Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Three disgusting things U.S. has done in Iran war

I'm no fan of Iran. I don't know anyone who is. For sure, Iran had to be prevented from building a nuclear weapon. But they were nowhere close to being able to do this. And eight months ago Trump said that the Iranian nuclear program had been obliterated by U.S. strikes, leaving them years away from being able to fashion a nuclear weapon, and about a decade away from having a ICBM capable of striking our country with a nuclear bomb. So clearly there was no imminent threat to the United States from Iran. But Trump attacked anyway, for reasons…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

In the Iran war, let’s not ignore the suffering of innocent Iranians

After three days of intense bombing of Iran by the Israeli and American military, I'm becoming increasingly worried that Iran is going to become the new Gaza: lots of civilian deaths even though those people had nothing to do with the purported reason for going to war, and large swaths of the country reduced to rubble even though destroyed areas had no military significance. I'm going to let tweets shared today by some of the people that I follow on X, formerly known as Twitter, do most of the speaking for me. The beauty of X, as with Blue Sky,…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump is at war with Iran. It’ll probably end badly, like everything Trump does.

Last night I was enjoying a hot bath, about to read more of an entertaining thriller novel, when I noticed that a real-life "thriller" message had appeared on my iPhone. The New York Times was reporting that Israel had attacked Iran. Soon that was followed by additional news. The United States also was attacking Iran. My wife and I weren't about to trade watching more of the new season of Bridgerton for CNN or MSNBC, but by chance Trump's address to the nation about the Iran attack was on just before we headed off to bed. We wondered why Trump…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Eight months ago Trump said the Iran nuclear program was obliterated. So how can Iran be a week away from a bomb?

Since I'm a big fan of Apple TV's terrific spy thriller, Tehran, from watching the third season of this Israeli production I know that the fanatical clerics who control Iran have been seeking a nuclear weapon. That's obvious from both the fictional plot of Tehran, and the reality of Iran's nuclear ambitions. Virtually nobody in the world wants to see the wacko Islamist fundamentalist rulers of Iran get a nuclear bomb. Back when Obama was president, a treaty was reached with Iran that prevented Iran from enriching uranium to the level needed for a bomb. Since the treaty was working…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump wants to own Greenland for amazingly stupid reasons

When it comes to Trump demanding that the United States own Greenland, trying to figure out why our Authoritarian-in-Chief is so obsessed with this reminds me of Carrie's evidence wall in Homeland -- where Claire Danes' bipolar CIA agent character would pin oodles of photos, clippings, post-it notes, and such, sometimes connected with strings, in an attempt to figure out who lay behind a terrorist plot. Fortunately, Trump isn't nearly as sophisticated as the evildoers in Homeland. While it can be really tough to figure out what Trump will do, because he changes his mind so often he doesn't even…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Today Trump claims to be running Venezuela. Tomorrow it could be Greenland. His idiocy knows no bounds.

It's beyond embarrassing to have a president of the United States behave with less maturity than a three year old. But here we are, stuck with Toddler Trump in the Oval Office for the foreseeable future. Trump loves to play with his military toys. He was positively gleeful after our competent armed forces abducted Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, last weekend. But like I said in my previous post, there's plenty of reasons to believe that after this initial tactical success, in the long run Trump's Venezuelan caper will go badly. Well, also in the short run. Because it's…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Ten reasons Trump’s Venezuela caper will go badly

I'm tempted to say that Trump just did the unthinkable. But when it comes to all things Trumpian, thinking usually is the farthest thing from the Donald's mind. So for our Authoritarian-in-Chief, nothing is unthinkable, because everything is just whim, primal urges with no coherent thoughts. I'm confident that attacking Venezuela so American special forces could abduct President Nicolas Maduro and his wife is going to turn out badly. The main reason I say this is simple: whatever Trump does almost always turns out badly. So the odds are strongly in my favor. Trump's tariffs have turned out badly. Trump's…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Putin lies while Russian attacks on residential buildings cause Ukrainian civilians to die

There are many sins against humanity that Donald Trump can never be forgiven. One sin, among many, is Trump so often siding with Putin, Russia's dictator, against Zelenskyy, Ukraine's democratically-elected president. Trump simply has no moral center, no values to guide him other than what seems best for Donald Trump. He couldn't care less about Ukraine defending itself against the unprovoked invasion by Russia in February 2022. Biden didn't do enough to help Ukraine either, but at least his heart was in the right place, and Biden successfully advocated for Congressional support in the form of weapons and financial assistance.…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues National politics

Here’s the 60 Minutes video about torture of migrants in El Salvador prison the Trump administration doesn’t want you to see

Yesterday the CBS program, 60 Minutes, was scheduled to include a story about CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador that the Trump administration has been sending Venezuelan migrants to -- falsely claiming that all of them were violent criminals. As NPR reported in "CBS news chief Bari Weiss pulls '60 Minutes' story, sparking outcry," the story was kept off the air at the last moment even though it had been thoroughly reviewed and approved by CBS. Just a day and a half before it was set to be broadcast, new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled a planned 60…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Behold, my Ukraine war peace plan (Nobel prize, please)

President Trump wants a Nobel peace prize. Well, so do I. And I think my plan for negotiating an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia is better than Trump's. Of course, the bestowers of Nobel prizes would have to overlook the minor (in my view) problem that I have absolutely no contact with Ukraine or Russia, so I'll be conveying my plan to Zelensky and Putin via mental telepathy. If my plan is adopted in whole or in large part by the warring parties, that will prove to the Nobel prize committee that I am most deserving of…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump humiliated by Putin at Alaska meeting about Ukraine

We have a horribly weak president. That's obvious to us here in the United States, since Trump only gives an illusion of strength when he's dealing with people and organizations subject to his presidential powers.  But today the whole world saw Trump humiliated by Russia's dictator, Vladimir Putin, because Putin knew how to use to his advantage Trump's eagerness to submit to men more powerful than he is. Even though Putin is 100% responsible for the war in Ukraine, having invaded the country for no reason other than Putin's desire to reconstitute the old Soviet Union, Trump agreed to Putin's…
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Posted inInternational issues

Israel is purposely starving the people of Gaza. That’s a war crime.

I guess Israel has forgotten the lessons of the Holocaust, because a nation founded to protect the lives of innocent Jews has been wantonly killing innocent Palestinians since its war against Hamas began. Many thousands of those killed are women and children. They've been blown apart by bombs, shredded by bullets, and most horrifying of all to my mind, starved by uncaring Israeli leaders who have blocked almost all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for several months. What kind of monsters stand by and watch children starving? The monsters in charge of Israel, who are extreme right-wing zealots unashamed to…
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Posted inInternational issues

Netanyahu has prolonged Gaza war to keep himself in power

I detest Israel in the same way that much of the world detests the United States. Not because I dislike the people of Israel. Not because I dislike the nation of Israel. Because Israel is being led by a despicable leader and a far-right government that is responsible for harming many innocent human beings. By carrying out what comes close to being the genocide of Palestinians living in Gaza -- destroying their homes, indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, denial of humanitarian aid, mass killings of noncombatants -- Israel has squandered the goodwill that was directed at the country after Hamas attacked…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s constant lying means he can’t be believed about Iran’s nuclear program

If there's one thing that can be said with certainty about Donald Trump, it's that he is a habitual shameless liar. This was annoying when he was a presidential candidate. As president, Trump's constant falsehoods are a clear and present danger to our national security. All American presidents have shaded the truth to some extent. That comes with being a politician. But in the past lying by the occupant of the White House about important issues was fairly rare. The most notable recent example was the George W. Bush administration lying about evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump’s bombing of Iran likely will have unintended consequences

Currently President Trump and the rest of his administration's merry band of MAGA acolytes are puffing out their chests, all proud that seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 giant 30,000 pound "bunker buster" bombs on three underground nuclear sites in Iran. But as I said in a post about the attacks on my Church of the Churchless blog yesterday, it's likely that things aren't going to go so smoothly from now on. The best case scenario would be that the attacks were successful, Iran doesn't retaliate in a major way, Iran agrees to a peace deal with the United States and…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

I’m worried that Trump is going to order B-2 bombers to attack Iran’s nuclear sites

Usually I don't believe in magical thinking. But I'll make an exception this time. Because if expressing an anxiety means that it is less likely to occur, then I'm damn well going to say "I'm worried that Trump is going to order B-2 bombers to attack Iran's nuclear sites" -- since doing that would be a disaster. Here's why I think there's a decent chance that Trump is going to insert the United States into the conflict between Israel and Iran, which is looking increasingly like a full-on war. (1) Trump is leaving the G-7 summit in Canada a day…
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Posted inInternational issues

If criticizing Israel is antisemitic, then I’m an antisemite

Antisemitism used to mean what it actually is: hostility toward Jews, including hatred, discrimination, and prejudice. But lately in some circles the meaning of the word has expanded to something that it isn't: criticism of Israel. This is completely wrong. It conflates two separate things, the Jewish religion and the nation of Israel. There are lots of people in Israel who strongly oppose policies of the current right-wing Israeli government, which is headed up by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Many, if not most, of those people are observant Jews. So are they antisemitic, somehow being prejudiced against themselves? Of course not.…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues National politics

Here’s three “accomplishments” by Trump that make this Democrat happy

We've now endured 100 days of Trump's second term in office. Those three-plus months have been a disaster for the United States and the world. Trump has damaged economies by his insanely high and poorly thought out tariffs. Trump has failed to stop the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. Trump has decimated vital government services through mindless budget and personnel cuts. Trump has been chastised by federal judges and the Supreme Court for failing to obey the rule of law. But the news isn't all bad. Here's three "accomplishments" (the quotation marks point to irony) by Trump that make me happy…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Outrageous: Trump wants to give Russia everything and Ukraine nothing

Trump has to be the worst dealmaker of any president. He's utterly incapable of making deals, both in his first administration and now.  No deal to limit North Korea's nuclear threat. No deal to replace the effective Iran nuclear deal that Trump pulled out of. No deal to end the Israel-Hamas war. No deals with any of the countries he's imposed tariffs on. And no deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. All of these failures concern me. But Trump's abject failure to make any progress on ending the Russia-Ukraine war is particularly outrageous, because there's an extremely clear distinction here…
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Posted inDonald Trump International issues

Trump gives in on tariffs after trying to wreck U.S. and world economy

MSNBC's Chris Hayes had a nice way of describing Trump's 90-day pause on his tariffs today: it was like an arsonist setting a building on fire, then returning to the scene of his crime and telling bystanders that  it was good only two-thirds of the structure was destroyed. (Not an exact quote, but I got the basics right.) In the first four business days after Trump revealed his totally screwy "reciprocal" tariffs on almost every country, including those that have zero tariffs on United States imports, our stock market graded his tariff policy with a big F for fail by…
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