Netanyahu saying Israel supports the ceasefire but that it doesn’t apply to Lebanon.
My hunch is that the presence of the E-4B is more for the escalation of war rather than a nuclear strike. The idea is to keep the president / military leadership alive in a nuclear attack.
As far as I can tell the last time it was used was on 9/11/2001 (it was filmed circling DC but I don’t think W actually used it).
I think they’re bringing it in to make Trump feel like a big boy war commander. Gut says we’re gonna see a big escalation but not necessarily nukes.
From Drop Site’s twitter
Chinese civilians with technical backgrounds are increasingly posting detailed military analysis online aimed at helping Iran counter U.S. forces, in a growing grassroots trend across Chinese social media, according to the South China Morning Post.
The effort appears informal and unpaid, with engineers and STEM-trained users sharing tactics, simulations, and breakdowns of U.S. systems — including mapping U.S. military sites, outlining missile strategies targeting aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, and modeling defenses against a potential U.S. landing on Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal. Some content has gone viral, including tutorials on targeting advanced platforms like the F-35.
On March 14, a video by an account called “Laohu Talks World,” subtitled in Persian, outlined how Iran could use low-cost systems to target an F-35, drawing tens of millions of views. Five days later, Iran claimed it had struck a U.S. F-35.
The creator studied at Northwestern Polytechnical University, a major Chinese defense research institution. “He is not short of money. He makes videos just for fun,” a source told the Post.
It would appear that posting is indeed praxis…
I’ve read that the US troops going to West Asia are being staged in Jordan and Israel. Is there any possibility that the alleged attack on Iran is a feint, and that US troops are instead going to southern Lebanon and/or the West Bank? I could see a scenario where the US tries to hold those places hostage, and communicate to Iran that unless they capitulate, the US will support Israel in militarily annexing southern Lebanon and the West Bank.
Far-fetched, but so is the idea of invading Iran in the first place.
The Trump administration has told Cuban negotiators that President Miguel Díaz-Canel must step down for meaningful progress in U.S.–Cuba talks, according to people familiar with the negotiations, the New York Times reports.
U.S. officials are reportedly seeking Díaz-Canel’s removal as a symbolic political concession while pushing Havana to open parts of its economy to American business and release political prisoners. The proposal would not target the Castro family, which still holds significant influence behind the scenes. Díaz-Canel, president since 2018, the Times reports is seen as a leader with limited real authority within Cuba’s power structure, where the military-linked conglomerate GAESA and senior Communist Party figures wield major control.
I don’t think the Cuban government is opposed to some capitalist investment from the US (done along doi moi lines for example), especially if it means easing up on sanctions. Releasing political prisoners… not great but given the circumstances you can always just keep them under surveillance and then re-arrest when Trump is gone. But the part about Diaz-Canel stepping down… that one is interesting. It’s not like he’s a hardliner sitting atop a bunch of liberals who want to replace him. I don’t think whoever would succeed him or whoever would be chosen by the National Assembly would be meaningfully less committed to the revolution and the socialist project. I’m assuming what the US is not saying here is that they want to select who it would be to replace Diaz-Canel, because they will presumably choose a gusano who will rip the heart out of the country.
Additional note, in his press conference just now, Trump stated he thinks he will be the first president to “take” Cuba. The reporter who asked the question seemed taken aback so he asked “take Cuba?”, to which Trump emphasized he meant take as in TAKE, in some form or another.
I don’t want to speculate too much, but given that just before this comment, Trump was talking about how nice the weather and climate is there, I suspect his plan is a complete US takeover of Cuba.
It appears Cuba is experiencing an island-wide blackout and a total disconnection of the electrical system.
A post from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account from 18:58 UTC (about 20 minutes ago):
The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT! 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! President DONALD J. TRUMP
I think this validates what was mentioned a bit earlier today in this thread: Trump wants other countries to use their navies to try and open up the Strait, not the US navy.
Comrades, I am delighted to inform you all that Israel has been eliminated!
…from the 2026 World Baseball Classic competition (link)
The drawing was leaked to attorney Eric Lee. Source
OP’s photo is my favorite, so I will have to mention my second favorite (though calling it a “favorite” feels off).
This photo was taken in 2003 in Iraq. This man is comforting his son. They are being held in an American camp. IIRC to this day we don’t know what happened to these two.
I think if I had to explain the last 25 years to a time-traveler, this would be the one photo I would choose.
I think the whole “we’re taking over Venezuela” is just your typical Trump bravado. I believe user xiaohongshu on Hexbear has the correct angle:
I think everyone is too fixated on the empire getting into a long war but I don’t think that’s the goal here.
Just like Trump’s B-2 stunt on Iran’s Fordow back in June, the US operation was a quick in, quick out operation. Nothing seems to have significantly changed on the surface, but the message has been sent. The US is sowing political instability in the region, and it scares away foreign investments especially China’s.
Just look at China-Iran trade numbers, it’s plunging by 20% this year. Chinese investors are pulling away because they cannot see profitable return in Iran and the surrounding regions. This worsens the economic condition in Iran, and months later, we see the Iranians protesting as a result.
The same play is being replicated in Venezuela here against Latin America. The US has no interest in getting dragged into a long war. It wants to demonstrate how easily it can upset the political balance in Latin America. Do you seriously think that Chinese investors will still want to invest billions on Venezuela seeing how easily the leadership can be kidnapped?
The investment’s gone, and the US simply has to sit back and wait for the situation to deteriorate even further, and the regime change opportunity will present itself. But it’s not even about Venezuela, it’s about the US dominance over Latin America.
This is such an important initiative, will be great to see where this goes (and I for one will happy to help in any way I can).
A big reason I left Reddit and created a lemmy.ml account was because when it comes to the (relatively) free, open, and private internet… “winter is coming”. Of course the internet has been corporatized and de-anonymized for a long time now, but I think we are approaching a point where Palantir et al will effectively know exactly who you are and what you say and do online. And then further than that, the ability to say what you want online is going to be seriously curtailed, I believe. The purchase of TikTok (and major Zionist bent to its moderating) was the opening salvo, I think it’s gonna get much worse. And this sudden, global push for verification of who you are online is also a part of that.
I really like how you’re keeping it fairly loose right now. That allows for flexibility as our circumstances change, which they no doubt will.
fwiw I personally decided to start an actual blog at some point, touching on this theme of going back to what the internet used to be. I’ve been feeling pretty burned out on the way we communicate in places like this as well as twitter/bluesky etc. I think there’s a benefit in going to longer form writing and really fleshing out our thoughts.