I saw an article today by the American Conservatives, who tend to be more sensible than most conservatives. It posits that peace can’t be made with Iran till Trump gets tough with Israel, because it’s Israel who keeps escalating.This is true, but it avoids the pedo-elephant in the room.
It is almost certain that Israel has blackmail on Trump. Videos and pictures of him raping kids or young teenagers. (I print this because I know there is zero chance Trump can risk discovery at a trial.)
Trump is completely compromised. He’s on a leash.
Is this 100%? Of course not. But well over 90%. Trump was Epstein’s best friend for years, and Epstein’s properties were all saturated with video cameras. Epstein clearly worked for Israel.
Trump needs to be impeached or removed with the 25th Amendment, but the problem is that a proportion of Congress are certainly compromised as well, another proportion are bought and paid for, and another proportion are scared of Zionist money being used against them.
So the war seems likely to go on until Israel wants it to stop, and what Trump wants is irrelevant. As for ordinary Americans, their interests are not represented: no one in power gives a damn what they think. The correct action is revolution, but Americans talk big about the 2nd amendment, they don’t use it to resist tyranny.
Iran has some simple needs to be willing to declare peace, the most important of which is “this is the last war”, the second of which is “no more assassinations and no more attacks” and the third of which is “since we can’t trust you to keep any agreement we have to make you incapable of attacking us again or too terrified to do it.”
Manjier has a lot of contacts in the Resistance, here’s the list he published:
The Americans are begging Iran for a quick deal to end the war, but Tehran rejected the US request, forwarding their clear non-negotiable demands: pic.twitter.com/MI0BnkuQY1
— Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 (@ejmalrai) March 26, 2026
Notice that it includes stopping the war/genocide on Libya/Hezbollah and Gaza. There’s no way the Israelis will agree to that unless they have no choice.
I don’t see any way this war ends before Israel is a smoking ruin, and the Gulf States are so terrified of Iran they declare they’ll never allow US bases in their countries again.
Can Iran enforce this? I think so. The US and Israel seem to be running out of interceptors a lot faster than Iran’s running out of missiles and drones. China’s in their corner, quietly supplying them with all the “non military” equipment they need. And Iran’s pain tolerance is extremely high: the decision makers know that if they don’t win decisively again Israel will just assassinate them later and probably kill their families at the same. The new Ayatollah lost his father, wife and kids.
Here’s one analysis of the munitions numbers:
The problem, as has been stated many times, is that no “deal” is possible. America will not keep them. Israel will not keep them. So they must be defeated for Iran and its leaders to be safe. The victory must be crushing. If I were in Iran, I would be making the exact same calculation.
We’ll end this with another Iranian propaganda video, sort of a palate cleanser.
Iran doesn’t seem intimidated at all and has just released another Lego video mocking the coalition. pic.twitter.com/DBkeSCebH1
— Patricia Marins (@pati_marins64) March 27, 2026
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different clue
If Mossad has the tapes, who else has them? Should I really believe that CIA and others either did not know about Mossad involvement in the Epstein operation or that the CIA was helpless to stop the Mossad involvement within American borders while not even being allowed to have all the copies of all the same tapes?
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Americans talk big about the 2nd amendment, they don’t use it to resist tyranny.
So true. Instead, they use it to mow down young, innocent grade schoolers. That’s why the opening salvo against Iran was the young girls’ school. It’s perfectly fitting of America’s elite. I truly believe it’s entertainment for them. Entertainment they can now bet on in America’s casino economy.
Place your bets at Polymarket.
When will the next mass shooting of school children take place?
How many school children will perish in the next mass school shooting?
Meanwhile, Satan himself proceeds unabated. All these guns and no one can get to Satan. Sure, they pretend to stab Satan with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast.
I guess it’s no fun popping Satan’s head open like a melon versus mowing down a throng of terrified grade schoolers. Home of the brave? Hardly. America is home of the cowards.
Bob
This whole situation is very perturbing. I feel guilty somewhat for saying that since the worst effect so far it’s had in my neck of woods is an increase in petrol prices which isn’t really a problem at this point. Once the shortages kick in, it will be fun and games though.
Anyway, as you said the other day, it’s very hard to guage what’s happening.
What really worries me at this point is the risk of the Zios dropping a nukiller bomb. They are completely unhinged.
You’re right that they need defeating at this point. It’s not fair that the Iranians have to bear the pain and the obligation to deal with it. I hope their capabilities are adequate to secure their deserved safety once and for all.
cc
> “Trump is completely compromised. He’s on a leash.”
Fully agreed. It’s probably a multi-layered combination of carrots and sticks. Aside from making him even richer, and extortion through Epstein/Maxwell/Mossad material, Netanyahu/Israel and their neocon team have probably also manipulated Trump into believing that it was Iran that has tried to assassinate him. See this article from Max Blumenthal:
https://www.unz.com/article/how-israel-and-the-fbi-manipulated-assassination-plots-to-goad-trump-into-iran-war/
A US president that’s completely controlled.
> “the problem is that a proportion of Congress are certainly compromised as well, another proportion are bought and paid for, and another proportion are scared of Zionist money being used against them.”
So a proportion would also have to be scared of the US executive that’s completely controlled.
And overlaid over all that would be a general fear of the dangerous rising Zionist fascism throughout the West:
“Harrison H. Smith – I might get killed for posting this, the least you could do is watch it.”
19.1M views
https://x.com/HarrisonHSmith/status/2018753453544124833
That 14-minute video, at 19 million views and climbing, was embedded and recommended by Ron Unz in his March 2nd article:
“After Charlie Kirk’s sudden assassination, a journalist named Harrison Smith [..] reported that weeks before his death Kirk had said that he feared for his life because of his growing criticism of Israel.
One month ago, Smith produced and Tweeted out a short video that has now accumulated over 15 million views. It does a good job of presenting some important aspects of our unfortunate country’s current predicament and what we may soon face if current trends continue unchecked.”
At the video shows clearly that the forced sale of TikTok USA to Ellison was not primarily about China, but about reinforcing the Zionist hold on the US:
“The most important purchase that is going on right now [pause for effect] is … TikTok. [pause for effect] TikTok … Number 1.”
– Netanyahu
Notice as well the mention of (ICE) deportations as a tool or weapon to for Zionists use. These are all amongst the current trends that Smith and Unz are warning us about.
Because of the constant attempts to conflate the two – including in this video – it’s extremely important for everyone to understand and underline that Judaism is not Zionism. A great many Jewish people (ex. Max Blumenthal, Ron Unz, etc.) are at the forefront of leading the fight against Zionism, apartheid, and the genocide – and the rising Zionist fascism that seeks to keep those crimes against humanity going unchecked.
Related 3-minute YouTube video from MondoWeiss:
“A Pro-Israel Billionaire Is Taking Over American Media”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvu1Dsv01Uck
Chipper
In the age of deep fakes and of Trump’s “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters” comment, how much does a blackmail video stand up in this particular case? I could see Trump and his supporters just say that it’s fake, the same way they say everything is ‘fake news’ if they don’t like it.
At this point Trump can’t stop the war, but I don’t think it’s because of any blackmail material but because Israel and Iran won’t.
Feral Finster
“Trump needs to be impeached or removed with the 25th Amendment, but the problem is that a proportion of Congress are certainly compromised as well, another proportion are bought and paid for, and another proportion are scared of Zionist money being used against them.”
The blackmail assuredly does not begin or end with Epstein. For was it not of old written that “there is never ‘just one’ cockroach”?
someofparts
from Ken Klippenstein – all of the media noise about US ground attacks are a complete fabrication –
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/is-a-ground-war-with-iran-imminent
and for more fun, guess whose ratings at tanking at CBS –
https://www.status.news/p/cbs-news-ratings-decline-bari-weiss
different clue
. . . ” The correct action is revolution, but Americans talk big about the 2nd amendment, they don’t use it to resist tyranny. ” . . .
America has a big enough population to contain several opposing political-culture factions. The factions of Americans who talk big about the 2nd amendment are the factions which consider Liberal Democracy, especially Secular or even semi-Secular Liberal Democracy to BE Tyranny. Those factions would include the KlanMAGAs, the ArmaRapturists, the Christianazians, and others whose names I don’t even know. And they are currently MAKing their Revolution . . . . doing their Long March through ( and often against) all the Institutions of Government and Public Society. Just because the KlanMAGA / New Apostolic Reformation/ Christian Nationalists Revolution is not THE Revolution that you or I would have preferred does not mean that it is not a Revolution. It is just as much a Revolution as the Nazi Revolution was in Germany. Maybe even more so.
The people you wish WOULD Revolutionize against Tyranny are the very people who are doing their very limp-wristed kumbaya-cuck best to do so. But they are not the people going on about the 2nd Amendment. They are the people who have spent decades going on aGAINST the 2nd Amendment. I was raised to be one of those people. In hindsight I find it to have been a very humiliating very subhumanist upbringing. But there it is.
So the No Kingsians are not going to make a COUNTer Revolution against the KlanMaga Christianazian Revolution currently underway.
Mark Level
“Trump needs to be impeached or removed” via the 25th Amendment. I think that is the clearest center of your post, and completely agree.
Here’s the thing though, which of the lemmings in his administration will break with the Cult and recognize the Naked, schizophrenic (literally says different opposed things day to day and even hour to hour) drooling loser he has become?
How deep can he dig in? Until he crashes the entire economy, not just of the US Empire, but worldwide?
Some things have become evident in the last couple of days though– 1. His bizarre lie that “the Iranians gave me a giant gift, they love me so much” is not, like most of his other claims, complete fantasy. He used the Pakistanis as a front party to let 8 tankers out of the strait, they were all stolen by the US!! Oh, what a ground-breaking success, more subtle than his widespread piracy on the high seas thus far . . . well, not really. Will 8 stolen oil tankers break the balance/ bank and lead to a US Victory? Uhm, no, makes no difference, in fact the only difference that’s made is now Pakistan is in the dog house, no oil for them!!! (Maybe they can grovel and beg the Russians?) Won’t be a future mediator either.
2. Trump TACO’ed repeatedly, it’s not a 2 day ultimatum, it’s a week, now more. The walls are closing in on the Trump Volk. They’ve lost. Iran not even talking to them. The threat to bomb their oil and possibly desalination plants led them to say, Fine, we will do the same to all your local proxies’ oil or desal plants, let’s see how you like that? The surgically altered Caroline Leavitt goes out and brags, “President Trump doesn’t bluff”!! Well, he dose nothing but bluff, bluster and lie. Another White Man House spokesman, Jack Keane says we’ll be mopping this up in a few more weeks, more pure bullshit.
3. The propaganda from the administration has gone off the charts, (into LAS Banderist cheerleading territory, Moscow is getting hit hard!!) Some examples– Jared and Witkoff now sidelined, nobody in Iran will talk to them. So JD Vance is supposedly the “smart” one (a very low bar given the rest, but ok) goes on the MICIMaTT today and swears home-grown Iranian “terrorists” are about to start walking into US grocery stores and detonating “Nuclear Vests!” When they wouldn’t even build Nuke weapons in country under Khamenei, how would those be snuck into USA undetected? Could they pull off such a massive False Flag? Seems unlikely. Would it lead to a “Rally round the flag” moment among people going broke over gas prices, farmers who have no fertilizer? Methinks not.
4. More dumb, ridiculous Lies. CNN released a poll saying that 100% of MAGA cultists supported the US Attack starting with slaughtering 175 school girls, then their family members. Well, this is clear Zio-Hasbara, guess they got some #MeTooing losers in CNN over a barrel. You could make this “true” by excluding everyone fleeing from MAGA over Epstein, now being the War President after 10+ years bragging “I don’t do stupid wars,” etc. But the unanimity of the Media millionaire class over every atrocity, child-killing and war over this Century has been appalling. They don’t even need to be Ellison-family owned to lie, it’s just baked in. They support failure and death, over and over, that’s the corporate way.
5. Magesterial discussion by John Mearsheimer here with Glen Diesen, that every day TrumpCo delays stopping, admitting failure (just as in Ukraine) leads to a worse future defeat, worst negotiating terms when the final Victory for Iran seen. Link here for those interested– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBOVT0UdHXg Oh, and Mearsheimer just laughed at the idea US will do boots on the ground, says it’s pure Hopium distraction. The likes of Nancy Mace (hard-core Maga) among others says no.
More responses– I loved the Lego film from Iran with Trump ending up atop a pile of coffins, with his “Pants on Fire” seen from behind. Coincidentally in 2023, Harper’s mag did a nice Trump piece with an illustration of DJT with one hand behind his back, fingers crossed, while taking the Oath of Office, and a flaming ass. Great minds think alike. Oh, and I look forward to the LAS kvetching about which people got excluded from the Iranian satire. If he’s so brilliant at satire, one wonders why he hasn’t volunteered for Ukraine? They’re 100% Narrative, like Trump, highest-paid Actor in the World leads them. Walk the walk, LAS, show us something brilliant for the Azov Brigade, please!! If you won’t go over there for all the Little Odessans in NYC who won’t, do a great video please.
Some parties fight wars, some spin narrative! Which prevails? Thinking minds know, bigoted haters and idealogues often err here.
Oh, and closing question for other commenters. I can’t open the “X” content, my Firefox won’t open it, had to go to a different browser to see the full content. Lots of tech problems here in the last few days, and Mercury hasn’t been retrograde for couple weeks. Are others having problems? Any suggestions to get round this?
spud
there is no way out of this for the average american, the police are now so so much more than just a tool of oppression, they are a terrorist organization that now hand cuffs and terrorize children as young as three years old, and openly murder and torture citizens. this is of course to cower the public, and it works.
from the lowest of government, to the highest, they have almost complete immunity for their crimes and follies.
the capitalist portion of our government, has limited liability, and say the corporation made me do it, its a human, go after them.
the average american has a long long way down yet, till they figure it out.
the west is fighting with WWII weapons, a first world nation with modern weapons.
the E.U. is already becoming so embolden with russias meekness, the they are openly contemplating destroying russias shadow fleet, in fact they have already done some of this.
arming Taiwan should have been a red line for the chinese, instead of worrying about their trade surplus.
the defeat needs to be a total defeat, by allied countries to be credible to the rest of the western world of free trade and colonization.
other wise the rest of the world faces this,
Role of Free Trade
Free trade policies emerged as a significant aspect of Britain’s economic strategy. The shift from mercantilism to free trade allowed for:
Increased Exports: British manufacturers sought new markets for their goods, leading to a surge in exports.
Lower Costs: The repeal of tariffs and trade restrictions reduced costs for raw materials, enhancing competitiveness.
Global Influence: Free trade practices often required military backing to ensure compliance from other nations, reinforcing Britain’s global dominance.
Conclusion
The interplay of trade, military strength, and industrial advancements underpinned the British Empire’s expansion. This strategy not only secured economic benefits but also established Britain as a leading global power during the 18th and 19th centuries.
DanD
The only idea I can come up with short of decisive Iranian victory is that China or possibly Russia deploys “peacekeepers” to key Iranian areas/sites which would deter the US or Israel from attacks. I don’t think Iran would like this, they don’t want to be mere vassals to another country, but it seems like it could in principle allow the fighting to stop while giving Iran reasonable assurance they won’t be sneak attacked again in 6 months.
Iran getting nukes now might work or it might provoke Israel to try a first strike. It would be very high risk for Iran to reveal itself to have nukes right now without a credible 2nd strike capacity (nuclear subs etc).
different clue
This little reddit item, from the antiwork subreddit , is a particular case illustrating the general argument in my comment just above this one.
“New Manager came in HOT FOR JESUS.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1s561nq/new_manager_came_in_hot_for_jesus/
I can’t possibly know if the new manager in this example goes on about the 2nd Amendment his own personal self. But I know that the HOT FOR JESUS movement, the KlanMAGA movement, and some other such movements strongly overlap with the going-on-about-the-2nd Ammendment movement. The tyranny they oppose is the tyranny they decided that Biden brought them and that Harris would bring them more of.
What we see as tyranny is what they see as their Liberation Movement to make America HOT FOR JESUS again and Make America White Again ( MAWA) and Make America White Power Again ( MAWPA) and Make America White Supreme Again(MASPA), etc.
Us who consider what Them are doing to be tyranny have never been part of the pro-2nd Amendment community. And at this point in time, I doubt Us could make up the 80-years-behind difference on getting Gun Literate. So since Us is not the people going on about the 2nd Amendment, and Them IS the people going on about it and Them don’t consider the current Admin to be Tyranny . . . Them consider it to be Liberation . . . . perhaps the concept of “Americans” going on about the 2nd Ammendment is not analytically useful in this situation.
StewartM
DC has it right about resorting to the “Second Amendment” . The “Second Amendment” option was never about ordinary people having guns to protect against tyranny, but to the Right to have its own SA paramilitary to target minorities and the political opposition. They see the immigrants being rounded up and the disarmed hippies being shot in the streets, and they LIKE IT.
(DC, we do have a constitutional militia system: it’s called the National Guard. The militia system was not supposed to be a means to revolt against the government; in fact one of its first uses was to suppress such revolts. It was supposed to provide a competent military force which was believed to be ‘closer to the people’ than a professional military force. There’s simply no way that a militia could keep tanks, APCS, fighter jets, and heavy artillery hanging over their fireplace and indeed even back then Congress had to step in to buy arms for them. But the thing is, the militia was never supposed to be private armies).
DanD, I mentioned the “give Iran nukes” option. Yeah, it would have to be coupled with putting Iran under the US (and others’) nuclear umbrella, so that Israel would not launch a first strike. But even then, as Bibi (like Trump) is facing a life of living in a small room behind bars, what’s to say he might pull off his own Armageddon?
Like I said, Trump probably “pulled an Epstein” in Russia too at those beauty pageants, and Putin has those tapes, which is why while helping Bibi in his Israel-uber-alles war, Trump’s been feeding information to Putin which Putin’s forwarding to Iran. This makes both Bibi and Putin reluctant to kill the goose that keeps laying all these golden eggs for them!
However, I don’t believe that the vast majority of American elites have likewise “pulled an Epstein”, at least not regularly. But most have committed some at least embarrassing if not downright illegal misdeeds in their past. (Well? Haven’t most people?) Count this as one of the many wonderful blessing of the surveillance state; anyone who even attempts to buck the system must have led the life of a saint or they will be confronted with a “we know that 20 years ago you did this…”. (Lindsey Graham, anyone? He sure went from being a never-Trumper to being a fawning toad).
But even if you’ve been a saint, it’s easy to create enough “evidence” with tech which will be swallowed by the gullible.
different clue
Here is a little clip from something called the Kim Iversen show. She interviews someone in Israel who is describing the state of the Israeli public mood and also opining about what the IsraelGov hopes or hoped to achieve, and also speculating on other things and stuff.
His tone appears to be dispassionate and muh feelz like he is a reality-based observer-explainer. But them’s just muh feelz and what would muh feelz really know?
Anyway . . .
“An Israeli Insider Says Israel Is CRACKING”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a05aKcnli0
different clue
In parallel with my comments above about Them and Us, here is a very sad and saddening video which I have just started watching called:
“MAGA Parents Are Getting CUT OFF As Americans Wake Up”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjaYBGUEhlQ
It leads with a nice young woman explaining about how nice her parents were and have been and maybe still are as people and yet how completely TrumpCult they are in their worldview and behavior. She describes how they have spent decades marinating in a vat of Fox News and Christian Nationalism . . . for decades before the emergence of Trump. They were ready-made for Trump by decades of media and leadership preparation. They sound like they are from the Trumpanon Wing rather than the White Power KlanMAGA Wing of the Conservative Base, though maybe I will find out differently as I keep watching.
What happens when Them raised Us and some of Them is some of Us’s parents? How do those of Us in that position deal with that? ( That was never my problem. My upbringing was Toxic Culture-Leftism from one parent and unpredictable Screaming Outburst Rage-oholism ( no alcohol involved) from the other parent, which is a whole other problem leaving behind a whole other legacy of personal bitterness and bad memories).
Purple Library Guy
@different clue, I’m sure the CIA has the tapes too. But that doesn’t really matter. Blackmail doesn’t cancel out. If multiple people have the same blackmail material on you, that just means you can be blackmailed by multiple people. Mossad can blackmail Trump, the CIA can blackmail Trump, maybe an enterprising janitor who maintained the cameras can blackmail Trump.
different clue
But would the CIA have to tolerate Mossad being able to blackmail Trump at Mossad’s pleasure? Does the CIA have something or nothing to say about Mossad or another foreign service being able to blackmail an American President for that foreign service’s own purpose rather than for CIA’s chosen purpose? Is the CIA really not the master of intelligence and blackmail in its own house?
Separately, here is a video interview with Trump’s ‘unofficial( I think) biographer Michael Wolff called ” Inside Trump’s Head”. It offers a fleshed out version of the same “theory of the Trump” which I remember having offered here a week or so ago.
And that theory is that Trump knows Trump is stupid and is just barely self-cognitional to be able to realize just how stupid Trump really is. And Trump knows that half of America knows it and he hates both halves of America for it ( to make sure that he is hating the ‘right half’) and he wants to destroy America to get revenge on America for knowing how stupid Trump is.
Trump’s Prime Directive is . . . ” I must destroy America to make America pay for knowing how stupid I am and refusing to pretend it doesn’t know.” Any money he can steal for himself and his family along the way is just gravy. That remains my theory of the Trump.
“Why Even Trump Insiders Admit He’s ‘An Idiot’ | Inside Trump’s Head”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e86jT8Wc8Rg
different clue
What . . . another video!? Umm, yeah.
This is a Willie D Live video about two totally unrelated things, as one can tell from the title.
“Trump Official Says Republicans Are Afraid of Going to Jail in 2028, Tiger Woods Charged with DUI”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GcLW-7AcS8
The ” Republicans afraid” part shows a Republican at the CPAC Conference saying ” if the DemParty is allowed to win in 2026 and 2028, all us Republican political operators will be indicted and imprisoned”. And the video goes on from there, veers off into Tiger Woods, and then gets back to the Rep Party operators.
Willie D then goes on to say that he himself thinks that if the DemParty totally wins Congress and then the Presidency, they won’t do anything to the Republicans anyway.
” They just aren’t built like that.” He basically dismisses them at the human and political level as kumbaya forgiveness-cucks. He seems to me to consider Democrats to be not fully human enough to crush and destroy their enemies, which is what true human beings do, but which sub-human beings are not capable of understanding the necessity and the moral properness of doing.
Willie D talks about this aspect of the Democrat Problem from timepoint 7: 55 to about timepoint 13:00, for those who might want to listen to that particular part of the video. Then, after marveling at various Judges letting Trump utterly disrespect them and the Court System, he circles back to what he wishes and hopes the Dems “would” do about the Republicans if the Dems got voted into power but which he fears they won’t do. But it is that first timespan segment I referrenced just above which might really be worth listening to.
someofparts
Stewart M – Speaking of people who were “near saints” and yet got pilloried anyway, remember Jimmy Carter?
When people go nuts about Trump I remember that people were also nuts about Carter. Washington hated that man and never stopped marginalizing him. Then they welcomed Reagan into office like he was the second coming of Christ.
He told us it was “morning in America” while he tore Carter’s solar panels off of the White House. Now we get Trump demolishing the entire east wing, while the fundamentalists Reagan installed in Iran deal the final death blow to the nation.
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I don’t think blackmail is the issue here or the Trump card people think it is, at least in regard to Donald Trump. He is the leader of a cult. That is not in doubt. It’s the unequivocal truth of the matter. As such, there is nothing he can do that would turn his cult against him. He has even bragged about this — he has said he can do anything and his cult followers will still love him. It;s one of the few things he has asserted that is not a lie.
Also, per my comment in another thread, Trump has agency and the buck stops with him. Overstating blackmail is letting him off the hook once again. It’s too similar to the German military and Gestapo claiming they were just following orders and therefore cannot be held responsible.
All the Dem astroturf pundits and content creators go on and on every day, nay every hour, with headlines that Trump is panicking and collapsing. Meidas Touch especially but there are so many making bank off covering Donald Trump’s insanity. Yet here he is, still standing and despite them wishfully thinking MAGA is fracturing, his MAGA base is not wavering. Any intelligent person knows MAGA would never vote for a Dem or support a Dem. The Dem propaganda is absurd and insulting to anyone with more than a brain stem up top.
Feral Finster
If Russia had blackmail material on Trump, they would have used it a long time ago.
bruce wilder
The information vacuum continues to draw hallucination into the space where thought and deliberation should take place. The more practiced commentators with YouTube podcasts interpolate the missing data from the same narratives they have been flogging for years. In the meantime, we all wait with longing for events so dramatic and unmistakeable in meaning that vast fog banks of misinformation cannot obscure their significance, even (or especially) for those benighted souls whose (partly imaginary?) opinions we have trained ourselves to despise.
It is disorientating to have no better compass with which to orient ourselves to reality than the passions of cheerleaders for teams not our own or the clever, convenient narrative tropes of public relations hacks.
A non-subscriber, I cannot read anything but headlines on the websites of CNN or BBC or the New York Times. Such is my access to “legacy mainstream” news and views. But, I thought I would check in for form’s sake.
Kaela Berg, a flight attendant, is running for Congress; both working-class Democrats rejoice in unison apparently. I am missing today’s “No Kings” rally, the third edition of the classic brand-name protest sponsored by Son of Soros, featuring increasing diversity, growing numbers and the same ineffectual irrelevance as the first edition. In other news, Tiger Woods flipped his SUV and was arrested on a DUI. Britain’s Daily Mail helpfully informs that the unphotogenic Princess Beatrice and her dishy Italian husband are doing something, something that apparently justifies printing their available file photos.
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Oh, the irony. You can’t make this shit up. Speaking of Trump being blackmailed, or not, the following link reveals that Trump’s legal team used blackmail as the justification for the Supreme Court to rule in his favor and grant him presidential immunity.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4542698-trump-immunity-protects-presidents-blackmail-supreme-court-filing/
Former President Trump made his pitch to the Supreme Court to toss his election interference case, asking it to reverse lower court decisions that found he has no presidential immunity shielding him from prosecution.
Trump has been turned down by two courts as he’s argued his efforts to stay in power leading up to Jan. 6 were all done within the scope of his role as president, something he argues affords him immunity from the resulting criminal charges.
“A denial of criminal immunity would incapacitate every future President with de facto blackmail and extortion while in office, and condemn him to years of post-office trauma at the hands of political opponents,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the brief.
“That bleak scenario would result in a weak and hollow President, and would thus be ruinous for the American political system as a whole. That vital consideration alone resolves the question presented in favor of dismissal of this case,” the filing states later.
The Supreme Court is set to weigh the matter in an April 25 hearing.
For me, this is Trump effectively saying he can’t be blackmailed. We know he’s a liar and therefore using blackmail as a justification for the Supreme Court granting him a license to do as he pleases is in fact disingenuous because he knows he can’t be blackmailed.
Bribed, the other “b”, is another matter entirely. Using blackmail as the excuse for him to do anything he pleases as POTUS, allows for the president to be bribed to his heart’s delight. Of course, he can’t be bribed either. Instead, he extorts under the aegis of bribery.
The guy is a machine, you have to admit. This is why he is Satan. If Satan existed, it would be Donald Trump.
elkern
(just posted this at NC, but relevant here, too…)
My biggest worry now is that Israeli use of nukes on Iran is becoming inevitable.
Mizrahi’s scenario is plausible: the IDF collapses and Israel is physically overrun by Hezbollah, etc, triggering Israel’s Samson Option (aimed at who???).
But Israel is likely to choose to use nukes long before that occurs. Their strategic framework is based on making sure that *all* of its neighbors are too afraid to put up any real resistance to Israeli expansion. Iran has resisted Israel; if Israel doesn’t absolutely destroy Iran, this will show that resistance is possible (even if still very costly).
All Iran has to do to “win” is survive; but Israel’s leaders (and probably a large majority of its [Jewish] voters) believe that Iranian survival inevitably leads to Israel being overrun. (In this, they may not be wrong).
Of course, Iran’s leaders (and probably a large majority of its voters…) view this war as existential, for good reason – precisely because Israel really is hell-bent on destroying them (and has convinced US to help).
So, it now seems that the only thing which would prevent Israel from resorting to nukes would be for Iran to capitulate or collapse. Right now, that does not appear likely; ergo, Israel is likely to go nuclear.
I see only two options for preventing that.
The first would be for the USA to cut them off, but AIPAC influence is still strong enough to make that impossible. That level of control won’t last much longer, but sadly, that fact just makes Bibi’s trigger finger even itchier. That in itself may be why Israel pushed for this war /now/; US Midterm elections may make the decline of AIPAC obvious. So, I don’t consider this to be a viable solution.
The other possibility would be for [pretty much] ALL other countries in the world to make a joint statement that using nukes would make Israel a pariah nation, and cease ALL trade, travel, and contact with Israel. Israel could survive for a while with support from the US alone, but not for long; even if the US doesn’t turn against Israel, the US is obviously a declining Power.
But the recent UN vote shows that even this is a fleeting hope. It’s no surprise that the feudal monarchs of the GCC have chosen to side with Israel & USA, of course. But sadly, Europe seems to have made the same choice.
Please, somebody, tell me that there’s another way out of this???
different clue
@Like & Subscribe,
Your observations about the DemLiberal LibDemocrat allied Yoo Toobers and VidCasters are correct, which is why I almost never refer to any of them and don’t even watch/listen to much of them.
The African VidCasters and aggregator-reVidCasters of American BlackAmerican content are entirely more interesting at a deeper level. I stumbled across them by accident in the “more videos” vertical choice column on the right side of the screen of a Belle of the Ranch video. They have been worthwhile enough that I sometimes offer a relevant one here now and again.
So there is still worthwhile stuff to be seen on you tube in between the worthless stuff. There is also some other stuff besides the FBAmerican content. Parkrose Permaculture has some good analysis and advice and suggestions from time to time.
And there are other whole genres of you tube material, for example ; how-to corn-growing videos from Mexico in Spanish. I basically can’t understand them, but I can at least watch the footage and learn or infer something.
So little time. So much to watch. So much wil remain unwatched regardless.
Feral Finster
@L&S: all of which is irrelevant to my point.
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@L&S: all of which is irrelevant to my point.
Huh? My commentary was not directed at your post. I didn’t even read your post before I constructed my commentary.
Mark+Oglesby
It just sickens me that so many American soldiers, airmen, and sailors will be killed due to the stupidity and cowardness of US so-called “leadership” which can’t really be leaders because leaders ensure that all of its citizens, its people benefit from their actions. I know the cost as I had two brothers who had tours in Vietnam, the oldest came home in a box. Instead of being drafted into the Army, I chose to join the Navy, hopefully a safer place to be, out at sea, and it was. Losing my oldest brother awaken me to the reality of Empire and the damage it inflicts on its citizens and the entire world. The United States is defacto a TERRORIST ORGANIZATION which must be put down. And yes, the time has come, and with the continuation of this War on Iran (there’s no other way of putting it as the US attacked a sovereign nation who was never a threat to its security as it was all about MONEY) will see the downfall of Trump, the downfall of The United States of America as a leading nation in our world. We will become the next Great Britian, a second-rate player, just another Paper-Tiger pretending to be something which it is not!
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Take note in the latest Lego video released by Iran Ian kindly underscored, the Iranians are not providing Trump the cover of being blackmailed. It shows Bibi crying and begging Trump. The Iranians imply as I have proclaimed many times now, the buck stops with Trump and his administration. No excuses. No cover. Trump and his administration have full and complete agency so any retribution starts with that and works its way down the hierarchy of complicity and responsibility.
Carborundum
I would actually be comforted if this was an issue of blackmail bending a vulnerable Trump administration to the will of a malevolent external actor. Unfortunately, I do not believe that’s what is going on here. This is actually how stupid a non-trivial part of the American national security apparatus is and how supine American political players are. The kicker in this specific situation is that they’re going about the conflict in a way that is about as strategically uninformed as I have seen, and that includes watching the foibles of the last going on two and a half decades pretty closely. Same old story – very good tactical and operational execution of poor, trending towards garbage pseudo-strategy.
From the Iranian perspective, they’re going to have to accept the potential the US and Israel can resume hostilities at will – at least over the short-term. They simply don’t have the combat power to degrade American and Israeli capability to the level required to do otherwise and they clearly shouldn’t trust any political settlement, given intractable Israeli hostility and American intransigence. Over the medium- to long-term I think their objective will be to make US basing in-theatre more difficult politically and hold it at greater threat militarily, including via unconventional means.
In spite of all the hits they’ve taken, they seem still to be capable of limited force generation and can still do damage, as demonstrated by the recent hits at Prince Sultan. It’s not militarily determinative by any stretch of the imagination (and actually pretty easy to counter if US forces weren’t so complacent), but it does forward their primary external-facing strategic goal for the end of conflict – to seen to still be standing when the dust settles.
Magnier’s tweet is verbatim PressTV reporting so it should be a fairly accurate rendition of the Iranian position, or at least how they want their position to be publicly understood.
StewartM
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Just sayin’: Trump is acting like someone who is being blackmailed. When someone is doing something so obviously counter to their own interests and character, and takes it meekly and continues doing it despite admonitions from friends and/or allies to “stop doing that!”, blackmail should enter one’s mind as a possible explanation.
Notice how Trump lashes out at anyone to even gives him the smallest of perceived slights on social media, and how petty and vengeful he is. That is how Trump acts when he thinks he has all the cards, from a position of power. Then think of what Bibi and Putin get away with. They treat Trump the way that Trump treats Lindsey Graham. And yet Trump, like Graham, meekly takes it. And the rumor is that Trump doesn’t even like Bibi. But he’s Bibi’s prison “girl” when push comes to shove.
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StewartM, I think you are missing my point. To better understand the point, let’s discuss what would transpire if the Epstein Files showed Trump raping Epstein’s sex slaves for ALL to see. What do you think the reaction would be? What would the fall out be? I argue that it would be no different than the reaction to anything else Trump has done, does and will do. His base will still unwaveringly support him, because it’s a cult, and world leaders will still kiss his ass and ring and fawn over him in their obligatory Oval Office visits. So how exactly is that effective blackmail?
Here’s the guy from The Good Liars handing out the Epstein Files at the CPAC conference in Dallas. His base simply will never believe anything related to it that impugns Donald Trump. Donald Trump told them it was a Dem hoax and so to them, it’s a Dem hoax and his base is all that matters. Dem voters already oppose the fascist creep and world leaders simply don’t care if he’s a pedo rapist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCWgeiJXXto
different clue
Here is a content-creator/ political-cultural analyst who calls himself ‘Toure’, with a video about how stuck Trump has gotten himself ( and us too, unfortunately) in a multi-year war with Iran.
“Trumpy Started A War He Can’t Win. Now He’s So Screwed.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ws1qpptySw
( By the way, if America finally comes out of this like Great Britain – — a has-been former Great Power getting all nostalgiaholic about the the good times long past . . .
would that be so terrible? Wouldn’t it give us a chance to focus on MAOKA ( Make America O K Again)?
different clue
Here is a little video about some Chinese troll-content creators ( in China I assume) about Donald Trump regarding this war. They are various sayings and epigrams from ” The Art of War” by “Don Tzu”.
“These “Don Tzu” Memes Are Actually Savage 😭”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B9pJYpGVEs