TheMissingBand

Here’s the real lesson to be learned by every nation on earth. Iran felt like they needed nuclear weapons to defend itself against other nations that had nuclear weapons. Now you have two countries with nuclear weapons beating the holy hell out of a nation without any nuclear weapons. In hindsight, Iran was right. They needed nukes. Unless you want the USA selecting your governance, you’d better arm yourself.

Trump is literally begging for help this morning from the same exact countries that he’s been tariff-ing the pants off of. France? He wants France to send help? China? Excuse me… “CHI-NUH.” I bet they put his fat butt on speaker so the whole room could laugh. Trump said “we have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability,” then in the very next sentence said “it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere in, or along, this waterway.” Which is it, Fat Boy? Are they 100% destroyed or do they still have the ability to shut down 20% of the world’s oil supply? This happened because maga didn’t send him back to Florida for putting out his election denying lies and attempted insurrection. He literally believe things that are not true. The secretary of the Treasury will be fired shortly, I’m afraid, because he released data yesterday that shows very clearly that we’re not in “the best economy in the history of rhe world. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.” And after shuttering the newly renovated and renamed “trunp Kennedy center,” today he fired the handpicked leader of that org. Since that’s a priority. My guess is that the center will be razed before July 4th for a rebuild, aka the Ballroom. Everybody but MAGA is tired of it.

Reagan: “I feel good about the Republican Party. We’re killing the right people and cutting your taxes. Trump is my favorite President. We’ve run out of bombs. We didn’t even run out of bombs in WWII.”

And considering how journalists are being banned for taking photos of Hegseth that he thinks are unflattering, I wouldn’t expect any truth to come from Trump’s fellow rapist.

Well, he didn’t stammer when he said that prices would come down on day one, but they’re still going up. And let’s not forget his pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare…. He’s had 5 years, 1 month, and 21 days. Plenty of time to do something, but he’s too busy filing frivolous lawsuits on his own behalf in jurisdictions all over the country. But nobody has a problem with him doing THAT instead of his job.

Here’s my thought… all of the admin keeps talking about how they’ve been threatening us for 47 long years. But they’ve literally done nothing but talk since the hostages came home from Iran when in 1981. That’s 45 years of hot air by my math. Trump made a deals for his own businesses all over the gulf states since retaking office. The price of those deals? His business partner’s asked Trump to pledge American might to force regime change in Iran. So that’s what we’re doing. Iran came to negotiate, and we still attacked. Disarmament wasn’t the impetus, it was regime change on behalf of the gulf states on the US taxpayers dime and blood, so that Trump could expand the family business over there…. Plus a new jet. This is my opinion, based on evidence unseen. Much like the plan of salvation, and equally real.

So you’re admitting that they didn’t have bombs? And honestly, I wouldn’t trust anything they say to be true. My guess is that they either have 1. No uranium or 2) way more than it takes to build 11 weapons. My guess is they don’t have it.

You have to admit… we had a deal, Trump hated it because it wasn’t his idea/nobel, then blew up the deal…. And now our troops are dying. So much winning, lol. And his supporters are blind to the obvious.

Grifter in Chief. Did you see where Melanie is hawking MAGA jewelry now?

Here’s my problem. Nobody is going to deny that we’re winning in the air and on the sea. To suggest anything less isn’t being honest. Trump would LOVE for the Iranians to run up a white flag, install Kusher (or some other handpicked Trump loyalist) as their new democratic leader and demand all of their oil reserves as compensation for “liberating” them. Except Iran won’t surrender. They won’t even talk about it. This is where the problem comes in. If we leave, they’ll just come out of their bunkers and take up right where they left off, but with much more purpose. We can pack up all of our gear and go home, but Iran has no reason to let anybody sail through the strait. If you ask me, they’re just biding their time, anxiously waiting on us to send warships through the strait… within range of their drones, etc. a major hit on one of our warships would be a coup for the Iranians. I think we’re going to get tired of fighting long before they do. They’re literally applying massive economic pressure, while we’re blowing up their pirogues. This is what happens when you have a semi-successful hotel developer play war, believing that his boldness will be a suitable substitute for experience or advice. It ends badly.

2. I misspoke… out total cost to mobilize, pay hazard pay, munitions, etc… 2 billion/day doesn’t even come close to covering the cost that we’re laying out 3. The rate at which oil jumped, not the total price per barrel. It actually doubled over the course of last week, at one point, I’m pretty sure. This is a breakdown of the costs of different missile types that we use they claim to have struck more than 3000 sites in Iran. That doesn’t include the cost of defensive missiles. They fire off two Patriot missiles at a time, at a cost of 4 million each… so that’s 8 million dollars every time we try to intercept an Iranian missile or drone with a patriot battery. Key Missile Costs (Estimated as of 2026): THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense): ~$13 million per interceptor SM-6 (Standard Missile-6): ~$4.3 million to $9.3 million per unit Patriot (PAC-3 MSE): ~$3.7 million to $3.9 million per interceptor SM-2 (Standard Missile-2): ~$2.1 million per unit ESSM (Evolved SeaSparrow Missile):~$1.7 million per unit JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) kits: ~$25,000 (air-dropped guided bomb) Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance +6

Read it to the end.

So far, the war (“excursion”) has: 1. Led to the installation of a younger Ayatollah 2. Cost the US a few hundred billion dollars in spent munitions 3. Halted the flow of oil from the Gulf States, causing the price of oil/fuel at a rate unseen since the 1970s 4. Knocked the Down to 46500 from 50000 5. Cost us a half dozen troops with hundred more maimed. The good news is that I can lay down and sleep soundly tonight knowing that it’s very unlikely that the Iranians will attack me in my sleep tonight. Sound about right?

It should breeze through the house.

Not me, not so much. I saw him on Colbert and his take on us being a “Christian nation” was spot on. We’re not a Christian nation… we’re a nation where you’re free to be a Christian…. Or not. You can be an atheist, agnostic, Muslim… anything you want. The idea that the far right has the authority to force their religious beliefs on everyone is quite simply, not right. We’re not a theocracy, even if that’s what the far right wants. My hope is that Republicans getting destroyed in the general election will cause a lot of people to rethink their blind support of whoever smooches trumps behind the longest or best. Kinda like when the Tea Party fad died a painful death.

Simply put, our elections aren’t rigged. That’s the reason that no one can ever find evidence of widespread election fraud. Never. Not even once. Now, the losing side likes to cry out “they cheated” whenever they lose. You have to look no further than the SOTU when the Crybaby-in-Chief stated “The democrats can’t win an election unless they cheat” and all of the lesser-understanding voters didn’t disagree. Same thing from Jasmine Crockett earlier this month. “I was cheated.” No, you lost. I get it you-believe that out elections aren’t fair… they’re rigged. Does that mean that Donald Trump legitimately won in 16? “YES!!!” Do you believe that he legitimately lost in 20? “No, they CHEATED!” Ok, so did Donald Trump actually win in 2024? “Yes! The People have Spoken!” So the system works, right? “No! It’s broken! We need people like Ken Paxton to save us from a broken election system!” Losers cry “cheating,” and they known what’s about to happen in November. Whenever somebody is trying to stop people from voting, you can be assured that person will be a white republican, without fail. ALWAYS.

I thought that the crossover could be a big deal, except the Dem turnout was so great in their primary. The type of voter who would be willing to crossover during the runoff definitely voted in the D primary, so I don’t think crossover votes will “taint” the runoff. I also think that Hunt voters wanted change, but didn’t want it badly enough to vote for Paxton in the primary, even though he stood a much better chance of beating Cornyn. I think the Hunt voters will likely stay home or go Cornyn. My position has changed on this one, somewhat. I thought it would go Paxton, then Paxton in a runoff. I like Cornyn’s chances a lot better since he finished decisively first in the primary. But there’s no doubt that a Trump endorsement could really motivate the less sophisticated of our MAGA brethren to vote either way. Until then, I think it’s Cornyn’s race to lose. I’ve read enough articles to decide that Paxton is likely as corrupt as they come. It’s time to stop nominating the biggest jerks simply because they’re the biggest jerk.

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s posters making predictions that turn out to be wrong.

Trump said that he thinks the war is pretty much over and the market is acting accordingly. I hope the Iranians feel like it’s over, too. The last thing we need is them sinking a tanker in the Strait.

I think you’re right about the EVs. They were shoving us that way, kicking and screaming.

I hear what you’re saying, but if this is so, why did Biden deplete the SPR if he was trying to drive prices up? Demand soared upwards when the economy got hot during the end of Covid and production wasn’t ready to keep up… that’s where the higher prices came from. The president can’t just say “I want high prices (or low ones” and move the markets. They’re still ruled by supply and demand. Banning drilling and closing pipelines? Sure, it can affect supply in the long run, and therefore prices, much like starting a war in the Middle East can do in a much shorter period of time. US will guarantee the vessels and cargo, and offered protection. No takers, though. It’s one thing to say “if something bad happens, we’ll make you whole,” but I’d rather skip having my tanker blown up.

I hope you’re right. Trump and the Admin have repeatedly said that troops on the ground remain on the table. I’m concerned that Iran hasn’t already rolled over. I wonder if they’re doing the old rope-a-dope and letting us burn through our munitions and willingness to fight before they come out to play. These things never work out as planned. It’s great to say “this time is different” because this is totally Trump with no other voices (congress, the public, the military) being brought in for discussion. What worries me is what will happen if Iran doesn’t give Trump the “unconditional surrender” that he’s demanding. Does he just bring our gear home and move on? Or does he have to make a bigger show of force by invading (which I kinda doubt) or by using even more aggressive tactics? Would he unleash a nuke? I think so. He doesn’t care about anything regarding financial cost or the value of human life as evidenced by everything that’s happened up to this point. Trump wasn’t kidding two weeks ago when he said “I can destroy any country that I want.” You’re seeing it in real time. We’re the Death Star, hippy.

The Dow isn’t above 50,000 anymore, either. 46,700 at the moment. Don’t look at your 401k expecting so see what you had last time you checked. Some of this is a knee-jerk reaction, but if this conflict doesn’t resolve itself very soon, I think that these corrections will be of a more permanent nature and continue to worsen. The bad news about this volatility is that the high prices aren’t enough to trigger exploration and production here in the US because it can go away again with the stroke of a pen.

That was in the depth of the pandemic when the demand for oil was uncharacteristically low, which lead to a decrease in prices. So yes, the price WAS low when the world ground to a halt. So we need to figure out where to blame Trump or give him credit. My opinion is that he deserves both on this one…

It’s a new day! 🤣😂🤣