BeaverFever

You’re so dishonest. You know the issue is 1) He refused to take off his nasty golf hat when honouring fallen soldiers. EXACTLY the kind of thing Conservatives claim to care about the most and shit their pants over when they think someone on “the left” didn’t show proper respect for. You people shit your pants when Biden glanced at his watch AFTER honouring fallen troops. You’re such dishonest hypocrites and 2) Fox News altering footage to hide this from the public. Didn’t you people just finish shitting your pants over CBS, BBC and other media outlets you claim altered footage and Trump is now suing them for jillion zillion dollars? You’re such dishonest hypocrites

Donald Trump is turning Iran into ‘juvenile war porn’ for the Fortnite generation Operation Epic Fury is coming to you from a meme factory. This is inevitable when the White House is overrun with terminally online lickspittles who can’t divine what the doofus-in-chief may do next. Is this a war in Iran? A costly and deadly distraction from the Epstein files? Will the bombing end this week? Forever war? Boots on the ground? Should the Pentagon ration munitions in case the Mad King orders new sneak attacks on Themyscira and Wakanda? On the White House’s website this week, you can find a video titled, “Justice the American Way.” Put it this way: Imagine if Harry S. Truman had used clips from “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” to celebrate after dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The new montage splices footage of the aerial assaults on Iran with Hollywood clips, including from “Top Gun,” “Iron Man,” “Braveheart,” “Breaking Bad,” “Superman” and “Deadpool.” Gosh, maybe the world will forget the 160-plus Iranian girls killed by a Tomahawk missile that obliterated their school if we share a scene from “Tropic Thunder.” But as Ben Stiller, that film’s star and director, posted on X: “Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.” Alas, to this White House, war is a movie. It is a TV show. It is a catchy song. It is YouTube culture. It is video game surrealism, which is why other official videos have used snippets from “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” Operation Epic Fury has even enlisted SpongeBob SquarePants. All of this is happening because nobody understands what is happening. In the Hydra that is war, one snake head is always propaganda. What we have here is slopaganda, a B-2 stealth joy ride through the AI looking glass. Wartime leaders once gravitated toward solemn speeches. They did not wear baseball caps while saluting the returning caskets of fallen service members. Military generals once outlined strategic imperatives to educate the public and build support at home. Now the world must endure SecDef Pete Hegseth, call sign “Jack Daniels.” This lunatic really needs to stop mainlining testosterone before he babbles like a frat boy with inebriated bloodlust: “Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be…” Trump 2.0 is a clown RV filled with deeply unserious attention whores who look out the window while stretching their cheeks and wagging their tongues. But you can’t make a movie trailer for a war of choice. A Nickelodeon meme can’t gamify a real conflict. Only truly sick and depraved ghouls would try to turn war into popcorn fun. If the 20-somethings now tasked with producing the Mad King’s slopaganda vids want a sense of how poor strategic planning can make a war go sideways, they should watch films such as “A Bridge Too Far,” “Green Zone” or “Paths of Glory.” But there’s a reason this White House isn’t sharing clips from “Blackhawk Down.” Entertainment is escapism. War is realism. As with Stiller, Steve Downes, a voice actor in the “Halo” game, also objected to the unauthorized use of his work by posting on X: “Let me make this crystal clear: I did not participate in nor was l of consulted, nor do I endorse the use my voice in this video, or the message it conveys. I demand that the producers of this disgusting and juvenile war porn remove my voice immediately.” In one week, U.S. government videos have used clips from “John Wick” and “Transformers.” The soundtrack to this war includes Childish Gambino and AC/DC. As Catholic Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Chicago’s archbishop, put it this weekend: “Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store.” The result isn’t patriotism or enlightenment. It is just ghouls trying to attract the Fornite generation by avoiding reality. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/opinion/donald-trump-is-turning-iran-into-juvenile-war-porn-for-the-fortnite-generation/article_422ab931-a74c-418e-957b-cab45969b0b8.html

A very dangerous person’: alarm as Pete Hegseth revels in carnage of Iran war Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflict Brash and bellicose, he sounded more like a cartoon bully than a sombre statesman. “Death and destruction from the sky all day long,” Pete Hegseth, wearing a red, white and and blue tie and pocket square, bragged to reporters at the Pentagon near Washington. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.” Hegseth, 45, a former Fox News TV host who now commands the world’s most powerful military, has this week become the face of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. That has set off alarm bells for critics who warn that the Secretary of Defense – pointedly rebranded “Secretary of War” – has rapidly transformed the Pentagon into the staging ground for an ideological and religious crusade. With machismo, Christian nationalism and callousness toward the lives of US troops, they say, Hegseth’s puerile displays on TV are aimed at sating Trump’s desire for a warmonger worthy of the manosphere. This was reinforced by a lurid social media video that intersperses clips from Hollywood blockbusters such as Braveheart, Gladiator, Superman and Top Gun with Hegseth and real kill-shot footage of the attacks in Iran. … After leaving Princeton, Hegseth joined the US army national guard as an infantry officer. His service included deployments to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba and tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. He later revealed in a book that he told soldiers under his command in Iraq to ignore legal advice about when they were permitted to kill enemy combatants under their rules of engagement. Hegseth became chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative advocacy group, but departed in 2016 amid allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety and personal misconduct. In 2018 Hegseth’s mother, Penelope, sent him an email that said: “You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.” Hegseth subsequently became a familiar face on TV as a contributor and co-host of Fox & Friends on Fox News, frequently interviewing Trump and defending his policies. He once wrote that, in the event of a Democratic election win, “the military and police … will be forced to make a choice” and “Yes, there will be some form of civil war.” … Now, in his first week guiding the nation through a murky new Middle East conflict, Hegseth has largely forgone the solemnity of a traditional defence secretary in favour of the performative antics of a partisan broadcaster revelling in the US’s capacity to inflict violence. For years he had cultivated a hypermasculine “muscleman” aesthetic designed to play to Trump’s sensibilities and the rightwing media ecosystem. Now, faced with a geopolitical crisis that demands nuance and strategic foresight, he appears to many to be out of his depth. Goldbeck, a Marine Corps veteran who was deployed overseas as a combat engineer officer, commented: “I wish I could say how cavalier, obtuse and hopeless Secretary Hegseth is at leading the Pentagon. I can’t even muster the words to describe his self-adulation, matched only in scope by his apparent moral depravity.” She added: “Let’s not forget that Pete Hegseth is a former morning-show Fox News TV host, and has this cartoonish persona, speaking what he thinks is tough-guy language, but sounds to me as a veteran and to many of my peers who served in combat like somebody who is completely inept and pretending to have this macho persona. “Honestly, it’s embarrassing. We know this guy is incompetent. I wouldn’t feel safe leaving Pete Hegseth in charge of putting together a DoorDash order.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/pete-hegseth-pentagon-trump-iran With an incompetent bloodthirsty dude-bro as your “secretary of war” you’re definitely not Nobel Peace Prize material so no wonder Trump had to steal one, Definitely FIFA Peace Prize material though

So while we all know the Teump cheerleaders will delte this from their memory 5 seconds after reading it, this is just another example of Fox News acting as the Republicans propaganda outlet and their phoney outrage over alleged disrespect of the troops. Why were they so outraged out of Biden briefly glancing at his watch as a reflex AFTER the ceremony but not by Trump deciding not to take off his nasty old golf hat?

Fox News uses old clip of Trump after he wore hat while saluting slain US soldiers Conservative outlet aired footage of president saluting at similar ceremony in December for at least three broadcasts Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, concealing from viewers that the commander-in-chief wore a golf hat throughout a ceremony on Saturday in which he saluted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first US troops to die in his war on Iran. The president had stirred outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-brand white hat during the ritual homecoming at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday for six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait. On Saturday afternoon, Fox News did initially broadcast the correct video of Trump at the ceremony, showing that he wore a hat as he saluted alongside first lady Melania Trump, JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, and other officials. Less than an hour later, however, when a Fox News host described the president’s visit to the base for the “dignified transfer earlier today”, viewers were shown old video of Trump at a similar ceremony in December, when he had not worn a hat to salute troops who had died in Syria. That same December video, of Trump saluting as his hair was blown about by the wind, was used again in at least two Foxbroadcasts on Sunday morning …. The same video was used at least one more time on another Fox show, Fox News Sunday, in which a host said, “as the fighting continues, the president pausing for a moment Saturday afternoon to offer a final salute to the six US service members killed in an attack in Kuwait,” while viewers were again shown Trump saluting at the December ceremony and an on-screen graphic wrongly called it video recorded on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, after the misleading use of the old video was documented on social media by critics of the network – including an X account dedicated to chronicling “Bad Fox Graphics”, the journalist Aaron Rupar, and anti-Trump outlets the Bulwark and MeidasTouch – Fox used parts of the video recorded on Saturday in a subsequent report, but the footage was edited to show just the flag-draped transfer cases and no images of Trump wearing his hat. The president was photographed on Sunday wearing the same hat as he golfed in Florida. The white hat, with gold USA letters on the front and the embroidered numbers 45 and 47 on the side, in honor of Trump’s terms as the 45th and 47th president, is sold online at the Trump Store. Trump and Fox News producers are well aware that behavior considered undignified by presidents at ceremonies for US war dead can be politically toxic. In 2021, when Joe Biden was caught on camera checking his watch at the end of a dignified transfer ceremony for troops killed in Afghanistan, the moment went viral online, was shown repeatedly on Fox News – including with an angry commentary from then Fox host Pete Hegseth – and ended up in a 2024 Trump campaign ad. … https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/08/fox-news-trump-hat-salute-military

Come on. 1) The NATO allies’ actions in Libya were a response to the Libyan civil war whereas Trump needlessly STARTED the Iran war. That makes a big difference. When you’re responding to a crisis not of your own making you can’t guarantee when it will end. When you’re choosing to intentionally START a crisis as every Republican president in the last half century has, and you have no clear goal or purpose yeah you’re 100% responsible for every dollar spent, every casualty and every day it goes on. So now at a time when the west should be rallying together to face Russian and Chinese aggression, Trump is destroying western unity and and western economies with trade wars, inflation, anti-European culture wars and now depleting scare munitions and oil reserves for no good reason. And the Republicans shrieked like crazy every time a drone strike or airstrike killed a civilian under Obama and Biden but looked at your shoes whenever it happened under Bush and Trump. Suddenly you don’t care at 100+ schoolgirls you killed.

Except that campaign was a UN-sanctioned reaction to an event that unfolded in real time. Trump’s campaign was a 100% war of choice based on longstanding grievances and desires, not a reaction to event amd yet he didn’t campaign on it or even get approval from Congress much less the international community. Tell that to Trump, he keeps giving conflicting answers about when it will end and what the objective is. He said 4-5 weeks then said as ling a sit takes them said it’s already done. He has no plan or objective in Iran and therefore no idea how long it the war will take to complete

He carried out attacks on Venezuela, and a previous one on Iran, and numerous airstrikes against various groups around the world, most of which are pretty normal for USA. And his embargo on cuba and threats of forceful annexation of Greenland count They are destabilizing acts of aggression While the odd airstrike especially against terrorists is pretty much normal for any IS President, MAGA gaslighting tried to pretend this was bloodthirsty warmongering when it happened under Obama and Biden especially when it resulted in collateral damage. So for someone who campaigned on portraying his opponents as bloodthirsty warmongers and as a peace president who would avoid foreign wars and hilariously thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace prize thos is massive hypocrisy

What hilarious is that with all the attacks he’s carried out on various countries, not to mention the embargo on Cuba (who is next on his attack list) and his threats to forcibly annex Greenland he is the most warmongering president in decades. The obvious tell that he wasn’t the “peace president” was when he renamed the Dept of Defense the Department of War despite having run for office as the supposed “peace president” who only wanted Ukraine to surrender to Russia because he believes no human life should be sacrificed for any cause. And now all the mindless MAGA sheep who foolishly believed that obviously false nonsense are cheering on as he aimlessly kills people without any kind of plan or strategy, just hoping for something to happen that he claim as a victory. Meanwhile the juvenile “secretary of war” rocks out to the death and carnage like a coked-out teenager. The difference between a Nobel Peace Prize and a FIFA Peace Prize.

When Will the War End? Trump’s Responses Are All Over the Place. Now 11 days into an expanding military campaign, President Trump and his officials have given conflicting indications on how long the United States intends the war to last. Since the United States and Israel launched their assault on Iran on Feb. 28, President Trump has given conflicting indications on how long it will continue. After he said near the outset of the war that it could last “four to five weeks,” the president and members of his administration have given shifting statements on the timeline and the goals for the war. They have at times suggested that the United States was striving to topple Iran’s government and achieve an “unconditional surrender” and will continue an assault as long as it takes. At others, Mr. Trump and his officials have delivered the message that the war had already succeeded in its objective of decimating Iran’s military. That has left wide-open the possibilities for how the conflict with Iran could wind down and how long it will take, even as some in his administration try to assure the public that the United States will not be drawn into another long war in the Middle East. Here’s a look at officials’ often contradictory statements since the war began. March 1 President Trump ‘We intended four to five weeks.’ In an interview with The New York Times the day after the initial strikes on Iran, Mr. Trump already had contradictory visions of how the war would pan out. He said that the United States and Israel intended to continue the assault for about a month, and predicted that it “won’t be difficult.” But he did not seem to have decided on what changes among Iran’s government he would consider a victory. March 2 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ‘This is not Iraq. This is not endless.’ During a news conference at the Pentagon last week with Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Hegseth suggested the campaign was being kept to a smaller scope compared with the “nation-building quagmire” of past American interventions in the Middle East. He suggested this campaign could take anywhere from two to eight weeks, not settling on a number. March 2 Gen. Dan Caine ‘This is not a single overnight operation.’ At the same news conference, General Caine dismissed any suggestion that the U.S. campaign in Iran might mirror the one in Venezuela earlier this year and said that the Pentagon’s military objectives would “take some time to achieve.” He added, “We expect to take additional losses.” March 2 President Trump ‘Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes.’ As his defense secretary assured the United States would not be dragged into a long conflict, Mr. Trump said the United States was “substantially ahead of our time projections,” which had put the campaign at four to five weeks. But he added that the United States had the capability “to go far longer than that.” March 6 President Trump ‘There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!’ Six days into the bombing campaign, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to demand that Iran capitulate and said that the United States and its allies would “work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.” That appeared to shift the timeline further, into both regime change and rebuilding Iran, even as its current leaders have expressed defiance and expanded the battlefield by striking American bases across the Middle East. March 6 Karoline Leavitt ‘The achievable objectives of Operation Epic Fury we expect to last about four to six weeks.’ Later that day, Ms. Leavitt, the White House press secretary, was asked what the president would consider a surrender. She declined to give a timeline beyond the plan she said the president had laid out. But she seemed to soften his demand for a surrender, saying it would “essentially” occur when Mr. Trump concluded his war objectives had been met. March 7 President Trump ‘This is a short excursion.’ After attending the dignified transfer of six American service members who were killed when Iran struck a command center in Kuwait, Mr. Trump suggested to reporters that the United States was achieving its military objectives. “We’re winning the war by a lot,” he said. “We decimated their whole evil empire.” Asked if he was worried about high gas prices, which have risen nearly 17 percent since the war began, he said he was not and that the campaign would be “short.” March 9 President Trump ‘The war is very complete, pretty much.’ U.S. markets rebounded at the start of this week after Mr. Trump told CBS News that the war was “very complete, pretty much” and “very far ahead of schedule.” But after markets closed, in remarks to Republican lawmakers gathered for a retreat in Florida and in a news conference afterward, he left open the possibility of more comprehensive aims, even as he said the war would end “soon, very soon.” “We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all,” he said. March 10 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ‘It’s not for me to posit whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end.’ At a news conference on Tuesday with General Caine, Mr. Hegseth joined others in the administration in asserting that Mr. Trump alone was in charge of the timeline. “He gets to control the throttle,” Mr. Hegseth said, though he added, “I want the American people to understand is this is not endless. It’s not protracted.” March 10 Karoline Leavitt ‘President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender.’ Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the press secretary again appeared to qualify Mr. Trump’s demand of “unconditional surrender.” “When President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he’s not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves,” Ms. Leavitt said. She added that Mr. Trump would decide when Iran no longer posed “a credible and direct threat.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/trump-iran-war-how-long-timeline.html

Probably not the Trump supporter Person B.

Umm. You didn’t look anything up until I corrected you YET AGAIN. And now that you’ve been busted you’re making hilarious claims calling a world-leading university a community college and pretending his degree in physics was a teacher’s diploma. Your original claim was that he didn’t have a degree not that he didn’t physically attend campus for his PHD.

*sigh* No, Dummy! Here is straight from Chat GPT Undergraduate Degree – In 1896, he enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich (later ETH Zurich) to become a teacher in physics and mathematics. He graduated in 1900 with a diploma in teaching in these subjects, which is roughly equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics today. He eventually earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1905 from the University of Zürich with a dissertation titled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”, which was awarded the same year he published his groundbreaking papers on special relativity. So in summary: Diploma in Physics/Mathematics Teaching from ETH Zurich (1900) PhD in Physics from University of Zürich (1905) Also: the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School (today called ETH Zurich) was not a community college at all. It was — and still is — one of the top science and engineering universities in the world. …. Look I get why you uneducated folk really want to cling to this narrative it makes you feel like you’re not dumb when the world is constantly telling you otherwise. You want to believe that you too might be able to win a Nobel Prize someday. Unfortunately it’s not true. But don’t worry, a Nobel prize is definitely beyond your reach but if you can’t steal one then there’s always a FIFA prize easily within anyone’s grasp.

OMG if you don’t support Bush’s invasion of Iraq it means you support terrorism! OMG if you don’t support Israel’s war on Gaza it means you support terrorism! OMG if you don’t support Trump’s attack on Venezuela it means you support narco-terrorism! OMG if you don’t support Trump’s attack on Iran it means you support terrorism! OMG if you support Obamacare it means you’re a communist who supports “government death panels” LOL seriously dude just scan the names of the threads on this forum and you can see for yourself all the emotional right wing posts Or just watch a Hegseth news conference where he’s practically masturbating to all the death and destruction he’s describing “Silent Death!” “Death from above!” releasing videos of bomb footage set to hard rock music like a teenage jock loser, He’s like “blew up all them schoolgirls f-ck yeah bro Im the Secretary of War!” Meanwhile he can’t even explain the strategic objective of the war

Fiscal year 2025, which just ended last week. Numbers are not in yet. No, Captain ADHD, he did not. Go take some Ritalin and re-read. Have you noticed how much time you spend on your Liberal Derangement Syndrome posting anti-Carney propaganda?

Lets be clear here 1) Anyone who had been following the news can see the Feds are shovelling defense money out the door at breakneck speed. There was just a$1 Bn announcement just today Another major announcement is expected to drop any day now on new assault rifles several more are due over the next few months. 2) The numbers aren’t officially in yet, the government has not yet officially missed the target It will be a photo finish 3) The challenge is guessing what future GDP will be when projects and spending plans were made many months ago. The economy has performed better than forecast so GDP is higher than expected. Some people here would suggest the government just blow the extra cash on something useless so we hit the arbitrary % of GDP target 4) Canada meeting its 2% target (or not) is and has been a major media story for a long time. But the above points are the reason you only see this claim in the Western Standard currently, a right-wing propaganda rag privately owned by 2 Alberta separatist nutjobs.

Operational Excellence, Strategic Incompetence The president and his advisers are in the grip of “victory disease.” Tom NicholsMarch 6, 2026 The president and his advisers are in the grip of “victory disease.” The war in Iran has reaffirmed two truths. One is that the United States is blessed with the most professional and effective military in the world. The men and women of the American armed forces can conduct missions of almost any size with formidable competence, from special operations to seize a rogue-state president to a large-scale war. The other truth is that the Trump administration, when it comes to strategy, is incompetent. Strategy is about matching the instruments of national power—and especially military force—to the goals of national policy. The president and his team, however, have not enunciated an overarching goal for this war—or, more accurately, they have presented multiple goals and chosen among them almost randomly, depending on the day or the hour. This means that highly effective military operations are taking place in a strategic vacuum. Worse, Donald Trump is now pointing to these missions as if the excellence with which they have been conducted somehow constitutes a strategy in itself. He appears so enthralled by the execution of these missions that he has enlarged the goals of this war to include the complete destruction of the Iranian regime, after which he will “Make Iran Great Again.” This kind of thinking is an old problem, and it has a name: “victory disease,” meaning that victory in battle encourages leaders to seek out more battles, and then to believe that winning those battles means that they are winning the larger war or achieving some grand strategic aim—right up until the moment they realize that they have overreached and find themselves facing a military disaster or even total defeat. It is a condition that has afflicted many kinds of regimes over the course of history, one so common that my colleagues and I lectured military officers about it when I was a professor at the Naval War College. The issue is especially important for Americans, because when national leaders have exceptionally capable military forces at their disposal—as the United States does—they are even more likely to be seized by victory disease. …And now Trump seems to have contracted a whopping case of victory disease. He is clearly convinced that previous operations in Venezuela, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, and, of course, Iran are all evidence that a total victory over the regime in Tehran will be relatively quick. But he has provided no conception of what “victory” would look like. As of yesterday, his goals have expanded to include a demand for “unconditional surrender.” Admiring the performance of the U.S. military is understandable. But it is not the same thing as using that military power to achieve some national purpose. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth so far seem to be enjoying the fireworks. But the efficient and rapid destruction of buildings and machines, and the killing of some enemy leaders, is not the same thing as a strategy. ….Operational competence, however, cannot answer the question of national purpose. What is the war about, and when will America know it’s done? Trump, when pressed, dodges the issue of war aims by pointing to the excellence of the military. “I hope you are impressed,” Trump said on Thursday to ABC’s Jonathan Karl. “How do you like the performance? I mean, Venezuela is obvious. This might be even better.” Trump then repeated, “How do you like the performance?” Karl noted that no one is questioning the success of military operations, and he asked the president what happens next. “Forget about ‘next,’” Trump answered. “They are decimated for a 10-year period before they could build it back.” …Each time Trump or one of his lieutenants speaks this way, they generate more questions than answers. Yes, military operations are proceeding impressively, with very few casualties among the U.S. and Israeli operators. But what would have constituted a “10” that we can now say that America is at a “15”? Now that Trump, at least for the time being, has issued a call for “unconditional surrender,” perhaps vaporizing every piece of military hardware with an Iranian flag on it is enough. Comments on Thursday by Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper of Central Command suggest that this seems to be the plan. But “unconditional surrender” is unlikely to last. To effect such a total defeat, Iran would have to be occupied and administered by the victors. This kind of language is at odds with the reluctance of some in the Trump administration and other Republicans, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, to even call Operation Epic Fury a “war.” (I will exercise my prerogative here as someone who has studied and taught national security and international relations and confirm that when you bomb a nation, kill its leaders, and call for its people to rise up, you’re engaged in war, and if you call for “unconditional surrender,” you are definitely at war.) Trump will likely find himself backpedaling from the demand for unconditional surrender. He might also redefine unconditionalto denote more easily achieved aims. (Indeed, hours after Trump’s post, the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavittwas already offering an interpretation of unconditionalthat was far more limited than absolute capitulation.) Soon, the Americans could find themselves retreating to the strategic incoherence that has characterized the administration’s approach since the first hours of the war. Military operations and national purpose will become more and more distanced from each other, because military prowess cannot clarify America’s war aims. As the old saying warns: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there My colleagues Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl have pointed out the severity of this problem by noting that Trump and his aides have offered at least 10 rationales for war over the course of only six days. Rationale No. 1 was “an imminent threat” from Iran, Rationale No. 2 was nuclear weapons, Rationale No. 5 was election interference, Rationale No. 6 was “world peace” writ large, Rationale No. 10 was that America had been dragged into the war by Israel. Some of these reasons might constitute a casus belli—others, such as Rationale No. 9 (“fulfill God’s purpose”), less so—but Trump’s team has thrown them all at the wall to see what sticks, perhaps in part because the war is still unpopular with the American public and Trump has so far seen no “rally ’round the flag” benefit from launching it. But each of these rationales demands a different strategy; eliminating an imminent threat involves a different set of operations than establishing peace in the region (or the world). Instead, the Americans are choosing an “all of the above” approach, employing immense power across Iran. Entranced by the show, Trump, Hegseth, and others assume that because these operations are going well, something good will come of them. This kind of poor strategy, ironically, is an option only because of the excellence of the American and Israeli militaries: If Trump had to make decisions under greater material or military constraints, such as shortages of money, weapons, or talent, he would have to choose an actual war aim and stay with it. If the goal is regime change and “unconditional surrender,” do current U.S. operations support that goal? Again, military prowess and victory disease may be encouraging the White House to avoid thinking about some hard realities. Regimes are not changed by bombing; they are put in place by men and women wearing boots and carrying guns. (These need not be American boots, but they have to be somebody’s boots.) Trump has called for the Iranians to surrender, but to whom? A U.S. occupation force? Or is an internal group of rebels assembling in Iran? In any case, a new regime will have to gain support by rebuilding infrastructure that’s being destroyed. Are the target sets being adjusted accordingly over time? No one can answer these questions, because the civilian leadership of the United States does not seem to have thought them through. Meanwhile, despite the successes of the military overseas, Trump now admits that a regime that was supposed to be eliminated quickly could reach the United States with terrorist attacks. He told Time this week that “we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.” The American people might be willing to tolerate such risks if they knew what their sons and and daughters were fighting for and how long they would be at war. Trump has retreated behind the skill of the U.S. military rather than answer such questions. Perhaps the greatest danger of the current epidemic of victory disease is that it seems to be making Donald Trump think he’s a brilliant strategist: He is already talking about overthrowing the government of Cuba, even as American forces are still fighting in the Middle East, and the threat of terror may well be growing at home now that the United States is at war. At this point, all Americans can do is admire the fortitude and excellence of the U.S. military while hoping for victory—whatever that is, and whenever it comes. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/iran-strategy-victory-disease/686275/

Dow futures tumble 800 points as U.S. oil tops $100 a barrel to begin the week's trading https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/08/stock-market-today-live-updates.html The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy The fallout from conflict in the Gulf will be much bigger than just oil. https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/04/iran-war-dubai-saudi-qatar-global-economy-oil-shipping-trade/ War with Iran spreading economic damage far beyond oil and gas markets https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/08/iran-war-economy-air-freight/ Iran war could make affordability bigger issue in 2026 elections PUBLISHED SAT, MAR 7 2026 8:00 AM ESTUPDATED SAT, MAR 7 2026 12:27 PM EST Garrett Downs@_GARRETTDOWNS@IN/GARRETT-DOWNS-28528513B/ Justin Papp@JUSTINJPAPP1@IN/JUSTIN-PAPP WATCH LIVE KEY POINTS Democrats hoping to flip the House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections are dialing up their messaging on cost-of-living issues after the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran. U.S. crude oil has jumped past $90 per barrel, up from $67 the day before the Iran war broke out. Republicans are projecting confidence, predicting a short conflict and arguing they can continue to work on affordability while the country is at war. The war is unpopular with the American public, at a time that 61% of voters disapprove of President Donald Trump's management of the economy. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/03/07/iran-war-affordability-midterm.html Majority of Americans oppose Trump’s Iran strikes, per new polling https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/02/trump-iran-strikes-polling-00807060 Unpopularity of Iran war 'almost unprecedented' this early on, expert says "even in the most controversial wars, like Iraq, when the war initiates, people tend to rally around the flag [...] this is remarkable that at the very beginning of the war there's overwhelming opposition not only from liberals and the left, but much of Trump's spaces as well". https://www.france24.com/en/unpopularity-of-iran-war-almost-unprecedented-this-early-on-expert-says

This one statement of yours proves my entire point because it is absolutely 100% demonstrably false yet you repeat it without question. Einstein had a an undergraduate degree and a PHD in physics as well was a university professor of physics A perfect example of how the stuff you write like the rest of your post is complete crap. Trudeau and carney are populists now? LMAO I thought they were elitists? You don’t even know what you’re saying

“Conservative” and “right wing” aren’t synonymous. Conservative is a type of right wing and there are/have been highly intelligent conservatives. Even though traditional conservatism often relies on emotional appeal over reason like shrieking “Criminals / immigrants are coming to murder your children! Anyone who doesn’t cut taxes for corporations is a communist!” that was really more election sloganeering than policy Traditional conservatives still relied on highly educated people and recognized experts for policy choices that were intellectually aamd logically sound Low educational attainment is a common feature of Populism, whether right wing or left wing populism. MAGA is right wing populism but not conservative although it steals the conservative name. MAGAs have low educational attainment and their statements/ claims are almost entirely based on emotions and identity and rarely rely on facts or logical arguments. Therefore their beliefs can’t be invalidated by facts or logical argument. They believe that If Trump says something is true then it’s true, period. And if the evidence suggests its not true then it must be because there’s a vast hidden conspiracy to doctor the evidence and even if what Trump said is not true so what we should just believe it anyway because he is a great man regardless. That is how low IQ people get through life not with knowledge or critical thinking but emotion and loyalty to their tribe.

Trump Officials Attended a Summit of Election Deniers Who Want the President to Take Over the Midterms Several high-ranking federal election officials attended a summit last week at which prominent figures who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election pressed the president to declare a national emergency to take over this year’s midterms. According to videos, photos and social media posts reviewed by ProPublica, the meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, and Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security official in charge of election integrity. The event was convened by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and attended by Cleta Mitchell, who directs the Election Integrity Network, a group that has spread false claims about election fraud and noncitizen voting. Election experts say that the meeting reflects an intensifying push to persuade Trump to take unprecedented actions to affect the vote in November. Courts have largely blocked his efforts to reshape elections through an executive order, and legislation has stalled in Congress that would mandate strict voter ID requirements across the country. The Washington Post reported Thursday that activists associated with those at the summit have been circulating a draft of an executive order that would ban mail-in ballots and get rid of voting machines as part of a federal takeover. Peter Ticktin, a lawyer who worked on the executive order and had a client at the summit, told ProPublica these actions were “all part of the same effort.” The summit followed other meetings and discussions between administration officials and activists — many not previously reported — stretching back to at least last fall, according to emails and recordings obtained by ProPublica. The coordination between those inside and outside the government represents a breakdown of crucial guardrails, experts on U.S. elections said. “The meeting shows that the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government,” said Brendan Fischer, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “This creates substantial risk that the administration is laying the groundwork to improperly reshape elections ahead of the midterms or even go against the will of the voters.” … https://www.propublica.org/article/election-denier-summit-trump-midterms More Republican phoney emergencies are in the works for President Reichstag Fire.

It’s a conspiracy!!! Everyone put on your tin foil hats!

LOL WTF are you talking about? Propagandize much? The binding agreements are signed. Thats when the announcements are made and the recognition is celebrated and awarded to all those involved . The cash flows over time as the projects unfold and generally doesn’t make the news. You act as if its “nothing” unless the investors show up with all $18B in a briefcase pike its a TV gameshow. I am genuinely curious: In your mind what does the scenario look like where you think the government legitimately gets credit for attracting and securing investment? Do you expect Carney is supposed to show up for a press conference every time a transfer from the investor to the company is made? “One million down 17.9 Billion to go, see you next month!” And considering you MAGAs crow every time Trump gets some vague non-binding verbal commitment from someone to invest in USA on some undefined future date n the you are total hypocrites. 1) you didn’t provide a link to anything except search results 2)Trump’s tariffs and CUSMA threats and constant flip-flopping are what is stalling investment WORLDWIDE including USA. As bad as trade-killing tariffs are for investments, what worse is the uncertainty from tariffs that are on again, off again, go up, or go down based on the president’s mood and whether his delicate ego has been flattered or offended. This has been one of the most reported criticisms for the past year how are you unaware it? Blaming it on Carney is ridiculous. If someone drops a nuclear bomb on your city, do you go around saying just the houses of the people you don’t like collapsed because of their poor housekeeping? And need I remind you he also secured a massive $70Bn in investment from UAE recently People like YOU who never know WTF you’re talking about and who aren’t ashamed to make up complete BS for partisan reasons is why we won’t have nice things if your party ever gets elected. Fortunately the polls show that won’t be any time soon

And more.. Canada secures 30 new critical minerals partnerships and unlocks $12.1 billion in mining project capital .,, Today, during the Canadian Critical Minerals Forum at the 2026 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention, the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, joined industry and international partners to announce the second round of 30 partnerships and investments under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance (the Alliance). Launched by Prime Minister Carney during Canada’s 2025 G7 Presidency, the Alliance transforms shared ambition into concrete action. This second round of new partnerships and investments will unlock $12.1 billion in critical minerals projects with 12 allied partners. Combined with the investments and partnerships announced in October 2025, the Alliance is now helping to mobilize $18.5 billion in Canadian critical minerals projects. These actions will strengthen supply chains, support economic growth and reduce strategic vulnerabilities in Canada and abroad. During PDAC, Minister Hodgson also highlighted up to $64.8 million for research and development projects with international partners, as well as $10 million to support developing countries in benefiting from the global energy and digital transition.… https://www.canada.ca/en/natural-resources-canada/news/2026/03/canada-secures-30-new-critical-minerals-partnerships-and-unlocks-121-billion-in-mining-project-capital0.html