Israel, Iran, NONageddon, Trials of Trump, Holy War, my friend Darrell

  • Lots happening yesterday around Israel and Iran.
     
    My own understanding:
     
    Israel launches an attack that smashes an Iranian consulate – technically Iran’s territory – and kills more than half a dozen of Iran’s military advisors, and half a dozen others, along with a pretty bad guy who’s a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
     
    Iran can’t do …well… nothing. So they launch a missile and drone attack on Israel that seems either inept as all hell or …maybe… maybe even designed NOT to inflict a lot of harm. A little girl is severely injured, tragic in itself, and there is minor damage to a military base.
     
    Interestingly, the Arab world seems to coalesce informally in silent support of Israel. For the air attack, Iran can’t get permission to cross land lines or airspace from other regional countries. Traditional enemies of Israel join in providing intelligence in the defense. In fact, Jordan and Saudi Arabia send jets to join with the US and other allies in shooting down Iranian missiles before they reach Israeli defenses.
     
    Imagine that.
     
    So Iran declares the matter closed. Israel doesn’t.
     
    Israel does some explosive sabotage near, but not at, Iran’s nuclear facilities, then launches its own air attack on Iran, with maybe one-twentieth of what missiles and drones could have been used. Iran says damage is minimal.
     
    Israel does not claim and Iran does not accuse.
     
    Israel says: Gosh! who could have done all that?
    Iran says meh.
     
    So I’m just spitballing here:
    Is it at all possible Biden knows what he is doing and has been pressing exactly the right buttons to cool things down in a very hot region?
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors takes a crack at quick analysis of yesterday’s military moves. Highly condensed version: Despite President Biden’s advice, Netanyahu did not take the win.
     
  • Kevin Drum runs down what President Biden seems to be asking from Netanyahu in exchange for massive US military aid.
     
    Seems minimal. Kevin adds a modest suggestion.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has unkind words for food blocker Netanyahu, pro-Palestinian road blockers, and Republican Ukraine blockers.
     
    Key lesson:
    When you engage in a protest that inconveniences lots of people (making them late for work, miss their flights), those people are not going to ruminate or consider the cause you espouse.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has a reminder:
     

  • At The Moderate Voice retired U.S. Air Force Major Dorian de Wind talks about the difficult position of the military if the Oval Office is ever occupied by a rogue President (Now, who comes to mind?) endowed with absolute legal immunity (What comes to mind?).
     
  • Max’s Dad goes Trump trial hunting and covers Drowsy Don and jury intimidation.
     
  • In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson begins with the Trump trial, as the defendant joins with Fox in slowing the selection process by outing individual jurors. The jury gets selected anyway.
     
  • M. Bouffant will very likely never, ever, be on the Trump jury.
     
  • From The Borowitz Report, jury selection in mr Trump’s trial continues as the defendant is scolded by the judge for rejecting several female jurors as not his type.
     
    It’s SATIRE – Lemme alone!
     
  • PZ Myers briefly considers whether mr Trump will go to jail for criminality, and is not hopeful.
     
  • Dave Columbo insists Trump will quickly prove his innocence if only he would take the stand: Please don’t let them talk you out of it, Mr. President!
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the polling numbers. A whole lot of voters say a conviction for falsifying business records to hide hush money would make Trump unfit for office. Even more think Trump committed serious crimes.
     
  • Eric Trump is furious at what turns out to be a judicial non-decision.
     
    And, so:
    The Onion provides a bit of juvenile snark for a childish response from some immature individual who will not be named (Hint: his initials are Burr):

  • Daniel Patrick Moynihan once remarked that data is not the plural of anecdote.
     
    But sometimes an example can put a human face on what might otherwise just be a stock price.
     
    In Hackwhackers, a fervent Trump follower puts everything he has into Truth Social shares. As he watches the value go to freefall, he is not worried. In fact, he hopes to invest more.
     
    After all, it’s in Trump hands and the little investor is confident. In his words: I have no doubt it’s going to explode sometime..
     
    Hackwhackers seems to lack sympathy.
     
  • Well this is a nice touch.
     
    tengrain (Hi again, tengrain!) at Mock Paper Scissors brings us the grade. Charlotte Republicans have some fun mocking, then grading, a remarkably stupid account by a Democratic student on the Battle of Gettysburg. They give it an “F” before being informed it actually came from Donald Trump his own self.
     
    Another take (Shamelessly stolen from YellowDog Granny):

  • Oh my! mr Trump tries to insult Jimmy Kimmel again, and gets all tangled in his own net.
     
    Tommy Christopher watches and reads and watches as mr Trump attacks Jimmy for an Oscar presentation that was actually made by someone else.
     
    Key punchline (Sorry, sort of. Irresistible spoiler.):
    In fairness to our former President, many stable geniuses confuse me with Al Pacino….
     
  • Vixen Strangely, at Strangely Blogged, sees defeated candidate for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, go from claims she actually won to extravagant promises of holy war and armed conflict if Trump is convicted of any criminal activity.
     
    This time, Ms. Lake even reveals what type of firearms will be used against law enforcement.
     
    Key groups:
    I don’t know about the John McCain Republicans, but this is a very familiar and tragic theme to Gabrielle Giffords Democrats.
     
  • News Corpse finds a point of agreement with Representative Majorie Taylor Greene: the future of the Republican Party is bleak. As in very.
     
  • My longtime conservative friend Darrell Michaels protests that leftists (raising my hand) have no right to presume that we know what he is thinking. He mentions his contempt for mr Trump, for whom he intends to vote anyway.
     
    Seems fair, although we can get a general idea from what he writes. When we err, could it be because of his own ambiguity?
    It’s possible.
     
  • Although we have never met, my affection for Darrell is largely born of gratitude. It extends back several years.
     
    His private expressions of concern were frequent during a life threatening illness experienced by a member of my family.
     
    His military experience was a source of reassuring wisdom, again private, during a prolonged period of anxiety as we lost contact with our young Marine during and after an attack on his base in Afghanistan.
     
    Dave Dubya is unburdened by such friendship, as he takes Darrell to task for (it pains me to admit this) my old friend’s half-baked accusations and out-of-context quotes.
     
    Dave leads with a graphic that pretty much summarizes his approach: Unsparing critique, factually backed.
     

     
    I do think Dave has the better of this feud.
     
  • Frances Langum provides the video as Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff takes apart Post Office director Louis DeJoy over long, long mail delays.
     
  • Conservatives are arguing that the Comstock Act, a federal law from 1873 banning the sending of obscene materials through the mail, should be used to keep women from getting contraceptives anywhere in the United States.
     
    Abortion rights expert Imani Gandy has a quick question:

  • Iron Knee at Political Irony has the obvious Republican solution to their abortion rights problem.
     
  • Last week it was the rapid sequence of hiring and firing of Ronna McDaniel by NBC.
     
    Key quote by Richard M. Perloff:
    …a robust democracy requires spirited debate on issues that divide the electorate.
     
    This week the debate extends to other media outlets.
     
    Julian Sanchez has the answer:

    Post by @normative
    View on Threads

  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has had it with both-sides mentality. It is time, he says for a bit of intolerance.
     
    Key both-sides proposition:
    The idea of bipartisanship suggests that there are two very different but equally valid sides represented at a given moment.
     
    Key partial list of rejection:
    Knowingly perpetuating a dangerous lie of election fraud, is not a valid side.
    Fighting a thorough, objective examination of a violent attack on Congress
    intended to overturn an election, is not a valid side.
    Legislatively cancelling the votes of people of color is not a valid side.
     
  • In Scotties Playtime, Christian nationalists explain that legislatures and courts do not determine law. No problem, though. They selflessly are prepared to transmit to us what laws God wants to impose.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, former pastor and current atheist Bruce provides a detailed, tightly reasoned, analysis of Christian martyrdom. He asks if any religion is worth dying for.
     
    Key experience:
    One man deliberately aimed his truck at me, hoping to run me over. Over the corner curb he came, hoping to silence the Baptist street preacher. Fortunately, he missed.
     
  • YellowDog Granny has a memed attitude toward mornings, weekends, Republicans, and Trump.
     
  • Sarah Cooper has a Jamaican mom who has lots of fortune cookie advice. 

    •  

  • The Propaganda Professor considers the ancient study of how much time we lose by reading (back then), or listening to (today), the news and examines some alternatives.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98 watches someone with my opinion:
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life has experience with autism, retirement struggles, taxes and how all three maddeningly combine.
     
  • In Happiness Between Tails da-AL hosts Kirsten Gilbert, a local librarian who managed a harsh and difficult pregnancy, an unsympathetic HR, choices about Down syndrome, and a tsunami of well-meaning, foolish, comments. She now lives joyfully with a wonderful child, a new set of skills, and a story worth reading.
     
    Key question:
    Has something turned out far better for you than you anticipated?
     
  • driftglass travels a rural road with his wife, listening to audio of science fiction from long ago, and has an insightful sci-fi moment.
     
  • I have never before seen a War of the Worlds semi-version from the invaders’ POV, but Infidel753 changed all that with this animated tribute.
     
  • Mark Waulberg (No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark) appreciates a really good password:
     
  • I confess I’m not at all familiar with Katie. But she is a great audience as British comedian Michael McIntyre explains the path we oldsters all followed as passwords got complicated:
     
  • Clickbait satirist Reductress has an awww moment over a thoughtful wedding gift: instructions on how to file bankruptcy.
     
  • Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes has a front yard, of sorts.
     
  • SilverAppleQueen has hungry cats.
     
  • In Georgia baseball, The Savanna Bananas rounds the bases lacking orthodox
     

4 thoughts on “Israel, Iran, NONageddon, Trials of Trump, Holy War, my friend Darrell”

  3. Burr,
    To set the tone for our disagreement on what would constitute common ground with conservatives, (Rejection of Trump’s election lies) I’ll share the final exchange between me and Darrell when he announced he would delete my additional comments. This was followed by his doubling down on accusing me of being a “communist” without citing any of my actual words for evidence, of course. This seems to be his idea of “good faith” debate.
    —
    Dave:

    Darrell,

    You put words in my mouth when you said, ”So, basically your answer is that until conservatives stop supporting Trump, this gap can never be crossed. Got it. We must think and believe like the hate-America, pro-child-mutilation, and abortion-on-demand-up-until-birth leftists do or we will remain divided.”

    Wow. What a cruel and hateful insult. Disagreeing with Trumpists now means we are “the hate-America, pro-child-mutilation, and abortion-on-demand-up-until-birth leftists”. This is fascist level BS and hate.

    And that wasn’t my answer at all. It was specifically about BELIEVING Trump’s Big Lie. I get it. You’re avoiding defending the indefensible.

    I can’t expect you to show the integrity to quote MY words to dispute or to support your hateful accusations. And I’m sick of radical Right Trumpists hatefully and falsely calling those who KNOW he’s a liar and a criminal “Marxists”. Before you accuse me, QUOTE MY WORDS, or please stuff it.

    The rest of my response to your dishonest and hate-filled comment is at my blog, where EVERYONE is welcome to read it and address it.

    http://www.davedubya.com/2024/03/common-ground.html
    —
    Darrell:
    Regarding Dave, I have tried for years to debate with him in good faith. He would go through phases where he would be decent and stay on point but there were far too many times when he would play the bully with ad hominem attacks and epithets towards others with whom he disagreed. There was even a left-wing gentlemen named Jerry whom I rather liked that used to comment on my blog that ran afoul of Dave for disagreeing with him on some point.

    With Mr. Dubya, you either agree with him or you are a Trumpist authoritarian racist. I am all for a healthy debate of ideas and perspectives and welcome that. Unfortunately, some people want to devolve debate into a junior high school mean girls club. Those people can cite their nonsense and be bullies on their own platforms.

    Since Mr. Dubya has no respect for anyone other than himself and those sycophants that are in lock-step with him, I guess I have to turn comment moderation on again. Dave, thanks again for your nonsense accordingly. I guess you can complain about me to your fellow travelers on your own blog. All future comments of yours will be deleted to the spam folder where they belong. I should have known better than to allow your nonsense to resume again under a new name.

    Oh, and by the way, when I called you a communist, it wasn’t necessarily meant as a pejorative but rather more as a descriptive term. You support many of the very tenets of the communist creed according to what you have written in the past that are antithetical to America, its values, and its Constitution. So while you see that is retaliatory name-calling, I meant it only as classifier of your stated beliefs in big-government, anti-capitalism, anti-faith, and anti-family rhetoric. Regardless, I wish you well with your endeavors.
    —
    This is what happens when good people believe in terrible lies by sleazy criminals and refuse to consider the facts and evidence. We understand it is very difficult to question and examine one’s beliefs, and especially to admit being duped. And it is impossible to do so when one’s beliefs are formed directly from Trump’s mouth, pro-Trump propaganda, and Russian disinformation.

    How ironic is it that he embraces lies from Putin’s guy while calling me a “communist who hates America”? (However, I do appreciate his thoughtfulness in wishing me well in my endeavors, despite his delusional belief they constitute my “communist” efforts to “destroy America”.)

    Reply
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