Trump's Dangerous Iran Gamble
On Tuesday night the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments in a major case against Donald Trump's Muslim ban.
The hearing was held over telephone, and comes just days after a federal judge named James Robart out in Seattle blocked the ban.
On one side of today's oral arguments were the Attorneys General of Minnesota and Washington state.
They asked the 9th circuit to uphold Judge Robart's earlier order putting the Muslim ban on hold.
On the other side of things were lawyers from Donald Trump's Justice Department - who asked the 9th circuit to immediately reinstate the ban.
They claim national security reasons, even though zero Syrian refugees here in the US have ever been involved in anything remotely like terrorists, and residents of the 7 other countries also affected by the travel portion of the ban have killed, you guessed it, zero Americans in terrorist attacks on US soil.
A lot is at stake here, and not just for the hundreds of thousands of people personally affected by the ban.
If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the lower court ruling that blocked Trump's ban, that could go a long way towards improving our image abroad, which has taken a huge hit since Donald Trump took over the Oval Office, as anyone with a Der Spiegel subscription already knows.
But anyway, even if we do start looking better in the eyes of many Europeans, the damage Trump's Muslim ban has done to our already tense relationship with Iran might be harder to undo.
The Iranian government has responded to the ban by refusing to issue visas to Americans - and earlier today Iran's Supreme Leader said in a nationally televised speech that Trump and his ban represent the "true America."
To make matters worse, all of this comes in the middle of the most serious diplomatic standoff between the US and Iran in years.
The Trump administration has just slapped Iran with a brand new set of sanctions - and is reportedly now about to pick ultra-Iran hawk and former Reagan official Elliot Abrams as the next Deputy Secretary of State.
The president himself has also raged against Iran on Twitter, warning that he won't be as "kind" to it as president Obama was.
Apparently Donald Trump doesn't remember that President Obama, like George W Bush, threatened to go to war Iran if their nuclear negotiations didn't work out.
This all, of course, raises a very big question: is Donald Trump preparing for a war with Iran?
And if so, how can we stop him?
Comments
Just because they've been stopped doesn't mean they will continue to be. This is the rhetoric behind the "Bowling Green Massacre" flap. These "refugee" immigrants had every intention of causing a terrorist incident, but got caught. Meanwhile, we won't give our own citizens a sandwich a day at taxpayer expense. American citizens are being forced to work for their food stamps at minimum wage, and then have to buy cold food at inflated prices in order to use them.
The call for suicidal border policies out of some sense of compassion for a drop in the bucket doesn't pass any test of logic.
If the left could win back the congress, then they could defund any Trump war ambitions.
Since they seem unable to do this, they will have to live with what the mean old repubs
can push through.
ct
The mid-term elections in 2018 will be telling.
I hope and pray the first nuclear missle launched by anyone from anywhere goes right up Trumps ass.
Do US forces want to fight unjustifiable war against Iran ?
We missed our chance to stop all this madness when Obama convinced Clinton to concede without cross-check and the Trump/Putin collusion being investigated and info released to the public. Too late now....extremely dark history has already been set in motion.
War for profit has become a giant part of our economy, so it's not just Bannon that wants war with Iran, although unlike the other players who simply want to enrich themselves, Bannon wants war because he's a delusional nut case. I hope someone slips him some meds... that could be our only slim chance to avoid global conflict!
The last time Republicans stole an election and an illegitimate "president" was installed, chaos reigned.
When George W. Bush climbed up on that rubble pile after 9/11, even the people of Iran held candlelight vigils in solidarity with us. The world was with America and we were the good guys.
When the "decision maker" climbed down from that rubble pile and lied us into elective wars of aggression, he became a war criminal. Fifteen years and hundreds of thousands of needless deaths later, the world is against America and we are the bad guys.
Elections, stolen by Republicans, have consequences.
I have to agree with 2950-10K that War for profit become a gient part of our economy. Banning muslims can have big consequences. I hope that's not the guy who will start another world war. This guy is crazy and for sure you can't trust him.
I agree with stecoop01
All of this could have been avoided, had Democrats not cheated during the primary. Many people, myself included, couldn't in good conscience vote for the Democratic nominee because she cheated during the primaries. What's worse, voting for someone who doesn't believe in democracy and cheats, or someone who actually won because of democracy?
You see, we can criticize Trump all day long, but he still won the election without cheating. (There is absolutely no proof Putin and the Russian government did anything. The only agencies proclaiming such are the same agencies which now have us at war with 8 countries. They are also the agencies which led to us during the Iraq war vote hearings, in which the Democratic nominee voted yes to illegal wars of choice, making her just as bad as Republicans on the topic.) Democrats decided that rewarding a cheater, simply because she was a woman with Democrat by her name and no other real reason, was going to be overlooked by millions of Americans. They thought presenting alternative facts and narratives to throw off logical thinking skills would help. They didn't realize some people have morals which say voting for the known cheater is akin to buying your child a candy bar after your kid stole a bicycle.
Democrats also forgot they need to maintain a coalition. Yes, all politics is local. However, you must build a coalition with groups all over the United States, not just in cities. When urbanites believe they need Midwesterners to be wage slaves so they don't have to pay as much at the store; when urbanites call Midwesterners inbred; when urbanites say all Midwesterners are retards; when urbanites proclaim jobs aren't important to rural areas; when urbanites demand fealty to a known cheater; when urbanites forgot it takes everyone, then the coalition is forever broken. The fact is, urbanites with their forced globalism is killing rural America, and urbanites simply don't care. Urbanites only care about one thing: they care about maintaining corruption in politics. This was all evidence first hand by many Midwesterners. It's what broke the long-standing coalition between the working class Midwesterners and big city urbanites.
Why is Trump President? Because urbanites don't care beyond the walls of their particular city. They, urbanites, proclaim and shout the praises of globalization, yet reject their own countrymen. They, urbanites, proclaim the virtues of free trade, at the expense of starving their own countrymen. They, urbanites, proclaim fealty to Islam, a religion known to demand the extermination of Christians and Jews since its inception, regardless of historical fact. They, urbanites, don't see the death and destruction they're causing in their own country, and want to send the same internationally. They, urbanites, are to be directly blamed for the downfall of the United States.
How do we move forward from here? Democrats, first and foremost, must acknowledge they can't win without the Midwest. This will take urbanites swallowing their pride, and moving away from the sacred religion of globalization. They will also need to own up to the fact their party (I left the Democratic Party this cycle after perceiving Democrats weren't any less corrupt than Republicans.) cheated during the primaries and general election. Democrats will not win in 2018, because they still won't humble themselves. Democrats lost because of neoliberal policies and authoritarian regimes. They didn't see Obama was just as bad as Bush, and played games with the lives of the working class for their own selfish goals. No, Democrats aren't going to be winning for a long time, unless they repent of their murderous ways against the working class in the Midwest.
"stecoop01
#5
I hope and pray the first nuclear missle launched by anyone from anywhere goes right up Trumps ass."
Now here we have an intelligent comment.
Elections are always stolen when your guy loses, never when you win.
A little story from Ithaca pertaining to your question about war with Iran.
Beginning with Feb. this year the AM station 1470 AM WNYY discontinued carrying your program. I have been listening to your program since AA times on that station.
It has quite a torch and can be heard almost all the way to Syracuse,NY on a clear day.
Our local Low Power FM station took over to cover 2 hrs of your program but it is so weak that about 4 mi from downtown it gets blown away by the Christian Family Channel out of Rochester, NY- a 2 hr. drive away.
But, Guess what 1470 AM replaced you with?
Music from The Good Old Days. The fifties and early sixties. Happy music of the sort that has been used to calm the people in bad times or to distract them from an upcoming war.
I am Austrian born and I do remember my history and all the mechanisms devised to make sure: NEVER AGAIN.
We do not have those mechanisms, nor do we have the memory bank in America because most people who had that experience have died and/or because America signalled a new beginning and nobody wants to pass on misery to their kids.This creates some sort of info gap and makes it harder to recognize early where we are heading.
I am telling you right here- the signs of future war(s) are showing themselves already, though , for American born people, in very subtle ways mostly.
This should not let us overlook the in-your-face signs like,: the banning of "The Muslims",
The Other.
That is how it starts- someone is made to be The Other while all the Regular People say nothing, do nothing untill it becomes painfully obvious down the trail that the next Other will be them. At that point it is mostly too late to stop the runaway train.
Yes, I do think that this administration will try another war. In war one can steal and make people disappear without consequence to most culprits.
We are living in the most dangerous times since our Republic's conception and inception. These coming months and years will be our toughest test yet since the Civil War.
Thom, thank you massively for what you commited yourself to and what you have taught me.
Forward forever, backward never.
Never has there been a finer example of gas-lighting on this forum than the fact-free doctrinal statement the good doctor has feverishly committed to us (#10). We should all be deeply appreciative for such a wonderful opportunity to glimpse into the out-FOX-ed mind of someone who has so thoroughly absorbed the upside-down, inside-out gospel of wing-nuttery.
For our convenience, he has condensed the essence of the alternate universe and Republican game theory into a bite-size read -- like power-watching years of Rush Limbaugh and Fox Faux "News" hate and fear programming, fast-forwarded in one sitting while strapped to a chair with a piece of wood clenched in your teeth and a bottle of whiskey for anesthetic.
...Democrats and liberals forever responsible for the monumental policy failures and mortal sins of Republicans and neo-cons; fear of the "other"; Christians against Muslims; city folk against rural folk; Hillary the Wicked Witch; Trump the Great White Savior sent by GoDah to deliver white-MANkind from brown-skinned evil; an election not stolen; zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay...
Thanks, Doc, for your mercifully brief catechism of deluded dogma -- a real eye-opener for anyone who still thinks it is possible that matter can coexist with anti-matter ... or truth with lie.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
I pray for peace...and for US Senators to be allowed to speak on the floor of the Senate.