Beware the Ides of March - Trump Thread #156

[Spandauer]

Do you think The Friend of Epstein is au fait with Roman history?

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5488504-name-a-better-trio-than-onion-garlic-ginger-trump-thread-155

No reason to think that currently, no.

"US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called on Iranians to “take advantage” of the opportunity for regime change, even as he said the war was not about ousting the government in Tehran."

CNN

It's interesting to speculate on the successive catastrophic failures in intelligence that must have occurred independently of each other to lead to such a moronic statement.

An American saying to Iranians: "Trust America" ? On what planet did anyone think that through.

And I write that knowing full well there is a gazetteer of places that would trust the Devil before Britain.

I'd say successive catastrophic failures of intelligence sums up quite a lot of the administration very nicely.

To use a favourite moniker on here:
What an Utter Bawbag.

Hegseth: "Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force ... no stupid rules of engagement."
bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mg3diqv3o72v

Kegsbreath :

""I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others, should tell the American people, and our enemies, 'by the way, here's exactly what we'll do... here's what we're willing to do and not do'. "

Well, as Marge pointed out, this POTUS is most certainly not doing what he said he would.

Thank you @walllaw . That was very informative and profoundly depressing.

Both in terms of Iran's likely position and actions, and in the description of the likely consequences of the recent hollowing out of US intelligence services.

I suppose I knew that heads of agencies and a few named individuals had been purged to protect Trump or exact revenge for daring to investigate him.

But I had no idea it was 25% to 30 % of some offices, and that the purge has cut a swathe through the most experienced intelligence officers. The speaker makes the point these are the ones who learned the lessons of 9/11 and whom you'd normally be relying on during something like the invasion and aftermath of invasion of Iran.

Q: What are our objectives and how were the soldiers who were killed killed?

HEGSETH: To ensure they can't use a conventional umbrella to continue a pursuit of nuclear ambitions. As it pertains to the US casualties, every once in a while you might have a squirter that makes it's way through

So since SCOTUS took away Scrotus' favourite toy (tariffs) it seems he's found a new one. War.

And what is Congress going to do? Why, vote on the War Powers Act, of course. Something they've already done (IIRC) 3 times. Passes in the House, fails in the Senate.

On a more 'personal' note; CNN reporting that gas prices are going to skyrocket. So guess who's going to the gas station today? I've never been so glad to own a Prius.

Breaking - UK moving families off the base in RAF Akrotiri as a precaution.

Bases in Cyprus are not being used by US bombers.

So all prices will go up (not that they ever fell back) like they did in 2022.

Seems we are learning the answer to the question: "War What is it good for ?"

A Republican writes

So this is nice.
https://in-cyprus.philenews.com/local/we-will-strike-cyprus-hard-iranian-general-says-over-american-presence-on-island/

I am not sure is Brits are allowed to talk to you anymore AcrossthePond.

From your Minister of War ( Minister sounds more Orwellian than Secretary)

"Capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force..."

I don't own any pearls, but I am sure I can find something to clutch. DD has a spare Teddy. That might do. No sorry, not a Teddy. That's named after a US POTUS. So a woke furry then.

Of course, It does not help that him and POTUS appear to have different reasons for the war, and that Kegsbreah even disagrees with himself in adjacent sentences. But yeah, we are on the "freedom fries" naughty list, as France was last time. That war that our Starmer "learned lessons from".

But Germany is talking about joining in. So appeasement points for them then ?

Starmer should take our ball airfields back. At least our balls are round, and we play real football.

:-)

Massie has been quite outspoken in his demands for the Epstein files to be released in their entirety and for a vigorous investigation by Congress.

Scrotus' HATES him. (What a trite statement of the obvious that was, no?)

@RedTagAlan

Ah, but @SerendipityJane made me an honorary Brit a few days ago based on my correct usage of Bawbag.

So we can continue to be friends, yes?

I haven’t read all the thread, so apologies if someone else has pointed this out.

i don’t understand what the Ides of March have to do with this.

The Ides of March do not fall on 1 March. The first day of the month is the Kalends.

The Ides will be 15 March.

i bet there are other posters who remember Latin lessons and everyone chanting:

“In March July October May the Ides fall on the fifteenth Day, the Nones (let’s not go there with these) fall on the seventh day.”.

Well, you'd want the warning before the 15th wouldnt you? Not much good afterwards.

I think it was more illustrative than definitive.

However if we are going to dissect the analysis (remembering about frogs and jokes) the implication that Trump is somehow "Caesar" is - I respectfully suggest - flawed.

Caligula is probably a much better analogy. For all sorts of reasons. (Has Trump declared himself a god yet ?).

Also Caesars assassination led to a civil war. Caligulas assassination led to the colonisation of Britain. I'll leave you to decide which was the worse outcome.

Yes, I know that the ides refers to the 15th.

Had to make a new thread quickly and thought "oh, it's March what nice thing could happen to Trump this month?" 🤷🏻‍♀️

A bit of back stabbing

(or front stabbing maybe if you remember the Scaramucci of old...)
'Where I grew up, we're front stabbers' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-40748918

Apologies for any confusion caused. 😊

Iran now threatening to strike Europe 🤯

The problem here is Trump never grew up.

They will have to get behind Putin in the queue.

Ha ha. Go on then. :-)

But I don't like your Minister of War. That heidthebaw is a full on bampot.

I'm not sure this is going entirely as planned...