“Not even a a month since I called out Gov. Abigail Spanberger for signing her EO banning law enforcement from cooperating with ICE we see the bitter fruits: Abdul Jalloh entered the U.S illegally, stabbed an innocent women to death at a bus stop this week despite having a “….criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and pick-pocketing.” This is exactly the criminal first, victim last policies that get innocent Americans killed.”
“IT’S OFFICIAL: A judge has finalized a $345 MILLION VERDICT against leftist group Greenpeace after their environmental militants attempted to vioIently BLOCK the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline
Greenpeace now says they’ll likely be forced in BANKRUPTCY
The assistance that the President of the United States had promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived. This is a humanitarian intervention, and its target is the Islamic Republic, its apparatus of repression, and its machinery of killing—not the country and great nation of Iran.
However, despite the arrival of this assistance, the final victory will still be achieved by us. It is we, the people of Iran, who will finish this task in this final battle. The time to return to the streets is approaching.
Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country’s military, law enforcement, and security forces is clear:
You have sworn an oath to protect Iran and the Iranian nation, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to defend the people, not to defend a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime. Join the nation and help ensure a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will sink with Khamenei’s ship and his crumbling regime.
And my message to the President of the United States, President Trump, is this:
The honorable people of Iran, despite the brutal repression and killings carried out by this regime, stood bravely for nearly two months. I now ask you to exercise the utmost possible caution to preserve the lives of civilians and my compatriots. The people of Iran are your natural allies and the allies of the free world, and they will not forget your assistance during the most difficult period of Iran’s contemporary history.
And to you, my dear compatriots in Iran:
In these sensitive hours and days, more than ever we must remain focused on our ultimate goal: reclaiming Iran.
I ask you, for now, to remain in your homes and remain calm and safe. Stay alert and ready to return to the streets for the final action at the appropriate time, which I will communicate to you.
Follow my messages through social media and satellite media. If disruptions occur in the internet and satellite broadcasts, I will remain in contact with you via radio.
We are very close to final victory. I hope to be with you as soon as possible so that together we may reclaim Iran and rebuild it.
Biden declares he closed the border in a speech given in SC. Who let him out???
While researching WIKI for bias which we have known all along, some may want to fact check fact checker… no they are not unbiased as so many on the left maintain! Funny how that works eh?
I am so sorry for people who have lived their whole lives in regimes that are so oppressive. Some who live in a succession of these regimes and must live on a razor’s edge to survive. I pray Iran will become freer, so that they can live according to the dictates of their consciences and seek the one true God. Don’t we all want that?
I am sorry for those who suffer because of the few, whether from bomb strikes or whatever. Sin always affects others than the sinner.
Regime change? And that ended really well the last couple of times. I believe the Bush admin said Iraq would be a beacon of democracy, and they had grand ideas about Afghanistan too
Bring back the Shah? I’m old enough to know what happened the last time the US did that. Not a family I would trust to bring any type of freedom or democracy. It’s rather amusing to see the Trump admin supporting an absolutist monarchy while an opposition group calls itself No Kings.
The US really doesn’t have a strategic interest in Iran. Iran is a regional power versus Saudi Arabia and Israel. It’s those two states that benefit from any change in Iran and any diminishing of Iranian power. So why is the US doing the bidding of Israel or Saudi Arabia? There was no need to break up talks and attack — according to Oman, Iran had already agreed to almost all demands.
Depending on the duration, oil prices should go up and thus fuel inflation.
China receives most of its oil imports from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Iran and Venezuela account for about 2-3% each. China has been employing soft power — Silk Road initiative — and quiet diplomacy and is now rivalling the US outside of the OECD. This will only help them.
As an aside, Venezuela produces a heavy crude useful as an additive in certain refineries. Currently the Houston refineries use Canadian crude but if they switch to Venezuela crude (which they used prior to Chavez) then Canada will simply switch to China. In effect Canada and Venezuela will merely switch customers.
Rating material and sources is quite normal for open source sites like Wikipedia. The NYT is boring and mostly reliable — its editorial stance and opinion pages are usually centre right for economics and centre left for social issues. Its news articles are usually fact based. Wikipedia needs to gate-keep to avoid polluting junk from various right and left wing populists sites that are full of rumour and conjecture and short of facts. If you want your encyclopedic sources to be based on rage bait found in social media, than a fact based universe will no longer exist.
Iran has agreed numerous times not to develop nuclear weapons. It has agreed not to stockpile enriched uranium and allow for international inspectors. In comparison, Pakistan, India, Israel, and other nuclear states have not agreed to anything.
Do I like the current regime — of course not. But I’m historically aware that the Shah is not a good idea and nor is regime change. Bombing a country because you don’t like its gov’t is not a rational decision nor does it work.
As I point out, China will not be hurt by a lack of oil exports from Iran. At only 2-3%, it’s a minimum disruption which the Russians will gladly make up and probably at a discount. I’m not a fan of the Chinese gov’t — its human rights record is dismal — but I’m a realist and understand global capitalism — when Houston switches from Canada to Venezuela, the dictates of the free market world mean Canada will find another market and China needs a new supply. No flex from me, just me understanding international trade.
One could also argue that the US forcing Venezuela to reroute its oil exports from China and Cuba to the US violates free market capitalism. its why China and other countries don’t take US rhetoric about international rules too seriously.
“Obama’s deal would have left Iran at near-zero breakout next year — with all major restrictions gone by 2030 — and tens of billions flowing to the regime.
Trump withdrew. Together with Israel, he severely degraded Iran’s nuclear program, missile arsenal, and terror proxies that Obama and Biden allowed to grow.
The left sure gives opportunity to witness crazy levels of irony. Who else would have to show IDs to get into an event about not having voter IDs. And now protesting against those who want to level the regime that killed all the protesters. I do remember the uproar about children at the border being housed in protective structures, but nary a word about all those handed over to handlers who would sell them as slaves. Such rich irony, sadly. There is so much more. Like The Leaning Center . . .
Tychicus — Until recently, Pakistan supported the Taliban. And lets not forget they sheltered Osama bin Ladin. Israel has killed about 70 000 civilians in Gaza and has been known to use food/water as sniper bait among other war crimes. I’d be more way of those two than Iran.
The “traditional” nuclear powers of France, UK, USA, China and Russia aren’t exactly innocent either. French behaviour in Africa, the American tendency to resort to regime change, and Russian invasion of Ukraine and involving itself in Syria and central Africa suggests none of them can be trusted either. The UK has been a little quiet since the dismantling of the Empire and besides a tendency to attack each other China and India are fairly quiet — except a tendency to repress human rights at home. Again outside of the western world, China’s soft power and diplomacy is gaining allies as fast as the US is shedding them in the developing world.
Honestly, the nuclear powers are quite hypocritical in their approach to Iran.
Janice — the irony does remind me of NRA conventions that featured a ban on hand guns at the convention site.
Most of the objections against the US war on Iran have to do more with constitutional issues as opposed to supporting Iran.
Sure, every country has its faults, but again, the other nuclear countries are not outright terrorist states. Iran has consistently behaved in such a way that it is clear that it should never have nuclear weapons.
Concerning Gaza, I don’t know what source you used for that fake number of civilians killed, but none would have died if Jews had not been brutally and ruthlessly attacked on Oct 7, 2024.
“As Tehran was being pounded by U.S. and Israeli bombs on Saturday morning, its top diplomat dialed Moscow’s number.
On the other end of the line, according to an official Russian statement, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered his Iranian counterpart sympathy and promised his — verbal — support.
Iran, thus, became the latest country after Syria and Venezuela to feel firsthand what partnership with Russia does, and doesn’t, mean.”
“How the Washington Post remembers Khamenei:”With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables.’ … Some Iranians who knew Ayatollah Khamenei before he became supreme leader described him as a ‘closet moderate” …”
“When you add up all the variables, President Trump now controls or dominates half of Communist China’s oil imports, and has deprived the CCP of a large amount of its heavily discounted oil supply.”
“I’m old enough to remember when the BBC wouldn’t report the number of Iranians slaughtered by the regime because they “couldn’t independently verify it”.”
“Zanjan is 300 kilometers northwest of Tehran. It is not a nuclear site. It is not where the IRGC commands its missile forces. It is not on any published target list that any Western analyst predicted before this morning. And it is being bombed.
Ahram Online confirmed Israeli-US aircraft struck a depot site in Zanjan. IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, reported explosions. Multiple OSINT accounts circulated footage of detonations consistent with precision-guided munitions hitting stored ordnance, the kind of secondary explosions that happen when a bomb hits a warehouse full of things that also explode.
Now pull the map back and understand what Zanjan tells you about the scale of what is happening inside Iran tonight.
Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Tabriz. Lorestan. And now Zanjan. Eight cities across a country the size of Alaska being struck simultaneously by two air forces operating from carriers, regional bases, and stealth platforms that Iran cannot detect. This is not a targeted operation against a nuclear program. This is the systematic dismantlement of Iran’s entire military supply chain. Depots. Command nodes. Radar installations. Missile storage. Leadership compounds. The target list has expanded by hundreds of percent according to Israeli sources who described thousands of hours of intelligence preparation. Every site Iran spent decades building and dispersing across its geography to survive exactly this kind of attack is being hit in a single campaign.
Zanjan tells you the intelligence penetration is total. These are not obvious targets. A depot in a northwestern city that does not appear in any IAEA report or Congressional Research Service briefing means that American and Israeli intelligence mapped Iran’s logistics network down to the warehouse level. They know where the missiles are stored before they are loaded onto launchers. They know where the spare parts sit. They know which depots feed which launch sites and they are severing every supply artery in parallel so that what survives the first wave has nothing to reload with for the second.
Iran built its military doctrine on dispersal. Spread everything across a country of 1.6 million square kilometers so that no single strike can be decisive. Hide production in mountain tunnels. Store missiles in civilian areas. Scatter command posts across eight provinces. The entire strategy assumed the enemy would hit the obvious targets and miss the rest.
The enemy hit Zanjan. The enemy is not missing anything.
When a military campaign reaches cities that no analyst predicted, it means the target list is not a list. It is a map. And the map covers everything.
Tychicus — “terrorist” vs “freedom fighter” — its all about perspective. Ask some Afghans especially the Farsi in Afghanistan and they will tell you Pakistan is a terrorist state. Pakistan has nukes, Iran does not
The Hamas attack does not give permission to commit genocide. Hamas killed a 1000 while Israel killed about 70k to 100k. The numbers vary but 70 000 is the bottom. About 70% percent are thought to be women, children and the elderly. Israel’s behaviour fits the definition of terrorism — random violence for political ends. Israel should not have nukes.
Meanwhile, there’s very little indication Iran intended to build nukes or intercontinental missiles. Its military and regional power threatened the dominance of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Not the US. America is spending billions and risking the lives of their young for the Saudis and Israelis.
There’s very little American interest in Iran or regime change. To say it hurts China is stretching it. Iran supplies less than 2% of Chinese oil. Russia will make up for that at a discount. If the straits of Hormuz are closed that will hurt everyone and increase energy prices worldwide.
Of course, Iranian women are happy; but American support of Israel led to dead Palestinian women. The US isn’t following a pro-women foreign policy that’s just a by-product. And of course this is initial euphoria — what are the long term plans for Iran’s gov’t, is there any?
In Venezuela, the US kidnapped Maduro and let the VP take over. Its gov’t did not change. A slight change in their oil exports but no change in domestic policy or governance. If Venezuela is the model, then we should see a new Ayatollah when this is all done? Or is the US going to engage in nation building?
Russian is a bit busy right now — western support of Ukraine does that. And to think the Trump admin is reluctant to support Ukraine. Russia also abandoned its traditional support of Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan (interestingly, it was Iran who supported Armenia in the last conflict). Armenia, Syria, Venezuela, etc — thank Ukraine.
Western leadership has been generally supportive of the US and Israel including Starmer and Carney. It will cost both of them in popular support. In a by-election, a Labour seat since 1931 went to the Green party who increased their vote by over 25%. The UK Green party is to the left of Labour especially in terms of economic policies, but also has a more impartial approach to Israel-Palestine. In Canada, Carney who is generally seen as centre-right will lose support from the centre-left who again supports a more impartial middle east policy.
Tychicus — you are misunderstanding the actual question and the question lurking behind it. What are the US goals in this operation and what is the US desired outcome for the Iranian gov’t?
As far as I can tell, the Trump admin has yet to articulate any goals. Sure they say to prevent Iran from having nukes but it’s unlikely they would have developed any and nor did they have any system capable of delivering it to the US. Reducing Iran’s nuclear ability helps the Saudis and Israel remain the regional powers. That’s a strange reason for the US to go to war.
Now a dominant Iran might threaten the 50k plus US service people in the middle east. I thought the Trump answer to that was no more wars and America First, that is bring them home.
Perhaps a side benefit to helping Israel and Saudi Arabia would be to weaken China as some suggest by reducing oil to China. But only 2% of their oil comes from Iran — they can easily make up for that elsewhere. Instead what is happening is insurance companies are telling tankers to stay away from Straits of Hormuz and this hurts everyone — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq — this will hurt not just countries who depend on this oil but the world wide price of energy will now go up.
And China continues to position itself as the peaceful great power. Unlike Russia and the US, they say they only engage in soft power and diplomacy. Its getting harder to prove them wrong.
Of course there’s the “Wag the Dog” thesis. War is a distraction from the Epstein files and an attempt to boost falling polls or as some more conspiracy minded people think as a way to mess with the mid terms. The left likes to joke are the Epstein files a distraction from US imperialism or is US imperialism a distraction from the Epstein files. Personally, I think US imperialism and the Epstein files have the same source — a corrupt elite looking out for themselves and exploiting the rest of us.
You’re way off – imported Chinese oil from Iran is about 16%. And what I shared is the overriding US goal – Pres. Trump articulated it in his excellent speech immediatelt after the attack.
And then there’s the specific question of the nature of the Iranian government. Under the rubric; if you break it you fix it, the US just can’t walk away from that question.
In the case of Maduro, they simply took the head off and left the rest to govern. The VP, given what happened to Maduro, has become more compliant to US demands. This would be the best scenario for the US here and one I think they want to implement.
The problem is Iran is different from Venezuela and the current structure of gov’t would resist it.
The other options would be regime change and a new constitution — but that didn’t work out well in Afghanistan. Even in Iraq the US still intervenes to prevent a gov’t they don’t like. That’s a lot of long term pain for little reward. In Iran there are at least four minority groups — Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and Balouchs — who might take advantage of any attempt at whole sale change and advocate for independence or at least autonomy.
In Syria, the US is trying to simply adopt the civil war winner as their own despite his obvious incompatibility with western values. And earliest indications are this won’t work. Meanwhile Libya is still a failed state.
The US goal should be to keep it simple and follow the Maduro model but is that possible? I’m not too sure.
In any case, the question still remains — did the Trump admin have goals and do they have a gov’t plan? Simply walking away after they break it, would mean a Libyan-style possibility and nobody wants that.
“Happening now in Times Square: hundreds of Iranian chanting Thank You Trump and Thank You Bibi. Gen Z bystanders very confused. One old white lady gave them the finger. Great spirits all around! 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇮🇱”
“MASSIVE Iranian, Pro-USA demonstration shutting down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles just took a moment of silence for American service members who have died and then chanted “USA! USA!” Predominant pro-Trump sentiment.”
Wandering Views 
As always, Dems side with the enemies of America and all that’s good and decent.
https://x.com/i/status/2027712014546534718
“I can’t believe what I’m seeing…Every Leftist on X is crying about Iran’s EVIL DICTATORS being removed from the earth…
…and every single one of the Iranian people is celebrating and dancing like there’s no tomorrow
This has been extremely eye-opening.”
LikeLiked by 4 people
“US and Israel launch a major attack on Iran and Trump urges Iranians to ‘take over your government’
https://x.com/i/status/2027700332269023617
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Thank Democrats. They built this.
https://x.com/i/status/2027571531102994848
“Not even a a month since I called out Gov. Abigail Spanberger for signing her EO banning law enforcement from cooperating with ICE we see the bitter fruits: Abdul Jalloh entered the U.S illegally, stabbed an innocent women to death at a bus stop this week despite having a “….criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and pick-pocketing.” This is exactly the criminal first, victim last policies that get innocent Americans killed.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s now official.
Buh-bye.
https://x.com/i/status/2027536043994415378
“IT’S OFFICIAL: A judge has finalized a $345 MILLION VERDICT against leftist group Greenpeace after their environmental militants attempted to vioIently BLOCK the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline
Greenpeace now says they’ll likely be forced in BANKRUPTCY
Good riddance!👋🏻”
LikeLiked by 4 people
“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
Powerful and sobering words from the President to Iranians.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027700028949622943
LikeLiked by 3 people
For those of you who think Wikipedia is a good resource…
It is, for leftist lies…
https://x.com/i/status/2027555919727411660
“You simply may not cite, or use as sources… anything that has been branded as right wing.”
Wikipedia co-founder @lsanger revealed to me that Wikipedia has a blacklist of sources that, if used, can prevent you from posting on the site.“
Wikipedia now has a list of what they call perennial sources, and it functions as a blacklist.”
“There’s a color coding of different media sources.”
“The New York Times, of course, is green, which means you can cite The New York Times.”
“Anything that is colored yellow means essentially caution.”
“And red means it’s a no go.”
“If you actually attempt to use such sources, that actually might be grounds for you being dismissed from the project.””
LikeLiked by 3 people
“My dear compatriots,
Decisive moments lie before us.
The assistance that the President of the United States had promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived. This is a humanitarian intervention, and its target is the Islamic Republic, its apparatus of repression, and its machinery of killing—not the country and great nation of Iran.
However, despite the arrival of this assistance, the final victory will still be achieved by us. It is we, the people of Iran, who will finish this task in this final battle. The time to return to the streets is approaching.
Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country’s military, law enforcement, and security forces is clear:
You have sworn an oath to protect Iran and the Iranian nation, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to defend the people, not to defend a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime. Join the nation and help ensure a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will sink with Khamenei’s ship and his crumbling regime.
And my message to the President of the United States, President Trump, is this:
The honorable people of Iran, despite the brutal repression and killings carried out by this regime, stood bravely for nearly two months. I now ask you to exercise the utmost possible caution to preserve the lives of civilians and my compatriots. The people of Iran are your natural allies and the allies of the free world, and they will not forget your assistance during the most difficult period of Iran’s contemporary history.
And to you, my dear compatriots in Iran:
In these sensitive hours and days, more than ever we must remain focused on our ultimate goal: reclaiming Iran.
I ask you, for now, to remain in your homes and remain calm and safe. Stay alert and ready to return to the streets for the final action at the appropriate time, which I will communicate to you.
Follow my messages through social media and satellite media. If disruptions occur in the internet and satellite broadcasts, I will remain in contact with you via radio.
We are very close to final victory. I hope to be with you as soon as possible so that together we may reclaim Iran and rebuild it.
Long live Iran.
Reza Pahlavi”
https://x.com/i/status/2027666258393444399
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good. Another benefit of the fall of Muslim radicals in Iran.
https://x.com/i/status/2027667848550572036
“In January China lost their 800,000 bpd of oil from Venezuela. That oil now goes to Texas.
Now China is about to lose their oil imports from Iran also.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
“IRGC’s underground Damavand headquarters attacked with bunker-buster bombs”
https://x.com/i/status/2027699911358124258
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lather, rinse, repeat…
https://x.com/i/status/2027706682747588776
“For those wondering how this will play out:
>Trump has done something strong
>Democrats and the media will freak out all day
>Everything Trump did works
>Everyone moves on
>No one gives him credit
>Move on to the next thing to panic about.
Every. Single. Time.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Biden declares he closed the border in a speech given in SC. Who let him out???
While researching WIKI for bias which we have known all along, some may want to fact check fact checker… no they are not unbiased as so many on the left maintain! Funny how that works eh?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so sorry for people who have lived their whole lives in regimes that are so oppressive. Some who live in a succession of these regimes and must live on a razor’s edge to survive. I pray Iran will become freer, so that they can live according to the dictates of their consciences and seek the one true God. Don’t we all want that?
I am sorry for those who suffer because of the few, whether from bomb strikes or whatever. Sin always affects others than the sinner.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Regime change? And that ended really well the last couple of times. I believe the Bush admin said Iraq would be a beacon of democracy, and they had grand ideas about Afghanistan too
Bring back the Shah? I’m old enough to know what happened the last time the US did that. Not a family I would trust to bring any type of freedom or democracy. It’s rather amusing to see the Trump admin supporting an absolutist monarchy while an opposition group calls itself No Kings.
The US really doesn’t have a strategic interest in Iran. Iran is a regional power versus Saudi Arabia and Israel. It’s those two states that benefit from any change in Iran and any diminishing of Iranian power. So why is the US doing the bidding of Israel or Saudi Arabia? There was no need to break up talks and attack — according to Oman, Iran had already agreed to almost all demands.
Depending on the duration, oil prices should go up and thus fuel inflation.
China receives most of its oil imports from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Iran and Venezuela account for about 2-3% each. China has been employing soft power — Silk Road initiative — and quiet diplomacy and is now rivalling the US outside of the OECD. This will only help them.
As an aside, Venezuela produces a heavy crude useful as an additive in certain refineries. Currently the Houston refineries use Canadian crude but if they switch to Venezuela crude (which they used prior to Chavez) then Canada will simply switch to China. In effect Canada and Venezuela will merely switch customers.
hrw
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Rating material and sources is quite normal for open source sites like Wikipedia. The NYT is boring and mostly reliable — its editorial stance and opinion pages are usually centre right for economics and centre left for social issues. Its news articles are usually fact based. Wikipedia needs to gate-keep to avoid polluting junk from various right and left wing populists sites that are full of rumour and conjecture and short of facts. If you want your encyclopedic sources to be based on rage bait found in social media, than a fact based universe will no longer exist.
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No interests?
Sure, because a nuclear Iran will be kinder, and gentler, Islamic radical regime…
Plus, as shown above, it limits China as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So Canada is fine with supplying the most oppressive states with oil, huh?
That’s not the flex you think it is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course. Leftist scum, Unite!
And Resist or something!
https://x.com/i/status/2027770664548012540
“The left is conducting “Hands off Iran” protests.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime murdered 36,500+ protesters in 48 hours three weeks ago.
They’re protesting to protect a government that just slaughtered its own people for protesting. 🤡 🤡”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Iran has agreed numerous times not to develop nuclear weapons. It has agreed not to stockpile enriched uranium and allow for international inspectors. In comparison, Pakistan, India, Israel, and other nuclear states have not agreed to anything.
Do I like the current regime — of course not. But I’m historically aware that the Shah is not a good idea and nor is regime change. Bombing a country because you don’t like its gov’t is not a rational decision nor does it work.
As I point out, China will not be hurt by a lack of oil exports from Iran. At only 2-3%, it’s a minimum disruption which the Russians will gladly make up and probably at a discount. I’m not a fan of the Chinese gov’t — its human rights record is dismal — but I’m a realist and understand global capitalism — when Houston switches from Canada to Venezuela, the dictates of the free market world mean Canada will find another market and China needs a new supply. No flex from me, just me understanding international trade.
One could also argue that the US forcing Venezuela to reroute its oil exports from China and Cuba to the US violates free market capitalism. its why China and other countries don’t take US rhetoric about international rules too seriously.
hrw
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Unlike Iran, those other countries aren’t terrorist states.
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“Obama’s deal would have left Iran at near-zero breakout next year — with all major restrictions gone by 2030 — and tens of billions flowing to the regime.
Trump withdrew. Together with Israel, he severely degraded Iran’s nuclear program, missile arsenal, and terror proxies that Obama and Biden allowed to grow.
Not partisanship. Facts.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027794677374833120
LikeLiked by 2 people
The left sure gives opportunity to witness crazy levels of irony. Who else would have to show IDs to get into an event about not having voter IDs. And now protesting against those who want to level the regime that killed all the protesters. I do remember the uproar about children at the border being housed in protective structures, but nary a word about all those handed over to handlers who would sell them as slaves. Such rich irony, sadly. There is so much more. Like The Leaning Center . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
in case this has not been posted about Fani Willis:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DE8vPH3HP/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tychicus — Until recently, Pakistan supported the Taliban. And lets not forget they sheltered Osama bin Ladin. Israel has killed about 70 000 civilians in Gaza and has been known to use food/water as sniper bait among other war crimes. I’d be more way of those two than Iran.
The “traditional” nuclear powers of France, UK, USA, China and Russia aren’t exactly innocent either. French behaviour in Africa, the American tendency to resort to regime change, and Russian invasion of Ukraine and involving itself in Syria and central Africa suggests none of them can be trusted either. The UK has been a little quiet since the dismantling of the Empire and besides a tendency to attack each other China and India are fairly quiet — except a tendency to repress human rights at home. Again outside of the western world, China’s soft power and diplomacy is gaining allies as fast as the US is shedding them in the developing world.
Honestly, the nuclear powers are quite hypocritical in their approach to Iran.
Janice — the irony does remind me of NRA conventions that featured a ban on hand guns at the convention site.
Most of the objections against the US war on Iran have to do more with constitutional issues as opposed to supporting Iran.
hrw
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Sure, every country has its faults, but again, the other nuclear countries are not outright terrorist states. Iran has consistently behaved in such a way that it is clear that it should never have nuclear weapons.
Concerning Gaza, I don’t know what source you used for that fake number of civilians killed, but none would have died if Jews had not been brutally and ruthlessly attacked on Oct 7, 2024.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Iranian women are dancing in the streets—without hair coverings—after hearing that Israel killed the tyrant Khamenei.
So many Western leaders should feel ashamed at their cowardly response this morning. We will all remember.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027881129697591780
With video.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Apparently, arresting Maduro and killing Khamenei were easier than getting a Republican Senate majority to pass the Save America Act.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027885161182888185
#USELESSGOP
LikeLiked by 2 people
“As Tehran was being pounded by U.S. and Israeli bombs on Saturday morning, its top diplomat dialed Moscow’s number.
On the other end of the line, according to an official Russian statement, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov offered his Iranian counterpart sympathy and promised his — verbal — support.
Iran, thus, became the latest country after Syria and Venezuela to feel firsthand what partnership with Russia does, and doesn’t, mean.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027877254634623240
LikeLiked by 2 people
“What you’re hearing is the sound of a nation roaring in celebration at the death of Khamenei, the man who murdered thousands of Iran’s children.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027843999952683034
Again, with video.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I double checked the WaPo this morning and can confirm that, yes, they’re still useless trash.
https://x.com/i/status/2027964362426597468
“How the Washington Post remembers Khamenei:”With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables.’ … Some Iranians who knew Ayatollah Khamenei before he became supreme leader described him as a ‘closet moderate” …”
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Huh.
https://x.com/i/status/2027897129168207889
“Thousands of Iranians and allies have gathered in Vancouver to celebrate the elimination of Ayatollah Khamenei.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027980064026202465
“Persian and Jew celebrating together in London”
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Trump plays 4d chess.
https://x.com/i/status/2027812652123046314
“When you add up all the variables, President Trump now controls or dominates half of Communist China’s oil imports, and has deprived the CCP of a large amount of its heavily discounted oil supply.”
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The UK is lost, it’s leaders useless.
They’ve allowed their country to be overrun by Muslims, and now bow to them at every opportunity.
Starner fears the hordes he let in may blame him for US action.
https://x.com/i/status/2028083257007374384
“UK is one of the only Muslim countries that didn’t side with the USA.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027960533337461144
“Keir Starner wants it to be clear the UK played no part in the strikes in Iran that removed a murderous dictator.
They were busy covering up the rape gangs and putting people in prison for social media posts.”
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So glad this woman is not President, and so are millions of Iranians.
https://x.com/i/status/2027943377073819758
“Kamala Harris doesn’t want regime change in Iran: ‘Dangerous and unnecessary'”
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Pepperidge Farms remembers….
https://x.com/i/status/2027998847855722941
“I’m old enough to remember when the BBC wouldn’t report the number of Iranians slaughtered by the regime because they “couldn’t independently verify it”.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027888234479411432
“Iran says US and Israel strikes hit school killing 108”
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Oh, and that missile was fired from the Iranian military facility next to the school.
Note the exhaust trail…
Fired from ground, malfunctions, falls on the school.
But sure, blame the US and those pesky Jews.
https://x.com/i/status/2027893800819986661
And now even Iran admits it. But the media loves them some fake news.
https://x.com/i/status/2028119242952921107
“The regime in Iran has now confessed that the IRGC mistakenly bombed an Iranian school yesterday, killing many children.
To all the legacy media and pro regime influencers who peddled your fake news:
RETRACT and DELETE.”
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This is 4D Chess, mastered.
https://x.com/i/status/2027799113182679061
“Zanjan is 300 kilometers northwest of Tehran. It is not a nuclear site. It is not where the IRGC commands its missile forces. It is not on any published target list that any Western analyst predicted before this morning. And it is being bombed.
Ahram Online confirmed Israeli-US aircraft struck a depot site in Zanjan. IRNA, Iran’s own state news agency, reported explosions. Multiple OSINT accounts circulated footage of detonations consistent with precision-guided munitions hitting stored ordnance, the kind of secondary explosions that happen when a bomb hits a warehouse full of things that also explode.
Now pull the map back and understand what Zanjan tells you about the scale of what is happening inside Iran tonight.
Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Tabriz. Lorestan. And now Zanjan. Eight cities across a country the size of Alaska being struck simultaneously by two air forces operating from carriers, regional bases, and stealth platforms that Iran cannot detect. This is not a targeted operation against a nuclear program. This is the systematic dismantlement of Iran’s entire military supply chain. Depots. Command nodes. Radar installations. Missile storage. Leadership compounds. The target list has expanded by hundreds of percent according to Israeli sources who described thousands of hours of intelligence preparation. Every site Iran spent decades building and dispersing across its geography to survive exactly this kind of attack is being hit in a single campaign.
Zanjan tells you the intelligence penetration is total. These are not obvious targets. A depot in a northwestern city that does not appear in any IAEA report or Congressional Research Service briefing means that American and Israeli intelligence mapped Iran’s logistics network down to the warehouse level. They know where the missiles are stored before they are loaded onto launchers. They know where the spare parts sit. They know which depots feed which launch sites and they are severing every supply artery in parallel so that what survives the first wave has nothing to reload with for the second.
Iran built its military doctrine on dispersal. Spread everything across a country of 1.6 million square kilometers so that no single strike can be decisive. Hide production in mountain tunnels. Store missiles in civilian areas. Scatter command posts across eight provinces. The entire strategy assumed the enemy would hit the obvious targets and miss the rest.
The enemy hit Zanjan. The enemy is not missing anything.
When a military campaign reaches cities that no analyst predicted, it means the target list is not a list. It is a map. And the map covers everything.
Iran did not prepare for a war this wide.
Nobody told them to.”
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Tychicus — “terrorist” vs “freedom fighter” — its all about perspective. Ask some Afghans especially the Farsi in Afghanistan and they will tell you Pakistan is a terrorist state. Pakistan has nukes, Iran does not
The Hamas attack does not give permission to commit genocide. Hamas killed a 1000 while Israel killed about 70k to 100k. The numbers vary but 70 000 is the bottom. About 70% percent are thought to be women, children and the elderly. Israel’s behaviour fits the definition of terrorism — random violence for political ends. Israel should not have nukes.
Meanwhile, there’s very little indication Iran intended to build nukes or intercontinental missiles. Its military and regional power threatened the dominance of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Not the US. America is spending billions and risking the lives of their young for the Saudis and Israelis.
There’s very little American interest in Iran or regime change. To say it hurts China is stretching it. Iran supplies less than 2% of Chinese oil. Russia will make up for that at a discount. If the straits of Hormuz are closed that will hurt everyone and increase energy prices worldwide.
hrw
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Of course, Iranian women are happy; but American support of Israel led to dead Palestinian women. The US isn’t following a pro-women foreign policy that’s just a by-product. And of course this is initial euphoria — what are the long term plans for Iran’s gov’t, is there any?
In Venezuela, the US kidnapped Maduro and let the VP take over. Its gov’t did not change. A slight change in their oil exports but no change in domestic policy or governance. If Venezuela is the model, then we should see a new Ayatollah when this is all done? Or is the US going to engage in nation building?
Russian is a bit busy right now — western support of Ukraine does that. And to think the Trump admin is reluctant to support Ukraine. Russia also abandoned its traditional support of Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan (interestingly, it was Iran who supported Armenia in the last conflict). Armenia, Syria, Venezuela, etc — thank Ukraine.
Western leadership has been generally supportive of the US and Israel including Starmer and Carney. It will cost both of them in popular support. In a by-election, a Labour seat since 1931 went to the Green party who increased their vote by over 25%. The UK Green party is to the left of Labour especially in terms of economic policies, but also has a more impartial approach to Israel-Palestine. In Canada, Carney who is generally seen as centre-right will lose support from the centre-left who again supports a more impartial middle east policy.
hrw
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What are the long term plans for Iran’s gov’t?
That will be up to the Iranian people – that is, if they truly get their long-awaited opportunity for self-determination.
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Tychicus — you are misunderstanding the actual question and the question lurking behind it. What are the US goals in this operation and what is the US desired outcome for the Iranian gov’t?
As far as I can tell, the Trump admin has yet to articulate any goals. Sure they say to prevent Iran from having nukes but it’s unlikely they would have developed any and nor did they have any system capable of delivering it to the US. Reducing Iran’s nuclear ability helps the Saudis and Israel remain the regional powers. That’s a strange reason for the US to go to war.
Now a dominant Iran might threaten the 50k plus US service people in the middle east. I thought the Trump answer to that was no more wars and America First, that is bring them home.
Perhaps a side benefit to helping Israel and Saudi Arabia would be to weaken China as some suggest by reducing oil to China. But only 2% of their oil comes from Iran — they can easily make up for that elsewhere. Instead what is happening is insurance companies are telling tankers to stay away from Straits of Hormuz and this hurts everyone — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq — this will hurt not just countries who depend on this oil but the world wide price of energy will now go up.
And China continues to position itself as the peaceful great power. Unlike Russia and the US, they say they only engage in soft power and diplomacy. Its getting harder to prove them wrong.
Of course there’s the “Wag the Dog” thesis. War is a distraction from the Epstein files and an attempt to boost falling polls or as some more conspiracy minded people think as a way to mess with the mid terms. The left likes to joke are the Epstein files a distraction from US imperialism or is US imperialism a distraction from the Epstein files. Personally, I think US imperialism and the Epstein files have the same source — a corrupt elite looking out for themselves and exploiting the rest of us.
hrw
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You’re way off – imported Chinese oil from Iran is about 16%. And what I shared is the overriding US goal – Pres. Trump articulated it in his excellent speech immediatelt after the attack.
“Wag the Dog”? Please…
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And then there’s the specific question of the nature of the Iranian government. Under the rubric; if you break it you fix it, the US just can’t walk away from that question.
In the case of Maduro, they simply took the head off and left the rest to govern. The VP, given what happened to Maduro, has become more compliant to US demands. This would be the best scenario for the US here and one I think they want to implement.
The problem is Iran is different from Venezuela and the current structure of gov’t would resist it.
The other options would be regime change and a new constitution — but that didn’t work out well in Afghanistan. Even in Iraq the US still intervenes to prevent a gov’t they don’t like. That’s a lot of long term pain for little reward. In Iran there are at least four minority groups — Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and Balouchs — who might take advantage of any attempt at whole sale change and advocate for independence or at least autonomy.
In Syria, the US is trying to simply adopt the civil war winner as their own despite his obvious incompatibility with western values. And earliest indications are this won’t work. Meanwhile Libya is still a failed state.
The US goal should be to keep it simple and follow the Maduro model but is that possible? I’m not too sure.
In any case, the question still remains — did the Trump admin have goals and do they have a gov’t plan? Simply walking away after they break it, would mean a Libyan-style possibility and nobody wants that.
hrw
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“Happening now in Times Square: hundreds of Iranian chanting Thank You Trump and Thank You Bibi. Gen Z bystanders very confused. One old white lady gave them the finger. Great spirits all around! 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇮🇱”
https://x.com/i/status/2028190233485852992
“MASSIVE Iranian, Pro-USA demonstration shutting down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles just took a moment of silence for American service members who have died and then chanted “USA! USA!” Predominant pro-Trump sentiment.”
https://x.com/i/status/2028241153750094089
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