A penitent who is loud

Someone should put it in language Donald Trump pretends to understand and say "you know how long it takes when you need to build a big skyscraper or casino? Iran is like a million of those."

Seriously fuck the existing government of Iran and freedom to the Iranian people, which makes this cavalier chevauchée an obscenity.

Israel is literally showing more commitment here then Trump's America.

"we're going to take down the Iranian government and let the people build a new nation. We're thinking it'll take four weeks."

So the moral appeals are weaker than they might otherwise be (and Trump is too evil and inept to make them anyways) while the artificial self serving ones haven't been built.

Trump is unpopular and Americans in general are disillusioned, and they did basically none of the work to sell it to us.

Anyone who was actually paying attention to the suffering of the people of Iran already was a very small portion of the public.

My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the U.S service members who lost their lives today as a result of Trump’s reckless, unilateral actions in Iran.

The administration owes Americans answers and Congress must demand accountability and consultation.

Sure.

What does that opposition mean? That is what we have to answer.

Basically we all KNEW that Iran was a bad actor. We decided to just act like it didn't matter.

This is what happens when you think manufacturing consent is woke and gay.

Liberalism needs an answer to proven reactionaries, both individuals and governments, that are beyond any reasonable hope of democratic expulsion. Our failure to provide it - real ones, not just arguments to trust the natural course of history to do it for us - is a serious problem.

I didn't say anything about Iranians as a whole, but every indication suggests that they appear to be reacting very normally for a people whose tyrannical leader (who literally was against kids learning music?) just died.

I think it's a problem primarily because our prior plan appears to have been "thoughts and prayers, those guys are fixtures and we can't do anything about them."

And yet! It clearly just happened!

By contrast the Iran war hawks delivered a bunch of joyful Iranians celebrating the comeuppance of a tyrant & the deaths of several proven deeply reactionary bad actors.

The fact that this came at the cost of an insanely irresponsible war means we need a better proposal, but the prior one wasn't.

We all "knew" that the Ayatollah was going to reign until his death and MAYBE some future successor would be forced to liberalise maybe a tiny bit. Nobody actually had a solution that involved freedom for the people of Iran or comeuppance for the theocratic regime. We conceded it in advance.

Like there's a reason a lot of states are basically reacting like this. We paid lip service to the idea of a longing for democracy & liberalism slowly wearing down the foundations of the Iranian state. In my opinion we all basically knew we were lying to ourselves.
bsky.app/profile/mike...

Like the essential problem I think the Dems are being forced to grapple with is that so far liberalism's solutions have been passive: ostracism & censure we all know nobody is likely to act on, whereas the war hawk Republicans can promise far more visceral and immediate solutions for proven assholes

Was replying to them, not you.

But like, yeah, this is a Thing I seriously think we actually need to have an answer for.

Like I'm sorry, this isn't a "your terrorists are our freedom fighters!" situation, the theocratic government of Iran was and are truly abominably illiberal and a consistently malevolent world actor.

If my country regularly sent proxies to destabilize other neighboring states and was also, and this is extremely important, led by a bloody-handed theocracy who had just killed tens of thousands of protesters while imposing horrific repression with no reasonable hope of democratic change?

Maybe!

Whether Iran was pursuing nukes is honestly almost a side question, in some respects.

Weakest point, and yet quite able to do a tremendous amount of harm both internationally and domestically, with a particular focus on, to admit my bias, my own coreligionists.

Like ultimately we just need to decide whether proven malevolent actors are something we can do anything about or not.

I still think it's salient to the point though.

Fundamentally we need an answer to "ok these evil men were spreading terror & hatred at home and abroad. They were not neatly confined - & if they were they could still harm their own people.

What was liberalism's plan to do something about it?"

I am absolutely ok with this frothing antisemitic piece of shit being dead.

It's not about Brown being suicidal, it's about Brown being eager to start a war.

It's a gaming thing.
(Resident Evil Requiem, technically)

Well. RE9 is A Lot so far.

A post from Donald Trump: "Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever been hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Everyone else: *wrestling in anguish with the complex emotions of the fall of one of the world's awful dictators and the horrific human cost we fear will ensue, and the moral challenge of bringing dictators low in the modern world.*
This asshole:

Only 21% of Americans Support the United States Initiating an Attack on Iran

Only 21% of Americans supported the United States initiating an attack on Iran in polling conducted in advance of the strikes that Trump ordered this weekend. Even most Republicans were opposed or not sure, with just 40% in favor. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/u...

after opening a door by inserting a huge gemstone into the lock, grace RE9 asked aloud "how do people normally get in here?"

no resident evil protagonist has ever asked this. she is the smartest they've ever had.