@rickstengel.bsky.social
Former Under Secretary of State in Obama admin & Editor of TIME. Author of “Information Wars: How We Lost the Battle Against Disinformation” & the audiobook, “Mandela: The Lost Tapes.” Analyst @MSNOW
The idea that Iran was going to "attack us," as the president said yesterday, is absurd. He attacked them not because an attack was imminent, but because it was not: they were vulnerable. Trump is exactly what he has long railed against: a Neocon. Dick Cheney would be proud. Voters take note.
"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion." That's the First Amendment, and and it prohibits government from creating a state religion, or even favoring one religion over another, or over none at all.
The voices saying we are a Christian nation and that this war is about upholding Christian values always conveniently forget that this nation was founded on the idea of religious freedom. The word Christian does not appear in the Constitution, but you know what does?
Let’s see, the U.S. lost 92,000 jobs in February, oil is above $90 a barrel, the president is spending approximately $1 billion a day on a war that the majority of Americans oppose, and the national debt s $39 trillion, the highest ever. America’s golden age.
The Secretary of Defense says "We are accelerating, not decelerating" in Iran. Accelerating to what exactly? No one in the administration has ever said.
What Trump used to understand when he railed against "endless wars" in the Middle East is that there was almost zero upside for presidents getting involved in the Middle East and catastrophic downsides.
Bibi has tried to get every American president, of each party, to invade Iran. They all had the good sense to turn him down. Except one. (Great reporting.)
Well, it turns out a vote for Donald Trump was a vote to start wars not end them. No president in modern history has ordered more military attacks against as many nations as Trump. And now he's started a war in the Middle East, the exact thing he campaigned against.
1. We invaded not because the threat was imminent, but because it was not.
2. The negotiations were a pretext.
3. There is no day after plan. This is the "let's-see-what-happens" presidency.
4. Hoping the Iranian people will rise up is not a strategy.
5. This is exactly what he promised not to do
I remember when foreign policy wonks used to ask, Is Iran a rational actor? Now people are asking whether America is a rational actor.
The president campaigned on ending wars, not starting them. With the attack on Iran, he has now launched strikes on 7 other nations. He says Iran was an "imminent threat" to the American people.The Iranians do not have missiles that can reach our shores.
"Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime." Yes, the Iranian regime is indeed an imminent threat—to the Iranian people, not the American people.
Throughout history, authoritarians and dictators have fabricated reasons to suspend civil liberties and elections and declare martial law. We must not let it happen here. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Call it Wet-My-Beak diplomacy, but every "deal" he makes must include money set aside for the "dealmaker" to use as he wishes. Adversaries and allies all know this now, and it's part of the negotiation. Just look at Iran talks now.
When one of a nation's leading exports is its own people, that's not a healthy sign.
Hmm, was there some kind of speech last night?
I'd declare a moratorium on using the term "double-down" in any headline about the current occupant. He always does it—it's not news.
No Democrat in history has ever been this determined to impose such sweeping taxes on the American people.
It’s laughable that he calls the Justices “disloyal” to the Constitution. It’s always projection with him. They have been "disloyal" to him, and therefore the Constitution, because he is the state.
Foreigners don't pay tariffs, we do. In fact, the heart of America's economy, mid-size businesses, that employ nearly 50 million people, are absorbing the increased cost and passing on to you.
Yes.
Not only is this bad for the environment, but like so many regulations of this admin, it is actually bad for business. It will isolate the US auto industry, undermine exports, and cede the future of the auto business to Chinese electric vehicles. American First = America Alone = Little America.
The irony, of course, is that it's not Europe that is facing civilizational erasure but America—if by that you mean the reversal of traditional values like civility, fairness, protection of free speech, the right to protest.
If only American voters had a longer memory. On all his signature issues, immigration, the economy, foreign affairs, Trump is lower than where he was at this time in his first term and lower than where Biden ended up. People were so sick of Trump at the end of his first term and thought never again.
A New York Fed study shows that 94% of tariff increases are paid by US companies and consumers. For the 100th time, a tariff is a tax on American consumers and companies.
Very clear example of how he always sides with the billionaire class over the working class. Bridge was paid for by the Canadians (he usually likes this) and helps Americans, but his insecurity and loyalty to the oligarchy overcome what is in ordinary Americans' interests.
The Framers saw juries as one of the great protections for democracy. And they are. What they did not foresee was a weaponized Justice Dept attacking the Constitutional values of free speech and separation of powers, and defending an authoritarian executive.
The "Worst of the Worst" Lie. Fewer than 14% of the nearly 400k arrests made by ICE have violent records. Less than 2% are for homicide or sexual assault. Only 1.9% are alleged gangmembers. 40% had no criminal record at all.
The racist post by the President of the United States may be the worst bit of American public diplomacy in a 100 years.
