[RE]

In the case of Iran, a half dozen tactical nukes might count as their single big nuke.  Each with in an escort of a dozen decoys.  That way peace can be kept when the outlaws come to town.

I tend to agree that if 1 nation has them, they all should have the same right.  Small & Weak nations that can't afford a big military particularly need them.  It would stop big nations from attacking with conventional weapons & "bombing them back to the stone age".  Or at least think twice before doing so.

The main problem is that if lots of small countries with unstable goobermints have them, what happens when the country gets into a civil war?  Also, the increased potential for non-state actors to have a nuke.  Say here in the FSoA if the Proud Boys or Ku Klux Klan got a nuke?

Frankly, the technology isn't very complex, it's mainly an engineering issue for Uranium enrichment.  I'm sure the North Koreans could ramp up their production and sell tactical nukes on the retail arms market.  Good source of revenue.

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[K-Dog]

I'd love to be able to interrupt an American politician in the middle of saying:

Iran Can't have nuclear weapons.

I'd grab the mike and say:

Why the fuck not.

And I'd be thinking.

Why the fuck not you political hack of an asshole. What are they going to do with them that you wouldn't do.  Let's start there.  What kind of rotten filth lines your brain-pan so that you think a civilized nation is all about playing G.I. Joe.  Not ours, I mean a real civilized nation.  You have a case of arrested development?  Seems to me you MAGA asshole that your elevator can't even make it up to the second floor.  Not everyone is an adult child like you are.  Grow the fuck up.  Too long have I been tolerant of this ignorant painful and evil stupidity.


And if I we XI I'd throw Trump's ass in a Chinese prison as soon as he arrives.  Not to see the light of day until Maduro is back in Caracas holding a press conference.

[K-Dog]

theatlantic.com 2026-05-10

Checkmate in Iran

Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war.

Defeat in the present confrontation with Iran will be of an entirely different character. It can neither be repaired nor ignored. There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done. The Strait of Hormuz will not be "open," as it once was. With control of the strait, Iran emerges as the key player in the region and one of the key players in the world. The roles of China and Russia, as Iran's allies, are strengthened; the role of the United States, substantially diminished.

The consequences of letting a bully of an adult child run the show.  America thought the orange cookie thief would give them a cookie.  That he would share.  But the power obsessed do not share.  So it goes, when putting a sucker on the hook is very easy when you exploit GREED.  Power obsessed people know about greed.  Exploiting greed means you only have to make promises like 'make America great again.'  Having an actual plan to do so is totally unnecessary since America's greed prevents any consideration of consequences.

So Trump thinks:

And since talking shit and having no plan works so well, why not start a war without a plan too.  The suckers will believe anything I tell them.  They have so far.  They always do.

Iran experts have noted, the regime in Tehran currently stands to emerge from the crisis much stronger than it was before the war, having not only retained its potential nuclear capacity but also gained control of an even more effective weapon: the ability to hold the global energy market hostage. When the Iranians talk of "reopening" the strait, they still mean to keep the strait under their control. Iran will be able not only to demand tolls for passage, but to limit transit to those nations with which it has good relations. If a nation behaves in a way that Iran's rulers don't like, they will be able to exact punishment merely by slowing, or even threatening to slow, the flow of that nation's cargo ships in and out of the strait.

To benefit himself Trump has locked America into ineluctable decline.  To some, that defines a traitor.

[RE]

And if I we XI I'd throw Trump's ass in a Chinese prison as soon as he arrives.  Not to see the light of day until Maduro is back in Caracas holding a press conference.

It would be great if he was tried in absentia at the Hague for War Crimes and an International Warrant for his arrest put out by Interpol.😀  Then he could be arrested anytime he lands outside the FSoA on Air Force 1.

[K-Dog]

It would be great if he was tried in absentia at the Hague for War Crimes and an International Warrant for his arrest put out by Interpol.😀  Then he could be arrested anytime he lands outside the FSoA on Air Force 1.

An arrest warrant from the Hague.  That makes me think of springtime freshness.

Magically delightful.

[RE]

NPR.ORG 2026-05-12

Israel's government is expected to collapse over ultra-Orthodox military draft

The Gaza war and the need for more soldiers has placed more political pressure on the community to take part in military service. Last year, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox Israelis.

Unfortunately, Nitwityahoo will remain Acting PM until they can form a new Goobermint.  Also, whoever new is picked will probably be a Right Wingnut, since the Conservative Party has a plurality of MPs.  Only the Lefties in the Liberal party are anti war there.

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[RE]

OWENJONES.NEWS 2026-05-12

New York Times confirms Israel using dogs to rape

There is now overwhelming evidence that the Israeli state is systematically using sexual violence against Palestinians.

The silence surrounding these crimes once again underlines the extent to which Israel's actions are whitewashed - and the extent to which Palestinian suffering is treated as though it simply does not matter.

Mother-Rapers! Father-stabbers! Father-Rapers! -Arlo Guthrie "Alice's Restaurant Massacree

Even Arlo didn't run into any DOG-RAPERS back in the 'Nam days. Times change.

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[RE]

COUNTERPUNCH.ORG 2026-05-12

US Imperialist War in Iran Looks Like an Economic Rescue Mission

Disaster on the way represents capitalism in crisis.

Changing modes of capitalism have ended up as that skewed form of imperialism that now propels war with Iran. The message of Marxist analyst Samir Amin resonates: "[C]apitalism is incapable of overcoming its fundamental contradictions." (2) That would be so, especially if working people, the great mass of humanity, rise up, mobilize, and say, No!

This will be no surprise to Diners familiar with Marxist analysis and the ongoing crisis in Capitalist economics, but the Iran war has little to do with the Iranian Nuke Program and much more to do with the waning power of the FSoA Dollar as the only financial debt instrument available for the Oil Trade on the Nation-State level.

The rise of the Chinese Renminby as the debt instrument of choice for evading economic sanctions and the advent of the BRICS clearing system for trades enables Oil trade completely independent of SWIFT & the Petrodollar, so the loss of this financial control system has driven FSoA Imperialists to attempt the physical control over the choke points of the global ocean based transportation of the oil.  This motivated the action against Venezuela directly before the Iran war, and also the threats to Cuba, Greenland and Canada to their sovereignty.

Will the escalating crisis lead to a workers revolt and the collapse of the Dollar as World Reserve Currency?  Will that lead inexorably to WWIII and direct conflict between thee FSoA and the PRoC?  It's looking more likely all the time, and this week's meeting between His Royal Chumpness and Xi may provide some clues.

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[RE]

MIDDLEEASTEYE.NET 2026-05-13

US heading for ‘checkmate’ and ‘total defeat’ in Iran war, says neocon Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan, one of the United States’ most prominent neoconservative voices and a long-time pro-Israel hawk, has warned that Washington is heading towards “total defeat” in its war on Iran - a setback he says “can neither be repaired nor ignored”.

Writing in The Atlantic, Kagan said the damage inflicted by the conflict cannot be reversed.  "There will be no return to the status quo ante, no ultimate American triumph that will undo or overcome the harm done," he concluded bleakly.

FINALLY, some GOOD NEWZ about the war in Iran! 😀  Off the keyboard of a certified Neocon Jackass, no less.  Rarely are we treated to such a happy moment worthy of celebration and gloating!

The only bad aspects of the collapsing FSoA imperialist adventurism is in the near term that it will do increasingly stupid things trying to maintain its "preeminence", and in the longer term won't do much besides perhaps slightly slow the ongoing Collapse of Industrial Civilization.  It's far too late to repair the damage already done and there still is no replacement for the ever dwindling resources of energy, water and minerals necessary to maintain the current technological standard of living and population size.  The Great Dieoff of Homo Sapiens on Planet Earth will arrive regardless.  In fact it probably has already begun.

In the distant future however, life will go on for millions more years until the Sun goes Red Giant, any Homo Saps who do survive or evolve into something else will have the chance to start over and not repeat the mistakes made in the Age of Fossil Fuels.  You can't make an Omelet without Breaking a few Eggs. 😀

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[K-Dog]

TASNIMNEWS.IR 2026-05-18

Fundamental Differences between Texts of Iran, US Still Remain, Source Says

Despite some changes in the new text proposed by the US, still remain fundamental differences stemming from Americans’ excessive demands and lack of realism, a source close to the Iranian negotiating team told Tasnim.

Remembering that the original text is in Farsi explains the choice of words.

excessive demands and lack of realism

[RE]

CNBC.COM 2026-05-18

Trump says he’s postponing ‘scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow’ at Middle East leaders’ request

President Donald Trump said he is calling off a plan to attack Iran on Tuesday after the heads of three regional powers in the Middle East asked him to “hold off.”

Trump said he received requests from Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Cain should still "be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached," Trump said.

Trumpolini Always Chickens Out...again.  Tomorrow is Tuesday, so he "cancelled" the attack which he had not even announced before announcing the cancellation.  lol.  The market has taken a beating last couple of sessions, so obviously he's trying to juice it.  You'll know when the bombs actually will fall when a mysterious Whale takes $1B Short on the S&P.

Supposedly this is because Iran is suddenly ready to deal, because his latest threats were so much more scary than the last dozen times he's threatened them with TOTAL ANNIHILIATION.  Didn't his mom ever read The Boy Who Cried Wolf to him at bedtime?

We're now less than 2 weeks from June, the point at which most of the pundits have predicted the "cushion" of oil in storage will be mostly depleted and real shortages will develop in the market that will start a bidding war for available product.  It's also when the window closes for fertilizer application in the Northern Hemisphere.  I would be seriously concerned with the Rice production in India, where 4/5 of their fertilizer production facilities are shut down.  Famine in India could easily wipe 100M people out in a couple of months.


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[RE]

THEGUARDIAN.COM 2026-05-23

An ever-expanding catastrophe over Iran is not inevitable. Trump can and must be stopped

With the deadlocked war in Iran about to enter its fourth month, loose comparisons with previous US quagmires in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam are bandied about.

 When the conflict began, warnings of another "forever war" seemed exaggerated. No longer. As matters stand, the negative international humanitarian, economic and geopolitical fallout from this fiasco looks set to prove more permanently globally damaging than any of those past US-made disasters.  That being the case, an urgent question arises, not least today as reports suggest the US president and his secretary of war are planning to rain more bombs on Iran: who will stop Donald Trump?

This approach certainly should be tried, but unfortunately it's not likely to work and at worst could backfire badly.

The first problem is I'm not sure you could get all the countries on board with sanctions of the FSoA that really bite.  Many are quite dependent on the FSoA for more than just military aid.  Food is a big export item, and it wouldn't be easily replaced.

The bigger problem though is Trumpolini's psychology.  Everybody lining up against him would increase his paranoia and increase the likelihood of him ordering the use of nuke weapons.  Then it would depend on the Generals refusing to follow the orders, and so far I haven't seen any indication they have enough backbone to do that.

The only plausible legal solution at this point is if the Repugnants lose both houses of CONgress and an Impeachment is successful.  However even that requires the conflict to stay at relatively low level until Nov, and then probably at least 3 months for the Impeachment hearings.  By the time he's out of office, the global economy will be toast and food and energy shortages will be widespread.  We're probably already guaranteed millions will die, this solution just gives it a chance of not escalating to 10s or 100s of millions.

Unfortunately, there's no plausible legal solution to the Trump problem.  A Coup d'Etat could work, but that also would take backbone from the Generals and might star a Civil War.  It's a major Wicked Problem.

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[RE]

CNBC.COM 2026-05-23

Trump says Iran deal reopening Strait of Hormuz ‘largely negotiated,’ will be announced soon

President Donald Trump said a peace deal with Iran that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “largely negotiated” and will be announced shortly.

A deal could end a conflict that has choked global energy markets and pushed U.S. inflation to its highest level in years. "An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries," Trump said in a social media post. The agreement includes a memorandum of understanding as a first phase, Iran's foreign ministry said, before broader talks within 30 to 60 days.

Yea, right.  What does IRAN say?

Iran's Fars news agency reported the Strait ⁠of Hormuz would remain under Iran's management, according ⁠to ‌the latest ⁠exchanged text between Iran and ‌the U.S. The report dismissed ‌Trump's ⁠announcement of reopening ⁠the ⁠strait as part of a "largely ‌negotiated" deal as "incomplete and inconsistent with reality."

Reading between the lines, the "deal" is just the "memo of understanding" which states that they'll keep talking about it and keep disagreeing on the fundamental points.  Iran at some point MIGHT agree not to work on nuke weapons, but they will not do that unless at least $100B in war reparations are paid and ALL sanctions are lifted AND they can collect tolls on Hormuz.  Those are conditions Trumpolini can't agree to without looking like a total fool.  Which he is of course.   He also is in desperate need of a reality check.

Don't count on ships lighting up their Bunker Fuel burners and steaming out of Hormuz loaded with Oil anytime soon.

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[K-Dog]

TASNIMNEWS.IR 2026-05-24

The final details of the Iran deal are being discussed.

Donald Trump, the head of the U.S. terrorist state, said the final details of the deal with Iran are being discussed.

[RE]

Donald Trump, the head of the U.S. terrorist state, said the final details of the deal with Iran are being discussed.

The check is in the mail.🙄

RE