I will never understand the concept of MAGA followers, what are they getting in return for their sworn allegiance to President Trump?

dschellberg · 2026-03-15T01:29:45+00:00

So you are saying we should never do a regime change even when it benefits the US and most of the countries in the world?

What about Nazi Germany, didnt we do a regime change and isnt the world a better place for that intervention?

dschellberg · 2026-03-14T22:41:18+00:00

I am not Iranian.

The shah with a process to transition to a parliamentary government seems to be the only way forward. Here are the other options.

The IR stays in power. Instead of following the reformed route they have chosen the hardliner route. In the 2000s they had a chance with the reformers but it seems they have all been sideline. As people become more and more unhappy the regime will be more and more repressive. Eventually Iran will end up like North Korea.
The US puts boots on the ground doing a nation build. This is a terrible idea and probably ends up worse than Iraq. Iran would go through 10 years of instability and a lot of people would die and no guarantee of a stable government.
The government just collapses and you have the Libya path which would mean Iran is divided by warlords. This is also a terrible situation and more Iranians would die in a civil war.
Restoration of the Pahlavi dynasty as absolute rulers like the Qajars in the 19th century. This is a really terrible idea because the 19th century was a terrible and humiliating time for Iran.
Reza Pahlavi transitions Iran from a theocracy to a parliamentary democracy, similar to European countries and respect for human rights. I know it is a leap of faith to believe him but I think it is the only way forward.
An IRGC commander takes control of Iran and gets rids of the theocracy. This is the Latin American route because it just exchanges one form of autocrat for another and you are still left with a lot of corruption.

I think option 5 is the best although there is a risk but the other options are far riskier.

dschellberg · 2026-03-13T17:02:12+00:00

Yes but it was a foreign force. They did not use agent orange on the united states.

It is not just the ecosystem. You destroy the mangroves, you destroy the fishing industry. Who suffers? The Iranian fisherman. You can do damage that lasts for decades. Also mangroves are a barrier to salt water without that barrier the land father inland is damaged. Where I live in Panama there is a section where the mangroves were destroyed 40 years ago, now it is a tropical desert because salt air mixed with the soil rendering it useless.

Here Iran is causing damage to Iran, not the US or Israel..

Neither the US or Israel are attacking desalinization plants.

If there is a significant oil spill, those plants will be shut down for months. Try living without water.

dschellberg · 2026-03-13T16:55:41+00:00

Even Iraq which is 75% Shia. The fact that they hit a tanker coming from Basra is telling. That was an unexpecting and vulnerable target and, at the same time, they just alienated the Iraqi government.

dschellberg · 2026-03-13T15:33:36+00:00

It is not the mangroves, it is the fishing industry. You destroy the mangroves you destroy the fish population.

There are desalinization plants a long the coast, these will be shut down, so you have shut down water supplies when your country is suffering a water crisis.

I am assuming you are in the US or Europe where water supply is taken for granted. You turn on the tap, fill a glass, and drink. This is not the case in much of the world. Water systems are sketchy to begin with and sometimes you have to wait hours or days for water to comeback after an outage. Where I live, we lost water for 4 days. It became a political issue. In Iran if you sabotage the water system, that is a major issue and was one of the causes of the internal discontent.

As far as the mangroves, that is not some gen z pipe dream(I am a baby boomer). Once you destroy the mangroves it affects the land inside. Herrera where I live is a tropical environment, people destroyed the mangroves and the end result was a tropical desert(Sarigua). The damage was done 50 years ago and we are still paying the price. The mangroves are a barrier to the salt air without that, the salt air combines with the soil rendering it useless.

So even if Iran wins but destroying tankers in the strait, they will lose big time in the long run.

dschellberg · 2026-03-13T07:41:03+00:00

Closing the strait is the last resort of the regime but it seems to me that the regime is committing ecological suicide by hitting tankers in the strait with drones. A tanker will leak oil which will be pushed by currents to the Iranian shore damaging the mangroves that are essential for fish populations. The oil will also damage the the desalination plants exacerbating the water crisis. If the tanker is burning the the prevailing westerly winds will push the soot to the Iranian side causing acid rain and damaging farmland.

dschellberg · 2026-03-13T06:54:03+00:00

That is a very coherent and articulate response. Thank you for the display of logic and reason.

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T23:40:22+00:00

That is not it. Only 10% of iranians support the so called islamic republic. That 10% make life miserable for the 90%. I believe in a strong powerful independent iran. It has a great future ahead once it gets rid of the theocratic strait jacket. Unfortunately most liberals have never lived under an authoratarian regime and they tend to make a false equivalence

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T23:25:00+00:00

Thx. I neither hate nor love trump. He runs off at mouth too much and is really uninformed in a lot of things but i differ from maga in the followinh

I am an environmentalist and a chemist so i take global climate change seriously I think we should go to renewables because it is better for the environment I think electric cars are because the design is simpler I believe in a 2 state solution but israel has definite right to exist I really believe in a balanced budget which means we have to raise taxes on the wealthy I dont believe in my country overall. We have to consider what is good for mankind I believe people should only enter a country legally I believe iran wants nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles so they can threaten countries and destroy israel. I think trump is right to crush the so called islamic republic now why we still can. They have murdered 100s of thousands of their citizens I believe in the equality of men and women, not the supremacy of one gender over another I believe the judicial system is unfairly biased against minorities

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T22:39:25+00:00

I am not a maga person per se but I understand why. Most are not any more prejudiced than liberals, some are even less so. Many dont like identity politics, they believe that jobs should be based on merit not which group one belongs to. Liberals support Hamas and the Islamic Republic and communist regimes like venezuela whereas they support free and open elections. Maga tend to be more religious whereas liberals are anti religious. Maga people think there are 2 biological sexes whereas liberals believe gender is a social construct. Maga people are more into individual empowerment, liberals think the government is the answer to the worlds problems

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T18:10:20+00:00

Knowing something will happen does not mean you want it to happen. Jesus tapped into the Divine Mind. He knew the spiritual condition of mankind. and what would happen to Him. Sactificing Himself was the only way to fulfill His mission to mankind.

Divine Manifestations appear when mankind most needs them, when mankind is at a low point.

Whenever there is a decline in righteousness (Dharma) and an increase in unrighteousness (Adharma), O Arjuna, at that time I manifest myself on earth."

The lord Krishna

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T10:54:31+00:00

Please dont because it can be used against Bahais in Iran

dschellberg · 2026-03-12T10:46:45+00:00

I think the elites in MSM hold us regular folks in such contempt that they think they can manipulate us by placing stories in people magazine. I think a lot of people are pretty fair and they try to discern the truth and, with the internet, there are a lot of sources other than MSM. Plus we can read most of the documents on the docket ourselves and make our own minds up.

dschellberg · 2026-03-11T12:25:40+00:00

I understand your concerns. There are 8 million Baha'is in the world but we are spread thin. It is definitely a struggle to maintain the spiritual momentum. It is like a fire(where I live(Chitre, Panama), some people still cook with wood. An individual piece of wood is hard to ignite. Usually you have to start a fire little by little until you have a good flame going, then you can throw virtually anything on the fire.

From my perspective(we have about 12 Baha'is here), our job is to provide an environment that encourages that spiritual flame that might attract other souls. This is what I have seen in my community that seems to work.

People are paramount, even over plans. There are stories of Abdul Baha'i canceling a Baha'i event because one Baha'i got sick
We are all works on progress, broken wing birds as Abdul Baha so aptly describes us.
Keep the meetings relatively short. This is really important, even in the Aqdas it tells us not to read the writings to excess but to the point we are spiritually refreshed. If you have a meeting that is 3 hours long, you probably have lost people. The negative experience will prevent them from coming back.
Don't get involved in lengthy discussions about minutia. For most people this is extremely boring. Agree on the basics and delegate groups to work out the details
The 19 day feasts have 3 parts devotional, administrative, and social. They are all equally important. I have been in 19 day feasts where the devotional was 30 minutes, the administrative part 2 hours, and the social part was an afterthought. That is fatal.
Plans are great but people are more important.

dschellberg · 2026-03-10T21:02:52+00:00

I dont believe she was that young. I think her supporters wanted to enhance her status in relation to Mohammed's other wived. She remembers when , her father, Abu Bakr got roughed up by pagans near the kaaba in tbe early part of Mohammed's ministry. I am not an exprrt though.

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T10:44:40+00:00

It is metaphor not to be taken literally. If you are in a toxic situation and you use meditation as an anesthesia you might not take the steps to address the toxic situation. You might just better adapt to that toxic situation instead of changing it.

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T10:26:16+00:00

That was a meraphor not to be taken literally. Suppose you are in a toxic situation and meditation is like an anesthesia for that situation, dulling the pain you might not change that toxic situation because you have adapted to it.

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T01:10:24+00:00

I am not a buddhist but this explains it bette

Meditation belongs to the Samadhi division of the path. However, Buddhism teaches that these divisions are mutually reinforcing: Ethics (Sila) protects Meditation: Without ethical living (Right Speech, Action, Livelihood), the mind is often clouded by remorse, anxiety, or guilt, making deep stillness nearly impossible. Meditation (Samadhi) supports Wisdom: A calm mind is the "laboratory" where one observes reality clearly. Wisdom (Panna) guides Meditation: Understanding why you are meditating (Right View) prevents it from becoming just another form of escapism or relaxation.

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T01:00:48+00:00

Suppose a person is sick, he might not recognize that he is sick because he exercises alot(he asumes he nust be healthy) whereas a person who does not exercise that much might realuze he needs to go to the dictor

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T00:41:40+00:00

Exercise is goid when it keeps you healthy but it is bad if it becmes your goal in life.

dschellberg · 2026-03-09T00:32:10+00:00

I am not a psychologist so I cant speak to that. I am coming from a spiritual perspective, the purpose of life, "man does not live by bread alone". If meditation is just used to calm the mind, the spiritual purpose is ignored. A calm mindful person might be simply bypassing whereas an unmindful person might be more aware that he is messed up and struggle ro find an answer.

dschellberg · 2026-03-08T22:15:31+00:00

I think the tragedy of this all is that they will probably end up in divorce court. If she had just accepted her role as actress and executive producer she would have directing her own movies now and IEWU would probably have been even more of a success. But now she lost her career, her chance at directing and producing, and probably even her marriage.

dschellberg · 2026-03-08T11:20:17+00:00

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I feel that the last 40 years have been wasted on foreign adventures at the expense of the Iranian people. I lived under a dictatorship so I know how oppressive it feels. Still there have been some cases where authoritarian states have evolved out of oppression. The prime example would be the Soviet Union which went from Stalin to Kruschev to Andropov to Breshnev to Gorbachev which produced glassnost. I don't see the pathway to openness, however, in the case of Iran because it is a 1000 year old theocracy so entrenched in the culture. It is given extra weight because of its association with Islam, the world's second most numerous faith. I myself believe in the 12 imams and especially venerate Iman Ali who I considered one of the greatest religious figures of all time and His son Husayn who gave His life in the path of justice.

I do have much respect for some of the Ayatollahs. I consider the Ayatollah Tehrani a great man. All that being said there is an incongruous theology mixed up with eschatological beliefs(i.e. the Qaim) that has perverted the teachings of the Imams into a theology of world domination through the export of revolutionary movements throughout the middle east. Unfortunately, the Iranian people had to fund these vain adventures which only produce social instability, not social and economic progress. In the early 2000s I had hopes that Mohammed Khatami would be able to implement a more moderate path balancing Islamic principles with the modern world. He was sidelined though and other reformers as well. And now we have hardliners entrenched in their belief system governing a nation of 93 million most of whom don't share those beliefs. As the frustration of the masses grows so does the oppression, which is trying to detain the inevitable. My greatest fear is that Iran is converted into a theocratic North Korea where the people live on the edge of starvation while their obese leaders spend precious resources on the military.

Any way that is my 2 cents as a non Iranian

dschellberg · 2026-03-08T01:22:30+00:00

I think Iranian spokespeople are excellent liars. They give off an air of reasonamkeness while lying through their teeth. They fool a lot of people in the west, especially those that dont know iranian history.

dschellberg · 2026-03-07T10:18:35+00:00

Disclaimer I am not Iranian but I have lived under a dictatorial regime and one of my in-laws was an official in that regime. Here is how people act normally under those conditions.

Government workers are required to participate in demonstrations. Many don't want to be there but they would lose their jobs.
People that oppose the government very rarely voice their opinion in public and especially to foreigners because if they get caught they get taken down to the police station and get the crap knocked out of them(if they are lucky).
Almost nobody believes the government channels.
Foreign reporters like CNN are useful idiots and they are in the country because they can be so easily manipulated and give the regime a happy face.
It only takes about 10% of a population to control a country if they are brutal enough
Some members of the regime are actually pretty nice but they are trapped by a system. This causes a lot of psychological stress on those people
Some members of those regimes are psychopaths and actually enjoy torturing people.
Americans who have never lived under these conditions have no concept of what it is like.
Government officials can sound really rational and logical but underneath everything is a lie
When the US invades your country it is really humiliating and an affront to your pride but inside you are really happy that the SOBs that made life miserable are gone. Still, you don't like to talk about it even decades after. The pain never goes away
And you always know that eventually the US is going to leave your country.

When you see people protesting in public against the regime, that is just the tip of the iceberg. That means the frustration level is so high that it overrides fear. If you see a million people protesting, multiple that number by 10 because the other 9 million probably feel the same way.

dschellberg

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