| second: After the president of peace, a man who felt deserving of the Nobel Prize, authorized a massive aerial bombardment of Iran last summer, the task of explaining away the contradiction fell to J. D. Vance.
“I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East,” the vice president told NBC—a stark understatement, given that Vance had, up to this point, unsparingly denounced Middle East wars and promised that the Trump administration would avoid them. “I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national-security objectives.”
The difference was simple: Other wars were bad because they were led by dumb presidents, but a Trump war would be good because Donald Trump is smart. [go to link] |
| 6ixStringJack: Analysts note that higher primary turnout can indicate stronger general election performance. CNN’s Harry Enten suggested Texas Democrats could outvote Republicans in a primary for the first time since 2002, signaling possible momentum heading into November. However, experts caution that despite enthusiasm, Democrats have repeatedly fallen short of flipping statewide offices, and Republican gains among Latino voters in recent cycles remain a hurdle. |
| THG: |
| second: Rubio Admits That America Is Fighting Israel’s War.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that the U.S. was forced into the war with Iran by Israel while speaking with reporters on Monday. He explained that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had effectively boxed in the Trump administration, taking the decision out of American hands.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio explained. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Rubio’s disclosure highlights the Trump administration’s unwillingness to rein in the actions of Israel, even when that country’s policies resulted in U.S. attacks that only a tiny minority of the American public supports. [go to link] |
| THG: Texas sets new record for early voting in the primaries |
| second: Trump is work-shopping his goals for the war by talking to journalists. Trump doesn’t sound convinced by any of it. He’s throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. He just wants to say he ‘solved’ a problem that has vexed every American president since Jimmy Carter. But there’s no clear idea what that solution looks like and no plan for how to get there. And there are plenty of possible scenarios in which Trump declares victory and leaves the region with an absolute mess. [go to link] |
| 6ixStringJack: Wow. You losers are being pumped with 10 times the bullshit today, huh? |
| second: American soldiers were given a pep-talk about the war in Iran. A U.S. combat-unit commander told them that the attack is part of “God’s divine plan." He said that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” for the specific purpose to ignite Armageddon.
Commanders are giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military.
The Christian nationalist theory that Israel has a God-given right to much of the Middle East is one espoused by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. In a speech at a Christian Zionist church in Jerusalem in December, Huckabee conveyed his purpose is to convert Israeli Jews to belief in Jesus in order to bring about the End Times.
[go to link]/ |
| second: President Donald Trump said the United States has a virtually unlimited supply of weapons that would allow Washington to wage wars “forever,” writing on his social media platform Truth Social. [go to link] “Forever” is at least 3 more years. Expect more countries to be bombed by Trump, the chairman of The Board of Peace which he created. |
| THG: Trump speaks lovingly about drapes as U.S. death toll in his Iran war rises |
| second: Trump Opens the Pandora’s Box of Assassination.
On Saturday, the United States, in a joint operation with Israel, killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For the first time in the postwar era, Washington has succeeded in killing a foreign leader—shattering a precedent that had been sustained for decades by a mix of moral, political, and logistical concerns.
It is worth looking at why presidents of both political parties have long been wary of the state-sponsored killing of foreign leaders. [go to link]/ |
| second: Bill Clinton testified on Friday, becoming the first former president to do so under subpoena. During his testimony, he revealed Trump told him at a golf tournament in the early 2000s that he and Epstein parted ways over a land deal that went sour. Not due to Epstein's crimes, as the public was led to believe. A land deal. That upends Trump's public story entirely. [go to link] |
| second: Instead of bringing clarity to the strategic ends of the US decision to go to war, the administration trotted out a host of new justifications for the war during the last 24 hours. They are frantically looking around for a narrative that can explain what was really a decision by Trump to go to war for his own needs. [go to link] |
| second: Why are Americans so negative about this war? First, they believe it has been foisted upon them: Trump hasn’t bothered to give them a reason for it. Second, Americans – already disillusioned by false promises about DOGE (remember those) and tariffs – sense, correctly, that there is no strategy here. Third, the public senses, also correctly, that the little people will bear this war’s cost. There has, of course, been not even a whisper from Trump about shared sacrifice, about, for example, taxing billionaires to pay for the money being spent on missiles and bombs.
Ordinary Americans feel that Trump is setting billions of dollars on fire with no idea how that is supposed to work out, and that they will end up paying the price. And they’re right. [go to link] |
| second: Donald Trump has taken America to war, not only without Congressional authorization, but without even trying to make a case to the American people. Other than the hope that Iranians will rise up and overthrow the Ayatollahs’ regime, the war has no clear plan for either victory or exit. This strongly suggests that the rush to war was a Trump ego tantrum rather than a carefully planned campaign. [go to link] |
| second: On Sunday, Kuwaiti forces shot down three U.S. F-15s in a “friendly fire” incident. Such incidents are common in modern war. The shocking aspect of the story is the value of the equipment destroyed: A new F-15 costs U.S. taxpayers $97 million. So that’s almost $300 million lost in seconds. And we should think about what could have been done with that money other than launch a war without a clear plan or an exit strategy. [go to link] |
| 6ixStringJack: You are finished. By mid-terms you're only going to have "none of the above" to vote for. |
| 6ixStringJack: Shut up you stupid little faggot loser. You don't know a fucking thing about anything. |
| THG:
Iran hits Saudi refinery. Our economy was not prepared. Why this was all so stupid. |
| THG: Trump claiming Obama would start a war with Iran because he was weak and ineffective at negotiating
Jack and Trump are the same. They make shit up and change their opinions as the wind shifts. [go to link] |