horizon during drive
Today is Thursday and I drove from Chicago to the Quad Cities today.
There was extensive road work near Minooka and, again, about 58 miles from the Quad Cities on Interstate 80, but the drive was relatively uneventful.
I left Chicago at 2 p.m. and arrived home at 5:30 p.m., which is exactly the time frame anticipated. We decided to order Chik’ Fil A. In the twenty minutes my husband was gone picking up those sandwiches, it was announced that Israel had launched “preemptive” strikes against Iran. It also was announced that the strikes were the first of a wave of many and that Israeli citizens could expect retaliation.
You can’t convince me—(despite Marco Rubio’s protestations to the contrary)—that the United States didn’t know full well that Benjamin Netanyahu was going to strike Iran, aiming at nuclear facilities and other nuclear-related targets. The U.S. had made some progress in forging a nuclear agreement under John Kerry, but Trump tore up that agreement. Then the Trump administration began attempting to resurrect that dead agreement.
Ironically, there were supposedly talks scheduled for Sunday about limiting Iran’s reach for nuclear weapons. Sounds like those meetings will not be taking place now. Despite the presence of deep-underground Iranian nuclear facilities that will be difficult (if not impossible) to destroy from the air, perhaps there won’t be as much left to “regulate” after Israel unleashes another wave of bombings against its adversarial antagonistic neighbor.
How much DJT really anticipated ever getting such an Iranian arms agreement, with safeguards and inspections, is anybody’s guess. As for me, I suspect that letting Israel bomb Iran right now, when Iran is weakened by the Gaza conflict and Hamas (which is Iran-backed) is in disarray was probably something—much like Ben and Donnie agreeing that they could sure make a nice hotel strip out of the Gaza beach area—the two authoritarian leaders could agree on.
The leader of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, was confirmed dead, Iranian state television reported, a significant blow to Tehran’s governing theocracy and an immediate escalation of its long-simmering conflict with Israel.The chief of staff of Iranian armed forces, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was also confirmed dead by Iranian state television. Other top military officials and scientists were believed to have been killed. Some 200 Israeli aircraft took part in the operation, hitting about 100 targets, Israeli army chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. Over 100 drones were launched by Iran towards Israel, which the country was intercepting and warning the country’s occupants to remain vigilant. Schools and businesses were closed and other attacks were anticipated.
So, accept the United States’ denial that we had anything to do with the attacks on Iran if you want, but realize that our close relationship with Israel, intensified by the chummy friendship between Netanyahu and Trump—means that at least tacit approval of such a bombing occurred. It would be right in line with DJT’s usual ham-handed approach to diplomacy and everything else (*Cases in point: the removal of immigrants from the U.S. and/or the separation of infants from their mothers at the border during Trump 1.0). This complicit silent approval of the bombing of Iran by Israel goes right along with the chainsaw-wielding He-Man persona Trump wants to project, [while babbling incoherently and (probably) wearing adult diapers.]
Armed troops sent in by Mayor Daley during the Chicago riots of 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King.
One other late-breaking news flash: Trump has been ordered to return the National Guard to the command of the Governor of California, who did not ask for the guard to be sent in in the first place. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, an appointee of former President Clinton, temporarily blocked the president from deploying thousands of guardsmen to Los Angeles. The judge said Trump had exceeded his authority (you think?). An appeal was filed immediately and the case will probably go to the Supreme Court.
