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 Cross." The solution to the mystery is not at all far fetched. I have seen in play out many times, on a global scale.
..the abhorrent idea of golden showers is naive compared to the reality of abduction, slavery and destruction of the countless children/ girls - then women, whose images were further used as tools for blackmail.
This unfolding information can't sit well with ACBarrett nor Gorsuch
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."
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Cross." 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
..the abhorrent idea of golden showers is naive compared to the reality of abduction, slavery and destruction of the countless children/ girls - then women, whose images were further used as tools for blackmail.
This unfolding information can't sit well with ACBarrett nor Gorsuch
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.
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."
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I want to know who is going to contain Trump’s nuclear program.
Our Trumpist relatives now think Hegseth incompetent but they still worship Trump.
I'm so sorry. They apparently don't understand who selected Hegseth.
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.
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.
How about "We have no right to initiate offensive wars?" "Preemptive action" is just a euphemism for "offensive war."
Jen, you are a brilliant writer & voice for all of us. Thank you.
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.