Can’t avoid the impending Iran deal and the circus now around it but more good news on gay marriage.
- Climate change was a contributing factor to the war inside Syria. This has been suggested before but now a team of scientists put together a report explaining this fact for the world to understand. They also mention refugees arriving from Iraq as a contributing factor (who caused that again?). But it’s cool everybody because all we have to do is send senile Senator Inhofe over to Syria with a few snowballs and this whole mess will be cleared up quickly. Peace is on the way!
- Netanyahu’s lies are starting to sink him. A great video on AJA appeared today giving you 5 things he will refuse to admit when he testifies to Congress and is worth watching to give you a quick version of why we should barely pay attention to him. The Intercept also put together a good piece pointing out the many times he has “cried wolf” over the years. Both pieces mention his testimony to Congress about Iraq’s advanced nuclear technology in 2002. Listening to Netanyahu about other country’s nuclear ambitions is like listening to idiot preachers continually predicting the end of the world. No matter how many times these tools are wrong, the foolish still think they speak the truth.
See this 90%? That’s the percentage of things I say about Iran that are utter lies. The 10% that is truthful is when I say the name of the country correctly.
- John Boehner is one of the foolish and can’t hide it. Boehner defended his invite to Netanyahu by stating “Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say”. Yes, because Bibi has no way of transmitting his message to Congress in any other way than to give a speech there during an Israeli election year. No one will put a camera on him or a microphone in front of his mouth. Poor fella. It was like he was a ghost prior to giving his speech. By the way, Mr. Speaker. What is the cost of this versus, say, a conference call with Bibi? I mean, you guys are fiscal conservatives so this is the cheaper route, correct?
- Iran is and has been a rational actor throughout all of this and there is no evidence they are pursuing a nuclear weapon. An excellent read from The Atlantic focusing on this reality but one section is worth quoting here and should be constantly noted about the situation:
That’s why the Bush administration’s 2007 National Intelligence Estimate said Iran is “guided by a cost-benefit approach.” It’s why Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in 2012 that “we are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor.” It’s why Benny Gantz, then head of the Israel Defense Forces, declared the same year that “the Iranian leadership is composed of very rational people.” It’s why Meir Dagan, the longtime head of Israel’s intelligence agency, called the Iranian regime “rational” in an interview with 60 Minutes. And it’s why Ron Burgess, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress that “the agency assesses Iran is unlikely to initiate or provoke a conflict.” Could all these men, who analyze intelligence about Iran for a living, be wrong?
- Nebraska’s ban on gay marriage has been struck down by the courts. Another state is added to the ranks of those on the right side of history. I guess they wanted to be able to say they legalized gay marriage prior to the Supreme Court legalizing it across the nation this coming June. No reason, at this point, to be a state that has to be drug kicking and screaming across the finish line by the federal government.