Iran
The biggest question is WHY? What is the US interest in attacking Iran (the “sanctions” on Iran are definitely attacks)? Iran gave up on expansion before the United States became a country. They lost land to the Russian Empire and the British Empire in the 19th century. In the 20th century despite being neutral in both World War I and II, Britain occupied parts of Iran to control the oil fields. During the Eisenhower administration, the CIA and MI6 organized a coup against the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and installed the last Shah. The US supported Iraq in the decade long Iraq-Iran War. I see why Iran doesn’t like the West, what’s the US excuse?
A question for the Pentagon PR people: If every country gets 12 nautical miles of coastal waters. how do you get international waters in a strait barely more than 20 nautical miles wide? The Strait of Hormuz is a problem for the US, a problem that should be avoided. Trump wants to go to war over a drone, but Iran didn’t attack the US after Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down while on a scheduled flight over the Persian Gulf. Who’s the aggressor?
There was an agreement in place that Iran was abiding with according to the international monitoring team. Iran didn’t break the deal, Trump did. If Israel and Saudi Arabia think Iran is going to build nuclear weapons now, it’s Trump fault.
We had the Allies, the Coalition of the Willing, and now the League of Unindicted Coconspirators. Netanyahu had to call for a new election when he was unable to form a government. He needs to stay in power long enough to give himself immunity from all of the corruption charges the Israeli attorney general is ready to file. The Trump gang are the only people on the planet who don’t admit MBS had Jamal Khashoggi murdered. Finally, indictments are definitely coming in New York state for the Trump gang, even if the Feds chicken out.
11 comments
With Dotard, it’s very simple. Obama. 2016. And another US Navy stuff-up. It’s looking likely the Drone Iran shot down was in Iranian air space (another Navy screw-up).
Open thread for night owls. Pro-Publica: Navy failed to deal with issues that led to Iran stand-off
Below that article, dKOS also has an interesting “blast from the Past” from 2004 when Cheney briefly took over as CIC. Link in case it vanishes from that page:
The Cheney Coup
The Iranians are saying they shot down the drone instead of the manned US aircraft in their airspace. The drone has the wingspan of a 737, so it isn’t a small target, and it was flying at 20,000 feet. WTF, it is rated for 65,000 to keep it out of range of most ground-based systems. At $110 million a copy, what was it doing at 20K’? This sounds like a ‘ferret’ mission, with one aircraft causing an air defense reaction that can be recorded by a second aircraft.
BTW, the US retaliated by hacking some Iranian systems, and Iran responded by erasing everything on US DoD computers that weren’t decently hardened. If you are going to hack someone, you really need to bring your systems up to standards.
One word:
Israel.
Two more words: Saudi Arabia.
I don’t need to fill you in on the background of those two possible culprits, you already know it. Either one would love to get the United States to take out what they view as a regional threat. But not enough to do the job themselves (not that either could, Israel’s force projection capabilities are minimal and Saudi Arabia’s military is totally outclassed by Iran’s, as its poor performance in their Yemen adventure has aptly demonstrated).
Iran wasn’t a problem until some moron took out Saddam and the Taliban government in Afghanistan that acted as checks. The problem isn’t Iran, it’s Trump, as you know. Things might be better if Jared Kushner wasn’t pwned by the Emirates while conducting US diplomacy in the area.
Hi guy’s… Had to take some time offline for a few days. Needed a sanity break. 🙂 Just been listening to music, watching movies (I got a few new ones on an Amazon sale), & playing games. Been really good actually. I guess I’ll HAVE to admit to my shrink tomorrow… That he was right. Drat! 😉
You know I agree with all the above! 😀
Anyway, I decided to give myself a half hour to catch up on things, not that I expected any improvements. I wasn’t disappointed, but was highly amused by a couple items!
Trump Blew Up The Iran Nuclear Deal. Now He Wants Allies To Help Him Get An Iran Nuclear Deal.
It was entertaining to see the Democrat Womenfolk give the misogynist old Dem menfolk a kick in their (shriveled) nuts! 😆
Women Owned The Democratic Debates
I did make one tweet that was borderline breaking my enforced “sabbatical”! But I was laughing & grinning for ages! SO I decided it counted as therapeutic!
President Jimmy Carter is still proving he’s a better POTUS than Dotard could ever be. And still a funny man too! 😀
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1144868063138869248
Oh! I came across this gem… Thomas P. Trump’s obituary. He warned the World about his cousin!
https://twitter.com/ceraldi_carleen/status/1145135044136058881
The Trump obit is fake. The guy in the picture is still alive and Trump has no relatives named Thomas P Trump.
Trump keeps kicking anthills and wondering why he gets bitten. If he has to go up against Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris he is going to have to hide in his bed. I just hope that we can rebuild some relationships after he’s gone. The farmers are screwed. China has found new suppliers and the US won’t be invited back. He is going to tank the economy, but at this point, I don’t think the world cares or will be all that affected.
I’m using the World Cup and then the Tour de France to avoid thinking about what a mess things are in.
😆 Yeah! I know… I couldn’t resist it though! (and I was going to add a snarky comment, but my coffee machine started beeping for attention! Coffee is always a priority.) Also why I didn’t retweet that. 😉 I had that image on one of my Pinterest boards. Hmmmm… I forget which. Maybe “Just for Fun”. 🤷🏾♂️
Anyway, I needed a laugh. Figured you could use one also.
I’m really not sure what will happen after “Dotard’s Reign of the Juvenile Ego”. If someone like Harris/Warren won & had a good team (and a majority), I think the World would come around faster. BTW, I think Harris/Warren would make a great POTUS/VP. Harris is charismatic & can project well, Warren is strong on policy & reality. Both could be very effective. Just IMHO. The Dem menfolk should all just STFU & go hide somewhere. They had their chance & royally screwed it up (including backing Hillary – some of them anyway)!
I’m a member of a few groups on Twitter & we have (supposedly) “private rooms” where we can chat. I said I was taking a week away from T for a needed sanity break to refresh (suggested by my Shrink last Monday). Some said I should just tweet fun stuff because just breaking from T for a week is pretty hard to do. They were right. So I took their advice (some are Nurses & a couple are medical Doctors). 😀
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1143909019267919873
Warren/Harris scare the bejesus out of Republicans. Trump would be a Democratic GOTV (Get Out The Vote) machine with his misogyny and racism. Either one of them is more intelligent than Trump’s White House staff and Cabinet combined.
If you look at the two debates, you have a lot of potential Cabinet positions that could be filled from those people. It is too bad that so many are Senators because we need more Democrats or independents in the Senate.
The problem with the Democratic leadership is that they think they need more “moderates” than progressives to run for office. People are fed up with moderates and compromises that result in Republican policies.
Chill out, M8te. Politics is really depressing at the moment all over the planet. Your country, mine, Britain, Canada – the politics suck. We can’t all go to New Zealand where things seem to be sane. The people don’t change things until they get screwed. It’s frustrating, so let it flow over you and watch some fun videos 😀
My shrink was happy today. I think that’s a first! 😆 I told him just because he was right, didn’t mean he had the right to be smug! 😀
I was exhausted by the time I got home about 4 PM. Had several errands to take care of. I’d sprained my ankle about 9 days ago, so walking was a bit difficult (the tendons were tight. Will take awhile before they relax again. Walking is the best way to make that happen). I guess I overdid it. But we’ve had nonstop rain the past week. Today was the first dry *work* day in a week. And as I was getting over a cold last week, I didn’t want to go out in the freezing rain. So I wanted to get everything done today. Anyway, I went to bed about 5PM, woke up about 2 AM. Decided to check news & make a couple of tweets about our Gov’s crap, now that my shrink’s happy that my 5 day *sabbatical* went well & my sense of humor has returned. 😉 😀 I came across this in my news feed from the Miami Herald (you probably saw it):
Why was Trump’s ex-chief of staff at Homestead detention center for migrant kids?
I tweeted this about Ivana Marie’s expected debacle at the G20. AOC had the best tweet I think! 😆
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1145751066752897024
I tweeted this one as balance to show that US Politicians have nothing on ours! My shrink said that “balance is important!” So I guess I should attempt to be balanced in all things!😈🤭
https://twitter.com/Kryten_42/status/1145752966319599616
I think I’ll go make a coffee now! I’m waiting for a new game to finish d/l. I have my priorities! 😉 😀
John Kelly was Trump’s first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and had to cut ties with a lobbying firm to take the job. He is just returning to his “roots” helping his current employer to get more tax dollars.
AOC is right – being the daughter of the Resident doesn’t qualify you for anything other than cutting ribbons. Her husband’s voice reminds me of a young Woody Allen. Actually, he may be in a Woody Allen movie and we don’t know it yet. Consider the absurdity of him conducting diplomacy.
We call it shift differential in the US, and it makes working nights, weekends, and holidays worthwhile. It would be really hard to staff the graveyard (11PM-7AM) without the salary boost.
Don’t overdo it. I would love to send you about 10° C that I don’t need.