Iran rejects ceasefire proposal with US as war of words deepens

Computers don't have fear. Fear keeps us safe, but the chips are sipping tea in the burning building.

Surprisingly, this was all in the metro NY NJ area. I've been to all 5 boroughs through my life and work and although people may publicly say some nasty things, it's mostly all bark and no bite. This administration, however, is like the rich white Hampton boys doing whatever nasty deed comes to mind and fearing no consequence.

Turns out when they attack resources the rest of the world depends on they are not, in fact, leaving the rest of us out of it

This is nothing new. History is littered with desperate last stands that included even women and children; from the Sieges of Plataea, Sagantum and Masada (to name just a few) to Brythonic armies under Boudicca or Joan of Arc, the latter who became a saint for her resistance of the English, we literally celebrate these events; that a people driven to the very last of their blood, will stand in defiance in the face of even certain defeat. It's easy for the stronger belligerent, even a belligerent who has a just cause on their side, to look at an enemy in the process of collapse and go "Just give up already..." but societies frequently don't do that, instead choosing the path of disparate last defense. Even Churchill, when confronted with a possible peace deal mediated by Mussolini, which threatened to tear his War Cabinet apart, famously said "Nations which went down fighting rose again, but those which surrendered tamely were finished." Trump and Netanyahu's underlying assumption appears to have been "Iranians are ultimately weak, and just need a push to overthrow the tyrants", and when confronted with the reality that this is an ancient and proud civilization, older by an order of magnitude than the US or the modern state of Israel, and even if every Iranian citizen hates the Ayatollahs and the IRGC, their homeland, their place where their ancestors have lived for over three thousand years, is being assaulted. This isn't a Muslim thing, it is a human thing.

It's pathetic what's happening in the US right now. They're pretending they have checks and balances despite the clear evidence. They think they have a working opposition despite the clear evidence. They think the next election will fix things despite the clear evidence. The entire system has been exposed as the failed state it is yet they still think an election going their way will fix things. It won't, and it will take some real aggressive actions to fix their problems, and I have zero faith in them accomplishing anything given their willing blindness to the problems.