Thursday, January 9, 2020

 Let's cut out the crap and jump right into it.



 In amongst all the madness that took place in Tehran earlier in the week as we discussed yesterday, the Ukrainian airplane that crashed looks to have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched by Iran. While early speculation consider that Flight PS752 Ukraine International Airlines flight out of Terhan bound for Kiev had crashed Wednesday morning, killing everyone on board. This was put forth by both the Iranian and Ukrainian governments, noting for one the airport in Tehran was a tricky one.

 However, new evidence has come to light that the flight was actually shot down by Iranian forces launching attacks on U.S. bases in retaliation for the drone strike Friday that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As more evidence came in, it became clearer that the crash was about the same time Iran launched one of their volleys. The nail was hammered when Canada in conjunction with the United Kingdom released video that proved the plane was indeed shot down by surface-to-air missiles launched by Iran.

 That's fact. What's also fact is all 176 passengers and members of the crew died in the crash outside Tehran Airport. That number includes 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, 4 Afghanistani, three Germans, and three from the United Kingdom. They're all dead. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, lovers, co-workers, saints, sinners, and complete strangers, all dead. That's fact.

 Now. Since we live in a world where news happens instantly and way, way too many people have the same access, theoretically, to the rest of the world as do the presidents of both the United States and Iran, and far, far too many of us have nothing to do with our time besides ramble on to people we think should have to care, whether they do or they don't, the day's been filled with supposition. Did Iran do it on purpose or was it an accident? If Trump hadn't been trying to wag the dog to distract from his impending trial in the Senate and launched the drone strike, which Iran saw no other option but to shoot back, would the plane have even been in danger in the first place?

 Really? Doesn't matter. No, not at all. One-hundred-and-seventy-six human beings who had nothing to do with any of this are dead because of it. And that is a fact. Nothing else really matters. Far as I can tell, it's still slightly up in the air concerning Iran's blame but, really, all we're waiting for is them to own up to it. How they react to, how they admit their blame, if indeed there is any, might be important. Might be damned important pretty soon.

 But for now, it lives in the world of supposition. It is not a fact. The fact is the president killed some general from another country. that pissed off the other country, they wagged their dick back, and 176 people are dead because of it. Before news of the crash spread, everyone was humble-bragging that in neither the drove strike nor the retaliation, the only casualties were the targets, and that's foreign diplomacy, baby. There was even agreement between Iran and the U.S. that no American soldiers were killed in the missile strike launched against them. Not even much structural damage.

 Still, 176 people who were just doing their jobs or visiting friends or going on a trip for the trip's sake are dead because the president of the United States and the president of Iran have small penises and treat the rest of us like goddamn pawns that only matter in numbers. I'm a little pissed off about this, yes. Wingnut Twitter's been too disgusting for me to pay close attention to since they started threatening to kill me if Trump's impeached or their totally unnecessary AR-15s aren't sold to any random dickhead anymore, so I don't have a grasp on what the screwheads are drooling about.

 They have been waving the bloody flag, though. Their war blue balls got a little relief when it was shown to be Iran's fault, maybe they can get their war on after all. Sure, they care about a bunch of foreigners, especially ones that were mostly Iranian and Ukrainian, that's credible. I've no doubt at all. I've also no doubt they're will to send soldiers to kill other people in revenge for those 176 foreigners that they totally give two tugs of a dead dog's dick about.

 Apparently Trump was persuaded by Tucker Carlson's show to not increase hostilities after the initial scrap, so I guess we're lucky he didn't catch the other white supremacists show that night. After sniffing his way through living proof that the shit Obama caught for using a teleprompter was just wingnuts finding a reason to be racist, Trump's decided it's "Infrastructure Week" again and announced a massive change to current EPA regulations, all in the name of "jobs".

 In a nutshell, Trump's proposing changes to the regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act, passed way back in 1970 by Nixon to protect the environment that would ease restrictions on off-shore drilling and federally funded pipeline projects on land. It would also no longer require federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change when considering major energy and infrastructure projects across the country, because fuck you, that's why. Anyone simple enough to believe this will bring jobs that people can actually live on, especially considering the damage to health caused by polluting the environment, especially while we're restricting access to health care, is too naive to take seriously. If it weren't for all the suffering to wildlife just trying to do their animal thing, I'd say we deserve what we got, but they don't deserve to suffer for our sins.

 On the upside, the House of Representatives voted pretty much on party lines to take back some of the power Congress gave away the last time a president had a small dick, and voted to limit some of Trump's ability to rain death and destruction down on brown people. The bill has to pass the Senate and no one really can say how Dark Lord's Mitch McConnell's black heart will be when it comes to a vote. Interestingly, of all the criss-crossing Congress critters that voted with the other party one was "Whiskey" Matt Gaetz, the terror of the Florida roads. He voted with the Democrats to put a cock ring on Trump's war boner. Well, I find that interesting.

 Also, Trump still hasn't mentioned the earthquakes in Puerto Rico, surprising absolutely nobody, though the White House is still sitting on over $9 billion in relief funds intended for the island's recovery from Hurricane Maria two years ago, citing "concerns" about "corruption" and "financial mismanagement". Sure, I believe Trump really worries about that as much as I believe the base is ready to take revenge on Iran in the name of dead Iranians. Finally, Australia's prime minister is still pretending the brush fires scorching the country were caused by drunken wombats or whatever the hell the damn fool is claiming to continue to ignore climate change.

 There we go. At the end of the day, however, 176 people who were alive at the beginning of the week are dead now because two assholes have to be assholes are dead now. And that is a fact.