And then there's the flip side, how this war-not-war thing is supposed to end with UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.
Professional liar Karoline Leavitt was asked about this, she said Trump would decide when we've bombed enough, and then Iran will be in a "place of unconditional surrender." I didn't know you could surrender someone without their consent, but we all know consent has never meant much to Trump.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage, one-sided war against America,”
The fascist will never fail to turn reality upon its head. Even a casual perusal of history shows it is primarily the U.S. (initially aided by Britain, later backed by the rest of Europe) who have waged a punishing economic war against Iran (occasionally interspersed with savage and brutal miliary attacks) since the fall of the hated and vicious Pahlavi regime and indeed, over twenty-five years before that with the overthrow of the Mossadegh government. Now even previous "limits" on violence have been ripped aside.
"“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.” That’s a real sentence a person said out loud at a Pentagon podium."
Under authoritarian regimes, words no longer have a set and agreed upon meaning. Meaning is malleable, often changing based on context in order to meet the current propaganda needs of the regime. They don't even attempt to keep everyone synced regarding meaning; as noted in the post, multiple speakers can assign a differing meaning to the same words or phrases, simultaneously.
It's unsurprising to see right-wing cheerleaders of Dear Leader eagerly boost the received narrative. More pernicious is when media companies (which have decimated newsrooms over the last twenty years) deem it convenient to just go with whatever narrative is trending, usually with minimal pushback, if any.
So if I'm a 55-year old guy, which I am, that means that the US has been at war since I was 8 years old? Which is weird because I've never felt particularly worried about being killed by Iranian bombing runs or anything like that, or Iranian snipers or Iranian troops invading the street I live on. Because we weren't at war until dip shit in chief needed a distraction from the Epstein files!
Not merely to withhold due props, but you can't be the only person to notice these contradictions. So, are reporters holding Republicans' feet to the fire or simply letting them get by on rhetorical tricks? Broadly speaking, America is tired of war. Major outlets owe it to their audience to challenge these narratives about what we're doing in Iran, amorphous as they are. I fear what we're getting/will get instead is manufacturing consent, though.
Ron Johnson, the "Who cares what we call it" guy, is my Senator. He won his last re-election by 20,000 votes out of more than a million cast. But whatever, we're stuck with him.
As the ChristoNazi threat to our species and our Mother Earth intensifies, three terminal horrors become ever more probable:
(1) -- That the former United States is not only a failed nation; it is also a doomed nation -- a nation that became terminal ill on 22 November 1963, and (boiling over with hate), literally voted itself to death on 5 November 2024;
(2) -- That the ChristoNazi regime is already scheming how it will justify its use of nukes against Iran as the final solution of the global economic crisis it inflicted on the world by its illegal war;
(3) -- That we stand literally on the brink of Ragnarøkkr, of Götterdämmerung -- that Trump is not just the incarnation of Hitler but the embodiment of Loki.
Quoth Völuspá: "Black become the sun's beams in the summers that follow, weathers all treacherous. Do you still seek to know? And what? Brothers will fight and kill each other, sisters' children will defile kinship. It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife —an axe age, a sword age —shields are riven— a wind age, a wolf age— before the world goes headlong. No man will have mercy on another." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6)
As death approached my oldest half-brother, a founding director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he said Trump will be the end of the world.
"This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change," It used to be Ayatollah Khamenei, now it's Ayatollah Khamenei!
Meet the new boss, son of the old boss.
"We've always been at war with [middle] East Asia."
And then there's the flip side, how this war-not-war thing is supposed to end with UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.
Professional liar Karoline Leavitt was asked about this, she said Trump would decide when we've bombed enough, and then Iran will be in a "place of unconditional surrender." I didn't know you could surrender someone without their consent, but we all know consent has never meant much to Trump.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged a savage, one-sided war against America,”
The fascist will never fail to turn reality upon its head. Even a casual perusal of history shows it is primarily the U.S. (initially aided by Britain, later backed by the rest of Europe) who have waged a punishing economic war against Iran (occasionally interspersed with savage and brutal miliary attacks) since the fall of the hated and vicious Pahlavi regime and indeed, over twenty-five years before that with the overthrow of the Mossadegh government. Now even previous "limits" on violence have been ripped aside.
"“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.” That’s a real sentence a person said out loud at a Pentagon podium."
Under authoritarian regimes, words no longer have a set and agreed upon meaning. Meaning is malleable, often changing based on context in order to meet the current propaganda needs of the regime. They don't even attempt to keep everyone synced regarding meaning; as noted in the post, multiple speakers can assign a differing meaning to the same words or phrases, simultaneously.
It's unsurprising to see right-wing cheerleaders of Dear Leader eagerly boost the received narrative. More pernicious is when media companies (which have decimated newsrooms over the last twenty years) deem it convenient to just go with whatever narrative is trending, usually with minimal pushback, if any.
"We just report what they say! You decide!"
So if I'm a 55-year old guy, which I am, that means that the US has been at war since I was 8 years old? Which is weird because I've never felt particularly worried about being killed by Iranian bombing runs or anything like that, or Iranian snipers or Iranian troops invading the street I live on. Because we weren't at war until dip shit in chief needed a distraction from the Epstein files!
Not merely to withhold due props, but you can't be the only person to notice these contradictions. So, are reporters holding Republicans' feet to the fire or simply letting them get by on rhetorical tricks? Broadly speaking, America is tired of war. Major outlets owe it to their audience to challenge these narratives about what we're doing in Iran, amorphous as they are. I fear what we're getting/will get instead is manufacturing consent, though.
I sure hope that my nephews don't get drafted and KILLED by Donald Trump and his latest Epstein files distraction, AKA Vietnam 3.0.
Ron Johnson, the "Who cares what we call it" guy, is my Senator. He won his last re-election by 20,000 votes out of more than a million cast. But whatever, we're stuck with him.
As the ChristoNazi threat to our species and our Mother Earth intensifies, three terminal horrors become ever more probable:
(1) -- That the former United States is not only a failed nation; it is also a doomed nation -- a nation that became terminal ill on 22 November 1963, and (boiling over with hate), literally voted itself to death on 5 November 2024;
(2) -- That the ChristoNazi regime is already scheming how it will justify its use of nukes against Iran as the final solution of the global economic crisis it inflicted on the world by its illegal war;
(3) -- That we stand literally on the brink of Ragnarøkkr, of Götterdämmerung -- that Trump is not just the incarnation of Hitler but the embodiment of Loki.
Quoth Völuspá: "Black become the sun's beams in the summers that follow, weathers all treacherous. Do you still seek to know? And what? Brothers will fight and kill each other, sisters' children will defile kinship. It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife —an axe age, a sword age —shields are riven— a wind age, a wolf age— before the world goes headlong. No man will have mercy on another." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6)
As death approached my oldest half-brother, a founding director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he said Trump will be the end of the world.
All of this is moot. Trump was led into this war with Iran by Bibi Netenyahu and Sen. Lindsay Graham whispering in his ear.