In a high-stakes maneuver dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, the United States launched a coordinated bombing campaign on Saturday against three of Iran’s key nuclear sites — Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz — in what the Pentagon described as a preemptive effort to halt nuclear weapon development. The mission involved over 125 aircraft, bunker-buster bombs, and Tomahawk missiles, marking a significant U.S. escalation in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Trump ordered a series of bunker busting bombs to hit three Iranian underground facilities where Iranians were said to be close to cooking up a nuclear weapon, although Iranians denied that. But of course they would.
So, wait…are we on the verge of a fateful Middle Eastern war? Where are we?
One scenario. Some rightwing evangelicals have been preparing for a middle eastern Armageddon because they believe it heralds their long hoped for return of Jesus. I kid you not.
For many evangelical Christians across the country, it was our duty to defend and support Israel. Israel was God’s “chosen” nation and the formation of the country in 1948 was understood to be a fulfillment of end-times prophecy — specifically the second coming of Christ. The message we heard in church was that end-times prophecy was unfolding in front of our eyes and God needed our help to speed up the process toward an apocalyptic Armageddon that would ultimately culminate in the return of Christ. Those that opposed Israel would stand with “the Antichrist” and their blood would flow in the valley of Megiddo, all the way up to the horses’ bits (Revelation 14:20). This is not a fringe metaphorical fantasy, but a widespread evangelical belief tied to real political happenings here in the U.S. and in Israel-Palestine.
Another scenario. Did Trump just bully two furious countries who hate each others’ guts into a lasting peace?
Yet another scenario. Did the bunker busting bombs fail to “obliterate” the Iranian effort to build a nuclear weapon that could take Israel out leaving Iranians more determined than ever to build that weapon in secret as a way to avoid future bullying by the US, Israel, and other nations? (North Korea is not pushed around by other nations because North Korea has a nuclear weapon.)
Which one of these outcomes is coming? We do not know yet.
If peace is the outcome, Trump might have won himself a Noble Peace prize just now, something he desperately wants.
But it’s just as possible that he staved off a not so imminent Iranian nuclear weapon only to have the development of that bomb continue in greater than ever secrecy in different sites. There is good evidence that the Iranians secretly moved their enriched uranium from the three sites they knew were going to be blasted to smithereens to places the Americans don’t know about–at least not yet. That scenario is looking more like the reality.
The New York Times reports: A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings.
The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.
This DIA assessment concludes that those underground facilities, including the centrifuges, including the highly enriched uranium that everyone has been talking so much about, are largely intact.”
Hmm. Looks like President Trump’s statement that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated was… overstated, at least based on the initial damage assessment.
ADVANTAGES OF BULLYING?
But wait, maybe we learned something about global power dynamics. Trump might be onto something when it comes to using his natural ability to be a lawless dictator and bully to get warring nations to back down, shut the f–k up, and make nice. Maybe being a big bully has its advantages when you are the president of a country with massive bunker busting bombs and powerful military who wants to get the undivided attention of a nation that will only back down when faced with annihilation (Iran). Then again, Iran still wants to eradicate Israel (that hasn’t stopped) and they may still have a wherewithal to do it just a few months later than they’d planned.
Well then, maybe Trump is onto something when it comes to telling countries to stop fighting and focus on trade. Maybe it takes a big bully to get that message across to warring countries. Imagine a world where there is no war, only business interests, world trade and collaboration between nations. Funny. I thought that’s where our world was headed before Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower and messed with pretty much EVERYTHING. And yet here we are… wondering if Trump’s World Wrestling Entertainment approach to global politics could be more effective than traditional diplomacy.
Don’t think I am going soft on Trump. I am not. But if he just bullied two warring nations into peace, I’ve got to hand it to him.
Time will tell.
I just have my doubts. Warring nations will be warring nations.
THE WAR AT HOME
Meanwhile, Trump and his cabinet, which he has stocked with loyal imbeciles, is still at war with half of OUR nation, namely, the blue states, which includes everyone living in those states. That is both insane and debilitating for our country. A nation divided against itself cannot stand. Remember that?
So where is the big bully OUR country needs who would tell Trump to back down, shut up and make nice? We could use that guy right about now. Hmm. Maybe it’s not a guy. Maybe it’s We the People. We might be the only ones left who have a shot at getting Trump to back down since Trump still cares about his approval ratings.
APPROVALS UNDER WATER
Speaking of his approval ratings, he is not doing so well.
Newsweek reports:
President Donald Trump‘s approval rating has taken a sharp hit across multiple recent polls, signaling potential trouble for the president.
The latest Ipsos/Reuters and American Research Group polls show Trump’s net approval rating at record lows for his second term.
In the Ipsos/Reuters poll, conducted between June 21-23 among 1,139 registered voters, Trump’s net approval rating stood at -16 points, with 41 percent approving and 57 percent disapproving. That is down from a previous low of net approval of -12 points in last week’s poll. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Similarly, in the latest American Research Group poll, conducted June 17-20 among 1,100 adults, Trump’s net approval rating hit -21 points, with 38 percent approving and 59 percent disapproving, down from a low of -14 points in the previous poll conducted in May.
Trump’s low ratings might have figured into his decision to jump into the middle of the hot war in the Middle East because he saw a chance to be a hero on Fox News.
FOX NEWS COVERAGE GOT TRUMP PUMPED UP TO JOIN THE FRAY
Turns out Trump’s decision to get into the war between Israel and Iran was prompted in large part by Fox News. As he watched their coverage of Israel’s take down of Iran, Trump saw how positive that network was about Israel’s successes and hosts were encouraging Trump to get involved. He may go down in history as the first president of the United States to go to war based on the blathering of a bunch of TV hosts.
Here is what the New York Times reported:
He [Trump] marveled to advisers about what he said was a brilliant Israeli military operation, which involved a series of precision strikes that killed key figures in Iran’s military leadership and blasted away strategic weapons sites. Mr. Trump took calls on his cellphone from reporters and began hailing the operation as “excellent” and “very successful” and hinting that he had much more to do with it than people realized.
Later that day, Mr. Trump asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were “playing.” He said that “everyone” was telling him he needed to get more involved, including potentially dropping 30,000-pound GBU-57 bombs on Fordo, the Iranian uranium-enrichment facility buried underneath a mountain south of Tehran.
“Everyone” seems to have been largely the Fox News hosts.
So far most Americans are not part of that “everyone” group that wanted to bomb Iran.
In a survey released Tuesday, 56 percent of Americans say they disapprove, and 44 percent say they approve, of the U.S. “decision to take military action in Iran.”
WAR ON TRUTH
In the aftermath of the bombing and information that the bombs did not in FACT “obliterate” Iran’s program to develop a nuclear weapon, Trump has gone on the warpath against the media that exposed the truth Trump didn’t like. He and Pete Hegseth are busy shooting the messengers. This is what Trump always does when reality does not line up with what he wants it to be. He insists his version of reality is right and double dog dares anyone to contradict him.
Why is he doing this? Trump’s self esteem is on the line. He desperately wants to be the hero. He wants to get a Noble Peace Prize. He wants us to believe this bombing raid was like Hiroshima. He wants what he did to reset the course of history. Trump’s shaky self-esteem is driving him crazy. And us too.
This is what you get when you elect a man with a tenuous grasp on reality whose self-esteem drives his acceptance of truth and facts. Instead of shooting the messenger (the leakers/the media), maybe Trump should be mad at his awful dad who was a critical a-hole and made his son feel like a piece of sh-t. We are all paying the price for Trump’s damaged self-esteem from childhood. As he gets older, we will also all be paying the price for his growing dementia, instability and inability to accept reality. Trump’s living in la la land now. Where will he be in 2 or 3 years? He has a cabinet and a Congress that will not contradict him.
This does not bode well for any of us on planet earth.
WE THE PEOPLE
We the People need to get real even if Trump can’t or won’t and there are a bunch of toadies in power in Congress and in the executive branch who are fighting to force our court system and judges to comply with Trump’s version of reality, fighting against the media to cow it into obedience, fighting against anyone and anything that contradicts Trump. Trump is our version of mad king George. He’s the very nightmare, the very tyrant, that the founders worried about who could rise to power. They created a system of checks and balances to prevent a future Trump from happening. But they couldn’t predict the MAGA movement, the tech bros wanting a dictator to give them what they want, the greedy corporate interests, the weakness of the Democratic Party and the rest of the tsunami that got us to this very fraught moment in history.
I have said this before and I think it is the only way out: Our country needs a counter movement to rise up and push back against the MAGA movement. There are signs that may be happening.
What are they? 1) The anti-oligarchy rallies of Bernie Sanders and AOC were massively attended even in red states. 2) The NO KINGS protest was over 5 million- possibly the biggest protest in the history of this country. 3) The NY Democratic mayoral race was won by Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani set himself apart early despite his lack of name recognition. He did it largely by connecting with younger voters, producing sleek, engaging campaign ads on social media and beating the drum about the need to make life in New York more affordable. [NYT] He is a democratic socialist like Sanders and AOC, an actual populist. He wants a higher minimum wage, affordable housing, taxes on the rich and corporations to help out working class Americans, and ideas like city-run grocery stores to help Americans make ends meet.
Working Americans need to realize that Trump is a false populist. He’s all in on the billionaires. Americans need to get disillusioned with Trump and Trump is helping them do that. What our country needs is someone who thinks more like Mamdani and less like Elon Musk, the Koch brothers and Trump. We need someone looking out for working people and helping them have lives that can uplift them and their families.
Trump’s agenda, his so called beautiful bill, could become law. If it does pass it will cripple working Americans despite throwing some glitter their way. This bill is one of the biggest shifts of money from the poor and struggling in America to the already massively wealthy. That, along with tariffs that have yet to fully hit consumers because companies stockpiled supplies to stave off tariff consequences for consumers, the inability to buy a home, the sinking job market, and the loss of good guidance from HHS and the CDC will bring Trump’s approvals down even more. If Medicaid is crippled, (which will happen if this bill passes), and if 16 million Americans lose their health insurance, which is anticipated, that will anger more Americans including many Trump voters in rural America. The rich will get richer and the poor gets poorer. That will not go down well in this country.
When enough Americans have had enough of billionaires getting more billions, you have to wonder if democratic socialism might not look so bad anymore.