“President Trump has offered mixed messages since Israel launched its military campaign against Iran last week, vacillating from a hands-off approach to embracing diplomacy to at times suggesting that he was weighing further U.S. involvement,” the New York Times reported.
Exhibit A, why this insanity will continue ad infinitum. “President” t*** has lost his marbles. He’s not vacillating, he’s not weighting options, he’s not thinking critically because he’s not thinking at all. He’s lost his fucking mind, literally, but the goddam media in this country just can’t wrap its profit-driven head around that fact and tell it like it is. From muskrat to the Nazi Miller, we’ve had a shadow president calling the shots from noon January 20 on. We’re in deeper shit than anyone has the guts to admit. The country is being run not by the guy who sits in the Oval Office but by the worst collection of fascists, incompetent fools, thugs, thieves and outright criminals ever assembled in the Executive branch. The nutcase-in-chief is merely their frontman. God help us and the rest of the world.
His statement, “The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.” is evidence of a delusion of grandeur.
I heard disability cases for 10 years. Borderline personality disorder delusions of grandeurs can manifest as a persistent belief of being superior to others, boasting, and an inflated sense of one's abilities or achievements. Could be he thinks he's the almighty.
You are welcome. I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night but quoting an old campaign ad funded by Anti-Psychopath Pac – a political action committee that has produced attack ads questioning Trump’s mental fitness for office. “Even a non-clinician can see that Trump shows a lifetime pattern of ‘failure to conform to social norms and laws,’ ‘repeated lying,’ ‘reckless disregard for the safety of others,’ ‘irritability,’ ‘impulsivity,’ ‘irresponsibility,’ and ‘lack of remorse,’”
Someone? That would be his Cabinet, the collection of fascists, incompetent fools, thugs, thieves and criminals I referred to. He will not be impeached and convicted, he will not be removed by the 25th, he’s not going anywhere unless he leaves the planet, by whatever means.
True. And “whatever means”…..could be the hand of time and a raddled 79 year old body…also remember…even his toadies have families, businesses, and investments….all of which could tank if he continues his spree of crazy across the world.
That is a fact. But who? It will not be a Republican. They all fear him. It will have to be a Democrat who has an great amount of respect from all; including Republicans.
Just like it did during McCarthy. Until Murrow. But we do have multiple Murrows on the Internet. But we also have also multiple McCarthys too. Difficult road.
The Contrarian reports on issues related to Israel's genocide and apartheid but never directly addresses it. This outlet has published articles about student protesters in the US and those non-citizens protesters who have been detained for their views. recently The Contrarian has had several articles related to Israel's attack on Iran.
In all of these cases, this outlet dances around the clear fact that the ongoing and unflinching US support for Israel's constant war crimes has had a direct impact on the topics discussed. This outlet also consistently steers away from holding Israel responsible for anything.
Jen Rubin's recent piece about Israel and Iran is one example,. She frets over the danger to 'Israeli civilian casualties' without even mentioning once that Israel has already killed several hundred civilians in Iran.
But Rubin is realistic. Israel is a tiny nation surrounded on all sides by much larger and more populated, hostile nations who have gone to war against Israel more than once since 1948. Israel doesn’t have the luxury of measured response. The death of 7 Israelis is much larger, proportionally speaking, than the the death of 100 citizens of Iran. Neither is good. But it is understandable.
So which is it? Is it because The Contrarian 'has a focus that is not as broad as legacy media' or because 'Rubin is realistic'? These two defenses are not compatible.
And that second defense doesn't hold up anyway. For one, Israel is the one constantly invading its neighbors, let alone its decades of abhorrent treatment of the people it subjugates in lands it illegally occupies.I don't think there's been a moment in many decades where any land in Israel has been occupied by any other country, let alone had its militarily or political leadership killed en masse by anyone else, as Israel does regularly to other countries.
The population of Israel is somewhere around 9 million, while Iran is about 10 times larger, 90 million or so..so your math that '7 Israelis is much larger, proportionately speaking than...100 citizens in Iran' isn't accurate.
Besides, from what I can find, the Times of Israel is reporting 639 killed in Iran as of a day ago, where the last report I see says 24 have been killed in Israel so far. This is wildly out of proportion to their populations.
All this is a bit beside the point I was making. Rubin does not even mention any Iranian deaths in her piece at all. She makes no comment on the immorality and flagrant violation of international law committed by Israel when it launched an unprovoked, unilateral attack against Iran. She also doesn't mention that Israel's latest attacks have taken what little attention has been given to Gaza, where Israel continues to kill a hundred or more Palestinians every single day while starving its population. Her criticisms of Israel's attacks are essentially only about strategy and timing.
She also says nothing of the obvious fact that the US (under both Biden and Trump) has essentially given Israel carte blanche to do anything it likes after allowing the nation to commit open genocide and extreme barbarity on a trapped and desperate population in Gaza, while also increasing its apartheid-driven military assault on the West Bank, with no consequence whatsoever. It's no wonder that Israel would take advantage of the US ongoing support at this stage.
Despite being a fierce critic of Trump and the GOP for some time now (which is welcome), when it comes to the Middle East, Jennifer Rubin is still largely the same neocon hawk and steadfast supporter of Israel as she was when she was writing 'Right Turn' and loudly defending the Iraq War while shredding the Obama/Biden administration in the 2010s.
Rumors already abound that the reason he left the G-7 early was the mix of toxic dementia — incoherence on top of incontinence. The derangement, mental confusion, posturing, passive aggressive attacks, and ever-present smell of butt was too much for the other heads of state.
Now he muses whether to attack Iran. Does this sound like someone in control of his faculties?
I wish he would get stage 4 prostate cancer. At 79 he must already be having issues. Constantly needing to pee. If men live long enough, eventually they are prone to these issues. No way can he get it up anymore.
The moron is bound and determined to get us into a war, and not a "splendid little war" either; this is likely to be the real thing, with 92 million Iranians coming for us. And why? Because the moron backed out of an enforceable nuclear treaty with Iran that had been working. More to the point, the moron badly needs a distraction after the triumphant No Kings protests last Saturday. What better than a war?
The attack on Iran has been in the works for a long time now. This week is a good time to hit us with another outrage and with so many of them coming down every day and night, I get confused by what is happening.
Hitching his wagon to Israel's successes, having just basked in the glow of his ridiculous military parade, he's no doubt itching to prove his chops as a great commander-in-chief of troops in conflict. The impossible dream.
He’s still an actor on a stage and “A really bad one no talent at all” “ His acting isn’t even acting, he just can’t act” “He just should hang it up because he has no talent at all” “ His acting should even be called acting” etc., etc. etc…….
He is just playing an act of being president. He is so stupid he doesn’t even realize he is being PLAYED by the Alt right.
And I think one thing people are constantly forgetting (or refusing to acknowledge) is the Trump wants to push that nuke button more than anything. He will continue to push for an excuse to do it and there truly is no one in power to stop him this time. I would not put it past him to just want to nuke the whole Middle East so that he can then take over and build his resort there. These are incredibly dangerous times we are living in and when you have a president in name only being run buy a bunch of people who are a living death squad… do not be surprised when WWIII breaks out. Zalinsky said it best when he told T and JD “you haven’t had the war come to your shore…but you will”. We need to stop T NOW before we are in serious trouble with a nuclear powerhouse. Since we don’t have intelligence in Iran any more, no inspectors and no regulatory commission, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out that Iran has developed nukes and has them ready.
Under Trump the military is going to be so stressed out that they will be functioning less well. Yes we will, no we won't, let's be racist and sexist, let us undermine everyone who is not white, male and voting republican is not going to help morale. I am sure the military parade did not either. Those members cannot help noticing where the people stand. It was not in the stands. This is what living in a kakistocracy is like.
Thank you so much Jen for defining important terms like “preemptive” which politicians throw around. This is part of why The Contrarian is so admired as a source of news analysis. Please keep it up.
I beg to differ: War freed the rebellious colonies from an oppressive English king. War ended slavery. War ended Nazi Germany’s Holocaust and its ambition for world domination.
Sometimes war really is the only way to settle things.
Perhaps what settled something about Nazi Germany was not just that it was crushed, but also that the Allies were focused on re-building, rather than further punishing, Germany-- if the Allies were smarter in 1918 and not imposed a punitive peace on Germany, there might never have been a Hitler, nor a Second World War.
And it's true that the Civil War ended slavery, but it did not bring equality. Rather it brought Jim Crow, sharecropping, denial of the vote, and general second-class citizenship. President Grant had 2 hopes-- one was to re-integrate the south into the US, and the other was to make the freed slaves truly equal. But he came to realize that he might do one or the other, but not both. So even there, the end was messy.
At least a transcript of the video. So much to read and at least a transcript is far easier to access and read than watching a video. And I don’t have ear pods because of expense so I can’t listen while performing other tasks
We have to start stating the obvious: Trump and his cabinet are completely and utterly out of their depth. Trump left the G7 because he couldn’t keep up. It is terrifying.
Trump's negotiating style reminds me of something an orthopedic surgeon once said about compound fractures:
You can't nail a custard pie to the wall.
Trying to get Don the Con to set out a coherent position is like trying to nail a custard pie to the wall. He's such an idiot that he changes his position more often than he changes his socks! How do you negotiate with someone like that?!?
"unconditional surrender". Who does he think he is-- Franklin Roosevelt?! Trump has no filter between his brain and his mouth, which means he verbalizes whatever "thought" happens to pop into his otherwise empty head.
We should never forget that the primary motivation for both Trump and Netanyahu was to stay out of jail. Trump — through endless squirrels of diversion, tariff yo-yos, wars on migrants and DEI — Bibi through endless war, period.
Neither one of these sick bastards gives a damn about their own people, much less anybody else’s.
Most Americans are not aware that in 1953, the CIA financed a coup against the constitutionally and democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister so that the Shah, who was very pro-US, could regain power. This is rarely discussed when talking about Iran and certainly leads to bad feelings towards the US from the Iranian government. Countries that have existed for thousands of years do not forget their history.
Absolutely! People don't seem to realize that not only have the fossil fuel corporations contributed negatively to climate change, but they've also negatively contributed to geo-political battles around the globe. Rachel Maddow's book, Blowout, gives a good history and discussion of what the oil companies have done.
Another bad outcome is if the US has to send in troops to pick up the pieces. Billions more will be wasted and who knows how many lives lost as we try to "nation build," something we've already seen that we can't do.
IF we enter the war, I think the most we should do is destroy all of the deeply buried nuclear assets. Big if. I think Trump is venal enough to want American boots on the ground to claim we won the war. 🙄
Absolutely no nation building. Let the Israelis do that if they're so inclined.
What we have here is a tinderbox in the Middle East - yet again and we have a wild card in Dear Leader... He has an amazing capacity to say and do the wrong thing. Which wrong thing he pulls out of his... er, hat - this time depends on which of his kakistocratic enablers spoke to him last. Likely, this won't go well.
No one is talking about what the real danger is, and it's not Iran per se, which we or Israel could obliterate without much effort. The real danger is Iran's buddies: Russia, China, North Korea. They actually have smart but cunning people without consciences running their countries, and if they begin lobbing bombs towards us, wonder how Donnie will handle that. He won't; can't; has only toadies around him without experience whatsoever, because he's canned those folks who really and truly know world issues, history, how to negotiate, etc etc. He acts like he's "thinking" of options. He is incapable of such thought, as are his inept cabinet members. The people who could really make some sense of all of this are no longer working for the Feds. Trump and company will be seriously fucked, as will we all, if this scenario is not handled appropriately with competent negotiation. This conflagration has been coming to a head for decades, but now, instead of the US having people who are capable of treating this as a serious issue in the context of politics, history, security, etc, and know how to finesse such a mess, we have idiots who can hardly speak a cogent sentence, and are simply filled with hate, racism and themselves.
Trump's and the fools he put in his administration are going to really let their incompetence shine on this one. We are all so fucked, it's not even funny.
Thank you for this analysis Jen Rubin. The weakness of Donald Trump as a passive participant on the world stage, and as an entirely feckless negotiator, are laid out for all to see. His isolation and detachment from reality are, frankly, just incredible.
Only a complete fool would call on the leader of Iran to unconditionally surrender during an ongoing attack. Only a complete fool would start using "we" to describe Israel's attacks on Iran. And now it seems distinctly possible that Trump will cave in to Netanyahu's pressure simply to save face.
Trump is not only a poor negotiator, he is an easily manipulated child, easily directed and managed by the likes of Netanyahu and Putin. And the greatest misfortune here is that we are stuck with a GOP majority in Congress, leaving our own ability to steer this crisis to a soft landing a very remote possibility.
Who are Trump’s people in charge in this situation? Rubio? He is not an extremist at least, not like Musk, Miller, and Vought. It doesn’t seem that Trump makes decisions—does he even have the capacity anymore? He passes the reins to others to drive the action. The crazier those others are the better, it seems. If Hegseth has the authority to drive the action, we’re in trouble.
So true! I was thinking that, also. We’ve ALWAYS had experienced, level headed professionals in key positions of authority and advisement in government agencies. Plus, those individuals have been valued and respected. Too many have been fired or forced out of the DoD, NSA, CIA, FBI. Scary time(s) with the boobs in charge.
He is an idiot, plain and simple, as well as an immoral liar who is incredibly incompetent for the job of the US prez. My dog, rest in peace, could have done a better job.
I don’t think he is maniacal in the way Musk, Miller and Vought are, all of whom are/have been relentless and reckless in driving their agendas. They are really scary. So is Hegseth, though for different reasons. But Rubio also can’t be a check on Trump’s craziness. He lacks that competence, which is crucial. I don’t respect Rubio. I just think some other people in the administration are worse and more dangerous. The question at hand is whether we the Americans are crazy enough to drop a 30,000 pound bomb to wipe out Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Is there anyone close to Trump who would enable him to take that action?
I agree that Rubio is less dangerous than other members of the crazy clown posse.
I hope that there is someone in thr G7 nations who can get across to Trump that rage-tweeting about unconditional surrender and assassinating the ayatollah are very dangerous ideas.
I think he might be competent, but at least I'm pretty sure he's not crazy nor stupid, and that's more than you can say about pretty much everyone else with whom Don the Con has associated himself.
A regime change is needed both in Israel and here in the US. We're all paying for having elected criminals as "leaders" who depend on strife, conflict and confusion to protect themselves from the judicial punishments they deserve.
“Trump is playing 4 dimensional chess.” No, more like he has no plan, remembers only the last thing whispered in his ear and for the first time, has a real decision on his desk that he can’t fix by declaring bankruptcy. What to do, what to do?
Another bit of the calculation is the orange one's desire for a distraction, something that will move attention from his domestic policy failures of the moment. A war would certainly do that. And frankly, I think MAGAts would mostly go along with that, simply because their prime directive is "Trump is always right".
He is also "not right in the head", so efforts by others to keep weighing options as if we were dealing with a president who can think and act logically are possibly misguided.
“President Trump has offered mixed messages since Israel launched its military campaign against Iran last week, vacillating from a hands-off approach to embracing diplomacy to at times suggesting that he was weighing further U.S. involvement,” the New York Times reported.
Exhibit A, why this insanity will continue ad infinitum. “President” t*** has lost his marbles. He’s not vacillating, he’s not weighting options, he’s not thinking critically because he’s not thinking at all. He’s lost his fucking mind, literally, but the goddam media in this country just can’t wrap its profit-driven head around that fact and tell it like it is. From muskrat to the Nazi Miller, we’ve had a shadow president calling the shots from noon January 20 on. We’re in deeper shit than anyone has the guts to admit. The country is being run not by the guy who sits in the Oval Office but by the worst collection of fascists, incompetent fools, thugs, thieves and outright criminals ever assembled in the Executive branch. The nutcase-in-chief is merely their frontman. God help us and the rest of the world.
His statement, “The UK is very well protected. You know why? Because I like them, that's why. That's the ultimate protection.” is evidence of a delusion of grandeur.
He speaks like mob boss – and consistently acts like one.
If it walks like a duck... The tRump Organization is a criminal enterprise.
Absolutely.
"Nice country ya got there. Be shame if something happened to it....."
Agreed, but a cardboard one. A mob boss from some terrible B-movie.
Only he is not as smart.
TACO.
Not grandeur. Piss-ant mobsterism. There’s a huge difference.
I heard disability cases for 10 years. Borderline personality disorder delusions of grandeurs can manifest as a persistent belief of being superior to others, boasting, and an inflated sense of one's abilities or achievements. Could be he thinks he's the almighty.
He says stuff like "I am your redemption."
It could be also he thinks he's Al Capone.
I’m thinking Al Capone. Piss-ant mobster from Queens. The loser kind Humphrey Bogart used to slap.
We are not dealing with a borderline personality disorder here. Much worse.
Take out the word “borderline”. He is certifiably insane.
Thanks for your medical opinion.
You are welcome. I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night but quoting an old campaign ad funded by Anti-Psychopath Pac – a political action committee that has produced attack ads questioning Trump’s mental fitness for office. “Even a non-clinician can see that Trump shows a lifetime pattern of ‘failure to conform to social norms and laws,’ ‘repeated lying,’ ‘reckless disregard for the safety of others,’ ‘irritability,’ ‘impulsivity,’ ‘irresponsibility,’ and ‘lack of remorse,’”
I can think of others who fit your description - among the most malevolent: Elon Musk.
Pretty much the entire cabinet in one way or another, IMHO.
Everyone in the lunatics cabinet are non functioning people.
And lets not forget the Nazi, Miller.
He certainly acts like Al Capone.
Daniel, I believe his phrase to his MAGA cult was: "I am your retribution."
Does he realize that no sane human in the world likes or respects him and are praying for his demise.
No, because he's a feckin' crazy looney tune...
They seldom do.
You are correct in your assessment of the lunatic.
That’s why we have the 25th amendment. Someone needs to invoke it.
Someone? That would be his Cabinet, the collection of fascists, incompetent fools, thugs, thieves and criminals I referred to. He will not be impeached and convicted, he will not be removed by the 25th, he’s not going anywhere unless he leaves the planet, by whatever means.
No way is Stephen Miller going to cede power to JD.
True. And “whatever means”…..could be the hand of time and a raddled 79 year old body…also remember…even his toadies have families, businesses, and investments….all of which could tank if he continues his spree of crazy across the world.
Sorry to say you are right John.
That is a fact. But who? It will not be a Republican. They all fear him. It will have to be a Democrat who has an great amount of respect from all; including Republicans.
Most unfortunately, there is no opposition party. Democrats are over.
Do not agree. They got their asses kicked last election but they will be back. Do not count them out.
Totally agree. I despise our media which acts like everything is totally normal.
Fox News would lie even when the nukes started dropping. There’s not one honest person in that organization
Legacy media. Many new media providers, eg Contrarian, are highly reliable and honest.
I'm only financially supporting independent news providers now. Thankful for the Contrarian!
The legacy media was all bought up by the plutocrats. They're just mouthpieces now.
I agree. The Contrarian. Maybe Steve Schmidt or possibly Dworkin. They both are responsible & are respected by most everyone
As is the Bulwark.
Just like it did during McCarthy. Until Murrow. But we do have multiple Murrows on the Internet. But we also have also multiple McCarthys too. Difficult road.
You are correct about the media.
How to you feel about The Contrarian, who has completely blacklisted any news of the ongoing US/Israel genocide in Gaza?
I do not believe they’re blacklisting any news. The Contrarian has a focus that is not as broad as legacy media
The Contrarian reports on issues related to Israel's genocide and apartheid but never directly addresses it. This outlet has published articles about student protesters in the US and those non-citizens protesters who have been detained for their views. recently The Contrarian has had several articles related to Israel's attack on Iran.
In all of these cases, this outlet dances around the clear fact that the ongoing and unflinching US support for Israel's constant war crimes has had a direct impact on the topics discussed. This outlet also consistently steers away from holding Israel responsible for anything.
Jen Rubin's recent piece about Israel and Iran is one example,. She frets over the danger to 'Israeli civilian casualties' without even mentioning once that Israel has already killed several hundred civilians in Iran.
But Rubin is realistic. Israel is a tiny nation surrounded on all sides by much larger and more populated, hostile nations who have gone to war against Israel more than once since 1948. Israel doesn’t have the luxury of measured response. The death of 7 Israelis is much larger, proportionally speaking, than the the death of 100 citizens of Iran. Neither is good. But it is understandable.
So which is it? Is it because The Contrarian 'has a focus that is not as broad as legacy media' or because 'Rubin is realistic'? These two defenses are not compatible.
And that second defense doesn't hold up anyway. For one, Israel is the one constantly invading its neighbors, let alone its decades of abhorrent treatment of the people it subjugates in lands it illegally occupies.I don't think there's been a moment in many decades where any land in Israel has been occupied by any other country, let alone had its militarily or political leadership killed en masse by anyone else, as Israel does regularly to other countries.
The population of Israel is somewhere around 9 million, while Iran is about 10 times larger, 90 million or so..so your math that '7 Israelis is much larger, proportionately speaking than...100 citizens in Iran' isn't accurate.
Besides, from what I can find, the Times of Israel is reporting 639 killed in Iran as of a day ago, where the last report I see says 24 have been killed in Israel so far. This is wildly out of proportion to their populations.
All this is a bit beside the point I was making. Rubin does not even mention any Iranian deaths in her piece at all. She makes no comment on the immorality and flagrant violation of international law committed by Israel when it launched an unprovoked, unilateral attack against Iran. She also doesn't mention that Israel's latest attacks have taken what little attention has been given to Gaza, where Israel continues to kill a hundred or more Palestinians every single day while starving its population. Her criticisms of Israel's attacks are essentially only about strategy and timing.
She also says nothing of the obvious fact that the US (under both Biden and Trump) has essentially given Israel carte blanche to do anything it likes after allowing the nation to commit open genocide and extreme barbarity on a trapped and desperate population in Gaza, while also increasing its apartheid-driven military assault on the West Bank, with no consequence whatsoever. It's no wonder that Israel would take advantage of the US ongoing support at this stage.
Despite being a fierce critic of Trump and the GOP for some time now (which is welcome), when it comes to the Middle East, Jennifer Rubin is still largely the same neocon hawk and steadfast supporter of Israel as she was when she was writing 'Right Turn' and loudly defending the Iraq War while shredding the Obama/Biden administration in the 2010s.
Rumors already abound that the reason he left the G-7 early was the mix of toxic dementia — incoherence on top of incontinence. The derangement, mental confusion, posturing, passive aggressive attacks, and ever-present smell of butt was too much for the other heads of state.
Now he muses whether to attack Iran. Does this sound like someone in control of his faculties?
He knew Zelensky was coming and Ukraine was the topic for discussion, so had to make a quick exit.
They put Zelenskyy in his chair after he left -- once the rectal fumes had dissipated, of course.
You hit the nail on the head. It is all of the above; including the ever-present smell of butt.
I wish he would get stage 4 prostate cancer. At 79 he must already be having issues. Constantly needing to pee. If men live long enough, eventually they are prone to these issues. No way can he get it up anymore.
I would rather he have a serious stroke but live many more years.
and loose the power of speech
The moron is bound and determined to get us into a war, and not a "splendid little war" either; this is likely to be the real thing, with 92 million Iranians coming for us. And why? Because the moron backed out of an enforceable nuclear treaty with Iran that had been working. More to the point, the moron badly needs a distraction after the triumphant No Kings protests last Saturday. What better than a war?
The attack on Iran has been in the works for a long time now. This week is a good time to hit us with another outrage and with so many of them coming down every day and night, I get confused by what is happening.
As per plan.
Hitching his wagon to Israel's successes, having just basked in the glow of his ridiculous military parade, he's no doubt itching to prove his chops as a great commander-in-chief of troops in conflict. The impossible dream.
He’s still an actor on a stage and “A really bad one no talent at all” “ His acting isn’t even acting, he just can’t act” “He just should hang it up because he has no talent at all” “ His acting should even be called acting” etc., etc. etc…….
He is just playing an act of being president. He is so stupid he doesn’t even realize he is being PLAYED by the Alt right.
So true.
Amen. Well said.
I would say he ran a shadow government in parallel with the Biden administration.
You are absolutely correct.
You are spot on! For Trump to stay in office he will have to get us to a war. How convenient for him; Iran is the target.
He has to stay in office or he'll be in prison, just like Bibi.
Wonderfully stated. This certainly illustrates how ignorant voters can cause all the rest of us to possibly become casualties.
And I think one thing people are constantly forgetting (or refusing to acknowledge) is the Trump wants to push that nuke button more than anything. He will continue to push for an excuse to do it and there truly is no one in power to stop him this time. I would not put it past him to just want to nuke the whole Middle East so that he can then take over and build his resort there. These are incredibly dangerous times we are living in and when you have a president in name only being run buy a bunch of people who are a living death squad… do not be surprised when WWIII breaks out. Zalinsky said it best when he told T and JD “you haven’t had the war come to your shore…but you will”. We need to stop T NOW before we are in serious trouble with a nuclear powerhouse. Since we don’t have intelligence in Iran any more, no inspectors and no regulatory commission, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out that Iran has developed nukes and has them ready.
Under Trump the military is going to be so stressed out that they will be functioning less well. Yes we will, no we won't, let's be racist and sexist, let us undermine everyone who is not white, male and voting republican is not going to help morale. I am sure the military parade did not either. Those members cannot help noticing where the people stand. It was not in the stands. This is what living in a kakistocracy is like.
Thank you so much Jen for defining important terms like “preemptive” which politicians throw around. This is part of why The Contrarian is so admired as a source of news analysis. Please keep it up.
Eisenhower had a quote about preemptive (I think he called it 'preventive') war. It went something like:
If someone talks to you about a 'preventive' war, you tell THEM to go and fight it!
I think he followed it up with
"War settles nothing"
I beg to differ: War freed the rebellious colonies from an oppressive English king. War ended slavery. War ended Nazi Germany’s Holocaust and its ambition for world domination.
Sometimes war really is the only way to settle things.
Perhaps what settled something about Nazi Germany was not just that it was crushed, but also that the Allies were focused on re-building, rather than further punishing, Germany-- if the Allies were smarter in 1918 and not imposed a punitive peace on Germany, there might never have been a Hitler, nor a Second World War.
And it's true that the Civil War ended slavery, but it did not bring equality. Rather it brought Jim Crow, sharecropping, denial of the vote, and general second-class citizenship. President Grant had 2 hopes-- one was to re-integrate the south into the US, and the other was to make the freed slaves truly equal. But he came to realize that he might do one or the other, but not both. So even there, the end was messy.
Lincoln’s assassination followed by Johnson kowtowing to the South ruined chances for any kind of success.
Lincoln made the critical mistake of putting a Southern slavery advocate on the ticket, always trying to unite.
Yes, I learn so much for reading her posts. I wish she would do more written posts and fewer videos, though.
I agree!! But essays take longer to write than interviews do.
At least a transcript of the video. So much to read and at least a transcript is far easier to access and read than watching a video. And I don’t have ear pods because of expense so I can’t listen while performing other tasks
We have to start stating the obvious: Trump and his cabinet are completely and utterly out of their depth. Trump left the G7 because he couldn’t keep up. It is terrifying.
I am not sure why they even invited him? Let the adults handle the hard stuff he can sleep in someone else’s meetings
Trump's negotiating style reminds me of something an orthopedic surgeon once said about compound fractures:
You can't nail a custard pie to the wall.
Trying to get Don the Con to set out a coherent position is like trying to nail a custard pie to the wall. He's such an idiot that he changes his position more often than he changes his socks! How do you negotiate with someone like that?!?
"unconditional surrender". Who does he think he is-- Franklin Roosevelt?! Trump has no filter between his brain and his mouth, which means he verbalizes whatever "thought" happens to pop into his otherwise empty head.
How do you know he changes his socks? 🤓
Melania probably makes him do it when the stink gets bad enough.
to smell it from New York...
😹😹😹
Changes his Depends.
Ergo …. Alcatraz
We should never forget that the primary motivation for both Trump and Netanyahu was to stay out of jail. Trump — through endless squirrels of diversion, tariff yo-yos, wars on migrants and DEI — Bibi through endless war, period.
Neither one of these sick bastards gives a damn about their own people, much less anybody else’s.
Sadly true
One wants war with all neighbors one war with their own citizens
Most Americans are not aware that in 1953, the CIA financed a coup against the constitutionally and democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister so that the Shah, who was very pro-US, could regain power. This is rarely discussed when talking about Iran and certainly leads to bad feelings towards the US from the Iranian government. Countries that have existed for thousands of years do not forget their history.
Agree -- it was all about Shell, Mobil, Standard Oil, Exon, etc. controlling the music.
Absolutely! People don't seem to realize that not only have the fossil fuel corporations contributed negatively to climate change, but they've also negatively contributed to geo-political battles around the globe. Rachel Maddow's book, Blowout, gives a good history and discussion of what the oil companies have done.
I am glad this fact has been put out there. The US is also responsible for too many regime interferences in South America.
Thank you. The shah became increasingly authoritarian and his government was very unpopular in Iran.
Another bad outcome is if the US has to send in troops to pick up the pieces. Billions more will be wasted and who knows how many lives lost as we try to "nation build," something we've already seen that we can't do.
IF we enter the war, I think the most we should do is destroy all of the deeply buried nuclear assets. Big if. I think Trump is venal enough to want American boots on the ground to claim we won the war. 🙄
Absolutely no nation building. Let the Israelis do that if they're so inclined.
What we have here is a tinderbox in the Middle East - yet again and we have a wild card in Dear Leader... He has an amazing capacity to say and do the wrong thing. Which wrong thing he pulls out of his... er, hat - this time depends on which of his kakistocratic enablers spoke to him last. Likely, this won't go well.
Bibi and Trump are sitting in a room full of gunpowder, up to their necks in gasoline, playing with lighters...
No one is talking about what the real danger is, and it's not Iran per se, which we or Israel could obliterate without much effort. The real danger is Iran's buddies: Russia, China, North Korea. They actually have smart but cunning people without consciences running their countries, and if they begin lobbing bombs towards us, wonder how Donnie will handle that. He won't; can't; has only toadies around him without experience whatsoever, because he's canned those folks who really and truly know world issues, history, how to negotiate, etc etc. He acts like he's "thinking" of options. He is incapable of such thought, as are his inept cabinet members. The people who could really make some sense of all of this are no longer working for the Feds. Trump and company will be seriously fucked, as will we all, if this scenario is not handled appropriately with competent negotiation. This conflagration has been coming to a head for decades, but now, instead of the US having people who are capable of treating this as a serious issue in the context of politics, history, security, etc, and know how to finesse such a mess, we have idiots who can hardly speak a cogent sentence, and are simply filled with hate, racism and themselves.
The modern MAGAt including the Donold, fear knowledge and competence so much they have banished it from Government. We are in the hands of imbeciles.
I can't imagine any scenario where it would go well. Virtually guaranteed to go ka-boom in more ways than we can count.
Trump's and the fools he put in his administration are going to really let their incompetence shine on this one. We are all so fucked, it's not even funny.
Good analyses Jen.
Thank you for this analysis Jen Rubin. The weakness of Donald Trump as a passive participant on the world stage, and as an entirely feckless negotiator, are laid out for all to see. His isolation and detachment from reality are, frankly, just incredible.
Only a complete fool would call on the leader of Iran to unconditionally surrender during an ongoing attack. Only a complete fool would start using "we" to describe Israel's attacks on Iran. And now it seems distinctly possible that Trump will cave in to Netanyahu's pressure simply to save face.
Trump is not only a poor negotiator, he is an easily manipulated child, easily directed and managed by the likes of Netanyahu and Putin. And the greatest misfortune here is that we are stuck with a GOP majority in Congress, leaving our own ability to steer this crisis to a soft landing a very remote possibility.
Who are Trump’s people in charge in this situation? Rubio? He is not an extremist at least, not like Musk, Miller, and Vought. It doesn’t seem that Trump makes decisions—does he even have the capacity anymore? He passes the reins to others to drive the action. The crazier those others are the better, it seems. If Hegseth has the authority to drive the action, we’re in trouble.
So true! I was thinking that, also. We’ve ALWAYS had experienced, level headed professionals in key positions of authority and advisement in government agencies. Plus, those individuals have been valued and respected. Too many have been fired or forced out of the DoD, NSA, CIA, FBI. Scary time(s) with the boobs in charge.
literally the BOOBS are in charge...
Don’t forget the 77 million lesser boobs who put him in charge.
Once upon a time, Marco Rubio was not an extremist. Based on his recent actions and utterances, it appears he has sold his soul.
Rubio has totally caved, so can't be relied on for any injection of sanity.
Do you think Rubio is competent? I don't have confidence in him
He has no moral principles.
He is an idiot, plain and simple, as well as an immoral liar who is incredibly incompetent for the job of the US prez. My dog, rest in peace, could have done a better job.
I don’t think he is maniacal in the way Musk, Miller and Vought are, all of whom are/have been relentless and reckless in driving their agendas. They are really scary. So is Hegseth, though for different reasons. But Rubio also can’t be a check on Trump’s craziness. He lacks that competence, which is crucial. I don’t respect Rubio. I just think some other people in the administration are worse and more dangerous. The question at hand is whether we the Americans are crazy enough to drop a 30,000 pound bomb to wipe out Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Is there anyone close to Trump who would enable him to take that action?
I agree that Rubio is less dangerous than other members of the crazy clown posse.
I hope that there is someone in thr G7 nations who can get across to Trump that rage-tweeting about unconditional surrender and assassinating the ayatollah are very dangerous ideas.
I think he might be competent, but at least I'm pretty sure he's not crazy nor stupid, and that's more than you can say about pretty much everyone else with whom Don the Con has associated himself.
Whiskey Pete.
Netanyahu really has no brake. We don’t need a foreign war. We almost have a domestic one!
A regime change is needed both in Israel and here in the US. We're all paying for having elected criminals as "leaders" who depend on strife, conflict and confusion to protect themselves from the judicial punishments they deserve.
“Trump is playing 4 dimensional chess.” No, more like he has no plan, remembers only the last thing whispered in his ear and for the first time, has a real decision on his desk that he can’t fix by declaring bankruptcy. What to do, what to do?
The sad truth is that Trump is still trying to figure out Tic-Tac-Toe.
I think that might be a bit beyond him.
Another bit of the calculation is the orange one's desire for a distraction, something that will move attention from his domestic policy failures of the moment. A war would certainly do that. And frankly, I think MAGAts would mostly go along with that, simply because their prime directive is "Trump is always right".
He is also "not right in the head", so efforts by others to keep weighing options as if we were dealing with a president who can think and act logically are possibly misguided.