Recent Comments

1. about 7 hours ago on Jeff Danziger

   Withdrawing from the JCPOA was very much what Netanyahu & GOP hardliners like Mike Pompeo & John Bolton wanted. If Trump gets back in office, a war with Iran is all but guaranteed.

2. about 23 hours ago on Jeff Danziger

   To be clear, Iran was allowing snap inspections to nuclear sites. The IAEA could request access to other sites they believed might be used for nuclear related work & Iran had 14 days to either allow access or convince the IAEA that there was no nuclear related work going on there. The JCPOA was working. When Trump pulled the US out of the agreement, he didn’t cite IAEA inspectors being denied any access they requested, he just claimed it was a “bad deal” & he would get a much better one. We all saw how that worked out.

3. about 23 hours ago on Jeff Danziger

   The IEAE was doing 2 snap inspections of nuclear sites a month in 2017 & did 3 a month in 2018. IEAE inspectors are still in Iran, which is why we know Iran has been increasing their stockpile of enriched uranium.

   Hardliners in the US & Israel wanted unlimited access to non-nuclear sites. Iran is well aware of how the US abused the UNSCOM inspections of Iraq in the 1990s. I don’t like the Ayatollah, but I can understand why he wouldn’t want the US or Netanyahu to track his movements, which UNSCOM did with Saddam.

   Biden lifted some sanctions on Chinese & European companies to work on developing Iran’s civilian nuclear power program because it makes sense to allow Iran to use their uranium for power instead of bombs. He’s also imposed some new sanctions over the last year & especially since the Hamas War started.

   We saw how the hardliners’ policy failed to prevent North Korea from building nukes. I assume you’re deliberately posting misinformation to support a war against Iran.

4. 1 day ago on Jeff Danziger

   Presidents have broad authority to conduct foreign policy. US Presidents have made countless agreements, memorandums of understanding & other diplomatic commitments to foreign nations. Obama was entirely within his rights to negotiate the JCPOA.

   You’ll notice I did not say Trump violated a treaty, or broke a law. He had the authority to end the agreement, it was just a stupid thing to do.

5. 1 day ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Republicans Mike Maroney, Gabrielle Hanson, Anton Lazarro, Ray Holmberg, Blake Cozzens & about a thousand others refuse to comment.

6. 1 day ago on Jeff Danziger

   The “A” in JCPOA stands for “agreement”. It was a political commitment to allow the IEAE to monitor Iran’s nuclear facilities. There is no evidence Iran wasn’t holding up their end of the agreement when Trump unilaterally decided to back out of it. Everyone who’s not a Trump apologist understands it was one of the worst a foreign policy decisions ever made by a US President.

7. 1 day ago on Jeff Danziger

   If Iran wanted nukes, they would have had them already. They wanted the ability to produce nukes. They were pretty much there by 2015. The key term is “breakout time”: how long would it take Iran to produce enough weapons grade material & assemble a bomb.

   Under the JCPOA, Iran took apart thousands of centrifuges & sent their stores of enriched uranium out of the country. If they had decided to build a bomb, their breakout time was over a year. And yes, the JCPOA was working. IAEA inspectors were allowed full access to nuclear facilities. The partial sanctions relief was more valuable to the regime than possessing nukes.

   After Trump ditched the JCPOA, Iran has rebuilt & improved their centrifuges. They’ve been building up a stockpile of near weapons grade material, but don’t seem to have crossed that line. But, if they want a bomb, their breakout time is now measured in weeks. Old1953 sums up the reasons they are holding off pretty well.

8. 1 day ago on Ted Rall

   If you think Theresa LePore designed the ballot by herself at the kitchen table, I have some prime south Florida swampland you should invest in. She didn’t resign, she served until she lost her reelection bid in 2004. Palm Beach County wasn’t the only place with questions about ballots.

   You can pretend Nader didn’t matter, but it’s pretty certain if Ralph never ran, more of hisvoters would have gone for Gore than Bush. Then there’s the tens of thousands of people the state GOP kicked off voter rolls because of a felony conviction, except 15% of those were removed in error. In Bush’s favor, the networks called Florida for Gore before polls in the west part of the state had even closed, possibly costing Bush 5,000 votes or more.

   When an election comes down to fighting over contested ballots, it comes down to who decides which ones to count. In 2000, that ultimately was the Supreme Court. If vote recounts go to the Supreme Court in 2024, it’s pretty certain who they’ll favor. You’ll blame Democrats, despite your record of kneecapping Democrats for years.

   Btw, if you like conspiracy theories, LePore switched parties from Republican to Democrat in 1996.

9. 2 days ago on Ted Rall

   I don’t see ranked choice voting being anywhere near the game changer you think it is. Look at California’s open primary. RCV wasn’t going to make Barbara Lee a viable candidate. It’s not going to make far left candidates viable in Wyoming or Alabama. The reality is most of the electorate is not nearly as far left as some people pretend.

10. 2 days ago on Ted Rall

    Gore did not design Florida ballots, Florida Republicans did. Trump is already making plans to disrupt & alter vote counts in states that are close. The silver lining is he won’t have the power of the Presidency behind him & there doesn’t seem to be state election officials willing to help him cheat the way Katherine Harris was for Bush. Watch out for 1/6 style confrontations in state capitols as votes are being counted. The plan is to create doubt about election integrity.

    If the GOP takes the Senate & holds the House, all bets are off. They can challenge electors & hand the Presidency to Trump. The Supreme Court will rubber stamp an open coup.