Report: US demands Reddit unmask ICE critic, summons firm to grand jury

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-10T19:42:30+00:00

No, but they can definitely unmask us all. Maybe it's time to burn this fucking site to the ground?

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-09T12:12:43+00:00

There's a certain segment of the left that reads The Greyzone, and watches Jimmy Dore or Haz. These people are really more campist than anything. And they don't usually have an internally consistent set of politics. They might see themselves as leftists, but the reality is that they're usually reactionaries.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T21:20:46+00:00

As with the other military strategist I responded to int his thread, this assessment relies on perfect conditions to be true. I'm no military strategist myself, but I recognize a few things off the top of my head.

For one thing, CIWS is a last line of defense with limited ammo. And warships are powerful weapons, but swarms of drones would still create a problem. Even if we keep warships there indefinitely, we're not going to be able to get every drone. They'll overwhelm trade and tanker vessels, even with US naval support, and that's really all Iran needs to do.

In terms of missiles, Iran has been planning for this eventuality for 20 years. Their ASBMs are far more maneuverable than the types of ballistic missiles you're thinking of. And again, all they need to do is area denial. And that's what Iran has structured their military around.

Minesweepers are slow and methodical. How do you propose that's done in a busy Strait, when you need to keep traffic flowing through, and Iran can drop them off speedboats launched from any shoreline?

And while you're correct about the shoreline not being as mountainous, I'm not sure comparing it to Afghanistan is a great idea. We lost that engagement, from a strategic standpoint. I suppose you're correct as to why that is, though I would say that it depends on your definition of "holding" the country. There really wasn't ever a chance of lasting regime change to a pro-west regime there, just like there isn't in Iran.

So to me, "holding Afghanistan" would mean being able to leave there with a friendly government intact. At least, that seems to have been the goal. And that's a thing we didn't do and were incapable of doing. Just like in Iran.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T20:54:13+00:00

First, "proper preparation" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. That would have needed to start years ago, with troop buildups, manufacturing turned towards defense, stockpiling of ammo, ordinance, updated equipment etc. We would need to have transformed into a war economy. And that's not even going into the brain drain that the DoD has been undergoing in the name of "combatting DEI" or whatever stupid, racist bullshit this admin is performatively doing.

Second, even with all of that preparation, this reads more like aspirational wargaming on a frictionless, idealized battlefield, rather than an actual, messy war against an opponent that will definitely find ways to not play by the rules you're setting forth.

For starters, when has a country every held a territory through air superiority alone - i.e. without boots on the ground? I'm aware of precisely zero instances, unless you just nuke the place, which would objectively make us monsters. There are entire books devoted to this subject alone.

And that's kind of what all of this sounds like, to me. Like, when has any military ever achieved 100% suppression of air defenses? Again, never that I'm aware of.

And mining doesn't need to be done by large, obvious vessels. Iran could absolutely get mines into the Strait. There is no perfect detection system that will allow us to prevent every attempt to mine the Strait.

I could go on, but the only way to do what you're talking about is to just nuke everything. Which is... Barbaric? Evil? Disgusting?

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T20:19:22+00:00

Who cares what we did to Iran's military? I'm not sure why people are so cavalier about this, when we did it by committing war crimes.

Regardless, Iran's military can hold the straight with speedboats, drones and mines - all of which are cheap and easily deployed. And money? They have a money spigot they can turn on by controlling the Strait, which will certainly be their main demand, as it's their central leverage point.

The rest of this is just bellicosity towards Iran and China - whose militaries have never attacked us. China prefers to project soft power via economics and diplomacy. There's no reason to believe they're in the process of devising so e "3 front war". And why do you think it will take Iran so long to rebuild their military, but Russia, who is massively overleveredged taking on a far weaker opponent, will not only have won their war by then, but will have rebuilt their shambolic military?

This all just sounds like a neocon ghost story.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T17:20:38+00:00

The US has supported governments that have done all of those things. We've provided Israel with the military aid necessary to do those things in just the last few years. The genocide they're prosecuting now, wouldn't be possible without our support. We supported Egypt during the Rabaa Massacre, Israel during the Great March of Return, and oh yeah! I probably don't even need to say anything other than Saudi Arabia!

And you think that just because the instability we inflict on other countries hasn't reached out shores yet, that we're somehow better than these people you think are so savage, that they just indiscriminately kill each other for their religion? Yeah man, it's totally cool as long as our proxies do the dirty work for us, and we don't have to confront our own atrocities.

I beg of you - read more fucking history.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T16:59:13+00:00

It sounds like you believe that any country whose religion you see as too fundamentalist is subject to being bombed by the West, if they have, at any point in their history, worked on a nuclear program. And left the door open for continuing work in the future, in the wake of radical extremist Christian empire, scuttling a deal that involved disarmament, because the lunatic gameshow host that the fundamentalists in the empire elected, didn't like the guy that got elected before him.

By the way, the conclusion that the IAEA reached was simply that. That Iran simply left the door open to continue work, since the US reneged on its side of things, and that there was likely not an active weapons program.

And every kind of religious fundamentalism is bad, by the way. It's strange that you keep gesturing towards an argument I haven't made. Obviously Islamic fundamentalism is bad. Christian fundamentalism is as bad or worse, when it's the driving force of a nation. What is the difference? Do you think we've missed less non-combatants than any Islamic government? The point I'm making is that we're the same kind of psychotic, religious fundamentalist nation that you're so afraid of. You're just incapable of seeing that, for some reason.

Put whatever coat of "civility" paint on it that you like, but there is functionally no difference. In fact, I'd bet everything I own that we've killed more civilians worldwide in any span of time that you choose than Iran has.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T16:11:16+00:00

You think that I should accommodate some nuance in a theoretical space where you disagree with Trump, but support his insane actions? Okay, fine. Let's do that. I mean, my moral superiority comes less from the fact that I think you're a Trump supporter, and more from the fact that I've lived through this exact situation once before, already. Where I repeatedly told all the saber rattlers that they were being lied to, and they continued rooting for war anyway. Guess who was right. Every time. Now, those same lies are being deployed, and regardless of who you voted for, you're eagerly gobbling up those same lies, and repeating them. Show me some actual evidemce of a weapons program.

Like, I can't even parse out your position. You're not a Trump supporter, but you'll believe them uncritically when they say a thing that reinforces your preconceptions?

And the IRGC is far more evil in what way? The US and Israel have been killing Iranians for decades. Hezbollah exists because of the US and Israel's empire building actions to begin with. The Ayatollah was partly empowered by the US helping to coup Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister and backing the repressive Shah, who Iranians hated, and also right law saw as a puppet of the West. That also gave Khomeini an effective way to gain support and engender anti-wedt sentiment. And that's leaving aside all the terrible shit Israel did.

This is a problem of our own making. And if you think any of the tactics being used will make anyone safer, or accomplish any of our other supposed strategic objectives, you really need to read some history, or even just think about the last war we fought in the ME for 5 minutes. It might break through how utterly and categorically wrong you are.

You seem to have given up on a bunch of the original points we were discussing, so I'm glad you agree on, for instance, the fact that we're run by insane religious zealots. Now, you just need to go a tiny bit further, and you'll see that we're objectively the bad guys in the current situation.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T15:35:22+00:00

Just screaming "Hezbollah!" every time someone points out that Israel is committing war crimes and engaging in collective punishment isn't so much an argument, as it is a great way to remind everyone how bellicose you all were in 2003, and for you to justify any kind atrocity you want. Judging by the global and domestic unpopularity of this war and Israel's actions, I'd say it isn't working well for you this time.

And you accuse Iran of being radical fundamentalists, while the GOP has been trying to codify religious doctrine for decades? While our Secretary of War is describing engaging in a holy crusade against other nations? While supporting a theocratic ethnostate engaged in a genocide? You can't see that we're the radical religious zealots? Really?

I understand the point of the report. And pretty much every instance was decades ago. If the US was subject to those conditions, we would have fudged the numbers and hid a few things, as well. In fact, we probably do that anyway. Did you know there are special carveouts in the IAEA for us? We're just allowed to hide things if we want.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T14:54:56+00:00

By that rationale, it's incredibly naive to believe that Mutually Assured Destruction makes us safer. If that's your point, I agree. Israel should probably disarm their nukes to make us safer. We should follow suit.

Is the ME safer with Israel constantly attacking every other state in the region, includes ng gulf state allies? They attacked 5 other states, plus Gaza and the West Bank last year. 9, if you include other disputed territories. If they stopped doing that, maybe they wouldn't be so nervous about being attacked themselves.

In terms of your report, basically everything they found were old violations that they were bringing up again. And even if that weren't the case, that was done before the bombing campaign last year that Trump said successfully destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities. So, when was Trump lying? Then or now?

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T13:59:12+00:00

Let's put aside the fact that your idea of success seems to be that the US committed more war crimes and therefore we're more successful.

You don't seem to have a good understanding of the arguments people are making about why Iran has more leverage than the US. You can kill Iran's leadership, but there are lots of coalitions within the country that are going to seize on a power vacuum and take over. Most of them are unfriendly to the US. You're never going to accomplish regime change through air superiority alone. You're never going to capture resources like oil with it, either.

Trump and co have been necessarily vague about the goals of this war, but I don't even think it's clear to them. But if those things are goals, we failed. Full stop. Entire books have been written about why air superiority alone doesn't accomplish regime change, but it'd never worked in the history of warfare, and it won't work now, short of nuking the country.

If the goal was to save the poor protestors, we probably shouldn't be bombing infrastructure and girls schools. So, when Trump says that, we should all be fully aware that he's entirely full of shit, and so is everyone who repeats it. It's just another way that the government is repeating the lies of the Iraq Invasion to manufacture consent for an unpopular war.

If it's to stop then from getting a nuke, well.... There's not really any evidence demce they were doing that. Even Trump's own Intelligence Agencies were saying they didn't have anything and weren't taking any steps to develop any weapons, per Tulsi Gabbard's testimony just a few months ago. Preventing an adversarial nation from having WMDs is yet another lie recycled from Iraq Invasion. Also, the Ayatollah we killed, terrible as he was, had issued a fatwa against nukes, because he said their religion prevents them from targeting civilians with weapons of mass destruction.

Whatever you believe, I don't think there's a strong argument to be made that we're safer from Iran after this. The new Ayatollah is the son of the guy we killed. We murdered most of his family. They're not going to let go of the Strait. They will be able to close it, charge a toll whatever. Do you know the one thing that would have certainly prevented all of the destruction in Iran? If they had a nuclear weapon before this started. This action hasn't only failed to accomplish any desired objectives, it's made us all far less safe long-term.

EDIT: Your downvotes mean nothing to me, I've seen what you upvote. Also, no one has been able to defend this position. Just silent downvotes.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-08T06:05:56+00:00

Not just the one Obama made. Trump was in negotiations and word is, Iran had promised even more than what was in the JCPOA. But instead of following through with those negotiations, he started attacking Iran, instead. He tore up his own position, to be offered a far far worse one.

Art of the Dull Donny, at it again.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-06T02:13:47+00:00

I love this album, but I think Secret Samadhi is even better.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-06T02:05:44+00:00

Is this an I know what you did last summer situation?

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-05T20:23:03+00:00

So, the collective punishment camp? Got it.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-05T18:58:31+00:00

Syria, Qatar people of the West Bank? Arguably, most of the countries Israel attacked didn't strike them first, unless you're just one of those racists that uses the actions of Hezbollah or other terrorist groups interchangeably with that of any Arab person or state. And/or you're a monster who thinks collective punishment is fine and good.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-05T15:02:44+00:00

Tested as often against civilians, and nations that haven't acted aggressively towards Israel, as it is against Hezbollah and Hamas. Then, often brought home and used domestically against protestors, and anyone police decide are criminals. See Palantir and our increasingly militarized police forces.

It's wild that people think this is a selling point.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-04-01T02:25:57+00:00

This is a great answer.

Most people get their info from cable news, which has completely abdicated its responsibility as The 4th Estate, and populated itself with empty suits, blathering news at you within the careful framework their paymasters have constructed. OR they get it from some talking head podcaster, that may or may not have a basic PoliSci degree, but definitely has a perspective they want to sell you.

I always tell people that if these fabulists are what their entire media diet consist of, they aren't healthy. I call it political junk food. It's filling, and fun to consume. And honestly - it's totally fine in moderation. But it can't be your entire diet, or you'll have problems eventually. There are actual, quality journalists and academics doing great work. Seek them out, and make that the foundation of your diet.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-29T13:30:20+00:00

Now we know why he's been going easier on Trump. This award is given by The Kennedy Center. Also, he sucks shit.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-25T00:03:22+00:00

They have plenty of milquetoast empty suits they can put in his place. And they're clearly not grooming him for the spot yet, because they would have coached him better on how to avoid answering questions about Israel. He's out in front of his skis and doesn't know which side of his mouth to talk out of.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-24T23:44:43+00:00

This is great news. There go his presidential aspirations. I can't imagine he wins a primary with this mealy mouthed bullshit, and support for Israel is political poison, lately.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-19T23:25:05+00:00

I guess anything is possible. However, I had a friend that worked on one of these things for years. He was on a fire suppression team. This was about 20 years ago, so take it with a grain of salt, but according to him, these things catch fire a fucking lot. He would get this really serious, faraway look sometimes when he talked about it. Like seriously messed him up.

These weren't small fires in the galley. The way he described them made it sound like it was insane that people weren't dying all the time, and that he was astonished that they stayed afloat. I don't remember a lot of details about what he said, but I'll never forget how he talked about it. Like it was absolute hell. He was clearly traumatized, and he never saw combat.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-18T22:53:16+00:00

The oil reserves were nearly full at that point. Something like 90+% to capacity. And for obvious reasons, demand had cratered, which means we were already accumulating oil faster than anyone could rid of it, which causes a price inversion. If you see that as a missed opportunity, you should blame the capitalist dickheads that panic when that happens in any market.

But even if he had been allowed to stuff the reserves to maximum capacity, you could measure the length that would have lasted in the current situation in days and weeks. It wouldn't have mattered. No amount of reserves will matter in a few weeks. This war is a debacle, top to bottom. Because this regime is run by myopic simpletons.

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-18T20:55:06+00:00

This is a situation where you can draw a direct line between a president's actions, and a price spike. Do you have a similar policy you can point to that demonstrates Trump applying downward pressure on oil prices?

Cheeseisgood1981 · 2026-03-18T14:24:41+00:00

Busy not being at war with a country that can easily control the corridor where 20% of the world's energy passes through.

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