In honor of National Fudge Day, I am bringing my favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge recipe. I learned this one in 8th grade and am still making this delicious fudge!
2/3 cup evaporated milk (I use skim milk)
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Combine the milk, and sugar in a saucepan. Heat until boiling, then stirring constantly, cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips, marshmallows and the peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Add vanilla.
Lightly grease a 10-inch square pan or line with parchment. Pour the fudge into the pan and spread with a spatula. Chill in the refrigerator until firm. Slice into 1-inch pieces and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
Notes
This fudge can be made ahead of time and then kept in the freezer for several months. Thaw in the refrigerator when ready to serve.
Sew Colorful 
Thanks for the recipe!
I love fudge especially with pecans – and pralines – way too much!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Morning GA!
You can also use chunky peanut butter if you like. And i’ve also substituted marshmallow cream when i didn’t have the mini marshmallows on hand. I’ve never put nuts in it cuz I usually share with my mom but i bet pecans would be awesome in this!
LikeLiked by 2 people
And BF mini’s! LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pecans in peanut butter fudge would detract from the peanuts… I’d go with the extra chunky PB. :8->
LikeLike
Hope your Mom is doing well and problems with care are getting solved.
LikeLike
Morning All!
50*, cloudy, rainy, etc etc etc…like a broken record! where the heck is the SUN?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Morning, Pat! 70 outside and humid once again; cloudy all around, w/stormy looking clouds to the west. Unfortunately, they all seem to blow away as the sun comes up! So we shall see.
I’ve decided I am going to take the bull by the horns, figure out this oxygen, and contact the VA to hopefully get an appointment @ the clinic tomorrow am early instead of the video conference on Wednesday. They need to swab my cheek and find out what’s going on and I’m tired of living in fear. I’m not stupid and I can figure this out. If it’s early enough, I’ll be ok. Hopefully they can get me in tomorrow and I need to go by the bank as well to get this new 0% CC application done so I can pay Chance at least part of the charge for taking down the tree. Well laid plans, indeed….we’ll see how it goes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Morning Filly!
we usually get your weather eventually, but not lately. it’s chilly, cloudy, rainy and miserable–where’s our sunshine?? I dunno. but it’s sure making my usual sunny disposition turn to bitchy me that’s for sure. (I’m blaming it on the weather anyway.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perfectly valid excuse, my friend! Atmospheric pressures can mess with the inner ear.
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Boelter captured
TheseTruths(@thesetruths)
Offline
Wolf
Reply to TheseTruths
June 16, 2025 01:32
I didn’t learn a great deal from the press conference. There is a lot that they can’t disclose, and I thought the questions the press was asking were not very instructive. I didn’t hear a question about the wife, for example (but they might not have answered it anyway). No questions about a manifesto, the “No Kings” signs, or whether there were any other signs. No questions about his political affiliations or social media accounts.
Some points:
• Boelter is in custody under a state criminal warrant, charged with the murders and the attempted murders.
• It was the largest manhunt in the state’s history, and they captured him within 43 hours. Huge partnerships of federal, state, and local LE agencies. 20 different SWAT teams were hunting him.
•The Minnesota State Patrol was responsible for the arrest. No LE injured. Special response teams were on the scene; air support.
• There was no use of force during the arrest; he crawled toward LE.
• There is no info on whether anyone was helping Boelter. They are confident that his activity was conducted alone, but they are exploring whether there is a broader network.
• Near the beginning someone said that the Hoffmans, the first victims, had been instrumental in saving people’s lives. LE did not give any more details when questioned about it.
• There is no word on whether he had a phone on him. He was armed when taken into custody.
• Technology played a big role: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, infrared…
• Boelter is being interviewed. They will not share his location at this time but will disclose it later.
• His abandoned vehicle had been spotted hours earlier. An officer saw a person they believed to be him. They got additional information about an individual in the woods and closed in within an hour and a half.
Last edited 4 hours ago by TheseTruths
8 Reply
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Charlotte99
June 16, 2025 2:38 am
Report: Teachers Union Boss Randi Weingarten Resigns from DNC, Citing Disagreements with Leadership
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/06/15/report-teachers-union-boss-randi-weingarten-resigns-dnc-citing-disagreements-leadership/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good riddance!
LikeLiked by 1 person
IKR? i’m not shedding any tears. wonder what’s gonna be revealed about her soon? LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Just Like Brian Wilson Did”
Christopher J. Scalia, June 15, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: “It’s true: Brian Wilson, the cofounder and creative soul of the Beach Boys who died last week at the age of 82, didn’t surf. And for someone who cowrote a song called “I Get Around,” he didn’t really get around much: He stopped touring with the Beach Boys in 1964, after a nervous breakdown on a plane. The only Beach Boy who actually liked the beach was Brian’s younger brother, Dennis, and he drowned in 1983.
People like to make fun of the Beach Boys for those ironies, but those facts point to an important element of the band’s success. They were so popular, and the music that Brian Wilson wrote and arranged lives on, because you didn’t need to know anything about driving or surfing to enjoy them, to be seduced by their harmonies or their blend of Chuck Berry (thanks to Brian’s other brother, Carl) and doo-wop, to be entertained by their lyrics.
I’m not going to be one of those hyper-contrarians who claim the Beach Boys were better than the Beatles, but I will point out one way the early success of the Beach Boys is more impressive. Almost all of the Beatles’ first hits were about love. Can you get more obvious than that? Who doesn’t love love? Singing about love is a sure-fire way to get a teenager invested in your song.
The Beach Boys, on the other hand, had early hits about niche activities limited to Southern California. Brian and his cousin Mike Love wrote about surfing. Racing. Cars. Motorcycles. Girls on the beach. Girls in California. But it didn’t matter! The complexity of the harmonies combined with the simplicity of the early structures made the songs irresistible even if you’d never caught a wave. Their debut single, “Surfin’ Safari,” climbed the top of the charts in—where else?—Sweden. More than 20 years later, when I was a pre-teen who couldn’t drive and only occasionally boogie-boarded on tame Atlantic waves, these were my favorite songs.
It’s not that the lyrics didn’t matter—they did. When Wilson and Love wrote sneering songs about teenage competition, like “Be True to Your School” or “I Get Around” or “Shut Down,” they managed to sound tough even with those high harmonies. Much tougher than any college a capella band. Yet Brian’s falsetto was perfect for more tender subject matters, too.
Like all of the great Boomer bands, the Beach Boys’ sound changed quickly. Wilson took the band into more sophisticated sonic territory after he heard Phil Spector’s production of the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” in 1963. The bigger, baroque sound comes through in songs like “Don’t Worry Baby,” “When I Grow Up to Be a Man,” and “Help Me, Rhonda.” He also hired the same band as Spector, the legendary group of session musicians called the Wrecking Crew. The boy who’d spent hours at his home picking apart the harmonies of his favorite band—the long-forgotten Four Freshmen—was now directing a studio full of pros.
Wilson saw his sonic ambitions most fully realized in the 1966 album Pet Sounds. Inspired by the Beatles’ ground-breaking Rubber Soul, the album picked up on the more mature themes hinted at in “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” from the previous year. That spooked Columbia, which assumed the band’s fans wanted more songs about surfing and driving instead of unfamiliar, though obviously perfect, cuts like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “God Only Knows.”
Wilson wanted to do more for the follow-up album. He described his vision as “a teenage symphony to God” and it was going to be called SMiLE. But he couldn’t do it. Maybe it was the pressure, or the LSD, or the voices in his head. He explained later that it wasn’t “appropriate” for his fans, meaning he didn’t think they’d like it. His label and bandmates agreed. They released a watered-down version of Wilson’s planned album called Smiley Smile, which includes the perfect pop achievements “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains” plus a bunch of duds. Paul McCartney provides rhythmic celery crunches in a song about vegetables.
For most casual fans, this is more or less where the story of the Beach Boys ends. Wilson withdrew from the band and never had the same influence on its sound again. They still released some good music, but not consistently. When a collection of their early hits topped the charts in 1974 (Endless Summer, which would be my own introduction to the band when I found my sister’s old copy), Wilson was too wasted to join the rejuvenated tours. Fourteen years later, he wasn’t there to record “Kokomo,” their final #1 hit. When he first heard it on the radio, he didn’t even realize it was a Beach Boys song. But at least he participated when the band teamed up with the Fat Boys to cover “Wipe Out.”
In a story where Brian Wilson is the hero, who are the villains? The band could not have succeed without Brian’s father, Murry Wilson. He got them a contract with Capitol. He promoted them. He convinced the label to let Brian produce the records. But he was a bully. His three sons recall him hitting them. And he was jealous of Brian. The band fired him as manager fairly early on, but he retained the band’s publishing rights—and he sold those for $700,000 in 1969, thinking the Beach Boys were washed up. He died in 1973, just before the band’s first big comeback.
Two years after Murry’s death, Brian met the second tyrant of his life, the psychotherapist Eugene Landy. “Dr. Landy was a tyrant who controlled one person,” Brian wrote in his 2016 memoir, “and that was me.” Landy worked with Wilson briefly in the 1970s and then more extensively from 1982 until 1991. He controlled every element of Wilson’s life, convinced that was the only way to get his patient healthy. He determined what Wilson could eat, where he could go, who he could see. When Brian released his first solo album in 1988, Landy received cowriting and co-production credits. The similarities between Landy and Murry were not lost on Brian.
The great success of the last 30 years of Wilson’s life is not that he returned to making great music, he didn’t. Some of the albums have moments that remind you of previous greatness but never come close to matching it. Sometimes he sounds like Rick Moranis’s character from Ghostbusters. When the remaining members of the Beach Boys reunited for their final album in 2012, 50 years after their debut, it was a nice story about mending fences, remembering old times, and rehearing beautiful harmonies. But summer isn’t endless after all.
No, the success of his final decades was that he experienced them at all. Guided by his second wife, Melinda, he enjoyed some measure of redemption and fulfillment, unlike too many of his pop-pioneering peers.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
sometimes money and fame aren’t all it’s cracked up to be.
the beach boys were a little before my time, but i recognize some of the songs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, FFS!!! Of course it’s covered under freedom of speech!!!! SMDH
Just The News: “Public schools may have found a loophole in a 1969 Supreme Court decision that protects students’ non-disruptive political speech: Declare it “profane” even if the late comedian George Carlin excluded it from his famous “7 Words You Can Never Say on Television.”
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grappled with the meaning of profanity at a hearing Thursday in a First Amendment lawsuit by two unnamed students banned from wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts to their Michigan middle school, referring to the media-created euphemism for a profane chant against then-President Biden at a NASCAR race.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney, nominated by President George W. Bush, issued summary judgment to Tri County Area Schools last summer, finding that school officials “reasonably interpreted the phrase as containing a profane message” that can be prohibited under the 1986 precedent Fraser, which involved a “graphic sexual metaphor” in a school campaign speech.
If a school district can declare a phrase used in several congressional floor speeches to be “lewd, indecent, vulgar, or profane” under its dress code, the Vietnam War-era precedent Tinker that protects nondisruptive school protest is dead letter, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, argued Conor Fitzpatrick, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The district “ignored centuries of history and tradition” in the English use of expurgated profanity, “from a radio edit of a hit song” to kids saying “h-e-double hockey sticks,” Fitzpatrick said.
Its argument would turn the family-friendly pop song cover brand Kidz Bop into “censorable profanity” and let schools punish students who yell “fudge” when they hurt themselves at recess, he told Judge Karen Nelson Moore, who was astonished by Fitzpatrick’s implication that congressional speeches were the legal yardstick for school propriety.
School district lawyer Annabel Shea spent much of her argument beating back questions by President Trump-nominated Judge John Bush, who spoke twice as often as his peers on the panel, about why “Let’s Go Brandon” was worse in school than nondisruptive displays of a Confederate flag, another in-school political expression protected by SCOTUS.
Fellow Trump-nominated Judge John Nalbandian appeared to be the swing vote in oral argument, eschewing “unlimited discretion” for administrators to decide what’s profane but joining President Clinton-nominated Moore in not wanting to tightly tie their hands.
He questioned whether the Pacifica precedent, which let the Federal Communications Commission regulate “indecent” broadcast speech such as Carlin’s monologue, should limit what school administrators can prohibit. Profanity “trumps the political nature of the speech,” Nalbandian told Fitzpatrick.
Nalbandian’s questions also suggested school administrators would get qualified immunity from personal liability even if a panel majority ruled they violated the First Amendment.
Why would it be “obvious” they were violating “clearly established” precedents, Nalbandian said, rattling off a bevy of confusing SCOTUS rulings on student speech when Fitzpatrick claimed that Tinker established a right to “wear political apparel to school” and “no reasonable official could deem a non-profane slogan … to be profane.”
‘No one was advocating having sex with the president’
The judges started with caution in referring to the crude phrase underlying the case, though Bush only used the “Brandon” formulation and never approached the f-word. Moore and Nalbandian used various expurgated versions of “f— Joe Biden,” from “f dot dot dot” to “f with asterisks.” Moore grew tired of censoring herself halfway through and said the swear word several times in full, at which point Shea also switched to “f—.”
The judges went so far as arguing with one other to what degree “Brandon” might be profanity, thus leaning toward the Fraser precedent and away from Tinker.
Tri County’s argument would let districts ban students from referring to the Vietnam War-era SCOTUS precedent Cohen, which overturned a California law used to prosecute a man wearing an “f— the draft” jacket, by wearing a jacket that reads “Cohen’s Jacket,” Fitzpatrick said. He noted the 9th Circuit struck down a school district that banned students from wearing “scab” buttons to protest replacement teachers, prompting Moore to ask how “scab” is vulgar. That’s the point, Fitzpatrick responded: The district claimed it was to ban the speech.
Bush contrasted the anti-Biden message with the sexually graphic speech in Fraser: “No one was advocating having sex with the president” like the “code” in the school campaign speech, just an “emphasis of disfavor.” Moore retorted that “Brandon” is indeed vulgar code.
While Shea told the panel the school had no problem with political expression by students, as evidenced by letting them wear Make America Great Again hats, Bush had trouble believing that a sexual epithet was worse than the racial epithet implicit in a Confederate flag display.
The judge emphasized “Brandon” was used “throughout society” and even referenced humorously in the “Dark Brandon” Biden campaign meme. “Can’t that inform our judgment” on what’s reasonable for a school administrator to ban, he asked Shea, invoking SCOTUS precedent on parental involvement in school decisions.
Bush pressed Shea on whether the district could ban “fud” on a shirt and how that wasn’t the same “innuendo” as Brandon. She said the latter is “implied profanity,” but Bush said the political nature of the expression might change the constitutional analysis.
Since the individual defendants would still get qualified immunity if the 6th Circuit ruled that the Tinker precedent should apply to the case, it does not need to remand to Judge Maloney for consideration, Shea said. Bush countered her again: If Fraser is the wrong standard, qualified immunity under Tinker is still in play.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
This does not surprise me in Culpepper! It used to be relatively rural when my GS lived there and Nick Freitas was the rep for that area but not any more.
Just The News: “A 21-year-old man was arrested Saturday afternoon after intentionally driving a vehicle into a crowd of “No Kings” protesters, police said on Saturday.
According to a news release, police officers with the Culpeper Police Department were “monitoring the conclusion of a lawful protest event” when the incident occurred. Police observed someone drive an SUV “recklessly through the crowd of pedestrians,” the release said.
“Given the dangerous driving behavior observed, officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and identified the driver as Joseph R. Checklick Jr., 21, of Culpeper,” police said.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
G7 Leaders Prepare For Delicate Dance With Trump At Summit in Canada
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree 110%!!!!
Cotton on Trump ICE Pause on Select Industries: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Pull Back on Any Kind of Enforcement’
LikeLiked by 1 person
i agree. i understand the necessity of certain farm industries needing farm worker migrants. there’s a program for that. and when a crop needs bringing in, it can’t sit for weeks or a month either. but that needs strict enforcement. the hotel and food industries do not need special consideration. hire teenagers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Phew! Alrighty then! Orioles have REALLY slowed down – I was able to fill in the spaces with just the squirt bottle. I also got all of the Honeysuckle watered, as well as the CA Poppies, both Rose of Sharon bushes, rose bush and clematis, and red petunias. Also my potted plants out front – just one more trip to water the lopes and check to see if the new seedlings have come up yet so I can cover them to keep the bunnies off. Again, only heavy breathing is due to the exertion. Yeah! I’ll get back in shape yet!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
as long as you’re prudent and don’t overdo!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, yeah….I check my breathing regularly and take breaks in-between front & back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
and I have mostly mammas coming to the jelly feeder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Papas are the ones responsible for catching the bugs for the young’uns.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ahhhh that makes sense!
i just chased off a murder of crows.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“As Deportations Rise, The U.S. Is On Track For The Lowest Murder Rate On Record — When you let law enforcement catch criminals, you will get less crime.”
The Federalist, By: John R. Lott, Jr., June 16, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Murder rates are plummeting. While we still have more than half a year to go, Kash Patel, the FBI’s director, says that the U.S. is on track to have the lowest murder rate ever. The current record low occurred in 2014 when the FBI reported a murder rate of 4.45 per 100,000. The question is: why? Law enforcement matters, but it is probably also that Trump is deporting criminal illegal aliens.
According to Patel, “Let good cops be cops,” is the answer. “I’m gonna let you, the agents, the police officers, the sheriffs, go out there and do the work you so badly want to do. And I’m gonna give you the resources you need to do it. And I’m gonna take away the politicization and weaponization … and that’s what we’ve done.”
Instead of placing a third of FBI agents in the D.C. area, Patel has moved them out across the country to where the crime is occurring. A recent Biden administration document that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified shows that law enforcement resources were being spent on “non-criminal” activities of conservative Catholics, people attending school board meetings, and flagging those who used symbols like “2A” and imagery referencing the Second Amendment. The FBI sent a memo to over 1,000 employees nationwide instructing them to target conservative Catholics.
The Trump administration has also been ending DEI and other interventions that the Biden administration was pushing on police departments. You let law enforcement catch criminals, making it riskier for criminals to commit crime, and you will get less crime.
But there is another reason. Deporting criminal illegals may cause some illegals to lay low so that they don’t risk getting caught. As the Wall Street Journal noted, “ICE operations have received so much attention, prompting migrants to be more cautious, according to agents and leaders.”
Since President Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, inauguration, the FBI has actively invested over 1 million hours collaborating with ICE, DEA, and local police to arrest more than 10,000 illegal aliens. They are targeting Biden-era border crossers.
A lot of these illegals have criminal backgrounds and if they cut back on the amount of time they are committing to reduce the risks of getting caught, it could have a noticeable impact on crime rates. If you believe the Biden administration, 9 percent of the so-called “non-detained” illegals who were released into the U.S. had criminal backgrounds (662,566 out of 7.4 million released). That is almost assuredly an underestimate as “non-detained” illegals were overwhelmingly those who had voluntarily turned themselves in at the border, presumably the ones we should be least concerned about. It doesn’t count the 2 million “gotaways” we detected crossing the border but failed to apprehend during the Biden administration, nor the unknown millions we never saw coming across the borders. This also assumes the Biden administration didn’t underreport criminal backgrounds. And many countries, such as Venezuela, wouldn’t provide information on the criminal backgrounds of their citizens.
There is other evidence that Trump’s deportation efforts are making a difference in causing illegal aliens to lay low. For example, illegals are leaving the labor force. From January 2021 to January 2025, under Biden’s administration, foreign-born workers filled approximately 4.3 million of the new jobs created, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). However, in just the last four months, the immigrant workforce has plummeted by 773,000 — a staggering 18 percent reversal of that growth in such a short period of time.
A March headline in the New York Times notes: “Fearing roundups, many immigrants are staying home.”
While Biden’s policies freely granted work permits to many illegal immigrants, not all foreign-born workers were undocumented. Still, the sharp decline, coinciding with Trump’s aggressive use of IRS records and other tools to target illegal aliens, signals a clear impact. Undocumented workers are laying low, with reports confirming they’re staying home to avoid deportation sweeps, particularly in industries like agriculture and construction. This sudden shift underscores the effectiveness of Trump’s enforcement tactics in disrupting illegal immigrant participation in the labor market.
A word of caution is needed when discussing these numbers. The US tracks murder/homicide through two sources: FBI data from police departments and CDC data from medical examiners. Academics generally believe the medical examiner reports offer a more accurate final count, and these figures have diverged in recent years. The CDC’s latest data is for 2022, and it reveals the homicide rate minus justified police homicides peaked in 2021 and remained higher in 2022 than in 2020. Meanwhile, FBI murder rate data peaked in 2020 and has declined annually since. Still, the 2023 FBI murder rate, the most recent finalized data, exceeds the pre-Covid 2019 rate (5.75 vs. 5.16).
Reducing crime isn’t rocket science. If you make it riskier for criminals to commit crime, you will get less crime. Letting police focus on going after criminals matters. Getting serious about illegal aliens who are committing crimes can’t be ignored.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
funny how that works, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will wonders never cease?!? Who knew?!? SMH
LikeLiked by 1 person
“The White House Can Lower Drug Prices By Fixing The Market, Not Price Controls — President Trump shouldn’t adopt socialist-style price controls.”
The Federalist, By: Drew Johnson, June 16, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: ““Why do we have a medical system in this country where too many people can’t get the treatment that they need?” Vice President J.D. Vance posed this question during his recent appearance on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von — and it cuts to the core of America’s health care challenges.
As Vance rightly noted, Americans are propping up a broken global system — paying more for medicines and effectively subsidizing cheaper access abroad. But doubling down on foreign price controls won’t solve that.
President Trump’s recent executive order on drug pricing, which pegs U.S. prices to the lowest paid by other wealthy countries, risks trading one broken system for another. Supporters call it a free market move. In reality, the Most Favored Nation (MFN) policy is anything but. It’s price-fixing based on foreign government mandates. This would import the worst features of European socialized medicine into the United States.
That’s not a knock on the administration’s instincts. The system is rigged against patients, and American taxpayers are shouldering the global innovation burden. The fix, however, lies in unleashing a true American free market — one that roots out supply chain distortions and puts patients, not bureaucrats or middlemen, at the forefront.
Start with the basics: Under MFN, U.S. drug prices would be tied to the lowest amount paid by any OECD country with at least 60 percent of our GDP per capita. That includes many countries where government-run health systems routinely undervalue breakthrough medicines and decide which treatments patients can access — and when.
That’s not competition. That’s central planning. A market price originates from voluntary exchange, not foreign bureaucrats operating under fixed budgets and political incentives.
We know where that road leads. In countries using arbitrary price-setting benchmarks, patients are routinely denied or delayed access to new medicines. By late 2022, just 34 percent of new drugs launched globally were available in France, 37 percent in Italy, and 52 percent in Germany. Compare that to nearly 75 percent in the United States. Import their pricing models, and we’ll import their rationing — and avoidable suffering.
If we want to fix what’s broken, anti-market price caps aren’t the answer. Countries with government-imposed price ceilings aren’t negotiating in good faith. They’re freeloading off the American taxpayer instead of contributing their fair share to the costs of discovery. That’s not “market equilibrium.” It’s global cost-shifting.
Strong trade pressure best confronts these abuses. Other wealthy countries should be required to meet minimum spending targets on new medicines — benchmarked to what the United States invests relative to GDP. Those spending expectations should be written into binding agreements with clear enforcement mechanisms and consequences for noncompliance.
But overseas is not the only issue; we also need to fix what’s distorting prices at home. Begin with the supply chain middlemen. The three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) now control more than 80 percent of the prescription drug market, acting as gatekeepers between manufacturers and patients. These entities, which play no role in innovation, dictate which drugs are covered, how much patients pay, and who profits.
In theory, they negotiate lower prices. In reality, they steer patients toward higher-cost drugs to maximize the hidden discounts and rebates they collect. A House Oversight Committee report identified hundreds of cases where PBMs favored costlier medications over cheaper alternatives.
In 2023 alone, the “gross-to-net bubble” — the gap between the list prices of branded drugs and net prices after rebates and other discounts — was $334 billion. In an ideal market, those savings would dramatically lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Instead, the system is cloaked in secrecy. Most patients are unaware of the discounts that PBMs negotiate, and they don’t see a dime of those discounts when they pick up their prescriptions. Patient cost-sharing is still based on the inflated, publicly disclosed list price — not the much lower negotiated price.
Today, PBMs, insurers, and other supply chain players capture more than half of every dollar spent on prescription drugs. It’s time to put patients ahead of profiteers. Congress should sever the link between PBM pay and drug list prices and replace it with flat fees that don’t reward higher costs. Patients should receive rebates and discounts directly at the pharmacy counter — no detours. And PBMs should be forced to open the books. Pricing, rebates, and compensation must be transparent.
We also need to crack down on hospital conglomerates that abuse the federal 340B program. Initially created to support low-income and rural hospitals, 340B has ballooned into a multibillion-dollar loophole. These hospitals purchase medicines at heavily discounted prices and resell them at a steep markup — up to five times their acquisition cost — with no obligation to deliver additional care or pass savings to patients. Most 340B hospitals provide less charity care than the national average.
The expansion of 340B — which now accounts for roughly 10 percent of gross U.S. drug spending — comes at the expense of patient affordability. The program continues to disincentivize the use of lower-cost medicines and fuel the consolidation of independent practices into higher-cost hospital systems.
It’s time for Congress to step in. Lawmakers should strengthen program eligibility requirements and require that participating hospitals reinvest 340B income into care for the underserved — not corporate expansion.
President Trump and Vice President Vance understand the need to fight for fairness, sovereignty, and putting America first. But MFN doesn’t advance that cause. If we want a fairer drug market, let’s build one — with real free market reforms. That’s the legacy conservatives should champion.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
was it obummercare that invented the benefit managers? they are a HUGE rip off!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think so – part of O’Care.
LikeLiked by 1 person
….sigh…WP has been all kinds of glitchy for days now! SMH – enough already! Nothing else is doing that but WP…..
LikeLiked by 1 person
what’s it doing??
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not re-loading properly – stopping @ the top instead of where the post was placed. Suddenly being at main home site instead of today’s open….stuff like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
gees–that’s not happening for me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Could be my connection, too – who knows! I just have to re-load more often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mondays….
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
long article…but interesting. the administration is reviving an old law still on the books. illegals HAVE to register (including fingerprints).
article
Federal officials have begun carrying out President Donald Trump’s orders to enforce a World War II-era criminal law that requires virtually all non-citizens in the country to register with and submit fingerprints to the government.
Since April, law enforcement in Louisiana, Arizona, Montana, Alabama, Texas and Washington, D.C., have charged people with willful “failure to register” under the Alien Registration Act, an offense most career federal public defenders have never encountered before. Many of those charged were already in jail and in ongoing deportation proceedings when prosecutors presented judges with the new charges against them.
The registration provision in the law, which was passed in 1940 amid widespread public fear about immigrants’ loyalty to the U.S., had been dormant for 75 years, but it is still on the books. Failure to register is considered a “petty offense” — a misdemeanor with maximum penalties of six months imprisonment or a $1,000 fine.
In reviving the law, the Trump administration may put undocumented immigrants in a catch-22. If they register, they must hand over detailed, incriminating information to the federal government — including how and when they entered the country. But knowingly refusing to register is also a crime, punishable by arrest or prosecution, on top of the ever-present threat of deportation.
“The sort of obvious reason to bring back registration in the first place is the hope that people will register, and therefore give themselves up effectively to the government because they already confessed illegal entry,” said Jonathan Weinberg, a Wayne State University law professor who has studied the registration law.
But the Trump administration also has another goal. It says one purpose of the registration regime is to provoke undocumented immigrants to choose a third option: leave the country voluntarily, or, in the words of the Department of Homeland Security, compulsory “mass self-deportation.” Those efforts, alongside the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and a more aggressive approach to immigration raids, are meant to achieve a broader, overarching campaign promise: the largest deportation program in the history of America.
“For decades, this law has been ignored — not anymore,” the department said in a February announcement that it would enforce the law. The department called “mass self-deportation” a “safer path for aliens and law enforcement,” and said it saves U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions about its enforcement policies.
A long dormant law will now affect millions
The Alien Registration Act was passed in 1940, amid fears about immigrants’ loyalties. A separate provision of the statute criminalizes advocacy for overthrowing the government. For about two decades, that provision was used to prosecute people who were accused of being either pro-fascist or pro-Communist.
The registration provision, though, remained largely dormant, and had not been enforced in 75 years. It applies to non-citizens, regardless of legal status, who are in the U.S. for 30 days or longer.
Certain categories of legal immigrants have already met the requirement. Immigrants who have filed applications to become permanent residents are considered registered by DHS, for example. And even some undocumented U.S. residents are already registered: U.S. residents who have received “parole” — a form of humanitarian protection from deportation — are also considered registered.
Still, DHS estimates that up to 3.2 million immigrants are currently unregistered and are affected by the new enforcement regime. The administration has created a new seven-page form that non-citizens must use. The form requires people, under penalty of perjury, to provide biographical details, contact information, details about any criminal history and the circumstances of how they entered the U.S.
After DHS issued regulations to enforce the registration requirement in April, the administration announced that 47,000 undocumented immigrants had registered using the new form.
A legal challenge and a series of prosecutions
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s move to revive the registration requirement in March.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, initially expressed skepticism toward the administration, saying in a recent hearing that officials had pulled a “big switcheroo” on undocumented immigrants. But McFadden in April refused the plaintiffs’ request to temporarily block the policy, saying the Coalition likely lacks the legal standing to sue because it has not shown that it would be harmed by the policy. The group has appealed McFadden’s decision.
In the meantime, the administration has begun to prosecute people for failure to register for the first time in seven decades.
The prosecutions so far have stumbled.
On May 19, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana consolidated and dismissed five of the criminal cases, saying prosecutors had no probable cause to believe the defendants had intentionally refused to register.
Judge Michael North wrote that the Alien Registration Act requires “some level of subjective knowledge or bad intent” behind the choice not to register. The prosecutions, the judge wrote, are impermissible because most people are simply unaware of the law, and the government “did not provide these Defendants — as well as millions of similarly situated individuals here without government permission — with a way to register” since 1950.
But North also pointed out that the government may have an easier path to proving probable cause in the future, given that DHS created a new registration form in April. And government attorneys have appealed the five dismissed cases.
The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana declined to comment on recent charges filed under the law.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said the office “is aggressively pursuing criminals in the district and will use all criminal justice resources available to make D.C. safe and to carry out President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s direction to support immigration enforcement.”
The other federal district attorneys whose offices filed charges did not respond to a request for comment.
Michelle LaPointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council, an immigrants’ rights advocacy group, said these initial cases are the “tip of the iceberg.” LaPointe is among the attorneys representing the Coalition in its lawsuit against the administration.
“I don’t expect them to abate just because there were some dismissals,” LaPointe said, pointing to North’s statements about future charges. “They have already stated that they intend to make prosecution of the few immigration-related criminal statutes a priority for DOJ, and it’s very easy for them to at least charge, even if they’re not always gonna be able to sustain their burden to secure a conviction.”
Weinberg, the Wayne State law professor, agreed that the administration will likely continue attempting broad enforcement.
“If they bring a whole lot of prosecutions and end up losing all, they may step back,” Weinberg said. “If they bring a whole lot and win a few, they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s the basis on which we can move further’” and appeal — potentially all the way to the Supreme Court, he noted.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/14/trump-administration-alien-registration-act-00403535
LikeLike
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahhhh! Come on, VA!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Alrighty then! I’ve been a busy, busy bee! I have almost $1200 cash coming from my life insurance loan and cash advance on my CC, leaving only about $400 to pay for the tree removal. I will apply for the new interest-free CC and use that for on-line purchases in the future while I work on paying off the current card. I am positive that Chance will be fine with that since I can pay that @ $100/mo. I also contacted my power company to see what options they may have available, specifically getting priority re-connection (thanks, Pat!) More ducks lined up!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
i’m here if you need something. I’ve offered before.
will removal of the tree affect your plantings? more sunlight etc?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No, not really. The angle of the western sun in the afternoon is to the north of the tree anyway. I know, my dear, but I’ve got this – believe me, in a true emergency, I will remember and call on you if necessary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
ok then. just remember I’m here for you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Today’s SITREP: The Benefits and Risks for China Regarding the Israel-Iran Conflict”
Michael T. Flynn LTG USA (RET), Jun 16, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Given the Israel-Iran conflict, I created SITREPs for those wishing to follow my thought process. I’ll adjust and I won’t always get it right. It is my thinking, nonetheless. Today’s focus: China’s benefits and risks.
Because of this conflict, China’s benefits are primarily strategic and indirect, rooted in its broader geopolitical and economic interests. Below are the specific ways China gains:
1. The conflict weakens U.S. influence in the Middle East. It diverts U.S. attention and resources from Asia, where China faces pressure over Taiwan and the South China Sea. By keeping the U.S. entangled in Middle Eastern crisis, China gains breathing room to pursue its Indo-Pacific regional ambitions with less interference.
2. If there is no regime change in Iran, it will strengthen ties with China. China’s close relationship with Iran, cemented by a 25-year cooperation agreement beginning in 2021, is bolstered by the conflict. Iran, increasingly isolated, relies on China as its primary buyer of sanctioned oil (over 90% of Iran’s crude exports go to China). This secures China a discounted energy supply, critical for its economy, while giving Beijing leverage over Tehran. China also benefits by its diplomatic voice while not having to commit military forces (yet).
3. The conflict enhances China’s regional diplomatic clout. China is using the conflict to project itself as a neutral and global peacemaker, contrasting with the U.S.’s perceived bias toward Israel. By condemning Israel’s actions and calling for de-escalation, China appeals to Arab states and the Global Asian South, boosting its image as a champion of non-Western interests. Its mediation efforts, like the Saudi-Iran rapprochement in 2023, gain China credibility, potentially expanding their influence deeper into Middle Eastern diplomacy.
4. China will take advantage of economic opportunities because of the instability. Due to the regional instability, China benefits by disrupting U.S.-aligned trade routes (e.g., through the Suez Canal or Bab Al-Mandab Strait), increasing reliance on China’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure. However, China prefers “controlled instability,” as a full-scale war could threaten its Middle Eastern oil imports (nearly half its supply) along with many of its BRI projects.
5. China’s keen observation of all military engagements, particularly missile and drone performance, will help to refine their own defense strategies. Iranian weapons, often incorporating Chinese components or designs, provide real-world testing data. A prolonged conflict could also weaken Israel’s technological edge, reducing its ability to counter Chinese tech investments in the region.
6. By supporting Iran, China indirectly backs Iran’s proxies (e.g., Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis), which challenge Israel and U.S. short- and long-term interests. This low-cost strategy allows China to pressure Western powers without direct confrontation, aligning with its non-interventionist policy. There are many who correctly suggest China supplies weapons components to Iran and its proxies, further amplifying its influence.
These benefits are not without significant risks.
A broader regional war will disrupt China’s energy security and BRI investments, which rely on Middle Eastern stability. Additionally, China’s pro-Iran stance strains relations with Israel, a key technology partner, potentially limiting access to Israel’s innovation. Beijing’s difficult balancing act—maintaining ties with both Iran and Israel—requires careful diplomacy to avoid alienating either side. The administration needs to pay close attention here.
Conclusion: China benefits by leveraging the conflict to undermine U.S. dominance, secure cheap oil, enhance its diplomatic stature, and gain military insights, all while maintaining a low-risk, non-interventionist stance. However, these gains depend on the conflict remaining contained, as escalation will jeopardize China’s fragile economy and other geopolitical interests and alliances. Feedback is important.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just The News: “Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that his regime’s survival is at stake amid its battle with Israel, according to the news website Israel Hayom.
Israel on Friday launched air attacks on Iranian nuclear and military sites, which resulted in Iran launching air strikes on Israel. Israel’s air attacks come amid an effort by the U.S. to reach a deal with Iran to curb its pursuit to enrich uranium for a nuclear-grade warhead. Putin reportedly then called President Trump at Iran’s urging to address the attacks.
After the phone call, Putin warned Khamenei that his regime is in danger, advising him to quickly move to negotiate. Putin also ordered Russian embassy personnel to evacuate from Tehran.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday, “President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday, but to more importantly, talk about Iran, a country he knows very well.” He added that Putin “feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
rather than jump in on one or the other side, THIS is how super powers should act. compelling PEACE not escalation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, yuck!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
awwwww……that’s funny. I would have married him
LikeLiked by 1 person
and yeah…wth wants mayo flavored ice cream??? i don’t eat it normally!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I prefer Miracle Whip anyway, which is what my family used. A little bit spicier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“This years U.S. Navy Grand Submarine Parade is amazing!”
“Just met a lovely cat in Hertford. Turned out to be a nazi.”
“I don’t think that’s the proper abbreviation for “assorted.” 🤣😂😅
LikeLiked by 1 person
toooooooo funny!
man i hope to never meet THAT cat…he looks pissed!!
speaking of cats, any sign of wheezer?
LikeLiked by 1 person
He actually doesn’t look pissed – his pupils are pinpoint because of the sun – the raised paw means “pet me!” No, no sign – I called for him 4-5 times yesterday w/no result. I’m not surprised, tbh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOLOLOLOLOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
All I can say is: I will worship the ground Donald Trump walks on forever!!! Thanks to his support for the Community Care program in his first term….I just got 5 more notices of benefits paid – total cost: $52,911.65. My part? $0
That does not include the Norfolk hospital, where I spent much less time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
YES!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Hungary tightens animal protection law, Orbán hails it as ‘our common cause’ — “Animal abusers are more likely to turn against their fellow humans,” says Hungarian lawyer specializing in animal protection and legal psychology”
By Remix News Staff, Last updated: June 16, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Hungarian Parliament recently unanimously voted to tighten the country’s animal protection law, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posting on Facebook: “Our common cause is animal protection.”
“Jail anyone who: tortures animals in an animal shelter, poisons animals, trades baby (animals) before a certain age by separating them from their mothers. We are all in this together for animal welfare!” he added
The prime minister called it important that all vulnerable animals in Hungary receive dignified treatment and that more effective action be taken against animal abusers in the future. According to the so-called deadly connection theory, animal abusers are more likely to turn against their fellow humans, Szilvia Vetter, a lawyer specializing in animal protection and legal psychology, told Index.hu.
The head of the Animal Protection Law, Analysis and Methodology Center of the University of Veterinary Medicine says the new law well reflects society’s growing sensitivity to the fate of animals.
The original draft motion was submitted by Fidesz MP Péter Ovádi, who was later joined by Justice Minister Bence Tuzson and Fidesz “father-in-law” László Vécsey, with all members of Hungary’s parliament present voted to pass the legislation.
The Act on Certain Amendments to the Laws Necessary for the Protection of Animals will enter into force in the second half of August, at which time, it will be faster and easier to confiscate severely neglected animals, people will be able to adopt animals seized during criminal proceedings, and in some cases, bans on keeping animals may be applied.
“It is particularly outrageous when the crime of animal cruelty is committed by a person who is entrusted with the care of the animal, and the criminal law will now take stricter action against this, Vetter told Index, adding that if the act affects more than 10 animals, the Penal Code will provide for imprisonment of up to five years.
The crackdown on breeding farms will also reach a new level: if someone weans (baby dogs or cats) too early in commercial quantities (which was already illegal) and exports or imports them, it will now be considered a crime:
Anyone who imports, exports or transports babies separated from their mothers in commercial quantities into, from or through the territory of the country before the age specified in the legislation on the keeping and distribution of pet animals shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of up to one year.
There will also be a ban on acquiring live animals in prize draws, the aim of which is to ensure that adopting an animal is a conscious, considered decision that lasts for the rest of the animal’s life.
He also confirmed that homeless people can still keep companion animals, but due to the poor conditions experienced recently, especially in Budapest, begging with an animal will be a violation.
“Animal cruelty and irresponsible animal husbandry are unforgivable and unacceptable in Hungary,” Vetter emphasized, adding that law enforcement officers will have to adapt and enforce these stricter laws. Professional training and strengthening of the authority infrastructure will be key to making sure authorities nationwide do their job.
Framing the new legislation as equally important for the safety and well-being of humans, Szilvia Vetter said, “Animal protection is not only for animals, but also for people: where there are no stray dogs, they cannot cause bite accidents, in the case of poorly kept animals there is a high risk of infections and zoonoses, moreover, these animals do not bring any economic benefit, and according to the so-called deadly connection theory, animal abusers are more likely to turn against their fellow humans.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
holy shit…that’s ruthless!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
EXCERPT: “Newly declassified intelligence now shows that most of the reported rise in the number of domestic terrorism cases — cited by the Biden administration as a basis for instituting a sweeping expansion in federal law enforcement — was actually tied to one single event that tipped the scales in their favor: the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.
The artificial inflation of the domestic terrorism threat was revealed in newly-declassified intelligence records from early 2022 made public by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard earlier this year.
The declassified “Special Analysis” report by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies from February 2022 revealed that “61 percent” of all alleged domestic terrorism-related cases being investigated by the FBI at the time were related to the Capitol riot, and that “78 percent” of arrests allegedly tied to domestic terrorism in 2021 in fact stemmed from the singular riot in early January 2021.
The Biden administration had long been accused by conservatives and civil libertarians of dodging reality for four years, and he and his party made as much political capital as possible out of the riot, calling it “an insurrection” and a horrific event of domestic terrorism. Thus, the administrative apparatus sought to increase its authority and police powers to pursue domestic terrorists more aggressively.
At the same time that argument was being made, neither Biden nor his subordinates told the public just how overweighted the riot was in their data.
The until-recently-classified document was put together in early 2022 by the “Joint Analytic Cell on Domestic Violent Extremism” run by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). The document was declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in late April.
January 6 accounted for 78% of ‘domestic terrorism’ arrests in 2021
“The FBI is investigating approximately 2,950 domestic terrorism-related cases, 61 percent of which are related to the 6 January siege of the US Capitol,” the then-classified Biden administration analysis revealed in 2022. “The size and complexity of U.S. Capitol siege-related investigations have required the Department of Justice, to include the FBI, to surge resources to investigate and prosecute Capitol siege participants, while maintaining an agile security posture to address domestic terrorism threats.”
The revelation was found in a subsection on “Fatal Domestic Violent Extremist Attacks and FBI Investigations” despite the fact that, contrary to the repeated claims of many Democrats, the Capitol rioters did not kill anyone.
Declassified by ODNI in April 2025
Joint Analytic Cell on DVE
Earlier in the intelligence analysis, the newly-released document had contended that “the number of pending FBI domestic terrorism investigations more than doubled in 2021 — from about 1,400 to about 2,900 — in part because of cases related to the siege of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.” The public was never told this.
The phrase “in part” downplayed the reality and was highly misleading: The “61 percent” figure added up to roughly 1,800 new domestic terrorism cases — which means that, based on their own figures, there would have actually been roughly 300 fewer domestic terrorism cases in 2021 than in 2020 if not for nearly 2,000 Capitol riot cases being dubbed domestic terrorism…..”
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/biden-admin-used-jan-6-artificially-inflate-domestic-terrorism-threat
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Face plant
LikeLiked by 1 person
that guy is NUTS!^^^^
LikeLike
Not giving up….
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Meanwhile, in the Minnesota redoubt…..”
“That face you make when you are set to be the new evil Overlord…”
“But wait! There’s more!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
Island hangout….
Old school….
“Crazy and Armed. Get Out Of This Pickle, If You Can! Alive.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
gotta say…ewwwwww….sand!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Bob thought, “Why didn’t I take that nice safe office job? Why Why Why…”
Magical country….
LikeLiked by 1 person
OH WOW!
the lighting on that last picture!!!! and the coloration!!!! amazing!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never heard of a black deer before!
I know there are albino ones!
and the little white cub is precious!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Crimson Cloud
June 16, 2025 3:00 pm
🚨 BREAKING: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announces the Department of Transportation WILL NOT fund any repairs for damage caused by anti-ICE rioters in sanctuary cities. “Follow the law, or forfeit the funding.” GREAT decision. Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) x.com
https:/twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1934663390326128711?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“New: Iran Folds Like a Wash-and-Wear Suit, Starts Begging for a Ceasefire”
Yeah well…..maybe, maybe not!
Red State, By Bonchie | 1:13 PM on June 16, 2025
ENTIRE ARTICLE: “Things aren’t going well for Iran. While the Islamist nation has managed to kill some civilians by indiscriminately lobbing ballistic missiles at Israel, when it comes to the actual business of winning the war, the scoreboard isn’t even close. The latest evidence of that? Iran is now begging for a ceasefire.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Mullahs are looking for an off-ramp, burning up the backchannels to try to get the United States to bail them out.
I’m not sure if what’s left of the Iranian leadership doesn’t understand how negotiations work, but they probably should have taken them seriously before Israel began its military operation to destroy their nuclear program. It took only three days for the IDF to establish air superiority over Tehran, and they are now bombing regime targets with impunity. That includes the launchers being used to shoot missiles at Israel. Once that threat is minimized, the Mullahs will have nothing left to respond with.
In other words, Iran is on the ropes, and that’s why they are desperately hoping President Donald Trump’s instinct to negotiate gives them a face-saving off-ramp that preserves the regime. Will that happen? I don’t know, but I know what I think should happen.
At this point, Israel should finish the job. The hard work of gaining control of the skies and blowing up Iran’s chain of command is done. To agree to a ceasefire now, before fully destroying Iran’s nuclear capacity, would mean having to do this all over again in a few years. The Mullahs are scared, and they should be. This is a golden opportunity, not to nation build, but to diminish the Iranian threat for decades without having to put boots on the ground.
Will the Mullahs fall as a result of these strikes? Again, I don’t have an answer for that, but I’d caution people against assuming that’s inevitable. The United States is not invading Iran, nor is Israel. That means the only way the Iranian regime fully collapses is if the Iranian people finish the job through a popular uprising. If they don’t do that, then so be it. The goal here is defanging the Mullahs and ensuring they do not gain nuclear weapons, not spreading democracy in the Middle East. For that reason alone, this action bears no comparison to the Iraq War.
With that said, I do hope the Iranian people take this opportunity to free themselves because they may never get another one like this. In the meantime, let Israel cook. This is not the time for an immediate ceasefire that saves the Mullahs and re-establishes the status quo. I think Trump understands that, and while he may give a nod to negotiations publicly because that’s what he always does, I wouldn’t expect him to actually do much to stop Israel from finishing this fight.
UPDATE: Netanyahu says no to negotiations.”
LikeLiked by 1 person