I don’t like either of them, nosir.
I’m also disturbed by the fact that a MAGA zealot who favors white Christian nationalism thinks that killing other zealots who hold other religious nationalist beliefs warrant execution. Hello, United States of America, you’re just asking for it.
Beacon on a hill.
Shining light.
Ah c’mon, PZ. This isn’t about zealots killing zealots over religion…or oil. It’s almost certainly about 5 FBI interviews missing from The Files…interviews that suggest “credible” evidence. If nothing else the log of those 5 interviews suggests Pam B has tried to cook the narrative.
It may also be about the unraveling international oligarchy. Important people are getting kicked out of their plush positions, and arrested…handcuffed even. Treatment normally reserved for brown skinned people.
While this is true for much of what Trump does, you can’t really discount Miriam Adelson, AIPAC, and the Project 2025 people here.
@2
Wag the dog
I see and hear all these excited Iranian abroad, and all I can think is “People, you got suckered. You’re not gonna get some wonderful happy ending with Trump involved.” At best they probably get Shah 2.0, but I suspect a civil war is just as likely a result.
Two things can be true at once.
.1. The Iranian Islamic dictatorship oppressed and exploited the Iranian people.
.2. Trump and Netanyahu aren’t much different except it is Americans and Israelis/Palestinians.
They aren’t the solution for the problems of the Iranian people.
What I’ve always noticed about the Iranian dictatorship that stands out.
The Iranian leadership was incredibly incompetent. Not smart.
They did a very poor job of actually governing a nation of 93 million people.
.1. After the Islamic revolution, they drove out most of the educated people in Iran, such as engineers and scientists.
They had to import gasoline because they didn’t have much in the way of refineries. It took them decades to get it together long enough to eventually build a refinery. Oil refineries are based on old technology. This isn’t that complicated.
.2. A lot of the infrastructure in Iran is run down.
They siphoned off and wasted much of the oil revenue they got from exporting oil.
.3. They now have a huge water shortage problem due to drought and major mismanagement of their water supplies. They emptied their aquafers by overpumping from deep wells.
.4. They deliberately alienated much of the world for no obvious reason and no real gain.
The forgot the first rule of kindergarten. “Be nice to your friends or you won’t have any.”
.5. As we have seen twice now, Iran is a paper tiger in military terms. Their huge armed forces that they spent a lot of money on aren’t very effective and not good for much.
When the Israeli and US planes bombed Iran, twice now, their air defenses were useless. They didn’t shoot down a single plane.
Their missiles and drones aren’t very accurate. AFAICT, most of them miss their targets. Even the Iranians have noted this.
They deserve to be replaced just on the basis of their incompetence at governing.
The violation of human rights just adds more fuel to the fire.
First, welcome back, even in these inauspicious days.
Second, whoopdedoo, another elective war!
Who’s counting anymore? How many of these have turned to shit before? But hey who cares, the God Emperor is infallible. Even if he said a while ago that Iran had posilutely absoitively no nuc capabiliies left.
Regime change? That would be nice, but one needs competent people to pull it off and the shower of anuses now cosplaying as the US cabinet is not it.
No idea if in Iran there’s enough people to form a functioning, non-religious, non-dictatorial government. Those bastards had 40 years to set up and lock down their not-so-little mafia state, one needs some foundations to build on. And they were very careful at exterminating any kind of opposition.
A good one was the 1951 Moussadeq government but… oh the irony, it was the US (and UK) who brought that one down, so heralding some very very dark decades for Iran.
We’ll have to wait and see, but considering what came before, optimistic I’m not.
North Korea has nukes, and they’ve tested them. NK also has missiles that can hit the West Coast. But NK is safe because its dictator and Amerika’s dictator are buddies. And now, watch Iran become the next Gaza if it won’t surrender unconditionally to Israel. For Israel, it’s about regional dominance under the guise of security. For Trump, Gaza and Iran were just business deals.