Kegsbreath clearly didn't bother reading the classified report presented to the Director of the National intelligence Council about a week before the bombing started. In no uncertain terms, it told them that a joint American-Israeli war against Iran would likely fail to produce the regime change they wanted. He either ignored it, or read it, but started bombing anyway because that's what Little Lord Mango Fauntleroy in his Little Boy Pants wanted them to do. (And we know he prefers briefings with magic markers and video games, not written reports full of "stuff" which his ADHD brain can't process anyway).
That we even know about the existence of this report (under Tulsi Gabbard's office) tells you his own military and intelligence experts have no confidence in the made-for-tee-vee bullshit their bosses spew out to gullible Deplorables, and are quietly talking to reporters about it. In plain language, that's what you call a LEAK. And it's far from the only one within this wretched Administration. You can practically set your watch to the leaks that now spill out the keyholes, under the doors, down the chimneys. The whole Administration is beginning to resemble a giant slab of rancid Swiss Cheese there are so many holes in it.
From inside that leaky slab of expired dairy products, real patriots are overcoming real fears (and real threats to their safety and security) to spill real beans to real reporters --- not the patsies Kegsbreath has assembled (after trying to shut out the serious ones) who simply bob their heads up and down like robotic idiots.
You needn't even rely on classified leaks to find out what experts really think. One day ago, Robert Pape, the Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats, writing in Foreign Affairs Magazine, published an article entitled: "Why Escalation Favors Iran: America and Israel May Have Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew."
Seasoned military, security and intelligence experts are laying out the risks and telling you the truth -- some at great personal risk to themselves. Professionals writing in professional journals are using open-source materials to broadcast the non-classified version of these findings to the public.
Turns out we have a "patriotic press" after all, and it sure isn't the suck-ups at Faux News, the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, the One America News Network or Breitfart. Kegsbreath can go fuck himself.
I would say we have already lost. There was no win goal and no exit plan in the first place - the strikes were totally unprovoked. Donald Trump has done so much damage to America and to the world that strategists are saying it will take generations to repair. But we have to get him and his sycophants out before repair can start. The sooner the better before it is actually too late.
Hello Gayle... From HCR Today: "Despite reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022." ... ... In 2020 DJT shrugged off Reports of Putin putting Bounties on our Troops in Afghanistan.... Now DJT is helping Putin by easing Sanctions on Russian Oil.... This will hurt the Ukrainians who have offered to help the USA... Seems that the Investment that the Russians have made in DJT since the 1980s is Paying Off Well...
Good question. But does it really matter? If Putin wanted Trump to destroy the U.S. what would he have him do differently than has done already?
Our nation is rapidly sliding into incompetence and cruelty. Consumers are less protected. Talent is fleeing the country. Science is under attack. Whackos are in charge of our health system. Ukraine is undermined by our Dear Leader. We have concentration camps. Oligarchs control every aspect of big business and the media. I'm feeling more Russian every day.
(Apologies to the good Russians among us and under the thumb of the son of Stalin).
Does it really matter if Trump is:
1) An embedded agent of the FSB/KGB?
2) A useful idiot who simply admires dictators like Putin?
3) A blackmailed puppet of Putin for decades?
I don't understand the dull and dimwitted reactions to "Helsinki" and "Red Carpet Alaska" and now...removing one of the only and most powerful weapons we have - Russian oil sanctions?
What if we had spent 10% of the money we are throwing at an enemy we can't defeat instead...on destroying every oil tanker leaving Russian ports. Destroyed pipelines. Russian oil revenue keeps Putin/Stalin/Hitler in power. Isn't THAT the nation that should have regime change?
And so choose one of the three above and explain why Donald J. Trump just gave his buddy a raise. Boosted his revenue stream, prolonging his reign and a genocidal war against a democracy that begged for Western support.
This has always been the question. But if he acts in ways that are indistinguishable from being a Russian asset in a formal sense (be it by bribes or blackmail) it really doesn’t matter. He has been destroying our country and helping Putin every time he has a decision to make.
Carol, I'm not an expert, but I'll take a stab at your (probably rhetorical) question, based on evidence gleaned from my reading about Donald. There are two parts to the relationship.
The first has to do with Donald's psychological and emotional weaknesses. Even a casual observer knows that Donald admires masculine strength, even the toxic kind. It started with his "daddy issues." Fred Trump, who embodied toxic masculinity, was the only role model Donald had as a boy. He admired his father, but Fred was incapable of showing the affection that Donald craved, which created an even stronger need for it.
Donald has transferred this deep need for paternal love to other men. Recall that he often talks about "big, strong men" in his public speeches. Recall his homoerotic references to Arnold Palmer and his fellating a microphone. Recall his admiration of dictators, including Vladimir Putin, photographed shirtless riding a horse. Donald is a boy with a deep, psychological need for the affection of a "big, strong man." Based on the undertones of Donald's "birthday greeting," Jeffrey Epstein may have filled this role. Donald has tried to camouflage this need by being a philanderer and sex pest of women and possibly girls.
The second part of his relationship with Putin began in the 1980s when Donald was given the reins to his father's real estate company, which already had a history of doing business with Bratva-controlled companies in the New York metro area.
Donald had been tasked by his parents to get the Trump family accepted by Manhattan society. He thought he could accomplish that by making himself into a celebrity, which brought him to the attention of the Kremlin through the Bratva connections. That was the beginning of the Kremlin's cultivation of Donald as a Russian asset.
I'm not an expert on spy-craft, but have learned a little about it. An asset can be cultivated using many techniques, including providing benefits as well as blackmail. Donald has put himself in all the positions that make him vulnerable to all the techniques. He has benefitted from Russian loans when he couldn't borrow from U.S. banks, election assistance, plus other benefits. Additionally, his lifetime of bad behavior has probably filled a very thick folder of kompromat that Putin can hold over his head. There probably aren't many Russian intelligence assets who are more reliable than Donald.
the Epstein files is what's behind their relationship. Did you not know? Putin is in the Epstein files , Epstein was getting most of his girls from Russia, they call it the" Honey pot." Some of them came here as spies. Epstein is recorded talking to Bannon giving advise as to how Putin should deal with Donnie. His private secretary was a " little darling " of Putin's. Many think she was a spy and that she may have trained others to be spies. Maybe you don't also know, that trump was bankrupt when he brought his Miss Universe pageant to Russia. A couple of weeks later he had money in the bank and was running for president . Putin has something on Donnie, Something big. Did you see how Donnie groveled in front of him when he came to the US?? And Putin was not suppose to be allowed to step on our soil because of his war crimes.And, it was not a successful meeting and he didn't even stay for lunch.
When this madness is over, and those responsible are held accountable for war crimes--what will happen? Will Trump off himself like Hitler? Will he escape to Russia, only to discover his good buddy Putin throws him out of a window? Will Trump leave all his complicit cabinet behind?
Years ago, I had a really, really toxic manager. I tried to tough it out, but I quit which, I heard, enraged him. He told my cowering coworkers that he'd "checked the box saying I could never be rehired there!" 🤣 Waa waaaa waaaa.....like I'd ever do that. But after more people left, and more reports went to HR, his henchman was dramatically shown the door, and he kind of got the Noem treatment--he was put in a newly created position where he no longer managed any people.
It took YEARS for this to happen, but it did.
Trump's end is coming too. As much as I wish God would take him now, I want to see him perp walked into prison.
Carol, we see today that even Trump's relationship with Putin is inextricably tied to fossil fuels. As long as we are dependent on fossil fuels instead of sustainable energy sources, these kind of wars will be inevitable. The Sun will never get trapped inside the Strait of Hormuz!
There has been a lot of reporting on allegations about "Golden Showers" - but I don't think that can be it. Most MAGA are deeply misogynist - even the women - and the idea of trump pissing on prostitutes would amuse them, not horrify.
I think if Putin DOES have "honeypot" film - it will most likely be more aligned to Donald's admiration of Arnie's "junk" and and JD's "beautiful eyes" and all those "handsome" hockey players.
Eventually, Trump was going to lift the sanctions for Putin. Starting this war with Iran was just the excuse he needed to make that happen. He thinks we're all so stupid! I agree with Gayle, this creature has done so much damage to the US and the world, it will take generations of hard work to regain just our reputation, never our former place in the world.
What's truly tragic, from my point of view, is the number of people in the U.S. who, because of their loyalty to Fox News, have no grasp on what is really going on. Any news one gets on Fox is mostly cursory and biased, focused on sensationalism and scandal, and hatred of anyone not Republican. Their audience listens to biased talking heads, more interested in ratings (profit) than truth.
I agree with this. Also, the US is now less safe than it was because there is a Fatwa on the country now, not just Trump, and that means going to any crowded place is riskier, as well as the ongoing attacks on the grid, hospitals, banks, etc.. by hackers. Russia's war chest has been refilled to overflowing from the war profiteering from oil, and that means Ukraine, which has been helping the US is made unsafe. Why Zelensky helped the US I don't know. Trump is already denying that help was forthcoming because it does not fit with his idea of who is strong and who is weak. He thinks Russia is strong because it is run by a fascist who is part of his club of criminal leaders, and Zelensky is weak because he runs a democracy.
Zelenskiy keeps doing the right thing and Trump can’t believe that anyone would do the right thing just because it is the right thing. Because he never does the right thing.
Over 85% of Iran's exported oil is bought by China. China is no doubt not happy with Trump. Our Navy is very unsafe due to reports that Iran is buying 50 Chinese‑made CM‑302 anti-ship missiles. They skim the ocean at 3X's the speed of sound. That leaves only a few seconds for the target ship to react between detection and impact. These missiles are nicknamed "Carrier Killers." Our aircraft carriers have crews of as many as 5,000 to 5,680+ personnel when fully deployed. AI states that we may have as many as 3 carriers in the region including the "USS Abraham Lincoln (operating in the Arabian Sea) and the USS Gerald R. Ford (deployed in the Mediterranean/Red Sea region). There were reports of a potential third, the USS George H.W. Bush, arriving in early March 2026." Trump has no damn clue what he is doing. He has made the entire world more unsafe.
Please read, share and discuss my Memorandum to We the People at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Those anti-ship missies would put a lot of hurt on the Marine expedition force Trump is sending into the gulf. I certainly hope not, but it seems they are walking into a death trap.
Trump is trying to divert attention from the 11 deaths (that we are aware of) in this war, while those dead have been from midwestern states (IA, NE) where there are vulnerable House and Senate seats in play. Of course, none of the Republican candidates will dare hold town hall meetings, so hopefully the Democratic candidates will take advantage of their cowardice.
And where are all of the ICE stories. We know they are still doing dirty deeds, so let's see the reporting about these sociopaths.
Yes. And "never forget" the Trumpstein Files. Our president has been accused by multiple women of everything from unsolicited groping (which he proudly admitted to) to the rape of a minor.
ANYTHING he can do to change the subject from being called an Alleged Child Rapist - he will do. Anything. Thousands...no, millions will suffer accordingly. He is a menace to the entire planet.
And "we" as a country are letting him do it.
There was a time when just the revelation and admission of a 15 year friendship with a child sex trafficker would have led to a resignation. Several public figures have done just that here and around the globe.
Why doesn't this country listen to the victims? Because they are women.
GJ-They’ve already made an ad showing T saluting a casket at Dover. Imagine that-using the bodies of dead soldiers to promote his “excursion” as if he himself is some kind of brave and courageous person.
I don't think Trump cares one iota for our deceased soldiers. He knew that his actions would cause "some to die." That's the way it is... in his mind. I think he is trying to divert attention to the Putin, Trump, Epstein connection - fully laid out before Congress by Sheldon Whitehouse. It is impressive and fully annotated, and guess what? The mainstream press barely covered it. It's on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylvTFvJvB84&t=30s
Iraq was as bad, we don’t deserve respect, especially since repubs have been on such a power trip. Not mistakes, deliberate, targeted hell just because e could
It ramped up as McNamara lied about so much. People acknowledged it as a mistake and told the world. Didn’t stop Nixon from screwing the peace initiative. But we have a monument to the dead. That’s easier than getting it right
Lost from the jump. Until we have a credible and effective and diplomatically capable President and Congress that can repair and be trusted, we will be under terrorist threat from Iranian operatives and/or sympathizers for the bulk of a generation.
When diplomacy can only be trusted until the next round of Billionaire encouraged MAGA voters elect the next Trump, our stature as an ally to any nation is nil
Darth Sidious has true believers "standing back and standing by". These kill-squad crazies have already been selected because of their willingness to sacrifice their lives to save their dear leader.
Knowing that October polls will show that the republicans are going to get creamed in November, these Temple Trump operatives have already been given a mission - to encourage, supply, and lead "olive-skinned" fatwa lunatics in planned attacks on US cities.
Once that happens, it will be easy for the Supreme Emperor to cancel all future elections.
From listening to military experts of past, like Malcolm Nance who does a daily podcast of the war with Jacob Kaarsbo former Danish Intelligence chief in the Middle East, and Ken Harbough, and others, it seems like the US does not have any advantage here over their Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraqi wars. In fact, the country is bigger and has been planning to defend against just such an attack for the past 40 years according to Nance. Nance has gone into great detail on the military structure of Iran. They have a lot of people who are first, second or third tier participants. Then they explained Fatwa.
But, when you ask, "What if America actually loses this war?? " What does that actually mean? America is not just Trump and the MAGA that support this war. It is also the people who oppose the war, which is the majority. How can we win? I can tell you that, by getting this war to stop. That does not mean we will not continue to face fallout from it that I cannot possible all enumerate.
Some things will be increased terrorism against Americans. Will it feel safe to fly? To go to concerts? To the theater? To go to sporting events? To go anywhere with crowds? To go to malls?
Will our grid be attacked? What will hackers do?
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, being the overinflated egotistic idiots that they are, walked us right into a hornets nest. Will the US be the target of missiles, bomb attacks? All things that these Vollidiots did not think about, or care about.
Will the US have to have conscription again?
How can Trump win a war that has no goals except to war profiteer and up his popularity? Two contradictory goals. In one, he will want forever war, which Iran may impose on him anyway. In the other, he is losing popularity the longer the war lasts. For one it is destroying our economy even further since it is an economy based on oil and oil products. So, how can we lose? We have already lost because our safety has been further eroded. China is watching and making fun of us. I saw a Chinese comic the other day that Ben Meiselas shared in his Meidas news report, as well as an Iranian one. Both made fun of Trump. We are the country that voted this man into power, and with it our country is grossly diminished in the eyes of the world.
We are in danger of losing all of our Middle Eastern allies, if we have not done so already. Malcolm estimates we will cost them trillions. Meanwhile, they are getting bombed for having US bases. France lost a soldier that was on a US base yesterday. Perhaps more EU leaders will start sounding like Pedro Sanchez of Spain who has clearly spoken out against the war. He is not one to let Trump push him around. He also has not been visiting Trump in the White House. Will EU countries also want to get rid of US bases? I was at an anti war rally on Thursday. Here is a piece I wrote, that is mostly pictures.
We know that Ukraine has been sold out by Donald Trump. Russia is profiting greatly from the war and is now able to afford more soldiers and may turn the war against Ukraine around. That is a great loss for all of us too. I am hoping not. In the meantime, Ukraine helps the US, and Donald Trump lies about getting their help. It does not fit with his picture of who is strong and who is weak. Russia is strong because Putin is a fascist. Ukraine is weak because Zelensky is democratic. That is how Trump thinks. The question I have is when will we Americans win? That is ending the war and getting rid of this fascist and grossly incompetent, government. A government that does not govern, it just steals from the people. A Kakistocracy, and Plutocracy and Oligarchy all rolled into one awful package that we the people need to get rid of. We need to be out there on No Kings Day no matter the weather, and then get ready for the next action, and in the meantime GOTV.
Quora Digest has been my go to source for the Ukraine War for the past couple of months as well as a couple of YouTube sites. The source most of their postings so I feel like they are mostly truthful about what is happening in Ukraine and Russia.
The Russians may profit from the war as HCR reports, but Ukraine has reduced their ability to produce gasoline and diesel as well as other products they need to effectively fight the war. Ukraine continues to target refineries, pipelines, terminals and ports. Several ports are severely limited in their ability to fill tankers.
Trump is so desperate to save face from this fucking disaster of a war that he is willing to unilaterally lift sanctions on Russia.
Well put as usual Linda. I think it was Paul Krugman who called the Trump regime an Idiocracy the other day, which is a synonym for Kakistocracy, just as Kleptocracy is a synonym for Oligarchy. Subtle differences between them.
Corporatocracy also comes to mind. The puppet becomes the puppeteer and vice versa. It's only gotten worse since the 20th century, CIA/United Fruit days. (And now the "Citizens United" decision has only made it harder.) Read "The Fish That Ate The Whale" by Rich Cohen.
No Kings Day signs! What to say? Knowing how these images we carry move as conversations and photos, I ask myself daily what to say in a sign. There's SO MUCH I want to say, so much that NEEDS to BE Said, it stymies me how to express IT. I want to scream and howl and stomp and move in rhythmic, communal unison (so unlike the properly civil gatherings that typifies Cape Cod, with local rulings of no musical amplification for starters). Apache pointed me to this epoch video that, to me, shows the transformation of thought and text into felt experience, visibile to all. We are still losing what settlers destroyed of Indigenous Beings and Ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgVI3j3vtSs
Wars are an easy way to move our Federal tax dollars into the pockets of the wealthy. The wealthy have a totally different definition of winning than most of us.
How does it even make sense that we are spending a trillion dollars a year on the DOD?
Exactly. Doesn't matter how the war proceeds. The longer it lasts, the more money (our taxes!) is funneled into weapons productions benefitting our oligarchs. Ike had no idea how right he would be when he said "Beware the Military Industrial Complex".
Notice that "DOGE" never had an impact on the Pentagon. If this country cared about its own people, huge chunks of that Trillion would be shifted to housing, feeding and caring for (healthwise) our desperate citizens.
Yesterday, half of the TSA agents at Houston Hobby called in sick and it took 3 hours to get through security. If they were to do this in ATL, DFW, LGA, ORD or LAX, Kennedy or Denver one day at a time, the shutdown would end very quickly.
We already have. Like we lost in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Be real. We have no business even being there. If we put this kind of money (staggering amounts) into good will diplomacy we would be way farther ahead. And children wound't be dying.
Respectfully Chris, I didn't fuck anything up. I did not vote for this jerk. I have been working for peace since the sixties. I am pissed this ass has been in my head rent free for 11 years.
They can't yet define what winning looks like and this seems to be a deliberate tactic to enable them to be able to declare victory whenever they want. Trump has claimed, for example, that the war was won after the first wave of attacks on Iran. The inanity of declaring victory while the Strait of Hormuz is closed to shipping means that the war must go on.
We have, both tactically and strategically. Iran can make transiting the SoH and navigating the Persian Gulf very hazardous for as long as they care to using cheap drones, mobile missiles, and mines.
This was an opportunity to block the flow of oil and excuse a lift of sanctions for Russia. I have no doubts that Trump and his buddies are benefiting financially as well. It’s clear that Trump and Putin have long-standing ties, with trafficking being one lucrative source of money and leverage. Is Israel’s involvement the reason our government has done nothing about it all this time? Epstein doesn’t seem smart enough to have engineered it all and I don’t think he was the head of the snake. The GOP is sitting on their thumbs allowing a traitor to operate in plain sight. It’s infuriating.
Hello ICTT.... Don't Forget the Role of Netanyahu... Per Foreign Affairs, and the Washington Post, Netanyahu has been Pestering DJT to attack Iran... DJT thought that this would look Good on FOX News.... Netanyahu needs this War to look good in the forthcoming Israeli Elections...
Apache, the Israelis need urgently to get rid of Netanyahu as much as the American people needs to get rid of our scumbag president and all his enablers and ideologists. We, them and us, are in survival mood....
Except for all the other ones. Tribal warfare writ large or writ small. What is criminal behavior other than what the other side does (and thinks is fine)?
"Davenport noted, “Comments made by Witkoff in two background briefings with reporters on Feb. 28 and March 3, as well as media appearances since the strikes began, made clear that Witkoff did not have sufficient technical expertise or diplomatic experience to engage in effective diplomacy. His lack of knowledge and mischaracterization of Iran’s positions and nuclear program throughout the process likely informed Trump’s assessment that talks were not progressing and Iran was not negotiating seriously.”
This kakistocracy is the greatest threat to our national security since the Civil War.
I have commented extensively on this subject. Although Witkoff may not be good at diplomacy nor up to speed on the subject, Davenport has it backwards. He was told to tube the negotiations. He lied. They were never meant to succeed. Merely for purposes of deflecting criticism, for purposes of deception. Netanyahu was calling the shots and wanted the US to join in a war against Iran.
Can someone tell me if this war is illegal, if the Secretary of Defense has committed a war crime by claiming "no quarter", if the general in charge knew that Trump's plan was doomed to failure, why did the military of along? Seems like a lot of illegal orders were just obeying anyway and now they are in this grotesque situation - and so are we.
It's, it is always a pleasure to read and smile about your descriptions of this boondoggle. Will I be able to eat Swiss cheese again?? And we have someone heading the defense department who thinks he is leading a crusade.
(To "It's Come to This) Your myriad metaphors and brilliant sarcasm would provide excellent script for a daring news report. From your point of view the reality of war is having a difficult time competing against the illusion and fantasies perpetrated by our war minister, dressed up in the language of Christian patriotism. This rampant militarism, with its grandiose plans to attack Cuba, Greenland, Venezuela etc. only perpetuates the dangerous delusion that we are on a providential mission to save the world and impose our "values?" by force!! Is the American public - the "deplorables" - those who are morally and intellectually useless (the 30 plus% who still love trump) - really clinging to fantasies of a glorious superpower?
Thanks for the kind words, Stephanie. The irony is that much of the world (including probably millions in Iran and Venezuela -- and Iraq before that) do share our values, but don't particularly like being bombed and starved into saying so. Trump's words are, of course, not directed to the majority of America (who hate him), but to that hard-core 25% or 30% who continue to assert that the Emperor's New Clothes are, in fact, breathtakingly beautiful. He and his minions are actually quite terrified. They can see the end coming, as can most Republicans in Congress, who simply don't want to be the first to stop clapping, so to speak.
Well said! And Kegsbreath's statement about US never targeting civilians...Targeting civilians all over the place! Outside as well as within US! Right now, in of all places, peaceful Burlington, Vermont!!! As far as listening to knowledgeable people, like in the Pentagon, or in the Foreign intelligence community, this administration never listens. Never listens. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.
Ahem. Please educate yourself about ADHD because you've just cast a slur upon a good number of students, many of whom are on the honor rolls. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter; enough said.
"Show no quarter"... with no rules of engagement an no regard for the protection of civilian in conflict, no care for a wounded combatant(s), then we are acting like the militant groups we've tried to defeat in the past. Will our soldiers will parade their dead bodies in the streets in celebration ? Take war trophies ? A senior DoD civilian who was once a Naval Officer in the same field as me, sat & talked with a group of us that recently got selected for promotion to Captain (O6, like an Army Coronel). He told us his guiding principles for executing his position: Protect the Country, Protect the men & women in uniform, Protect the rights provided in The Constitution and Protect the Taxpayer. If the current SECDEF every got that advice, it would appear he forgot it or is completely ignoring it. Wait ... he'd just say "That woke"
Look below. I’ve included a link to a fantastic speech Sheldon Whitehouse gave to the Senate regarding how Epstein and all of this fits, especially Russia.
Unfortunately, the DisUnited States will now need to self-destruct as the pendulum has shifted so far in the wrong direction. Enough low uninformed voters elected the ultimate Frankenstein monster from Dante’s Inferno to misrule in a world where all life is worthless. It bears mentioning that I quoted my Puerto Rican neighbor in my book who once told me she voted for Donald Trump and she regrets it now and will never do it again. That was in 2016. How many revenge voters cast the wrong vote? Too many. Democracy is fragile.
Beside this being embarrassing to read this administration’s double speak speak of the need for a 1984-like Big Brother propaganda machine disrupting the world order, it’s time to spend nothing on consumer goods besides the basic essentials. The Jeffery Epstein files have upturned the global body politics. Hug your loved ones. If you serve in the military, leave. There is systemic disfunction all around us. After attending a convention in Orlando 2 weeks ago, every flight was postponed or cancelled leaving me unable to pick up my car rental and forcing me to sleep on the floor at Reagan international overnight upon my return. I made a vow to American Airways officials that I will never fly domestically again for the rest of my life. I should have driven from CT to Virginia and taken the auto train to Sanford. It would have brought me to my destination as expected.
The once great nation that I live in is functionally destroyed. A Phenix will one day rise from the self destructive ashes of Republican party rule.
Exactly, Kathryn, this administration has been undermining the free press since trump's inauguration, using their power to extort big media corporate deals to merge, instead of guarding against anti trust issues, the administration requires that the news organizations in those corporations, become propaganda arms of this fascist government.
With the administration purging oversight and legal components throughout every agency, department, and military institution from the beginning of this administration, shows their intention to disregard the law. Would it be a stretch to imagine this administration using ICE to raid media organizations to restrict free and fair reporting?
I don't think so, and if it happens, it will be soon. Well before the midterm elections. How long before they begin to crack down on political demonstrations?
Hegseth is determined to dictate what the media reports, that is why he purged real journalist's from the Pentagon; thankfully, the press has been able to report honestly because there are still true patriots who are making sure the truth gets out.
They will fail to secure the Straight of Hormuz without committing a very large incursion of ground troops, even then it is unlikely to work.
It is more than likely that trump will not end this war diplomatically because he regards anything less than surrender as weak.
The world and the US economy will continue to deteriorate as long as the Straight of Hormuz remains dangerous.
Everyday, in everyway, Trump acts as a fascist. . Trump doesn't know or care about critics labeling him a fascist. He's reflexively a fascist. He always has been. He's America's avatar of hate. He rules by splitting loyalists from critics. He professes love for loyalists and hatred for his stupid, traitorous critics. His leadership is by shared hatred. And as the Avatar, millions of angry Americans rally around him.
This will end. And not well for the Avatar and his legion of haters.
The real scandal is not just that Trump is steering the country toward a bigger conflict. It’s that he seems to think foreign policy is just reality TV with missiles. Heather’s most important point is that this whole mess is being run on impulse, ego, and bad manly posturing, while actual consequences pile up in the background like empty beer cans at a tailgate party.
Oil prices jump. Putin profits. The Strait of Hormuz gets riskier. Allies panic. Markets wobble. And the White House response appears to be: relax, the boss has a feeling. Nothing says responsible superpower quite like a commander in chief treating war as a gut check from a man whose gut has never once met a good idea it couldn’t make worse.
Trump saying he’ll know when the war is over because he’ll “feel it in my bones” is not statesmanship. That is how your uncle decides whether the casino buffet shrimp is still safe. Pete Hegseth sounds like the human embodiment of a truck stop flag display, loudly mistaking aggression for competence and slogans for policy.
That’s the core of it. Not strength. Not strategy. Just swagger, delusion, and the kind of cartoon masculinity that mistakes breaking things for leadership. America is being dragged toward disaster by men who think a flex is a plan and a vibe is doctrine.
I know that I read media from around the world to get different perspectives. Hegseth is an abomination. In fact, I also investigate myself. I went to an anti war rally in the Germany city in which I live two days ago. I wrote a piece about it which is mainly pictures because it was chilly and I could not take notes on the speeches.
By writing about an antiwar protest, I am the opposite of what Hegseth wants reporting to be. Yet, we need voices like mine that are showing us how the people around the world are feeling. This was just a slice. A small slice, but probably one that represents more people. At the same time, DW news reported about the base Ramstein. It has a different slant than mine.
The thing that HCR doesn't really engage is the way international equities markets are reacting. Since the Felon and his minions are very sensitive to the ways in which stock markets reflect the desires of very rich people (and ignore the needs of the rest of us), I predict that the Felon will start pulling back on the warmongering as early as this week, especially if the Dow drops below 46,000, which it is very likely to do. That would place it at September 2025 and destined to drop further. At that point even the short sellers are going to start losing a lot of money. And they will complain. The only thing that will absolutely end this whole horrific debacle is if the Israeli people stand up and depose Bibi and send him to jail. Because he clearly has intel on the Felon and his family and is using it to preserve his own ass.
"This morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent significant time at a press briefing at the Defense Department complaining about headlines that say the war is widening and that the administration did not take seriously enough that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz. A “patriotic press,” he said, would say that Iran is weakening."
In other words, what the GOP calls "patriotic" is the idea that not only America's leaders would lie to their own voters and citizens, but also that ALL the media, and not just the GOP propaganda machine, would betray their own audience too, day after day.
How to better declare to the GOP electorate that the GOP hates its own base and does everything possible to LIE to them and betray them?
When will these people finally wake up?
It's been 26 years now. More than two decades of the Fox Entertainment propaganda machine, and more than two decades after the Iraq war, which was based on lies, and run by incompetent GOP leadership.
And yet, here we are again: a GOP president, backed by a coalition of incompetent, insecure men (including neofascist tech billionaires, this time), blowing up the Middle East for no good reason and with no strategy or plan.
What kind of leader....what kind of human says something like this?!?! "Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
"I....am killing them. What an honor..." I think he means "satisfaction". Honor is outside his sphere of comprehension. Thank you for your attention to this matter. He's mad. And that's not going to get any better.
For the record, a truly patriotic press would say what the other guy standing on the stage with Hegseth is thinking but can’t say, which is that rather than Hegseth in a Pentagon office and DJT in the Oval Office, the two belong in diagonal corners of the principle’s office sitting on stools facing the corner wearing dunce caps and a pair of little boy pants. Good thing there are two other corners for Cash Petal and RFKJR.
I think he and Hegseth mean orgasmic release at the thought of the killing.
Now that we are relishing what an honor it is to be killing children in Iran, they are already killing here in America with jihadist proxies. I wonder when the civilian victims here will surpass the number of our US military victims.
The Guardian says what the US legacy media won’t. Hegseth is committing war crimes in multiple theaters of conflict and he should be indicted and tried by an international judiciary.
When Bush refused to allow the Rome Statute to be ratified after Clinton had signed it, he claimed it violated US sovereignty. But other countries have an equal right to their own sovereignty. Apparently, after 9/11, the US was exceptional, along with Russia, Israel, and China.
All four of those major military powers are currently committing human rights violations.
The former U.S. military will go down in infamy as oath-breakers. No doubt seduced by ChristoNazi dogma and promised the promotions and loot implicit in wars of conquest, they have become the felonious president's war-criminal legions of death.
Great comment Anne-Louise. "Thank you for your attention to this matter" should be extended to the about 40% of Americans still supporting this regime. Somehow, someday they should be shaken out of their stupor.
Unfortunately, as history proves unequivocally, fanatical misogynists and racists are {not} reformable -- and it is literally suicidal to imagine otherwise.
A fascist leader. Check out the essay, “Ur-Fascism” by Umberto Eco. If you still don’t believe these people are fascists, and that we are now in a fascist state, check our current situation against the 14 characteristics of fascism Eco lists. Opposition is treason, action for action’s sake, machismo, and denigration of women and minorities, the cult of tradition, rejection of modernism (see RFK, Jr.), permanent warfare, contempt for the weak (“we are punching down“), Newspeak (an impoverished vocabulary to limit critical reasoning), they are all there. I doubt Trump has the intellectual capacity to delve very deeply into fascist philosophy, but the people behind him are committed fascists.
You do not have to convince any of us who are even half aware of what has happened to this country. It could only happen but for the power of money to control all facets — politicians, the media, and more.
How many times must it be said that under capitalism, Evil is the root of all money.
As to religion, nothing I know says it better than this verse from 900 years ago, the 13th Century Scots ballad "Thomas Rhymer": “And see ye not that braid, braid road/That lies across that lily leven?/That is the path of wickedness,/Tho’ some ca’ it the road to heaven" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DwE1u45a5U&list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjYx8341020yJg&index=2).
Hence my argument that Trump, the ChristoNazis and the MAGAT rabble -- most notably because of their utter absence of empathy (and their fanatical belief empathy is a sin) -- actually mark the emergence of a new subspecies of (sub)human, Homo sapiens inhumanus, its sociopathy -- including the replacement of the love-instinct with a far-more-powerful haste instinct -- the (deliberate) product of five decades of relentless neoliberal conditioning. (See https://news.yale.edu/2025/03/06/violent-experiences-alter-genome-ways-persist-generations )
I want to see the scientific studies of which parts of the brain highlight on MRI based on political beliefs and psychological tendencies. Future studies should we survive and have science again??
That is a field of study begging to be made. I know of one (not MRI based) that noted that self identified conservatives and liberals used different parts of the brain when making a "risky" (defined as making a high risk/reward vs low risk/reward financial investment). Liberals activated the prefrontal cortex while conservatives activated the mid-brain.
Tragically true. In everyway. Trump doesn't know or care about critics labeling him a fascist. He's reflexively a Fascist. He always has been. He's America's avatar of hate. It's leadership by shared hatred. And as the Avatar, millions of angry Americans rally around him.
I had not hear that but you know he LOVES violence of any kind, even though he knows nothing about war, or combat or strategy because he is coward who never served in the military: Come to think of it, he's never served anyone or anything. He only takes! What a sick bastard!
This thread reminds me of Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer,” which says if you ask God to make you victorious in war, you are asking Him to kill his other children.
President Trump and his tag-a-long minions are acting as criminals NOT as leaders of this once great nation. They are daily destroying relationships, and the respect, we once EARNED! Persons, friends, leaders knew who we were and could depend on us! Not so today!!!
For those who have been standing up to tyranny and to the possibility of experiencing personal harm....you are our heroes! You see that our foundations are being destroyed...you are not robots bowing to the momentary gratification for personal rank or riches!
It has been a privilege, over the years to befriend persons from all over the world. When we get to know people and realize they work and study to do well for themselves and for their families who are depending on them, we realize that we are not so different but more the same.
Religion or no religion must be a personal choice to be genuine. In America, we have freedom of religion or no religion. Faith is a sacred relationship and cannot truly be forced on anyone. However, some may say they are persons of faith and outwardly, parade about all cleaned and polished, but are using faith...religion...to captivate those who are easily manipulated.
There is "brainwashing". This form of control comes in many forms. It can be very dangerous and destructive. It can be used as a tool to manipulate the masses.
Lee Chemel, we have learned that every accusation is a confession with Trump. I would say that accusing others of being deranged scumbags describes Trump and his regime to the letter.
When he says scumbag, he is reflecting in the mirror. I will agree. He is the biggest scumbag there ever was. There has never been a scumbag such as him. Soon he will make Hitler look good. ( I never thought I could say that )
All the accomplices need to be tried. No jail at tax payers expense. Death penalty to one and all.
Death is too easy for these criminals imho. A school house with approx 175 children. All the deaths from the pandemic that should have been avoided. All the deaths we do not know about. All the deaths covered up - committed by ice and the trumpstein horror.
Giving aid to Russia when they are aiding Iran in fighting us is TREASON and shows exactly where Trump's true allegiance lies. Tell your Congresspeople to use the word. Trump is treasonous.
Donold has always believed Putin over our own intelligence agencies, saying so publicly several times over the years. He's obviously beholden to Vlad and in league with him.
Yes unbelievable the lifting of sanctions, now Putin can fund more pain on Ukraine & help Iran as well. And of course Putin is lying, he is on same par as trump with the lying . Bizarre madness
How deeply I wish we had ratified the Rome Treaty and recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which could prosecute Hegseth, Trump, and all their enablers of this war for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
And they could do it without needing a Congressional investigation, or impeachment and conviction as part of a political process where, ultimately, Republican minions would protect them from any consequences.
And the ICC could do it without being constrained by the corrupt immunity protections granted by the conservative majority on SCOTUS to the president.
The reason behind not recognizing the ICC was that it might prosecute members of the US military and members of the executive branch. It might mete out justice to criminals.
Trump also imposed sanctions on some of the icc judges and that making their job incredibly difficult now. I despair and Kama just isn’t happening quick enough.
"No point in telling *the Republican ^very slim^ majority in congress* anything. They aren't listening to anyone but Trump."
There, fixed it even better for you!
But sadly, they are going to hear Trump tell them that he felt in his bones that the Iranians were going to start launching terrorist attacks on American soil, and he was a very stable genius to have recognized the threat beforehand, so he acted on his great instincts.
And they will listen to him, and they will believe him, or at least some of them will say they believe him because it is what they think their base wants to hear.
And so we have a Great Patriotic War to deflect the news cycle away from the corruption and the loss of our rights and freedoms, which is what is really destroying America.
It's instructive, isn't it, that the Europeans think eliminating the sanctions on Russian oil shipments already on their way, is a bad idea. I tend to agree with them, but I don't know how much that Russian oil will add to global supply and limit price increases.
Lifting the oil sanctions puts an additional $6 billion in Putin's pocket over the next month or so, to support Russia's war against Ukraine. The Europeans know that they cannot afford to let Putin win, so they will wind up expending $6 billion times whatever the factor is for the destruction that the drones and missiles he will build will cause. I am going to make the assumption that Putin will use this opportunity to his maximum advantage to end the war on his terms, so he will put all the money into attack drones.
So, spitballing it, if an attack drone costs $100,000 to build, $6 billion is 60,000 drones. Let's assume it takes 3 Ukrainian drones to intercept and kill a Russian drone, but 10% of the Russian drones still make it through. So we are left with 6,000 Russian drones to cause damage at a cost of 3X 60,000 X $100,000 = $18 billion for air defense.
Let's add in the damage to infrastructure. Figure a conservative factor of 10X. A $100,000 drone can easily cause $1 million in infrastructure damage and lost productivity, times 6,000 attack drones that hit their targets, yielding $6 billion in damage.
That totals to $24 billion in costs that Ukraine and Europe will have to expend so that Ukraine can be rebuilt and function as a bulwark against a future wave of Russian aggression.
You better believe the Europeans think easing the sanctions is a crappy idea because they are the ones who will pay for Trump's charade that he is going to bring down gas prices at US pumps.
The only entity that is benefiting from this war is Russia.
The incompetency and ineptitude of Hegseth, Witkoff, and Kushner is staggering. The former is a drunken, racist, sexist, one-time FOX News host, and the other two are realtors and a son-in-law or a good buddy. None has expertise nor qualifications in what they serve Trump to do. Hegseth, furthermore, keeps dragging in his extremist religious views (which need to be kept to himself), ignores national and international laws of engagement, and lies like a rug!
Witkoff can't even speak Russian, he has no business even being in that position or any apparent skills negotiating at all especially when it comes to dealing with Russia. It's all just so ludicrous, still hard to believe that this is what America has come to.
When I phoned my 3 GOP congressional stooges yesterday to express my profound opposition to this pointless war, I called for the firings of Kegsbreath, Witkoff, Kushner, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright (who has been cited as a main idiot telling tRumpy that no way would Iranians retaliate by closing the Strait).
I figured that even feckless Republicans are looking for a way out of this clusterf*ck: the base still isn’t ready to turn on tRumpy , but maybe heads can roll for some of the underlings who gave Dear Leader bad advice.
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I'm glad to see Heather going after criminal Donald.
I like how she deals with Donald's "negotiating." There isn't any. He has only a couple of his friends or family members play that game -- and boy are they only playing. Rank amateurs.
We can all imagine what if Donald and his crew of incompetents had real allies.
That is, the U.S. could have folded in the UK, France, Germany, and the dozen Middle East countries whose U.S. bases Iran has now attacked. We could have had a long-term strategy for dealing with Iran. With really the best diplomats from all the countries.
Donald cannot think long-term. None of the sycophants surrounding him can. Rather, he is always led by the nose by fellow criminal Netanyahu, fellow criminal Putin, and fellow murderer Mohammed bin Salman.
Amazing how the world suffers for Donald imagining himself some kind of star on the world stage.
"Amazing how the world suffers for Donald imagining himself some kind of star on the world stage." Perfectly stated. The unfathomable absurdity of what we continue to allow Trump do to our nation and the world is spellbinding. How the hell is this possible.
And entertainment news and summing down of public school curriculums which dropped critical thinking years ago. And to be fair to all of us, disinformation and AI coupled with social media and the tendency of humans to be drawn to fads, cliques and shiny objects and bravado. Addiction has many faces. We need to heal ourselves first.
We must take in that both Trump and Bibi are criminals for who this war is a stay-out-of-jail card. Add that Jared is the son of a jailbird and the morals of the whole bunch including Putin (you can start with greed), and you have disaster.
I agree that the US should have worked with our traditional European allies on dealing with Iran. They might have pushed back against this direct military action, though. Maybe a broader coalition would have been more successful in negotiating with Iran, I don't know. As for Heather going after criminal Donald, she seems to do that every day.
Sorry, Robert, I know Heather gets Donald perfectly, as he deserves to be gotten.
Or, I should say, we all who read her have known for a long time that she has gotten him as he has deserved for a long time -- part of or a continuation of the former enslaving classes, as Heather has long kept that perspective on our history.
Our "...traditional European allies..." don't trust the U.S. any longer so I don't see that being an option in dealing with Iran. He is spiraling, the trickling of more Trumpstein proof that he is what we all know he is and what should have him charged with raping children, is why he attacked Iran. I'm just hoping he doesn't spiral enough to press the red button.
The reason that none of this makes sense is that none of this makes sense. Much of this reminds me of the Monty Python sketch about "not dead yet," a man so damaged that he doesn't realize his self-injuries. I got interested in antiques when I was quite young. One rainy Seattle afternoon my wife and I prowled around a warehouse with the scent of sawdust and walnut and teal oil perfuming the hundreds of objects. There were enormously valuable pieces...way too expensive for us, oh, we were young and in love and wanted something special, an armoire, for our 1926 English Tudor, brick home in Laurelhurst, an original Seattle enclave. The owner was a German immigrant who got out of Germany after the War. He specialized in European treasures. "Many people make the mistake of taking a gorgeous relic and 'make it new.' The value is in the aged patina, the cracks that tell of its history...'who sat in that chair?' How did the distress marks mark an occasion, an argument, a meal no one would forget? That's the value...and if a person doesn't see that he doesn't belong in my store. IKEA or Wal-Mart... that's for those people." Need I say more? What would Lincoln think of all that marble and of the man who wrote the checks to have it installed? There is value in history and integrity and preservation of America's heritages. Why not just level the White House and build a new one? ...but where would Lincoln sleep? Trump is a madman who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing... not even American lives.
EB, there is a way to make sense of it all: EPSTEIN! Murder in the Caribbean, destruction of the White House, vandalism of the Kennedy Center, ICE running amok, Venezuela, and now an illegal (and seriously ill- advised) war in the Middle East, all serve one common purpose: keep Epstein off the front page. And now, as the Epstein connection with Russia emerges, we’ve got a pretty good idea of why the dumpster fire president is in Putin’s pocket. Must be some pretty bad stuff in those unreleased files. Eyes on the ball, folks, don’t fall for the diversions. Think Epstein, and it all makes sense.
Agree 100%. Everything is about distraction and we need to keep focused on the files. The Russia connection includes money laundering with the Russian oligarchs buying real estate from tRvmp in Trump Tower.
Certainly, Epstein is one of several "hot button" issues that are bad news for Trump. But IMO, Trump has piled up one after another popularity crushing policies that could ruin any POTUS and their party. Bombing Iran to "fix" 47 years of failed Iran policy is a stand alone failure for which Americans will hold him accountable.
I have been in that kind of antique store in England. I wasn’t there to buy, just to see beautiful craftsmanship. Trump would somehow find the one piece that was a fake, a new piece made by a master craftsman. If he had it assessed and proven fake, he would say he knew more about antiques than anyone. I like your metaphor. America is imperfect, but should be appreciated for its history and heritage. We were once a beacon, but Trump is putting out the light.
Clearly Trump's tastes trend to the brash and tacky. Reagan convinced enough of the public to turn the fate of our nation over to the 1%, and this is the result.
Easing sanctions against Russia doesn’t increase the amount of oil on the market! It only increases the amount of money Russia gets for oil it had to sell at a discount due to the sanctions! They never stopped exporting oil!!
Oh, surely that's just an unfortunate koinkindink that nobody in our government planned for or thought about beforehand. I'm certain it had absolutely nothing at all to do with what Putin wanted -- and communicated directly to Witkoff about. No sirree, Bob!
Those Russian oil conduits saw a large price spike from the FIRST day of this campaign -- and not a speck of that information was classified....
I just watched a documentary about the tv show of MASH and realized that Pete Hegseth resembles Frank Burns at his worst, except Hegseth isn't funny and likes killing people.
But Frank Burns had no support for his character except Hot Lips. He was made fun of and merely tolerated as a medic. Hegseth is repulsive scum and headed to court martial for calling No Quarter! That is a huge white supremacy dogwhistle!
Yes, that's it. Thank you for that. We lack references. Major Frank Burns is the obvious phony MASH writers were clearly making fun of and probably the closet caricature of the far worse, far more incompetent caricature Pete Kegsbreath is already.
And the world. Here's one tiny example: I just rang a friend for her birthday. She's a retired academic who lives on her small rural property in the region of Canberra (i.e. in the pastoral middle of New South Wales). She lives alone, with her two retired saddle horses and a cat. The only transport to any sort of town is her four-wheel drive. She's keeping the car topped up and hoping for the best.
Your fears (and ours) are entirely justified. From an unclassified source, the US has now ordered the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, with 2,200 Marines aboard three US Navy amphibious warships, to deploy to the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific. The Unit includes a squadron of F-35 fighter jets and MV-22 Osprey aircraft.
All this to support a mission that changes by the day (if not the hour) and after the CINC has already declared "victory." (Just to state the obvious -- If we have victory, then additional warships all the way from the Indo-Pacific are simply not necessary).
We stand at the beginning of a conflagration, not at its end. Nobody can say with precision or certainty what is going to take place after the largest disruption to the global transport of oil in history...
People wouldn't have died from the war since Harris wouldn't have taken this war to Iran. But Iran would have continued to foment terrorism and disruption in the Middle East. Whether the war stops Iran from doing that after it is over is a big unknown right now.
I don't think so, Netanyahu would most likely tried to force her into the Iran attack as well and probably succeeded. Netanyahu didn't care much who became president, he knew he had both in his pocket. Sucks to be owned by AIPAC.
Kegsbreath made that shabby jab at CNN in front of a microphone *before* he spoke about new casualties in the war -- including the collision between two KC-135 Stratotanker refueling planes. One was able to land safely, the other crashed, killing all the three crewmen inside. (I believe the other three in the second tanker survived).
Pause on that for one second. The Secretary of Defense clearly thinks how TV cameras show his pretty, slicked-back locks during those crowing bullshit-and-swagger sessions is FAR more important than reporting to the country about the lives of American sailors, airmen, marines and soldiers lost or wounded in this absurd campaign.
This is who these people are. This is what their concerns are. This is the kind of shabbiness their values reflect. This is who they will always be. When they keep telling you this all the time through their words and deeds.....you should believe them.
And Petey repeatedly makes the point that Khamenei was "probably disfigured" during that first attack. I think he actually hopes he's been disfigured because to our Secretary of Vanity, this is the worst thing that could happen to a person: having a bad-look day.
So true. I texted something akin to my sister earlier today: "I think Iran knows it has Trump by the balls. They know they, Iran, can take a lot more pain than we, and esp’ly Trump, can."
Christopher, I agree. Hegseth bragged that the Iranians "can barely communicate, let alone coordinate. They're confused, and we know it." That sounds just like something we all would say about Hegseth's control of the situation.
A “patriotic press,” as defined by Hegseth, is the last thing we need.
Kegsbreath clearly didn't bother reading the classified report presented to the Director of the National intelligence Council about a week before the bombing started. In no uncertain terms, it told them that a joint American-Israeli war against Iran would likely fail to produce the regime change they wanted. He either ignored it, or read it, but started bombing anyway because that's what Little Lord Mango Fauntleroy in his Little Boy Pants wanted them to do. (And we know he prefers briefings with magic markers and video games, not written reports full of "stuff" which his ADHD brain can't process anyway).
That we even know about the existence of this report (under Tulsi Gabbard's office) tells you his own military and intelligence experts have no confidence in the made-for-tee-vee bullshit their bosses spew out to gullible Deplorables, and are quietly talking to reporters about it. In plain language, that's what you call a LEAK. And it's far from the only one within this wretched Administration. You can practically set your watch to the leaks that now spill out the keyholes, under the doors, down the chimneys. The whole Administration is beginning to resemble a giant slab of rancid Swiss Cheese there are so many holes in it.
From inside that leaky slab of expired dairy products, real patriots are overcoming real fears (and real threats to their safety and security) to spill real beans to real reporters --- not the patsies Kegsbreath has assembled (after trying to shut out the serious ones) who simply bob their heads up and down like robotic idiots.
You needn't even rely on classified leaks to find out what experts really think. One day ago, Robert Pape, the Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats, writing in Foreign Affairs Magazine, published an article entitled: "Why Escalation Favors Iran: America and Israel May Have Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew."
Seasoned military, security and intelligence experts are laying out the risks and telling you the truth -- some at great personal risk to themselves. Professionals writing in professional journals are using open-source materials to broadcast the non-classified version of these findings to the public.
Turns out we have a "patriotic press" after all, and it sure isn't the suck-ups at Faux News, the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, the One America News Network or Breitfart. Kegsbreath can go fuck himself.
What if America actually loses this war??
I would say we have already lost. There was no win goal and no exit plan in the first place - the strikes were totally unprovoked. Donald Trump has done so much damage to America and to the world that strategists are saying it will take generations to repair. But we have to get him and his sycophants out before repair can start. The sooner the better before it is actually too late.
Hello Gayle... From HCR Today: "Despite reports that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022." ... ... In 2020 DJT shrugged off Reports of Putin putting Bounties on our Troops in Afghanistan.... Now DJT is helping Putin by easing Sanctions on Russian Oil.... This will hurt the Ukrainians who have offered to help the USA... Seems that the Investment that the Russians have made in DJT since the 1980s is Paying Off Well...
Yes! What is behind Trump’s relationship with Putin?
Good question. But does it really matter? If Putin wanted Trump to destroy the U.S. what would he have him do differently than has done already?
Our nation is rapidly sliding into incompetence and cruelty. Consumers are less protected. Talent is fleeing the country. Science is under attack. Whackos are in charge of our health system. Ukraine is undermined by our Dear Leader. We have concentration camps. Oligarchs control every aspect of big business and the media. I'm feeling more Russian every day.
(Apologies to the good Russians among us and under the thumb of the son of Stalin).
Does it really matter if Trump is:
1) An embedded agent of the FSB/KGB?
2) A useful idiot who simply admires dictators like Putin?
3) A blackmailed puppet of Putin for decades?
I don't understand the dull and dimwitted reactions to "Helsinki" and "Red Carpet Alaska" and now...removing one of the only and most powerful weapons we have - Russian oil sanctions?
What if we had spent 10% of the money we are throwing at an enemy we can't defeat instead...on destroying every oil tanker leaving Russian ports. Destroyed pipelines. Russian oil revenue keeps Putin/Stalin/Hitler in power. Isn't THAT the nation that should have regime change?
And so choose one of the three above and explain why Donald J. Trump just gave his buddy a raise. Boosted his revenue stream, prolonging his reign and a genocidal war against a democracy that begged for Western support.
The US of A is sounding like, acting like...
I bet the Epstein Files can answer that question. Like Bill Alstrom answered in his # "3) A blackmailed puppet of Putin for decades?"
This has always been the question. But if he acts in ways that are indistinguishable from being a Russian asset in a formal sense (be it by bribes or blackmail) it really doesn’t matter. He has been destroying our country and helping Putin every time he has a decision to make.
Carol, I'm not an expert, but I'll take a stab at your (probably rhetorical) question, based on evidence gleaned from my reading about Donald. There are two parts to the relationship.
The first has to do with Donald's psychological and emotional weaknesses. Even a casual observer knows that Donald admires masculine strength, even the toxic kind. It started with his "daddy issues." Fred Trump, who embodied toxic masculinity, was the only role model Donald had as a boy. He admired his father, but Fred was incapable of showing the affection that Donald craved, which created an even stronger need for it.
Donald has transferred this deep need for paternal love to other men. Recall that he often talks about "big, strong men" in his public speeches. Recall his homoerotic references to Arnold Palmer and his fellating a microphone. Recall his admiration of dictators, including Vladimir Putin, photographed shirtless riding a horse. Donald is a boy with a deep, psychological need for the affection of a "big, strong man." Based on the undertones of Donald's "birthday greeting," Jeffrey Epstein may have filled this role. Donald has tried to camouflage this need by being a philanderer and sex pest of women and possibly girls.
The second part of his relationship with Putin began in the 1980s when Donald was given the reins to his father's real estate company, which already had a history of doing business with Bratva-controlled companies in the New York metro area.
Donald had been tasked by his parents to get the Trump family accepted by Manhattan society. He thought he could accomplish that by making himself into a celebrity, which brought him to the attention of the Kremlin through the Bratva connections. That was the beginning of the Kremlin's cultivation of Donald as a Russian asset.
I'm not an expert on spy-craft, but have learned a little about it. An asset can be cultivated using many techniques, including providing benefits as well as blackmail. Donald has put himself in all the positions that make him vulnerable to all the techniques. He has benefitted from Russian loans when he couldn't borrow from U.S. banks, election assistance, plus other benefits. Additionally, his lifetime of bad behavior has probably filled a very thick folder of kompromat that Putin can hold over his head. There probably aren't many Russian intelligence assets who are more reliable than Donald.
We'll never know the relationship between putin and trump. There are speculations but they are deceitfully hidden.
the Epstein files is what's behind their relationship. Did you not know? Putin is in the Epstein files , Epstein was getting most of his girls from Russia, they call it the" Honey pot." Some of them came here as spies. Epstein is recorded talking to Bannon giving advise as to how Putin should deal with Donnie. His private secretary was a " little darling " of Putin's. Many think she was a spy and that she may have trained others to be spies. Maybe you don't also know, that trump was bankrupt when he brought his Miss Universe pageant to Russia. A couple of weeks later he had money in the bank and was running for president . Putin has something on Donnie, Something big. Did you see how Donnie groveled in front of him when he came to the US?? And Putin was not suppose to be allowed to step on our soil because of his war crimes.And, it was not a successful meeting and he didn't even stay for lunch.
My seething mind has this thought:
When this madness is over, and those responsible are held accountable for war crimes--what will happen? Will Trump off himself like Hitler? Will he escape to Russia, only to discover his good buddy Putin throws him out of a window? Will Trump leave all his complicit cabinet behind?
Years ago, I had a really, really toxic manager. I tried to tough it out, but I quit which, I heard, enraged him. He told my cowering coworkers that he'd "checked the box saying I could never be rehired there!" 🤣 Waa waaaa waaaa.....like I'd ever do that. But after more people left, and more reports went to HR, his henchman was dramatically shown the door, and he kind of got the Noem treatment--he was put in a newly created position where he no longer managed any people.
It took YEARS for this to happen, but it did.
Trump's end is coming too. As much as I wish God would take him now, I want to see him perp walked into prison.
Carol, we see today that even Trump's relationship with Putin is inextricably tied to fossil fuels. As long as we are dependent on fossil fuels instead of sustainable energy sources, these kind of wars will be inevitable. The Sun will never get trapped inside the Strait of Hormuz!
"Yes! What is behind Trump’s relationship with Putin?"
Secrets.
There has been a lot of reporting on allegations about "Golden Showers" - but I don't think that can be it. Most MAGA are deeply misogynist - even the women - and the idea of trump pissing on prostitutes would amuse them, not horrify.
I think if Putin DOES have "honeypot" film - it will most likely be more aligned to Donald's admiration of Arnie's "junk" and and JD's "beautiful eyes" and all those "handsome" hockey players.
You have it backwards, Putin is in Trump's behiind.
Another of tRump’s ‘deals’ to enrich only him?
Truly death-defying to think about how trump is propping up Putin--talk about licking the hand that bleeds you....
Could this act not be deemed treason? It is in a time of war.
Eventually, Trump was going to lift the sanctions for Putin. Starting this war with Iran was just the excuse he needed to make that happen. He thinks we're all so stupid! I agree with Gayle, this creature has done so much damage to the US and the world, it will take generations of hard work to regain just our reputation, never our former place in the world.
It just becomes more and more obvious that Putin has something on Trump. No one is even trying to hide it…So tragic for the American people!!!
What's truly tragic, from my point of view, is the number of people in the U.S. who, because of their loyalty to Fox News, have no grasp on what is really going on. Any news one gets on Fox is mostly cursory and biased, focused on sensationalism and scandal, and hatred of anyone not Republican. Their audience listens to biased talking heads, more interested in ratings (profit) than truth.
I agree with this. Also, the US is now less safe than it was because there is a Fatwa on the country now, not just Trump, and that means going to any crowded place is riskier, as well as the ongoing attacks on the grid, hospitals, banks, etc.. by hackers. Russia's war chest has been refilled to overflowing from the war profiteering from oil, and that means Ukraine, which has been helping the US is made unsafe. Why Zelensky helped the US I don't know. Trump is already denying that help was forthcoming because it does not fit with his idea of who is strong and who is weak. He thinks Russia is strong because it is run by a fascist who is part of his club of criminal leaders, and Zelensky is weak because he runs a democracy.
Zelenskiy keeps doing the right thing and Trump can’t believe that anyone would do the right thing just because it is the right thing. Because he never does the right thing.
Exactly, Elizabeth!
Why?
Because Zelensky may believe when things come to a head America will and come to its senses and reject Trump .
Hope Hope Hope!
Over 85% of Iran's exported oil is bought by China. China is no doubt not happy with Trump. Our Navy is very unsafe due to reports that Iran is buying 50 Chinese‑made CM‑302 anti-ship missiles. They skim the ocean at 3X's the speed of sound. That leaves only a few seconds for the target ship to react between detection and impact. These missiles are nicknamed "Carrier Killers." Our aircraft carriers have crews of as many as 5,000 to 5,680+ personnel when fully deployed. AI states that we may have as many as 3 carriers in the region including the "USS Abraham Lincoln (operating in the Arabian Sea) and the USS Gerald R. Ford (deployed in the Mediterranean/Red Sea region). There were reports of a potential third, the USS George H.W. Bush, arriving in early March 2026." Trump has no damn clue what he is doing. He has made the entire world more unsafe.
Please read, share and discuss my Memorandum to We the People at UnitedWeAmend.org.
Those anti-ship missies would put a lot of hurt on the Marine expedition force Trump is sending into the gulf. I certainly hope not, but it seems they are walking into a death trap.
Upside-down and backassward thinking
No winners in this obscene goat f(ck!
Gayle, destruction is so much easier than carefully building alliances. We have become kids throwing sand in the sand box.
Agree. As always "everything trump touches dies." Rick Wilson. The pattern is long standing and will not change.
Anybody remember VietNam
Hello JD... Yeah, that was a ClusterF*... This seems to slipping down the same Path... Very Concerned about that Marine Battle-Group....
Trump is trying to divert attention from the 11 deaths (that we are aware of) in this war, while those dead have been from midwestern states (IA, NE) where there are vulnerable House and Senate seats in play. Of course, none of the Republican candidates will dare hold town hall meetings, so hopefully the Democratic candidates will take advantage of their cowardice.
And where are all of the ICE stories. We know they are still doing dirty deeds, so let's see the reporting about these sociopaths.
Yes. And "never forget" the Trumpstein Files. Our president has been accused by multiple women of everything from unsolicited groping (which he proudly admitted to) to the rape of a minor.
ANYTHING he can do to change the subject from being called an Alleged Child Rapist - he will do. Anything. Thousands...no, millions will suffer accordingly. He is a menace to the entire planet.
And "we" as a country are letting him do it.
There was a time when just the revelation and admission of a 15 year friendship with a child sex trafficker would have led to a resignation. Several public figures have done just that here and around the globe.
Why doesn't this country listen to the victims? Because they are women.
GJ-They’ve already made an ad showing T saluting a casket at Dover. Imagine that-using the bodies of dead soldiers to promote his “excursion” as if he himself is some kind of brave and courageous person.
I don't think Trump cares one iota for our deceased soldiers. He knew that his actions would cause "some to die." That's the way it is... in his mind. I think he is trying to divert attention to the Putin, Trump, Epstein connection - fully laid out before Congress by Sheldon Whitehouse. It is impressive and fully annotated, and guess what? The mainstream press barely covered it. It's on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylvTFvJvB84&t=30s
Everybody is concerned, but the perps. That power-trip rules, does it not…
Iraq was as bad, we don’t deserve respect, especially since repubs have been on such a power trip. Not mistakes, deliberate, targeted hell just because e could
Absolutely - I was in college when they did the lottery and there were anti-war demonstrations almost every day.
It ramped up as McNamara lied about so much. People acknowledged it as a mistake and told the world. Didn’t stop Nixon from screwing the peace initiative. But we have a monument to the dead. That’s easier than getting it right
Iraq, Afghanistan...
Lost from the jump. Until we have a credible and effective and diplomatically capable President and Congress that can repair and be trusted, we will be under terrorist threat from Iranian operatives and/or sympathizers for the bulk of a generation.
When diplomacy can only be trusted until the next round of Billionaire encouraged MAGA voters elect the next Trump, our stature as an ally to any nation is nil
Dave, in one sentence, you have summarized the catastrophic consequence of this American timeline.
Call me a conspiracy theorist.
Darth Sidious has true believers "standing back and standing by". These kill-squad crazies have already been selected because of their willingness to sacrifice their lives to save their dear leader.
Knowing that October polls will show that the republicans are going to get creamed in November, these Temple Trump operatives have already been given a mission - to encourage, supply, and lead "olive-skinned" fatwa lunatics in planned attacks on US cities.
Once that happens, it will be easy for the Supreme Emperor to cancel all future elections.
From listening to military experts of past, like Malcolm Nance who does a daily podcast of the war with Jacob Kaarsbo former Danish Intelligence chief in the Middle East, and Ken Harbough, and others, it seems like the US does not have any advantage here over their Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraqi wars. In fact, the country is bigger and has been planning to defend against just such an attack for the past 40 years according to Nance. Nance has gone into great detail on the military structure of Iran. They have a lot of people who are first, second or third tier participants. Then they explained Fatwa.
But, when you ask, "What if America actually loses this war?? " What does that actually mean? America is not just Trump and the MAGA that support this war. It is also the people who oppose the war, which is the majority. How can we win? I can tell you that, by getting this war to stop. That does not mean we will not continue to face fallout from it that I cannot possible all enumerate.
Some things will be increased terrorism against Americans. Will it feel safe to fly? To go to concerts? To the theater? To go to sporting events? To go anywhere with crowds? To go to malls?
Will our grid be attacked? What will hackers do?
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, being the overinflated egotistic idiots that they are, walked us right into a hornets nest. Will the US be the target of missiles, bomb attacks? All things that these Vollidiots did not think about, or care about.
Will the US have to have conscription again?
How can Trump win a war that has no goals except to war profiteer and up his popularity? Two contradictory goals. In one, he will want forever war, which Iran may impose on him anyway. In the other, he is losing popularity the longer the war lasts. For one it is destroying our economy even further since it is an economy based on oil and oil products. So, how can we lose? We have already lost because our safety has been further eroded. China is watching and making fun of us. I saw a Chinese comic the other day that Ben Meiselas shared in his Meidas news report, as well as an Iranian one. Both made fun of Trump. We are the country that voted this man into power, and with it our country is grossly diminished in the eyes of the world.
We are in danger of losing all of our Middle Eastern allies, if we have not done so already. Malcolm estimates we will cost them trillions. Meanwhile, they are getting bombed for having US bases. France lost a soldier that was on a US base yesterday. Perhaps more EU leaders will start sounding like Pedro Sanchez of Spain who has clearly spoken out against the war. He is not one to let Trump push him around. He also has not been visiting Trump in the White House. Will EU countries also want to get rid of US bases? I was at an anti war rally on Thursday. Here is a piece I wrote, that is mostly pictures.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/i-attended-an-anti-war-rally-in-bremen?r=f0qfn
We know that Ukraine has been sold out by Donald Trump. Russia is profiting greatly from the war and is now able to afford more soldiers and may turn the war against Ukraine around. That is a great loss for all of us too. I am hoping not. In the meantime, Ukraine helps the US, and Donald Trump lies about getting their help. It does not fit with his picture of who is strong and who is weak. Russia is strong because Putin is a fascist. Ukraine is weak because Zelensky is democratic. That is how Trump thinks. The question I have is when will we Americans win? That is ending the war and getting rid of this fascist and grossly incompetent, government. A government that does not govern, it just steals from the people. A Kakistocracy, and Plutocracy and Oligarchy all rolled into one awful package that we the people need to get rid of. We need to be out there on No Kings Day no matter the weather, and then get ready for the next action, and in the meantime GOTV.
And we are in danger of losing all of our allies.
Quora Digest has been my go to source for the Ukraine War for the past couple of months as well as a couple of YouTube sites. The source most of their postings so I feel like they are mostly truthful about what is happening in Ukraine and Russia.
The Russians may profit from the war as HCR reports, but Ukraine has reduced their ability to produce gasoline and diesel as well as other products they need to effectively fight the war. Ukraine continues to target refineries, pipelines, terminals and ports. Several ports are severely limited in their ability to fill tankers.
Trump is so desperate to save face from this fucking disaster of a war that he is willing to unilaterally lift sanctions on Russia.
GJ I also follow
Meduza, Russian expat publication in Russian and English
https://meduza.io/en
and The Counteroffensive Substack with Tim Mak.
https://www.counteroffensive.news/
He has a new one out now for Iran which I just joined.
https://www.iranwar.news/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Missile Matters by Fabian Hoffman who is in Oslo working on his dissertation on this topic.
https://missilematters.substack.com/p/race-to-the-bottom-whos-winning-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
And the Kiev Independent.
https://kyivindependent.com/
Thanks particularly for the shout-outs to Meduza and the Kyiv Independent.
A timely thought -- Meduza is Russian for "jellyfish."
Well put as usual Linda. I think it was Paul Krugman who called the Trump regime an Idiocracy the other day, which is a synonym for Kakistocracy, just as Kleptocracy is a synonym for Oligarchy. Subtle differences between them.
Krugman is really on a roll now that he is on Substack. I appreciate his wisdom. I love his word.
Corporatocracy also comes to mind. The puppet becomes the puppeteer and vice versa. It's only gotten worse since the 20th century, CIA/United Fruit days. (And now the "Citizens United" decision has only made it harder.) Read "The Fish That Ate The Whale" by Rich Cohen.
No Kings Day signs! What to say? Knowing how these images we carry move as conversations and photos, I ask myself daily what to say in a sign. There's SO MUCH I want to say, so much that NEEDS to BE Said, it stymies me how to express IT. I want to scream and howl and stomp and move in rhythmic, communal unison (so unlike the properly civil gatherings that typifies Cape Cod, with local rulings of no musical amplification for starters). Apache pointed me to this epoch video that, to me, shows the transformation of thought and text into felt experience, visibile to all. We are still losing what settlers destroyed of Indigenous Beings and Ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgVI3j3vtSs
Linda, I too closely follow Malcolm Nance's war updates. Thanks for the great summary and analysis of the mess HE hath made. Ready for NO KINGS III.
I’m glad that people are making fun of the fools. That’s the thing they can’t tolerate. And they can’t cancel those not on US soil…
It wouldn’t first time. Both Viet Nam and Afghanistan were not wins. Viet Nam was a loss and Afghanistan a draw if one is being generous .
Wars are an easy way to move our Federal tax dollars into the pockets of the wealthy. The wealthy have a totally different definition of winning than most of us.
How does it even make sense that we are spending a trillion dollars a year on the DOD?
Exactly. Doesn't matter how the war proceeds. The longer it lasts, the more money (our taxes!) is funneled into weapons productions benefitting our oligarchs. Ike had no idea how right he would be when he said "Beware the Military Industrial Complex".
Notice that "DOGE" never had an impact on the Pentagon. If this country cared about its own people, huge chunks of that Trillion would be shifted to housing, feeding and caring for (healthwise) our desperate citizens.
This is "Let them eat cake" on steroids.
Yesterday, half of the TSA agents at Houston Hobby called in sick and it took 3 hours to get through security. If they were to do this in ATL, DFW, LGA, ORD or LAX, Kennedy or Denver one day at a time, the shutdown would end very quickly.
Iraq is still in turmoil, so that couldn't be counted as a win either and ISIS arose from the ashes of that destruction caused by the U.S.
And Korea is a draw at best, but more of an ongoing, lingering stalemate between North Korea and South Korea & the U.S.
Curious, Not sure Korea was a draw.
We kept the Chinese out of South Korea, which is a thriving democracy.
I feel like the win Horhai is we aren't talking about the trumpstein files or ice brutality.
Yup. Here is an interesting timeline of Afghanistan's struggles and how foreign powers used the country.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan
We already have. Like we lost in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Be real. We have no business even being there. If we put this kind of money (staggering amounts) into good will diplomacy we would be way farther ahead. And children wound't be dying.
We have lost. The only thing we'll gain are body bags. We really fucked this up.
Respectfully Chris, I didn't fuck anything up. I did not vote for this jerk. I have been working for peace since the sixties. I am pissed this ass has been in my head rent free for 11 years.
We already have
That would make Putin very happy, eh?
They can't yet define what winning looks like and this seems to be a deliberate tactic to enable them to be able to declare victory whenever they want. Trump has claimed, for example, that the war was won after the first wave of attacks on Iran. The inanity of declaring victory while the Strait of Hormuz is closed to shipping means that the war must go on.
And Hegseth claiming that the Strait is open "except for the shooting at ships" That's like saying my house is fine, except that it's on fire.
One of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard!!! I’m almost embarrassed for him!!! Wait, no, I am not at all embarrassed for him!!! He ‘s a moron!!!
No kidding Laurie, what a bunch of asshats.
Will the USA hold on until the congress is controlled by Democrats in January?
Like we lost Vietnam? Well we shamble on making every conceivable choice before settling on the right one, or not.
We have, both tactically and strategically. Iran can make transiting the SoH and navigating the Persian Gulf very hazardous for as long as they care to using cheap drones, mobile missiles, and mines.
Except for Granada, we haven’t won a war since “under God” went into “The Pledge of Allegiance.”
This was an opportunity to block the flow of oil and excuse a lift of sanctions for Russia. I have no doubts that Trump and his buddies are benefiting financially as well. It’s clear that Trump and Putin have long-standing ties, with trafficking being one lucrative source of money and leverage. Is Israel’s involvement the reason our government has done nothing about it all this time? Epstein doesn’t seem smart enough to have engineered it all and I don’t think he was the head of the snake. The GOP is sitting on their thumbs allowing a traitor to operate in plain sight. It’s infuriating.
Welcome to the United States of Iranica!
No, not really.
We'll do what we did in other wars we lost - pick up our ball and say "I'm going home - I don't want to play any more.And YOU can clear up the mess!"
Hello ICTT.... Don't Forget the Role of Netanyahu... Per Foreign Affairs, and the Washington Post, Netanyahu has been Pestering DJT to attack Iran... DJT thought that this would look Good on FOX News.... Netanyahu needs this War to look good in the forthcoming Israeli Elections...
Apache, the Israelis need urgently to get rid of Netanyahu as much as the American people needs to get rid of our scumbag president and all his enablers and ideologists. We, them and us, are in survival mood....
For those who (for whatever reason) yet deny the (former) United States has always been a criminal organization., here is (irrefutable) evidence: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/02/21/jxga-f21.html?pk_kwd=wsws-daily-newsletter
and (not pay-walled) https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/us/politics/trump-tariffs-plans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.N1A.A-y_.urwAuILZpfNJ&smid=url-share
Except for all the other ones. Tribal warfare writ large or writ small. What is criminal behavior other than what the other side does (and thinks is fine)?
ICTT. Correction please. “HegsDeath”
The problem is he's doing it to everyone else, not just himself.
And the problem is, if he thinks he's going down, he will take everyone he can, including all of us, down with him!
Classic domestic abuser gone global
"Davenport noted, “Comments made by Witkoff in two background briefings with reporters on Feb. 28 and March 3, as well as media appearances since the strikes began, made clear that Witkoff did not have sufficient technical expertise or diplomatic experience to engage in effective diplomacy. His lack of knowledge and mischaracterization of Iran’s positions and nuclear program throughout the process likely informed Trump’s assessment that talks were not progressing and Iran was not negotiating seriously.”
This kakistocracy is the greatest threat to our national security since the Civil War.
The literal "enemy within".
I have commented extensively on this subject. Although Witkoff may not be good at diplomacy nor up to speed on the subject, Davenport has it backwards. He was told to tube the negotiations. He lied. They were never meant to succeed. Merely for purposes of deflecting criticism, for purposes of deception. Netanyahu was calling the shots and wanted the US to join in a war against Iran.
Can someone tell me if this war is illegal, if the Secretary of Defense has committed a war crime by claiming "no quarter", if the general in charge knew that Trump's plan was doomed to failure, why did the military of along? Seems like a lot of illegal orders were just obeying anyway and now they are in this grotesque situation - and so are we.
All the experienced people in the Pentagon were fired leaving only yes men. A ship without a captain.
What a colossal mess!
Heather's newsletter targeted all of my fears about actions taken to invade Iran and you keenly exacerbated them.
We have bee hijacked into this war by a group simulating the Keystone Cops except they were funny. We're toast.
It's, it is always a pleasure to read and smile about your descriptions of this boondoggle. Will I be able to eat Swiss cheese again?? And we have someone heading the defense department who thinks he is leading a crusade.
Thanks! Maybe switch to Gouda for a while?
I can sum up this war in two words "Epstein coverup."
It's Come To This, saying it like it should be said....BOOM !!! .....drops mic and walks off stage left !!! ....you are absolutely correct Sir !!!
Can Whiskey Pete actually read? I have my doubts. He was notorious for screwing up his lines when he was merely a babbling idiot on Fox.
Linda, his own mom threw him under the bus until he payed her off. How bad a human are you when your own mother gives you up to the press.
(To "It's Come to This) Your myriad metaphors and brilliant sarcasm would provide excellent script for a daring news report. From your point of view the reality of war is having a difficult time competing against the illusion and fantasies perpetrated by our war minister, dressed up in the language of Christian patriotism. This rampant militarism, with its grandiose plans to attack Cuba, Greenland, Venezuela etc. only perpetuates the dangerous delusion that we are on a providential mission to save the world and impose our "values?" by force!! Is the American public - the "deplorables" - those who are morally and intellectually useless (the 30 plus% who still love trump) - really clinging to fantasies of a glorious superpower?
Thanks for the kind words, Stephanie. The irony is that much of the world (including probably millions in Iran and Venezuela -- and Iraq before that) do share our values, but don't particularly like being bombed and starved into saying so. Trump's words are, of course, not directed to the majority of America (who hate him), but to that hard-core 25% or 30% who continue to assert that the Emperor's New Clothes are, in fact, breathtakingly beautiful. He and his minions are actually quite terrified. They can see the end coming, as can most Republicans in Congress, who simply don't want to be the first to stop clapping, so to speak.
Well said! And Kegsbreath's statement about US never targeting civilians...Targeting civilians all over the place! Outside as well as within US! Right now, in of all places, peaceful Burlington, Vermont!!! As far as listening to knowledgeable people, like in the Pentagon, or in the Foreign intelligence community, this administration never listens. Never listens. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein.
Ahem. Please educate yourself about ADHD because you've just cast a slur upon a good number of students, many of whom are on the honor rolls. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter; enough said.
"Show no quarter"... with no rules of engagement an no regard for the protection of civilian in conflict, no care for a wounded combatant(s), then we are acting like the militant groups we've tried to defeat in the past. Will our soldiers will parade their dead bodies in the streets in celebration ? Take war trophies ? A senior DoD civilian who was once a Naval Officer in the same field as me, sat & talked with a group of us that recently got selected for promotion to Captain (O6, like an Army Coronel). He told us his guiding principles for executing his position: Protect the Country, Protect the men & women in uniform, Protect the rights provided in The Constitution and Protect the Taxpayer. If the current SECDEF every got that advice, it would appear he forgot it or is completely ignoring it. Wait ... he'd just say "That woke"
They ignore experts.
A CONTROLLED press is more like it…dispensing propaganda instead of truth.
Headlines should be EPSTEIN. Latest revelation is that the Epstein estate paid off a claim against Trump. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/epstein-accountant-spills-bombshell-payout-215837049.html
Look below. I’ve included a link to a fantastic speech Sheldon Whitehouse gave to the Senate regarding how Epstein and all of this fits, especially Russia.
Unfortunately, the DisUnited States will now need to self-destruct as the pendulum has shifted so far in the wrong direction. Enough low uninformed voters elected the ultimate Frankenstein monster from Dante’s Inferno to misrule in a world where all life is worthless. It bears mentioning that I quoted my Puerto Rican neighbor in my book who once told me she voted for Donald Trump and she regrets it now and will never do it again. That was in 2016. How many revenge voters cast the wrong vote? Too many. Democracy is fragile.
Beside this being embarrassing to read this administration’s double speak speak of the need for a 1984-like Big Brother propaganda machine disrupting the world order, it’s time to spend nothing on consumer goods besides the basic essentials. The Jeffery Epstein files have upturned the global body politics. Hug your loved ones. If you serve in the military, leave. There is systemic disfunction all around us. After attending a convention in Orlando 2 weeks ago, every flight was postponed or cancelled leaving me unable to pick up my car rental and forcing me to sleep on the floor at Reagan international overnight upon my return. I made a vow to American Airways officials that I will never fly domestically again for the rest of my life. I should have driven from CT to Virginia and taken the auto train to Sanford. It would have brought me to my destination as expected.
The once great nation that I live in is functionally destroyed. A Phenix will one day rise from the self destructive ashes of Republican party rule.
That speech was incredible. I learned a lot.
That was such a good and very convincing speech .
Exactly, Kathryn, this administration has been undermining the free press since trump's inauguration, using their power to extort big media corporate deals to merge, instead of guarding against anti trust issues, the administration requires that the news organizations in those corporations, become propaganda arms of this fascist government.
With the administration purging oversight and legal components throughout every agency, department, and military institution from the beginning of this administration, shows their intention to disregard the law. Would it be a stretch to imagine this administration using ICE to raid media organizations to restrict free and fair reporting?
I don't think so, and if it happens, it will be soon. Well before the midterm elections. How long before they begin to crack down on political demonstrations?
Hegseth is determined to dictate what the media reports, that is why he purged real journalist's from the Pentagon; thankfully, the press has been able to report honestly because there are still true patriots who are making sure the truth gets out.
They will fail to secure the Straight of Hormuz without committing a very large incursion of ground troops, even then it is unlikely to work.
It is more than likely that trump will not end this war diplomatically because he regards anything less than surrender as weak.
The world and the US economy will continue to deteriorate as long as the Straight of Hormuz remains dangerous.
A "patriotic press" is an example of the "1984" Ministry of Truth.
Fox News pretty much fills the role.
It's the modernization of the Goebels model back in nazis Germany Jack.
And Hegseth even said something like ‘War is Peace’…
He finally listened to 1984 on audiotape.
Everyday, in everyway, Trump acts as a fascist. . Trump doesn't know or care about critics labeling him a fascist. He's reflexively a fascist. He always has been. He's America's avatar of hate. He rules by splitting loyalists from critics. He professes love for loyalists and hatred for his stupid, traitorous critics. His leadership is by shared hatred. And as the Avatar, millions of angry Americans rally around him.
This will end. And not well for the Avatar and his legion of haters.
That's what they think they're getting with Ellison and Co.
They ARE getting it.
Paul Krugman documents the capitalist cancer from which both ChristoNazism and the Trump Regime metastasized: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-billionaires-war?publication_id=277517&post_id=190710154&isFreemail=true&r=cb67r&triedRedirect=true This should be repeatedly posted, along with the link to the full text of the Jane Doe lawsuit against Trump and Epstein -- later withdrawn in response to credible death threats against the plaintiff: https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Johnson_TrumpEpstein_Lawsuit.pdf
But you’re here, so … they’re also not getting it.
The real scandal is not just that Trump is steering the country toward a bigger conflict. It’s that he seems to think foreign policy is just reality TV with missiles. Heather’s most important point is that this whole mess is being run on impulse, ego, and bad manly posturing, while actual consequences pile up in the background like empty beer cans at a tailgate party.
Oil prices jump. Putin profits. The Strait of Hormuz gets riskier. Allies panic. Markets wobble. And the White House response appears to be: relax, the boss has a feeling. Nothing says responsible superpower quite like a commander in chief treating war as a gut check from a man whose gut has never once met a good idea it couldn’t make worse.
Trump saying he’ll know when the war is over because he’ll “feel it in my bones” is not statesmanship. That is how your uncle decides whether the casino buffet shrimp is still safe. Pete Hegseth sounds like the human embodiment of a truck stop flag display, loudly mistaking aggression for competence and slogans for policy.
That’s the core of it. Not strength. Not strategy. Just swagger, delusion, and the kind of cartoon masculinity that mistakes breaking things for leadership. America is being dragged toward disaster by men who think a flex is a plan and a vibe is doctrine.
A patriotic press is one that searches for the truth and reports it!
He misspelled "propagandistic". Easy slip of the tongue.
I know that I read media from around the world to get different perspectives. Hegseth is an abomination. In fact, I also investigate myself. I went to an anti war rally in the Germany city in which I live two days ago. I wrote a piece about it which is mainly pictures because it was chilly and I could not take notes on the speeches.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/i-attended-an-anti-war-rally-in-bremen?r=f0qfn
By writing about an antiwar protest, I am the opposite of what Hegseth wants reporting to be. Yet, we need voices like mine that are showing us how the people around the world are feeling. This was just a slice. A small slice, but probably one that represents more people. At the same time, DW news reported about the base Ramstein. It has a different slant than mine.
https://youtu.be/dAIHCKGsolw?si=gQKf0xqrD_-pa6IN
Well done, Linda.
Thanks Bill.
The thing that HCR doesn't really engage is the way international equities markets are reacting. Since the Felon and his minions are very sensitive to the ways in which stock markets reflect the desires of very rich people (and ignore the needs of the rest of us), I predict that the Felon will start pulling back on the warmongering as early as this week, especially if the Dow drops below 46,000, which it is very likely to do. That would place it at September 2025 and destined to drop further. At that point even the short sellers are going to start losing a lot of money. And they will complain. The only thing that will absolutely end this whole horrific debacle is if the Israeli people stand up and depose Bibi and send him to jail. Because he clearly has intel on the Felon and his family and is using it to preserve his own ass.
Amen to that, Jim!
Agreed
It’s Stalinism 101! If there is a god, please, start throwing lightning bolts at these cretins!
"This morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent significant time at a press briefing at the Defense Department complaining about headlines that say the war is widening and that the administration did not take seriously enough that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz. A “patriotic press,” he said, would say that Iran is weakening."
In other words, what the GOP calls "patriotic" is the idea that not only America's leaders would lie to their own voters and citizens, but also that ALL the media, and not just the GOP propaganda machine, would betray their own audience too, day after day.
How to better declare to the GOP electorate that the GOP hates its own base and does everything possible to LIE to them and betray them?
When will these people finally wake up?
It's been 26 years now. More than two decades of the Fox Entertainment propaganda machine, and more than two decades after the Iraq war, which was based on lies, and run by incompetent GOP leadership.
And yet, here we are again: a GOP president, backed by a coalition of incompetent, insecure men (including neofascist tech billionaires, this time), blowing up the Middle East for no good reason and with no strategy or plan.
When will they wake up?
Sun Tzu in The Art of War: "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
What kind of leader....what kind of human says something like this?!?! "Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
"I....am killing them. What an honor..." I think he means "satisfaction". Honor is outside his sphere of comprehension. Thank you for your attention to this matter. He's mad. And that's not going to get any better.
Honor among psychopaths.
I’m a therapist and am taking special interest in studying psychopathy lately. It helps.
I bet it does. I've met 3 (maybe 4; not sure Diane Downs meets all the criteria) psychopaths in my time. They are scary folk.
Honor is a five-letter word, incomprehensible to ignorant fools
For the record, a truly patriotic press would say what the other guy standing on the stage with Hegseth is thinking but can’t say, which is that rather than Hegseth in a Pentagon office and DJT in the Oval Office, the two belong in diagonal corners of the principle’s office sitting on stools facing the corner wearing dunce caps and a pair of little boy pants. Good thing there are two other corners for Cash Petal and RFKJR.
I think he and Hegseth mean orgasmic release at the thought of the killing.
Now that we are relishing what an honor it is to be killing children in Iran, they are already killing here in America with jihadist proxies. I wonder when the civilian victims here will surpass the number of our US military victims.
Hegseth's manic militarism has been noticed by others.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/pete-hegseth-pentagon-trump-iran
The Guardian says what the US legacy media won’t. Hegseth is committing war crimes in multiple theaters of conflict and he should be indicted and tried by an international judiciary.
When Bush refused to allow the Rome Statute to be ratified after Clinton had signed it, he claimed it violated US sovereignty. But other countries have an equal right to their own sovereignty. Apparently, after 9/11, the US was exceptional, along with Russia, Israel, and China.
All four of those major military powers are currently committing human rights violations.
Excellent read; thanks for the link.
The former U.S. military will go down in infamy as oath-breakers. No doubt seduced by ChristoNazi dogma and promised the promotions and loot implicit in wars of conquest, they have become the felonious president's war-criminal legions of death.
I don't see any other outcome. Manipulated, yes, but oath breakers all.
Grammar note: I do believe that oathbreaker should be a word, a verb, and an anathema to all who swear oaths.
Thanks, Ally; despite Spellcheck, oathbreaker it shall be,
Great comment Anne-Louise. "Thank you for your attention to this matter" should be extended to the about 40% of Americans still supporting this regime. Somehow, someday they should be shaken out of their stupor.
Unfortunately, as history proves unequivocally, fanatical misogynists and racists are {not} reformable -- and it is literally suicidal to imagine otherwise.
He feels it in his bone spurs.
A fascist leader. Check out the essay, “Ur-Fascism” by Umberto Eco. If you still don’t believe these people are fascists, and that we are now in a fascist state, check our current situation against the 14 characteristics of fascism Eco lists. Opposition is treason, action for action’s sake, machismo, and denigration of women and minorities, the cult of tradition, rejection of modernism (see RFK, Jr.), permanent warfare, contempt for the weak (“we are punching down“), Newspeak (an impoverished vocabulary to limit critical reasoning), they are all there. I doubt Trump has the intellectual capacity to delve very deeply into fascist philosophy, but the people behind him are committed fascists.
You do not have to convince any of us who are even half aware of what has happened to this country. It could only happen but for the power of money to control all facets — politicians, the media, and more.
Money and religion. Two human constructs that bring our species (and sadly, all others) to extinction.
How many times must it be said that under capitalism, Evil is the root of all money.
As to religion, nothing I know says it better than this verse from 900 years ago, the 13th Century Scots ballad "Thomas Rhymer": “And see ye not that braid, braid road/That lies across that lily leven?/That is the path of wickedness,/Tho’ some ca’ it the road to heaven" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DwE1u45a5U&list=TLPQMTQwMzIwMjYx8341020yJg&index=2).
Hence my argument that Trump, the ChristoNazis and the MAGAT rabble -- most notably because of their utter absence of empathy (and their fanatical belief empathy is a sin) -- actually mark the emergence of a new subspecies of (sub)human, Homo sapiens inhumanus, its sociopathy -- including the replacement of the love-instinct with a far-more-powerful haste instinct -- the (deliberate) product of five decades of relentless neoliberal conditioning. (See https://news.yale.edu/2025/03/06/violent-experiences-alter-genome-ways-persist-generations )
I want to see the scientific studies of which parts of the brain highlight on MRI based on political beliefs and psychological tendencies. Future studies should we survive and have science again??
That is a field of study begging to be made. I know of one (not MRI based) that noted that self identified conservatives and liberals used different parts of the brain when making a "risky" (defined as making a high risk/reward vs low risk/reward financial investment). Liberals activated the prefrontal cortex while conservatives activated the mid-brain.
Subhuman. Yes. Demons.
Tragically true. In everyway. Trump doesn't know or care about critics labeling him a fascist. He's reflexively a Fascist. He always has been. He's America's avatar of hate. It's leadership by shared hatred. And as the Avatar, millions of angry Americans rally around him.
Connection, Merrill. I share your opinion. Describing Trump as America's avatar of hate is the perfect description of him.
Indeed. Best description I've yet encountered -- far better than any of mine.
(Suggested short forms: Hatemonger Trump; Donald the Depricator; Hatemonger-in-Chief)
Proof positive that there is no God despite Hegseth’s religious derangement.
The phrase "with God on our side" has provided cover for many a violent psychopath.
I wouldn't say that. Just not the God he thinks is there, patting him on the head.
There’s a saying “If god is good m he is not great. If god is great he is not good.” Look around.
🤮
He’s admitting to killing schoolgirls.
Caligula God
.https://youtu.be/NJvVEt6F_Xw?si=B91pSR1JDFM5i74K.
This is the guy who was supposed to be the dealmaker par excellence.
I had not hear that but you know he LOVES violence of any kind, even though he knows nothing about war, or combat or strategy because he is coward who never served in the military: Come to think of it, he's never served anyone or anything. He only takes! What a sick bastard!
According to Google, no member of the Trump Family has ever served in the military!
Evidentially dodging the draft has been a family tradition since grandfather Friedrich Trump immigrated to the US to avoid serving in the German army.
Bullies are often. Cowards
This thread reminds me of Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer,” which says if you ask God to make you victorious in war, you are asking Him to kill his other children.
https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/the-war-prayer
Lee Chemel,
President Trump and his tag-a-long minions are acting as criminals NOT as leaders of this once great nation. They are daily destroying relationships, and the respect, we once EARNED! Persons, friends, leaders knew who we were and could depend on us! Not so today!!!
For those who have been standing up to tyranny and to the possibility of experiencing personal harm....you are our heroes! You see that our foundations are being destroyed...you are not robots bowing to the momentary gratification for personal rank or riches!
It has been a privilege, over the years to befriend persons from all over the world. When we get to know people and realize they work and study to do well for themselves and for their families who are depending on them, we realize that we are not so different but more the same.
Religion or no religion must be a personal choice to be genuine. In America, we have freedom of religion or no religion. Faith is a sacred relationship and cannot truly be forced on anyone. However, some may say they are persons of faith and outwardly, parade about all cleaned and polished, but are using faith...religion...to captivate those who are easily manipulated.
There is "brainwashing". This form of control comes in many forms. It can be very dangerous and destructive. It can be used as a tool to manipulate the masses.
Lee Chemel, we have learned that every accusation is a confession with Trump. I would say that accusing others of being deranged scumbags describes Trump and his regime to the letter.
When he says scumbag, he is reflecting in the mirror. I will agree. He is the biggest scumbag there ever was. There has never been a scumbag such as him. Soon he will make Hitler look good. ( I never thought I could say that )
All the accomplices need to be tried. No jail at tax payers expense. Death penalty to one and all.
Death is too easy for these criminals imho. A school house with approx 175 children. All the deaths from the pandemic that should have been avoided. All the deaths we do not know about. All the deaths covered up - committed by ice and the trumpstein horror.
A loony tooney! But wait, what kind of people vote for a looney tooney?
Giving aid to Russia when they are aiding Iran in fighting us is TREASON and shows exactly where Trump's true allegiance lies. Tell your Congresspeople to use the word. Trump is treasonous.
Trump says Russia told him they’re not helping Iran. Of course he could be lying, or Russia lied to him.
This whole situation is spiralling out of control. Russia has been menacing all of Europe and now Trump has handed them billions!
I’m thinking of how WW 1 broke out. It start as one conflict and grew from there.
Donold has always believed Putin over our own intelligence agencies, saying so publicly several times over the years. He's obviously beholden to Vlad and in league with him.
Putin rules us fools
I can't say that, but he definitely has a hold on Donold
He hasn’t fooled anybody who is not a cult nut, but Helsinki left no doubt in my mind. We dodged a bullet then ran to catch up to it, with Elon’s help
Yes unbelievable the lifting of sanctions, now Putin can fund more pain on Ukraine & help Iran as well. And of course Putin is lying, he is on same par as trump with the lying . Bizarre madness
Yes it did Fraulin Katze. Indeed it did.
How deeply I wish we had ratified the Rome Treaty and recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which could prosecute Hegseth, Trump, and all their enablers of this war for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
And they could do it without needing a Congressional investigation, or impeachment and conviction as part of a political process where, ultimately, Republican minions would protect them from any consequences.
And the ICC could do it without being constrained by the corrupt immunity protections granted by the conservative majority on SCOTUS to the president.
The reason behind not recognizing the ICC was that it might prosecute members of the US military and members of the executive branch. It might mete out justice to criminals.
Uh, yeah.
Trump also imposed sanctions on some of the icc judges and that making their job incredibly difficult now. I despair and Kama just isn’t happening quick enough.
No point in telling congress anything. They aren't listening to anyone but Trump.
"No point in telling congress anything. They aren't listening to anyone but Trump."
No point in telling *the Republican majority in congress* anything. They aren't listening to anyone but Trump.
There, fixed it for you.
"No point in telling *the Republican ^very slim^ majority in congress* anything. They aren't listening to anyone but Trump."
There, fixed it even better for you!
But sadly, they are going to hear Trump tell them that he felt in his bones that the Iranians were going to start launching terrorist attacks on American soil, and he was a very stable genius to have recognized the threat beforehand, so he acted on his great instincts.
And they will listen to him, and they will believe him, or at least some of them will say they believe him because it is what they think their base wants to hear.
And so we have a Great Patriotic War to deflect the news cycle away from the corruption and the loss of our rights and freedoms, which is what is really destroying America.
more like trump felt it in his bone spurs!
Thank you!. Bunch of unpatriotic cowards. Only looking out for their own interests.
It's instructive, isn't it, that the Europeans think eliminating the sanctions on Russian oil shipments already on their way, is a bad idea. I tend to agree with them, but I don't know how much that Russian oil will add to global supply and limit price increases.
Lifting the oil sanctions puts an additional $6 billion in Putin's pocket over the next month or so, to support Russia's war against Ukraine. The Europeans know that they cannot afford to let Putin win, so they will wind up expending $6 billion times whatever the factor is for the destruction that the drones and missiles he will build will cause. I am going to make the assumption that Putin will use this opportunity to his maximum advantage to end the war on his terms, so he will put all the money into attack drones.
So, spitballing it, if an attack drone costs $100,000 to build, $6 billion is 60,000 drones. Let's assume it takes 3 Ukrainian drones to intercept and kill a Russian drone, but 10% of the Russian drones still make it through. So we are left with 6,000 Russian drones to cause damage at a cost of 3X 60,000 X $100,000 = $18 billion for air defense.
Let's add in the damage to infrastructure. Figure a conservative factor of 10X. A $100,000 drone can easily cause $1 million in infrastructure damage and lost productivity, times 6,000 attack drones that hit their targets, yielding $6 billion in damage.
That totals to $24 billion in costs that Ukraine and Europe will have to expend so that Ukraine can be rebuilt and function as a bulwark against a future wave of Russian aggression.
You better believe the Europeans think easing the sanctions is a crappy idea because they are the ones who will pay for Trump's charade that he is going to bring down gas prices at US pumps.
The only entity that is benefiting from this war is Russia.
Trump is treasonous, traitorous, tyrannical, toxic, twisted...so terrible for our country and the entire world...
Frank Mitchell- I agree , if what Trump is doing isn’t Treason, then what is?
I have said the same. I was told by a knowledgeable lawyer that January 6 cannot be called treason. I firmly believe that aiding the enemy is treason.
What was the lawyer's reasoning about Jan 6 not being treasonous? I wonder how Marc Elias regards this.
The incompetency and ineptitude of Hegseth, Witkoff, and Kushner is staggering. The former is a drunken, racist, sexist, one-time FOX News host, and the other two are realtors and a son-in-law or a good buddy. None has expertise nor qualifications in what they serve Trump to do. Hegseth, furthermore, keeps dragging in his extremist religious views (which need to be kept to himself), ignores national and international laws of engagement, and lies like a rug!
Witkoff has been hopeless trying to negotiate with Russia, returning with a “plan” that appeared to have been written by Russia.
Witkoff can't even speak Russian, he has no business even being in that position or any apparent skills negotiating at all especially when it comes to dealing with Russia. It's all just so ludicrous, still hard to believe that this is what America has come to.
He’s an old real estate crony of Trump’s. He has zero qualifications. Of course none of Trump’s team are any better.
EB: Too much time spent on bended knee leads to painful surgery.
Too much time with head shoved up somebody else's ass leads to poo-for-brains.
When I phoned my 3 GOP congressional stooges yesterday to express my profound opposition to this pointless war, I called for the firings of Kegsbreath, Witkoff, Kushner, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright (who has been cited as a main idiot telling tRumpy that no way would Iranians retaliate by closing the Strait).
I figured that even feckless Republicans are looking for a way out of this clusterf*ck: the base still isn’t ready to turn on tRumpy , but maybe heads can roll for some of the underlings who gave Dear Leader bad advice.
I got some good news. I made my 4th donation to AMY ACTON's run for Ohio Governor against Billionaire Vivek Rams'.
I received a good news message back that an EMC Poll of more than 1300+ likely Ohio voters, saw AMY shoot out to a ten (10) point lead on February 18, 2026.
AMY ACTON has widespread name & face recognition as the Ohio leader of life, death & sane scientific medical principles during Covid.
Amy is a capable political leader soon to join the female Governors of Virginia, ABIGAIL SPANBERGER & in New Jersey, MIKIE SHERRELL.
Timothy Snyder had high praise for Any Acton in his Substack a few days ago.
Thank you Joanna; I will check it out.
You’re welcome Bryan.
Thanks, Bryan - that IS good news.
She might become a good Governor if elected, but her gender is not a reason to vote for her in my opinion.
Agree, look at the many female $TRUMPETS out there, willing to lie fot the Psychoprez!
Thanks, Bryan!! Oh that ALL HCRs thousands of readers would bring such good news! Keep it coming!! Large or small!
Amy Acton is a physician, Dr. Acton.
It’s past time to say NO to billionaire politicians and billionaire political backers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/us/billionaires-federal-election-campaign-contributions.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.brkw.iNkprvVsMrW6&smid=nytcore-ios-share&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQiXTNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xNzM4NDc2NDI2NzAzNzAAAR6vFQrcGmjG521s4vRzNuV9nKl5vOkEkfk_ZjpfMIEeMQcNczktRxHN7e1o9A_aem_fkzAtoBMFSPxD3_W6E9DAA
I'm glad to see Heather going after criminal Donald.
I like how she deals with Donald's "negotiating." There isn't any. He has only a couple of his friends or family members play that game -- and boy are they only playing. Rank amateurs.
We can all imagine what if Donald and his crew of incompetents had real allies.
That is, the U.S. could have folded in the UK, France, Germany, and the dozen Middle East countries whose U.S. bases Iran has now attacked. We could have had a long-term strategy for dealing with Iran. With really the best diplomats from all the countries.
Donald cannot think long-term. None of the sycophants surrounding him can. Rather, he is always led by the nose by fellow criminal Netanyahu, fellow criminal Putin, and fellow murderer Mohammed bin Salman.
Amazing how the world suffers for Donald imagining himself some kind of star on the world stage.
"Amazing how the world suffers for Donald imagining himself some kind of star on the world stage." Perfectly stated. The unfathomable absurdity of what we continue to allow Trump do to our nation and the world is spellbinding. How the hell is this possible.
How is it possible? "Citizens United" and SCOTUS.
Follow the money. Always follow the money.
Roberts' $COTUS certainly does.
Citizens United + Trump v United States = The American ChristoFascist state.
Republicans, giving a new spin to Red Menace. Actually destroying the United States for the benefit the former Soviet Union.
And entertainment news and summing down of public school curriculums which dropped critical thinking years ago. And to be fair to all of us, disinformation and AI coupled with social media and the tendency of humans to be drawn to fads, cliques and shiny objects and bravado. Addiction has many faces. We need to heal ourselves first.
Those little rectangular boxes most walk around holding has become the ne best friend that misdirects and funnels limited info.
Well said
We must take in that both Trump and Bibi are criminals for who this war is a stay-out-of-jail card. Add that Jared is the son of a jailbird and the morals of the whole bunch including Putin (you can start with greed), and you have disaster.
I agree that the US should have worked with our traditional European allies on dealing with Iran. They might have pushed back against this direct military action, though. Maybe a broader coalition would have been more successful in negotiating with Iran, I don't know. As for Heather going after criminal Donald, she seems to do that every day.
Sorry, Robert, I know Heather gets Donald perfectly, as he deserves to be gotten.
Or, I should say, we all who read her have known for a long time that she has gotten him as he has deserved for a long time -- part of or a continuation of the former enslaving classes, as Heather has long kept that perspective on our history.
Our "...traditional European allies..." don't trust the U.S. any longer so I don't see that being an option in dealing with Iran. He is spiraling, the trickling of more Trumpstein proof that he is what we all know he is and what should have him charged with raping children, is why he attacked Iran. I'm just hoping he doesn't spiral enough to press the red button.
Since when has Heather Cox Richardson ever NOT gone after Trump, Mr. Balla? 😛
Realtee TV
Hit the nail on the head with that one, J L!!
Phil - I agree - that's exactly how he sees himself - as omnipotent and omniscient.
Don't forget Vladimir Putin.
The reason that none of this makes sense is that none of this makes sense. Much of this reminds me of the Monty Python sketch about "not dead yet," a man so damaged that he doesn't realize his self-injuries. I got interested in antiques when I was quite young. One rainy Seattle afternoon my wife and I prowled around a warehouse with the scent of sawdust and walnut and teal oil perfuming the hundreds of objects. There were enormously valuable pieces...way too expensive for us, oh, we were young and in love and wanted something special, an armoire, for our 1926 English Tudor, brick home in Laurelhurst, an original Seattle enclave. The owner was a German immigrant who got out of Germany after the War. He specialized in European treasures. "Many people make the mistake of taking a gorgeous relic and 'make it new.' The value is in the aged patina, the cracks that tell of its history...'who sat in that chair?' How did the distress marks mark an occasion, an argument, a meal no one would forget? That's the value...and if a person doesn't see that he doesn't belong in my store. IKEA or Wal-Mart... that's for those people." Need I say more? What would Lincoln think of all that marble and of the man who wrote the checks to have it installed? There is value in history and integrity and preservation of America's heritages. Why not just level the White House and build a new one? ...but where would Lincoln sleep? Trump is a madman who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing... not even American lives.
EB, there is a way to make sense of it all: EPSTEIN! Murder in the Caribbean, destruction of the White House, vandalism of the Kennedy Center, ICE running amok, Venezuela, and now an illegal (and seriously ill- advised) war in the Middle East, all serve one common purpose: keep Epstein off the front page. And now, as the Epstein connection with Russia emerges, we’ve got a pretty good idea of why the dumpster fire president is in Putin’s pocket. Must be some pretty bad stuff in those unreleased files. Eyes on the ball, folks, don’t fall for the diversions. Think Epstein, and it all makes sense.
Agree 100%. Everything is about distraction and we need to keep focused on the files. The Russia connection includes money laundering with the Russian oligarchs buying real estate from tRvmp in Trump Tower.
Certainly, Epstein is one of several "hot button" issues that are bad news for Trump. But IMO, Trump has piled up one after another popularity crushing policies that could ruin any POTUS and their party. Bombing Iran to "fix" 47 years of failed Iran policy is a stand alone failure for which Americans will hold him accountable.
I have been in that kind of antique store in England. I wasn’t there to buy, just to see beautiful craftsmanship. Trump would somehow find the one piece that was a fake, a new piece made by a master craftsman. If he had it assessed and proven fake, he would say he knew more about antiques than anyone. I like your metaphor. America is imperfect, but should be appreciated for its history and heritage. We were once a beacon, but Trump is putting out the light.
Clearly Trump's tastes trend to the brash and tacky. Reagan convinced enough of the public to turn the fate of our nation over to the 1%, and this is the result.
Which compare pretty unfavorably with even with King George III.
He would paint it gold so it looks like a cheap Walmart copy.
And claim it was real gold and place it somewhere near his gilded mantle. Good one. Never thought about painting it gold.
I challenge your claim that "Trump...knows the cost of everything." What evidence can you offer to support such a bold, unfounded assertion? 🤪
Your response stands out like a dollop of whipped cream on a mud pie, Dr. Oppenheim.
I do so hope Prof Richardson reads it.
Thank you. My sentiments exactly.
Salud!
🗽
That's lucid.
Easing sanctions against Russia doesn’t increase the amount of oil on the market! It only increases the amount of money Russia gets for oil it had to sell at a discount due to the sanctions! They never stopped exporting oil!!
And I gotta believe Trump's getting a cut of Putin's windfall profit.
Oh, surely that's just an unfortunate koinkindink that nobody in our government planned for or thought about beforehand. I'm certain it had absolutely nothing at all to do with what Putin wanted -- and communicated directly to Witkoff about. No sirree, Bob!
Those Russian oil conduits saw a large price spike from the FIRST day of this campaign -- and not a speck of that information was classified....
And stop calling me Shirley.
I just watched a documentary about the tv show of MASH and realized that Pete Hegseth resembles Frank Burns at his worst, except Hegseth isn't funny and likes killing people.
oh no no no M.A.S.H. cannot be related to anything in Trumps administration please. M.A.S.H. is such a good show
The ultimate anti-war protest, beamed into your living room weekly.
#1 in my book. I just might have to go back and do a binge watch whilst I recuperate.
But Frank Burns had no support for his character except Hot Lips. He was made fun of and merely tolerated as a medic. Hegseth is repulsive scum and headed to court martial for calling No Quarter! That is a huge white supremacy dogwhistle!
I'd take Frank Burns over Hegseth right about now. He was an incompetent joke but he wasn't an evil, bloodthirsty monster.
Yes, that's it. Thank you for that. We lack references. Major Frank Burns is the obvious phony MASH writers were clearly making fun of and probably the closet caricature of the far worse, far more incompetent caricature Pete Kegsbreath is already.
Whiskey Pete is Frank Burns with virtually unlimited military authority.
This damage can't be undone. I am very frightened for this country, and the world.
And the world. Here's one tiny example: I just rang a friend for her birthday. She's a retired academic who lives on her small rural property in the region of Canberra (i.e. in the pastoral middle of New South Wales). She lives alone, with her two retired saddle horses and a cat. The only transport to any sort of town is her four-wheel drive. She's keeping the car topped up and hoping for the best.
I’m getting that feeling, too.
Your fears (and ours) are entirely justified. From an unclassified source, the US has now ordered the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, with 2,200 Marines aboard three US Navy amphibious warships, to deploy to the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific. The Unit includes a squadron of F-35 fighter jets and MV-22 Osprey aircraft.
All this to support a mission that changes by the day (if not the hour) and after the CINC has already declared "victory." (Just to state the obvious -- If we have victory, then additional warships all the way from the Indo-Pacific are simply not necessary).
We stand at the beginning of a conflagration, not at its end. Nobody can say with precision or certainty what is going to take place after the largest disruption to the global transport of oil in history...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/world/middleeast/us-marines-warships-middle-east.html
I’m posting this everywhere today:
Think how many people would have died if Kamala Harris had been elected - NONE! 😠
People wouldn't have died from the war since Harris wouldn't have taken this war to Iran. But Iran would have continued to foment terrorism and disruption in the Middle East. Whether the war stops Iran from doing that after it is over is a big unknown right now.
Narrator: It does not.
I don't think so, Netanyahu would most likely tried to force her into the Iran attack as well and probably succeeded. Netanyahu didn't care much who became president, he knew he had both in his pocket. Sucks to be owned by AIPAC.
Kegsbreath made that shabby jab at CNN in front of a microphone *before* he spoke about new casualties in the war -- including the collision between two KC-135 Stratotanker refueling planes. One was able to land safely, the other crashed, killing all the three crewmen inside. (I believe the other three in the second tanker survived).
Pause on that for one second. The Secretary of Defense clearly thinks how TV cameras show his pretty, slicked-back locks during those crowing bullshit-and-swagger sessions is FAR more important than reporting to the country about the lives of American sailors, airmen, marines and soldiers lost or wounded in this absurd campaign.
This is who these people are. This is what their concerns are. This is the kind of shabbiness their values reflect. This is who they will always be. When they keep telling you this all the time through their words and deeds.....you should believe them.
And Petey repeatedly makes the point that Khamenei was "probably disfigured" during that first attack. I think he actually hopes he's been disfigured because to our Secretary of Vanity, this is the worst thing that could happen to a person: having a bad-look day.
How can an Administration whose timeframe is the news cycle beat a Regime whose time frame is eternity?
So true. I texted something akin to my sister earlier today: "I think Iran knows it has Trump by the balls. They know they, Iran, can take a lot more pain than we, and esp’ly Trump, can."
Thank you, Heather, for your daily, clear consolidation of this ongoing chaos.
‘very troubled by tRump's exceptional generous to Russia… it was long ago suggested that tRump is a Russian asset… certainly looks that way...
It's been like totally obvious since 2016. And was probably the case for years before that.
“And in terms of high-end product influx intothe US, Russians
make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets;
say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New
York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” -- Trump Jr.
The most incompetent , criminal and brutal administration which cannot plan 5 minutes ahead of themselves.
Christopher, I agree. Hegseth bragged that the Iranians "can barely communicate, let alone coordinate. They're confused, and we know it." That sounds just like something we all would say about Hegseth's control of the situation.
And which does everything with an eye as to how it looks on TV.