USA

Ten Thoughts on Operation Epic Fury and Its Aftermath

Why the strike on Iran was legal, overdue, and a strategic earthquake.

As I write this on Saturday night, there is still a lot going on, and as such I’ll throw myself on the mercy of our readers for whatever has gone out of date between its writing and your reading.

It’s a very fluid situation.

But in what looks like a very, very successful joint operation between the Israeli Defense Forces and the U.S. Navy and Air Force, a significant decapitation strike has greatly degraded the Iranian regime — including harvesting some 40 top leaders of the Iranian regime, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whose death has sparked worldwide celebrations from Iranians and Iranian expatriates.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

The Rare-Earth Reckoning

How America outsourced the materials of modern power—and what it will take to get them back

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, just off Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, sits the Mountain Pass mine. Surrounded by a high plateau of pale rock and desert scrub, this 600-foot-deep open pit hums with activity. Trucks haul blasted rock to the surface, where it is crushed in pursuit of valuable minerals that are scattered thinly through the earth’s crust yet remain indispensable to modern life.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

LILLEY: Taking out Iran’s Ayatollah should be celebrated

Ding dong, the Ayatollah is dead and the whole world should be celebrating.

While the Iranians were denying the death of Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei throughout Saturday, the evidence points to his much-welcome demise.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Who Is Upholding Western Civilization?

How fitting that the US and Israel finally retaliated against 47 years of aggression by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the week of the Biblical Purim Festival.

Then, roughly 2,300 years ago, Haman, viceroy to Persia’s King Ahasuerus, threw a lot (“pur”, plural “purim”) to determine the date by which he would kill all the Jews in the empire. This plan’s successor sits (or sat) in Tehran’s Palestine Square: a “doomsday clock” counting down the minutes until Israel is supposed no longer to exist: 2040, to be exact.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Trump Confirms 48 Iranian Leaders Have Been Killed in U.S.-Israeli Strikes

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday morning that Operation Epic Fury has already eliminated at least 48 senior Iranian officials, including the former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Speaking with Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, President Trump said that the United States has a specific list of priority targets remaining after dozens were taken off the board during the opening salvo of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation on Saturday.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Three ships attacked near Strait of Hormuz as fears grow of oil price rises

At least three ships have been attacked near the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran continues to launch strikes across the Middle East in response to an ongoing attack against it by the US and Israel.

Two vessels have been struck, and an “unknown projectile” was reported to have “exploded in very close proximity” to a third, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said.

Iran has warned ships not to pass through the strait, which carries about 20% of the world’s oil and gas.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

The world’s most evil regime is on the brink – and Britain has nothing to do with it

Usual suspects attend Pro-Mullah Regime Rally in London

Where was Britain? As missiles killed the Ayatollah in Tehran, his office in London remained open. His ambassador has not been expelled. His Revolutionary Guards have not been banned in this country, even as they are under attack in their own.

Iran, together with its allies in Beijing and Moscow, is the clearest global evil since the Nazi regime. Its tentacles stretch into Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, and into the campuses, mosques and protest movements of Britain. Yet our response has been more Neville Chamberlain than Winston Churchill.

PM Carney rules out Canada’s military participation in Middle East conflict

MUMBAI, India – Prime Minister Mark Carney said while he has had discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump about the possibility of strikes in Iran over “recent weeks,” he does not expect Canada to take a military role in any continued escalation, after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, Saturday.

That’s probably a good thing given Canada’s contribution would likely begin and end with our elite “Silly March Brigade”

The UK has a huge 5th column of dangerous Muslims as do France & Germany so it’s understandable that the Brits would seek appeasement. The US has its share but allows for an armed citizenry and that makes all the difference.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, UK, USA

FBI says ‘indicators’ of terrorism in downtown Austin mass shooting

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Three people died, and at least 14 others were injured in a shooting on West Sixth Street overnight Saturday into Sunday, according to Austin-Travis County EMS.

Austin Police officers responded to the popular street to calls about a man shooting at Buford’s Bar. Austin Police Department Chief Lisa Davis said three officers shot back toward the suspect, who died. The suspect has not yet been identified, but was described as a man.

Federal partners, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), also responded to the scene.

Twitter/X Austin Texas

Gee what a surprise! – Austin bar mass shooter possibly motivated by Iran attacks, Quran found in car as FBI eyes terrorism after 2 killed, 14 injured

h/t Patti Jo and NeoCon

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inTerrorism - Domestic, USA

America Has Occupied Canada, in the Creative Mind of a Toronto Artist …

A speculative public art series that began in alleyways and on buildings and a tennis court fence is opening as a chilling new show at Western University.

Last winter, as Canada was becoming the persistent target of economic, verbal and social media attacks from President Trump, the Toronto multimedia artist Dara Vandor got to work imagining a nightmarish scenario — the annexation of Canada by the United States.

She hung the result — an aluminum plaque, 18 by 24 inches, memorializing a fictitious surrender on Aug. 11, 2031 — in an alley near her home. She did not expect to be continuing the narrative in the continuing series “Pax Americana” a year later.

For nine months Ms. Vandor produced and posted 18 historical plaques in stairwells and a forest, and on buildings, telephone poles and chain-link fences in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Tofino, British Columbia. The signs recounted disturbing scenarios: an invasion by U.S. troops, a Canadian resistance and then a quick surrender in straightforward, chronological detail. Each plaque can stand alone, but taken together they tell a whole story.

A Paint by Numbers effort using her elbows would be more creative than this tedious exercise in Knee-Jerk Anti-Americanism.

I doubt Trump has much interest in acquiring the dumpster fire that is southern Ontario or yet another TDS suffering “creative”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Trump Derangement Syndrome, USA

The C.I.A. Helped Pinpoint a Gathering of Iranian Leaders. Then Israel Struck.

Ayatollah Khamenei – “Mi smouldering rubble es su smouldering rubble”

Shortly before the United States and Israel were poised to launch an attack on Iran, the C.I.A. zeroed in on the location of perhaps the most important target: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader.

The C.I.A. had been tracking Ayatollah Khamenei for months, gaining more confidence about his locations and his patterns, according to people familiar with the operation. Then the agency learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials would take place on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran. Most critically, the C.I.A. learned that the supreme leader would be at the site.

Our Liberal-Left can crazy with the best any nation has to offer.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

The eight-month plot that led to Trump’s attack on Iran

Not long ago, Donald Trump had little patience with the idea of full-scale wars with Iran.

The 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June last year, he said, could have “gone on for years and destroyed the entire Middle East”, had Mr Trump himself not bluntly told Benjamin Netanyahu it had to stop.

Eight months later, Mr Trump has ordered a full-scale bombing campaign aimed at nothing less than the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran itself. This time, he and Netanyahu seem to be working hand-in-hand on the same project.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

A bombing 9 years in the making

What did the Orb communicate?

So let me get this straight, the United States and Israel bombed Iran today and the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are all mad at Iran because Iran fired missiles at them in retaliation.

Iran fired at them because the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan host American military installations. Also, Israel’s Iron Dome protects the Holy Lands so well that Iran refused to waste ammunition.

The shift in allegiance surprises only people who paid no attention to President Trump’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, which enabled today’s attack.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

A dangerous moment, but US and Israel see opportunity not to be missed

The decision by the United States and Israel to plunge into a new war with Iran creates a highly dangerous moment with unpredictable consequences. Israel used the word “pre-emptive” to justify its attack.

The evidence is that this is not a response to an imminent threat, which the word pre-emption implies. Instead, it is a war of choice.

Israel and the United States have calculated that the Islamic regime in Iran is vulnerable; dealing with a severe economic crisis, the fallout from the brutal crackdown on protesters at the start of the year and with defences still badly damaged by last summer’s war. Their conclusion seems to have been that this was an opportunity that should not be squandered.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA

Trump and Netanyahu have made a dangerous gamble in Iran. Why is Carney cheering them on?

In Iran, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have opted to play regime change roulette.

They are wagering with the lives of civilians in Iran, Israel, and the Gulf countries. They risk embroiling American and Israeli forces into yet another forever war, a military operation with no clear objectives and no way to truly win. And they do so with no clear plan, purpose, or objective.

This bet may yet pay off. These strikes could paralyze the Iranian state enough that the people may seize power from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Trump has called them to do.

The Star’s kind of crowd …

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran, Israel, USA