporters that he might also pull troops out of Spain and Italy, “Why shouldn’t I?” he said. “Italy has not been of any help to us. And Spain has been horrible. Absolutely horrible.”
On Friday the Defense Department said it was pulling 5,000 troops from Germany and was cancelling a plan formulated under the Biden administration to put an artillery unit equipped with missiles in Europe. The U.S. had increased its European presence after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. These moves will take U.S. forces back to where they were before the invasion. As scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote: “You can apply lots of normalizing frameworks or you can just make a timeline of his calls with Putin. We don’t have a sovereign foreign policy. We have superpower suicide.”
Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, and Megan Mineiro of the New York Times reported that senior defense officials wanted the force reduction to be understood as a punishment for Germany after Merz’s comment. In fact, U.S. bases in Germany are staging areas for U.S. operations in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
The Politico journalists report that defense officials were “stunned” by the announcement, and on Saturday the chairs of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), declared they were “very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany.” They noted that “any significant change to the U.S. force posture in Europe warrants a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies. We expect the Department to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for U.S. deterrence and transatlantic security.”
And yet Trump is clearly worried about the upcoming midterm election, especially after Democratic-backed Quentin Wiltz yesterday flipped a seat in the Houston suburb of Pearland, Texas, that had been a reliable Republican stronghold.
After his Friday post calling Jeffries a “thug,” Trump posted yesterday that Democrats had “RIGGED the 2020 Presidential Election. GET TOUGH REPUBLICANS—THEY’RE COMING, AND THEY’RE COMING FAST! They’re no good for our Country, they almost destroyed it, and we don’t want to let that happen again!” He demanded Republicans “approve all of the necessary Safeguards we need for Elections to protect the American Public during the upcoming Midterms.”
Tonight, again, he posted that Jeffries was “a Low IQ individual” and called for his impeachment, although neither senators nor representatives can be impeached. His post went on to say more about his own fears than about Jeffries.
“I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL,” Trump wrote. “Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!”
Good morning, MAGAs! Since there's not much to discuss here this morning and you folks are rarely exposed to the truth, I thought it might be interesting to share what your Orange Jesus was really up to this weekend, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson. Enjoy!
Trump's Weekend, PART I - "Truth" Social
Late on Friday night, President Donald J. Trump took to social media. At 11:03 he posted an AI-generated image of himself, alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, all shirtless, along with an unidentifiable woman in a bikini, appearing to be relaxing in a swimming pool. But the “swimming pool” was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Then, at 11:04, Trump posted an image of First Lady Melania Trump grinning at the press conference Trump held after the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when he said that incident proved he needed his proposed ballroom for his security.
Then, at 11:13, Trump posted an image of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is Black, holding a baseball bat. The caption calls Jeffries “low IQ,” “a THUG,” and “a danger to our Country.”
Then, at 11:15, he posted an image of himself smiling and holding six wild cards from the game Uno. The caption read, “I HAVE ALL THE CARDS.”
Then, at 11:22, he posted a profile image of himself in gold.
Then, at 11:26, he posted an image showing him standing near Mt. Rushmore, with the angle arranged to make his head the fifth sculpture on the mountain, so from left to right they were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Donald Trump.
Then, at 11:32, he posted an image of himself and the first lady.
Then, at 11:37, he posted an image of himself and King Charles III.
Then, at 11:40, he posted an image of what appeared to be the reflecting pool full of algae next to one that appeared to be the reflecting pool clean and with a bright blue color. Above the dirty image was the label “Hussein Obama,” and below it, the caption “Photo taken Sept[ember] 29, 2012”; the clean one was labeled with “Trump” and “Coming Soon.” Over the two together, the caption read: “This is what our Country was before, and after, “TRUMP!”
Then, at 11:41, he posted an AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue, under the caption “American Flag Blue.”
Then, at 11:45, he posted another AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue under the caption “American Flag Blue.”
It was some 43 minutes.
The president appeared to have been triggered by graffiti that appeared in the reflecting pool Friday morning: “86 47” spray-painted across it in a message that was about 15 feet by 30 feet.
The message was double edged. To “86” something in slang means to get rid of it, and Trump is the 47th president. But the phrase has taken on a second meaning since April 28, when the Department of Justice under Trump launched a criminal case against former director of the FBI James Comey for posting a picture of seashells spelling out “86 47” on Instagram a year ago. But “86 47”—and, for that matter, “86 46”—is such a common meme that there are a wide variety of shirts and hats for sale with those numbers on Amazon today, prompting the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, to ask Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche if other people who shared that meme would also face charges. He said no and suggested that there was other evidence in Comey’s case, although he did not explain what that was and the indictment only talks about the seashell post.
Possibly the plan was to let Iran sink into complete economic breakdown internally. How many Iranians would Turkey want to take? This part of the plan is equally essential to ending the rule by the murderous regime. Not having CENTCOM on speed dial who knows what we will do. Why not destroy the entire Hormuz infrastructure? That’s the way to open the Strait. And to cause mass panic among the population. Poor Iranians but if it’s ever going to get better it has to get much worse first.
The US attacked Iran on 28 Feb of this year. That's 67 days ago if the AI search response can be trusted to add. The president has 90 days to get things done or he must obtain authorization from Congress or withdraw. I don't expect Congress to provide him that authorization. I also do not expect him to withdraw. We will have a problem in 23 days, which if I can do math is a Thursday. I would very much like to see Iran defanged, docile, and a new sherif in town, if you get my attempted play on words.
So, basically Trump launched a war with no evidence of an imminent threat and no approval from Congress. That action now threatens to cripple the world economy. And now to get out of this mess the USA must commit to deeper involvement in a Mideast war that Trump started on a whim -- or perhaps just on a good sales job from Bibi. This on top of his inflationary tariffs that American companies and American citizens, not "other countries," have to pay for. No doubt Kamala would have been bad, but does anyone really think she could have possibly done more damage in just a year and four months?
No evidence??? So enough enriched uranium to manufacture 12 nuclear bombs in a few weeks with a Jihadist credo to kill Jews and Christians isn’t enough? Too much MSNOW!
No evidence of IMMINENT threat. Who said they could make bombs in "a few weeks"? Bi Bi, Hegseth? Wasn't Iran's nuclear capability "obliterated" in the B2 strikes last summer? Not saying they did not deserve it. But economically, and therefore politically, Trump's actions were suicide for the midterms.
Didn't Condi Rice say virtually the same thing right before we invaded Iraq? I think is was something like... "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
Look it up, Glen. In my opinion, people remember Bush taking us into Iraq on trumped up accusations of them having WMD. Turns out they didn't, but at least Bush got Congress to sign off on the attack, even if his argument was based on lies. When Trump takes actions like he has against Iran, without even arguing the case to Congress, a lot of people are understandably concerned.
Okay. So now should we attack North Korea, China, Russia and/or Pakistan to get their nuclear material? The safety of the free world could depend on it, just as much as it does in Iran.
There has been a long running joke about just nuking them and making it a parking lot. But that can't be done without harming an inordinate number of non-combatants. We have many examples of cultures extending their 'war' against others for decades going back to Darius and Xerxes in this same theater. Eliminating the hardcore military zealots is an absolute must. I would wager that there are some satellites doing the prelims as we wait and wonder.
Should have never have stopped bombing. Trump is fumbling everything right now. The California election. The war.
He wants to negotiate as is his nature but this regime cannot be negotiated with. Any agreement won’t be worth the paper it’s written on. They broke the cease fire weeks ago. Time to let the military do its job and bomb the guard into the stone ages.
Trump is a deal maker. I think that's been his flaw going into this conflict as any deal for the Iranians is a play for time. They wager they can wait him out while raising oil prices and sinking Republican chances in the midterms. The problem was never Iran's nuclear program; it was the regime itself. As long as they exist, they will be looking for opportunities to foment terror in the region and pursuing a nuke. An operation of the scale that we launched with Israel was always pointed to regime change and the Trump administration should have had a better plan for when Iran inevitably closed the Strait of Hormuz. I'm glad to see the Trump admin acting to reopen the Strait but the next step is following through to eliminate the Iranian regime.
TACO
HORSE HOCKEY! Mr. Trump is the very 1st President to actually confront Iran.
And the Republican Party will lose in November because of it. Hint to Trump: You ran on lower prices and no new wars. That's what you got elected on, so maybe you should stick to it. Pass that on, Glen. I am sure you are well connected within the administration. Maybe even getting paid by them?
I think the American electorate will reward the President and Republicans for preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
I am getting the feeling he is not willing to do what it will take to prevent Iran from getting a nuke, as likely it will require taking over the country, and no country has ever been taken over by air power alone. Troops on the ground will be necessary. Politically, he's between a rock and a hard place.
Planter wrote: "no country has ever been taken over by air power alone".
The only time it ever came kinda close was against Japan in WWII.
Not one Allied boot hit the shore of the Japanese home islands until after their unofficial surrender on August 15, 1945.
Up until then, B-29s bombed their cities into ash.... our carrier-based aircraft destroyed the Imperial Japanese Navy....there's the airpower.
But our fleet cut off the supply lines to Japanese bases in the Pacific while our submarine corps completely wiped out their merchant fleet. Two atomic bombs sealed the deal...
So, Joe, I guess you are ready to drop the bomb?
Have patience. Have faith.
I have plenty of patience. However, I have no faith in anything that Trump says or does.
One of the saddest things today is we don't get any "loyal opposition" from anything Trump does, which leads to Trump doing things that might be directionally correct but have too many flaws and other rough edges in execution.
If good ideas that haven't been thought through and fleshed out get thrown in the Orange Man Bad bin without a hearing from the other side, then that's what we get. Part of Congress's job is to take decent ideas and make them better, refining them through fire. And Congress (on both sides) stopped that a while back; maybe during the Obama administration, maybe as far back as sometime during Bush the Younger.
I'm guessing the Dems are refusing help to make Trump and the GOP land flat on their faces.
Of course, if the Dems take over after the elections, turnabout is fair play.
So the Iranians and their proxys have been at war with us for decades. Multiple bombings, Beirut, NYC, and then the most diabolical of all, 911. All the while, they've been plotting and planning and developing their nuclear bomb. Imminent danger, well I think so, but don't all of these aggressions prove the point? It's a lot to consider. These other countries, like North Korea, haven't actually directly attacked us, have they? And we've got the hotshot Hegseth screaming kill the bastards, while I believe the Iranian people are praying for the US to kill the bastards.
19 if the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia, not Iran. But they give money to Trump so that is forgiven. But you are right. 9/11 was the most diabolical. Should we bomb Saudi Arabia?
Yes, true, but they were found to have gotten training from Iran. So, there's that.
From 9/11 commission report: The 9/11 Commission concluded in its 2004 report that there was no evidence Iran or its proxy, Hezbollah, were aware of the specific details of the 9/11 plot or provided direct operational support for the attacks. However, the report detailed a history of contacts between Iran and Al-Qaeda dating back to the early 1990s. Al-Qaeda members received advice and training from Hezbollah while Osama bin Laden was in Sudan.
Yes, Al-Qaeda and Iraq, another ME terror organization getting assistance in order to do maximum destruction.
I notice you did not cite any evidence that the Saudi government was involved.
ALL potential and actual assassins of political figures in the United States have been Democrats or Leftists. But they support your ideology, so that is forgiven. Should we bomb the DNC headquarters, and ban the Democrat, Socialist, and Communist parties?
Tucker Carlson has a stream of people being interviewed and like him, none have mentioned the Mahdi and the Twelvers. Who has been chanting “Death to America, Death to Isreal”?
Iran needs a regime change. It is a religious military dictatorship and has been since 1979.
So does Russia, Pakistan, North Korea and China.
North Korea has been contained. Pakistan is coming around. Russia is a bigger lift, and we're giving them the business economically, kind of like the endgame of the Cold War.
Commie China, now, that's a problem.
Good morning, MAGAs! Since there's not much to discuss here this morning and you folks are rarely exposed to the truth, I thought it might be interesting to share what your Orange Jesus was really up to this weekend, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson. Enjoy!
Trump's Weekend, PART II - The Rest
As Trump’s popularity has sunk to new lows, he has renewed his efforts to remake Washington, D.C., into a monument to himself, almost as if he is trying to anticipate history by making future Americans think that he must have been great because of all the tributes to him in the capital. Part of that effort has been his decision to paint the reflecting pool bright blue, like a swimming pool, at a cost of about $2 million in taxpayer money.
Yesterday, Rick Maese and Dan Diamond of the Washington Post reported that one of Trump’s top fundraisers is collecting money to turn the heavily used, low-cost East Potomac Golf Links on the Washington, D.C., waterfront, one of three D.C. public golf courses the administration is taking over, into a championship golf course and to establish Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes nearby. That imagined sculpture park will feature about 250 Americans Trump believes are significant to our history.
The plans have not yet been made public, nor have they been approved by Congress or gone through the federal review process. The new golf course would erase the area’s public bike paths and open recreational space. Spokesperson Davis Ingle said: “President Trump continues to beautify and honor our Nation’s Capital during America’s historic semiquincentennial celebration.”
The Trump administration planned to take control of the East Potomac Golf Links today, shutting it down for the renovation. Today, Democracy Forward, a watchdog group, asked a judge to stop the administration from going ahead with plans that would shut down the course.
Trump’s alterations to the capital seem to be a welcome distraction for the real estate developer from the crises around him. His claim that he has “all the cards” appears to be a boast about his dealings with Iran, but that is a wildly optimistic version of events.
On Thursday, Iranian officials sent a 14-point offer for a resolution to the war to mediators from Pakistan. An Iranian official said that Iran hopes to end the war and resolve questions around the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports now and deal with Iran’s nuclear program later.
On Friday, Trump said he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s offer but did not say why he disapproved. Then, at 6:47 yesterday evening, he posted: “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.”
And yet, Iran said today it had received a response to its offer from the U.S. and is reviewing it.
The Trump administration continues to look for a way to open the Strait of Hormuz. Today Trump announced that on Monday the U.S. will launch “Project Freedom,” an effort to escort stranded merchant ships through the strait. U.S. Central Command said tonight that Project Freedom will include “guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 service members.” Iran has said the use of U.S. Navy ships for the escort would be a violation of the ceasefire; it is not clear if Navy ships will participate.
As Barak Ravid of Axios notes, Trump says the attempt is “humanitarian”—ships stuck from the strait’s closure are running low on supplies and are facing sanitation problems—but it’s clear the administration is trying to challenge Iran’s control of the strait. It is also worth noting that Trump often makes announcements that appear designed to move the market, and the price of oil dropped after the announcement of Project Freedom.
As Chandelis Duster of NPR reported today, gas prices jumped more than thirty cents a gallon last week. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), regular gas averages $4.446 a gallon. Two days before the Iran war began, the average price per gallon was $2.98.
Last week, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “[t]he Americans obviously have no strategy” and suggested that Iranian officials were outwitting the Trump administration, saying the U.S. was “being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” Trump didn’t take that comment well, posting screeds attacking Merz repeatedly and claiming, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”
On Wednesday, Trump talked to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin for an hour and a half—the twelfth phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office a second time—and just hours later posted about removing U.S. troops from Germany. Putin has wanted to weaken the U.S. commitment to Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a long time. As Jack Detsch, Paul McLeary, and Stefanie Bolzen of Politico note, European officials worry that Putin is making plans to attack a NATO country.
On Thursday, Trump suggested to reporters that he might also pull troops out of Spain and Italy, “Why shouldn’t I?” he said. “Italy has not been of any help to us. And Spain has been horrible. Absolutely horrible.”
On Friday the Defense Department said it was pulling 5,000 troops from Germany and was cancelling a plan formulated under the Biden administration to put an artillery unit equipped with missiles in Europe. The U.S. had increased its European presence after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. These moves will take U.S. forces back to where they were before the invasion. As scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder wrote: “You can apply lots of normalizing frameworks or you can just make a timeline of his calls with Putin. We don’t have a sovereign foreign policy. We have superpower suicide.”
Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, and Megan Mineiro of the New York Times reported that senior defense officials wanted the force reduction to be understood as a punishment for Germany after Merz’s comment. In fact, U.S. bases in Germany are staging areas for U.S. operations in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
The Politico journalists report that defense officials were “stunned” by the announcement, and on Saturday the chairs of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), declared they were “very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany.” They noted that “any significant change to the U.S. force posture in Europe warrants a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies. We expect the Department to engage with its oversight committees in the days and weeks ahead on this decision and its implications for U.S. deterrence and transatlantic security.”
And yet Trump is clearly worried about the upcoming midterm election, especially after Democratic-backed Quentin Wiltz yesterday flipped a seat in the Houston suburb of Pearland, Texas, that had been a reliable Republican stronghold.
After his Friday post calling Jeffries a “thug,” Trump posted yesterday that Democrats had “RIGGED the 2020 Presidential Election. GET TOUGH REPUBLICANS—THEY’RE COMING, AND THEY’RE COMING FAST! They’re no good for our Country, they almost destroyed it, and we don’t want to let that happen again!” He demanded Republicans “approve all of the necessary Safeguards we need for Elections to protect the American Public during the upcoming Midterms.”
Tonight, again, he posted that Jeffries was “a Low IQ individual” and called for his impeachment, although neither senators nor representatives can be impeached. His post went on to say more about his own fears than about Jeffries.
“I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL,” Trump wrote. “Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!”
That's awesome stuff. I might have to subscribe. Nothing there but facts.
Good morning, MAGAs! Since there's not much to discuss here this morning and you folks are rarely exposed to the truth, I thought it might be interesting to share what your Orange Jesus was really up to this weekend, courtesy of Heather Cox Richardson. Enjoy!
Trump's Weekend, PART I - "Truth" Social
Late on Friday night, President Donald J. Trump took to social media. At 11:03 he posted an AI-generated image of himself, alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, all shirtless, along with an unidentifiable woman in a bikini, appearing to be relaxing in a swimming pool. But the “swimming pool” was the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Then, at 11:04, Trump posted an image of First Lady Melania Trump grinning at the press conference Trump held after the incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when he said that incident proved he needed his proposed ballroom for his security.
Then, at 11:13, Trump posted an image of House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is Black, holding a baseball bat. The caption calls Jeffries “low IQ,” “a THUG,” and “a danger to our Country.”
Then, at 11:15, he posted an image of himself smiling and holding six wild cards from the game Uno. The caption read, “I HAVE ALL THE CARDS.”
Then, at 11:22, he posted a profile image of himself in gold.
Then, at 11:26, he posted an image showing him standing near Mt. Rushmore, with the angle arranged to make his head the fifth sculpture on the mountain, so from left to right they were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Donald Trump.
Then, at 11:32, he posted an image of himself and the first lady.
Then, at 11:37, he posted an image of himself and King Charles III.
Then, at 11:40, he posted an image of what appeared to be the reflecting pool full of algae next to one that appeared to be the reflecting pool clean and with a bright blue color. Above the dirty image was the label “Hussein Obama,” and below it, the caption “Photo taken Sept[ember] 29, 2012”; the clean one was labeled with “Trump” and “Coming Soon.” Over the two together, the caption read: “This is what our Country was before, and after, “TRUMP!”
Then, at 11:41, he posted an AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue, under the caption “American Flag Blue.”
Then, at 11:45, he posted another AI image of the reflecting pool appearing bright blue under the caption “American Flag Blue.”
It was some 43 minutes.
The president appeared to have been triggered by graffiti that appeared in the reflecting pool Friday morning: “86 47” spray-painted across it in a message that was about 15 feet by 30 feet.
The message was double edged. To “86” something in slang means to get rid of it, and Trump is the 47th president. But the phrase has taken on a second meaning since April 28, when the Department of Justice under Trump launched a criminal case against former director of the FBI James Comey for posting a picture of seashells spelling out “86 47” on Instagram a year ago. But “86 47”—and, for that matter, “86 46”—is such a common meme that there are a wide variety of shirts and hats for sale with those numbers on Amazon today, prompting the host of NBC’s Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, to ask Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche if other people who shared that meme would also face charges. He said no and suggested that there was other evidence in Comey’s case, although he did not explain what that was and the indictment only talks about the seashell post.
And again, the facts say it all. No opinion, just Trump in his own words and actions. I am going to subscribe to HCR. Thanks, Dan.
That's great you enjoyed the posts, but YOU aren't exactly the person I was hoping might read it!!!
Possibly the plan was to let Iran sink into complete economic breakdown internally. How many Iranians would Turkey want to take? This part of the plan is equally essential to ending the rule by the murderous regime. Not having CENTCOM on speed dial who knows what we will do. Why not destroy the entire Hormuz infrastructure? That’s the way to open the Strait. And to cause mass panic among the population. Poor Iranians but if it’s ever going to get better it has to get much worse first.
Until the regime is flagging which is what the entire ME is asking us to do.
The bombing will continue until attitudes improve. ;)
The US attacked Iran on 28 Feb of this year. That's 67 days ago if the AI search response can be trusted to add. The president has 90 days to get things done or he must obtain authorization from Congress or withdraw. I don't expect Congress to provide him that authorization. I also do not expect him to withdraw. We will have a problem in 23 days, which if I can do math is a Thursday. I would very much like to see Iran defanged, docile, and a new sherif in town, if you get my attempted play on words.
So, basically Trump launched a war with no evidence of an imminent threat and no approval from Congress. That action now threatens to cripple the world economy. And now to get out of this mess the USA must commit to deeper involvement in a Mideast war that Trump started on a whim -- or perhaps just on a good sales job from Bibi. This on top of his inflationary tariffs that American companies and American citizens, not "other countries," have to pay for. No doubt Kamala would have been bad, but does anyone really think she could have possibly done more damage in just a year and four months?
No evidence??? So enough enriched uranium to manufacture 12 nuclear bombs in a few weeks with a Jihadist credo to kill Jews and Christians isn’t enough? Too much MSNOW!
No evidence of IMMINENT threat. Who said they could make bombs in "a few weeks"? Bi Bi, Hegseth? Wasn't Iran's nuclear capability "obliterated" in the B2 strikes last summer? Not saying they did not deserve it. But economically, and therefore politically, Trump's actions were suicide for the midterms.
Would you be happier if the nuclear bombs were on missiles headed for New York City? Would that be "imminent" enough for you?
Didn't Condi Rice say virtually the same thing right before we invaded Iraq? I think is was something like... "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
I do not remember.
Look it up, Glen. In my opinion, people remember Bush taking us into Iraq on trumped up accusations of them having WMD. Turns out they didn't, but at least Bush got Congress to sign off on the attack, even if his argument was based on lies. When Trump takes actions like he has against Iran, without even arguing the case to Congress, a lot of people are understandably concerned.
You don’t need a nuclear bomb. Just smuggle in enough material for hundreds of dirty bombs.
Okay. So now should we attack North Korea, China, Russia and/or Pakistan to get their nuclear material? The safety of the free world could depend on it, just as much as it does in Iran.
I’m of the mindset at this point bomb the Iranians until the desert is glass
Bueller? Bueller?
There has been a long running joke about just nuking them and making it a parking lot. But that can't be done without harming an inordinate number of non-combatants. We have many examples of cultures extending their 'war' against others for decades going back to Darius and Xerxes in this same theater. Eliminating the hardcore military zealots is an absolute must. I would wager that there are some satellites doing the prelims as we wait and wonder.
Should have never have stopped bombing. Trump is fumbling everything right now. The California election. The war.
He wants to negotiate as is his nature but this regime cannot be negotiated with. Any agreement won’t be worth the paper it’s written on. They broke the cease fire weeks ago. Time to let the military do its job and bomb the guard into the stone ages.
Trump is a deal maker. I think that's been his flaw going into this conflict as any deal for the Iranians is a play for time. They wager they can wait him out while raising oil prices and sinking Republican chances in the midterms. The problem was never Iran's nuclear program; it was the regime itself. As long as they exist, they will be looking for opportunities to foment terror in the region and pursuing a nuke. An operation of the scale that we launched with Israel was always pointed to regime change and the Trump administration should have had a better plan for when Iran inevitably closed the Strait of Hormuz. I'm glad to see the Trump admin acting to reopen the Strait but the next step is following through to eliminate the Iranian regime.
Turn that place into glass and put up a dollar general.
Don't omit a Waffle House.
Buc-ees. They will thank us someday.
Probably need a walmart too
Yes, yes, and yes. Finish it.
God, protect our military. Amen
As Nikki Haley said, "Finish them!"