Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too? by 6ixStringJack

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 3, 2026 15:50
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Monday, March 2, 2026 7:29 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The US/Israeli Bombing Of Iran: Means and Ways Without Ends
An Update
Phillips P. OBrien
Mar 02, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-usisraeli-bombing-of-iran-m
eans

. . .

If we use this rational Ends-Means-Ways model to breakdown what the USA is doing now, we could say that the USA has a clear End in mind (destroy the old regime and replace it with something new) and is relying on ranged weaponry mostly as its Means (airpower, long-range missiles, etc) which it is employing in particular Ways (a decapitation strategy of killing the old regime and weakening governmental institutions to such a degree that the Iranian government falls).

It is a wonderfully rational way of explaining national policy. The only problem is that it is a mirage. There are no rational Ends in action here beyond a desperate attempt for Donald Trump to get a political victory and at the same time keep his paymasters and political cronies (think MBS and Netanyahu) happy. This has far more to do with Trump desperately needing a win with the 2026 election approaching and trying to in his own mind cement himself as a forceful and strong leader (while undoubtedly making money) than it does with any rational gain for the United States. It was clear that the US was under no immediate security threat from Iran and the Iranians were going to significant lengths to make it sure that they had no desire to launch military operations.

In other words it was a war of choice, chosen by Donald Trump to meet some very personal needs.

And that understanding means that so much of the reporting which is based around there being a clear national goal here, is patently absurd. Because there is only a personal end for Trump, the ways and means cannot be analyzed in a traditional way. US service people and the Iranian people are merely tools being used by Trump to satisfy his own desires.

Remember, Trump made his disdain for US military personnel clear when he called those that died fighting for the USA in World War I “suckers” and “losers”. Here is gift link to that article.

It also explains why we have the president and White House constantly flailing around, changing their stated aims every few hours as they desperately hunt around for some end-state that they can sell to the American people as a great victory. Indeed, we seem to have a constant cycle of different Ends being wheeled out, some at almost the exactly same time, over the last few days.

Let us start from the beginning. When Trump made his original announcement, it was clear that he was calling on the Iranian people to rise up, promising them support, and calling on the old regime to surrender. Here are three quotes from his address which you can watch in full from a link in the primer I put together Saturday.

• “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand... When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”

• “Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny.11

• He also issued a direct threat to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “You must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity. Or in the alternative, face certain death.”

Then something happened. It might have been the lack of any uprising in Iran or the fact that he never thought at all about how he would achieve his victory once killing most of the Iranian leadership, but then Trump started backtracking and talking about many different ends, many of which would involve keeping elements of the current regime (the ones he threatened with “certain death” above).

In Axios he was quoted as saying the whole thing might end in a day or two. “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs].’”

And he quickly started walking back any idea that he would support an uprising of the Iranian people. He told this to a reporter from The Atlantic.

I asked Trump whether he was willing to prolong the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran to support a popular uprising if one unfolds. “Will they continue to get support if it takes some time to overthrow the regime?” I asked. Trump was noncommittal. “I have to look at the situation at the time it happens, Michael. You can’t give an answer to that question,” he said.

Of course he said this almost exactly at the same time that he was tweeting triumphantly about killing Ayatollah Khamenei and once again calling for the Iranian people to rise up and seize power.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS. He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do. This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us. As I said last night, "Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!" Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves. That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated. The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
26.3k ReTruths 99k Likes
Feb 28, 2026, 9:37 PM

Of course this did not end it. Last night he called a reporter from the New York Times and once pivoted wildly back and forth, taking at least three different positions on the desired ends of the war. His favored end at this time seemed to be practically no regime change at all. He raved about what he had done in Venezuela which was to remove the leader but leave the regime very much in place. Its almost painful to read the desperation as he flails around, but you should.

Quote:
Then he offered a very different model of what the transition of power in Iran might look like, referring repeatedly to his experience in Venezuela after he ordered a Delta Force team to seize Mr. Maduro.

“What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” Mr. Trump said.

His answer implied that what worked in Venezuela would work in Iran, a nation with about three times the population and a military and clerical leadership that has ruled with increasing repression since the 1979 revolution. Over the past several weeks, Mr. Trump has repeatedly brought up Venezuela as the model of a successful operation and hoped to replicate aspects of it in Iran, identifying leadership that would be more cooperative and friendly to the United States.

But he has been told by his advisers that the vast differences in cultures and history made it virtually impossible to apply the strategy used in Venezuela — in which the existing government was kept in place, after it agreed to take instructions from Washington — and try to replicate it in Tehran.

Nonetheless, Mr. Trump appears enamored of using a Venezuela- like model in Iran.

“Everybody’s kept their job except for two people,” Mr. Trump said of the outcome in Venezuela.

Boil it all down and what do we have? We have a military operation with no clear ends at all. Stop asking what the US governments intentions are, they do not exist outside of the personal interests of Donald Trump. They can and will therefore change in a heartbeat as he searches desperately for whatever end gives him the best chance to declare victory.

He has made the national interest entirely personal.

Much more at https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-usisraeli-bombing-of-iran-m
eans

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 2, 2026 7:30 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Monday, March 2, 2026 10:05 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.

My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
64#1239564

In other stupid news: Three US fighter jets crashed in Kuwait on Monday due to an “apparent friendly fire incident,” the US military said in a statement.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/middleeast/us-kuwait-aircraft-crash-ira
n-intl-hnk

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 2, 2026 10:39 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.

You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
64#1239564

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 5:22 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.

Trump was paid to bomb Iran. But you don't care why. To quote you: "_____ Enter who gives a fuck emoji here."

The money behind the war against Iran

By Judd Legum | March 2, 2026

https://popular.info/p/the-money-behind-the-new-iran-war

In private calls over the last several weeks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly urged President Trump to attack Iran. Iran is a top regional rival of Saudi Arabia, and MBS had become concerned about Iran’s growing military capabilities.

The lobbying campaign achieved success on Saturday, when Trump announced he had begun “major combat operations in Iran.” Trump launched a war even though U.S. intelligence assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. In June 2025, Trump publicly declared that more limited strikes “completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability.”

MBS’s influence with Trump has grown as the Saudi government has invested billions in projects that personally enrich Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Despite the glaring conflicts-of-interest, Trump installed Kushner as a top negotiator with Iranian officials. Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff participated in a mediation session with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Thursday, billed as a last-ditch effort to avoid war.

The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest investor in Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. PIF invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners in 2021, even though the PIF committee that screens investments recommended rejecting Kushner’s proposal, citing “inexperience” and “excessive” fees. The committee’s recommendation was overruled by MBS, who heads PIF’s Board of Directors.

PIF pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment, or $25 million, annually. The Senate Finance Committee estimates that Kushner will be paid $137 million in management fees from PIF by August 2026. Further, in September 2025, PIF, Affinity Partners, and others jointly acquired Electronic Arts, the publisher of iconic video games like The Sims and Madden NFL, for $55 billion. The deal, which is the largest leveraged buyout in history, will likely be very lucrative for Kushner.

After raising billions for the Saudis and other foreign governments, Kushner dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest, pledging he would not be involved in Trump’s second term. In February 2024, Axios’ Dan Primack asked Kushner whether his business relationship with foreign governments would make it “very difficult… to do any sort of foreign policy work” moving forward. “I’m an investor now,” Kushner replied. “I served in government, and I think my track record is pretty impeccable. Now I’m a private investor.”

Yet, after Trump took office, Kushner resumed his central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. In an October 2025 interview on 60 Minutes, Kushner argued that financial conflicts made him and Witkoff more effective. “What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” Kushner said.

CNN reported that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE lobbied Trump to strike Iran. Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has significant financial ties to Kushner and Trump.

The UAE is another major backer of Affinity Partners, directly investing about $200 million with Kushner’s firm. Additional money came via Lunate, a supposedly private Abu Dhabi investment firm that is financed by government money and tied to the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds.

Witkoff is the co-founder of the crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) and retains an 8-figure stake in the company. Trump and his family also own significant pieces of the company. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security advisor and head of the country’s largest sovereign wealth fund, purchased 49% of WLF days before Trump’s inauguration. Of the $250 million paid up front by the UAE, $187 million was directed to Trump family entities and $31 million to the Witkoff family. In May 2025, MGX, a company controlled by Tahnoon, purchased $2 billion of crypto tokens from WLF.

Following the conclusion of the mediation on Thursday, Kushner and Witkoff “ominously issued no statement,” and the pair was reportedly “disappointed“ by the Iranian negotiating position. After presumably being debriefed by Kushner, Trump said, “we’re not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating.” According to Trump, it would be “wonderful” if the Iranians “negotiated in … good faith and conscience but they are not getting there so far.”

The new Iran War comes weeks after PIF financed a $7 billion development deal in Saudi Arabia with the Trump Organization. Under the agreement, Dar Global, a developer with close ties to the Saudi government, will build a “Trump-branded hotel and golf course,” along with “500 mansions, priced between $6.7 million and $24 million.” The project is part of Diriyah, a $63 billion development funded entirely by PIF.

When Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May 2025, MBS took him on a tour of Diriyah and showed him a model of the development. According to Jerry Inzerillo, who heads the Diriyah Company, a PIF subsidiary, Trump was “amazed“ with the quality and scale of the project.

Trump maintains full ownership of the Trump Organization and will profit from the deal. Typically, these deals involve the developer paying millions in fees simply to license the Trump name. About 80% of the money will flow directly to Trump, according to Forbes’ reporting on similar deals. (The Trump Organization has been nominally transferred to a trust controlled by his son, Donald Trump Jr. — an arrangement ethics experts have dismissed as meaningless.)

While Trump discussed a potential war with Iran in multiple calls with MBS, he has spent little time justifying the war to the American people. In lieu of a traditional live address from the Oval Office, Trump announced the war in a short, edited video, delivered in a baseball cap and posted on his social network, Truth Social. The video was recorded at his Florida home and private club, Mar-a-Lago. On Saturday night, Trump attended a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser there for the primary pro-Trump Super PAC, MAGA Inc.

After the beginning of hostilities on Saturday, Iran launched attacks on the Saudi capital of Riyadh and numerous targets in the UAE. In response, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying it would “mobilize all its capabilities“ against Iranian aggression, and the UAE warned Iran of “grave consequences.”

By Sunday, the war claimed the lives of three U.S. service members and hundreds of Iranians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 5:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

While Trump discussed a potential war with Iran in multiple calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he has spent little time justifying the war to the American people.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States into a war with Iran without making a compelling case for it to the public.

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but even regimes I disagreed with respected the American people enough, or felt some obligation, to at least lie to us in primetime,” Stewart said as he played footage of President George W. Bush delivering a televised address on Iraq.

Trump has ducked answering questions from the assembled press on camera. After he returned to the White House from Mar-a-Lago on Sunday evening, reporters shouted questions at him about Iran. Yet Trump ignored them and stopped to admire some new statues in the White House Rose Garden.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-trump-iran_n_69a65db7e4b076
ac5d6362fb

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 6:57 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

War Is Expensive

The modern American way of war is extremely capital-intensive, deploying massive amounts of equipment while putting relatively few people in harm’s way. This has been true ever since World War II, when FDR rejected calls to recruit an immense army and chose instead to fight what Phillips O’Brien calls a “machine-intensive, infantry light war.” That’s a rational approach, given how rich our nation is and how averse it is to casualties.

But the U.S. military’s reliance on munitions rather than manpower can create two problems.

The first problem is that modern munitions, which are highly sophisticated and complex, can’t be produced on short notice, and Trump has already used up many missiles and other weapons in his various military ventures. Yesterday he told reporters that the Iran campaign might go on for four to five weeks or even longer. But many reports suggest that the United States doesn’t have enough left in its weapons stockpiles to continue the current pace of action for more than a few days without dangerously weakening the military’s ability to counter other threats, such as a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.

In a Truth Social post last night Trump insisted that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of “medium and upper medium grade” weapons, which is in effect confirmation that stocks of high-grade weapons are on the verge of exhaustion.

The other problem is that U.S.-style war is incredibly expensive — so much so that the cost becomes a serious concern even for a nation as wealthy as America.

I support the U.S. government spending whatever it must to keep the nation secure. But the Trump administration is hardly bothering to pretend that it has anything to do with national security.

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/war-is-expensive-for-the-little-peo
ple

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 10:17 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

White House says it's "deeply unserious" to suggest Trump comments on judges may lead to threats. Here's what judges say.

By Bill Whitaker, Aliza Chasan, Heather Abbott, Paulina Smolinski

March 1, 2026 / 7:00 PM EST

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/threats-federal-judges-trump-60-minutes/

Federal District Judge John Coughenour was unprepared for what happened after he temporarily blocked President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order last year and called it "blatantly unconstitutional." He said he faced "dozens if not hundreds" of death threats.

"I've been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year," Coughenour said. "And I don't think it's because we're making bad decisions. I think it's because there are people who think they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary."

President Trump has frequently called judges lunatics, crooked, or Trump-hating. Often a wave of threats against those judges follows. Last year, 400 federal judges were the targets of serious threats – a 78% jump compared to four years ago, according to the U.S. Marshals.

The White House said in a statement to CBS News it was "deeply unserious" to suggest the administration's comments about judges could lead to threats, noting that as a "survivor of two assassination attempts, no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump." The White House also accused the judiciary of "brazen defiance" with its "unlawful rulings" that had "repeatedly obstructed the election choices of the American people."

But judges are concerned about the harsh political rhetoric and what it could mean for their safety, and the independence of the judiciary. 60 Minutes spoke with 26 federal judges – nine of them Democratic appointees and 17 of them appointed by Republicans. Many said they're worried about democracy.

"The independence of the judiciary is extraordinarily important," Coughenour said. "And it's too important to allow it to be sacrificed and not speak up and say something."

Why Trump is attacking judges

Mr. Trump lashed out at Supreme Court justices – including two conservatives justices he nominated to the bench – after the court struck down his sweeping global tariffs. He called the justices "fools and lapdogs" and accused them of being disloyal to the Constitution.

They were the latest in a long line of judges the president has denounced when they've ruled against him.

Mr. Trump said at a Michigan rally last year he would not allow "a handful of communist radical left judges" to obstruct the enforcement of laws.

Retired Federal Judge John Jones, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said that he believes Mr. Trump is trying to delegitimize the federal courts when he insults judges. Jones said this is "a presidency sort of on steroids," with a "very dormant," U.S. Congress and a "president who means to really say what the law is."

"Civics taught me that Congress makes the law, and the president faithfully executes the laws of the country. We've turned that on its head right now," he said.

Jones said the Trump administration is testing the bounds of presidential power. The administration is facing more than 600 lawsuits contesting its agenda. Judges are caught in the crossfire.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche both declined a 60 Minutes request for an interview. In a recent speech, Blanche blamed judges for blocking the president's agenda.

"We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals because of local judges just not following the law, full stop," Blanche said during a Federalist Society event last year. "There's a group of judges that are repeat players. And that's obviously not by happenstance. That's intentional. And it's a war, man."

In an email to 60 Minutes, Blanche said that some judges continue to issue "overbroad and even unreasoned injunctions." He added that "threats and intimidation of federal officials is unlawful."

What judges say they're facing

Coughenour, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was at home with his wife after his ruling last January on birthright citizenship when the doorbell rang. Armed sheriff's deputies were on the other side, responding to a report that Coughenour had killed his wife.

It was a cruel hoax, followed by a bomb threat the next day. And it didn't end there. A congressman posted a wanted poster featuring federal judges who ruled against the Trump administration, including Coughenour.

Coughenour received hundreds of death threats.

Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall, a company that scrubs judges' personal data off the web, said he's now seeing a new type of threat.

"The threats used to be, 'you ruled against me. And I want to kill you,'" Zayas said. "Now the kind of threats we're seeing, there's a whole other sphere of saying 'I want to influence what you do.' It's mob mentality."

U.S. Marshals are also investigating pizza doxxing, when unsolicited pizzas are sent to judges and their families across the U.S. At least 20 were sent to homes in the name of the late son of Judge Esther Salas, a federal district court judge in New Jersey appointed by former President Barack Obama. In 2020, a failed litigant came gunning for Salas at her New Jersey home. He killed her son, Daniel, and wounded her husband.

The pizza deliveries in Daniel's name sent an ominous message, according to Salas.

"We know where you live. We know where your children live," Salas said, describing the message. "And do you want to end up like Judge Salas's son?"

U.S. Marshals are charged with determining which threats against judges may lead to physical violence. Judges say the Marshals are overwhelmed.

Jones and 55 other retired judges, concerned over the threats, formed a bipartisan group to lobby the White House on the issue.

"In very plain English: if we're not careful we're gonna get a judge killed," Jones said. "It's just that stark."

While harsh political rhetoric didn't ignite the attack that left Salas' son dead, she fears today's environment makes such horrors more likely.

"I sit here as Daniel's mom. I sit here as a woman who lost her only child. Mark and I have been to hell and back," she said. "When I see that kind of irresponsible behavior coming from our political leaders and people in power it makes me sad. And it makes me very worried, because I worry for our democracy, I really do."

Salas said vilifying judges is eroding trust in the courts.

"If you disagree with a ruling that we make, appeal us. If you disagree with a sentence we render, appeal us. The answer is not to dehumanize us. And that has been, I think, the active agenda as of late," she said. "I feel like sometimes our political leaders are playing Russian roulette with our lives."
Who's making threats against judges

Threats aren't just from the right. There's been a surge in left-wing threats, including ones targeting judges who've ruled for the president.

High-ranking Democrats have also verbally attacked judges. In 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who later apologized, told two Supreme Court justices they would "pay the price" if they banned abortion. And in 2022, a would-be assassin was arrested for trying to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home.

Judge Jones, a Republican appointee, said the rhetoric from both the left and right has gotten worse over time. But, he noted, he has not seen anything from Democrats similar in nature to the behavior from the Trump administration in relation to the federal judiciary, saying "there's simply no evidence of that."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 11:19 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

'God’s divine plan': US soldiers say commanders told them they're fighting for 'Armageddon'

By Sarah K. Burris
March 03, 2026 | 09:24AM ET

https://www.alternet.org/iran-holy-war/

People are growing increasingly uneasy as President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran are looking more and more like they could be part of a right-wing religious fanatic's fantasy for the apocalyptic.

The Cradle Media's Jonathan Larsen wrote that 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.

“U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for 'Armageddon,' Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military," Larsen wrote.

The comments come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; however, it is only one of "110 lawsuits brought in 48 hours from over 40 units across 30 installations," the report said. The complaints came from Christians, a Muslim and a Jewish soldier.

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," explained Religion Dispatches.

The concept is bad for anyone seeking peace in the Middle East, one 2024 report by Forward explained.

The sect of Christianity that Huckabee believes in holds that if they are able to remove Palestinians from the Holy Land, then Jesus Christ will return. He believes in “dispensational premillennialism,” which Forward describes as a belief that “the Rapture will come,” and deliver all evangelicals to Heaven as Israel is invaded by the armies of the world. It will cause Armageddon and prompt the return of Jesus Christ.

The language is making some fearful that the war waged wasn't really about Iran never obtaining nuclear weapons, which Trump claimed he destroyed last summer. It's a holy war, desperate to force Armageddon.

"Maybe it’s a bad idea to put people in charge of government who are eager for the rapture," lawyer and self-described nerd John Collins commented.

"Love when I'm in the military and my boss is, like, 'Time for Armageddon!'" commented author and journalist Emily St. James.

Writer and former Cato Institute policy analyst Will Wilkinson wrote, "Personally, I don’t think we should bring about Armageddon."

"One thing about the U.S., we definitely do not have insane religious zealots in charge," said Heidi N. Moore, previously of the Wall Street Journal business side.

Writer and elections lawyer at the Cato Institute, Walter Olson, quoted a line from the 1965 song "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" with lyrics by Tom Lehrer: "And this is what he said on/ His way to Armageddon.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 11:59 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Trump

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 3:50 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Your world is dead.

Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.

Thanks for that, loser.

Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.

A Very Stable War

J. D. Vance says this Middle East entanglement can’t be dumb—because Trump is smart.

By Jonathan Chait | March 3, 2026, 10:42 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/trump-iran-rubio-vance-war/6
86219/

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.

Yet after the administration’s second wave of air attacks on Iran, the president’s strategy seems more sundown than Sun Tzu.

The Wall Street Journal reported on January 30 that Trump was planning a major military campaign, but was still “debating whether the main aim is to go after Iran’s nuclear program, hit its ballistic missile arsenal, bring about the collapse of the government—or some combination of the three.” Generally speaking, military strategists tend to first settle upon their objective, and then devise a tactic to achieve it. The Trump method of first deciding on the tactic, and only getting around to what he wants to accomplish afterward, is unorthodox.

A lack of clarity has continued to define the operation. In his videotaped message announcing the latest attacks, Trump repeated his boast that the previous round of air strikes, in June, had “obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.” But if the obliteration lasted only half a year, what value is there in re-obliterating it? Will biannual bombing campaigns be employed until Iran submits to American demands?

Because Trump appears not to know what he wants from his military strikes, he is also unable to make clear what he is demanding of Iran to stop them. At times, he faults Tehran for refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions. “They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it,” he complained in his taped address. This tracked with the rationale that Vance offered last summer: “Simple principle: Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Yet at other times, Trump has floated more extensive ambitions. “Our objectives are clear,” he announced at the White House yesterday, ticking off a four-point list: eliminating Iran’s conventional missiles, destroying its navy, and ending its ability to fund terrorism, along with the original nuclear-nonproliferation goal.

The simple principle is now four simple principles. And Trump’s complaint that the mullahs were getting too “cute” in the negotiations has been mixed with grievances going back decades. On Sunday he told my colleague Michael Scherer, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” The next day, he described Iran’s government as “sick and sinister,” language implying a desire for regime change.

Despite planning the war with the keen brainpower that Vance finds so impressive, Trump has conceded his apparent failure to anticipate some of its more predictable consequences. He told Jake Tapper in an interview that Iran striking Arab countries allied with the U.S. was “the biggest surprise.”

In another interview, with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Trump lamented that he had picked out several candidates to lead a more pliant Iranian government, but the bombing campaign had killed them all. When planning a war to install a puppet regime, a smart president, or even one of average intelligence, would grasp the importance of not killing the puppets beforehand.

The other distinction Vance has drawn between the dumb Middle East wars of history and Trump’s extremely smart one is that the current president would maintain a tight timeline and would not, under any circumstances, entertain a ground presence. “We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground,” Vance said.

Then Trump declined to rule this out. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground—like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” he told the New York Post. Trump has said the campaign could run four to five weeks, but in his White House remarks, he said it could “go far longer than that.”

Trump also tried to disabuse his audience of any concern that his attention would wander from the task. “They said, ‘Oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly. After that, he’ll get bored,’” he said yesterday. “I don’t get bored. There is nothing boring about this.” Within moments, Trump was riffing about the White House drapes.

In the absence of any clear strategic account of his actions, a raft of less flattering ones suggest themselves. Among them: Trump’s worldview was formed in the 1970s, and he never got past his anger with Iran over the Carter-era hostage crisis. Having lost out on the Nobel Peace Prize, he may be attempting to gain more recognition by reclassifying his presidency from the Nelson Mandela category to the Genghis Khan category. The Venezuela coup has disinhibited him from trying regime change, and now he seems eager to knock off as many hostile governments as he can. Even the Iran operation’s official name, Epic Fury, implies that it is carrying out an emotional reaction rather than a cold-eyed plan.

The usefulness of Vance’s rationale is that it can justify anything. Trump could not be starting a dumb war, because that would mean Trump is a dumb president. And who could possibly think that?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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