"When one door closes another door opens, and then it also closes and still another door opens until it, too, closes and ... ."

(Apologies to Alexander Graham Bell.)

"As recently as last week, the Iran war appeared to be turning slightly in America's favor," writes Robert Worth. "The Houthis - the Yemen-based militia that is Iran's most formidable remaining ally in the Middle East - were under pressure from their local rivals, and the Saudi air force was pounding them with air strikes. The president of Yemen's internationally recognized government issued a triumphant statement declaring that the Houthis' miscalculations will open the door to their complete collapse.' With their Houthi partners wounded, Iran's leaders would have one more reason to back down and agree to Donald Trump's terms."

Yesterday morning, those delusions drifted away like smoke as Houthi forces broke through their enemies' defenses and seized the towns and islands around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the most important maritime choke points in the world.

That loss leaves Trump, who had been hoping to win back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, with a bitter surprise. His enemies now control both of the two important straits in the Middle East, through which a combined total of about a third of the world's oil shipments pass every day.

Meanwhile, the imbecile who got this ball rolling is golfing in Ireland.

For some reason, a post-9/11 memory blossomed after years locked away, nothing major, just indicative of the time. A couple of months or so after 9/11 I boarded my first airline flight since the attacks, Chicago to DC, I think it was. Anyway, a couple of stewardesses greeted passenger on entry, discreetly asking males who looked as though they had size and/or agility on their side if they'd mind just keeping an eye out on their fellow passengers and be prepared to help out if required, a whispered request/plea acceed3d to with a nod in the grim affirmative. At the time? Real. It remains an uncomfortable memory from that era.

The basic map lessons of Trump's War will be taught in military history classes for ages to come.

Hey, bunches of Trump's mob appear cool with cop beaters and killers, so why would election cheating - after years of exposure to and immersion in election-denial lies - phase the bleaters in the least?

Up to 9/11 I was able to access several green-ink jihadi recruiting websites - basically, pack your bags, because if you're really interested in what we're interested in you'll know someone you can contact type stuff. They disappeared on 9/11.

#1
Just opening up the possibility, Bill.
They're being polite and charitable.
To people like you, Bill.
Gawd only knows why.

" Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer)

"I would like to build a University of which the football team could be proud."
George Lynn Cross
President, University of Oklahoma (1944-1968)

For Trump, like most Americans, the events of 9/11 unfolded on television as he watched from a place of relative safety.

Unlike most Americans, he feels compelled to lie about it.

Or would that be just a tad -------????
#194 | POSTED BY EBERLY

It's the role you've carved out for yourself. Bon appetit.

Looks an awful lot like the get-up Ron Jeremy wore in a flick that played at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre back around 1973. (That said, memories may vary.)

Danke! Aber, Hugo Boss do them better.
~ Hugo Boss

Pathological lying is part of Donald Trump's mental illness and steep decline.
Oddly, Republicans are still cool with him as POTUS, nuke codes and all.
Then again, he's made the predator class among them lots of money.
The MAGAt mob less so, although when Trump's War ends ...
... around the time he finally ends his Epstein Coverup ...
Who knows?

Skimming may be good for mental health.

You were expecting Plato's Grove of Academos?

It's probably true, Rick Wilson's proposition that everything Trump touches dies.

It is definitely the case Trump ensh#ttifies everything he touches. The man is, simply put, a master ensh#ttificationist.

Tens of thousands of of lives destroyed and mountains of treasure wasted to keep Jeffrey Epstein's name off the front page.
Mission accomplished.

"Is the US dead yet? Do we get a do-over?"

1. Well on the way.
2. Of course not (because this is the real world).

Yup, it's definitely been a long, strange trip.

No wonder Republicans are on-board with Trump's Epstein Coverup.

" Like the dude who embraced the Nazi's in WW2?"

Are you thinking of the GOP s 1940 platform?