gehringer_2

Decapitating the regime worked in Venezuela didn't it? ...oh, wait, nevermind.

and so it begins.

Good to know that any 5th grade class can muster as much intelligent discussion as the US Congress.

remember when people thought he might be on the 'reform' side? Good times.....

Jurist from the Gaurdian Council == Likely next Supreme Leader.

are we seeing any evidence of regime change yet?

Or it pulls the Saudi's into the shooting.

Under normal circumstances, after the Supreme leader dies the new supreme leader is chosen by a council of top mullahs - sort of like the cardinals picking a pope. But I would be bet you are correct that there is a process for an immediate interim leader for a wartime footing.

the thing I worry about with Iran is along the lines of MB's post above. The regime has been pushed hard before by protest and absorbed the blow pretty easily. One of the things in the West is that like Iraq before the war, we see mostly the Iranians who want what we want. The western press is always looking for the protestors. But once you get outside Teheran, how deeply conservative is the rest of the population? We don't know because we don't see/hear from them. It would be tragic if it turns out the parallel to Afghanistan holds, where the real problem for all those westernized people in Kabul was less our perfidy than the fact that a huge portion of the countryside actually does want to live in the 7th century. I hope you are right, but with no US boots on the ground to take physical control of the levers of power and then hand them to the right people, it's still looks like a crap shoot to me. Which is definitely not saying I want US boots on the ground there.

TBF, you don't have same civil war potential in Iran as in Iraq because 'liberation' in Iran will not mean an armed and previously dominant minority ethnic group is going to be deposed and is going to fight to the the death to hold on. That said, in that part of the world, anything that can go sideways usually does. How deep and hard to dislodge will the power structure of the Islamic Republic of Iran turn out to be? It is as thin as Suprme leaders clique or does it have the ability to reconstitute itself? It's had a long time to get entrenched. But's it's also ticked off almost all the Iranians - at least that is the impression we have in the West.

Celebration is good, but someone better start figuring out how to disarm the IRG, or this could all be short lived.

GHWB and Schwartzkopf

Ex-Congresswoman. Tweets are cheap ego massage. If she had at least hung around she might have done some good voting against him.

the story is on Reuters now and the name are public. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/first-brands-nears-bankruptcy-settlement-tees-up-business-unit-sales-2026-02-27/ Sounds like there might be a chance Ford steps in to straighten it out. That would probably be the best outcome for the employees, but it's not like FoMoCo doesn't have enough problems of it's own either.

turn the question around. If they don't keep Duren, who can fill the void he leaves behind that they either have, or can get? Duren's not a perfect player but I always get a sense of 'the grass is greener' going on in the dissatisfaction level over him. Mitchell may not have been playing but Duren was making a guy that had led the league in the past in DWS look like a child. I get that maxing any player is a tough call, but to me that decision is more about whether the team can afford two maxes in general, less about whether Duren could be one.

If you believe the current activity will be sustained for sure. However I'm doubtful it will be, but who knows?

unless you have at least 2 middles names and German heritage general.

someday there really must be a picture of DJT with the dictionary definition of projection. He is the most transparent individual I can ever remember reaching any kind of political power. Every accusation he has ever made about anyone else has been a predictor/admission of his own conduct.

there were lots of turning point for the GOP. If the other Bush brother had pushed his brother aside it would be a whole different history as well.

And it's the self fulfilling death spiral. The way they are operating they aren't making any money, so some vulture like Bain dismembers it all and walks away a little cash but the all the people are SOL. The vulture's ledger books say in the end it was all good, but society gets left with all those 'externalities' like broken towns and broken people that neither the vultures nor the big campaign contributors are obligated to do any accounting for.

good DAY. It's just an idiomatic abbreviation. In modern English "have a nice nice/good day" has gotten to sounding hackneyed, or worse is said satirically so often you risk people taking you wrong. I volunteer accepting donations from people, you do want to send them off with some positive good-bye, I find I tend to use every combination just to avoid sounding stale to myself. And you try to match the audience. "Have a good one" for the guys in the F150's, "Have a nice day" for the 30 something professional women, "Take care" for the oldsters....🤷‍♀️

I think today, a Spring training report of 'dead arm' doesn't send up too many rockets, but 'forearm' anything is never good to hear.

Post of the day.

Spent any time in Houston? I can see why business likes it, but QOL sucks. SIL is near San Antonio, seems to be a more reasonable place to actually live. No experience with the Dallas area.

I'm waiting to see if he has changed his stance at all. He could not get to strikes at the bottom of the zone last season so I'll be less pessimistic if we see an attempt at a setup change.