They could do a highly symbolic and possibly disastrous thing that will let them claim they have achieved their goal (granted they’ve stated 30 different ones) and retreat with face.
Could be the uranium (very hard ask). Could be kidnapping some high ranking Iranian leader figure(s) to "face trial" in the US which they'd parade around to the media like Maduro.
There are not that many flavors of reactionary. What Russia tries to use for soft power influence peddling itself as a "trad" defender of traditional values, the family, against the gays, etc is a strain of thought that originated in the west more than Russia which was we must recall the USSR from 1917 to 1990.
These are simply the suppressed nativist conservatives who were shoved out of the way in favor of neo-cons and their agenda in the 90s and 2000s. And they're trying to reassert themselves against very powerfully funded imperialists whose thinking has made weapons companies a lot of money and whose thinking has captivated the higher echelons of the intelligence and state apparatus. They at least on the surface care more about too many brown people in the US than someone not bowing to the US 22,000 miles away. These people are true believers in the culture war or at least using the appearance of that to attempt to gain power.
Again this just sounds like liberal histrionics about Russia, Russia, Russia. Trump connection this, Mueller that.
Trump is corrupt but he's not an asset. People around him are probably just corrupt weirdos who love this "trad" image Russia is selling and are happy to take free plane tickets, meals, etc to go there and schmooze on someone else's dime while Putin and the Russians try desperately to parlay this into something good. BUT it still hasn't done jack shit for helping Russia in the war against Ukraine, in re-opening trade with Europe, etc so they're running up against a very hard wall in the limits of what good will free dinners, hotels, and hookers will give them when the subjects are just influencers at the end of the day. Former NYC mayor got done for some very minor corruption with an ALLY of the US and all the evidence we've ever seen says exactly one "nation" on earth is allowed to do that kind of stuff within the US and that's the zionist entity which is just an extension of the US anyways.
It is just fantastically reaching conspiracy thinking I'm sorry but it is. And it has its roots in liberal Russia-gate fearmongering which is pushed by western intelligence to justify crackdowns, increased budgets, narrative control of online spaces, etc, etc.
Reactionary grifters have been saying all kinds of things for DECADES. Rush Limbaugh back in the 90s called cops or highway patrol "jackbooted thugs" in one of his diatribes. Why? It sells. It needs nothing more than that and without solid evidence it's just more nat-sec birthed conspiracy brain that needs to be buried because spreading it only serves the imperial spy machine's narrative of infiltration and wolves in the fold that enables them to push through sweeping crackdowns and crushing of alternative opinions and frame it as merely "combating foreign influence" and get the public nodding along because "it is known".
So even if it were true and I want to be clear I don't think it is, it wouldn't serve us to go in with the CIA/FBI/nat-sec-state on that line. Tucker is on Trump's shit-list now anyways. They won't be able to convict him of anything but if he was guilty they would be able to easily and have no reason not to now.
Does it matter when all their victims desperately want to avoid confronting the US? Very few can resist them as Iran has so far.
It's not like there was some real element of surprise stuff that truly shocked the Iranians and caught them with their pants down in a stroke of luck so to speak. Yes it was perfidy but if they hadn't been in peace talks and had instead said "we will attack Iran by air in the next two weeks". Would Iran have been any more prepared for them on the particular day they came? I don't think so.
Votes like this are often used to show loyalty to a given side to win its favor. Armenia has aligned with the west against Russia thus is obliged if it wants the west's support to support it in matters like this. Well not obliged but it benefits certainly from being seen as an eager loyal dog.
Anything that divides the empire against itself is good. Long-term new problems may arise but our most pressing problem is the empire.
"Waaah he's a fascist, he hurts my feelings". Yeah no shit he's not a great guy. Doesn't matter.
I don't like how Iran treats women and how it murdered communists but I still understand the role it has to play.
Iran's role is more significant and important than Tucker Carlson. They're not on the same level. But where do you draw the line? Does someone have to militarily attack the US (and only I will remind you in response to being attacked first. Iran are not some bastion of fanatical anti-imperialists who struck first, they reply only when attacked first and are more than willing to negotiate with the vile US empire when it actually seems like it might do so in good faith)? Iran was forced into the position it's in. It wanted rapprochement with the west and integration but the west spurned it. Tucker Carlson was perhaps forced into the position he's in. He lost his Fox News show and the market for zionist puppets and pro-war maniacs is quite bad for new sellers because of all the big media apparatus already being on that. If he wanted to do anything his range of choices was pretty constrained.
I'm not going to cheer for Tucker unlike Iran but I'm not going to do like the idealist liberals here and cheer for say the FBI or CIA harassing him because they don't like what he's saying because mentally you people despite claiming to be leftists are still Democrats at heart happy to score an "own" against that mean reactionary personality instead of dispassionately analyzing what it does.
It shouldn't matter for us any more than it matters that Russia or Iran were forced into doing good things. So long as we don't delude ourselves (I haven't seen that) that he's a true friend through and through (same with Iran and Russia) and understand what is going on we can point out what he's doing is taking the correct position.
You people act as if the absolutely irrelevant online left praising Tucker with reservations will result in him skyrocketing to popularity and personally becoming fascist leader of America thanks to our help in bamboozling the totally innocent left-leaning American public. Ridiculous. Absurd. 1) He doesn't need us. 2) America is already reactionary and violent as shit. Please see Trump. Whether it's Tucker or someone else doesn't matter. The empire is a machine that will continue regardless of figurehead at the helm.
Calm down and analyze what it does. Have no illusions about who our true friends are but have no illusions that change and the new world will be brought about in no small part thanks to people we rightfully consider enemies. Save your breath, there are plenty of liberals, chuds, and zionists seething at Tucker we need spend no time trying to "take him down". Continue pushing our positions and lines, our explanations, our values. But please save your freaking out at Tucker being a bad guy the same way you save your freaking out at Russia whenever it's mentioned because they oppress LGBTQ people. There are times it is appropriate to bring up and times it is inappropriate to do so and knowing the difference is the difference between being a liberal and a member of the left.
An odd claim. Why does the US allow this?
The country with near total insight to global money flows. Hundreds of people working on sanctions. Whole redundant investigative divisions dedicated to sanctions enforcement and tracing money. And with all this they can't figure out these people are being paid off by Russia, China, Iran, whoever the unfriendly actor is who wants to sew discord against the US?
They can tunnel down and figure out how complex, intelligent, staffed criminal organizations and countries are shifting money about and you're telling me a few small time right-wing grifters have outsmarted them?
This is kind of a curious thing. I want to say ridiculous but it seems the US must be complicit in this and looking the other way. If they wanted to nail these people they could but they're not even trying. I mean they've sent the FBI to raid the houses of minor RT writers in the past trying to prove they were being paid to say these things. At least with RT writers you could say oh they know what their employer wants without anyone saying anything. But these people are not as far as I'm aware on the payroll even in a contributor per piece freelance way for any major media outlets from enemy powers.
This sounds like so much Russia-gate nonsense to me to be honest. The type of lie the CIA pushes to discredit anyone domestic against them.
I think its more likely since you offer zero proof, that they simply saw a niche and went for it. The mainstream has being pro-zionist and drooling over war covered quite well. There's not much air to breathe in there for small fries like these. So I find it far more plausible they just found an empty space.
I wouldn't be shocked given this started with the murder of children if they didn't abduct family members of leadership and threaten them with being thrown into the darkest US prison on bullshit charges or just put in Gitmo as it's right there and there's nothing to stop them from using it AFAIK for whatever they want as long as victims aren't US citizens.
In the US they add ethanol to oil to subsidize producing so much corn when producing gasoline. It varies by state how much, in some states it can be over 20% at certain times of the year I believe but it's usually at least 10%.
Any random IRGC Basij militiaman laying in some scrub with a shoulder mounted launcher can blast a helicopter out of the sky.
Can they? This isn't Vietnam or 2003. The US has equipped their helicopters with anti-manpad systems and they'd be flying in formation with a fighter escort that can provide counter-manpad support as well. Maybe a dozen of them all firing could get through but let's be realistic here that we're not in the 20th century anymore and the US has developed effective counters for lone RPG sniper types for their aircraft. Anyways they're using therm-optics and would have satellite cover so unless that militiaman has some way to mitigate their heat signature they'd be spotted long before they could fire as being within range of the ingress path and so the gunners on defense would be aware of them if not killing them beforehand.
I'm pretty sure the US can get in without casualties and drop their people. The problem then becomes whether they can defend them against Iranian drone waves and quick set up, fire, and moving mortar/highly mobile artillery (as assuredly they'll be trying to destroy anything static firing on their guys). US will also likely deployed advanced, exotic, classified prototype anti-drone systems so it could take a while before Iran is even able to get anything through depending on how good those are. This is a problem with not having any real control of your airspace (and occasional lucky hits while nice don't really count as contesting) and lacking advanced operating anti-air that can at least push back the enemy's air support.
IMO Iran's best bet if their drone swarms are neutralized will be advanced missiles with cluster munitions and just showering the Americans with those including mines and bomblets. Edit: This may also be why the US plans to take an Iranian port city. The Iranians won't be able to fire cluster munitions, mines, artillery as easily for fear of killing their own people. They won't have the kind of line of visual fire control they'd have against the US forces on an island due to dense urban environments either.
Anyone know if this impacts just "routers" or if it includes switches, access points, etc? The all in ones have always been trash regardless of company but I still need switches and access points and reading between the lines "only models the Pentagon approves" seems to hint to me only those models that put USA burger back-doors which are the last thing I want in my network here in the heart of burger-stan.
Edit: From the FCC page:
Router defined as: consumer-grade networking devices that are primarily intended for residential use and can be installed by the customer. Routers forward data packets, most commonly Internet Protocol (IP) packets, between networked systems.
Forward data packets between networked systems. Great that's potentially everything. That consumer-grade might be doing some heavy lifting though so maybe small business lines won't be impacted though I think this is going to be down to who gets bribed.
What constitutes “produced in a foreign country”? Is there a content threshold?
- The National Security Determination states that “[p]roduction generally includes any major stage of the process through which the device is made including manufacturing, assembly, design, and development.”
- In the equipment authorization process, applicants have to self-certify that any RF device is not “covered equipment.” Going forward, this includes self-certification that the RF device is not a router “produced in a foreign country.”
- Applicants seeking equipment authorization for any router will bear responsibility for certifying, in good faith, that any such router was not “produced in a foreign country.”
So no making them in China, then assembling them here. You basically can't do any work in China, Mexico, Korea, Japan, etc.
So arguably this is 2 things:
Trump's harebrained idea that he can re-industrialize the US.
The actual desired outcome of the natsec state which is blackmailing China, Chinese companies, etc to put in US backdoors and give US significant input on design. Probably to destroy Chinese companies. American and NATO companies even if they make the devices in China still will report vulnerabilities to the NSA/CIA for their use before patching while Chinese companies will not so in practice it's probably an open war on any fully Chinese owned company but not American designed by American companies but built in China stuff. Attempts to keep China from moving up the value chain once again.
Iran may or may not need some sort of line of sight spotters or nearby surface radar or sensing to police the strait. They don't have aircraft to police the strait. Even with some Chinese and Russian help I'm not sure they have anything approaching reliable real-time satellite coverage capable of picking out ships moving and reacting in a way that allows them to use that data for reliable targeting with drones and/or missiles.
If it is the case they rely on some sort of nearby sensing and can't make up for it with distant launched (from inland) drones then the US taking the right islands and doing some bombing could in theory open up the strait for a bit. Lots of US soldiers would be getting injured and/or killed if they try to hold it but on the other hand if they drop in, destroy all the bases and sensing equipment, kill all the Iranians they can find. Thoroughly blow up power, supply depots, tech, etc. And then they leave and patrol that area from the air with drones to prevent Iranians re-establishing with the equipment necessary for sensing they could in theory strike a blow to Iran's ability to police the strait.
Of course Iran has its own counter if it mines the main strait and forces ships to divert near their islands they should still be able to police traffic somewhat. But maybe the US thinks they can demine it and just have some stop and go before Iran is left without any leverage. I don't know. Just speculating without a ton of necessarily knowledge here.