Richard

This is a very impressive history recorded in the above post. I agree that the Iranian regime needs to be taken out. They are a horrible murderous regime. Having said that, we are not innocent victims. We need to acknowledge that our CIA with the help of MI6 ousted their democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh back in 1953. Britain did not like the fact Iran nationalized the oil industry. As a result of the coup, Britain took back control of BP in Iran. The U.S. also gained control of some of the oil exports that they did not have before. The U.S. and Britain propped up the Shah who was the figure head monarch at the time. He gained total control. Unfortunately, he was very oppressive and angered a lot of traditional clerics. My point is, we may have had a different history with Iran, if we had respected their democracy back in 1953. It seems control of oil was more important back then. I believe there are a lot of lessons to be learned.

The Iranian forever war: while many “experts” worry about President Trump getting us into a “forever war” with Iran the reality is that we have been in a forever war with Iran since 1979 when they seized the American Embassy, held 66 diplomats hostage for 444 days and began chanting “Death to America” while describing the United States as “the Great Satan.” Matt Turpin on substack outlined the history of the Iranian war against the United States: “Over the past five decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies killed over a thousand Americans. “There was the truck bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut and killing of 241 American service members on October 23, 1983, the deadliest day for the USMC since Iwo Jima. Those Marines were there as a part of a multinational force that was meant to provide peace and stability during the Lebanese Civil War as Iran sought to use Hezbollah to destabilize the country and the rest of the Arab world, spread its Islamic Revolution, and attack Israel. In March 1984, Iran’s Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured and killed CIA Station Chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut and six months later conducted a car bomb attack killing 23, including two U.S. service members, at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut. “In December 1984, they hijacked a Kuwait Airlines flight to Pakistan and tortured and killed two U.S. government officials on the flight. In June 1985, they hijacked a TWA flight from Athens to Rome, found a U.S. Navy diver on the flight, tortured him, then shot him in the back of the head and tossed his body on the tarmac in Beirut. In December 1989, they killed U.S. Marine Colonel William Higgins after torturing him for a year. He had been serving on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, a mission authorized by the United Nations Security Council. In April 1995, Iran used their other proxy group, Islamic Jihad to conduct a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip which killed eight, including one American who was likely the target. In 1995 and 1996, Iran conducted a number of attacks in Israel targeting Americans and Israelis resulting in seven Americans killed and more than 100 wounded. Iran used Hezbollah again in 1995 and 1996 to conduct attacks against American service members in Saudi Arabia, killing six in a car bombing in November 1995 and another 19 at Khobar Towers in June 1996. In August 1998, Iran and Hezbollah assisted Al-Qaeda suicide bombers in simultaneously attacking two U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people including 12 Americans. Between 2001 and 2003, Iran and its proxies killed another 13 Americans in Israel. During the Iraq War, Iran was linked to killing at least 600 U.S. troops. This was roughly one in every six fatalities in Iraq. One attack was January 2007, when a dozen men from Iran’s IRGC Quds Force disguised themselves as U.S. soldiers and entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala and killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others.” Let’s be clear President Trump is trying to END the 47 year long forever war and forced Iran into peaceful policies. Those who favor being soft on the religious dictatorship are in fact perpetuating the forever war not ending it.

Our government is not balancing the budget and has not balanced the budget since the Clinton administration. Capital gains taxes are unfair, but they do pay for some services that people and our government need. According to a google search, the fed collects about $150 billion in capital gains taxes each year. What would you tax to make up for lost revenues once the government does away with Capital Gains? In other words, what would be a fair tax structure that would meet our governments' expenditures and not force the U.S. to borrow anymore money? The fed spends roughly $7 trillion per year.

Capital gains tax represents one of the most egregious examples of double taxation in the federal code, yet politicians treat it as if they're taxing "unearned" income for the first time. You earn $100,000, pay income tax on it, and save $70,000 after Uncle Sam takes his cut. You invest that already-taxed money in stocks, real estate, or bonds. Ten years later, you sell for $140,000. The government swoops in again, demanding capital gains tax on your $70,000 profit. They're taxing the same economic activity twice: your initial productive work that generated the savings, then the delayed consumption that made investment possible. Capital gains represent nothing more than the time value of money plus compensation for risk. When you save instead of consume immediately, you defer gratification to provide capital for productive investment. That $70,000 you invested didn't sit idle; it funded business expansion, job creation, and economic growth. The return you earned reflects both the productive use of that capital and inflation's erosion of purchasing power over time. The double taxation becomes even more perverse when you consider inflation. If your $70,000 investment becomes $140,000 over ten years, but inflation averaged 3% annually, your real purchasing power increased by roughly $18,000, not $70,000. Yet the IRS taxes the entire nominal gain, including the portion that merely kept pace with their own monetary debasement. Every dollar collected through capital gains tax is a dollar stolen twice; once from your labor, again from your thrift.

The above post is a great example of political prejudice. The statement that Republicans cannot solve all your problems is probably true with high statistical reliability. The next statement about Democrats being mostly the cause to all of your problems is what Ellis would define as a cognitive distortion. Republicans have added $3-5 trillion to the debt this term. Democrats have been just as irresponsible with the debt historically. Neither party has balanced the budget since the Clinton Administration. Both parties have made their mistakes domestically and with foreign policy. They continue to blame each other with toxic uncivil language, to the point they avoid compromise, seemingly out of spite. Voters can and need to do better. More Americans benefit whenever the parties compromise. To do that, we need to elect open minded people. On a personal level, if someone is unhappy in life, it is best to look at ones own choices first, before looking to blame others.

This is true. We need America First Conservatives.

@Bu39159456 @oelma__ how about a meat grinder?

@coexist4better @oelma__ no

@smerconish @JohnFetterman Unfortunately, both political parties are financial liabilities when you consider they have not balanced the budget since the Clinton administration, and we're now $38+ trillion in debt. We are paying a $ trillion just in interest on our loans.

Today's Poll Question at Smerconish.com: "Is @JohnFetterman a Democratic Party asset or liability?" Michael unpacks the growing divide within the Democratic Party as Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) breaks ranks on key issues, including Iran and U.S. foreign policy. Download & listen to the podcast here: link.podtrac.com/smerconishpod

The earth needs a break from human population growth which continues to use up more resources than it replenishes. The Earth also needs a break from continued human pollution. If the human birth rate maintains 1.5 for the next 6 generations, human population will drop below 1 billion. This will give the oceans and other wilderness areas time to rebound with wildlife. It will give humans time to clean up their pollution and find and build better clean energy infrastructure. Because of our warming trend with climate change, some agriculture lands will continue to be lost to deserts. With less people on the planet (compared to 8 billion), food distribution won't be the emergency as it is now in some parts of the world. Having said that, economies will struggle with aging populations and fewer workers paying taxes for services. Humans will have to adopt to a healthy mix of capitalism and socialist programs to care for the elderly and disabled.

This collective suicide of humanity needs to turn around!

Use gum rubber first and push it into the hole. Then use an adhesive tire patch on the inside. You have to rub the patch very smooth. Best use a rolling tool on the patch. From the picture given, a plug will not work because it is in the sidewall. Gum rubber is a not a permanent fix but it will buy you some time.

It is about services. Property taxes are a wealth tax. We can do away with them, but governments will have to find another way to replace the lost revenue in order to pay for services like police, courts, fire, streets, utilities, schools, etc. What do you suggest governments tax instead to balance their budget and pay for those services?

Hypothetically…….. I’m being taxed on money I never made. Let that sink in. If I bought my property outright for $60,000 in 2009 Now the county says it’s worth $246,000. Did I sell it? No. Did I make a profit? No. Did I get a check for $246,000? No. But my taxes jumped like I did. That’s the problem. This isn’t income. This isn’t cash. This is a number someone decided on paper — and now I’m being billed for it. If my stock portfolio doubles, I don’t pay taxes until I sell. If my income doesn’t increase, I don’t magically owe more income tax. So why does owning a home work differently? Why am I being taxed on unrealized gains? A house isn’t just an investment — it’s where people live. And this system means you can do everything right, pay off your home, and still get squeezed harder every year because of a number you never turned into money. You don’t truly own something if you can be taxed out of it. This isn’t about “services” or “inflation.” It’s about being charged for value you never received. And people are starting to notice. This needs to be on everyone’s mind✔️

Sidetracking questions, denial, projection of blame, lying, exaggerating, minimizing harm, are all manipulations used by common criminals to escape responsibility. Trump is not the only elected official who uses these. As voters we need to do better and elect ethical people to office.

I cannot unsee this. I've been watching Trump answer questions for years. The confidence. The certainty. The way he shuts down a room. I genuinely thought he was one of the sharpest communicators alive. Then one day I caught myself finishing his sentence before he said it. Not guessing. Knowing. Word for word. Before he said it. So I pulled the transcripts. Press conferences. Interviews. Sprays. Egg prices. Greenland. January 6th. Military strikes. Different years. Different reporters. Completely different topics. Same thing every time. Every single time Trump is asked a question — any question — he runs the exact same 7 steps. In the exact same order. Without exception. This is not personality. This is not confidence. This is not charisma. This is a deliberate repeatable formula. And I can prove it. His actual words. Public record. Verify every single one yourself. 📷 STEP 1 — KILL THE QUESTION (First thing every time — make the question itself the problem.) 📷 "That's a stupid question." / "Fake news." 📷 STEP 2 — KILL WHO ASKED IT (Destroy the source so the question has nowhere to stand.) 📷 "Your ratings are terrible. Nobody watches your network." 📷 STEP 3 — INSERT HIMSELF (Every topic. Every time. Without fail. It always lands here.) 📷 "Nobody has ever done what I've done." 📷 STEP 4 — SCALE IT TO THE BIGGEST CLAIM POSSIBLE (Not good. Not great. The greatest. Ever. In history. Every single time.) 📷 "More than any administration — by far." / "Nobody has ever had crowds like I've had — in history, for any country." 📷 STEP 5 — UNNAMED PEOPLE AGREE (Faceless. Countless. Unverifiable. Always there.) 📷 "Smart people are saying it. Great people. A lot of people." 📷 STEP 6 — VAGUE THREAT (Something bad will happen. Never specified. Always implied.) 📷 "All hell will break out." / "They know it. Believe me." 📷 STEP 7 — LOOP BACK TO HIMSELF (Different words. Same destination. Formula complete.) 📷 "It's been an amazing period of time. Page after page of accomplishments." The question was never answered. The formula just ran. Go back and watch any clip. Any year. Any topic. Any reporter. Count the steps. I'll wait. This is the part nobody wants to sit with: Real conviction engages with the actual question. It sometimes stumbles. Sometimes says I don't know. It changes shape based on what's in front of it. A formula runs the same 7 steps whether the topic is war or egg prices. Which means the response was never built for the question. It was built for you. To feel powerful. To feel certain. To stop you from noticing that nothing was actually answered. And it worked. For years it worked. Pull any transcript. Public record. Count the steps yourself. This isn't about politics. This is about what you were never supposed to notice. I've found the same deliberate pattern running in another major figure in this administration. Different slots. Same principle. Same effect. Next post I break it down. Follow or miss it. VIA~~ Jamie Hoo

@travelingflying If immigrants uphold all the laws and become law abiding, does it matter?

Andrew Tate: ”The average White family has a different approach towards their financial stability and their emotional investments towards children. Third worlders will just have kids; they won’t say, “Can I afford to have this kid?” They will just have kids. When you let them into a country you have to be prepared for them to have more children than the native population. They will outbreed the natives. If you let in 10% of third worlders it is 10% for a while but not for long. The only possible end result of this is the absolute replacement of the native population. Which then begs the question: is a country a place on the map and a name or is a country the people who live in it? I would argue that if you replace all the British people with people from somewhere else it doesn’t become Britain anymore. If you took all the Norwegians and replaced them with Indians, would it be Norway? I don’t think it would be.” He is right.

It might have started sooner than 1973. In 1953 our CIA and British MI6 engineered and pushed a coup that took out Iran's democratically elected president. As a result Britain regained BP that Iran had nationalized and America got some control of oil exports. The Sha, who had been the figure head Monarch in 1953, replaced the president and took absolute control. Although he modernized the country, in time he became a very repressive dictator, angered traditional clerics, which ultimately led to the 1979 revolution.

This Iran Crisis Didn't Start With Trump. It Started in 1973. Watch today's interview: youtu.be/fNzcAK--2eE

@vlogging_sam @TheRabbitHole What ever the true numbers are does not really matter in the grand scheme of things. Slavery was inhumane.

@coexist4better @TheRabbitHole This post is talking about the 13 colonies specifically. You’re talking about the americas as a whole of which Brazil received the most along with the Caribbean in second. I believe the US received around 300k-500k which is less than the number you showed

Thomas Sowell on the complicated history of slavery

Interesting. Some physicists believe our bodies continually exchange molecules and electrons with the clothes we ware, the chairs we sit in, the gardens we create, everything we come in contact with. When we leave a place, we leave a trail of molecules behind. If that is true, perhaps that explains why when something we spent time with gets ruined or dies, we also grieve spiritually, as part of ourselves dies with it.

知らなかった。妊娠すると、赤ちゃんの細胞が27年以上、母親の体の中に生き続けるらしい。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 「マイクロキメリズム」と言って、妊娠中に胎盤を通じて赤ちゃんの細胞が母親の血液に入り込んで、臓器や脳にまで定着するそう。2012年のワシントン大学の研究では、調査した女性の約63%の脳から赤ちゃん由来の細胞が見つかってる。 しかもこの細胞、ただ残るだけじゃない。 母親の心臓や肝臓がダメージを受けたとき、赤ちゃんの細胞がそこに集まって、組織の修復を助けてくれる。 細胞レベルで母を守ってくれてる。 そしてもう一つ、流産や死産になった赤ちゃんの細胞も母親の体に残る。 妊娠って細胞レベルで、永遠にお母さんになる、我が子とのつながりは一生モノ。 親子の絆は細胞レベル、尊すぎる...

@oelma__ June has just 30 days, not 31 or 37.

What is wrong in this picture?

If negotiations fail, Congress has to make that authorization, so the military does not have its resources all tied up. We will have to clean up Trump's mess. A negotiated peace is really the best option, one similar to the previous treaty where Iran was permitted to have nuclear power for nonmilitary purposes under supervision and observation. Otherwise, we will be there for years, killing and dying. Unfortunately, our diplomats have questionable skills, when you consider how they speak to our trusted allies. Hopefully, they won't be as insulting.

Today's Poll Question at Smerconish.com: Should Congress authorize the use of military force against Iran? As tensions escalate and a fragile ceasefire nears expiration, Michael Smerconish breaks down the legal, political, and strategic stakes behind a potential Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). Download & Listen Now: link.podtrac.com/smerconishpod

@RepOgles Americans are in deep trouble if they elect people who can only see two options to a problem/situation. As voters we can and need to do better.

America goes two ways. Option A: Muslims and globalists institute THEIR laws on our society. OPTION B: Christian men stand up and take their country back. I’m going with option B.

@Wthmoni skin

Don’t cheat… just answer 😤

Many Americans are afraid of socialism because it brings on thoughts of communist countries who violated human rights. Socialism is not the same as communism. In the U.S. we are capitalists, but we have adopted many socialist programs without violating human rights. Those programs include Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Veterans Administration, FEMA, public schools, and many more. With an aging population, declining birth rate, mass deportations with fewer tax paying workers and paying customers to our economy, we may need more socialist programs to care for the elderly and disabled. This is not saying we give up on capitalism. Free enterprise is crucial to a healthy economy and national human spirit. Unfortunately, capitalism is dependent upon population growth and expanding markets. With tax cuts, human services need to be cut to balance the budget, or we go further into debt. We are now $38+ trillion in debt. Over the last several decades, both Democrat and Republican administrations have put our children and grandchildren in the worst financial position. Our current administration has added $3-5 trillion to the debt and is asking for a trillion more for the military.