So True!

 

Crazy Pete Doesn't Like Rules of Engagement

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared particularly unhinged during the first official news briefing about President Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran. Hegseth praised Israel, the U.S.’s military partner in the Iran strikes, for joining in what he described as “unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history.” 

Hegseth said that the campaign was being carried out “all on our terms, with maximum authorities. No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars.” 

It was unclear what "politically correct wars” Hegseth is talking about. Maybe that one against Nazi Germany? Despite his bluster, Hegseth seemed rankled by the suggestion that we are now involved in a regime change.   "This is not Iraq,” he said. “This is not endless." 

His remarks, like most everything in the Trump administration, were not in sync with President Donald Trump’s own boasts to Fox News anchor Bret Baier. Trump claimed that U.S. and Israeli forces targeted an Iranian leadership meeting and took out “49 leaders.” 

Hegseth also bristled at questions about the timeline for U.S. involvement, calling them “gotcha-type” questions, though he also warned that the Trump-initiated conflict “will include casualties. War is hell and always will be”

In case anyone forgot-- last June, Hegseth claimed Iran’s nuclear program—one ostensible reason for this latest strike—was “devastated” by prior U.S. strikes.  

 

 

Release all the Epstein Files Now!

There are fresh reports that q secret storage locker rented by Jeffrey Epstein contained computers, video tapes, sex-slave manuals and photographs of naked women. The Telegraph revealed that Epstein paid private detectives to remove items from his Florida property in an apparent attempt to hide them from investigators ahead of a police raid in 2005.  These were kept at a nearby storage facility in Palm Beach for several years while police investigated the pedophile.

The unit was rented on Epstein’s behalf by the Riley Kiraly detective agency and was one of at least six storage lockers leased by the late financier over a 16-year period.  An inventory of the secret Palm Beach lock-up showed that the stashed items included three computers, 29 address books and a three-page list of masseuses in Florida.  The hidden storage unit also contained nude photographs, believed to be of Epstein’s victims, as well as dozens of pornographic magazines, VHS tapes and DVDs eroticizing teenagers.  An 8mm video cassette tape was also locked away in the storage unit, apparently containing footage of someone in the shower and a woman in lingerie, as well as a 2005 calendar, greeting cards, letters and laboratory results.

The New York Times has also now reported that the vast trove of documents released by the Justice Department from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against President Trump.  The materials are F.B.I. memos summarizing interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Mr. Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor.

The existence of the memos was revealed in an index listing the investigative materials related to her account, which was publicly released. According to that index, the F.B.I. conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one summary of the four interviews, which describes her accusations against Mr. Epstein, was released by the Justice Department. The other three are missing.  The public files also do not include the underlying interview notes, which the index also indicates are part of the file.

 

Season 2 Can't Come Fast Enough!

 

Sports Always Seem to Turn the GOP Into Sore Losers

Oliver Willis of the Daily Kos opined last week on how the Olympics almost always seem to turn conservatives into sore losers.  Convicted felon Donald Trump himself started digging his own hole in this regard when he attacked Team USA skier Hunter Hess as a “loser” for speaking out about the toxicity of Trump’s presidency.  Snowboarder Chloe Kim later backed up Hess and told reporters,“Obviously, my parents being immigrants, this one definitely hits pretty close to home. I think in moments like these it is important for us to unite and stand up for one another.” Kim called on athletes to “lead with love and compassion” as their home country is roiled by violent and lawless mass deportation efforts.

Trump and other Republicans’ objections to athletes voicing their beliefs highlight conservatives’ lack of understanding about the Olympics. The games are about respectful athletic competition, global unity, and mutual respect. In contrast, the right’s world view—especially under Trump—is of an archaic past where domination, not cooperation, is the default.

If at First You Don't Succeed . . .

Convicted felon Donal Trump is trying yet again.  In the midst of diplomatic talks ( ), the Trump administration (in cahoots with Israel) launched an attack on cities across Iran.  The major assault threatened a broader regional conflict, with President Trump vowing to devastate the country’s military, eliminate its nuclear program and bring about a change in its government. Iran and the United States had been engaged a series of indirect talks over Tehran’s nuclear program in recent weeks but failed to reach a compromise that could have staved off American strikes. The most recent talks were held on Thursday when senior U.S. and Iranian officials gathered for a seemingly decisive round of negotiations in Switzerland.  Regarding those talks, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi said that the most recent round of negotiations ended with an agreement on a “set of guiding principles.” 

Waves of large explosions shook the Iranian capital, Tehran, starting around 9 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EST) and witnesses described chaos in the streets as people rushed to seek shelter, find loved ones or flee the city. Israel admitted that it had, in part, targeted a gathering of senior Iranian officials in the opening strikes. 

As they made their public case for another American military campaign against Iran, President Trump and his aides asserted that Iran had restarted its nuclear program, had enough available nuclear material to build a bomb within days and was developing long-range missiles that will soon be capable of hitting the United States.

All three of these claims are either false or unproven.  American and European government officials, international weapons monitoring groups and reports from American intelligence agencies give a far different picture of the urgency of the Iran threat. Iran has taken steps to dig out the nuclear facilities hit during strikes last June, and it has resumed work at some sites long known to American spy agencies. But the officials said that there isn’t evidence that Iran has made active efforts to resume enriching uranium or trying to build a mechanism to detonate a bomb.  The stockpiles of uranium that Iran has already enriched remain buried after last year’s strikes, making it nearly impossible for Iran to build a bomb “within days.”  Even though Iran has a large arsenal of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel and American military bases in the Middle East, American intelligence agencies believe Iran is probably years away from having missiles that can hit the United States.   

The U.S. Agency for Global Media said it had “significantly expanded” Voice of America’s Persian-language service in recent months and was broadcasting Trump’s speech announcing today’s attack “to the brave people of Iran across every available platform, including satellite.”  The U.S. government’s overall messaging to the Iranian people was muddled. There was no additional information on how Iranian soldiers and police officers were supposed to carry out Trump’s demand that they surrender. And it was unclear how deeply Voice of America and other U.S.-funded media would be able to cover the war in the wake of last year’s extensive cuts. 

Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, said there were currently no back-channel negotiations taking place in an effort to end the war with the United States and Israel. “If the Americans want to talk to us, they know how they can contact me,” Araghchi said in an interview on NBC News.  Araghchi added that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Masoud Pezeshkian, the president, were still alive “as far as I know.” When asked about President Trump’s call for Iranians to overthrow the government, Araghchi dismissively labeled it: “Mission Impossible.” 

Analysts warned that the fighting could easily devolve into a protracted war with no clear exit. Many world leaders urged restraint, although Canada and Australia backed the American campaign against Iran.  The Pumpkin Putin suggested that the conflict might end with Iranians rising up against their own authoritarian government after the American assault. “It will be yours to take,” Trump said, speaking to the Iranian public. “This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

 

Mumford & Sons - The Banjo Song