Today in Fascism

watfly said:
Who is being targeted and what text in the bill reflects that targeting?
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The republicans, led of course by your lord and savior, have been saying the quiet part out loud. “It will guarantee us the midterms!” “It will keep us in power for 50 years” “it’s my number one priority!”
 
Hüsker Dü said:
The republicans, led of course by your lord and savior, have been saying the quiet part out loud. “It will guarantee us the midterms!” “It will keep us in power for 50 years” “it’s my number one priority!”
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Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but its amazing how you and Espola go out of your way not to answer for you own arguments. It's almost as if someone else came up with these arguments.
 
Joe Kent hadn’t been “in the room” for weeks. So, asking where he got his information that contradicts everything he already stated, is absolutely a legitimate question.

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kickingandscreaming said:
Joe Kent hadn’t been “in the room” for weeks. So, asking where he got his information that contradicts everything he already stated, is absolutely a legitimate question.

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Here is my speculative theory on what happened in Iran. Israeli intelligence said we have intel that most of the Iran leadership is going to meeting in one place, the US and Israel agreed that this was going to be best opportunity to take them out.. Combined with the fact that the regime had just executed 30,000 citizens, the US and Israel took that opportunity. It was more of an imminent opportunity not an imminent threat. Unfortunately, the timing didn't allow for much post attack planning. Basically we will take the opportunity and deal with the consequences later. Now were dealing a shit show in the Strait of Hormuz.
 
watfly said:
Here is my speculative theory on what happened in Iran. Israeli intelligence said we have intel that most of the Iran leadership is going to meeting in one place, the US and Israel agreed that this was going to be best opportunity to take them out.. Combined with the fact that the regime had just executed 30,000 citizens, the US and Israel took that opportunity. It was more of an imminent opportunity not an imminent threat. Unfortunately, the timing didn't allow for much post attack planning. Basically we will take the opportunity and deal with the consequences later. Now were dealing a shit show in the Strait of Hormuz.
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I’d guess the threat that they had enough Uranium to make 11 bombs that came out during negotiations forced Trump’s hand. Trump stated multiple times negotiations weren’t going well. I think the plan was always to set their nuclear and terror capabilities back as far as possible with the hope the people would be able to wrest control from the weakened regime. I agree that the the meeting was the perfect opportunity to start that process. They certainly caught them by surprise and inflicted tremendous damage to their military capabilities and leadership group.
 
kickingandscreaming said:
I’d guess the threat that they had enough Uranium to make 11 bombs that came out during negotiations forced Trump’s hand. Trump stated multiple times negotiations weren’t going well. I think the plan was always to set their nuclear and terror capabilities back as far as possible with the hope the people would be able to wrest control from the weakened regime. I agree that the the meeting was the perfect opportunity to start that process. They certainly caught them by surprise and inflicted tremendous damage to their military capabilities and leadership group.
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I have zero problem with them taking out the leadership and while not technically an imminent threat, Iran has been a constant threat for 47 years. I only take issue with the lack of post attack planning.
 
watfly said:
Here is my speculative theory on what happened in Iran. Israeli intelligence said we have intel that most of the Iran leadership is going to meeting in one place, the US and Israel agreed that this was going to be best opportunity to take them out.. Combined with the fact that the regime had just executed 30,000 citizens, the US and Israel took that opportunity. It was more of an imminent opportunity not an imminent threat. Unfortunately, the timing didn't allow for much post attack planning. Basically we will take the opportunity and deal with the consequences later. Now were dealing a shit show in the Strait of Hormuz.
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In that case it could of, should of been a one and done.
 
watfly said:
I have zero problem with them taking out the leadership and while not technically an imminent threat, Iran has been a constant threat for 47 years. I only take issue with the lack of post attack planning.
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I look at it like a football team strategy where the beginning of the game has specific scripted plays. But it’s a limited number of plays and then assesses where it stands and adjusts accordingly. There were a lot of unknowns at the beginning - not the least of which was how successful each part of the plan would be but also how those remaining in power would respond.

Trump is right about trying to do more than kicking the can down the road. He’s trying to eliminate the threat completely - if he can do it without mass casualties. Having the Shah back in power and having control of their bomb making material would eliminate the threat. What has been accomplished already has at least kicked the can down the road while immediately weakening Iran’s ability to support terrorism, and build nuclear weapons.

I’ve seen enough of radical Islam to believe there’s no negotiating with them. Watch videos of democrats from a decade or two ago talk about how they had offers for peace but all the Palestinians wanted to do was kill Jews. They’re not an imminent threat. They are an ongoing one. It’s who they are. It’s not Islamophobia. They tell you they are at war against the west. They are our avowed enemy. Squash them, or be squashed.
 
To underscores how much of a strategic disaster this war has been for the USA, we need only look at the countless experts who strongly opposed this war being begun, but now suggest that Trump has no other option but to launch a ground invasion on Iranian territory.

The "decapitation strike" failed to induce the collapse of the regime, just as any expert on Iran would have warned.

Facing a genuine existential threat, the regime is now deploying the weapon that every analyst predicted they would. I wrote two separate articles last year warning of the implications of Iran preventing commercial shipping from moving through the Hormuz Strait. This was not a surprise move.

...and yet, almost three weeks into this campaign, and Trump still does not have sufficient naval resources in the region to secure the Strait to the degree needed by shipping companies and their insurers.

Unless the US and Israeli air strikes can somehow inflict enough damage upon the regime to prevent even low capacity attacks like mines, drones, or rockets... then Trump may have no choice but to commit ground forces in the hope of securing enough territory along Iran's coast to make attacks on shipping impossible.

If Trump doesn't do this, the geopolitical consequences are seismic.

If he is forced to sign a ceasefire with Iran before fully securing the Strait, it may be remembered by history as the formal declaration of the end of US global hegemony.

Only months after being forced into a humiliating retreat from his all out trade war with China, Trump will be now be effectively demonstrating that the US military is incapable of ensuring freedom of navigation through one of the most geostrategically important trade routes on the planet.

It was never clear if the US Navy had the ability to keep the Strait open if required, and so long as that ambiguity remained, Iran's greatest weapon was a hypothetical scenario... an untested threat. Now it's a weapon the US has been, so far, unable to neutralise.

Think about how this will impact the calculations of Gulf States when they choose which superpower they pledge their allegiance to.

Think about how this shapes China's plans for Taiwan.

The concept of post-Cold War US hegemony was built upon the premise that they had the ability to subjugate any non-nuclear power, regardless where on the planet it lay. That image is now shattered. The President of the greatest military power the world has ever seen now forced to beg for mine sweepers from the same former friends he was threatening to invade only two months ago.

If the war ended today, Iran would prevail arguably stronger than it has ever been. It now has effective leverage over the global economy, especially if you include the ability of Iran's proxy, the Houthis, to induce similar chaos in the Red Sea.

Whatever their advice was before the war, there will be many Generals and policy advisors now telling Trump that a large scale invasion of Iran is the only option to secure the Strait. For a man obsessed with his legacy and terrified of looking weak... it feels inevitable that this is exactly where we're heading.
 
An Open Letter to the MAGA-Tots

Dear MAGA-Tots,

First, let’s clear something up. Calling you “MAGA-Tots” isn’t about your age. It’s about the behavior. Because watching grown adults scream about conspiracies on Facebook, wave red hats like they’re security blankets, and defend every outrageous thing that comes out of one man’s mouth has the emotional maturity of a toddler throwing mashed potatoes across the kitchen.

Except the mashed potatoes are democracy.

And the kitchen is the United States.

You keep insisting you’re the “real patriots,” yet somehow patriotism to you means worshipping a politician like he’s the second coming of Ronald McDonald dipped in Cheeto dust. Patriotism isn’t blind loyalty to one loud man with a microphone. Patriotism is loyalty to the Constitution, the rule of law, and the basic idea that no one person is above it.

That includes your guy.

And let’s talk about the elephant stampeding through the Capitol.

January 6.

The day the world watched a mob wrapped in American flags smash windows, beat police officers, hunt elected officials, and smear their tantrum all over the seat of American democracy. You didn’t storm the Capitol to defend freedom. You stormed it because your favorite politician lost an election and convinced you the referees cheated.

That’s not patriotism.

That’s a temper tantrum with zip ties.

And while we’re talking about selective outrage, let’s talk about something else. For years the same crowd screaming about “law and order” and “protect the children” has been obsessed with conspiracy theories about secret pedophile rings. You’ve spent years shouting about Epstein’s client list like it’s the Rosetta Stone of corruption.

So here’s the uncomfortable question.

If the Epstein files really expose powerful people abusing power, shouldn’t that apply to everyone?

Not just the people you already hate.

Because accountability isn’t a partisan hobby. It doesn’t magically stop applying when the names get politically inconvenient. If you truly believe in exposing corruption and protecting victims, then the rule should be simple.

No sacred cows.
No political exceptions.
No looking the other way because the guy wears your team’s jersey.

The thing that’s truly baffling is the gymnastics. Olympic level, gold medal, Cirque du Soleil backflips to excuse behavior that you would lose your minds over if literally anyone else did it. If a Democratic president talked about nukes like a drunk guy at a barbecue, insulted veterans, cozied up to dictators, tried to overturn an election, and watched a mob attack Congress on live television, you’d be screaming treason before the tweet finished loading.

But because it’s your guy?

Suddenly chaos is “strategy.”
Lies are “telling it like it is.”
And an attempted coup becomes “tourism.”

That’s not patriotism.

That’s a cult with a merch table.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth. The rest of the world is watching this unfold the way people watch a reality show meltdown. Dictators are laughing at us. Allies are nervous. And the country that once lectured the world about democratic norms now looks like it’s arguing in the parking lot of a Waffle House at 3 a.m. while someone throws a chair.

You deserve better leadership than that.

America deserves better than that.

You can love your country without treating a politician like a messiah. You can demand accountability without abandoning your values. And you can admit when someone you voted for behaves like a reckless idiot without it meaning your entire identity collapses.

That’s called being an adult.

So MAGA-Tots, maybe it’s time to put the Kool-Aid cup down, take the red hat off for a second, and ask yourselves a very simple question:

Are you defending the country…

or just defending a man?

Because those two things are not the same.

You keep screaming “patriot” while defending a man who tried to overturn an election.

At some point you have to pick a side.

The Constitution…

or the con.

And history has a funny way of remembering moments like this. Not the excuses. Not the memes. Not the red hats.

Just the simple question people will ask years from now:

Where were you when democracy was under attack?

And whether you defended the Constitution…

or defended the guy attacking it.

CLASS DISMISSED 🍸
 
🚨BREAKING: Iran just ordered Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE to evacuate their energy facilities. The missiles are coming. They named the fucking targets on LIVE Television!

This is what 5D chess looks like when Donald Trump plays it. The guy walked up to the board, threw his queen straight into the middle, and got taken by a fucking pawn. And now he's sitting there telling everyone he's winning while the board is on fire and the table is collapsing.

Israel, with full US backing, bombed Iran's South Pars gas field today. The largest gas field on Earth. 70% of Iran's domestic gas supply. Shared with Qatar. All burning. And Iran's response? Cool, we're going to blow up every refinery from Riyadh to Doha. Here's the list. You've got a few hours. Run.

Now let's talk about oil. Because you're being lied to.

The headlines say Brent crude is at $103, $108. That is not the real fucking price. That's one benchmark. The actual aggregate global oil price, what people are really paying for crude right now, is sitting between $120 and $130 a barrel. That's the number they don't put on the front page because it would start a fucking panic.

Iranian officials have said openly they will push oil to $200. An Iranian economics professor said $300. Three weeks ago that sounded insane. Today it sounds like a fucking calendar reminder.

The IEA just confirmed this is the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. The largest. Ever. Gulf production has been cut by 10 million barrels a day. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. A fifth of all the world's oil used to flow through there. Used to.

And here's what $200 oil means for you personally.

97% of everything you touch, eat, wear, and use involves crude oil. Your food. Your medicine. Your plastic. Your fertiliser. Your transport. Your heating. Even your tomatoes from the farmers market. Grown with petroleum fertiliser. Picked by blokes who drove there in trucks made from crude oil. Delivered on diesel. Wrapped in petroleum packaging. That little sticker on the tomato? Petroleum.

When oil doubles, everything doubles. When it triples, civilisation starts to wobble. This isn't a recession. This is a fucking seizure.

You know what caused the Great Depression? Tariffs. Stock markets at all time highs. Reckless speculation. Sound familiar? We've got all of that. Plus an oil crisis that 1929 didn't have. This is the Great Depression with a turbocharger bolted to it.

And the slow-motion part is what kills you. This is one of those disaster movies where you see the shockwave rolling outward in slow motion. Glass shattering. Faces changing from confusion to terror. Everything stretching out in this surreal, horrible, beautiful slow-motion moment. That's right now. On every trading floor, every petrol station, every supermarket supply chain on Earth. The shockwave is moving. You can see it. And nobody can stop it.

Today alone, Israel ass@ssinated Iran's intelligence minister. Third senior official in two days. Iran fired multi-warhead missiles and cluster munitions at Tel Aviv. Two dead. The Bushehr nuclear plant took a hit. Dubai Airport got hit. The Australian base in the UAE got hit. Expats are fleeing Dubai on $250,000 private jets and abandoning their dogs in the fucking street.

Iran has spent 25 years digging tunnels, building underground drone factories, hiding missile launchers in caves along the entire coastline. America is dropping 5,000 pound bunker busters and Iran is still firing hundreds of drones and missiles every single day. You're not winning. You're punching a hornets' nest and bragging that the nest has a dent in it.

Meanwhile the Fed meets today and they're completely fucked. Can't cut rates because inflation is about to go nuclear. Can't raise rates because the economy is already cracking. Gold is at $5,000 an ounce. American petrol prices have jumped 86 cents in 18 days. That's not a spike. That's a vertical fucking line.

And we're only on Day 19.

This is what happens when 77 million people look at a convicted felon, an adjudicated r@pist, a twice-impeached insurrectionist who hid classified documents next to the shitter, and say yeah, give him the nuclear codes. What's the worst that could happen?

This. This is the worst that could happen.

Donald Trump didn't play 5D chess. He didn't even play checkers. He walked into the room, knocked the board off the table, shit on the floor, and declared victory. And now 8 billion people who never got a vote are going to pay for it at the petrol pump, at the supermarket, in their heating bills, and in their fucking retirement savings.

The wheels of disaster grind slowly. The bombs make the news but the economics make the history books. $200 oil doesn't kill you in a fireball. It kills you at the checkout.

Buckle. The fuck. Up.

~Texas Mom
 
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