In a lot of ways I feel the discourse that he means a nuclear attack buries the lede. This is not likely to happen.
What is more likely to happen is just as bad. Devastating civil infrastructure would put 10s of millions of lives at risk.
And even if one were to look at this from a myopic USA centric lens, has anyone considered how many of these people we were told needed liberation are now radicalized against us?
Response from Iran: "Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it will respond outside the region and deprive the United States and its allies of oil and gas “for many years” if the US crosses “red lines” and attacks civilian facilities."[1]
"Iran has closed all diplomatic and indirect channels of communication with the United States, the state-run Tehran Times reported ..." US media does not seem to have picked up on this, but media in India and China have.[2] But the common source seems to be "Tehran Times", and it's unclear who runs that or where they get their info. New York Times, AP, and AlJazeera are not saying that. Xinhua has a one-line note with no source. The US White House says Vance is talking to somebody. Politico says Vance is on "standby".[3]
The markets dropped. He and his cronies are buying up stocks. Tomorrow he'll say Iran is negotiating and offering something amazing. The stocks will go up and they'll sell. Iran will say they have no idea what he's talking about. Wash and repeat.
That would require a level of class consciousness that has been violently suppressed for decades. Although maybe there's some hope based on continual record breaking no kings numbers
No, this is now America's war. Israel has a part in it but the US is the main belligerent at this point and if Trump follows through on his threats he all but guarantees the downfall of the United States. This has gone way too far already and since the internal checks and balances of the United States appear not to be working it will be up to the rest of the world to draw a line. We can not afford to let this spiral into another world war, especially not with multiple nuclear powers involved.
Think of it this way: Iran is isolated on the world stage. But turn it into a significant enough victim and there will be two major religions on either side of a war. That's a recipe for something that could potentially make WWII look 'mild'. I know there are people that actually want this, but let's at least see clearly here: nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody will benefit from that. Even the ones who think they will benefit. Democrats that are supportive of this are hopefully a small enough minority that sanity will prevail.
Think avalanche: you can start one, but you can't stop one. Avalanches stop themselves, but only when all potential energy is expended.
What precisely are you doing other than posting stuff that pretends that a party in minority in both houses of Congress could actually stop a president, unless some politicians in the majority chose to join them.
And, as underwhelming as the press are, the facts are that surveys show that American's broadly disapprove of the war. Presumably because of what they have learned about it from the press and the opposition.
The people who are responsible are the people in power and their remaining supporters. Aided, arguably, by people who espouse cynical, self-soothing complaints that ignore what most people learn about civics in middle school.
It's wrong to even frame this as a partisan question. When the leader of a democratic country threatens a nation of 90 million people with genocide, that should be the end of that government on that same day. Where is the entire US population? You hear nothing but crickets, what an utterly passive, terminally ill society.
What's truly shocking is that a large part of what got Trump elected in 2024 (and the world in this mess now) was that the GOP cleverly stoked the fears of transgenderism via local-market ad buys during the election. This very play was the reason for much of Trump's gains with various demo's such as black males and hispanics/latinos. So many of these folks were completely triggered by 'grooming' and the ideas that girls are having to compete against transgender girls in their sports. The fact that folks were willing to elect Trump so that a very small number of women wouldn't have to compete against transgenders, is sad beyond words. Perhaps this (will turn into) a lesson well learned, although voters have notoriously short memories. Sophistication of this type among the masses is sorely lacking.
The ruling class has us just where they want us -- so focused on & fearful of losing our little jobs that we don't have context around much else so that we can do a thoughtful job of performing as an electorate. This is how you elect a Donald Trump, as THEY have now learned.
How is Trump's threat the most extreme in this war? Hell, "a whole civilization might die tonight?". The islamic regime in Iran has explicitly set wiping out Persian civilization as it's goal, more than 50 years ago. And they've worked hard at it. Or how about:
Iran's regime threatens to make life in the middle east essentially impossible:
The world got so used to Don's deranged bravado, that I doubt that either china or russia have raised their DEFCON status equivalents, as they would probably do, should any other serious american president said the same thing.
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What is more likely to happen is just as bad. Devastating civil infrastructure would put 10s of millions of lives at risk.
And even if one were to look at this from a myopic USA centric lens, has anyone considered how many of these people we were told needed liberation are now radicalized against us?
the marginal cost for him is unfortunately not that high at this point
"Iran has closed all diplomatic and indirect channels of communication with the United States, the state-run Tehran Times reported ..." US media does not seem to have picked up on this, but media in India and China have.[2] But the common source seems to be "Tehran Times", and it's unclear who runs that or where they get their info. New York Times, AP, and AlJazeera are not saying that. Xinhua has a one-line note with no source. The US White House says Vance is talking to somebody. Politico says Vance is on "standby".[3]
A negotiated cease-fire seems unlikely now.
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/7/iran-war-li...
[2] https://www.the-independent.com/bulletin/news/iran-mediators...
[3] https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/06/vance-is-on-standby...
> This is what happens when there's no effective opposition. Where are the dems? Where's the press?
The US is functioning as a banana republic style totalitarian regime for a few years. Even Venezuela has a tougher opposition.
Iran war that would lead to a fucking global economic crisis? Hell no! shut up Bibi!
That's in a gist the difference between the Democrats and the entity who call themselves the Republican party nowadays.
Think of it this way: Iran is isolated on the world stage. But turn it into a significant enough victim and there will be two major religions on either side of a war. That's a recipe for something that could potentially make WWII look 'mild'. I know there are people that actually want this, but let's at least see clearly here: nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody will benefit from that. Even the ones who think they will benefit. Democrats that are supportive of this are hopefully a small enough minority that sanity will prevail.
Think avalanche: you can start one, but you can't stop one. Avalanches stop themselves, but only when all potential energy is expended.
What I mean by Israel's war is that the motivation was Israel's, they got Americans to be their grunts.
I don't see this de-escalating soon unless Europe shows more teeth.
It's pretty much nightmare fuel out there.
> I don't see this de-escalating soon unless Europe shows more teeth.
Can you describe what you have in mind?
And still every day it continues, it becomes a little bit harder to back out. Like Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan this war cannot be won.
> the internal checks and balances of the United States appear not to be working
There is one last test, but it's not until November. Until then, Trump is on a speed run to destroy everything he can
So how do you propose this strike happen?
I can't think of anything other than going out and standing on a street with a placard. can we do anything better than that?
What precisely are you doing other than posting stuff that pretends that a party in minority in both houses of Congress could actually stop a president, unless some politicians in the majority chose to join them.
And, as underwhelming as the press are, the facts are that surveys show that American's broadly disapprove of the war. Presumably because of what they have learned about it from the press and the opposition.
The people who are responsible are the people in power and their remaining supporters. Aided, arguably, by people who espouse cynical, self-soothing complaints that ignore what most people learn about civics in middle school.
And the press has been covering Trump's rhetoric and the war pretty heavily.
The ruling class has us just where they want us -- so focused on & fearful of losing our little jobs that we don't have context around much else so that we can do a thoughtful job of performing as an electorate. This is how you elect a Donald Trump, as THEY have now learned.
It says: "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again."
Will. Not might.
> A man stands at his home near a synagogue, which was damaged in a strike, in Tehran on Tuesday
Bizarre wording from this website. 90% of Jews in Iran left after the Islamic fundamentalists took over.
Iran's regime threatens to make life in the middle east essentially impossible:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/23/iran-threat-to...
Iran's regime threatens to kill every Iranian they can "before giving Iran back to Iranians":
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/16/no-sign-of-new-prot...
Even those who don't care about innocent lives recognize the horrible consequences for everyone else:
- Iran empowered to tax the strait of Hormuz indefinitely with high insurance
- Russia empowered with access to the middle east since the Iranians will have to embrace their only ally
Trump enablers are responsible.
Fucking clown.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47674286
I'm sure he'll follow up with bailing the ocean.