If Trump hadn’t torn up the Iran deal, those 6 American soldiers would still be alive
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Time to say it again!
— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Former front-pager Cheryl Rofer, now posting at Lawyers, Guns & Money:
It’s time to say it again: It’s highly doubtful that the Iranians were pursuing a nuclear weapon. And they certainly don’t have any.
Donald Trump says that (one of the purposes/ the purpose) of his attack on Iran is to make sure they never get a nuclear weapon. He has also tried to look reasonable by saying “All they have to do is say they will not build a nuclear weapon.”
Iran has done that second thing already, by ratifying the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. When North Korea decided to build nuclear weapons, they withdrew from the treaty. Iran has threatened to withdraw, but they haven’t. This is a signal of their intention not to build nuclear weapons.
Trump’s insistence seems more like that of a middle-school boy sitting on another, hollering “Say uncle.” Big strong ayatollahs must come to Trump with tears in their eyes and say it.
Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003 and then gave it up. Iran has said that. Western intelligence services have said that…
All along, there have been factions within Iran that wanted a bomb, mainly in the IRGC. But Ayatollah Khamanei has said several times that nuclear weapons are forbidden by Islam, another expression of that statement Donald Trump says he wants.
I have seen reports that the current negotiators, whose expertise is in real estate, not nuclear issues, may have misunderstood Iran’s recent offers and seemed not to know what the IAEA was. It’s a subject for specialists, which is why specialists were included in the 2014-2015 negotiations.
Iran hasn’t been working toward a bomb. They have played a negotiation based on an understanding that a bomb could be one outcome of their work. The subtlety of that produced the JCPOA. It doesn’t work with a regime whose basic mode of operation is that of gangsters.
what in the world
— Mike Black (@mikeblack114.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 7:44 PM
this is also true for 90% of the military's understanding of military affairs tbh
— thinkingbayonet.bsky.social (@thinkingbayonet.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 9:06 PM
Probably not related, but it has been noted today that The World’s Most Dangerous Cranky Grandpa has a new health issue. If the neck rash is shingles, I understand that they are very painful & liable to make victims (more) cranky. How fortunate that Trump has the best medical care available to him!
whoa — this is new. Trump has a significant rash-like injury on his neck today in addition to his disfigured hand
(Saul Loeb/Getty)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 2, 2026 at 12:47 PM
Peke Daddy
It’s because Iran is using their oldest, less capable weapons to soak up interceptors so the newer stuff can do much bigger damage, the hypersonics are for really high value targets.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
He “obliterated” their nuke capability the first time. So my normie wife asked about this one:
“So, he’s Doubly Obliterated their nuke capability? Or is that re-obliterated the obliterated bits?”
This could be a Monty Python sketch if it weren’t so awful.
Of course then, as noted in the thread below, when somebody somewhere pointed out to his National (In)Security team about that, they changed the mission statement to “protect ‘Murkins and our allies” there.
Mendacious idiots. But hey, Bibi got what he wanted, the first US president to launch major attacks on Iran. Putin got what he wanted, more US distraction from the ongoing war in Ukraine. Not that we needed much to distract us from that. Sigh.
Suzanne
Cheryl Rofer has been helping me remain sane in recent days. She sees things clearly, which I deeply appreciate. I also didn’t quite grasp how short in supply clarity is.
bbleh
I understand that they are very painful & liable to make victims (more) cranky.
As to the first, I wish him only the best. (Shingles, I mean.) And as to the second, I assume that’s in the absence of strong pain medication, which of course makes people (especially elderly ones) who take them … um … oh gawd … [dives back under bed]
A Ghost to Most
Facts? Facts don’t matter to the cult.
Alce _e_ardillo
@bbleh: May also indicate possible immune compromise.
Parfigliano
Does late stage tertiary syphilis come with a skin condition?
KenK
I’m rooting that some form of sepsis may be involved at some point.
tECHIDNA
@Suzanne: Seconded from this lurker of both here and LG&M.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I honestly don’t know why everybody is so agitated about this.
After all, the CEO of Venture Global, a shit LNG producer/exporter (natural gas prices rose $12b last year, why? Massive export market whereby we’re shipping vast quantities overseas) told investors today that the immediate fallout of the war on Iran will mean higher prices, which “are helpful for our spreads, obviously.”
x.com/pblest/status/2028502860585967680
So, dead school girls, dead American military, it’s all good as long as Venture Global’s “spreads” are helped.
The protomolecule on Phoebe can’t hit soon enough.
Librettist
@Parfigliano:
Maybe the head of HHS can advise on the preferred homeopathic course of treatment.
bbleh
@Alce _e_ardillo: sure, all kinds of skin things, some immune-mediated. Heck might even be just dry skin exacerbated by chafing, makeup, and irritable scratching (I’ll bet he’s a scratcher). But I still wish him the best shingles available. Really, the best, many people are saying.
Tim C.
@Suzanne: Her and Schnorkles are two must follows.
mappy!
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: re-obliterate the obliterated bits is sort of like destroying the weapons of mass destruction again.
There seems to be this recurring theme of again, again, again…
(pewpew, woosh, woosh, woosh, for the magaphiles.)
bbleh
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I swear it’s only a few days in and we’ve already got our first oopsie village-massacre.
For sure, though, this will lead the Iranian people to Rise Up and, uh, welcome us with sweets and flowers! (Oh, except wait, that’s not the Objective anymore. Dang!)
lowtechcyclist
@bbleh:
They gave me Dilaudid for the shingles pain, which in addition to killing the pain in my face (which was miraculous enough), gave me a wonderful feeling of peace and well-being.
Wouldn’t mind if Trump got a dose of that, it might be a revelation to him that feeling that way was even possible.
Nix Besser
The Magic Ear is looking mighty pristine.
Archon
The worst mistake the Iranian regime made was NOT building nuclear weapons.
Suzanne
I have been dealing with one of my cats having a parasite, and having some Jackson Pollock-esque events….. and that’s still better than this fucken war, instigated by two of the worst people on Earth.
tECHIDNA
Also, that, um…wound oughta reignite the conspiracy of “you see? they’re the reptilians from V all along!”
Not getting out of the boat to check on David Icke.
bbleh
@lowtechcyclist: hydromorphone better than heroin it is said. IIRC it was Elvis’s drug of choice.
I’d be worried about its effect on his judgment tho, especially given his age.
They din’t give me nothin‘ good [pout]. But it was only on my sides.
japa21
FWIW, Mrs. Japa, my personal health expert and private nurse, does not believe it is shingles. It may represent something deeper under the skin, which happens to be where the carotid artery is.
Warblewarble
Let me get this straight, two nuclear powers attacked a non nuclearpower during negotiations so that the world will be a safer place?
Carlo Graziani
@japa21: Maybe Melania bit him.
Baud
@Carlo Graziani:
She would never get that close to him.
Suzanne
@Carlo Graziani:
Would you get any part of that morherfucker in your mouth?!?!
Oh my God. I feel sick.
MagdaInBlack
@Warblewarble: Yea, that’s pretty much it.
Baud
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Well, you kind of ruined my appetite as well.
Jeffro
even the NYT has a story up about the neck rash(!)
holy cow, life comes at you quickly!!
(the piece goes on to note all of the ways trumpov’s “doctors” have hidden even the most basic facts about his health over the years…THAT requirement, we don’t have to add into the Constitution via amendment, but it’d sure be a nice norm to get back to!)
MattF
Welp. If Iran wasn’t looking to build a bomb, they sure are now. So now, Bad Grandpa can go and tour Tehran and exchange love letters with the (remaining) Iranian leaders. After all, that strategy worked so well in North Korea.
tokyokie
Stress is a trigger for shingles. So trump is dealing with the stress of the ever-evolving Epstein case by blowing up a lot of brown people. Probably also didn’t get the shingles vaccine based on RFK Jr.’s recommendation. Shingles tend to follow a particular dermatome, that is areas innervated by a particular spinal nerve, and although it looks like for trump shingles follows the C3 dermatome, which includes the pinna of the ear, the pinna is not highly vascularized, so the blisters are less likely to appear there,
Jeffro
also, neck rash aside, the guy is working on his third or fourth jowl
I’m LOL-ing because I know he still sees himself at age 30, 35 TOPS in the mirror
surfk9
@Carlo Graziani: Maybe Lara Loomer gave him a hickey and it came with a fungus
piratedan
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: ty for the Expanse shout out….
Jeffro
also, since it’s an OT and about trumpery: here’s some serious wealth inequality info, couched as “Jackson Hole is expensive as f***”
(I mean, it is, but look at these numbers)
(gift link)
I’ll stop there. If you have assets of $11M or more, you are probably able to live on $.5M/year or more without ever touching the principal.
The piece is really, really good. Goes on to talk about how the tax cuts for corporations were going to – stop me if you’re heard this one before – trickle down to workers and boost their pay. Oh my oh me.
Jeffro
sorry, one more:
tECHIDNA
@MattF: This tells other countries that if you want to make actual land or economic negotiations with the United States, you better nuke up or get with a posse of other countries that have nukes.
Used to be “lawyer up”, then it was “pay up”, now it’s “nuke up”.
Thanks “price of eggs” voters!
@Warblewarble: Yep, pretty much, and see above. Reminds me of the bumper sticker “Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing is wrong?”
Scout211
Viva BrisVegas
@Archon:
If Iran was building a nuclear bomb then they were doing it in slow motion.
Trump has just killed the guy who for 20 years said that nuclear weapons were un-Islamic and we don’t want them.
The next guy?
Jackie
Spain ain’t playing along:
Urza
On Reddit some ‘doctors’ said it looks like treatment for a non malignant melanoma
Baud
@Urza:
Ugh.
davek319
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah. Sigh, indeed.
Miss Bianca
Oh, sweet little baby Jesus…literally “Dems in Disarray over Iran” from The Guardian. (Or maybe that was just the aggregator throwing that one out.) *And* they feature a photo of Bernie Sanders as their sample “Dem.”
See, every time I click on one of their articles and think, “yeah, I do read them sometimes, maybe I should throw them a few bucks”, they do something like this and I go, “Nah, Tony Jay is right – they’re as toolish as the NYT or WaPo.”
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Who’s in disarray other than Fetterman?
hueyplong
I’m dissatisfied with the red neck [pause for emphasis] explanations. I demand discussion of some obscure disease that delivers shingles+ pain as it passes through to the mortality stage.
bbleh
@Urza: I was thinking about that one too. Like sal acid or something — like a wart remover except maybe stronger.
But I’ll still bet he scratches it.
Baud
Kesha is on your good celebrity list.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Read it and weep. Let’s see…(doing so, sigh) they cite Cuellar, Tom Suozzi, and Jared Moskowitz, among others, along with Fetterman.
(Bernie, to his credit, appears to be having none of this shit. Which makes him “an Independent in Array” with…most of the other Democratic delegation.)
SFAW
@Urza:
I dunno, she seems pretty malignant, what with her destroying the Rose Garden etc.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
LOL. The usual suspects continue to suck. It’s like yet another story about Hillary’s emails. But it’s what people want to hear.
Odie Hugh Manatee
That is shingles, almost guarantee it. I had it and was a bad case. Blisters from front to back of my left midsection, band about 3 to 4 inches wide. It took almost two months to clear up most of the way. So fucking painful that I wish it on the people I hate, making me happy to see the orange bastard has them.
Puts a smile on my face knowing Fat Bastard is in pain. That looks like a good dose of them, too. Also.
Ubetcha!!! Fuck I am smiling now!
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Does even the entire bottom 99% control that much wealth, I wonder? I’d bet good money that the bottom 90% doesn’t.
Chetan R Murthy
@Odie Hugh Manatee: covid-19 had one job, it fell down on it. But shingles, it’s delivering. Or at least, we can hope.
Currants
@Suzanne: same! Especially to your last comment. That one is really rattling me.
Ramona
@Parfigliano: Ooh! Please, please, please!
Archon
@Viva BrisVegas: Agreed, the idea that even a secular Iran surrounded by Arab, authoritarian Petrostates will not want nuclear weapons is wishful thinking.
Baud
Professor Bigfoot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: He’s exactly the kind of guy who would try to exploit the protomolecule and endanger the entire species… but it would be profitable.
suzanne
@Baud: I’ve been telling ChatGPT a great deal about my cat’s poop. I hope it synthesizes the knowledge and that Altman feels like his life’s project has been wasted.
dnfree
@Alce _e_ardillo: Exactly, especially at Trump’s age. I know people who had shingles at younger ages and recovered well, although slowly. The elderly people I know who had it were on their way out, but it might also be a slow decline.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: OT feelers. Would you cone to a NE Ohio meetup this summer?
sab
@Miss Bianca: Tony Jay has warned us for years about The Guardian.
piratedan
@Professor Bigfoot: yeah, he’s Burke from Weyland-Yutani writ large.
Professor Bigfoot
@sab: Almost certainly; and the almost is just because I hate tempting fate. 😁
Professor Bigfoot
@piratedan: Totally off topic, but a few months ago I saw a white pickup truck, your basic work-truck: with the Weyland-Yutani logo, complete with “Building Better Worlds.”
It was gone before I could get my phone out, but it was perfect.
Eyeroller
@Jeffro: Looking forward to Jake Tapper’s book about this /s
Geminid
@Archon: Iran is an industrialized nation of over 90 million people, bounded by mountain ranges and large bodies of water. It could defend itself without nuclear weapons, even if the neighboring states wanted to invade it which they won’t.
Eyeroller
@tokyokie: That’s near the perfectly-healed ear that was supposedly shot, so obviously it’s a delayed response. /s again.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
I’d still take their coverage over the FTFNYT or the WaPo any day. When so many of your choices are bad, sometimes you’ve just got to settle for not as bad as the others.
Eyeroller
@Urza: I saw that post on Reddit and it was confusing. He said it was topical 5FU for basal cell carcinoma. That’s a standard treatment for precancerous or early cancerous lesions (actinic keratosis or early basal cell). Basal cell carcinoma takes a very long time even without treatment to become dangerous, so there’s no urgency, but it’s still cancer and so “malignant.” It could be actinic keratosis, however. But from those I’ve known who have had topical 5FU, the response is pretty concentrated on the part of the skin with the lesion. The central part of the “rash” on Trump is pretty crusted over, however, which is consistent with 5FU.
And while there was once something called “melanoma” that wasn’t cancer, so “malignant melanoma” was used to distinguish them, that term doesn’t seem to be used anymore, and so there’s not really any such thing as nonmalignant melanoma and topic treatments are useless for that..
Martin
A little OT – apparently archaeologists have been excavating a previously unknown cave in South Africa that contains what they believe is the oldest human cave writings. After a few weeks of work they’ve deciphered the ancient glyphs and it’s quite remarkable – it says ‘Iran is 6 months from developing a nuclear weapon’.
Eyeroller
@bbleh: 5FU is a chemotherapy drug mostly used for colorectal cancer (nowadays as an adjuvant to more powerful agents).
Ksmiami06
@Eyeroller: sigh.
Martin
As someone who has had shingles 3 times – if that’s shingles, he’s not wearing that shirt and casually walking around unless he’s been given a hippos dose of Percocet.
PSQ
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Sounds like the Double Secret Probation Edition DVD release of Animal House.
“Remain Calm – All is Well!”
Chetan R Murthy
way to harsh a mellow, dude /s
wjca
You have to keep in mind that, for these guys it’s all theater. And, in the theater, you run exactly the same show, using exactly the same lines, over and over and over.
So, they aren’t re-obliterating the obliterated bits; that’s something that would only happen in the real world. They’re just performing the obliteration scene again.
kalakal
@Parfigliano: Yes, and it can look very like those pics.
I’ve had Shingles ( fortunately I’d already had the Shingrox jabs) and it is very uncomfortable.
Tertiary Syphilis is another game altogether – it used to be in the text books as ‘Terminal Paralysis of the Insane’. Have to say I’ve wondered if he has this for years.
Eyeroller
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I took my Shingrix as soon as I was eligible and it was the worst vaccine in terms of side effects I’ve ever had, especially the second dose, but from what I heard it was nothing compared to shingles. If Trump didn’t get Shingrix it wasn’t because of RKFJr, because Trump would have been old enough years ago. He could possibly have gotten the earlier one that is less effective but who knows.
Some images of shingles on Google certainly are consistent with the photo. And as I mentioned, when I’ve seen 5FU treatments the crusting is pretty much right on the lesion; it doesn’t spread out.
Martin
@kalakal: Probably not. The insane part checks out, but the terminal part keeps eluding us.
Martin
@Eyeroller: I got my first shingrix and a tetanus shot in the same arm the same day. Let me tell you, I regretted the fuck out of that decision.
sab
One thing I have learned as an American citizen is that we have very few reporters in DC. We only have courtiers.
In the boodockes we do have reporters, kind of like the rare birds the Audoban Society wants us to out look for.
Some reporters where I live are excellent. Not idealogically tied to me. Just diligent and honest.
Look towards your local paper. If it isn’t just trash there will be real serious reporters there, doing the work for crappy pay because the work is why they even bother to report.
different-church-lady
OK. So. I’ve had a fair amount to drink (footnote 1: reasons), but even, I can break this down:
1. Trump become president in 2025
1b. Trump tears up agreement.
2. Trump does not have time machine.
3. Three years prior to Trump taking action, action, (occording to Trump) occurs.
4. THAT’S NOT HOW SPACETIME WORKS, PSYCHOPATHIC ASSHOLE.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Ah ha ha ha. Gotta find some enjoyment *somewhere* in the Ongoing Horror.
different-church-lady
@Martin: I approve of this message.
PSQ
It just occured to me that the orange guy might be jealous of Iran. Isn’t their Revolutionary Guard just their version of his private ICE army.
Maybe he should send in ICE to take care of them. I’m sure those wannabes will fight for Iranian citizen’s rights. (Yes, sarcasm, but sad).
Aziz, light!
My first thought about trump’s rash is that Vance got tired of waiting and tried to hang him.
different-church-lady
Let’s do this again in case I was too
cleverdrunk for my own good…Trump cannot take an action a year ago that prevents something from happening two years prior to him taking that action.
The fact that he has asserted such is incontrivertable PROOF he does not have the cognition to qualify for the presidency.
YY_Sima Qian
If the war is really about the Iranian nuclear program… (click through the link to X post by BBC journalist for the satellite images):
Expert commentary:
Marc
@Eyeroller: 5FU chemo was a really nasty experience for me 30 years ago, along with a horrid one for my future wife, who cleaned up the messes those times when I couldn’t. I’m shocked that it’s still in use.
YY_Sima Qian
Also, Trump calling this war “major military operations” is further evidence of his affinity to Putin. & the entire US natsec establishment is just going along w/ it.
Rand Careaga
I’d had the old, unimproved version of the shingles jab some years back, which did not serve to protect me from the onset in 2024 of a painful case, running along a band between my eyebrow and my right occipital lobe, a week after my wife died (yeah, stress). You know how they say “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy?” Nah, not me: I’m of a sometimes vindictive character, and can think of half a dozen people I’ve known whose affliction would fill me with quiet satisfaction. If shingles is indeed what the Orange Man is suffering (and the photo certainly looks like my case), I hope it’s hurting him like hell.
YY_Sima Qian
Rutte is going to be Rutte:
That is quite a bit further than the supine statements made by the UK, France, Germany, Canada & Australia wrt to the “MMO”.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: Unless he means he tore it up during his first administration.
different-church-lady
@YY_Sima Qian: Rutte: “I really really really need to somehow fit this into a sane framework…”
Archon
@Geminid: Well based on that we don’t need nukes either.
different-church-lady
HE IS ROTTING FROM THE HEAD DOWN!
different-church-lady
I’m beginning to think “Biden is senile” just MIGHT HAVE BEEN enemy operations instead of an accurate analysis.
YY_Sima Qian
Trump being puppeteered by Bibi may lose some MAGA hearts & minds (at least the genteel isolations & the committed anti-Semites):
& lo & behold, Iran is retaliating against US interests across the region, & escalating further to the GCC states.
WaterGirl
@Martin: hahaha
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Israel has nukes, that might be reason enough for any new Iranian regime to get some. Especially now that there is clearly no deterrent against Israel repeatedly trying to “mow the lawn” from the air.
Bibi’s Israel sees itself as the dominant military hegemon in the region, free to bomb & assassinate whomever & wherever as it pleases. In this, I do not see much disagreement from the Israeli opposition, either. At least politicians such as Yair Lepid, as opposed to some of the former senior leaders in the security apparatus.
After this war, the GCC states will have to seriously reconsider the regional security architecture. There have already been tentative attempts before, as evidenced by the KSA-Pakistan defense pact that might extent to Türkiye, even the attempted GCC-Iran rapprochement that has been overturned by events. They will have to be more radical now.
Qatar has the dubious distinction of being the US ally that has been bombed by both Israel & Iran.
Gin & Tonic
Way back in the mid 1970’s, when I was in Boston, MIT had (and I presume still has) a Department of Nuclear Engineering – a regular, separate discipline, like Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, etc. In contrast with the others, however, it did not offer undergraduate degrees, only MS and PhD studies. The kind of odd thing about the department at that time is that a very large proportion of its grad students were Iranians. This was before the Islamic revolution. I’ve occasionally wondered what happened to those guys.
Eyeroller
@Marc: My mother had colon cancer 30 years ago and 5FU was the only option. And it does have side effects, but nowadays it is only used along with oxaliplatin for first-line treatment (folfox) or irinotecan for second-line (forfiri), because it’s not all that effective on its own. I’m glad to hear it worked for you.
Edit: as a treatment for basal cell carcinoma, it’s a cream applied topically.
Nix Besser
@Eyeroller: Thanks. That’s what I was talking about, not very clearly, in an earlier comment. There is no scar tissue on that ear that was supposedly hit by a bullet/glass/something/blood capsule.
YY_Sima Qian
On a side note, USG had announced a few days before the start of this “MMO” that Trump is due for a state visit to Beijing in the 1st week of Apr.
There has been some suggestion that the trip may be cancelled. Certainly there have been reporting that the preparation has been deeply problematic, w/ the CPC regime wanting the meticulous & methodical & zero surprises, while the Trump Admin. the complete opposite. While the PRC doesn’t really care about Iran or the Islamist regime, the PRC MFA has vocally condemned the Israeli-US war. To then give Trump the red carpet treatment & all the pageantry (which was the plan to flatter the latter’s ego), especially if the “MMO” is still ongoing, would be bad optics across the Global South.
I would still be surprised if the PRC cancels or postpones the visit, but might downgrade pomp & circumstance a bit. Trump seems desperate enough for face time w/ Xi that the PRC might try to wring more concessions for allowing the state visit to proceed.
Jeffro
@lowtechcyclist: all I know is it’s f***ing nuts
Eyeroller
@YY_Sima Qian: I don’t know what they are thinking but it is entirely possible to wish for a regime change in Iran while not believing that a bombing campaign will effect anything remotely resembling what would be a decent outcome for the Iranian people. But I guess Europe is still supine to the US.
YY_Sima Qian
@Eyeroller: Finessing that nuance is not that challenging for experienced diplomats supported by professional diplomats. Rutte is the current NATO Secretary General & former Dutch PM, he ought be an experienced diplomat. Then again, Rutte’s consistent strategy for “managing” Trump has been persistent brown nosing, all to little apparent avail.
The statements by the European & Australian governments also seem far out of line w/ popular opinion.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Eyeroller:
COVID hit and I quit going anywhere after almost being killed by it in the early days of 2020. I had just got my latest tetanus shot a few months before 2019 ended and intended to go back for the Shingrix. Oh well, shit happened and fuck was it a miserable time. Luckily my residual effects are only slightly sensitive nerve endings to the left side of my belly button and in one area of my left back. I get a slightly itchy/tingly feeling once in a while to remind me of the fun.
Doc said mine was nasty and it was probably triggered by an old back injury that flared up the day it hit. Intense spine pain between two vertebrae just below the shoulders and within hours red splotches appeared on my left side.
I hope the fucker has shingles because that looks like mine did just as it put the pedal to the metal and blistered like holy fuck. If so he is going to be miserable, get even less sleep and the residual nerve shit will drive a person like him nuts.
I’m still smiling about the great possibility here… :)
YY_Sima Qian
Marker Warner has been among the most hawkish Dems & ones most deferential to the natsec state:
This comment is also the 1st I’ve heard of an imminent Iranian threat to Israel.
NotoriousJRT
@Baud: in a battle of malignancies, Trump trumps.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: The GCC really needs to reconsider how their security is to be attained (link to the Middle East Eye article below):
Also, I guess this “MMO” (or at least this round) ends when the US & Israel run low on interceptors for themselves.
Jay
@PSQ:
The IRGC is their own political power faction, who’s aims and goals are often enough, not consistent with Iran’s.
They are a parallel Army, Navy, Airforce, Intelligence Agency and Police Force, to the Iranian Army, Navy, Airforce, Intelligence Agency and Police Forces.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
And attacked by Sawdi Arabia.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: I forgot about that!
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Unfortunately for us so many elected Ds bought into it.
YY_Sima Qian
An account of the “decision making” processes that led to the illegal “MMO” (gift link to NYT article below):
About what one would expect from an idiocracy, & that IMO includes the military leadership. Chief of JCS Dan Caine may not be an idiot, but he seems to be a craven careerist more than willing to serve malignant idiocracy.
Do people see the parallel between US-Israeli behavior leading up to this “MMO”, that of Imperial Japan leading up to the Day of Infamy?
& the account at the end of the article of how the IRI leadership decided to hold an on site all hands on deck meeting at the Supreme Leader’s residence, instead of secret deep bunker, when all signs point to an imminent attack, seems to rhyme with/ the intelligence & decision making failure of the US leading up to Pearl Harbor, too. Apparently, the Iranian leadership did not think Israel & the US would start strikes in daylight.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: One of the endgames envisioned by the Trump gang was a “pragmatic” faction of the IRGC taking over, one that is less hostile to the US & Israel, w/ some ayatollah as a figurehead Supreme Leader. A sort of Venezuela 2.0.
Hard to see how that would be a net positive to the Iranians.
Eyeroller
@YY_Sima Qian: Also an unlikely outcome. Usually it’s the hardliners who win in a situation like this, or so it seems from much of history.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
And Iran and Turkey were the only nation’s that had Qatar’s back, despite “security agreements” with the good old USA.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
There is no “pragmatic” faction of the IRGC.
They hold to their “vision” that Iran must dominate all areas of the ME, other than Turkey, to “counter” the US, Israel and “The West”.
They have the lived experience of Iran being a “target” for the past 47 years, and being a “target” as apostates for Sunni Islam for 640 years.
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: It’s like, you and me and a mere handful of others get that, right?
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Well, what kind of analysis would you expect out of an idiocracy?
YY_Sima Qian
The US quietly discussing moving THAAD & Patriot batteries from South Korea to the ME (link to the article in the Chosun below):
At least they are not moving assets from Guam.
Presumably such moves being considered is based on an assessment that Kim the 3rd is unlikely to attack the South any time soon (which is mostly likely true). It is also tacit acknowledgement that South Korea is unlikely to allow the US forces in the country to fight the PRC in a Taiwan scenario, & thus US bases in South Korea is unlikely to be target of PRC missile strikes.
YY_Sima Qian
Encouraging Kurds to rise up against an oppressive regime, w/ direct involvement of Kurds in neighboring countries, on Bibi’s advise, what could possibly go wrong? (link to Axios article below):
Aside from Tehran, there might be other regional capitals which would be alarmed by such development (Baghdad & Ankara, for two). Also, I suspect Erbil would not want to risk attriting the Peshmerga, the guarantor of its autonomy from Baghdad, fighting the far more powerful IRGC in Iran.
Also, letting Bibi drive US policy & actions in the ME, recipe for disaster & blow back.
Jay
bsky.app/profile/brandonfriedman.bsky.social/post/3mg4kdplvj22i
Marc
I would say “I survived it” rather than “it worked for me”, as it along with leucovorin (?, I also got it) killed my Mom roughly a year later (sepsis). A decade later when they did a now routine genetic workup after my next malignancy, I was told that chemo wasn’t necessary, our particular mutation only metastasizes locally.
kalakal
@YY_Sima Qian: The Kurds would have to be absolute idiots ( which they’re not ) to trust any assurances from the US & Israel as to continuing support if they ‘rise up’
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Hard for Americans to evacuate the entire ME region when all of the regional aviation hubs have shut down.
Iran striking the US embassy in Riyadh is an unjustified escalation, from both the perspective of international law & realpolitik.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Normally, the evac’s are done before the US starts bombing.
Many evac’s are done after somebody else starts the bombing, often by sea.
The US State Department’s message is basically, “try to get out, we won’t help, sucks to be you.”
YY_Sima Qian
After condemning the Israeli-US war on Iran, the PRC is now cautioning Iran on its attacks in the GCC states, probably because of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, & Iran’s strikes against regional oil/gas infrastructure (gift link to Bloomberg article below):
The PRC has always balanced its transactional relations w/ all of the major players in the ME. It’s commercial & tech. partnerships w/ the KSA & the UAE are significantly greater than that w/ Iran, & it certainly has sold a lot more weapons to the two countries.
Archon
@YY_Sima Qian: I’m not here to defend the Iranian regime but didn’t we just blow up a girls school?
YY_Sima Qian
@Archon: & bombing a diplomatic mission is both an unjustifiable & ineffective response to that particular war crime.
YY_Sima Qian
@kalakal: Türkiye will probably intervene if that happens:
Europe has paid a price, too, from the refugee flows that have roiled their domestic politics.
YY_Sima Qian
Dissembling by the EU Commission spokesperson on the Israeli-US war on Iran:
Ironically, the gaslighting is reminiscent of what the PRC MFA puts out wrt to Putin’s current invasion of Ukraine.
YY_Sima Qian
It seems the Trump DOD is hiding a mass casualty event – the Iranian drone strike on a temporary US military facility in Kuwait, which has resulted in the vast majority of US casualties in this war:
The DOD never announced the number of MIAs after the shit, & is instead slowing adding to the KIA count as bodies are recovered. At this point, though, all of the MIAs are by now very likely KIAs.
& the troops were in trailers & not fortified bunkers, utterly inexcusable!
anastasio beaverhausen
I’ve seen a lot of head and neck shingles in my time and this doesn’t look like it. It’s a bad picture, granted, but I don’t see the typical vesicles and dermatomal pattern. My guess is efudex for a basal or squamous cell cancer. Being a Florida golfer and very, very white that is a classic location on the back/side of the neck. But of course we will never know for sure.
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian: Pretty much:
Paul in KY
@bbleh: First time I’ve seen a photo of the rash and it looks like shingles to me. Hee hee.
Paul in KY
@Librettist: I think using a power sander to remove the rash is considered homeopathic.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: Thanks for making me think about that.
Paul in KY
@Miss Bianca: They are toolish, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Martin: Agree that if it is shingles, he’s doped up pretty damn good or has a very high tolerance for pain.
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: It looks like what my mother suffered with.
Paul in KY
@YY_Sima Qian: Israel is the dominant military hegemon in the region.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Would you get any part of that morherfucker in your mouth?!?!
Or even anywhere near him?
As in miles and miles and miles. (Let’s see is that enough miles…)
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
So, he shuffles around, looks in mirrors a lot, can’t manage simple math, grows rashes….. Anything odd about him?????
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
trickle down to workers and boost their pay
I understood that trickle to actually be tinkle, as in you really don’t want someone tinkling on you……
Geminid
@Paul in KY: I think the Turks would dispute that, and with good reason.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Good point. They are the other. For some reason I had them (in my mind) as more ‘European’. My fault as you are correct.