Brinkmanship

I got two calls from extremely concerned people this afternoon. Did I know that China had moved two nuclear armed ships into the Strait? No, I did not. The second one was from a totally freaked out woman who asked me if we were going to nuke Iran tonight? I certainly hope not, I told her.

People are whacked out. Are we on the edge of World War III?

It is 4:21. I just got back from my warehouse and now see that the President has pushed back the utter annihilation of Persia for two more weeks. Iranian civilization will continue to exist, perhaps possibly for another two weeks, at which time we will take out every bridge and energy source and steal their oil if they don't knuckle under. Wonderful. To the victor the spoils. Teach them to attack us again. Wait, didn't they?

Well, in any case that is terrific. Wonder what pushed Trump off the Dr. Strangelove ledge? 

Could it be that he is actually starting to get pushback from the GOP? Nah. Not Thune or Johnson mind you but at least one GOP congressman did have the balls to say that this whole Iran thing is insanity. Nathan Moran in Texas. For the rest of them it is mostly crickets, scared puppets pissing all over themselves worrying that the Great Orange one will primary them if they utter a disparaging peep. 

No, it seems like the fractures are in MAGA themselves, Carlson and Kelly, Rogan and Infowars. These people lose the real nutcases, what else do they have left? The base is showing serious fracture and they may not be able to put Dumpty Trumpty together again.

I find the whole thing utterly disgusting. Iranians are a proud and ancient people, they would rather eat dirt than submit to this sort of bullying. End their civilization and take their oil. Really? They are not a perfect people, having been shunted in between a CIA deposed Mossadegh who wouldn't play ball with the oil companies, a U.S. installed Pahlavi regime and the horrific fundamentalist ayatollahs.

But they are not a bad people, no better or worse than any other group of humans on the planet, which is admittedly not a very high bar.

I blame Trump and I blame Netanyahu for exacerbating a crisis that did not need to occur. Israel "mowing the grass" like the lives of its neighbors are meaningless, I have lost respect for them as well. Every life is precious, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or even the utterly faithless. This is not the same eretz of my father and grandfather. It can't just be about Israel, it has to be about mankind, no?

Israeli machinations have been ruthless. If I want to applaud a Jewish President, the man I respect is Zelensky, not Netanyahu. I think he has utterly manipulated Trump. But I also think his actions have alienated a large segment of the American population, from both left and right, including a sizable percentage of American jewry, of which I happen to be one.

Was Iran really that close to a nuclear bomb? I haven't seen any proof. And I imagine that it would be under a glowing green smolder right now if they were, Israel more than capable of unleashing the Dimona endgame when necessary. But why, when it is so easy to fawn over Trump and have him do the dirty work?

So what have we gained from this futile exercise? Over 330 wounded Americans and at least fifteen dead. A breakdown in relations with every NATO ally, who did not particularly like being asked to support a foolish and unilateral provocation with little forethought and no endgame planning and which jeopardized their own energy supply.

Of course Russia is happy because we are letting them break the Cuba oil blockade and get more money for their Eastern Europe invasion efforts. But I doubt too many others are.

Unless he gets Article 25'd, we can look forward to three more years of this shit. May all those quarter pounders congeal instantly in his left ventricle and may we earthlings be spared any more of these histrionic and foolhardy escapades that threaten the whole planet.