Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 6:02:55 AM

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It's Purim.

Hamentashen

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 6:03:27 AM

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Occasional Reader 3/3/2026 6:26:56 AM

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Who wants to underwrite this guy’s life insurance?

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 7:06:53 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 3:

He is looking forward to 72 virgins

JCM 3/3/2026 7:35:18 AM

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Israel strikes building as Iran clerics gather to elect new supreme leader;

Early report, no details.

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 7:36:35 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 3:

They might have some trouble choosing a successor

IDF 'flattens' building where Iran's Assembly of Experts was picking Khamenei's successor

vxbush 3/3/2026 7:39:35 AM

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In #6 Kosh's Shadow said: They might have some trouble choosing a successor IDF 'flattens' building where Iran's Assembly of Experts was picking Khamenei's successor

I was wondering how deep the well was when it came to replacing Khamenei; Hopefully, the well has been plugged. 

JCM 3/3/2026 8:26:30 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 7:

Okay who wants the job?

I was hoping that we had an opposition quietly queued up and ready to step forward.

Maybe after taking out the Assembly of Experts who are now has beens.... that element can come out of the shadows.

JCM 3/3/2026 8:38:07 AM

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Reply to JCM in 8:

IMAO Reza Pahlavi is not the right person. To many echoes back to past. It needs to be a new movement.

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 8:42:29 AM

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In #7 vxbush said: I was wondering how deep the well was when it came to replacing Khamenei; Hopefully, the well has been plugged. 

The well at Qom, where the Mahdi is getting quite mad

vxbush 3/3/2026 8:59:59 AM

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In #10 Kosh's Shadow said: The well at Qom, where the Mahdi is getting quite mad

Heh. You caught that. Excellent. 

Occasional Reader 3/3/2026 9:04:41 AM

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Occasional Reader 3/3/2026 11:32:54 AM

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JCM 3/3/2026 12:24:19 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 12:

The WA Supreme Court is as leftist activist as they get. The ruling I've talked about was Health "expert" have total authority over the health decisions.

When now Gov. Sideshow Bob decided a project that had to meet two goals, the word was "AND", Sideshow sided with Bob in this case it meant "OR".

Sideshow sponsored a gun control with 17 clear and distinct changes to law. A 2A group sponsored an initiative with one clear change. The Court ruled Sideshow's was "single subject" and the 2A group had multiple subjects.

The Court has repeatedly made clearly improper rulings.

Upcoming this year the Legislature passed an income tax on "millionaires" WA Constitution says very clearly and Sideshow even issued an AG ruling that any tax must apply equally to everyone. Sideshow supports this millionaire's tax.

I am betting the Court will use their rubber duck and stamp that law as legit.

WA Supreme Court is a complete and utter joke of a legal institution.

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 12:49:15 PM

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This is behind a paywall but I will excerpt a fair use amount

This Isn’t Israel’s War. It’s America’s.

Squeezed by decades of American sanctions and increasingly isolated, Iran turned to China as its economic lifeline. The relationship deepened rapidly. Today, roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports go to China, processed through a network of Chinese refineries that operate beyond the reach of American sanctions enforcement. That oil revenue supplies around a quarter of Iran’s budget, a huge portion of which is spent on Iran’s military forces. The Iranian military is thus funded, in significant part, by Chinese purchases. Without Beijing, the regime cannot pay its security forces, cannot subsidize basic goods, and would soon face the kind of internal collapse that its own ideology has spent 40 years trying to prevent.

In other words, Iran has become—has made itself—utterly dependent on China.

China, for its part, was not being charitable. It was being strategic. Iranian oil, sold cheaply because Tehran has no other buyers, has helped Beijing build a strategic petroleum reserve exceeding a billion barrels, enough to sustain the Chinese economy for roughly a hundred days in the event of a naval blockade. China’s single greatest vulnerability is the American Navy’s ability to interdict its energy imports, especially at vulnerable choke points like the Malacca Straits. Iranian oil, flowing outside American oversight, was a direct hedge against that vulnerability. (So, by the way, was Venezuela’s, another U.S. operation that was ultimately about containing China.)

But the energy relationship was only part of the picture. China was also arming Iran with systems specifically designed to threaten commercial and American military assets. Reports emerged in late February of a near-finalized deal to supply Iran with supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles capable of speeds exceeding Mach 3 and engineered to evade the Aegis defense systems deployed on American carrier strike groups. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/3/2026 12:51:45 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 15:

It goes on to explain the US is hitting strategic sites that China wants, like the port it was using in Iran, and taking out the Iranian navy.