All_Pro_Bills

So does Canada. But the purpose isn't to provide taxpayer subsidized cheap liquor prices to alcoholics. Mamdani is the prototypical young commie. Knows what's best for the working person without ever experiencing the life of a working person in any way. I used to see these douches at college. Talking lots of hypothetical bull crap about worker exploitation and and economic theories minus any real world experience. I think these people were allergic to work or manual labor. Meanwhile I'm working the night shift full time at a factory paying my way through college concluding these fools don't know nothing. The probable next Mayor of NYC doesn't have a single original idea. Free this, free that. Nothings free. Its all been tried before. Look at the failed Soviet model. Its all there. It will all result in a very large and spectacular failed social experiment. After the experience it would be fitting if they never win another election.

Well for one, by stopping sex obsessed maniacs and unscrupulous medical practicioners from conning children into going thru gender transition surgeries. Damn Nazis!

Even Wikipedia says he's here illegally. Came here illegally around 2011 at age 16. A gang member coming to escape gang violence. Left out the gang member part to the judge ruling he could stay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_Kilmar_Abrego_Garcia

He's getting due process. Is he here legally or illegally?

I expect years of satellite imagery of personnel and vehicles moving in and around the facilities have provided a good deal of information on the specific coordinates of the facilities. Combine that with eyes on the ground thought to be providing intelligence. Add electronic eavesdropping and "pinging" cell phone coordinates of known participants in the program. Maybe even debriefings of U.N. inspectors as suspected by the Iranians? I would expect all that and other intelligence produced the high degree of confidence about the targets that was necessary to green light the mission. As for deception in war, absolutely. There's good reason it's said "the first casualty of war is the truth".

A deeper inspection of the political environment yields the question how bad are the democrats that voters are willing to tolerate this type of behavior because they conclude he'll get things done that the democrats won"t or he'll fix things they screwed up? My personal assessment in 2024 was overall I disliked Trump less than I disliked Harris.

The latest stats I could find are from 2021 that said NYC has about 36K tax filers making $1 million+. Probably a good assumption there's somewhat more people making that much in 2025. So I think the plan is to tax the crap out of those $1M earners to pay for all the goodies for everybody else. Maybe drive it down to those at $400K? The problem is the basic tax the rich approach which is attractive to voters wanting a lot of perks but not wanting to pay for them directly creates a lot of disincentives for high income individuals to stay in the city. many could decide to leave and set up permanent residency in lower tax States. Which erodes the tax base and makes the expected additional tax revenue vanish. Given the reality that technology has the capability to render the mid-town Manhattan office complex obsolete if you're willing to deal with the lower productivity with working-from-home arrangements and it gives high earners more options than just staying and paying. It changes the decision from having to be in NYC to wanting to be in NYC. Don't think for a minute New Jersey and Connecticut won't be dangling lots of incentives to large employers to leave Manhattan and move to their States.

If Israel wants to be certain the sites and the nuclear material and enrichment equipment have been destroyed they're going to have to send in ground forces.

A victory in the Mayoral general election will provide Democrats almost 3 years time prior to the 2028 national election to destroy NYC.

It's is complicated and i need to say being an American does not obligate a person to side with the government. And if I'm being objective about the situation rather than taking the "American perspective" I don't see any good guy here. I think the cease fire is a farce and hostilities will soon resume. Whether or not those sites and the uranium were destroyed is unimportant. I see the strikes as reinforcing the desire to develop nukes. Mainly, to deter other attacks. I've seen comments out of Russia and China critical of US action with pledges to support Iran. Whatever that means. So far both countries have decided to sit this one out. Other comments saying well just "give" Iran some nuclear weapons. What would be the response to that? Sanction Russia? Doing that already. Direct confrontation? Our forces are superior but there's risk of end of world scenarios. And what about China? They see Iran as essential to their belt and road initiative and global ambitions. The Clerics ruling, maybe not so much. Add to the mixture Trump's penchant to act like a 20 ton truck with no road manners and it's a very volatile situation. Lots of ways everything could go sideways. This could drag on for a lot longer than most think.

The Prez should not be negotiating cease fire or any other deals through social media. Trump's fatal flaw may be he fails to distinguish between the functional roles of US President and Corporate CEO. They are definitely different.

On the other side of the coin the Iranians did not trust the inspectors as they suspected the International Atomic Energy Agency personnel were providing intelligence about the program and the facilities to the U.S. and Israel.

I watch this clip and all I see is what looks like an abandoned series of rail cars from the 1950's.

Maybe they removed the enriched Uranium and maybe they didn't. Same goes for the equipment. But even if they did their only option currently is to store it away until some future time when they have rebuilt a facility to enrich it further. Unless anyone believes they have a Plan B secret back-up enrichment facility. Without access to the actual and true intelligence assessments, my suspicion is the story they were days or weeks away from having the fuel for a series of nuclear weapons is equivalent to the Bush era Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) excuse to invade Iraq. Which removed Saddam from power and as a consequence eliminated Iran's natural enemy and the force in the region keeping them in check. After that the Clerics were free to operate. If ever there was an example of mind your own business and the abysmal record of Washington's nation building and regime change operations this might be it. In a word, our government, regardless of which party is in power is bad at it. Maybe Libya was worse? They should stick to raising our taxes and wasting our money. They do that very well.

Not to worry. Any Iranian sleeper cell operatives arrested will be greeted by Sen. Van Hollen, the patron saint of lost causes, with a cool and refreshing margarita and demands for "due process" and immediate release.

Evidence? What a concept. I'd dare say the evidence of an iminent threat has been destroyed. Or perhaps the evidence of there not being any immenent threat has been destroyed. Either way, that secret will most certainly be kept well hidden by the governments of America and Isreal. For me the major theme at play remains intact. If you want to protect yourself from attacks launched at the whims of countries possessing big league military capabilities and nuclear weapons you better get some nukes too as that seems to be the only deterrent they fear.

I think at a minimum Trump should bring Congressional leadership of both parties into the room and share the intel and conversation on the mreits and the mision with these representatives of Congress. That would be a more consensus building approach rather than a series of one liners that he will decide what to do here. This may be happening but I've heard little on what is customary protocol.

Obama's an off the shelf lib narcissist intellectual type that thinks he's always the smartest guy in the room.

I think you're on the right path here. But regarding point 5, "What is motivating the United States government in this conflict?", before replying to this point I'd ask which United States? Because America is unique among the nations of the world. It is both a country and an empire. And what motivates actors doing the bidding of the country is different from what motivates those doing the bidding of the Empire. Adding to this, the Empire is not simply composed of Americans. Its composed of entities like the international banking system, aligned foreign interests, multi-national corporations, and vassal states and allies such as many European nations, Japan, to name some. I'm not sure why more people don't see this dual personality disorder as it can explain much of what goes on. So when I hear America First I don't think of isolationists like some here will cry, or America alone. I hear America the country first not America alone, the empire second. The Empire is never alone. Actors line Pompeo, Bolton, other neocons do the bidding and act in the interest of the Empire. Neoliberals too. They've all come out of the woodwork this week advocating for US intervention, which is no surprise as that's their primary mission in life. As a group they must be as excited as Baseball fans on opening day! Conversely, the populist movement is composed of citizens that are tired of endless wars and interventions that divert resources from what they see as domestic priorities. These people and some conservative compose the interests in America the country. Surprisingly, many liberals and leftist do too. Like Bernie Sanders for example. Only 19% of Trump voters in a recent poll support direct intervention. So for Trump the risk of direct US military involvement is losing his audience rather early in his term. Because Republicans can't win elections without this large block of voters (too bad the democrats can't figure it out and move to the center and get these people back). So the dilemma is the risk of losing his base vs. letting Iran off the hook here to fight another day and let Israel handle the problem. As for Iran, the smart thing to do would be to agree to a nuclear deal with inspections. But not some unconditional surrender scenario. If I'm them (which I am not) I'd do this on the condition that Israel submit to inspections and monitoring too. Because they already possess nuclear weapons and there's nothing in their recent actions that tell me they can be trusted any more than Iran can be trusted. Of course the Israeli's will respond to this condition with a vehement "no" but bringing this condition to the table will expose the issue to the discussion the servants of the Empire and Israel don't want to have at any point.

Rather than paint themselves into a corner Isreal has cleverly manipulated the situation by placing pressure and focus on the US to become directly involved in the conflict. Publicly placing responsibility for the fate of the world exposed to the potential of Iranian nuclear weapons that don't exist at present. Playing us like a puppet. My view is stay out and leave them to sink or swim. This nonsensical world cop thing aside it's their fight not ours.

The thing is, that's the contemptuous attitude that drives these groups together. Snooty full of themselves know it all's that look down with contempt on anyone that doesn't share their enlightened world view.

Rewind the clock back to 1953 when America.via the CIA initiated a coup against the democratically elected government in Iran ino order to save American and British oil interests in the country from nationalization. Installed the dictatorship in the form of the Shah until 1979 when the Clerics took over. One bad guy for another. I'll leave the lesson to be learned here about the short and long term consequences of intervention to others.

I can say with close to 100% confidence that no theoretical Iranian nukes are pointed at the USA mainland. Why would they be? If they're pointed anywhere they are pointed at Isreal. But they don't exist. Blowing up some underground research facility will do nothing to neutralize operational nuclear weapons. And if the Clerics running the country are faced with total defeat they'll use them if they have them. And if they have them then the mission needs to be taking the active nukes out. Not research facilities. Logically, focusing on taking out research leads to conclude no active capability exists.

I think Trump's team has done a very poor job of making and communicating the justifications for direct American involvement. Social media posts are amateurish and no substitute for facts and details. The President's statements are vague rambling. A poll indicated only 19% of Trump voters support engagement. Overall, 16% of Americans support involvement. At some point the Clerics need to go. But here Isreal started this campaign and its not our problem they lack the capacity to neutralize underground facilities. Let then send in ground forces to finish the mission. And likely incur significant casualties. That's not our problem to address. Trump campaigned on a pledge of no new wars. If he falls for Isreal's manipulation here he'll lose significant support. It it worth the political capital to do Netanyahu 's dirty work? Do this and he'll lose the audience.

Judging and stereotyping people by their appearance. That's the core of diversity. The distinction between diversity/DEI and good old traditional racism is instead of terrorizing minority groups for their appearance they are rewarded. Even so, that's still racist. Just admit it.