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March, 19-21: God is a comedian

99 points by tastyface

by dgxyz

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Interesting times ahead. Hopefully less interesting than current times.
I try to look on the bright side. There’s a sudden interest in energy and supply chain sovereignty. Which is never a bad thing.

by rich_sasha

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It's a collection of indeed ironic events. I haven't read closely enough to see how many I agree with, but some good points for sure.
But what is really not funny is the scale of human suffering that is happening and will follow. Civilians killed in Iran, Lebanon - and what the hell, even in Israel, maybe they aren't in the 90% who support this war. Completely pointless material damage. All the people in Tehran who will get cancer from breathing in crude oil fumes - and according to Trump himself, 85% of Iranians oppose the regime. The damage to GCC economies, who didn't want this to happen. The damage to global economy from the spiking oil prices, unpredictability - and the very real poverty this will push people into. The weakening of arsenals against other adversaries, including Ukraine's defence against Russia. The boost to Russia's budget from spiking oil prices and indefinite-looking suspension of sanctions.
And all this assuming this doesn't turn into WWIII.
So on balance, not funny I think.

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by lbreakjai

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There's a reason even the most bloodthirsty war hawks left Iran alone for decades. I'm really starting to worry that the US and Israel are driving the world towards the biggest economical crisis in history.
Expensive petrol is one thing. What happens when a considerable portion of the world can't feed itself because of a lack of fertiliser?

by zkmon

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What an interesting read. But, all these efforts to knock some sense into establishments or public would hardly have any influence on the matters on ground, beyond being a very good content for reading.

by zvqcMMV6Zcr

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> The insurer’s phone must be making fascinating noises.
Doesn't all insurance policies exclude acts of war, and after 9/11 also acts of terrorism?

by roenxi

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The obvious next step should probably be impeachment and removal from office. This seems to be the sort of situation was intended for. Elderly president goes completely off the rails one Friday and attempt to take out the global economy and trigger world war 3 for reasons that nobody can articulate. It is difficult to find a perspective where this war was reasonable, necessary, well advised, legal, moral or agreed to by any of the bodies that are supposed to decide whether the US military activates.
The only vague silver lining is that the situation is such a disastrous blunder that maybe future presidents will think a bit harder before sending the military in to the middle east. Assuming that Iran doesn't survive, get nukes and set up an impenetrable missile deterrence that renders the question moot. If the Republicans don't disassociate from Trump ASAP it looks like it is going to be much worse for them than Bush was and the way he established a good decade of right-wing cultural irrelevance. The safest path that will hold together with hindsight is walking away but I doubt they're nimble enough to manage that.

by Dansvidania

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by aaron695

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by anthk

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Sometimes I think Cristianism was born as a parody of Judaism that was taken too far.
On these current events, the issue is a lot of people it's making money on losses. There are psychos that in the past would be killed in the spot for being too greedy even against their peers.