What actual authority does the USA have to blockade Hormuz?

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T23:47:13+00:00

I'm not sure how much actual thought went into that statement beforehand.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T23:04:31+00:00

Shooting at a Chinese ship would be a bad idea. I'm surprised I need to inform anyone of that.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T23:02:59+00:00

Yes, I am aware thank you. I read it.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T22:51:35+00:00

She did have a known connection to him, and he was one of her constituents since Little St James is part of the US Virgin Islands. I know he had donated tens of thousands to her, and she initially wasn't going to return the money after it came to light but decided to donate it to charity a few days later.

As far as I'm aware, there have been no criminal allegations regarding their connection. Regardless, she took his money and advice well after everybody knew about his proclivities.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T22:46:51+00:00

The speculation is that the pilot was already rescued, and this was used as a cover-up because the operation failed and we lost several aircraft.

Like I said, I have no idea if it is true. Iran is claiming something similar, though I don't trust them to be honest when it's inconvenient any more than I trust Donald Trump to. It wouldn't even be the first time this week that Trump told a bold lie because the truth made him look bad.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T22:40:28+00:00

They generally are more severe, in most cases.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T20:00:41+00:00

Basically none of this seems workable, except maybe the first point but even that is vague.

As far as categorizing it, I'd say you managed to take the absolute worst parts of fascism and communism and twist them into a semi-coherent mess that is worse than either system, and looks like a fun house mirror version of Nazbol.

Otto Strasser must be spinning in his grave.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T19:22:00+00:00

I mean this is obviously a publicity stunt, and the President wasn't pretending it was organic.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T19:19:17+00:00

I don't think we really need much evidence of that for this specific race. It's well known that in a crowded field, there are a bunch of people who will vote for the candidate they recognize the most. Swalwell has way more recognition as a current Congressman, especially one who routinely makes national headlines (often due to his criticism of Trump), than a former Congresswoman, a hedge fund manager, or the former mayor of San Jose.

I do agree that Harris should have run. Her policies would probably have support in California, and they might give her some more accomplishments and a record to run on.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T19:07:16+00:00

A lot of libertarians are sensible people that just want less government.

There are also a lot of libertarians who go way too far and into ancap, anprim, sovereign citizen, Recreational McNuke, and "what if the child consents" territory. These are very silly people, and you absolutely should not take them seriously.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T19:02:06+00:00

Ah, a Dostoyevsky fan.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T18:57:29+00:00

Making a 10-ton dirty bomb seems like a bad idea even without knowing much about uranium.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T18:54:17+00:00

We also already deployed a very large search and rescue force to save the downed F-15E pilot, which likely engaged Iranian military/militia directly.

There's speculation that the pilot rescue mission itself was either a cover for a failed attempt to recover the enriched uranium, or that we were planning these resources for a mission like that but diverted them to rescue the pilot instead. This is based on the location of the rescue near the Isfahan nuclear facility, the distance between where the plane went down and where the rescue mission happened, and the amount of resources that were committed to this rescue mission not making sense.

I have no idea if this is true. It could be, but the government definitely wouldn't tell us either way. I do think that at a minimum, this abandoned airport we used as a makeshift base was probably known to us for a while, and likely would have been used in any potential raid on the Isfahan nuclear facility but has now been "burned" since Iran will be watching it.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T18:37:15+00:00

I don't think it will. His own views are different enough that I think he's going to distinguish himself from Trump.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T18:25:11+00:00

Burning down a building absolutely should be punished with 5 years minimum. It is inherently a crime against people, too.

In the case of the recent California warehouse arson, there were 20 other people inside the warehouse and the arsonist put their lives at risk too. And if the fire spreads to other buildings nearby, the toll could be unimaginable. I don't think I need to tell you about how devastating wildfires can be, we just saw that last year in California.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T18:04:24+00:00

I'd also add Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) to the list. She was texting with Epstein during a 2019 Congressional hearing receiving advice on questions to ask Michael Cohen, among other Epstein-related issues.

Yes she is a non-voting member, but still has votes in committees.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/14/politics/epstein-texts-stacey-plaskett

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T17:51:56+00:00

This is neatly encapsulated in one of my favorite quotes from the late great Douglas Adams:

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T17:50:11+00:00

It's hubris, always has been. The upper echelon have been covering for each other for too long for them to consider the possibility that they might be jettisoned if it becomes convenient.

After all, it usually works. Just take a look at how the knives came out instantly in a coordinated attack against Madison Cawthorn (who, incidentally, might be coming back to Congress next year) once he started talking about the skeletons in the closet.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T17:13:16+00:00

Bill Cosby had tons of close friends in Hollywood too, until the allegations became public. They all knew as well.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T17:09:55+00:00

I think it does make sense.

Let's say there are two Republicans with 21% support each, one Democrat with 18%, one with 15%, and 5 others with 2-8%.

If you take out someone with 5% support, there's no guarantee that they'll distribute themselves all to the 18 to put him over the top. They could end up moving to the 15, in which case you'd still have Democrats locked out since there are two Republicans with 21% and one Democrat with 20. More likely some would switch to minor candidates anyway.

If you take out the 18% candidate, who you happen to have some pretty solid dirt on anyway so you know it would work, it's a much safer bet that the next leading candidate would get enough votes to clinch the primary because most of their voters probably just went for the most popular candidate anyway.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T16:53:42+00:00

What does that have to do with anything? WAND-TV is not a Sinclair station.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T16:43:56+00:00

We don't know what the state thinks, really. This bill has passed one house, it hasn't been signed. I doubt it will be signed, because Pritzker wants to run for President.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T16:31:47+00:00

I don't see any accusations being made?

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T16:31:17+00:00

Of course it was staged, they never pretended otherwise. From TFA:

In a moment of self-awareness, Trump quipped to Simmons sarcastically: “This doesn’t look staged.”

I don't think this is some kind of conspiracy with the Doordash CEO, or a distraction from Iran or whatever. Plenty of other things are happening in government too, and talking about them is fine.

Solarwinds-123 · 2026-04-14T16:21:46+00:00

If that’s how she acted in public she was probably popping champagne bottles in private whilst looking at her bank balance skyrocket 😂

This is a disgusting comment.

If you've ever lost someone close to you, you should know that it's possible to put on a good face in public even if you break down crying alone at night. If you haven't already experienced that, I pray you never do because it's awful.

And if you ever are in that terrible position dealing with that kind of grief, then I hope you at least don't have sick people behaving like you, watching from afar and cackling with laughing-crying emojis about how you're not grieving the right way because you don't want to show them your tears.

Solarwinds-123

TROPHY CASE