Politics

Red Leg said:

All, I would suggest ignoring @Big Easy. He has been here a while, but on this thread he is a typical troll, with the intellectual capacity and discipline of 14 year old. Heck, after looking at the few non politics posts he has made, that may be generous. When he gets no responses after jumping atop his classroom desk and trying to look clever, he goes away for a couple of days before trying again hoping someone responds. A typical troll. I would be surprised if @BRICKBURN isn't already monitoring his posts and engagement.

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Agreed, although I feel 14 is very generous.

Red Leg said:

I know many of you, for some good reason, despise the NY Times. I also suspect many have rarely read an article ever actually printed in it. I would urge all of you to make an exception for this one - if there isn't a paywall. During any administration, there will be three or four journalists with whom a President is comfortable having a detailed background dialogue. That journalist will also be one with whom he also will allow his closest advisors to dialogue. I am fairly confident that Maggie Habermann of the NYT represents such a conduit for Trump. This article is superb and could only be written with such access. It makes something of a mockery of the democrat talking points that Trump blindly stumbled into this conflict or was led around by the nose by the Israelis. I reiterate, it was published yesterday in the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/politics/trump-iran-war.html

or if behind a paywall, try this link.

https://archive.ph/6X4NK

Well worth 5 or 10 minutes.

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Thank you for sharing. Some interesting insights.

Pondoro said:

Bullshit..I do not hate Israel, nor jews.. But I acknowledge their right-wing zionist agenda..

Wich is expanding their territory..as they have steadily done since 1948.. Because the Tora say they should rule the land from Egypt to Eufrates.. A toxic mix of religion and politics. Made possible with american support.

Hamas kill 1200 israelis..you scream bloody murder..

Israel kill 70.000 palestinians/arabs in Gaza...you stay silent. Not a word.

Say the following. " I hate arabs " Make you feel better. Hypocrite..

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Don't really understand why responses in war should be "proportional".....is that supposed to keep everything fair? I thought the objective was to use overwhelming force to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible......1st to accomplish the objective and 2nd to minimize our own casualties.....not sure where the "fair thing" comes into play. If you don't want to be annihilated, don't attack in the first place. If you do attack, expect the worst.

barryk said:

Don't really understand why responses in war should be "proportional".....is that supposed to keep everything fair? I thought the objective was to use overwhelming force to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible......1st to accomplish the objective and 2nd to minimize our own casualties.....not sure where the "fair thing" comes into play.

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About 20.000 of the 70.000 in Gaza were children..

Red Leg said:

All, I would suggest ignoring @Big Easy. He has been here a while, but on this thread he is a typical troll, with the intellectual capacity and discipline of 14 year old. Heck, after looking at the few non politics posts he has made, that may be generous. When he gets no responses after jumping atop his classroom desk and trying to look clever, he goes away for a couple of days before trying again hoping someone responds. A typical troll. I would be surprised if @BRICKBURN isn't already monitoring his posts and engagement.

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I was wondering how long it would take for someone to Narc on me to a mod? Good to see cancel culture is alive and well. Wasn't @mdwest just giving @Pondoro shit about "crying" harder?

"intellectual capacity of a 14 year old"...this after a dozen+ members have thrown every childish insult at me they can think of. No mention of those folks at all?

Perhaps I go away for a few days because I have a job to work, and a family to support. Can't spend my whole life on here buddy. I'm glad you have that kind of time.

tinktink12 said:

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How do you choose communism AND Wall Street?

Big_Easy said:

This gets the award for most ignorant comment of the day. A land war is what Iran wants. More targets to hit. More Americans that they can kill. They have been trying to goad Trump into a land war this whole time.

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Really? I thought it was a good observation. We are fortunate to have some very smart and experienced men on this forum that know a lot more about tactical strategies and responses than I do. I do know, however, that if someone or "someones" threaten to kill you and have demonstrated their "Death to America" slogan, there is not a lot you can do with that....I believe them. I don't think anyone on this forum welcomes a ground war or what will result casualty wise from both sides. The Japanese were just as embedded as I'm sure the IRGC will be......probably no choice but to "seek out, close with, and destroy the enemy".....not something I want to stomach but I'm guessing will be a necessity.

Flipper Dude said:

Tell me @Big_Easy Do you hunt? Do you aspire to be a hunter? Cuz, for the life of me, I don’t understand why a man would join a HUNTING forum and go out of his way to piss off and alienate the majority of the members of the forum. Do you feel it’s your duty? Is it an attempt to change hearts and minds? Are you trying to save us from ourselves, or trying to demonstrate a superior intellect?

Hope you’re not trying to develop any friendships here or meet potential hunting partners. You’ve done pissed in those cornflakes.

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"alienate the majority of the members of the forum."...Do you speak for the majority of members on this forum? There are what, hundreds, perhaps thousands of members here? I've tangled with maybe 20-25 of them over the past few weeks. Haven't you wondered why I didn't post in this thread before? Only trump starting an unconstitutional and unnecessary war in Iran could get me off the sidelines buddy.

I feel its important to counter the right-wing echo chamber sometimes. Especially when war is afoot. I've always found it interesting that gun forums and their many right-wing members act so offended? Insulted? Annoyed? That someone from the center or the left could possibly be pro-gun, and be part of a community like this as well.

In case you haven't been reviewing past posts, there are a least 6-7 other members that feel at least partially how I do. But no, I'm not necessarily looking for friends on this forum specifically, or in general. I belong to left-leaning gun forums and groups as well (they do exist), and find it quite easy to befriend folks on there.

I do find it curious...the need for you and others to admonish me for what I say, but not for the members who say rude/crude/slanderous comments about me? Or others? Comparing Kamala to a flying monkey? That was ok? Claiming @Pondoro is an anti-semite bc he criticized Israel? That was ok? Accusing me of being a terrorist sympathizer? That was ok? But I drop one Klan comment and BOOM! Snowflake protocol activated. Glad we know all where the line is now.

Pondoro said:

About 20.000 of the 70.000 in Gaza were children..

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Don't know about the facts on the numbers.......were the children deliberately placed in harms way? By who? Did Israel deliberately set out to kill children? I'm betting they did not.

tinktink12 said:

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1. Interested that you are so worried about Israel when most of us worried about America.
2. Aren't some Americans also Muslims? Is that why you're upset?
3. Socialism and Democracy aren't mutually exclusive.
4. Which national democrats support Communism, please provide a list.
5. Again, which Dems "support crime" please list. The right seemed very crime happy on January 6th.
6. Republicans invented globalism buddy. Shareholder value theory too.
7. Remind me who was president when we bailed out the airlines, or the auto industry, or wall street?
8. Obama deported more illegals than any other president.
9. Most dems aren't atheists. They're just not religious fruitcakes.

Pondoro said:

About 20.000 of the 70.000 in Gaza were children..

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It’s certainly tragic but there were a lot of factors at play. Gaza was very densely built upon and populated. A large proportion of the population was also very young. You also have an enemy in Hamas who is more than happy to use human shields. Hamas hid rockets in hospitals and leadership in refugee camps. Families hid relatives who were Hamas fighters.

All those contribute to a tragically high number of civilian casualties in any conflict there.

Unfortunately I don’t know what else Israel could have done. Anything less than a major offensive would have been ineffective and validated Hamas’ tactics. And while support for the invasion of Gaza waned as it went on, I don’t think the Israeli public would have found anything less acceptable in the immediate aftermath of the October attacks.

Rocked and Loaded said:

I think anyone who thought Israel would ignore its interests of pursuing operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah would have to be a fool.

I also think that anyone who blames Israel for the ceasefire failing is a fool. Lebanon is not Iran and Iran has no legitimate justification for ending the ceasefire over operations in Lebanon. Obviously they are a proxy but one would have to be especially foolish to pursue a ceasefire at any cost.

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Iran fired rockets at Israel 12 minutes after they agreed to the ceasefire fairly sure they also fired them at the golf states and Saudi. But I’ll need to reread the news thread that I posted above.

Apparently the oil industry is less then happy with Trump victory over Iran, mostly regarding the new Iranian toll of $2.5 million for every ship passing through the strait, the quote below pretty much sums it up:

”We didn’t have to do that before — and I thought we won the war."

Having to pay toll to Iran to pass the Strait of Hormuz is a much worse situation for world trade than before US+Israel attacked.

It is revolting to be pushed into paying money to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by the actions of the US+Israel.

Published Apr 8, 2026 10:59 PM

Since March, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has generated extraordinary political leverage for Iran by metering out transit rights and attacking ships at will; by one calculation, a transit fee could also generate up to $90 billion in annual revenue.

The fee structure for the passage has been reported widely. It is said to amount to about $1 per tonne of oil for tankers, and more if the vessel is affiliated with a less-favored nation.

https://maritime-executive.com/arti...hoices-on-whether-to-pay-for-access-to-hormuz

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Kalthoff said:

It is revolting to be pushed into paying money to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, by the actions of the US+Israel

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In reality the path of ships is in international waters. What Iran is doing is piracy.

Tanks said:

In reality the path of ships is in international waters. What Iran is doing is piracy.

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Thank you!

Pondoro said:

Donald J. Trump: "NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED TH...

NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!! President DJT

www.trumpstruth.org

Hmm..apparently Greenland is still on the table..

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Not to brag, but someone predicted this.

LivingTheDream said:

Not to brag, but someone predicted this.

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I just wish that he would just take the US out of Nato instead of keep talking about it. Talking about it all the time just makes any advesaries doubt Nato so it would actually be better if he made the US leave instead...of course it would be even better if he did just shut up about it, but that does not seem likely

KJE81 said:

of course it would be even better if he did just shut up about it, but that does not seem likely

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This is something we agree on, lol.

The Straits will not be under Iranian control when this is over.