“480 Minutes” - New War No Clue

Apr 3

When Dubyah launched his illegal immoral invasion of Iraq in 2003 his announcement included, “at this hour, American & coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, & to defend the world from grave danger.” Said "grave danger" were supposed weapons of mass destruction, but that turned out to be a right-wing fever dream. Those weapons, that threat to the world, did not exist. Oopsie! And then there was his embarrassing "Mission Accomplished" photo op on May 1, 2003, 18 years before the combat mission actually ended. Of course Bush never gave a mea culpa b/c the toxic masculinity of Republican politics does not allow for admitting mistakes regardless of how obvious or egregious. Call me crazy but I thinks an apology was in order for the 200,000 Iraqi civilians & 4500 American military killed over that fantasy/pretence of "grave danger."

Well, here we are again, this time with a malignant narcissist former reality TV star trying to distract us from the damning Epstein Files his Justice Department continues to hide; his out-of-control ICE-stapo ignoring due process while brutalizing, incarcerating, & murdering innocents including American citizens; the utter failure of his unconstitutional & economically idiotic tariffs; & so much more.

This time the fantasy/pretense is an "imminent threat" that only the cognitively-impaired President sees, not the people who have spent decades studying the situation. Once again one of the (belatedly) stated goals is to "free the people" from an evil regime that, 5 weeks into the conflict, seems to be more emboldened than before the attack.

The Mad King tells us week after week that things are winding down while at the same time sending more & more troops & military assets to the Middle East & openly speaking of sending in ground troops to fight...who? We don't know because the stable genius & his bootlickers insist that we've already defeated Iran's army, & navy, & air forces. Maybe they'll clean up the parks like they did in D.C.?

All of this is unthinkable, should be impossible, yet there are no adults in the room to stop the madness. Meanwhile our now former allies watch in horror & our global adversaries sit back eating popcorn watching with glee as the global alliance of democratic nations fractures & the U.S. burns $1B a day for yet another unforced error that's just beginning.

The award-winning live-hosted 480 Minutes will once again today include a ton of new music including 🎵 by The Bevis Frond (Walthamstow, England, @TheBevisFrond), Ceylon Sailor (Brooklyn, NY, @Ceylon.Sailor), Cola (Montreal, Canada, @Band_Cola), José González (Stockholm, Sweden), King Tuff (Burlington, VT, @KingTuffy), Ladytron (Liverpool, England, @LadyTron), The New Pornographers (Vancouver, BC, Canada, @TheNewPornographers), & Sunglaciers (Calgary, Alberta, Canada, @SunGlaciers).

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