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Steven Omand's avatar

“By grossly exaggerating the degree of success, Trump loses the plot. The purpose of hard power is to trigger meaningful negotiations toward an improved, long-term version of the Iran nuclear deal.”

Huh 🤔… so having a lying demagogue who is totally incompetent at governance and diplomacy, and whose only management model is Mob Boss, in the highest office is not good! Who knew? 🤔

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Charles's avatar

I submit that a few of us had an at least a idea of an idea that it might not be good.

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Mark Folsom's avatar

True--I, for one, have a keen eye for the obvious.

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It's Come To This's avatar

The only thing oblitzerated last Saturday appears to have been Pete Kegsbreath.

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jean solomon's avatar

WHISKRY PETE !!!!!

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Pam Birkenfeld's avatar

If only!

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Steven Smith's avatar

The “tell” for me was the fact that his claim of obliteration was made only hours after the attack which was well before any reliably meaningful bomb damage assessment could have been made. Of course, this is exactly what one would expect from a man who creates an alternate reality with lies almost every time he opens his mouth.

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It's Come To This's avatar

Everything about this wretched, perpetual fantasy-spinning man got captured decades ago in Charlie Chaplin's brilliant parody of Hitler as Adenoid Hynkel in "The Great Dictator" complete with his nonsense German, going "Duh JOODEN! Duh JOODEN!" every 30 seconds like a deranged cuckoo clock.

Except Chaplin was funny. You were supposed to laugh. You had to laugh. Nobody then imagined this pathetic, laughable, clownish road would lead straight to mass murder, world war, the forced deportation of millions, poison gas, the extermination of children.

Every generation is forewarned in someway. Every generation chooses to pretend 'oh, it must mean something else other than what it obviously is.' When will we ever learn?

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Robert's avatar

"Where have all the flowers gone? . . . When will we ever learn?"

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J L Graham's avatar

Where are birds and butterflies going? I have be experiencing an increasingly more silent spring. Few numbers, fewer species.

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Wendy Shelley's avatar

I think he was trying to “one-up” President Obama who announced bin Ladin’s death at night after the Seal Team confirmed it at the immediate time. FF47 can’t let any opportunity pass him by and thought we had forgotten. Fat chance, Ignoramus!

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It's Come To This's avatar

Without a doubt. Yet Obama walked to that lectern ALONE, as all true Commanders-in-Chief do, always aware that true leadership walks by itself, unaccompanied. The Manchurian Cantaloupe, by contrast, had to have his little pussy comitatus follow him --- the Maybelline bitch on his right, Pete Kegsbreath on his left (doing his best John Wayne silly walk into the saloon) with Little Marco having to shove the drunk to one side so as not to disappear completely.

He thought it conveyed strength. In truth, it conveyed FARCE. Trump doesn't understand farce because he lives inside it every day. His followers pretend they don't either, but I'm betting most of them saw through this sham for what it was.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-166775459

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Louis Giglio's avatar

Excellent ‘wordsmithing’ the Manchurian cantaloupe!!

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Tim Matchette's avatar

Very well said. The felon is so phony you can see through him like a glass of water.

His stupidity will end up causing more trouble and perhaps more terrorist attacks on our Country. And now that his BBB has passed the pathetic Senate, somebody will be angry enough to act out. Stay tuned.

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J L Graham's avatar

We need to work on our collective memories. Which statement better serves the "better angels of our nature"?

"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves---in their separate, and individual capacities.

In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere." - Lincoln

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."- Reagan

From 2005:

" Former US President Ronald Reagan has been voted the "greatest American" of all time by his fellow citizens.

Mr Reagan, who died last year aged 93, topped a list of 10 contenders, which featured six former presidents.

He edged out Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4631421.stm

I question the science of the poll, but don't think it's meaningless. Nixon and especially Reagan, set us on the road to Trump.

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Steve 218's avatar

This is not to mention that it was dark when the attack took place, so no viable visible information was immediately available, yet this was Trump's "pronouncement".

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patricia's avatar

well it was dark and trump couldn't see anything so he thought it was all gone...

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Cherae Stone's avatar

😂

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patricia's avatar

thank you...I'll be here all week...

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Yodagirl's avatar

Perfect!

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Daniel Solomon's avatar

1. Thorium is the answer. With thoriuum, no plutonium, no bombs.

2. Trump may be in the nuclear "business." Is he selling nuclear to the mullahs? Trump via Kushner had been dealing with Saudis to install nuclear plants so he probably has a conflict. A company called Brookfield Asset Management, which took over a troubled property owned by Kushner Companies, had acquired Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear services firm involved in the potential Saudi nuclear deal.

Some security analysts worried that transferring nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia could contribute to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-nuclear-talks-trump.html

3. Check out Tousi TV. https://www.youtube.com/@TousiTV

I don't necessarily believe all of it, but the crown prince/king was in London meeting with members of Parliment while they report anti mullah riots in Teharan and in London.

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J L Graham's avatar

I dunno about the need for plutonium. Was not the first nuke just heavy uranium?

Anyway, the transfer of nuclear technology is problematic enough that I think we, as in we, the people, need more info and input.

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pts's avatar

Q: How do you know when the orange criminal's lying?

A: His mouth is moving.

My very first thought upon reading the "obliteration" headline the following morning was, "OK, now we know one thing that for sure _didn't_ happen."

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J L Graham's avatar

Well, ultimately true or not, as you say, Trump was lying.

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Christine's avatar

Almost every time?

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Marliss Desens's avatar

Iran now knows that it need not fear the bunker buster bombs. Also, other regimes, such as North Korea are likely taking notes.

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SCS - Michigan's avatar

"Empty boasts" defines Donald Trump.

Enough said.

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It's Come To This's avatar

Not empty. Filled with pus and corruption, stink and filth. Overflowing and gaslighting. False fronts as long as the eye can see. Dishonest to the core. Innocent as a spitting cobra. The ooze just keeps oozing. Far from empty, filled with deceit and malevolence.

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CE's avatar

Donald J Trump is waiting …waiting for Iran to retaliate with some terror activity against Americans..so that he can declare a national emergency and clamp down even harder on our rights, and label even more folks as enemies of the state. Negotiations with Iran will not happen..he wants an opportunity for further autocracy,and he is likely to get one.

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Christine's avatar

I heard a report that said he gave Iran permission to attack the US base, just made sure that all personell were gone except gunners. Nothing surprises me. The day he is gone, will be a world wide holiday.

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Bobbette Strauss's avatar

Gotta watch out for “I’ve heard”… that’s just gossip.

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J L Graham's avatar

True, but some sources are more worthy of confidence than others. Everybody gets it wrong now and then, but this appeared in Heather Cox Richardson's Substack on June 29:

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo also called out that at a press conference in the Netherlands last Wednesday, Trump said he had given Iran permission to bomb a U.S. air base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear weapons program sites. “They said, ‘We’re going to shoot them. Is one o’clock OK?’ I said it’s fine,” Trump said. “And everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners.”

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Stephen Brady's avatar

"... that would be delusional." The sad thing is that we have a Supreme Leader who is, in fact, delusional most of the time. tRump has no critical thinking skills whatsoever. He is dumb as a box of rocks. And he is easily hypnotized and propagandized. What could go wrong?

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Carol Lama's avatar

"Flunkies" is right...completely and totally. May they all be obliterated in the next election.

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John Ranta's avatar

Remember John Barron? Trump has a very long and well-documented history of fabrication and aggrandizement. He has always tried to make himself out to be much bigger, better and more powerful than he (sadly) actually is. His buildings are twice as tall, his steaks twice as juicy, his fortune 10 times bigger - I could go on for a long time. Trump portrays his life to be like professional wrestling - exaggerated, hyped up, ultra-masculine (his comms director, Cheung, comes out of the pro wrestling world). Trump’s description of the Iran bombing mission as “total and complete obliteration” is really just Trump strutting around the ring and pounding his chest after hitting Iran with a prop chair. How dare we question Trump’s narrative, and undermine the kayfabe?

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Dick Lincoln's avatar

Isn't that the covfefe?

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J L Graham's avatar

Covfefe is the exotic ingredient that turns Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Trump. Well, that and excesses of money and power.

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J L Graham's avatar

I remember reading about the "Robber Barons", so any relation? George Santos tried to imitate the Trump Method® but didn't have the clout to pull it off.

And yup, "pro" wrestling has a lot in common with His Flatulentcy's act.

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Roger Fradenburgh's avatar

The one thing Trump has managed to completely and totally obliterate is the United States' credibility among friends a foes alike (it was mostly and largely obliterated before this latest clown show).

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J L Graham's avatar

I think that there are still allies who hold some out hope that our better angels will eventually prevail; but for now they must look to their own protection. I doubt we will ever fully regain everything we are losing, even with a correction of course.

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Science Curmudgeon's avatar

Intentionally not hitting the likely storage location but intently watching in advance would have been useful to see where the truck convoy went.

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Steven Omand's avatar

But Trump and his regime of sycophants don’t believe in “Intelligence”.

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Science Curmudgeon's avatar

The three letter agencies still have staff who are quite good at their jobs.

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Cherae Stone's avatar

They can’t even spell it.

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patricia's avatar

not having any...

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Garrett Mengel's avatar

Trimp and his sidekicks mostly doesn't know there's a difference between real intelligence and "super-sekert inside information". Donny is sure that his intuition and a hot tip that somebody whispers to him are more valuable. Meanwhile, the Project 2025 authors lurking within his administration like intelligence a lot, but as part of the plan they don't want YOU to have any intelligence. It makes for an interesting mix.

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J L Graham's avatar

Despots always attack academia. Democracy really does die in darkness.

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Neal Rattican's avatar

Donald J. Trump is a convicted criminal. Completely and totally.

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Cheri Donohue's avatar

Even if Trump told the truth, we wouldn’t believe him as his grossly exaggerated statements-starting with the crowd at his first inauguration-have cemented a global doubt on his every word.

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Swbv's avatar
2dEdited

Hyperbole gets fatiguing if it is both constant and across each and every subject under the sun. At some point, credibility gets flushed. That's not a good look to our allies to say nothing of our enemies.

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Diane's avatar

Rapidly becoming this word nerd's favorite weekly column.

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Bill Sortino's avatar

So, what is new about Trump lying? I would suspect that the issues are far more diverse than his endless Prime Time Show. One of the main issues is just that; he has a hold on Prime Time news, and everyone continues to give him a free outlet until they are "Fired"!

As of today, who in the media is repeatedly asking Trump the validity of his claims regarding the bombing? What media outlet has that on page #1? Or, the lead in the TV coverage of his Show? These are the real issues that need to be addressed in dealing with our new authoritarian President and his staff in Congress. And yet, like the Democratic Party, we cannot seem to muster the will or the courage to behave like Iran (of all nations) and give him not just the finger, but a return threat of violence!

When will the alternative media unite and begin its attack on the journalistic front of this battle for the survival of our democracy? There remains a void in TV coverage and reporting of lies. True, the standard response is, who watches those TV news people on the networks? Well, no one I know does?

However, as of May, 2025, here are some stats during the week of March 3rd:

ABC-7.9 million viewers

NBC-6.4 million viewers

CBS-4.4 million viewers

This indicates that there are about 18+ million people watching TV Nightly News each week. That does not include those watching PBS! These viewers are subjected to misinformation nightly, and done so deliberately. They are the people who were never aware of what the Democrats did for the country between 2020 and 2024! They are the people who are not aware of Trump's daily lies!

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Irena's avatar

I am a well informed Contrarian who also watches nightly news. Tarring everyone with the same "misinformation" brush does no one any good.

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J L Graham's avatar

There are significant counterexamples, and that is best acknowledged, but I have encountered a lot of absence of crucial context, false-equivalency, "bothsiderism", and questionable journalistic priorities that seemed to me , intentionally or not, to smooth the path to Trump's election. Now Trump has even more power to attack those who tell the truth. News organization are increasingly bending to his will.

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