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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[facilitatorn]

Remember that when republicans try to use intelligence reports to justify further escalation with Iran, that these same intelligence services caught Russia and trump cheating in the 2016 election and have proven that the entire trump administration is illegitimate and in the thrall of our adversaries.

If we’re going to believe intelligence reports, let’s believe them about the #1 threat to the United States, donald trump and his republican party. Every vote for a Democrat is a bullet in the beating heart of global fascism lead by Putin and figure headed by his puppet, trump.

[bodiddley]

Part of the context is of course Iran also had it's democratically elected leader assassinated by the CIA in the 50's.  Trust.

The US supports democracy when our allies win or we can rig the results, but not much when Hamas or the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria or when a nationalist/anti-colonialist won in Iran).  And after Iranians finally overthrew the Shah's dictatorship -- was he less autocratic or brutal than Saddam? -- we escorted the puppet we installed to safety and luxury instead of facing justice from his angry compatriots. 

More recently, the US invaded the two countries on either side of Iran, killing and displacing large numbers, and destabilizing these lands leaving each with a capital city under siege barely controlling any of the mostly lawless country.  That's what we've done to Iran's neighborhood.   The US has been an out of control, warmongering nation, flouting international law for far too long.  The great poet Louis Simpson once wrote "and is there no end to the wars of democracy."  Apparently not, since he was writing during the Vietnam War ...

Why should Iran think the US is trustworthy or wouldn't bomb the hell out of Iran given half the chance.  They saw up close how we decimated their neighbors.

Besides assassinating a military leader of Iran who was invited to Iraq, the US also obliterated/assassinated one of the heads of Iraq's own popular mobilization forces, a branch of the Iraqi military. 

You might not like Assad, and the US went in to Syria to defeat the brutal faux caliphate of ISIS, but Iran's military was invited in to Syria by its lawful gov't to end a rebellion.  The US already left Iraq once and was invited back in to fight ISIS and train the Iraqi military.  Assassinating Iraqi and Iranian military leaders obviously wasn't part of any agreement and showed a total disregard for Iraq's sovereignty.  The US complains that Iran tries to coopt and control Iran, but only because the US is in competition to own them.

[luee]

Yes, national suicide to destroy the hated infidel as written. All pumped up and then the big bang heard round the world. With the party hatred going on it would have been a big no from Chuck and Nancy. The war was declared by the Ayatollah after the hostage crisis, "Death to America".  Carter failed, Bush 1and 2 failed, Clinton and BHO failed. Maybe facing up to the bully works.

The latest from Teheran is an attack on the white house. So scary! A drone on the Ayatollah scarier and more feasable.

[bodiddley]

Having Iran's nuke program in abeyance for a decade or whatever and engaging with them and rebuilding their economy -- O's approach, might have worked quite well.  Iran would have been tied into the world economy.  Something like 50% of their population is under 30.  The youth of Iran has risen up in abortive moments, reformists opposed by the religious establishment frequently win elections, and the theocratic system has appeared increasingly shaky.  Short term this helps the mullahs rally the country and reassert control.  Long term, I agree with Yogi Berra ...

[REDSTATEWARD]

The US already left Iraq once and was invited back in to fight ISIS and train the Iraqi military. 

A misrepresentation of actual events.
Obama pulled out US Troops in 2011 and used the phrase “ the tide of war is receding” during his re-election campaign.
While we were gone the Islamic State grew in Iraq and Obama HAD to return the troops lest the jihadists take over Baghdad. Obama’s blunder was trying to appease Iran and it was certainly a big mistake.

[josh]

The US already left Iraq once and was invited back in to fight ISIS and train the Iraqi military. 

A misrepresentation of actual events.
Obama pulled out US Troops in 2011 and used the phrase “ the tide of war is receding” during his re-election campaign.
While we were gone the Islamic State grew in Iraq and Obama HAD to return the troops lest the jihadists take over Baghdad. Obama’s blunder was trying to appease Iran and it was certainly a big mistake.

A misrepresentation of actual events.

But what else is new?

[barton]

In case you missed this;
The (London)Observer


A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. .
You
Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern’, say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group...

It's what happens when non-scientists try to assemble data and global climate models and turn it into a dramatic narrative that will get attention.  The vast majority of reputable scientists never bought into that extreme prediction model and, with the sort of integrity that went unsung by the media, issued reports through the IPCC that made clear that many positive feedback cycles cannot be pinpointed like that.  What is known is that the earth has warmed a bit over 1 degree Celsius, that glaciers and ice sheets are retreating rapidly, and that higher levels of water vapor in the air tend to make the Earth a better heat sink because water, even as a vapor, has a lot of thermal mass.  What is also known is that open ocean absorbs solar heat far better than ice sheets (which tend to reflect a lot of energy back into space), so when ice melts you get a positive feedback cycle and acceleration of warming.

The UK COULD cool suddenly (the Labrador scenario, some call it), but the complexities driving the Mid-Atlantic Conveyor (the fancy term for the Gulf Stream that keeps N. Europe warmer than that latitude would normally get) are such that it remains only one possibility among many.  Another is that the MAC could actually convey unusually warm tropical waters up to Greenland and greatly accelerate the melting of its ice sheet.  And there are others.  The hallmark of science is that it is responsive to new data and predictive models as it sees what has already happened and extrapolates from that. 

[barton]

The great poet Louis Simpson once wrote "and is there no end to the wars of democracy." 

Great quote.  Thanks.  In the words of either Jake or Elwood Blues (of the Blues Brothers), regarding foreign entanglements, "Let's all stay home for the next ten years!"

[oilcan]

John Bolton's attorney had said the former national security adviser would be guided by the courts on whether to testify in the impeachment proceedings. But Bolton said a judicial resolution appears unlikely before a trial, and ”if the Senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, I am prepared to testify.”

- WP

2020 will be, Jan. 25th, the Year of the Rat in the Asian calendar.


What's pretty funny about the climate deniers is that, at this point, they're in the awkward position of denying what is ALREADY happening.  And was predicted.  That takes a real logical contortionist to sustain. 

[REDSTATEWARD]

In case you missed this;
The (London)Observer


A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. .
You
Climate change ‘should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern’, say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group...

It's what happens when non-scientists try to assemble data and global climate models and turn it into a dramatic narrative that will get attention. 

Oh.
Just FAKE NEWS? From a leftist rag in London?
The Observer is the sister newspaper of the Guardian which you frequently cite.
I guess we need to be more discerning when reading your posts.

[facilitatorn]

Scenarios within the realm of possibility, unlike Iraqis greeting us as liberators or an economy benefiting from a tax cut for the wealthy or deregulation.

[bodiddley]

The US already left Iraq once and was invited back in to fight ISIS and train the Iraqi military. 

A misrepresentation of actual events.
Obama pulled out US Troops in 2011 and used the phrase “ the tide of war is receding” during his re-election campaign.
While we were gone the Islamic State grew in Iraq and Obama HAD to return the troops lest the jihadists take over Baghdad. Obama’s blunder was trying to appease Iran and it was certainly a big mistake.

Uh, W Bush agreed on a US withdrawal because Iraq was no longer willing to give US troops immunity for any atrocities and crimes they committed in Iraq.  The withdrawal was completed under O.

O returned US troops to Iraq at the invitation of the gov't after the army collapsed mostly without a fight in the North.

There was no appeasement of Iran in the withdrawal that W Bush agreed to and Obama implemented.

[REDSTATEWARD]

The US already left Iraq once and was invited back in to fight ISIS and train the Iraqi military. 

A misrepresentation of actual events.
Obama pulled out US Troops in 2011 and used the phrase “ the tide of war is receding” during his re-election campaign.
While we were gone the Islamic State grew in Iraq and Obama HAD to return the troops lest the jihadists take over Baghdad. Obama’s blunder was trying to appease Iran and it was certainly a big mistake.

Uh, W Bush agreed on a US withdrawal because Iraq was no longer willing to give US troops immunity for any atrocities and crimes they committed in Iraq.  The withdrawal was completed under O.

O returned US troops to Iraq at the invitation of the gov't after the army collapsed mostly without a fight in the North.

There was no appeasement of Iran in the withdrawal that W Bush agreed to and Obama implemented.

Spin it any way that makes you feel better.
The decision to pull troops out of Iraq in 2011 was a disastrous one and only fueled Iranian meddling to the point Obama had to send troops back.

[bambu.]

LOL

Australia needs coal to survive...until someone invents something better and affordable.

It is believed that 4 out of 5 of the fires were lit by arsonists, multiple people have been arrested....or caused by accidents of humans, grinders etc used outdoors during total fire bans, for example.

[FlyingVProd]

Farah Pahlavi - فرح پهلوی
1 hr ·

In connection with the attack on Iranian cultural works.

Unfortunately, the Islamic Republic has done serious damage to Iran's cultural heritage in the past 40 years. The cultural works of nations belong to human history and culture, especially a few thousand years of Iran's culture and art, which has presented the first announcement of human rights to the world in Cyrus the great.

The ancient culture of Iran has been able to pass the dark tunnel of time with its natural peace and being transferred to today, regardless of the political differences of the government.

In these black years, the great nation of Iran has asked for peace, peace and freedom with its ancient history and culture.
By rely on this national demand and protecting and protecting the cultural works of Iran that the world political leaders can have the friendship and solidarity of the Iranian nation.

I hope that our beloved homeland will find its worthy place in the great world family.

---------------------------

Queen Farah Pahlava, and Mahlagha Jaberi, can help as we work to transform Iran into a peaceful and wonderful place. Ivanka Trump can help too, and the Persians in Beverly Hills can help.

Salute,

Tony V.