Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Consistently wrong since 2002

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

People are complicated. Love is not.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

In my day, never was longer.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / EMBARGOED President Donald J. Trump’s New Strategy on Iran – And Open Thread

EMBARGOED President Donald J. Trump’s New Strategy on Iran – And Open Thread

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This seems to be the talking points for Donald Trump’s new strategy on Iran. Looks to me like lots of bluster, not going to be good for relations with Iran and probably Europe, but doesn’t destroy the nuclear agreement. And given the effectiveness of the bunch of clowns in the White House, may turn out to be a nothingburger.

It’s pretty long, so I’ll let you pull out your fave parts.

Some criticism now arriving:

Also one confirmation that the document is genuine from a person I am reasonably confident would not say that unless he knew.

I’m feeling a bit more like kittehs tonight, but this is what we’ve got. Feel free to talk about your kittehs, however.

 

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  7. 7.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    White House Iran strategy fact sheet going around is notable for the complete absence of a strategy. It is just a list of grievances.

    Grievances seems to be the operative word of our times. This is like the US pulling out of UNESCO, because of “anti-Isreal bias”.

  8. 8.

    Cheryl Rofer

    This is true. I have longer posts, requiring thought, that I’ve been working on and can never finish with the day’s crazy.

  11. 11.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    This is like the US pulling out of UNESCO, because of “anti-Isreal bias”.

    Didn’t know that UNESCO was behind the “BIGFOOT ISREAL” movement, but RWNJs will be RWNJs.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    Spent the afternoon and evening finishing up painting and stuff at my son’s new apartment. I’m getting old for this shit. 600mg of ibuprofen and bed for me; hope I can crawl out tomorrow morning.

  13. 13.

    No One You Know

    I’m going with kittehs. The stray blue cat that’s been hanging around for weeks regularly sleeps behind the grill on the back porch and is good friends with one of my cats. She has exchanged a “paw shake” with Boss Cat. I’ve never seen cats do that. One extends a paw slowly, no claws, and withdraws. Then the other one does it.

    Pondering whether to see if she’ll let me pick her up for a visit to see if she’s chipped. If she’s still around when the weather turns foul, we’ll foster her for a bit.

  15. 15.

    clay

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Gee, i know what blog you were just reading. I’ll say the same thing I said at LGM: Doc Ock is Spider-Man’s worst foe, but Norman Osborn is Peter Parker’s worst foe. (Brock has spent more time as an anti-hero than a villain by this point. I don’t think he and Spidey have seriously fought in 20 years.)

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    So, basically the best-case scenario is that someone in the White House has managed to come up with a way to allow Trump to throw a public temper-tantrum without substantively impacting the actual agreement too much?

  17. 17.

    Chris

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    That’s characteristic as fuck. That’s all he ever does, whine about how unfair the world is. No wonder his base loves him.

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    Note the irony that UNESCO is “too anti-Israel” for America, but not “too anti-Israel” for Trump.

  19. 19.

    Repatriated

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    What that Tweet said.

    WTF is coming out in the Friday News Dump that needs this much of a diversion (CSR default and this ill-advised and shoddily-produced statement)?!

  23. 23.

    Chris

    @clay:

    I feel like the Kingpin deserves a mention, too. I know he’s more usually considered a Daredevil foe, but he technically started off as a Spidey one, and in the Ultimate continuity was arguably the arch-nemesis of that series. Where you’ll factor that in depends on your view of the Ultimate universe, but for my money, the Spider-Man comics were actually what that universe did best. That I’ve read, anyway.

  27. 27.

    sukabi

    @Repatriated: Well since drumpfs lawyers have floated having Drumpf talk to Mueller’s team “under oath” to “end the investigation”, and all the other Bullshit out today, I’m hoping for the first batch of indictments to be made public.

  28. 28.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    I always really liked Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. Then again I’ve always liked Maguire’s work in general, especially Pleasantville.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Repatriated: WTF is coming out in the Friday News Dump that needs this much of a diversion (CSR default and this ill-advised and shoddily-produced statement)?!

    in response to yesterday’s tantrum about the “disgusting” First Amendment

    Rick Wilson‏Verified account @ TheRickWilson Oct 11
    Your fear of what’s coming reeks like a muskrat in heat. You’re so obvious.

    How exactly would Fredo or Jared be notified of a grand jury subpoena? It wouldn’t necessarily be public unless they leaked it, right?

  32. 32.

    Peale

    Not a single complaint in that strategy couldn’t be leveled against Saudi Arabia. The complaint about he focus on Sunni Militancy leads me to believe it may have been written by a Princeling.

  34. 34.

    clay

    @Chris:

    Where you’ll factor that in depends on your view of the Ultimate universe, but for my money, the Spider-Man comics were actually what that universe did best

    Yeah, I think that’s evident. Marvel agrees, as Ultimate Spidey was the only thing they bothered to keep when they ended that line of books.

  36. 36.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Chris: Thing is, AFAIK Perlman never voiced Magneto, and I watched five out of the six X-Men films in both series (as well as the ’90s TV show, which had Daniel Hemblen as the Master of Magnetism). I figure that I just like Perlman’s voice more for a villainous character – “George Freeman is God and Ron Perlman’s the Antichrist.”*

    *And THE definitive Slade Wilson, a statement of objective fact.

  48. 48.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not age this time. Lack of interest in comic books/graphic novels.

    Concur. Though I do love the cartoons in The New Yorker—is that pretty much the same thing?

  52. 52.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Some people are Spidey fans based on Danny Seagren’s portrayal!

    That, according to Wikipedia, is who played Spiderman on The Electric Company. (children’s show) He and Letterman were my favorite superheroes, other than Aqua-Man who could talk to dolphins.

    There’s my contribution to the evening’s inanity, with best wishes.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: The Clash with just Joe (Cut the Crap) was horrible. BAD was brilliant. The Mescaleros were Joe doing a lo-tech BAD. IOW, brilliant.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Chris:
    They are a bunch of wankers aren’t they? And drumpf is the chief wanker.
    His dad left him a bit of money and he thinks it made him the greatest. It did. The greatest, bestest douchebag ever.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cheryl Rofer: The lack of apostrophes to show possessives is because they did a direct translation from the Hebrew language document that Bibi passed to Jared.

    As the guy that wrote the report for OSD-Policy, at the request of the Director of Policy, on Iran, Hezbullah, and Iran’s desire to establish a sphere of influence back in 2013 I can honestly tell you that this is a factual/conceptual mess.

  57. 57.

    danielx

    I am told by a physician that “Trump fatigue” is a thing right now…evidently I’ve got it.

  58. 58.

    danielx

    @Ruckus:

    Best of all, he could have taken the money inherited from his father, put it into an index fund or funds, and he would have just about as much money as he has now. Without the bankruptcies, screwing his creditors,contractors, and business partners and generally being a shithead.

  59. 59.

    Peale

    @Adam L Silverman: yeah. If these were smarter people, I’d assume that the lack of apostrophes is intentional. That way we’re talking about punctuation. You know Maddow won’t leave something like that alone.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    I still haven’t seen the owl that lives nearby, but I’ve definitely been hearing it every night, hooting away. It’s kind of cool to hear in the middle of a city.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Peale: I think they’re just sloppy. Everyone is going to make typos and spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Often, even when something has been proofed by multiple people you’ll still have an error or two. It happens. Especially when people are working on deadlines and long hours. But the stuff they put out on a regular basis is just embarrassing.

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amygdala: I’m familiar with the case. These latest developments aren’t surprising. There’s a reason Giuliani has gotten real quiet since July. That reason is sometimes referred to as Bobby Three Sticks.

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @clay: Possibly. May have also been the Special Envoy for Middle East peace (the President’s bankruptcy attorney and a financial supporter of the Israeli settler movement). May have been Jared’s idea. Most likely the request came from Bibi.

  67. 67.

    Suzanne

    Dumb complaint: I have been reading about the fires in California, and if I read ONE MORE COMMENT in which a smart guy rhetorically asks why we build houses out of wood rather than steel or concrete, I may hurl.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    Peanut needed help with her homework and called me up. Technology. Her mother took a picture of the worksheet and sent it to my email. Opened it on the Kindle Fire and went over it as we were on the phone. Took no time at all.

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    Dumb complaint: I have been reading about the fires in California, and if I read ONE MORE COMMENT in which a smart guy rhetorically asks why we build houses out of wood rather than steel or concrete, I may hurl.

    People like this haven’t graduated much past “The Three Little Pigs.”

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    You bet yer boots. If anyone should mention the names Gary Uher or Bernard Kerik around him now, he’d blanch paler than Andy Warhol. In it up to his scalp.

    Picturing him frantically Googling “what countries don’t have extradition treaties with America?”

  71. 71.

    JAFD

    @Cheryl Rofer: Well, if Festivus is coming, how about an October story from the bad good old days…

    Back when the USSR was still around, an American couple – let’s call them Mr. & Mrs. Smith, for maybe that was their real names – didn’t believe the MainStreamMedia and decided to go and see for themselves what the Russkies were up to. So they headed off, one October in the past (off-season rates).

    Intourist assigned them a guide named Rudolph, who was a real Soviet patriot – the Russians had written all the books worth reading, composed all the music worth listening to, invented everything worth inventing, and kicked the Nazis’ butt from Stalingrad to Berlin in their spare time. But he was a nice guy, and he knew his stuff, and they were having a good time seeing Leningrad and Odessa and Kiev…

    Then they got to Moscow, and as they were walking across Red Square, some snow flurries started to fall, and Mr. Smith commented “Ah, the famous Russian winter is starting”.

    But Rudolph replied “No, this is just the gentle autumn rains to make fruitful the Russian earth.”

    “it sure looks like snow to _me_”

    “NYET. IS RAIN. NYET SNOW ! RAIN !!!”

    This did not go into history as the start of World War III, because of the quick thinking of Mrs. Smith, who elbowed her husband in the ribs and said “Take it easy –

    – Rudolph the Red _knows_ rain, dear.”

    Have good weekend, everyone!

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