ABigGuy4U
3d ago
Regarding your second point about escalation options: The United States has nuclear weapons. Like Russia in the Ukraine War, the Trump administration has been overtly laying the ground work for cassus beli in case the button is pressed.
The administration’s whole theory of the war is that Iran is very, very close to both an atomic bomb and missiles capable of hitting the US. Justifying nuclear strikes here would be trivial: “The IRGC has access to a few prototype ballistic missiles capable of reaching Europe and parts of the United States. We just got intelligence showing that a deep underground Iranian nuclear facility was able to crash enrich enough Uranium for three or four kiloton-yield warheads. We believe they have successfully assembled the warheads. The risks here are too great, we must start striking deep underground missile batteries and nuclear facilities with tactical nuclear warheads.”
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
I have heard rumors that the planned uprising was going to be concurrent with the strikes, but that it was discovered and had to go early.
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
We can wipe out Iranian missile launcher sites while keeping our carriers safe and sound
The way they did that was by just not using the carriers, and running the entire first week of the war by an elaborate relay of aerial tankers to run squadrons in from far away for sorties. Smart, but not an effective tactic in the pacific and not a good sign either.
ABigGuy4U
3d ago
Saddam and his government got pretty thoroughly destroyed too, that didn’t stop the war from becoming a giant black eye for the US.
ABigGuy4U
4d ago
“Late Stage Capitalism” is a reference to Marx’s statement about the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in capitalist economies. All the twenty-dollar bills get picked up and everyone starts scumming the margins for tiny increases in efficiency.
By the end it was a type 2 verging on type 1. You had direct French vs. England naval and land conflict within the 13 colonies, and were starting to see limited naval engagements popping up around the world (the last battle of the American Revolutionary War was off the coast of India, and didn’t involve any Americans). The escalation risk was part of why Britain threw in the towel.
ABigGuy4U
7d ago
Neither the US nor Israel would just bomb one specific girls' school for kicks, it makes no sense.
If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the moral quality and proclivities of our world leaders over the past few years “Heathen blood sacrifice to Ba’al to ensure success in the conflict” isn’t particularly loopy or out of the question.
I think it needs to be noted here that Iran has damaged or sunk multiple tankers in the last five days, several of which were in the Straight of Hormuz. This isn’t just Old Man Insurance Company being a fuddy duddy. Oil companies aren’t drug cartels, the business model isn’t designed around losing five to ten percent of the product each shipment.
ABigGuy4U
9d ago
Is this indicative that they are not onside and need to be bribed to keep the coalition together?
The gulf Arab kingdoms genuinely hate Iran, the bribes are to get them to have a spine.
ABigGuy4U
9d ago
Yeeting a $400 flying lawnmower into a tanker isn’t that hard. And it genuinely is important for Iran, closing the straight is one of their main bargaining chips. They’ll put effort into it.
ABigGuy4U
9d ago
that millennials and later generations grew up with video games being just a typical pastime
The three generations before millennials spent 90 years straight calling everything they didn’t like communism, so I don’t think it’s just the video games.
ABigGuy4U
12d ago
If Iran falls Russia and China are effectively kicked out of the Middle East.
ABigGuy4U
15d ago
And one of the men who killed Kennedy is rumored to have a been a French solider and OAS member.
ABigGuy4U
16d ago
I think he’s really revitalized the format of the SOTU on a pomp and spectacle level. I suspect future administrations will keep this format.
ABigGuy4U
16d ago
I suspect he was there for professional reasons, and the thirty second photo op of him smashing PBRs with the boys was the cover. I believe he has coached high school hockey teams.
ABigGuy4U
27d ago
Anyone who’s been looking at the Epstein file dumps in detail, is it true all the records and emails for September of 2001 have been scrubbed?
ABigGuy4U
28d ago
The only appropriate response is to emphasize the potential risks involved in such actions, given your extensive service record in the Navy SEALs.
ABigGuy4U
28d ago
@Rov_Scam @TowardsPanna @SubstantialFrivolity
Sorry CHUD,
•You WILL choke on a cloud of my generously applied Drakkar Noir cologne
•You WILL be blinded by the glare of my 10mm gold Cuban chain
•You WILL cope, seethe and dilate in jealousy at my forty-thousand dollar Rolex
•You WILL purchase a reasonably priced certified pre-owned European import sports car from my automotive dealership, subject to in-house financing options
And you will be happy
ABigGuy4U
28d ago
Ban all fractional prices. Everything must be rounded to the nearest dollar. Coins are now one, five, ten, and 25 dollars. The paper bills are now $100, $500, and $1000. I know the government does not like making large denomination bills because of drug dealers, but we really need some back or paper money is just going to be useless pretty soon. Maybe that’s what they want.
ABigGuy4U
28d ago
Sometimes personalities just click. Ulysses Grant and his wife were like that.
ABigGuy4U
1mo ago
There was this romantic potboiler/disaster movie from 2014 called Pompeii. Overall deeply mediocre. But one small detail that I really liked was that they made the soldiers uniforms a half-step between accurate Roman armor and modern black tactical body armor that you would see a SWAT team or special forces wearing. Not particularly period appropriate but it made the solders unusually imposing for a period piece, because your brain is subconsciously reading them like a modern military unit.
When your point of comparison is 2003 era Iraq, where the units on the front line weren’t even allowed to speak to each other by radio to avoid coup planning, the IRGC looks pretty damn elite.
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