In the wee hours this morning, Trump tweeted more bellicose nonsense about Iran as a follow-up to the war crimes threats he made earlier yesterday:
Today in Iraq, the parliament voted to boot the U.S. out. Also, CNN interviewed Iran’s top military adviser, and he sounds a whole lot more rational than Trump:
In an exclusive interview with CNN in Tehran, the adviser — Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan — made the most specific and direct threat yet by a senior Iranian official following the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Dehghan said Iran would retaliate directly against US “military sites.”
Nice touch to specify that Iran would target “military sites” to create a contrast with Trump. Way to seize the moral high ground, general.
And moments ago, a cherry to top off the shit sundae: Iran announced it would suspend all commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal. Given that they’re dealing with an unhinged lunatic, can you blame them?
Will our allies stick with us? Pompeo unhelpfully crapped on them for not clapping hard enough about the Soleimani assassination, and Trump has been shitting on our friends for three years, so I’m skeptical.
Oh well. Open thread.
JaneE
Just thinking that Iran has claimed the moral high ground makes it plain just how far the US has fallen under Trump. That is what happens when you put a criminal in charge of a country.
Baud
It could be worse. We could have had a president who was overprepared.
The Dangerman
RoundingPounding ErrorGretchen
Iranian hackers hacked a US government website today. I wonder whether we will finally get Trump’s taxes from the Iranians. It’s to their benefit to get rid of him one way or another.
Ella in New Mexico
I’m really hoping that the whole entire world is holding it’s breath, crossing it’s fingers and desperately praying we find a way to kick this chump and his goons out of office because they still have faith things can revert to a semblance of normal with sane, competent US leaders in charge.
Any Democrat as President will be able to renegotiate that treaty, find a way to recover in Iraq, and reestablish consistent, clear-sighted, rational foreign policy– not based on one short attention spanned, demented narcissist’s ego or the end-times cultists and Nazi war-mongerers whispering in his ear.
We just have to hold on until then and do everything we can force impotence on the bastards.
trollhattan
Didn’t he just go to some base and brag to them they’re all flying brand-spankin’ new planes because of He, Trump? [I can’t keep up.] Never mind our average mil aircraft age is measured in decades, and the B52 is practically as old as him.
Tom Levenson
The Weather Parrot* says
WASF
*The Weather Parrot will be familiar to listeners to WBCN in the 1980s.
TaMara (HFG)
@Baud: This should be a billboard with Suck Todd’s face plastered on it.
trollhattan
@Baud:
“Overprepared, sporting a spiffy tan suit, ladies and gentlemen, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho!!!”
Felanius Kootea
Reading a Washington Post article title, it says Iran is suspending all commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, which gives me hope that they might recommit when there’s a sane government in place in the US. Can’t blame them for walking away when 45 has no clue what he wants other than revenge and dominance displays.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Mike J
@trollhattan: They started designing the F-35 when Bush was president. Bush the elder. 1992. 28 years ago.
Betty Cracker
@Felanius Kootea: Good point about the wording — “suspend” is better than “end.” I don’t know how the world can trust us again, even if we sweep congress and elect someone wise and rational as president. I’ll never trust us again.
Leto
@Betty Cracker: That’s the issue: the rest of the world witnessed the US electing an absolute batshit insane dumbass. We came close before, which was worrying, but now this genie is out of the bottle. Everything they engage with us on in the future will be predicated on 1) who’s in office 2) who controls Congress and 3) how close to a national election is it because the loon/loon party will instantly nullify years/decades of negotiations.
How do you trust a partner like that?
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: The world seems okay with the Germans now.
painedumonde
I can’t believe the tweets today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes
And make them go away
How long?
How long must we sing this comment?
How long, how long?
‘Cause tonight, we can be as one
Tonight
Broken thoughts under childlike tweets
Berders strewn across the dead end street
But I won’t heed the MAGA call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, Nutty Sunday
Sunday, Nutty Sunday
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: Not exactly the best model to follow.
dr. bloor
@Ella in New Mexico: Hate to be the turd in the punch bowl, but there’s no reason to expect that any of our erstwhile allies will be trusting us again anytime soon, nor should they. We got it right with Obama after W, and then turned right around and replaced him with the Antichrist.
Also, it’s too late on many of those treaties and trade pacts to close the barn door and “undo” Trump’s mess. The landscape will be completely different.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: If the shoe fits…
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
I think the only thing that would work would be if we publicly showed that the Russians had changed votes and cleaned house by prosecuting all of the politicians who accepted Russian money and/or assistance.
Sadly, we’re way too invested in the status quo to ever do that. Admitting that the Republican Party actively worked with Putin would bring the entire establishment into question, and we can’t have that.
Kent
Is it to their benefit to get rid of him? Trump is well on his way to getting the US kicked out of Iraq and leaving it as an Iranian sphere of influence. What’s not to like if you are an Iranian hardliner playing the long game
It’s in our allies interest to be rid of him. Yes, he’s been a disaster. But our so-called enemies? Trump has been a god-send. He makes them look good.
Sloane Peterson's knee therapist
Relax. We won’t have another war until trump gives the 1%ers one more tax cut. Junior Bush proved that two tax cuts are needed before we launch any unfunded war. The Deficit stands out better when coated in Day-Glo orange. .
Mike in NC
Those nefarious mullahs in Tehran never thought they’d have to deal with Space Force!
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker:
I’m hoping that the fact that this will have only been one term of a complete aberrance of a Presidency is one thing we’ve got going for us. My God, our most recent history is a man they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to–they know what good we’re capable of.
Trump is not only the worst President we’ve ever had, he was elected in a way that doesn’t really look like an enduring trend in US politics. 2018 is proof of that. Just because we’ve got a bad bunch of currently entrenched boot lickers in the Senate does not change the fact that we Impeached the Motherfucker with all those we elected last year.
Our allies see this, and even more importantly, so do our enemies. Something we need to remember is that they likely see us with way more accuracy than we see ourselves right now–it’s the old rule about how an oppressed or minority groups are experts on all things about their oppressors. When we change leadership, they won’t be able to depend on us being run by a group of incompetent loony toons anymore. Plus, so many of our allied countries have survived their Trumps throughout history–they know it’s possible for us, too.
It’ll be a challenge. But we CAN fix this. Things are gonna get worse, no doubt before they get better. I trusted Obama. I never went to bed at night wondering what horrific new fucking thing he was going to leash on our country or the world, not ever. It can be that way again.
We just have to fight like hell.
MomSense
@painedumonde:
????
Quaker in a Basement
$2T would be about the sum of all defense expenditures over the three years of Trump’s presidency.
Ksmiami
@Ella in New Mexico: I want to undo everything- all the judges, all the orders every thing and I want the GOP to pay
gene108
@Ella in New Mexico:
Obama did that after Bush43.
Now the world knows, a Republican will become President again, sooner or later.
Republicans have just gotten more extreme after Bush43.
Why negotiate with a Democratic President, when there’s 100% chance his successor will just rip up the deal?
We’re screwed, regarding out standing in the world. The only thing buoying us right now is we are still the richest country on the planet.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@painedumonde: Nice. Don’t need to change all the lyrics, though. And it’s true we are immune. When fact is fiction and TV reality.
painedumonde
@MomSense: je vous remercie.
painedumonde
@Old Dan and Little Ann: the man was prescient.
Jay C
BTW, I read a report that there was a concert of “Iranian pop music” in Vancouver, BC over the weekend, and that some returning concertgoers were – to say the least – discomfited when they were detained (and interrogated about their political opinions) at the border: apparently CPB has gotten orders to “report” and “detain” “anybody of Iranian heritage” – regardless of their citizenship status. Most of the 60+ detainees (that we know of) are American citizens.
Martin
Dear Iran,
If you want to retaliate against these actions, please find and release the Trump family tax returns, as well as any evidence of Russian financing of Trump International.
– All Democrats
Ella in New Mexico
@gene108: So, ok. It looks like we need to do a little more long term planning for maintaining that change.
I’m hearing Democratic voices willing to look at fixing the broken structures and institutions that have been eroded over the past 20 years. That’s what we need to press them to do: fix things so this doesn’t happen so easily again.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: After decapitating its fascist government, reducing its cities to rubble, disbanding its military and participating in its post-war reconstitution as a democracy, yes.
Betty Cracker
@painedumonde: Well done!
Another Scott
@Gretchen:
If it’s this incident, I don’t think it’s been assigned to Iran yet (it could be almost any cracker outfit looking for lols):
Iran is certainly capable of breaking into US computer systems. They’ve done it in the past, but this sounds like a bunch of jokers to me…
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anya
On one side, we have an unstable lunatic who is capable of doing anything if he believes it will make him look tough, egged on by warmonger Netanyahu and MbS, and on the other side we have mullahs looking for a holy war. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this mess.
Anya
@Gretchen: they hacked an obscured website no one even knew it existed. I think this is probably some freelance jokers. It doesn’t seem like the work of a state actors.
Wapiti
@Another Scott: Or an Israeli, or a Saudi, or a Russian.
hells littlest angel
How sweet that would be.
painedumonde
@Betty Cracker: Merci. I’m here all week.
debbie
@Martin:
“Iran, I hope you’re listening…”
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
In fact, there is no better deterrent to the return of fascism in Germany than Germany today? Will we remain as vigilant against the rise of another Dotard?
debbie
@Another Scott:
Did you see the photo they posted on the page?
ETA:
Omnes Omnibus
Really?
wvng
As others have noted, I see no possibility that the rest of the world will ever trust us again. Obama repaired so much that W damaged, and then we elected Trump who promised to destroy all of Obama’s accomplishments and, remarkably, the Republican party became his cult. Who could trust an America that could do this? Frankly, Trump has ceded our leadership role pretty much everywhere and others have filled the vacuums he created.
Chip Daniels
The Two Trillion Dollar sentence works best when you read in Dr. Evil’s voice.
mrmoshpotato
Now bang your chest and let out a roar, Donnie Dipshit!
Anyone up on what RWNJs have enlisted to defend the honor of their POS god emperor?
(Thank for the return of the pig face on Dump’s tweets, Ms. Cracker.)
John Revolta
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I’d say that there’s more evidence that the mullahs looking to start a holy war are on OUR side.
Chip Daniels
@mrmoshpotato:
Jacob Wohl was totally gonna enlist, but was afraid some hot MILF like Liz Warren would sexually harass him.
mrmoshpotato
@dr. bloor: Fuck. I’d much rather have Tom Araya as President.
Calouste
@Omnes Omnibus: The Germans have a different system of government now than they had 90 years ago. It could still give rise to a dictator as the Weimar Republic did, but less likely, and it would have to happen in a different way.
The US on the other hand is unlikely to make major changes to its system anytime soon, so the playbook that brought the shitgibbon to power could well be repeated in the short term. That is what will make the rest of the world not trust the US.
Juju
@Ella in New Mexico: the way we fix this is to get rid of the electoral college. If we had normal elections where the person who had the most votes won, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now. The majority of voters did not want this man as our current president. The majority of voters did not want Bush the second as president in his first election. I think if we got rid of the electoral college another Trump situation would be less likely to happen and the US could be trusted again, but I wouldn’t trust us until the electoral college is gone.
Matt McIrvin
@Ella in New Mexico:
Wrong. Because anyone that President negotiates with will know that another Trump is just one election away.
There’s no going back. We are entering a new age of blood and catastrophe, and nobody will or should ever trust an American again.
mrmoshpotato
@Chip Daniels: Damn you. I just snorted at that. :)
J R in WV
Actually, IIRC, the Iranian Joint agreement wasn’t a treaty, with a vote in the Senate, which is why Trump could back out on his own. This is because Obama, being Kenyan in parentage, could NOT count on a Senate confirming his laboriously created Joint agreement, no matter how much good it did in the middle east.
So an actual treaty confirmed by the Senate would slow down an idiot president like Trump at least a little bit.
Ella in New Mexico
@Matt McIrvin: I understand the pessimism but to be honest, it’s what we HAVE to work towards now.
There’s no other good option unless you’re saying we should all just give up and go kneel in front of a gas stove tonight.
Jay
@J R in WV:
only in the US is the JPCOA not a treaty.
the JPCOA is still in place, it’s just that like TPPII, the US is no longer a member.