Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
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The US/Israeli Bombing Of Iran: Means and Ways Without Ends
An Update
Phillips P. OBrien
Mar 02, 2026
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-usisraeli-bombing-of-iran-m
eans
. . .
If we use this rational Ends-Means-Ways model to breakdown what the USA is doing now, we could say that the USA has a clear End in mind (destroy the old regime and replace it with something new) and is relying on ranged weaponry mostly as its Means (airpower, long-range missiles, etc) which it is employing in particular Ways (a decapitation strategy of killing the old regime and weakening governmental institutions to such a degree that the Iranian government falls).
It is a wonderfully rational way of explaining national policy. The only problem is that it is a mirage. There are no rational Ends in action here beyond a desperate attempt for Donald Trump to get a political victory and at the same time keep his paymasters and political cronies (think MBS and Netanyahu) happy. This has far more to do with Trump desperately needing a win with the 2026 election approaching and trying to in his own mind cement himself as a forceful and strong leader (while undoubtedly making money) than it does with any rational gain for the United States. It was clear that the US was under no immediate security threat from Iran and the Iranians were going to significant lengths to make it sure that they had no desire to launch military operations.
In other words it was a war of choice, chosen by Donald Trump to meet some very personal needs.
And that understanding means that so much of the reporting which is based around there being a clear national goal here, is patently absurd. Because there is only a personal end for Trump, the ways and means cannot be analyzed in a traditional way. US service people and the Iranian people are merely tools being used by Trump to satisfy his own desires.
Remember, Trump made his disdain for US military personnel clear when he called those that died fighting for the USA in World War I “suckers” and “losers”. Here is gift link to that article.
It also explains why we have the president and White House constantly flailing around, changing their stated aims every few hours as they desperately hunt around for some end-state that they can sell to the American people as a great victory. Indeed, we seem to have a constant cycle of different Ends being wheeled out, some at almost the exactly same time, over the last few days.
Let us start from the beginning. When Trump made his original announcement, it was clear that he was calling on the Iranian people to rise up, promising them support, and calling on the old regime to surrender. Here are three quotes from his address which you can watch in full from a link in the primer I put together Saturday.
• “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand... When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”
• “Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny.11
• He also issued a direct threat to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “You must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity. Or in the alternative, face certain death.”
Then something happened. It might have been the lack of any uprising in Iran or the fact that he never thought at all about how he would achieve his victory once killing most of the Iranian leadership, but then Trump started backtracking and talking about many different ends, many of which would involve keeping elements of the current regime (the ones he threatened with “certain death” above).
In Axios he was quoted as saying the whole thing might end in a day or two. “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your n
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The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.
You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.
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Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
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Quote:My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.
You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
64#1239564
In other stupid news: Three US fighter jets crashed in Kuwait on Monday due to an “apparent friendly fire incident,” the US military said in a statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/middleeast/us-kuwait-aircraft-crash-ira
n-intl-hnk
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:My world is unchanged, 6ix. In your world, your lungs are rotting because of something stupid you did, which you have forgotten doing. See http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12395
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The world you thought you were living in 16 months ago was pure fantasy, faggot.
You are a loser. You are worthless. You are nothing. And I own you.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
64#1239564
Your world is dead.
Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.
Thanks for that, loser.
Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
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Quote:Trump was paid to bomb Iran. But you don't care why. To quote you: "_____ Enter who gives a fuck emoji here."
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Your world is dead.
Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.
Thanks for that, loser.
Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
The money behind the war against Iran
By Judd Legum | March 2, 2026
https://popular.info/p/the-money-behind-the-new-iran-war
In private calls over the last several weeks, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) reportedly urged President Trump to attack Iran. Iran is a top regional rival of Saudi Arabia, and MBS had become concerned about Iran’s growing military capabilities.
The lobbying campaign achieved success on Saturday, when Trump announced he had begun “major combat operations in Iran.” Trump launched a war even though U.S. intelligence assessed that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. In June 2025, Trump publicly declared that more limited strikes “completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability.”
MBS’s influence with Trump has grown as the Saudi government has invested billions in projects that personally enrich Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Despite the glaring conflicts-of-interest, Trump installed Kushner as a top negotiator with Iranian officials. Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff participated in a mediation session with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Thursday, billed as a last-ditch effort to avoid war.
The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest investor in Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. PIF invested $2 billion in Affinity Partners in 2021, even though the PIF committee that screens investments recommended rejecting Kushner’s proposal, citing “inexperience” and “excessive” fees. The committee’s recommendation was overruled by MBS, who heads PIF’s Board of Directors.
PIF pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment, or $25 million, annually. The Senate Finance Committee estimates that Kushner will be paid $137 million in management fees from PIF by August 2026. Further, in September 2025, PIF, Affinity Partners, and others jointly acquired Electronic Arts, the publisher of iconic video games like The Sims and Madden NFL, for $55 billion. The deal, which is the largest leveraged buyout in history, will likely be very lucrative for Kushner.
After raising billions for the Saudis and other foreign governments, Kushner dismissed concerns about conflicts of interest, pledging he would not be involved in Trump’s second term. In February 2024, Axios’ Dan Primack asked Kushner whether his business relationship with foreign governments would make it “very difficult… to do any sort of foreign policy work” moving forward. “I’m an investor now,” Kushner replied. “I served in government, and I think my track record is pretty impeccable. Now I’m a private investor.”
Yet, after Trump took office, Kushner resumed his central role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. In an October 2025 interview on 60 Minutes, Kushner argued that financial conflicts made him and Witkoff more effective. “What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” Kushner said.
CNN reported that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE lobbied Trump to strike Iran. Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE has significant financial ties to Kushner and Trump.
The UAE is another major backer of Affinity Partners, directly investing about $200 million with Kushner’s firm. Additional money came via Lunate, a supposedly private Abu Dhabi investment firm that is financed by government money and tied to the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds.
Witkoff is the co-founder of the crypto firm World Liberty Financial (WLF) and retains
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Quote:President Donald Trump pulled the United States into a war with Iran without making a compelling case for it to the public.
Originally posted by second:
While Trump discussed a potential war with Iran in multiple calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he has spent little time justifying the war to the American people.
“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but even regimes I disagreed with respected the American people enough, or felt some obligation, to at least lie to us in primetime,” Stewart said as he played footage of President George W. Bush delivering a televised address on Iraq.
Trump has ducked answering questions from the assembled press on camera. After he returned to the White House from Mar-a-Lago on Sunday evening, reporters shouted questions at him about Iran. Yet Trump ignored them and stopped to admire some new statues in the White House Rose Garden.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-trump-iran_n_69a65db7e4b076
ac5d6362fb
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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War Is Expensive
The modern American way of war is extremely capital-intensive, deploying massive amounts of equipment while putting relatively few people in harm’s way. This has been true ever since World War II, when FDR rejected calls to recruit an immense army and chose instead to fight what Phillips O’Brien calls a “machine-intensive, infantry light war.” That’s a rational approach, given how rich our nation is and how averse it is to casualties.
But the U.S. military’s reliance on munitions rather than manpower can create two problems.
The first problem is that modern munitions, which are highly sophisticated and complex, can’t be produced on short notice, and Trump has already used up many missiles and other weapons in his various military ventures. Yesterday he told reporters that the Iran campaign might go on for four to five weeks or even longer. But many reports suggest that the United States doesn’t have enough left in its weapons stockpiles to continue the current pace of action for more than a few days without dangerously weakening the military’s ability to counter other threats, such as a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.
In a Truth Social post last night Trump insisted that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of “medium and upper medium grade” weapons, which is in effect confirmation that stocks of high-grade weapons are on the verge of exhaustion.
The other problem is that U.S.-style war is incredibly expensive — so much so that the cost becomes a serious concern even for a nation as wealthy as America.
I support the U.S. government spending whatever it must to keep the nation secure. But the Trump administration is hardly bothering to pretend that it has anything to do with national security.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/war-is-expensive-for-the-little-peo
ple
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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White House says it's "deeply unserious" to suggest Trump comments on judges may lead to threats. Here's what judges say.
By Bill Whitaker, Aliza Chasan, Heather Abbott, Paulina Smolinski
March 1, 2026 / 7:00 PM EST
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/threats-federal-judges-trump-60-minutes/
Federal District Judge John Coughenour was unprepared for what happened after he temporarily blocked President Trump's birthright citizenship executive order last year and called it "blatantly unconstitutional." He said he faced "dozens if not hundreds" of death threats.
"I've been at this for 44 years. I have never encountered the hostility toward the judiciary that has existed in this country in the last year," Coughenour said. "And I don't think it's because we're making bad decisions. I think it's because there are people who think they can make a lot of political hay out of criticizing the federal judiciary."
President Trump has frequently called judges lunatics, crooked, or Trump-hating. Often a wave of threats against those judges follows. Last year, 400 federal judges were the targets of serious threats – a 78% jump compared to four years ago, according to the U.S. Marshals.
The White House said in a statement to CBS News it was "deeply unserious" to suggest the administration's comments about judges could lead to threats, noting that as a "survivor of two assassination attempts, no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump." The White House also accused the judiciary of "brazen defiance" with its "unlawful rulings" that had "repeatedly obstructed the election choices of the American people."
But judges are concerned about the harsh political rhetoric and what it could mean for their safety, and the independence of the judiciary. 60 Minutes spoke with 26 federal judges – nine of them Democratic appointees and 17 of them appointed by Republicans. Many said they're worried about democracy.
"The independence of the judiciary is extraordinarily important," Coughenour said. "And it's too important to allow it to be sacrificed and not speak up and say something."
Why Trump is attacking judges
Mr. Trump lashed out at Supreme Court justices – including two conservatives justices he nominated to the bench – after the court struck down his sweeping global tariffs. He called the justices "fools and lapdogs" and accused them of being disloyal to the Constitution.
They were the latest in a long line of judges the president has denounced when they've ruled against him.
Mr. Trump said at a Michigan rally last year he would not allow "a handful of communist radical left judges" to obstruct the enforcement of laws.
Retired Federal Judge John Jones, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said that he believes Mr. Trump is trying to delegitimize the federal courts when he insults judges. Jones said this is "a presidency sort of on steroids," with a "very dormant," U.S. Congress and a "president who means to really say what the law is."
"Civics taught me that Congress makes the law, and the president faithfully executes the laws of the country. We've turned that on its head right now," he said.
Jones said the Trump administration is testing the bounds of presidential power. The administration is facing more than 600 lawsuits contesting its agenda. Judges are caught in the crossfire.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche both declined a 60 Minutes request for an interview. In a recent speech, Blanche blamed judges for blocking the president's agenda.
"We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals because of local judges just not following the law, full stop," Blanche said during a Federalist Society event last year. "There's a group of judges that are repeat players.
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'God’s divine plan': US soldiers say commanders told them they're fighting for 'Armageddon'
By Sarah K. Burris
March 03, 2026 | 09:24AM ET
https://www.alternet.org/iran-holy-war/
People are growing increasingly uneasy as President Donald Trump's attacks on Iran are looking more and more like they could be part of a right-wing religious fanatic's fantasy for the apocalyptic.
The Cradle Media's Jonathan Larsen wrote that American soldiers were given a pep-talk about the war in Iran. A U.S. combat-unit commander told them that the attack is part of “God’s divine plan." He said that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” for the specific purpose to ignite Armageddon.
“U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for 'Armageddon,' Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military," Larsen wrote.
The comments come as part of a lawsuit brought by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; however, it is only one of "110 lawsuits brought in 48 hours from over 40 units across 30 installations," the report said. The complaints came from Christians, a Muslim and a Jewish soldier.
The Christian nationalist theory that Israel has a God-given right to much of the Middle East is one espoused by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. In a speech at a Christian Zionist church in Jerusalem in December, Huckabee conveyed his " purpose is to convert Israeli Jews to belief in Jesus in order to bring about the End Times," explained Religion Dispatches.
The concept is bad for anyone seeking peace in the Middle East, one 2024 report by Forward explained.
The sect of Christianity that Huckabee believes in holds that if they are able to remove Palestinians from the Holy Land, then Jesus Christ will return. He believes in “dispensational premillennialism,” which Forward describes as a belief that “the Rapture will come,” and deliver all evangelicals to Heaven as Israel is invaded by the armies of the world. It will cause Armageddon and prompt the return of Jesus Christ.
The language is making some fearful that the war waged wasn't really about Iran never obtaining nuclear weapons, which Trump claimed he destroyed last summer. It's a holy war, desperate to force Armageddon.
"Maybe it’s a bad idea to put people in charge of government who are eager for the rapture," lawyer and self-described nerd John Collins commented.
"Love when I'm in the military and my boss is, like, 'Time for Armageddon!'" commented author and journalist Emily St. James.
Writer and former Cato Institute policy analyst Will Wilkinson wrote, "Personally, I don’t think we should bring about Armageddon."
"One thing about the U.S., we definitely do not have insane religious zealots in charge," said Heidi N. Moore, previously of the Wall Street Journal business side.
Writer and elections lawyer at the Cato Institute, Walter Olson, quoted a line from the 1965 song "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)" with lyrics by Tom Lehrer: "And this is what he said on/ His way to Armageddon.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Your world is dead.
Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.
Thanks for that, loser.
Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Evil. Be a dick.
Your world is dead.
Turns out my lungs are fine and all I need are some antibiotics. Probably got the staph infection pneumonia from one of your Illegal Alien friends at the local ALDI.
Thanks for that, loser.
Keep on posting dumb shit, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME