The Phantom Peasant IQ888

@realBAlpha @MichaelARothman @BillAckman It’s April 😂

@MichaelARothman @BillAckman VDH is a moron. Just wait and see when the MAGA base won’t show up at the midterms. Or we will show up to sink this Israel First administration. Then whatever VDH says is going to look very stupid.

𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐍: "𝐈 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐈𝐒𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍" Victor Davis Hanson just laid out the most airtight strategic case for American support of Israel you'll hear — and it has nothing to do with theology, lobbying, or "Christian Zionism." He opens with a disarming admission: "𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘡𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺." Hanson grew up on a farm in rural California and didn't meet a Jewish person until he was 18 years old at UC Santa Cruz. No hidden agenda. No tribal loyalty. Just cold strategy. His first exhibit: the 2012 joint missile defense program with Poland and the Czech Republic. It wasn't built to stop Russia's 7,000 nuclear warheads — it was designed to shield 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧. NATO understood that Tehran was hell-bent on a nuclear weapon and Europe was within range of its advancing missile program. That's how seriously the West took the Iranian threat — before Israel ever entered the conversation. Then Barack Obama traded it away. Caught on a hot mic telling Dmitry Medvedev he'd be "𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦" if Putin gave him "𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦" before the election. Both kept the bargain — Putin held off, Obama got re-elected, and Europe's shield against Iran got scrapped. Continental security, surrendered for domestic political convenience. Hanson's broader point is devastating. Iran didn't become America's enemy because of Israel. Iran became America's enemy because 𝐈𝐫𝐚𝐧 k!𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬. The 1979 embassy seizure. The 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing that took 𝟐𝟒𝟏 American lives. The shaped charges — explosively formed penetrators — that Iran funneled to Shia militias in Iraq. The Pentagon's own revised assessment puts the toll at 𝟔𝟎𝟑 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 k!lled by Iran-backed forces in Iraq alone — one in every six American combat d∗aths in that war (Pentagon, 2019 revised estimate). None of that had anything to do with Israel. That was Iran waging war on America directly. Then comes the democracy argument. The United States consistently aligns with consensual governments — NATO, Japan, South Korea, Australia. Israel is the only fully democratic government in a region of 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, Shia and Sunni, Iranian and Arab, that share no such tradition. It has natural strategic affinities with the United States that, as Hanson puts it, "𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 7 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘴." And here's where VDH drops the hammer on the hypocrisy. The U.S. sends $𝟏.𝟑 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 a year to Egypt (State Department). Over $𝟏.𝟕 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 a year to Jordan (Congressional Research Service). We provide military assistance to Erdogan's Turkey — a NATO member that still 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐂𝐲𝐩𝐫𝐮𝐬 and is far from consensual. Nobody marches in the streets over any of that. But military aid to the one democracy in the Middle East that shares our exact enemies? Suddenly it's controversial. "𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘐𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘦𝘭," Hanson concludes, "𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵." 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫.

NATO is in far bigger danger than anyone realizes. And the reason has nothing to do with defense budgets. The real danger is psychological. It’s cultural. Europeans didn’t just free-ride on American security for 80 years. They built an entire identity around the idea that they evolved past the Americans protecting them. That identity is now the single biggest obstacle to Western survival. And the darkest irony is: we helped build it. After World War II, Europe wasn’t just economically shattered. Its culture was in ruins. The cities, the universities, the concert halls, the museums. Rubble. The Marshall Plan rebuilt the economy. But culture wasn’t a priority. Not at first. Then the Iron Curtain dropped. And suddenly culture became a weapon. American diplomats, academics, artists & scholars flooded Western Europe. We funded their universities. Supported their orchestras. Rebuilt their museums. Promoted their intellectual life. Not because European culture needed saving for its own sake. Because Eastern Europeans were struggling for Maslow’s mist basic needs. We needed the view from the other side of that Wall to be intoxicating. So America built Western Europe into a showcase of self-actualization. Art. Philosophy. Cafe culture. Long vacations. Universities where people studied literature instead of surviving. We were manufacturing jealousy. And it worked. The Wall came down. But here’s what no one accounted for. When you give a society self-actualization on someone else’s tab long enough, they forget it was a gift. They start believing it was organically theirs. And when they look at the country that funded it all, a country busy building aircraft carriers and semiconductor fabs and shale fields instead of reaching the Maslow’s pinnacle. An overweight American in a ball cap who can’t tell Monet from Pissarro. Who eats fast food. Who drives a truck. Who builds strip malls instead of piazzas. And to a culture trained in aesthetics but stripped of strategic awareness, that American looks uncivilized. So the arrogance takes root. And once a culture decides another is beneath them, they stop listening. Americans say wars are sometimes necessary: crude. Oil is the backbone of prosperity: unsophisticated. Kids build companies in garages that reshape the planet: crass. Wall Street finances the global economy: vulgar. Europe has no world-class technology sector. No military capable of strong defense. No energy independence. No AI capacity. What Europe has is culture. The culture we paid for at the expense of us reaching Maslow’s pinnacle. For decades that was fine. We funded the museums, protected the sea lanes, and tolerated the sneering because the arrangement worked. Then Europeans stopped keeping the contempt private. They started saying it to our faces. In their media. In their parliaments. At every international forum. “Americans are stupid. Americans are violent. Americans are a threat to democracy.” We could have moved the Louvre to NY. We could have built a Venice here. We could have stolen your best artists, designers, philosophers and more… like your conquering armies did for centuries. Instead we funded them. And all we asked for in return was to let us visit. You don’t have the military to defend your borders. You don’t have the technology to compete. You don’t have the energy to heat your homes without begging dictators. What you have is an 80-year superiority complex FUNDED BY AMERICANS, protected by American soldiers, and built on the false belief that self-actualization is civilization. It isn’t. Civilization is the ability to sustain itself. By that measure, Europe isn’t a civilization at all. It’s a dependency with better wine. That’s not a threat. It’s a weather report. Build a Navy. Or don’t. But stop lecturing the people who made you “better than us” Our “crudeness” our “stunted liberal education” our “ugly strip malls” are because we sacrificed our culture to support yours.

@LawrenceMLudlow @TulsiGabbard Maybe focus on real wars crimes like attacking unarmed commercial ships and oil tankers in international waters.

@TulsiGabbard Are you serious? Aloha and War Crimes don't go well together. What happened to you?

Sending aloha and well wishes on this beautiful Easter Sunday to all who are celebrating 🙏🏽

@H_leucocephalus @TheStaad So it was all our fault. You moron…you just self owned yourself. What a cuck. 😂

@roaringpeasant @TheStaad Ignorant and so easily propagandized (no offense). WW1 was 1914-18 and we never should have entered that ridiculous meat grinder, which as a result directly led to the rise of fascism and WW2. The 1920’s were a time of amazing abundance in the US. Read a book.

Just because I no longer support Trump and call him out for the war criminal that he now is does not mean I suddenly believe there are more than two genders and am now vaccinated Just because I’m not MAGA doesn’t mean I’m woke Sanity does still exist, you know A cult-free life is still possible

@leucinedreams @BRICSinfo No shit…I didn’t say you did. Pray there are ceasefire talks going on.

@roaringpeasant @BRICSinfo I'm not the one who bombed Iran during negotiations. Twice.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸🇮🇷 United States and Iran discuss terms for a 45-day ceasefire that could lead to a permanent end to the war, Axios reports.

@leucinedreams @BRICSinfo Sounds like you want war 🤔

@BRICSinfo No they aren’t. Iran told all mediators and intermediaries to not bother forwarding messages from the US anymore. This is totally made up, and sounds vaguely like US desperation.

@realtimsharp NK isn’t a radical Shia 12er regime with an apocalyptic vision. NK is a bunch of atheists that want to live as long as possible.

North Korea is a nuclear armed nation and has openly stated their disdain for America for 20 years. Why aren’t we bombing them?

@H_leucocephalus @TheStaad We were literally America Only in the 1920s and 1930s. Somehow we ended up in a world war and lost hundreds of thousands of people. America Only is a fantasy unless you want to let crazy people gain and grow their power until we have no choice.

@TheStaad Exactly where I am. America First, America Only. No foreign wars. Period.

@mattlo85 @MarioNawfal Iran told our negotiators they had enough 60% purified uranium to make 10 bombs after we’ve been clear that a radical Shia 12er regime can’t have a bomb. They can’t attack unarmed commercial shipping and they can’t have a nuke. There is no gray area here.

@roaringpeasant @MarioNawfal You are right, they don't. But one can always argue fruit of the poisonous tree. US/Israel started this aggression, Iran claims defense and protecting their sovereignty. Im not saying Iran is right. But facts are laid as they are.

Trump doesn’t need Iran to give him an off-ramp. He can create his own He can walk away today and call this a ‘win’ to the average American voter, and leave the rest of the world to clean up the mess with the Strait of Hormuz I hope he does, as the alternative worries me

@ThomasPaineBand You don’t understand what’s this is really about do you.

Every time Trump ran for President I voted for him. But now Trump is either a psychopath, demented, blackmailed or under threat from the Netanyahu regime imo. I can't think of any other reason for his insane rhetoric and his bloody war for Israel. Trump went from "freeing the people of Iran" to threatening to kill 93 million civilians. War time is a serious and somber time. It's not the time for the President to sht post and suddenly be the dictator Democrat's accused him of being for all of these years. Why do you think Trump is suddenly doing the opposite of what he promised his voters?

@YuserDoe @elimcgowan We lost 600,000+ in WWI/WWII. We’re not doing that shit again. You say death to America that’s cool. You say death to America then start arming up with the world’s most dangerous weapons…we’re coming for you.

@roaringpeasant @elimcgowan Is he the president of the world or the United States? He said we don’t need any foreign oil. We are 10000 miles away from Iran. Iran is not meddling in our country. We on their turf, destroying their country. Have some common sense, even if you lack compassion.

Under Christian Nationalism, what do you do with a President who tweets “Praise be to Allah” on Easter?

@ResistMuch @elephant_23 Religious fanatics act irrationally even when presented with overwhelming odds. Trump is trying to make them act rationally but they really believe in the 72 virgins. They also marry 6 year olds. It’s weird that Dems seem to be rooting for these pedos.

@elephant_23 You can literally smell Trump’s growing desperation, and it’s rancid. Knowing Iran has no respect for him is driving Trump into an unhinged fury that he can’t control. He can't stand that our allies as well as 70% of American citizens show him no deference and know he's a loser.

Trump just dropped this absolute bomb on Iran: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day all wrapped up in one... Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!”🔥 Liberals are having a full blown meltdown right now! 😂They’re screaming “He’s reckless! He said a bad word! This means war!!” while running for their safe spaces. MAGA? We’re loving every word. Finally a guy who talks to these terrorists like they deserve! Straight talk, no bullshit, no bowing or weak deals that screw our gas prices and let Iran choke the world. That’s exactly why we back him. Strength works. Weakness doesn’t. What do you think?🐘

@orlandoratel @CynicalPublius The Dems know if America and Trump succeed they are finished for all time. Because the next step will be to eliminate income taxes for 75%’of American citizens.

@CynicalPublius Maybe that's why the Left are so desperate to see this fail: they want the GWOT to remain a historic failure.

I don't think very many Americans realize that most GWOT vets view Operation Epic Fury as the culminating strategic victory that their earlier sacrifices were a preliminary part of. This is redemption for the past 25 years, and further back even for some. America, are you getting this?

@YuserDoe @elimcgowan You’re ok with the use of force to control unarmed ships in international waters? China will charge a fee to use the South China Sea. North Korea will charge a fee to use the Sea of Japan. Trump has no choice if Iran doesn’t allow ships to pass. Sad for the Iranian people.

@roaringpeasant @elimcgowan

@dom_lucre Is that the GAyatollah everyone’s been taking about? Honestly it looks like AI but who knows.

🔥🚨BREAKING: Iran just released this video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei walking into an operations room looking at a Nuclear reactor.

@ky_statesman Lighten up Francis…I meant Josey.

I voted for Trump 3 times but it's time to remove this unhinged lunatic from office before he burns the world down and get's a lot of people killed.

@johnshipemusic @AnnCoulter @fred_guttenberg What is attacking unarmed commercial vessels in international waters called?

@AnnCoulter @fred_guttenberg I really wish sycophants hadn’t shrugged off legal experts as “screaming bloody murder about little things Trump did.” So he wouldn’t actually be committing war crimes. And if you think we believe that you actually care about war crimes…

I really wish "legal experts" hadn't screamed bloody murder about every little thing Trump did, so they could speak with authority now that he's actually committing war crimes.

@SB4Freedom @AnnCoulter 😂🤣😂

@MarioNawfal You mean the GAYatollah is more hardline…you serious Clark?

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 Tomorrow is the deadline. Here are the scenarios... Trump said Tuesday is "Power Plant Day and Bridge Day." Iran said no deal. Something has to give. Here's what could actually happen: Scenario 1: Iran blinks. Tehran accepts some version of a ceasefire, perhaps reopening Hormuz partially or allowing monitored shipping. Trump declares victory. The most optimistic outcome but the least likely given U.S. intelligence says Iran believes it has the upper hand and doesn't trust Washington at all. Scenario 2: Trump finds a reason to delay again. He's already pushed this deadline multiple times. Iran offers a small concession, maybe more Pakistani tankers through Hormuz, and Trump takes it as a sign of progress. Both sides may even quietly agree on this. It buys time without either side losing face. Scenario 3: Trump declares victory and walks away. He already told aides he'd leave with Hormuz closed. He could frame the military damage as mission accomplished, claim the new regime is "more reasonable," and punt Hormuz to an international coalition. Iran keeps the Strait. Trump keeps the narrative. The world cleans up the mess. Scenario 4: Trump goes all in. He's threatened this repeatedly and delayed every time. But the rescue mission may have emboldened him. Former aides say his confidence in his own judgment has grown. If he strikes power plants, 85 million Iranians lose electricity. Iran's response would likely be the most devastating of the entire war: desalination plants, Bab el-Mandeb, every bridge on their published target list. A retired CENTCOM commander thinks pressure will eventually work. U.S. and allied intelligence say the opposite: the new Supreme Leader is harder line than his father, and the IRGC is gaining authority, not losing it. Over a month in, Trump is still asking the same question he asked on day one. Why haven't they just given in? Tomorrow we find out what happens when that question still has no answer. Source: NYT, WSJ