Anything that raises the price of crude oil or pushes the West toward dropping sanctions is good for Putin. He is probably dancing in the Kremlin - just when secondary sanctions were starting to bite, India is encouraged to buy Russian oil.
"Potential outcomes." Trump didn't anticipate Iran using Trum/Epstein in a propaganda war.
Google: Iranian state media and pro-Tehran networks have successfully popularized the theory that the U.S.-Israel military campaign, dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," was launched primarily to distract from the release of 3 million new Epstein-related documents.
The Washington Post
Key Developments in the Propaganda War
"Operation Epstein Distraction": This derogatory term has been widely adopted by Iranian media and even some U.S. critics to characterize the conflict.
AI-Generated Disinformation: A pro-Iran network used AI to create viral videos, including a fake clip viewed over 6.8 million times on X that appears to show an underwear-clad Donald Trump near a line of blindfolded girls.
Trolling via Official Channels: Iranian state media aired a Lego-style animated video titled "Narrative of Victory," which shows a "plastic Trump" and Benjamin Netanyahu reading an "Epstein File" before launching missiles to divert attention.
The "Epstein Regime" Narrative: Iran has sought to frame Western leadership as a corrupt "Epstein class" or "Epstein regime" to erode international support for the military operations.
It is going to get much harder to detect fake AI generated items over the next few years. Good luck with that. I hope we find something that works.
Of course this is an Epstein distraction campaign! It's just like many other recent tRump atrocities. I am convinced (with zero objective evidence) that Putin has some of the missing Epstein materials, especially videos.
They will both kill as many people as necessary to distract from their respective crimes. Go read the G.K. Chesterton story "The Sign of the Broken Sword." The solution to the mystery is not at all far fetched. I have seen in play out many times, on a global scale.
"Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war.
The chorus is loud and, in some respects, understandable. War is ugly, and this one has imposed real costs on millions of people across the Middle East, including the city I live in.
But this narrative is wrong. Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are cataloguing the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.
When you look at what has actually happened to Iran’s principal instruments of power – its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defences, its navy and its proxy command architecture – the picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades."
It seems to me that Trump's MAGA base would not be deterred by any claims of pedophilia or even claims of him enjoying urination fantasies. I don't go on Reddit, but one of my son's reads the comments where Trump's supporters don't deny he likes young girls and some even hint at believing he has committed incest.
Whatever Putin has, it must be deeper than even Trump thinks he can endure. He's probably proud of his escapades with Epstein. I imagine they duped Trump into relations with a trans woman, young man or something humiliating to his sexual prowess.
If the republicans had any sense, they should have recognized the hold Russia has on him by now and how dangerous that manipulation is for their own country and should let him take the fall. But then one would have to assume that they had consciences and thinking capabilities beyond their own selfish needs. They probably also know without him, Vance won't hold his base at the same level of captivity.
Trump's reactions around Putin do not betray any sense of resentment, as far as I have seen, only admiration. Narcissists with fragile egos like Trump's, can't handle any form of failure, so Trump's brain has allowed itself to believe that Putin is helping him become more like him, while the rest of the world sees the clear manipulation. Trump can't see how poorly wanting a peace prize makes him look to the rest of us, so he won't see his sucking up to Putin as equally humiliating.
This would be quite an interesting, suspenseful international, espionage/drama movie to entertain audiences, if we all weren't actually living through it without an end in sight.
At what point has trump's mind be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"
I formerly responded “Inviting every military in the world to the Strait of Hormuz. What could possibly go wrong?”
A second read reveals only NATO navies were invited - so they’re likely to reply with pottery store rules, as Colin Powell and John Kerry did to the former worst president in history - “You break it, you own it”.
Betting orange man will stomp on Musk to patrol X for negative AI videos featuring him, as mentioned above in WP. So much despicable, factually-inaccurate stuff on X and FB.
If we train AIs using social media, we will get behavior that matches the humans who posted it - teens... Judge Judy: "How do you know if a teen is lying?" Answer: "Are his lips moving?" Byrd: "How do you know if a politician is lying?" Answer: "Is he running for office? His lips don't need to move."
"Democrats need a different Middle East vision, one grounded in four principles:" This is the most meaningful statement of this article, as it gives DEMs a campaign message to voters to win elections this Nov - the only way out of this war. That is America needs a regime change to produce something positive from this war.
Doubtful. Merely a band-aid to help manage oil prices. And now the Saudis and the Omanis are pushing a combined eight million barrels of oil daily through two pipelines, which is 40 percent of the approximately twenty million barrels that flows through the Gulf daily. We get less than ten percent of our oil from the Middle East. Asia gets at least eighty percent and I think Europe gets forty percent.
Good thinking. I view Putin as the world's second worst strategist - after Trump. I doubt Putin could base Russian policy/strategy on closure of the Strait, increase in world oil prices and the US (Trump) removing sanctions of Russia oil sales. I don't think even Putin would gamble on an inside straight.
Putin isn't stupid. He thinks and acts strategically and has the patience to let actions mature. He is also an opportunist. His intelligence is top notch, so he is well aware of the interaction between tRump and NothingNotInVenue. Encouraging tRump to support Israeli attack leading to a shutdown of Hormuz is not a big stretch.
The six (?) senators and representatives who made the tape about not following illegal orders should all be appointed to the investigative or impeachment committee that does the post mortem on this.
Hegseth has the instincts of a platoon leader: told to “take that hill” he turns around and bellows to his men “Take that hill.” Senior leadership in DOD answers to a higher standard.
Interestingly, Caine is not in the chain of operational command which goes from hegseth to combatant commanders. Nevertheless, In my opinion in this case Caine should have resigned when his advice was ignored
In essence trump/ and/or his advisors bet American lives and billions of our dollars that his assessment of likely outcomes was likely when it contained a couple of weak links—
Assumption of rapid regime change (even granting the ability to behead the government and decimate iran’s kinetic resources )
The level of desperation and resolve that the remaining leadership would have whether it crossed “”close SoH and take the economic option” threshhold
Completely discounting the threat of terrorist infiltration here--they are content to wait years for their opportunity or will take it sooner. Palm Beach is an eternal target.
What the military did in Venezuela was follow illegal orders. Their "expertise" did not include resisting attacks on boats and crews that had no evidence that they were transporting drugs, and the preemptive capture of Maduro was and is unacceptable.
Trump’s actions to attack Iran without a goal, analysis of Iran’s likely responses, or an exit strategy should be enough to demonstrate his incompetence, trigger the 25th Amendment, and remove him from office.
As heavily as he relies on Christian Nationalists to back him up, they’re amateur hour compared to the Iranian state. There was no way he could pull off a Nicaraguan-like action in Iran; he and his yes-men should have known it.
You are right but, as we have learned, the 25th amendment and impeachment only work if members of the president’s political party are willing to move against him. There is no universe where a Cabinet of men, wearing actual clown shoes, are going to have the courage required to invoke the 25th amendment.
The Constitution should be amended so the citizens can call for a non-confidence vote and get rid of a failing president without the consent of his sycophants.
That's why Trump and co are calling it a holy war. This is a disaster brought to us by unfit government officials. Anyone who voted for Trump should be ashamed
What Nicaraguan-like action are you referring to? The one where Reagan tried to overthrow the Sandinista government? If that's the one, then sorry to say, but Reagan's operation was not considered a success, as it failed to achieve its main goal - the effort did not overthrow the Sandinista government and it resulted in a major scandal with criminal charges and convictions of multiple officials, including Oliver North and Admiral John Poindexter. Although the Sandinista government was eventually removed from power in the 1990 elections, the whole affair, including the Iran-Contra arms for money affair is regarded by most historians as a catastrophic failure of policy and oversight.
Yes. High body counts don't equal victory. For 8 years we controlled the battlefields & killed Vietnamese Communists with the expectation they would eventually give up. For 20 years we controlled the Afghan battlefields and killed Taliban religious fanatics with the expectation they would give up. We certainly do know how to kill a lot of people but apparently don't know to make democracy work for decency.
It is the people of the US and Israel that turned out to be stupid here; putting people into office that are corrupt sociopaths, and allowing them to destroy the country and perhaps the world with it.
Some of our leadership has the stupid notion that democracy can be dispensed like mana falling from the heavens. If a society/country doesn't want it, war and disruption will have the opposite effect. This was seen in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Venezuela and Iran will be no different.
There is a powerful strain of wishful thinking on our political right. They are convinced they can always apply enough physical might to any place to make their worldview a reality. Couple that with an utter contempt for expertise speaking to them telling them that their plans are not practicable. The result is the cesspit we have dragged ourselves into. We simply must write a completely rethought Executive Branch and Executive into The Constitution.
Stephen, magical thinking is happening on both sides. The notion that Dems can "re-educate" the basket of deplorables was Biden's fantasy and it was just as delusional as what is happening on the fascist Right. If nothing has taught us over the last 20+ years, it is that a very significant plurality of Americans are actively horrible people; a similar plurality are ignorant passive navel-gazers concerned only about themselves; and maybe a quarter to a third of us are actually engaged in helping in a positive way.
Human beings everywhere are capable of bigotry, of scapegoating a defenseless minority, and of following a demagogue. Germans, Italians, Rwandans and a great many others can assure you of that. Our problem is letting demagogues get into power because they are "entertaining." Stephen King saw this coming decades ago when he wrote "The Dead Zone." The potential destroyer of the world is a nasty little man, a product of parental abuse, self-hatred, superstition disguised as religious fanaticism and a sort of deal with the devil involving outlaw motorcycle gangs. But he is defeated -- spoiler alert -- not by violence, but by a public display of cowardice. King was way too optimistic.
There are a lot of things that could be said about Netanyahu (most of them bad), but stupidity is not one of them (unlike Don the Con). I suspect that Bibi never believed that regime change could be effected, and he made up a story that it could in order to draw Trump into the war. Bibi wanted the war, knowing full well that a regular "mowing of the lawn" will be needed, but lied through his teeth to convince people that it could be a one-time event. Basically Bibi has been playing Don the Con like a fiddle, and Don's too stupid and too narcissistic to realize he's being played.
Jen, your last paragraph sums things up extremely well. Unfortunately, his lowness himself doesn't care a fig about what the public thinks, so the rest of his regime blindly follows suit. Public pressure will eventually work, but in the meantime, we're killing people and expending assets following a fool and his megalomania into another great recession. We're still eight-ish months from the midterms with no control of the idiots in sight.
How are we ever going to get Donald of Orange to back off this idiotic war when having done it, he would inevitably be branded a loser which is the worst thing he could be called?
It's like Putin who cannot end his Ukrainian "excursion" because to admit he was wrong would lead to his defenestration. Folks, we're stuck
You’re correct he will not; it will take a new Democratic Congress with majorities that can impeach and convict.
The only other way is for him to simply declare that he won the war, and insist that he won the war (like he insist that the 2020 election was rigged against) forever and ever amen despite what the entire rest of the world tells him.
Thank you Ms. Rubin. Just one point. Every atrocity, both foreign and domestic, is the responsibility of the entire Republican party. Simply put we must find a way to hold every Republican that betrayed their oath to the Constitution accountable. What we do with the voters who voted for them is another story.
Arrogance and stupidity combined to create this level of fuckupery.
An ugly, demented, psychiatrically fragile naked emperor being constantly purred at by wormtongues, lickspittles, terrified collaborators and dumbasses masquerading as Cabinet officials will get you where we are right now.
Arrogance comes with a terrible price. The Ancient Greeks, Shakespeare, Hans Christian Andersen and those who lived through World War II and the Holocaust know this. A pity not enough Americans could figure this out in both 2016 and 2024.
We’ve sadly learned most eligible American voters are selfish, easily conned, ignorant, bigoted and/or hateful toward anyone not like them - and too lazy to vote. The elite manipulators in finance, tech, advertising and politics have both created and exploited our adolescent citizenry. A toddler and drunk who find death and destruction entertaining are what you get as leaders in such a population.
If Trump blames his advisors then why don't his supporters question his judgement for picking bad advisors? And if he is continually the victim of these advisors conning him then how can he be described as strong and smart? Why does Trump, of all people, get the benefit of the doubt?
Excellent commentary, Jen. While I'm not a supporter in the least of the Iranian regime, we murdered the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei's father, mother, wife, son and forty of his relatives. Can you imagine the anger he feels!? That action alone will lead to years of terrorism against the US.
Unfortunately, I believe you are correct in your assessment. Will we blame the terrorists or Republicans for allowing this mess to happen? Who will we blame?
tRump takes advice from Putin. How is the closure of Hormuz bad for Putin?
Anything that raises the price of crude oil or pushes the West toward dropping sanctions is good for Putin. He is probably dancing in the Kremlin - just when secondary sanctions were starting to bite, India is encouraged to buy Russian oil.
"Potential outcomes." Trump didn't anticipate Iran using Trum/Epstein in a propaganda war.
Google: Iranian state media and pro-Tehran networks have successfully popularized the theory that the U.S.-Israel military campaign, dubbed "Operation Epic Fury," was launched primarily to distract from the release of 3 million new Epstein-related documents.
The Washington Post
Key Developments in the Propaganda War
"Operation Epstein Distraction": This derogatory term has been widely adopted by Iranian media and even some U.S. critics to characterize the conflict.
AI-Generated Disinformation: A pro-Iran network used AI to create viral videos, including a fake clip viewed over 6.8 million times on X that appears to show an underwear-clad Donald Trump near a line of blindfolded girls.
Trolling via Official Channels: Iranian state media aired a Lego-style animated video titled "Narrative of Victory," which shows a "plastic Trump" and Benjamin Netanyahu reading an "Epstein File" before launching missiles to divert attention.
The "Epstein Regime" Narrative: Iran has sought to frame Western leadership as a corrupt "Epstein class" or "Epstein regime" to erode international support for the military operations.
The Washington Post
It is going to get much harder to detect fake AI generated items over the next few years. Good luck with that. I hope we find something that works.
Of course this is an Epstein distraction campaign! It's just like many other recent tRump atrocities. I am convinced (with zero objective evidence) that Putin has some of the missing Epstein materials, especially videos.
That PALES in contrast to causing innocents to die / be maimed unnecessarily,
— plus suffer horrible environmental catastrophes,
— add in global financial crisis … for everyone except Putin, whose lot improves!
They will both kill as many people as necessary to distract from their respective crimes. Go read the G.K. Chesterton story "The Sign of the Broken Sword." The solution to the mystery is not at all far fetched. I have seen in play out many times, on a global scale.
You can’t blame the Iranians for talking about what’s really happening
Oops, Freudian slip now corrected. Sign of the broken SWORD.
Damn, I canceled my subscription.
As did I, without regret.
I miss the commenter gang which followed Jennifer's columns there, but this one is pretty good, too.
For another view:
"The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why"
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/3/16/the-us-israeli-strategy-against-iran-is-working-here-is-why?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Key takeaway:
"Two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative has settled into a comfortable groove: The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan. Iran is retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing another Middle Eastern quagmire. US senators have called it a blunder. Cable news has tallied the crises. Commentators have warned of a long war.
The chorus is loud and, in some respects, understandable. War is ugly, and this one has imposed real costs on millions of people across the Middle East, including the city I live in.
But this narrative is wrong. Not because the costs are imaginary, but because the critics are measuring the wrong things. They are cataloguing the price of the campaign while ignoring the strategic ledger.
When you look at what has actually happened to Iran’s principal instruments of power – its ballistic missile arsenal, its nuclear infrastructure, its air defences, its navy and its proxy command architecture – the picture is not one of US failure. It is one of systematic, phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow for four decades."
It seems to me that Trump's MAGA base would not be deterred by any claims of pedophilia or even claims of him enjoying urination fantasies. I don't go on Reddit, but one of my son's reads the comments where Trump's supporters don't deny he likes young girls and some even hint at believing he has committed incest.
Whatever Putin has, it must be deeper than even Trump thinks he can endure. He's probably proud of his escapades with Epstein. I imagine they duped Trump into relations with a trans woman, young man or something humiliating to his sexual prowess.
If the republicans had any sense, they should have recognized the hold Russia has on him by now and how dangerous that manipulation is for their own country and should let him take the fall. But then one would have to assume that they had consciences and thinking capabilities beyond their own selfish needs. They probably also know without him, Vance won't hold his base at the same level of captivity.
Trump's reactions around Putin do not betray any sense of resentment, as far as I have seen, only admiration. Narcissists with fragile egos like Trump's, can't handle any form of failure, so Trump's brain has allowed itself to believe that Putin is helping him become more like him, while the rest of the world sees the clear manipulation. Trump can't see how poorly wanting a peace prize makes him look to the rest of us, so he won't see his sucking up to Putin as equally humiliating.
This would be quite an interesting, suspenseful international, espionage/drama movie to entertain audiences, if we all weren't actually living through it without an end in sight.
No, I think the really bad stuff is what brought down Andrew. Financial miscodect and possible treason.
NOW hump wants NATO to help him clean up his mess in the straight...he really doesn't get why they don't want to...
tRump has a lifetime habit of getting others to pay to clean up his messes.
At what point has trump's mind be eviscerated for him to be ousted? His behavior and the words that come out of his mouth are those of a demented person. This is who is calling the shots folks! How will members of Congress respond when their grandchildren ask, "Why didn't you do something?"
I formerly responded “Inviting every military in the world to the Strait of Hormuz. What could possibly go wrong?”
A second read reveals only NATO navies were invited - so they’re likely to reply with pottery store rules, as Colin Powell and John Kerry did to the former worst president in history - “You break it, you own it”.
well, they could finally blow it all up...
Betting orange man will stomp on Musk to patrol X for negative AI videos featuring him, as mentioned above in WP. So much despicable, factually-inaccurate stuff on X and FB.
If we train AIs using social media, we will get behavior that matches the humans who posted it - teens... Judge Judy: "How do you know if a teen is lying?" Answer: "Are his lips moving?" Byrd: "How do you know if a politician is lying?" Answer: "Is he running for office? His lips don't need to move."
"Democrats need a different Middle East vision, one grounded in four principles:" This is the most meaningful statement of this article, as it gives DEMs a campaign message to voters to win elections this Nov - the only way out of this war. That is America needs a regime change to produce something positive from this war.
The scary thought I get is that an Iranian revenge attack on US soil could be all tRump needs to declare martial law prior to the elections.
Iranians know if they act inside of US, they must expect an all out attack from US including marines landing.
"tRump takes advice from Putin."
Doubtful. Merely a band-aid to help manage oil prices. And now the Saudis and the Omanis are pushing a combined eight million barrels of oil daily through two pipelines, which is 40 percent of the approximately twenty million barrels that flows through the Gulf daily. We get less than ten percent of our oil from the Middle East. Asia gets at least eighty percent and I think Europe gets forty percent.
I keep thinking it is good for djt too.
Isn't he selling Venezuelan oil and offshoring the proceeds to accounts he controls?
Good thinking. I view Putin as the world's second worst strategist - after Trump. I doubt Putin could base Russian policy/strategy on closure of the Strait, increase in world oil prices and the US (Trump) removing sanctions of Russia oil sales. I don't think even Putin would gamble on an inside straight.
Putin isn't stupid. He thinks and acts strategically and has the patience to let actions mature. He is also an opportunist. His intelligence is top notch, so he is well aware of the interaction between tRump and NothingNotInVenue. Encouraging tRump to support Israeli attack leading to a shutdown of Hormuz is not a big stretch.
Now trump says the war will end when “i feel it in my bones.”
His feelings, wherever located, have proven to be poor advisors.
Hegseth has no idea how to be SECDEF. He doubtless encouraged Donnie to go with his gut instead of listening to everyone else.
Illegal and stupid orders were issued that should have been disobeyed.
This is criminal malpractice of governing.
Made me laugh:”His feelings, wherever located, have proven to be poor advisors.”
right inside his ass just to the left is a small dot where his feeling is located
The six (?) senators and representatives who made the tape about not following illegal orders should all be appointed to the investigative or impeachment committee that does the post mortem on this.
Hegseth has the instincts of a platoon leader: told to “take that hill” he turns around and bellows to his men “Take that hill.” Senior leadership in DOD answers to a higher standard.
Interestingly, Caine is not in the chain of operational command which goes from hegseth to combatant commanders. Nevertheless, In my opinion in this case Caine should have resigned when his advice was ignored
In essence trump/ and/or his advisors bet American lives and billions of our dollars that his assessment of likely outcomes was likely when it contained a couple of weak links—
Assumption of rapid regime change (even granting the ability to behead the government and decimate iran’s kinetic resources )
The level of desperation and resolve that the remaining leadership would have whether it crossed “”close SoH and take the economic option” threshhold
Completely discounting the threat of terrorist infiltration here--they are content to wait years for their opportunity or will take it sooner. Palm Beach is an eternal target.
Remember that much of that 'senior leadership' at the DOD/DOW (Department of War) has been replaced with Trump loyalists, who are not experts.
Thank you!Not only are they not experts but they do not know how or want to seek out and include experts.
The military retains a lot of expertise in its muscle memory. They did a spectacular job in Venezuela. small relative to iran, of course,
What the military did in Venezuela was follow illegal orders. Their "expertise" did not include resisting attacks on boats and crews that had no evidence that they were transporting drugs, and the preemptive capture of Maduro was and is unacceptable.
Not only are they not experts but they know how or want to seek out and include experts.
"Now trump says the war will end when “i feel it in my bones.”"
Well, he's 80 years old. That "feeling" could be arthritis for all he knows...
However, being vague about any sort of timeline is tactically very smart. Why give the enemy any idea as to when you're going to cease hostilities?
Trump says the war will end “When I feel it—feel it in my bones.”
I say, "From Trumps lips to God's ears."
Trump’s actions to attack Iran without a goal, analysis of Iran’s likely responses, or an exit strategy should be enough to demonstrate his incompetence, trigger the 25th Amendment, and remove him from office.
As heavily as he relies on Christian Nationalists to back him up, they’re amateur hour compared to the Iranian state. There was no way he could pull off a Nicaraguan-like action in Iran; he and his yes-men should have known it.
You are right but, as we have learned, the 25th amendment and impeachment only work if members of the president’s political party are willing to move against him. There is no universe where a Cabinet of men, wearing actual clown shoes, are going to have the courage required to invoke the 25th amendment.
The Constitution should be amended so the citizens can call for a non-confidence vote and get rid of a failing president without the consent of his sycophants.
A M E N ! People have GOT to stop invoking the 25th amendment like a magic wand. His cabinet was handpicked to prevent such an occurrence.
That's why Trump and co are calling it a holy war. This is a disaster brought to us by unfit government officials. Anyone who voted for Trump should be ashamed
What Nicaraguan-like action are you referring to? The one where Reagan tried to overthrow the Sandinista government? If that's the one, then sorry to say, but Reagan's operation was not considered a success, as it failed to achieve its main goal - the effort did not overthrow the Sandinista government and it resulted in a major scandal with criminal charges and convictions of multiple officials, including Oliver North and Admiral John Poindexter. Although the Sandinista government was eventually removed from power in the 1990 elections, the whole affair, including the Iran-Contra arms for money affair is regarded by most historians as a catastrophic failure of policy and oversight.
Netanyahu and Trump should both be dragged into the Hague and charged with war crimes.
Along with Pete Hegseth, and whoever the Israeli equivalent and secretary of defense might be.
"Netanyahu and Trump should both be dragged into the Hague and charged with war crimes."
Then I suggest you get in touch with Norm Eisen to see if he has time to draw up the charges and present them personally. Tell us how that goes.
Yes. High body counts don't equal victory. For 8 years we controlled the battlefields & killed Vietnamese Communists with the expectation they would eventually give up. For 20 years we controlled the Afghan battlefields and killed Taliban religious fanatics with the expectation they would give up. We certainly do know how to kill a lot of people but apparently don't know to make democracy work for decency.
Asymmetrical warfare, coupled with home field advantage, have defeated us three times. Soon to be four.
Yes. And our leaders still won't learn.
It is the people of the US and Israel that turned out to be stupid here; putting people into office that are corrupt sociopaths, and allowing them to destroy the country and perhaps the world with it.
it's how we won our own revolution...
with a lot of help from the French
Some of our leadership has the stupid notion that democracy can be dispensed like mana falling from the heavens. If a society/country doesn't want it, war and disruption will have the opposite effect. This was seen in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Venezuela and Iran will be no different.
Nah, 'democracy" is just a fig leaf excuse....
There is a powerful strain of wishful thinking on our political right. They are convinced they can always apply enough physical might to any place to make their worldview a reality. Couple that with an utter contempt for expertise speaking to them telling them that their plans are not practicable. The result is the cesspit we have dragged ourselves into. We simply must write a completely rethought Executive Branch and Executive into The Constitution.
Stephen, magical thinking is happening on both sides. The notion that Dems can "re-educate" the basket of deplorables was Biden's fantasy and it was just as delusional as what is happening on the fascist Right. If nothing has taught us over the last 20+ years, it is that a very significant plurality of Americans are actively horrible people; a similar plurality are ignorant passive navel-gazers concerned only about themselves; and maybe a quarter to a third of us are actually engaged in helping in a positive way.
Human beings everywhere are capable of bigotry, of scapegoating a defenseless minority, and of following a demagogue. Germans, Italians, Rwandans and a great many others can assure you of that. Our problem is letting demagogues get into power because they are "entertaining." Stephen King saw this coming decades ago when he wrote "The Dead Zone." The potential destroyer of the world is a nasty little man, a product of parental abuse, self-hatred, superstition disguised as religious fanaticism and a sort of deal with the devil involving outlaw motorcycle gangs. But he is defeated -- spoiler alert -- not by violence, but by a public display of cowardice. King was way too optimistic.
There are a lot of things that could be said about Netanyahu (most of them bad), but stupidity is not one of them (unlike Don the Con). I suspect that Bibi never believed that regime change could be effected, and he made up a story that it could in order to draw Trump into the war. Bibi wanted the war, knowing full well that a regular "mowing of the lawn" will be needed, but lied through his teeth to convince people that it could be a one-time event. Basically Bibi has been playing Don the Con like a fiddle, and Don's too stupid and too narcissistic to realize he's being played.
It is not all that difficult to play Don like a fiddle. Miller, is excellent at it.
Jen, your last paragraph sums things up extremely well. Unfortunately, his lowness himself doesn't care a fig about what the public thinks, so the rest of his regime blindly follows suit. Public pressure will eventually work, but in the meantime, we're killing people and expending assets following a fool and his megalomania into another great recession. We're still eight-ish months from the midterms with no control of the idiots in sight.
How are we ever going to get Donald of Orange to back off this idiotic war when having done it, he would inevitably be branded a loser which is the worst thing he could be called?
It's like Putin who cannot end his Ukrainian "excursion" because to admit he was wrong would lead to his defenestration. Folks, we're stuck
You’re correct he will not; it will take a new Democratic Congress with majorities that can impeach and convict.
The only other way is for him to simply declare that he won the war, and insist that he won the war (like he insist that the 2020 election was rigged against) forever and ever amen despite what the entire rest of the world tells him.
I want to know who is going to contain Trump’s nuclear program.
Thank you Ms. Rubin. Just one point. Every atrocity, both foreign and domestic, is the responsibility of the entire Republican party. Simply put we must find a way to hold every Republican that betrayed their oath to the Constitution accountable. What we do with the voters who voted for them is another story.
I already figured it out: no jail time or fine for trump voters, but they are banned from voting for 20 years.
Arrogance and stupidity combined to create this level of fuckupery.
An ugly, demented, psychiatrically fragile naked emperor being constantly purred at by wormtongues, lickspittles, terrified collaborators and dumbasses masquerading as Cabinet officials will get you where we are right now.
Arrogance comes with a terrible price. The Ancient Greeks, Shakespeare, Hans Christian Andersen and those who lived through World War II and the Holocaust know this. A pity not enough Americans could figure this out in both 2016 and 2024.
We’ve sadly learned most eligible American voters are selfish, easily conned, ignorant, bigoted and/or hateful toward anyone not like them - and too lazy to vote. The elite manipulators in finance, tech, advertising and politics have both created and exploited our adolescent citizenry. A toddler and drunk who find death and destruction entertaining are what you get as leaders in such a population.
Problem is those people you describe do vote.
32% of 237 million eligible voters chose Trump, 31% chose Harris. 36% didn’t vote.
Imagine if even half of those 36% went to the polls and voted for Kamala.
Maybe the 36% are telling the two parties to pick better candidates.
Yup the 36% have just checked out or never “checked in.”
How about "We have no right to initiate offensive wars?" "Preemptive action" is just a euphemism for "offensive war."
Our Trumpist relatives now think Hegseth incompetent but they still worship Trump.
I'm so sorry. They apparently don't understand who selected Hegseth.
If Trump blames his advisors then why don't his supporters question his judgement for picking bad advisors? And if he is continually the victim of these advisors conning him then how can he be described as strong and smart? Why does Trump, of all people, get the benefit of the doubt?
Well, that's something anyway.
Excellent commentary, Jen. While I'm not a supporter in the least of the Iranian regime, we murdered the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei's father, mother, wife, son and forty of his relatives. Can you imagine the anger he feels!? That action alone will lead to years of terrorism against the US.
Unfortunately, I believe you are correct in your assessment. Will we blame the terrorists or Republicans for allowing this mess to happen? Who will we blame?
Jen, you are a brilliant writer & voice for all of us. Thank you.