Trump’s Easter message posted on Truth Social has caused a stir. Here is the unredacted version:
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
Yeah, Happy Easter to you, too. What happened to “we don’t need the Strait of Hormuz?” Trump is terrified and angry because Iran is making him look impotent. So he amps up the bullying, which is the only thing he knows how to do. Actual “leadership” is not in his tool kit. And if he goes through with this he’ll be committing war crimes.
Paul Krugman wrote “America as we know it may end Tuesday. He also wrote,
If Trump is actually going to give the order for massive war crimes, for destruction of civilian infrastructure, power plants, bridges, which will, among other things, lead to a lot of deaths in Iran, will the military obey it? A year ago, I would have said no.
But what we do know now is that, first of all, there turns out to be at least a significant MAGA component inside the officer corps. And we know that Pete Hexeth has been systematically corrupting, dismantling the military over the past 14 months. Generals who raise ethical concerns have been fired. Officers who even just want to be intelligent about warfare. and not believe that it’s all about warrior ethos and lethality have been fired, so it’s quite possible that there’s a quorum of officers who will follow instructions to commit war crimes.
Krugman also cites Timothy Snyder, who wrote a terrifying post last week that begins:
We are seven months away from the most consequential midterm election in the history of the United States. Meanwhile, we are fighting a war. These are the structural conditions for a coup attempt in which a president tries to nullify elections and take permanent power as a dictator.
There’s another good read by Christopher Bucktin at The Mirror. Trump is weak and unhinged and has lost control of events. Nothing is working out as he thought it would. And now Iran’s control of the Strait is screwing up Trump’s imagined “golden age.” As Bucktin writes, “Trump has spent a lifetime bullying his way through problems – threatening, bullying, paying off, and walking away. That may have worked in business deals and reality TV theatrics. It does not work on the world stage.”
Trump can’t deal with a situation he can’t dominate. And he sure as bleep is dominating global events less and less. Our old allies don’t want to work with him because he’s an asshole. Worse, he’s a stupid asshole. And I don’t see him calming down anytime soon.
There's a war within the military, between the competent and ethical versus the Hegseth-testosterone fueled idiots. I've heard the former are turning to members of the Senate to "do something!", but many of these are paralyzed, fearful of mafia-like retaliation against their family members.
The checks and balances instituted by the framers seem so quaint, so 18th century, and so useless now. I have a lot of contempt for former fundie Christian friends who really believe our Constitution fell out of the sky, and is eternally perfect.
It's a few posts back, but I wonder who exactly is behind the $1.5 trillion defense budget (apart from the usual suspects, the defense contractors), a massive increase over the already insane amount of money we spend. That number came out of somebody's mind or group of minds, and of course Orange Julius is all for it, regardless of the consequences. It's a damning hallmark of a failed society.
Trump of course threatens to rain hell, but the Iranians know he's a paper tiger. They control the economic chokepoint of the world. Any attempt by the US to seize it, will result in massive casualties, unacceptable to the US public, hastening Trump's demise. Moreover – my psychic friends say – all of those in Trump's cabal, including his family, are going to be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. Iran will get revenge.
I want the lot of them handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, especially if Trump goes ahead with bombing civilian power sources and infrastructure in Iran. War crimes.
I agree with Maha's Hague comment. Don't know how likely it is but if we manage to stop the stupid juggernaut we're up against we can't go all milk toast and settle for these criminals to be out of office.
And if he goes through with this he’ll be committing war crimes.
So? What's one more?
He's been supporting or ordering so many war crimes, crimes against humanity and who knows what else since he took office this time that prosecutors would be spoiled for choice in deciding what charges to lay.
The US military has always played fast and loose with "collateral damage" but this is insanity. The rest of the western world should announce that if the US military starts committing war crimes on a massive scale like this then (1) all US treasury bonds held by other countries will be immediately sold, and (2) any member of the US administration from Trump on down who sets foot outside the US will be arrested on sight and renditioned to the Hague. Diplomatic immunity will not apply to war criminals.
"And if he goes through with this he’ll be committing war crimes."
I agree but unfortunately I'm not sure it will be perceived or portrayed with the grave seriousness it would deserve. It was less than a couple of years ago that the mainstream media, a democratic president and majorities in both parties passively watched, some even supported the genocide in Gaza. Bibi's IDF goons committed war crimes on a daily basis, bombing, schools, hospitals, water plants, critical infrastructure not to mention preventing food and basic medicines from getting to the Palestinian citizens. They murdered 70,000 civilians. Bibi is welcomed in this country nobody in media or politics really mentions the fact that he is a war criminal. So we will see, hopefully diaper don pulls his TACO routine but if he actually orders these war crimes I'm not convinced it will cause much of a political crisis for him here at home. Trump has lowered the bar, nobody expects him to act rational or presidential anymore, it's baked in the cake.
Suppose Trump does commit war crimes. He still can't open Homuz. The rest of the world will eventually sit down with Iran because they need the oil. And Iran will want Trump's head on a pike. Which Europe in particular, may be willing to deliver. He won't be able to set foot in Europe. If the GOP establishment throws him under the bus, he will be under fire for crimes here.
There's always Russia.
"There's always Russia."
Putin, among others, don't want donnie in Russia. Using donnie to disrupt other fossil fuel suppliers (Middle East) might be their next bet.
There's always Russia.
True. I imagine Putin would be delighted to extradite Trump to the Hague.
Biden and Trump have killed a lot of Russians. That last assassination attempt at Valdai probably did not endear Trump to Putin or most other Russians.
Valdai was Ukraine, and Ukraine and the U.S. are not exactly working together these days.
Good question:
Even if Trump walks away, will Israel? They have a different set of incentives than we do. In addition to their strategic incentives, Netanyahu needs forever wars in order to keep from being thrown into prison for his corruption.
https://heymistermix.com/p/tell-me-you-re-losing-without-saying-it-out-loud
We don't think like you do. Iran has that one right, as for the most part Americans don't think at all. At present thinking for America is done by Putin, Orban, and Netanyahu by proxy and poor translators. At least that is a notion the evidence supports. The official line is that a Christian (fundamentalist) God is leading us through the power of an elite organization. Some of these elites have been recently removed, suggesting this God has questionable infallibility. Others contend we are at the mercy of a bellicose man-child dealing with his pathological second (or lifelong unresolved) childhood issues. They have a point.
A lot lately, perhaps a majority, just verbally respond that they try not to think about it. These are usually those who are trying to lose weight, quit drinking or some other addictive behavior, and exercise more and the like. In Texas that frequently translates to fixen to. It is kind of like fixing to fix. We have a lot to fix.
Some years ago, I read James Clavell's Whirlwind, a historical fiction based upon the 1975 revolution in Iran. Clavell also authored quite a number of other works including Shogun, Tai-Pan, Nobel House and others. It gives on over a thousand pages of the many ways in which they don't think like us and don't all think and act alike. It is not for most Americans that don't read at all and try not to think about it at all. It is a must read for those trying to deal with this country effectively I would think.
We in America are now dealing with a leadership that represents, according to current polls, less than a third of our citizens. We are supposedly a democracy, yet the vast majority disapproves yet feels it cannot do anything about it, by and large, at this point in time. The Iranians put a religion-based theocracy in place starting well before 1975 which remains in power to this day. It is far from a Democracy. Yet we who have a democracy think their citizens can change their regime. We who have a Democracy and even some pieces of a free press are challenged to do that. We will be lucky to get ours to a point where a majority find our governance tolerable. So far, we cannot even do that. We might start by using our Yankie Ingenuity and doing a little of our own thinking. That is if we still have the talent and the will to use it.