The question isn't what must be done; look to the very founding of the United States for wisdom on that topic. The only question is, do people have the collective courage to do it?
That would require a level of class consciousness that has been violently suppressed for decades. Although maybe there's some hope based on continual record breaking no kings numbers
No, this is now America's war. Israel has a part in it but the US is the main belligerent at this point and if Trump follows through on his threats he all but guarantees the downfall of the United States. This has gone way too far already and since the internal checks and balances of the United States appear not to be working it will be up to the rest of the world to draw a line. We can not afford to let this spiral into another world war, especially not with multiple nuclear powers involved.
Think of it this way: Iran is isolated on the world stage. But turn it into a significant enough victim and there will be two major religions on either side of a war. That's a recipe for something that could potentially make WWII look 'mild'. I know there are people that actually want this, but let's at least see clearly here: nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody will benefit from that. Even the ones who think they will benefit. Democrats that are supportive of this are hopefully a small enough minority that sanity will prevail.
Think avalanche: you can start one, but you can't stop one. Avalanches stop themselves, but only when all potential energy is expended.
Unless Trump perceives a new unexpected threat I don't see him backing down. Russian and Chinese opposition has been accounted for.
Europe's more belligerent opposition as opposed toothless diplomatic speeches may give them a reason to pause. Say, cancellations of major contracts where the primary beneficiary would have been the US.
Don't know whether it will happen, but am happy to see some European countries to take a stand and back their stand with more than words.
Trump is a boomer who grow in a age where American power was incontested. Second, he is a narcisist and he will let Rome burn down before he let someone call him a loser.
Third. Even if our gerontocrat had a saner mind, I doubt he would be able to control Israel. Let them alone fighting Iran, with their missile defense depleted leting Iranian missiles rain down everywhere, Bibi would surely nuke Tehran and the Yemen, so I don't even think there's a way out of this.
Europe has one 'weapon' they can use but they can use it just once: dump the bonds. The problem with that is that you need a reason big enough that by the time you're going to do it it will likely be too late to be effective and as a punitive measure it makes little sense, it's just one step short of a declaration of war. If Trump goes ahead with this madness then tomorrow morning the world economy will be in shambles, no matter what. Note that we got here ostensibly to 'free the Iranian people', apparently they need to be murdered to make them free. It's grotesque.
It is to you and me. Not everyone sees it that way.
When one day the dust settles, hopefully of the benign kind, I wish some lessons to be learned on what kind of leaders to elect.
This has had me so disturbed, that I have barely been able to get much work done for weeks. Work that I enjoy doing. Then I think of Iranian citizens and feel guilty about complaining.
At least we have answers to the question of how World War II started. All it takes is a couple of idiots that think they are all powerful and the stage is set.
That requires that 15 cabinet members invoke the 25th followed by 2/3 of both house of Congress agree. So, yeah, not enough spine involved to count on the 25th in this situation
What precisely are you doing other than posting stuff that pretends that a party in minority in both houses of Congress could actually stop a president, unless some politicians in the majority chose to join them.
And, as underwhelming as the press are, the facts are that surveys show that American's broadly disapprove of the war. Presumably because of what they have learned about it from the press and the opposition.
The people who are responsible are the people in power and their remaining supporters. Aided, arguably, by people who espouse cynical, self-soothing complaints that ignore what most people learn about civics in middle school.
Are you trying to say that the majority of dems don't support this war? Cause they do.
Also are you going to ignore the propaganda pushed by the press leading up to the initial attack? Or that they are still breathlessly parroting propaganda and self censoring right now?
The entire ruling class is responsible for this. The military carrying it out is responsible for it. Anyone in positions of power that have done nothing to stop this but post some strongly worded tweets is responsible.
The US government hasn't been in control of the People for decades and decades. Maybe even longer than that. It doesn't matter what "parties" have been in control. We all know why this war is happening, who benefits, who's lobbying for it, who they bought off, and who Trump answers to. We all know, but people are afraid to say it because they stand to lose once they're targeted for saying it. Voting hasn't stopped it. Party control of Congress hasn't stopped it. Presidents haven't stopped it. It's happening and this was the plan all along from both parties.
How could it be that a political system which remained largely structurally unchanged since the freaking 18th century isn't equipped to deal with everything that has been going on in the world since then?
Kinda yeah, much like how Americans are taught that they are a bastion of democracy, yet your convoluted electoral system has led to multiple instances of your president losing the popular vote.
What's truly shocking is that a large part of what got Trump elected in 2024 (and the world in this mess now) was that the GOP cleverly stoked the fears of transgenderism via local-market ad buys during the election. This very play was the reason for much of Trump's gains with various demo's such as black males and hispanics/latinos. So many of these folks were completely triggered by 'grooming' and the ideas that girls are having to compete against transgender girls in their sports. The fact that folks were willing to elect Trump so that a very small number of women wouldn't have to compete against transgenders, is sad beyond words. Perhaps this (will turn into) a lesson well learned, although voters have notoriously short memories. Sophistication of this type among the masses is sorely lacking.
The ruling class has us just where they want us -- so focused on & fearful of losing our little jobs that we don't have context around much else so that we can do a thoughtful job of performing as an electorate. This is how you elect a Donald Trump, as THEY have now learned.
Most people I met who voted for trump may even agree with this, but voted for Trump not because of that irrelevant petit burgeouise fetiche question, but because, hilariously, they thought Trump would be a champion for the working poor and middle classes. Also, a lot of them also, hilariously, thought electing Trump would mean no more wars with the saved money used to save issues like housing and infrastructure.
It's wrong to even frame this as a partisan question. When the leader of a democratic country threatens a nation of 90 million people with genocide, that should be the end of that government on that same day. Where is the entire US population? You hear nothing but crickets, what an utterly passive, terminally ill society.
Protests have been steadily breaking records each time they occur. Protests have been occurring across the country since he took office. This has all been widely publicized
The best example I've seen of things working correctly was with South Korea removing the leader that declared martial law. The South Koreans said nope to that, and removed the head of their government. They just had the moral fortitude to do it.
Are you seriously asking or just using this space as a soapbox?
If you are, here's some useful info:
Every city in the United States has what could be categorized as a standing army in the form of a police force. They are ready and highly trained to violently stop civil unrest.
The police force deploys sophisticated technology and dragnet methodology to track and build profiles on all citizens that attend protests.
Similarly, the media and status quo is captured so thoroughly that all forms of mass protest appear eventually degenerate into lawless havoc to onlookers, which perpetuates a cycle of violence.
The state has no problem in engaging in mass arrests. And when the cultural moment has moved on, individuals are stuck fighting extreme charges and face having to make the difficult choice of pleaing out to resume what semblance of life remains. And if you want to fight, risk facing some of the most inhumane conditions in the developed world by spending some time in a federal prison.
I'd also ask what can we regular Joes and Janes do to avoid this disaster?
I can't think of anything other than going out and standing on a street with a placard. can we do anything better than that?
The question isn't what must be done; look to the very founding of the United States for wisdom on that topic. The only question is, do people have the collective courage to do it?
What are they supposed to do here, exactly?
Country wide strike would be a nice start.
That would require a level of class consciousness that has been violently suppressed for decades. Although maybe there's some hope based on continual record breaking no kings numbers
Managed opposition requires qualitatively different resources than a general strike.
[dead]
This is Israel's war and the American democrats have traditionally been very supportive. Last place to expect anything like what you are calling for.
The dems had clear red lines in how far Israel could go. Palestine? sure, do whatever the fuck you want.
Iran war that would lead to a fucking global economic crisis? Hell no! shut up Bibi!
That's in a gist the difference between the Democrats and the entity who call themselves the Republican party nowadays.
No, this is now America's war. Israel has a part in it but the US is the main belligerent at this point and if Trump follows through on his threats he all but guarantees the downfall of the United States. This has gone way too far already and since the internal checks and balances of the United States appear not to be working it will be up to the rest of the world to draw a line. We can not afford to let this spiral into another world war, especially not with multiple nuclear powers involved.
Think of it this way: Iran is isolated on the world stage. But turn it into a significant enough victim and there will be two major religions on either side of a war. That's a recipe for something that could potentially make WWII look 'mild'. I know there are people that actually want this, but let's at least see clearly here: nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody will benefit from that. Even the ones who think they will benefit. Democrats that are supportive of this are hopefully a small enough minority that sanity will prevail.
Think avalanche: you can start one, but you can't stop one. Avalanches stop themselves, but only when all potential energy is expended.
I agree.
What I mean by Israel's war is that the motivation was Israel's, they got Americans to be their grunts.
I don't see this de-escalating soon unless Europe shows more teeth.
It's pretty much nightmare fuel out there.
> I don't see this de-escalating soon unless Europe shows more teeth.
Can you describe what you have in mind?
Unless Trump perceives a new unexpected threat I don't see him backing down. Russian and Chinese opposition has been accounted for.
Europe's more belligerent opposition as opposed toothless diplomatic speeches may give them a reason to pause. Say, cancellations of major contracts where the primary beneficiary would have been the US.
Don't know whether it will happen, but am happy to see some European countries to take a stand and back their stand with more than words.
Trump is a boomer who grow in a age where American power was incontested. Second, he is a narcisist and he will let Rome burn down before he let someone call him a loser.
Third. Even if our gerontocrat had a saner mind, I doubt he would be able to control Israel. Let them alone fighting Iran, with their missile defense depleted leting Iranian missiles rain down everywhere, Bibi would surely nuke Tehran and the Yemen, so I don't even think there's a way out of this.
Europe has one 'weapon' they can use but they can use it just once: dump the bonds. The problem with that is that you need a reason big enough that by the time you're going to do it it will likely be too late to be effective and as a punitive measure it makes little sense, it's just one step short of a declaration of war. If Trump goes ahead with this madness then tomorrow morning the world economy will be in shambles, no matter what. Note that we got here ostensibly to 'free the Iranian people', apparently they need to be murdered to make them free. It's grotesque.
It is to you and me. Not everyone sees it that way.
When one day the dust settles, hopefully of the benign kind, I wish some lessons to be learned on what kind of leaders to elect.
This has had me so disturbed, that I have barely been able to get much work done for weeks. Work that I enjoy doing. Then I think of Iranian citizens and feel guilty about complaining.
At least we have answers to the question of how World War II started. All it takes is a couple of idiots that think they are all powerful and the stage is set.
The technical term seems to be: entrapment. The war could have ended after the first few "successful" days.
And still every day it continues, it becomes a little bit harder to back out. Like Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan this war cannot be won.
> the internal checks and balances of the United States appear not to be working
There is one last test, but it's not until November. Until then, Trump is on a speed run to destroy everything he can
You need to get to November first.
Hence the speed running part of the comment
There's the 25th too but I dont think anyone with access to that option has the spine.
That requires that 15 cabinet members invoke the 25th followed by 2/3 of both house of Congress agree. So, yeah, not enough spine involved to count on the 25th in this situation
[dead]
One side controls all branches of the federal government and by and large it controls the media as well.
So how do you propose this strike happen?
From where I'm looking, any kind of resistance is becomes a target to divert the guilt from any failure.
[dead]
Where are you?
What precisely are you doing other than posting stuff that pretends that a party in minority in both houses of Congress could actually stop a president, unless some politicians in the majority chose to join them.
And, as underwhelming as the press are, the facts are that surveys show that American's broadly disapprove of the war. Presumably because of what they have learned about it from the press and the opposition.
The people who are responsible are the people in power and their remaining supporters. Aided, arguably, by people who espouse cynical, self-soothing complaints that ignore what most people learn about civics in middle school.
Are you trying to say that the majority of dems don't support this war? Cause they do.
Also are you going to ignore the propaganda pushed by the press leading up to the initial attack? Or that they are still breathlessly parroting propaganda and self censoring right now?
The entire ruling class is responsible for this. The military carrying it out is responsible for it. Anyone in positions of power that have done nothing to stop this but post some strongly worded tweets is responsible.
The US government hasn't been in control of the People for decades and decades. Maybe even longer than that. It doesn't matter what "parties" have been in control. We all know why this war is happening, who benefits, who's lobbying for it, who they bought off, and who Trump answers to. We all know, but people are afraid to say it because they stand to lose once they're targeted for saying it. Voting hasn't stopped it. Party control of Congress hasn't stopped it. Presidents haven't stopped it. It's happening and this was the plan all along from both parties.
Corporations run the US government. Elected officials are just proxies.
Yeah remember when democrats president tweeted out about nuking someone
> This is what happens when there's no effective opposition. Where are the dems? Where's the press?
The US is functioning as a banana republic style totalitarian regime for a few years. Even Venezuela has a tougher opposition.
The fatal flaw in our separation of powers is that even if congressional dems had a super majority, congress is powerless to enforce anything.
And the press has been covering Trump's rhetoric and the war pretty heavily.
So the "checks and balances" we were taught in school was just nonsense?
How could it be that a political system which remained largely structurally unchanged since the freaking 18th century isn't equipped to deal with everything that has been going on in the world since then?
It must be due to bad actors.
Kinda yeah, much like how Americans are taught that they are a bastion of democracy, yet your convoluted electoral system has led to multiple instances of your president losing the popular vote.
They weren't nonsense until we had people in positions of power decide that they were.
At the end of the day, pieces of paper are just pieces of paper.
[dead]
They literally bought the presidency for Trump.
You're preaching to the choir. The oligarchy has indeed thoroughly captured the fourth estate
I think they already captured all.
What's truly shocking is that a large part of what got Trump elected in 2024 (and the world in this mess now) was that the GOP cleverly stoked the fears of transgenderism via local-market ad buys during the election. This very play was the reason for much of Trump's gains with various demo's such as black males and hispanics/latinos. So many of these folks were completely triggered by 'grooming' and the ideas that girls are having to compete against transgender girls in their sports. The fact that folks were willing to elect Trump so that a very small number of women wouldn't have to compete against transgenders, is sad beyond words. Perhaps this (will turn into) a lesson well learned, although voters have notoriously short memories. Sophistication of this type among the masses is sorely lacking.
The ruling class has us just where they want us -- so focused on & fearful of losing our little jobs that we don't have context around much else so that we can do a thoughtful job of performing as an electorate. This is how you elect a Donald Trump, as THEY have now learned.
Most people I met who voted for trump may even agree with this, but voted for Trump not because of that irrelevant petit burgeouise fetiche question, but because, hilariously, they thought Trump would be a champion for the working poor and middle classes. Also, a lot of them also, hilariously, thought electing Trump would mean no more wars with the saved money used to save issues like housing and infrastructure.
It's wrong to even frame this as a partisan question. When the leader of a democratic country threatens a nation of 90 million people with genocide, that should be the end of that government on that same day. Where is the entire US population? You hear nothing but crickets, what an utterly passive, terminally ill society.
Protests have been steadily breaking records each time they occur. Protests have been occurring across the country since he took office. This has all been widely publicized
The best example I've seen of things working correctly was with South Korea removing the leader that declared martial law. The South Koreans said nope to that, and removed the head of their government. They just had the moral fortitude to do it.
They made me incredibly proud that day !
Are you seriously asking or just using this space as a soapbox?
If you are, here's some useful info:
Every city in the United States has what could be categorized as a standing army in the form of a police force. They are ready and highly trained to violently stop civil unrest.
The police force deploys sophisticated technology and dragnet methodology to track and build profiles on all citizens that attend protests.
Similarly, the media and status quo is captured so thoroughly that all forms of mass protest appear eventually degenerate into lawless havoc to onlookers, which perpetuates a cycle of violence.
The state has no problem in engaging in mass arrests. And when the cultural moment has moved on, individuals are stuck fighting extreme charges and face having to make the difficult choice of pleaing out to resume what semblance of life remains. And if you want to fight, risk facing some of the most inhumane conditions in the developed world by spending some time in a federal prison.
So, "where is the entire US population?"
Mostly surviving and scared.
Yeah, why do people think every police department have been able to buy military vehicles and equipments for the last decades? To combat crime? LOL