Iran

[badgerx16]

2 hours ago, sadoldgit said:

We have been very lucky. We filled up our oil tank a few days before the war started at 55p per litre. The price today is £1.20 per litre.

I didn't know you had contacts in the White House.

[Turkish]

6 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

I didn't know you had contacts in the White House.

Did you forgot it’s amazing the people you can meet at a village lunch in Kent. 

[egg]

Blimey. So the rest of the world must get involved if they want Middle East oil, whilst the US; doubtless sort themselves out with their own.

Always the plan? Or a consequence of things not going well?

'The US president has issued a new statement on Truth Social on the back of his earlier comments about “many countries” dispatching warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” he wrote.

“The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be – It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!” '

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 minutes ago, egg said:

Blimey. So the rest of the world must get involved if they want Middle East oil, whilst the US; doubtless sort themselves out with their own.

Always the plan? Or a consequence of things not going well?

'The US president has issued a new statement on Truth Social on the back of his earlier comments about “many countries” dispatching warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” he wrote.

“The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be – It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!” '

I wonder whose ships he wants. It can't be ours, as he specifically said not to bother, as the war was over.

[egg]

Just now, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I wonder whose ships he wants. It can't be ours, as he specifically said not to bother, as the war was over.

Indeed. War wise, yep, but I read his comments to mean that US aren't going to sort Hormuz, and if other countries want the oil, they must do it, and the US will merely help. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

14 minutes ago, egg said:

Indeed. War wise, yep, but I read his comments to mean that US aren't going to sort Hormuz, and if other countries want the oil, they must do it, and the US will merely help. 

Ah, so in his head the issues in the Strait are a distinct, not directly part of the war he doesn't need ships for, trade route issue that does need ships.

It must be a constant surprise for him to go through life with no concept of cause and effect.

 

Edited Saturday at 20:03 by Holmes_and_Watson
typo

[egg]

6 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Ah, so in his head the issues in the Strait are a distinct, not directly part of the war he doesn't need ships for, trade route issue that does need ships.

It must be a constant surprise for him to go through life with no ncept of cause and effect.

That's how I read it. Rampant oil prices, outrageous demand, US and Venezuelan oil at his disposal. 

Russia ok. 

China fucked. 

Not sure where this is heading. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

25 minutes ago, egg said:

That's how I read it. Rampant oil prices, outrageous demand, US and Venezuelan oil at his disposal. 

Russia ok. 

China fucked. 

Not sure where this is heading. 

China sends it's Taiwanese invasion fleet to hold the Hormuz straight. 

Russia and Ukraine end hostilities. Russia are too busy shipping oil while they can. Ukraine are too busy making drones for all the countries that spent 2% on vastly expensive US defence systems.

US and Israeli allies keep a battered Iran in check for another number of years, and the conflict fizzles. Dividing up Iranian influence unites them. 

Previously backed Iranian groups, collapse without funding and are forced to give up starting with the letter "H"

Cuba gives up certain communist ideals for electricity and food.

Trump considers all of these as wars he's ended or averted. Sure, the markets took a hit. But they bounce back.

Trump receives every Nobel peace prize handed out, as it turns out erroneously, to other people in the past.

Initially wary, Congress give Trump another term, so he can bring his genius into solving US issues.

Sadly, he's bumped off in Dallas. Key suspects include US defence companies, broken after people realised they were no longer needed. The 20 million dollar missile that did the deed is considered to be a hint. An obsessive lone staple gunman is blamed, after he claimed to hear voices in his head from fictional  brunch friends.

 

[badgerx16]

What countries are going to send warships to a war zone where anything not flying an Indian flag is seen as a legitimate target ?

[skintsaint]

I'm starting to think my flight to Aus via Qatar on Good Friday won't be happening 😅

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

What countries are going to send warships to a war zone where anything not flying an Indian flag is seen as a legitimate target ?

Isn't that where warships are meant to go?

[badgerx16]

FCC head Brendan Carr has threatened the licences of broadcast and print news outlets that publish reports on the war that do not follow the Trump administration's propaganda lines.

Such "Fake News", ( AKA the truth ), is "not in the public interest".

[egg]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

FCC head Brendan Carr has threatened the licences of broadcast and print news outlets that publish reports on the war that do not follow the Trump administration's propaganda lines.

Such "Fake News", ( AKA the truth ), is "not in the public interest".

Plus Israel and the Gulf states threatening prison for any filming of what's happening. 

The saviours of the free world my arse. 

[Farmer Saint]

...

Edited yesterday at 07:44 by Farmer Saint

[badgerx16]

"The Trump administration's top official on counterterrorism has resigned from his position, citing opposition to the war in Iran, and urged the president to "reverse course".

In a letter posted on Tuesday to his X account, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent said that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the US and claimed that the Trump administration "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby". 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4g66r3z40o

"Additionally, Kent alleged that "high-ranking Israeli officials" and influential US journalists had sowed "misinformation" that caused Trump to undermine his "America First" platform.

"This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States," the letter continued. "This was a lie.""

Edited 23 hours ago by badgerx16

[badgerx16]

Edited 22 hours ago by badgerx16

[whelk]

Excellent- every day they have beaten them, what with being the best in the world.  Gas prices back to normal now the voters will love you even more.

Imagine this knob talking about the Vietnam War?
Week 1 - We have napalmed every member of the Vietcong, destroyed their tunnels and obliterated the NVA

Week 1018 - We have decided to leave with victory complete;we are just accounting for the whereabouts of 60,000 US soldiers

[hypochondriac]

What a dummy. Why on Earth would you consider the fact that you have isolated yourself from every country bar Russia, Israel and some corrupt oil countries in the Middle East to be something to boast about? Crazy. 

[whelk]

6 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What a dummy. Why on Earth would you consider the fact that you have isolated yourself from every country bar Russia, Israel and some corrupt oil countries in the Middle East to be something to boast about? Crazy. 

Hard to believe he is an adult, needs to be adored, constantly fed compliments and phoney awards and loves playing the victim like a the self-pitying emotionally stunted adult he is. Comes from, and clearly perpetuates, a loveless, joyless environment.

[whelk]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

"The Trump administration's top official on counterterrorism has resigned from his position, citing opposition to the war in Iran, and urged the president to "reverse course".

In a letter posted on Tuesday to his X account, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent said that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the US and claimed that the Trump administration "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby". 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4g66r3z40o

"Additionally, Kent alleged that "high-ranking Israeli officials" and influential US journalists had sowed "misinformation" that caused Trump to undermine his "America First" platform.

"This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States," the letter continued. "This was a lie.""

Turns out this guy was weak all along. No sorry, not just weak, he was very weak.

"I read his statement," says Trump. "I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security."

He continues: "I didn't know him well ... But when I read his statement I realised that it's a good thing that he's out, because he said Iran was not a threat.

Edited 22 hours ago by whelk

[badgerx16]

15 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What a dummy. Why on Earth would you consider the fact that you have isolated yourself from every country bar Russia, Israel and some corrupt oil countries in the Middle East to be something to boast about? Crazy. 

 

5 minutes ago, whelk said:

Hard to believe he is an adult, needs to be adored, constantly fed compliments and phoney awards and loves playing the victim like a the self-pitying emotionally stunted adult he is. Comes from, and clearly perpetuates, a loveless, joyless environment.

Clear evidence of TDS.

Stop believing everything the MSM feed you. Watch Fox News and NewsMax, get on TELEGRAM, Truth Social, and INSTA to find out about the REAL WORLD.

Dummies.

Edited 22 hours ago by badgerx16

[badgerx16]

1 minute ago, whelk said:

Turns out this guy was weak all along.

"I read his statement," says Trump. "I always thought he was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security."

He continues: "I didn't know him well ... But when I read his statement I realised that it's a good thing that he's out, because he said Iran was not a threat.

The guy is a proper conspiracy nut and J6 election denier, but I would take the word of a former SF soldier and CIA operative who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who's wife was killed by an ISIS suicide bomber in Syria, over President Bone Spurs.

[badgerx16]

The US will claim "victory" and pull out without effecting regime change, in the expectation that the Iranian people will "rise up" and overthrow whatever version of the regime remains in power. This will lead to an internal power struggle and substantial further deaths, and Iranian proxies seeking revenge against US and other western targets, whilst we either get a collapsing failed state, as with Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, or a successor generation of the same complexion as the one Trump and Bibi have been culling.

[egg]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

Bless him. We don't need you, you're shit, where are you, we need you, we never needed you, the war is won, we haven't won yet...feck knows what winning looks like, how do I get out of this mess...

He's absolutely lost it. 

[egg]

33 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

The US will claim "victory" and pull out without effecting regime change, in the expectation that the Iranian people will "rise up" and overthrow whatever version of the regime remains in power. This will lead to an internal power struggle and substantial further deaths, and Iranian proxies seeking revenge against US and other western targets, whilst we either get a collapsing failed state, as with Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, or a successor generation of the same complexion as the one Trump and Bibi have been culling.

Yep. The only way the attacks on the Gulf states have a chance of stopping is for the US to withdraw. It'll then be a slug fest between Iran and Israel, who'll carry on smashing up Lebanon with impunity, steal south Lebanon, Hezbollah will be armed to resist that, Iran will be hit more in response, rinse and repeat. Fortunately the wider world are starting to see the issue, and refusing to be coerced into joining the party. 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

What a dummy. Why on Earth would you consider the fact that you have isolated yourself from every country bar Russia, Israel and some corrupt oil countries in the Middle East to be something to boast about? Crazy. 

Because a lot of Americans don’t think there is a world outside of the US of A?

[egg]

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Because a lot of Americans don’t think there is a world outside of the US of A?

As long as they don't try to find it, or be anywhere that I am, I can live with that. 

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

2 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

I laughed but it's actually terrifying that this fruit cake is supposedly the leader of the free world.

[egg]

10 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

I laughed but it's actually terrifying that this fruit cake is supposedly the leader of the free world.

Yep. The idiot has said he'll "take Cuba" next. 

It's only been a year and a bit. 

[badgerx16]

46 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Because a lot of Americans don’t think there is a world outside of the US of A?

 

8 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

I laughed but it's actually terrifying that this fruit cake is supposedly the leader of the free world.

There seem to be a large number of Americans on SM threads who respond to people slagging off Trump by saying "Have respect, he is your President", only for the target to respond "Not in Estonia" or "I'm in Australia", etc. Even then, some assume that those foreign countries are part of Trump's domain.

 

Government of the Stupid, for the Stupid, by the Stupid.

[badgerx16]

1 minute ago, egg said:

Yep. The idiot has said he'll "take Cuba" next. 

It's only been a year and a bit. 

I seriously wonder about the US continuing to support Ukraine. I can see Trump considering backing out of a "European problem".

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

1 minute ago, badgerx16 said:

 

There seem to be a large number of Americans on SM threads who respond to people slagging off Trump by saying "Have respect, he is your President", only for the target to respond "Not in Estonia" or "I'm in Australia", etc. Even then, some assume that those foreign countries are part of Trump's domain.

 

Government of the Stupid, for the Stupid, by the Stupid.

I haven't seen that, but I can be virtually certain that most aren't written by actual Americans, but bots.

[Gloucester Saint]

2 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

I haven't seen that, but I can be virtually certain that most aren't written by actual Americans, but bots.

Having said that, equally possible they are Republicans https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/12/americans-opinions-canada-great-britain-poll-00823978

[Gloucester Saint]

5 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

I seriously wonder about the US continuing to support Ukraine. I can see Trump considering backing out of a "European problem".

Possible but it would seriously embolden Russia and they are a direct threat to Alaska. Have also been helping Iran.

[badgerx16]

9 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

I haven't seen that, but I can be virtually certain that most aren't written by actual Americans, but bots.

( Look at the REDDIT title ).....

Edited 19 hours ago by badgerx16

[badgerx16]

And the OSCAR for best picture goes to.....

[egg]

A great Ausi take again. Worth the read imo.

'Right. Strap in folks. It's a biggy but worth your time. 

 

I need you to picture this. The East Room of the White House. Crystal glasses on white tablecloths. The Kennedy Center board sitting there like extras in a hostage video. Pam Bondi. Mike Johnson. Susie Wiles. Ric Grenell on his way out the door. All of them arranged around Dollcrump like furniture in a display home nobody's buying.

And Dollcrump is talking.

He's been talking for a while now. He's supposed to be talking about renovating the Kennedy Center. But he's not talking about the Kennedy Center. He's talking about himself. Because of course he is. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil exports from the Gulf are down 60%. Ships are getting hit with drones and missiles. Fuel prices are through the roof. Half the world's energy supply chain is in a chokehold. And Dollcrump is sitting in front of crystal wine glasses doing a psychological strip show for the cameras.

Let's walk through what just happened. And I mean really walk through it. Because this is a masterclass in how a broken brain processes rejection in real time.

48 hours ago, Dollcrump went to the Financial Times. The Financial Times. Not Truth Social. Not Fox. He went to the grey paper of record for global finance and he said, and I quote: "If there's no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO."

Read that again. That is a threat. That is a man who needs something and is leveraging the most powerful military alliance in human history to get it. You don't threaten consequences for inaction unless the action matters to you. That's not a suggestion. That's not a thought bubble. That is the President of the United States publicly telling the world: I need warships in the Strait of Hormuz and if you don't send them there will be consequences.

So what happened?

Germany said no. Not a soft no. A German no. Which is a regular no but with engineering precision. Their chancellor said: "This war has nothing to do with NATO. It is not NATO's war. The question of how Germany might contribute militarily does not arise. We will not do so."

Their defence minister went further. "What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful US Navy cannot do? This is not our war. We have not started it."

Japan said no. Australia said no. Spain, Italy, Poland, Greece, Sweden. All said no. The EU foreign ministers met in Brussels and the bloc's top diplomat came out and said there was "no appetite" for expanding operations. Even the UK, America's most reliable poodle for the last 80 years, basically said "we'll get back to you."

Canada is playing Switzerland. Not revealing their hand. Which, given the current state of Canada-US relations under Carney, is probably a fucking no as well. Just a polite one. The Canadian kind. Where they don't say no, they just never say yes and hope you stop asking.

Every single one of them. No.

Now. Here's where the psychology gets dark.

Because a normal leader, a functional human being with an intact ego, absorbs that information. They recalibrate. They go to their advisors and say, okay, Plan B. What are our options. That's what adults do when the world tells them no. They adjust.

Dollcrump does not adjust. Dollcrump rewrites.

He walks into the East Room. Cameras rolling. Crystal glasses gleaming. And he says this:

"We don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military, by far, in the world. We don't need them."

And then. Then. He says:

"I'm almost doing it, in some cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react. Because I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there."

Read that again and let it sit in your chest for a second.

The man who 48 hours ago threatened the entire NATO alliance with a "very bad future" if they didn't send warships is now standing in the East Room telling you it was a test. A loyalty exercise. A vibe check.

He wasn't asking for help. He was running diagnostics on the alliance. Like a man who gets rejected at a bar and turns to his mates and says "I wasn't even into her. I just wanted to see what she'd say."

Every psychologist on earth has a name for this. It's called retroactive reframing. It is one of the most well documented narcissistic defence mechanisms in the clinical literature. When a narcissistic personality makes a demand and gets publicly refused, the refusal creates what clinicians call narcissistic injury. The ego cannot process the rejection as real. So the brain does something automatic. It rewrites the story. The demand becomes a test. The rejection becomes validation. "See? I told you they wouldn't help." The loss becomes a win. In real time. On camera. In the East Room of the White House.

And he pre-loaded the escape hatch. Listen to the language again: "I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there."

That's not analysis. That's armour. If they help, he's powerful. If they refuse, he was right all along. There is no outcome in which Donald Trump loses. There is no scenario in which he is wrong. The framework is airtight. And it is completely, profoundly, dangerously disconnected from reality.

But here's the thing that makes my blood actually boil.

They won't be there? They've NEVER been there? Is that what we're doing now?

Let me tell you about a little thing called September 11, 2001.

When those towers came down, the entire world came running. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history. Not for Europe. Not for some faraway conflict that had nothing to do with America. For America. For you. The world looked at the United States of America and said we are with you. And they meant it.

They went into Afghanistan. Every single one of them. They sent troops. They sent money. They sent equipment. They bled. More than 1,100 coalition soldiers from NATO countries died in Afghanistan. Died. Not "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines" as Dollcrump said in January. Died. On the front lines. In Helmand Province and Kandahar and places most Americans couldn't find on a map. Canadians. Brits. Danes. Australians. French. Germans. They came because America asked. And they paid for it in body bags.

And then. THEN. The United States turned around and said hey, we need you again. Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction. Exposed brick. Yellow cake uranium. Colin Powell at the UN with a little vial of white powder like the world's worst show and tell. And what did the allies do? A lot of them came again. Against their better judgment. Against the protests of their own people. They followed America into Iraq on a lie. A fabricated, manufactured, intelligence-agency-approved lie. And they bled there too.

So when Germany says "I would like to remind you that the U.S. and Israel did not consult us before the war, and that Washington explicitly stated at the start of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired" you need to understand what that actually means. That's not cowardice. That's a country that remembers being dragged into the desert on bullshit intelligence 23 years ago and being told to go fuck themselves on the way in and clean up the mess on the way out.

Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder they're hesitant to run into another burning building on behalf of the United States of America? On behalf of a president who didn't consult them before he started this war? Who told them explicitly he didn't need their help? Who spent years telling them NATO was obsolete and they were freeloaders and they owed America money like it was a protection racket?

You spent a decade kicking the dog and now you're confused it won't fetch.

They won't be there. They've never been there. Mate. They're the only reason you had a coalition at all. Twice. And both times you left them holding the bag.

And while we're at it. While we're talking about who shows up and who doesn't.

Vietnam.

You want to talk about who's there when it counts? You want to stand in the East Room with your bone spurs and your crystal wine glasses and your five draft deferments and lecture the world about who shows up? 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. And Donald Trump's contribution to that war effort was a letter from a podiatrist saying his feet hurt.

Go fuck yourself.

Seriously. Go fuck yourself with your loyalty test. You dodged the biggest loyalty test your generation ever faced. You let other people's sons go to the jungle and die while you were learning how to part your hair. And now you're standing in the White House questioning whether the allies are loyal enough? Whether they'd show up if you needed them?

You didn't show up. When your own country needed you. You didn't show up.

And here's the broader concern from a psychological standpoint. A leader who cannot absorb rejection without rewriting reality is a leader who cannot learn from failure. If every setback gets immediately recategorised as a secret win, there is no feedback loop. No course correction. No adaptation. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Ships are getting hit. Iran is still firing. The US Navy has been refusing near-daily requests from the shipping industry to escort tankers because the risk is too high. Two American minesweeper ships that were supposed to be in the Persian Gulf were spotted over the weekend in Malaysia. 3,500 miles from where they're needed.

That's reality. And the Commander in Chief just told the world, on camera, with crystal wine glasses in the foreground, that the whole thing was a personality quiz.

That's not strategy. That's not diplomacy. That's not leadership.

That's a man managing his feelings in real time on television.

And every person sitting at that table knows it. Pam Bondi knows it. Mike Johnson knows it. Susie Wiles definitely knows it. They're sitting there with their napkins on their laps watching the most powerful man on earth tell them that rejection is actually victory and failure is actually foresight and nobody can help him because nobody is needed because he is the strongest and always has been.

But sure. It was a test.

Fucking wanker.'

[Gloucester Saint]

I’ve got friends who fought alongside the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump can fuck off with all of it. Why should Denmark help him for example when he’s spent the entire time confecting a conflict about Greenland when the Americans already have all of the military access they need? And Denmark lost troops in Afghanistan.

Our enemy is Trump, Vance, Bannon and the Republican Party. The west needs to spend big sums backing the Democrats so that MAGA implodes and the Lincoln Project folks get their party back. 

[tdmickey3]

3 hours ago, egg said:

A great Ausi take again. Worth the read imo.

'Right. Strap in folks. It's a biggy but worth your time. 

 

I need you to picture this. The East Room of the White House. Crystal glasses on white tablecloths. The Kennedy Center board sitting there like extras in a hostage video. Pam Bondi. Mike Johnson. Susie Wiles. Ric Grenell on his way out the door. All of them arranged around Dollcrump like furniture in a display home nobody's buying.

And Dollcrump is talking.

He's been talking for a while now. He's supposed to be talking about renovating the Kennedy Center. But he's not talking about the Kennedy Center. He's talking about himself. Because of course he is. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil exports from the Gulf are down 60%. Ships are getting hit with drones and missiles. Fuel prices are through the roof. Half the world's energy supply chain is in a chokehold. And Dollcrump is sitting in front of crystal wine glasses doing a psychological strip show for the cameras.

Let's walk through what just happened. And I mean really walk through it. Because this is a masterclass in how a broken brain processes rejection in real time.

48 hours ago, Dollcrump went to the Financial Times. The Financial Times. Not Truth Social. Not Fox. He went to the grey paper of record for global finance and he said, and I quote: "If there's no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO."

Read that again. That is a threat. That is a man who needs something and is leveraging the most powerful military alliance in human history to get it. You don't threaten consequences for inaction unless the action matters to you. That's not a suggestion. That's not a thought bubble. That is the President of the United States publicly telling the world: I need warships in the Strait of Hormuz and if you don't send them there will be consequences.

So what happened?

Germany said no. Not a soft no. A German no. Which is a regular no but with engineering precision. Their chancellor said: "This war has nothing to do with NATO. It is not NATO's war. The question of how Germany might contribute militarily does not arise. We will not do so."

Their defence minister went further. "What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do in the Strait of Hormuz that the powerful US Navy cannot do? This is not our war. We have not started it."

Japan said no. Australia said no. Spain, Italy, Poland, Greece, Sweden. All said no. The EU foreign ministers met in Brussels and the bloc's top diplomat came out and said there was "no appetite" for expanding operations. Even the UK, America's most reliable poodle for the last 80 years, basically said "we'll get back to you."

Canada is playing Switzerland. Not revealing their hand. Which, given the current state of Canada-US relations under Carney, is probably a fucking no as well. Just a polite one. The Canadian kind. Where they don't say no, they just never say yes and hope you stop asking.

Every single one of them. No.

Now. Here's where the psychology gets dark.

Because a normal leader, a functional human being with an intact ego, absorbs that information. They recalibrate. They go to their advisors and say, okay, Plan B. What are our options. That's what adults do when the world tells them no. They adjust.

Dollcrump does not adjust. Dollcrump rewrites.

He walks into the East Room. Cameras rolling. Crystal glasses gleaming. And he says this:

"We don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military, by far, in the world. We don't need them."

And then. Then. He says:

"I'm almost doing it, in some cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react. Because I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there."

Read that again and let it sit in your chest for a second.

The man who 48 hours ago threatened the entire NATO alliance with a "very bad future" if they didn't send warships is now standing in the East Room telling you it was a test. A loyalty exercise. A vibe check.

He wasn't asking for help. He was running diagnostics on the alliance. Like a man who gets rejected at a bar and turns to his mates and says "I wasn't even into her. I just wanted to see what she'd say."

Every psychologist on earth has a name for this. It's called retroactive reframing. It is one of the most well documented narcissistic defence mechanisms in the clinical literature. When a narcissistic personality makes a demand and gets publicly refused, the refusal creates what clinicians call narcissistic injury. The ego cannot process the rejection as real. So the brain does something automatic. It rewrites the story. The demand becomes a test. The rejection becomes validation. "See? I told you they wouldn't help." The loss becomes a win. In real time. On camera. In the East Room of the White House.

And he pre-loaded the escape hatch. Listen to the language again: "I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won't be there."

That's not analysis. That's armour. If they help, he's powerful. If they refuse, he was right all along. There is no outcome in which Donald Trump loses. There is no scenario in which he is wrong. The framework is airtight. And it is completely, profoundly, dangerously disconnected from reality.

But here's the thing that makes my blood actually boil.

They won't be there? They've NEVER been there? Is that what we're doing now?

Let me tell you about a little thing called September 11, 2001.

When those towers came down, the entire world came running. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in its history. Not for Europe. Not for some faraway conflict that had nothing to do with America. For America. For you. The world looked at the United States of America and said we are with you. And they meant it.

They went into Afghanistan. Every single one of them. They sent troops. They sent money. They sent equipment. They bled. More than 1,100 coalition soldiers from NATO countries died in Afghanistan. Died. Not "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines" as Dollcrump said in January. Died. On the front lines. In Helmand Province and Kandahar and places most Americans couldn't find on a map. Canadians. Brits. Danes. Australians. French. Germans. They came because America asked. And they paid for it in body bags.

And then. THEN. The United States turned around and said hey, we need you again. Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction. Exposed brick. Yellow cake uranium. Colin Powell at the UN with a little vial of white powder like the world's worst show and tell. And what did the allies do? A lot of them came again. Against their better judgment. Against the protests of their own people. They followed America into Iraq on a lie. A fabricated, manufactured, intelligence-agency-approved lie. And they bled there too.

So when Germany says "I would like to remind you that the U.S. and Israel did not consult us before the war, and that Washington explicitly stated at the start of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired" you need to understand what that actually means. That's not cowardice. That's a country that remembers being dragged into the desert on bullshit intelligence 23 years ago and being told to go fuck themselves on the way in and clean up the mess on the way out.

Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder they're hesitant to run into another burning building on behalf of the United States of America? On behalf of a president who didn't consult them before he started this war? Who told them explicitly he didn't need their help? Who spent years telling them NATO was obsolete and they were freeloaders and they owed America money like it was a protection racket?

You spent a decade kicking the dog and now you're confused it won't fetch.

They won't be there. They've never been there. Mate. They're the only reason you had a coalition at all. Twice. And both times you left them holding the bag.

And while we're at it. While we're talking about who shows up and who doesn't.

Vietnam.

You want to talk about who's there when it counts? You want to stand in the East Room with your bone spurs and your crystal wine glasses and your five draft deferments and lecture the world about who shows up? 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. And Donald Trump's contribution to that war effort was a letter from a podiatrist saying his feet hurt.

Go fuck yourself.

Seriously. Go fuck yourself with your loyalty test. You dodged the biggest loyalty test your generation ever faced. You let other people's sons go to the jungle and die while you were learning how to part your hair. And now you're standing in the White House questioning whether the allies are loyal enough? Whether they'd show up if you needed them?

You didn't show up. When your own country needed you. You didn't show up.

And here's the broader concern from a psychological standpoint. A leader who cannot absorb rejection without rewriting reality is a leader who cannot learn from failure. If every setback gets immediately recategorised as a secret win, there is no feedback loop. No course correction. No adaptation. The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Ships are getting hit. Iran is still firing. The US Navy has been refusing near-daily requests from the shipping industry to escort tankers because the risk is too high. Two American minesweeper ships that were supposed to be in the Persian Gulf were spotted over the weekend in Malaysia. 3,500 miles from where they're needed.

That's reality. And the Commander in Chief just told the world, on camera, with crystal wine glasses in the foreground, that the whole thing was a personality quiz.

That's not strategy. That's not diplomacy. That's not leadership.

That's a man managing his feelings in real time on television.

And every person sitting at that table knows it. Pam Bondi knows it. Mike Johnson knows it. Susie Wiles definitely knows it. They're sitting there with their napkins on their laps watching the most powerful man on earth tell them that rejection is actually victory and failure is actually foresight and nobody can help him because nobody is needed because he is the strongest and always has been.

But sure. It was a test.

Fucking wanker.'

Every news channel in the US should air this daily on repeat.

The rest of the world`s media should show it everywhere too.

If there is ever a regime that needs overthrowing its Trump`s and all of his lunatic adminstration

Edited 51 minutes ago by tdmickey3

[Farmer Saint]

Good listen

 

 

[revolution saint]

3 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

I’ve got friends who fought alongside the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump can fuck off with all of it. Why should Denmark help him for example when he’s spent the entire time confecting a conflict about Greenland when the Americans already have all of the military access they need? And Denmark lost troops in Afghanistan.

Our enemy is Trump, Vance, Bannon and the Republican Party. The west needs to spend big sums backing the Democrats so that MAGA implodes and the Lincoln Project folks get their party back. 

I don't really have any problem with the sentiment but foreign powers meddling in US domestic affairs isn't going to get the reaction you want.  In fact you'll get the opposite.