@RKelanic It has been the end of diplomacy. We can’t even do exile right in the West to encourage peaceful settlements.
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Capstone Report
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Capstone Report
@CapstoneReport
"A right wing website."--The Atlantic "The right-wing Capstone Report."--Christianity Today Commentary on politics & theology
Alabama Beigetreten Mayıs 2009
887 Folgt7.5K Follower
@CapstoneReport Great points on regime change (though I read the Suez part differently)
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I agree and disagree. This is true as it was for Vietnam, "Everyone knows Iran cares a lot more about its own survival than the U.S. cares about Iran’s survival. The war is existential for Iran but NOT existential for the US."
This is what makes regime change wars dangerous. It is akin to Louis XIV's attempt to undo the Protestant Succession with support for the James II, etc. England became Great Britain and the financial hub of the world under Queen Anne--things that would've been delayed were it not for Louis XIV's overreach.
The problem with US policy since World War 2, actually since Wilson & WW1, is that every war becomes one seeking regime change. This leads to overextension and perhaps something even more dangerous, triumphalism, which is another way of saying hubris and antiquity provides many examples of what happens to empires and states and kings who become intoxicated with themselves.
Anyway, where I disagree is that I don't think France, England and Israel were so weak and I prefer Kissinger's view that the real tragedy was the US decision to humiliate its allies who were defending what they thought were their own national interests.
Rosemary Kelanic@RKelanic
This creative misreading of the Suez Crisis misses the point. Trump’s Iran war is already the US’s Suez Moment — the inflection point where US strategic decline becomes painfully undeniable. Britain, France and Israel lost Suez because they overestimated their own military and economic strength. Israel was acting as a revisionist and expansionist power, and tag-teamed with stronger Western allies to attempt to redraw Mideast borders in a supposedly “preventive” war against Nasser’s Egypt— in that case, the fear that Nasser would close the Suez Canal. *The war itself* then provoked Nasser to close canal. 🤦🏼♀️ Sounds familiar, eh? The author wrongly concludes, however, that Uk, France & Israel’s mistake was backing down, and hence, destroying their own credibility. The ACTUAL mistake was starting the war to begin with. Fighting for the sake of “preserving credibility” is like chasing losses at a casino. Genuine credibility can’t be manufactured by fighting. It naturally flows from vital national interests. The U.S. doesn’t need to “prove” it will fight for its core interests, like defense of the homeland from attack. The credibility of retaliation to attack on the U.S. homeland is inherent. (Kind of like how Iran’s threats to retaliate to US/Israel attacks on its territory were also inherently credible. Trump was foolish to discount them.) Where U.S. leaders have screwed up too many times is in trying to manufacture false credibility when the issues at stake *don’t* threaten core U.S. interests — like regime change in Iran, ending Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, etc. and all the other demands Israel foisted on the US-Iran nuclear talks. Everyone knows Iran cares a lot more about its own survival than the U.S. cares about Iran’s survival. The war is existential for Iran but NOT existential for the US. That means the balance of interests favors Iran, and always will, no matter what crazy hoops the U.S. jumps itself through, at great cost, to try and prove otherwise. That’s how we ended up fighting 20 years in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban with the Taliban. They outlasted us and everyone knew they eventually would. Let’s hope Trump deescalates the conflict and avoids the credibility trap in Iran, which leads only to quagmire. @defpriorities wsj.com/opinion/americ…
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Because the side that’s holding it up wants to limit illegal immigration enforcement on behalf of the millions of illegal immigrants they let into the country and procured false identities for (including many from this region) - let’s not forget that part.
Failed state behavior.
Alex Plitsas 🇺🇸@alexplitsas
We are in the middle of a major conflict with a country who has a history of state sponsored terrorism and we are not paying our TSA security folks at the airports. This is insane.
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Stocks, bonds, metals, and crypto all crashing to buy dollars to buy oil.
And with bonds crashing, the printing must begin…
Ben Hunt@EpsilonTheory
Yeah, this is a problem.
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Getting close
GOLDMAN SACHS RAISES 2026 BRENT FORECAST ON HORMUZ DISRUPTION
zerohedge@zerohedge
No global financial crisis until Goldman forecasts a "super-spike" to 150-200
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ICE is already funded. They know this. This is all performative where this guy and his party admitted that their goal is "to hurt people" over it.
"Were shutting down DHS and clogging airports"
"Why?"
"Because ICE is deporting people"
This is basically the entire Democratic Party on whole all sitting and blocking a freeway.
Chris Murphy 🟧@ChrisMurphyCT
This is the only thing you need to know. Democrats want to open TSA. Republicans are refusing because they want to attach ICE funding. That’s why there are long lines. ICE.
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"I now realize that my two-by-two matrix that I have been using to analyze the situation in the Middle East is wrong: the axes aren’t the U.S. and Iran, but the U.S. and China, and Iran is just a sub-plot." - Zoltan
zerohedge@zerohedge
As a reminder, China buys 90% of Iran’s crude exports at steep discounts
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Shortly after his colleague confirmed that the shutdown is about defunding ICE, x.com/JonathanTurley…, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) indicated on Friday that he is welcoming the chaos and "pain" caused to citizens at the airports as leverage for a deal...
Jonathan Turley@JonathanTurley
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated the reason for the continued shutdown succinctly: "What we don’t want to fund is ICE.” Defunding ICE is clearly a non-starter with a majority in Congress and a majority of the public. However, Democrats are continuing this absurd shutdown...
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Hypocrisy is a feature, not a bug of leftist ideology.
Bonchie@bonchieredstate
Kyle Kashuv quoted a rap lyric as a kid and Thomas tried to ruin his life over it. Mamadani’s wife praised terrorists and threw around the n-word casually, with some posts made in her 20s, and suddenly he’s completely forgiving and approving of her defiance. Just incredible.
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He says "I used that term (god is non- binary) when extremists in the Texas house were trying to pick on kids who are different."
He's referring to the bill that banned biological males from participating in women's high school sports.
See the game being played here.
RNC Research@RNCResearch
SICK! Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico — who's allegedly a devout Christian — is now talking about "God's sausage" and defends saying "God is nonbinary." What is wrong with this sick freak?
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1) This is a good community note and, while it technically is not in the spirit of community notes, I'm going to allow it
2) It's important to note that you cannot shame the liberal media monolith into acting like decent humans. They do not feel bad when they do evil things.
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The exact same playbook was deployed after October 7th.
PBS News@NewsHour
EXCLUSIVE: While rhetoric disparaging Islam is not new, “there's an unabashed nature to it,” right now, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in an interview airing Friday. “It is being echoed from the highest offices in this country,” he tells @IAmAmnaNawaz. “They do so without any sense of shame.” Watch more from the interview on Friday's PBS News Hour.
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Jim Acosta is worried that "partisan hacks" might move over to CNN as part of Paramount/Warner merger.
Jim will actually sit there and expect you to believe that neither he nor CNN are in any way purveyors of partisan hackery.
Amazing.
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AI is fundamentally different than every other tool and technology that has come before. People are rightfully concerned. Further, a wise man would reject triumphalism because while God wins in the end it does not follow we do. There could be years of evil or centuries until.
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Churches embraced the Internet even while warning it could be used for bad things (pornography). Churchgoers are rightfully worried that AI could cause mass unemployment, thus radically altering society, and eroding liberty as people become dependent serfs.
Marcus Pittman@ImKingGinger
God has given man AI as a gift to take dominion of the world. In the 1800's, they held church services just to praise God for the trans-atlantic cable and the telegraph invention. Now the church is scared of bar codes. How do we get the church to return to techno-optimism?
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@megbasham @conor64 @thackerpd How dare you as a child not investigate this!!! Or not investigate something not on your reporting beat!
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@conor64 @thackerpd Yes, obviously, I knew it secondhand Conor. Because I did not actually know Chavez and was a kid when he was alive.
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I have no problem believing that Cesar Chavez was a sexual abuser. I have a very hard time believing that the legacy media just discovered this.
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