A Daily Reid: Morons Are Governing America (World War III & Regime Change)

The least qualified, least impressive, most cartoonish ever American presidency has launched the dumbest possible war... with Iran.

Lord, please save us all from this fool and his unimpressive friends …

From Axios:

President Trump floated the possibility of "regime change" in Iran on Sunday in a post to his Truth Social account.

• "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!" the president wrote.

Why it matters: This is the first time Trump has raised the possibility of regime change in Iran since Israel launched its war ten days ago — and the U.S. joined with airstrikes targeting Iran's nuclear sites on Saturday.

• Trump has criticized the neo-conservative faction of the Republican Party for years over their support for regime changes in Iraq, Iran and other places around the world.

Driving the news: The president's post is a departure from the rest of his administration, which has stressed multiple times over the last several days that its goal is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and that the U.S. is not pushing for regime change in Iran.

• Vice President Vance said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press" that the administration's view "has been very clear that we don't want a regime change."

• "We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it's already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program, and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here," Vance said.

Between the lines: An Iran regime change has become an unstated goal of the Israeli government since the war began earlier this month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even said it could be one of the results of the war.

Yes, but: There has been no significant uprising against the Iranian regime since the war began, and experts have mentioned a dynamic of rallying around the flag in Iran — even among Iranians who are critical of the regime.

At this point, is there an autocratic foreign government Donald doesn’t answer to??? I’m starting to think he really is all up in the Epstein Files…

Original Post:

They don’t even look impressive.

When Donald Trump walked down that long red carpet at the White House, to announce that the U.S. had dropped a “payload” of weapons on Iran’s deep-earth nuclear facilities, I think in his mind, he looked like Winston Churchill, flanked by his most senior men. Instead, he looked more like an aging game show host, stalking the stage with his letter turn boys, trying in vain to recreate the golden age of television.

Donald Trump really does try to seem impressive. He works really hard at projecting strength and gravitas. The trouble is, every time he speaks, he sounds like this:

And with that, plus a weird bless-up to Israel and Middle East before he mentioned the country he’s supposedly leading, the most comically ill prepared, unqualified president this poor, beleaguered United States has ever suffered through, launched the single dumbest war in our history. And that’s saying a lot, with George W. Bush still on this side of God’s green earth and the Iraq War, plus Vietnam, still in our memory banks. And let’s not forget that before giving that White House address, our forever junior high school boy made the "official” war announcement on XTwitter (and TV Pete even retweeted him! I think they go together. Somebody log me in to Snapchat!)

What happened to this guy?

Donald Trump used to know that going to war against Iran was a dumb idea. In fact, he was so jealous of President Obama and desperate to outflank him, he pretended Obama wanted to do it:

And then when another Democrat, returned to office, because the American people, in a brief moment of clarity, fired the reality show host they foolishly let into the White House, he accused Joe Biden of spoiling for war in the Middle East…

But of course, there was always only one president dim enough to get duped by Bibi Netanyahu into fighting his most lethal opponent, such that he can rule Israel for life, avoid those nasty criminal charges, and deliver to the most radical nutcases in his political coalition, their dream of dominating the whole region (while exterminating each and every Palestinian where they stand, read, study or sleep.)

And believe me, Bibi has been trying…

And that first video? It was made while Bill Clinton president. You know … Bill Clinton … the guy who pardoned Marc Rich, a record-shattering tax cheat who was on the FBI’s ten most wanted list alongside Osama Bin Laden … at the behest of a former Israeli prime minister. A pardonee who was credibly accused of breaking sanctions laws and trading oil during the Iranian hostage crisis … with Iran.

Nicknamed El Matador for his steel nerves and razor-sharp acumen, Mr. Rich pushed the limits of legality and, the government said, broke them. In 1983 he was indicted on 65 criminal counts that included tax fraud and trading with Iran when it was holding American hostages.

One of the most serious allegations was that Mr. Rich had misrepresented the provenance of crude oil he sold in 1980 and 1981. Under complicated regulations then in place, newly found oil fetched a higher price than older oil. By illegally marking up the price of old oil and passing it through a bewildering chain of transactions, Mr. Rich sold oil at a markup of up to 400 percent. He was accused of making more than $100 million from the scheme, avoiding paying $48 million in United States taxes.

Mr. Rich paid the government about $200 million in civil penalties but fled to Switzerland to escape criminal prosecution. The Internal Revenue Service offered a $500,000 reward for his capture, and the F.B.I. put him on its “most wanted” list, along with Osama bin Laden. Even as he remained the world’s biggest trader of metals and minerals and lived in opulence, he was called the world’s most famous fugitive.

Then, on Jan. 20, 2001 — Mr. Clinton’s last day in office — Mr. Rich’s name appeared on the presidential pardon list. It immediately became the most debated White House pardon since President Gerald R. Ford gave one to Richard M. Nixon in 1974, and speculation about Mr. Clinton’s motivation was rampant.

It was soon learned that Mr. Rich’s former wife, Denise Rich, had made large donations to the Democratic Party and the Clinton library, and that Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Barak, had lobbied Mr. Clinton for the pardon. Rabbi Irving Greenberg, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, also pressed Mr. Rich’s case, on museum stationery.

Shabtai Shavit, a former head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, expressed gratitude to Mr. Rich for routinely allowing agents to use his offices around the world and for financing airlifts of Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen and other countries. King Juan Carlos I of Spain also weighed in on Mr. Rich’s behalf.

Bill Clinton was willing to pardon that guy … but not to launch a stupid war against Iran just because Bibi told him to. But Trump? Well … all Bibi had to do was flatter him, promise him a Nobel Peace Prize, and sell him the bunkum that Iran was plotting to kill him (by somehow tricking a couple of white, American Christian Republicans to aim rifles at The Donald, or what???) and voila!

And it is worth noting, again and again, in case the mainstream media fails to tell you — Iran did absolutely nothing to provoke this war with the U.S. They did not attack us. They did not attack our client state, Israel. Israel, in fact, attacked them. And yes, the Iranian regime is heinous, particularly in its suppression of women. But God help me as a paraphrase the repulsive Marjorie Taylor Greene: there would be no war had Israel not started it, and if they want to start stupid, needless wars, how is that our problem???

Marge better be careful, lest she wind up with a Trump-funded primary like her guy Thomas Massie is about to. King Donald doth not bear impertinence well.

It figures

And now, for the most Trump-perfect headline that could possibly emerge in this moment…

This era is pure art. Did I mention, Michael Wolff called Trump an “idiot savant” on my show???

From Rolling Stone:

After President Donald Trump’s decision to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, administration officials are barely bothering to pretend the unprecedented — and potentially calamitous — attacks were motivated by new intelligence suggesting Iran was on the brink of having nuclear weapons.

Just months ago, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified to Congress, in her opening statement, that the U.S. intel community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon” and had not reauthorized its nuclear weapons program.

While Trump recently publicly disputed Gabbard’s testimony, according to two administration officials with knowledge of internal deliberations in recent weeks, the president’s decision to strike was not driven by any new U.S. intelligence on Iran.

“There is no intel,” says one of the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “Nothing new, that I’m aware of… The president is protecting the United States and our interests, [but] the intelligence assessments have not really changed from what they were before.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed Saturday night that American intelligence assessments on Iran have not changed. “I was briefed on the intelligence last week. Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States,” he wrote on social media. “Iran was not close to building a deliverable nuclear weapon.”

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly says, “This is false and lazy ‘reporting’ designed to undermine President Trump’s highly successful operation to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

Trump’s attacks on Iran constitute an act of war — and could set off a new, long-term conflict with potential to grow into something much larger. Unlike a previous time an American president preemptively initiated a war in the Middle East, when George W. Bush plunged America into a disastrous war in Iraq, he and his team spent roughly a year building a case of lies and propaganda to sell to a public that was already broadly supportive of post-9/11 military action.

We are being governed by idiots.

But hey, at least they’re all white and mostly, amirite, TV Pete!?

Merit!

Now go on, James David … tell us who we’re at war with …

Ok let’s let Lil Marco try…

Sorry, Iran should choose peace??? WE BOMBED THEM FOR NO REASON!!!

Ok deep breathing. And no, I don’t even want to hear from Hegseth … and apparently I’m not alone…. since he is allegedly being ignored in favor of a guy nicknamed, The Gorilla.

This is why I drink.

Coming up on Monday’s The Joy Reid Show, my interview with Trita Parsi on all of this mess (posting tomorrow afternoon on the YouTube channel and here on Substack) plus we’ll go LIVE tomorrow night at 7 p.m., featuring interviews with Akbar Shahid Ahmed of The Huffington Post, our friend Major General Paul Eaton, and bringing back former South African ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool — whom I really want to ask about why South Africa was forced to give up its nuclear weapons once the Black majority took over the government.

Hope to see you tomorrow on The Joy Reid Show (and be sure to SUBSCRIBE!) And stay tuned for more news and goodies here at Joy’s House.