Durbin Peter

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@ntbrown01 @KobeissiLetter It sells VALUE. 30% a year. Year after year. Years ago my wife said to me, “I like him. He’s good to people.”

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

Instead of simply bemoaning the state of the Western Alliance, why not consider what Putin said repeatedly before he moved on Ukraine. He asked for a new, stable security architecture with the West. He asked that the US and Europe stop building military and intelligence capability in Ukraine. A problem is not over until both sides are heard with a view toward actually creating stability.
That’s not happening. What is happening is a slide toward nuclear war.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@InsiderGeo Lawyers believe in laws. Leaders don’t put their trust in laws,

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

Governments are not monoliths. Bits of news keep surfacing that show Trump and his top people are still at the mercy of holdovers in his agencies. The key agencies have factions with distinct views on US foreign policy decisions. This filters the information reaching the President much as light bends when it passes a heavy body. Further, presidents seek information beyond their internal agencies: other governments, financial and industrial executives, political advisors. The final decisions are the President’s alone and only as events play out over time can his decisions be graded.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

“deals” are not always possible. And with an Iran having spent every penny of its oil revenue building ballistic missiles and straining to build nuclear warheads for those missiles, a “deal” may not even be desirable. Trump’s actions toward Iran after the US midterms will clarify the path forward. He’ll be less constrained by US electoral politics and can take bolder actions — in either direction. Consistent with the US retreat to the Western Hemisphere of the last two years he could completely abandon the Middle East, leaving Iran to the mercies of the Sunni Gulf states and a nuclear Israel. Or, unconcerned about re-election in 2028, he could destroy Iran’s energy installations, water systems, and transportation systems, absorbing whatever responses Iran can make, and inviting the Gulf States and Israel to weigh in on subsequent Iranian governments.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@Alvin1492840 Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@TheMichaelEvery An Iran without water, power, and bridges is probably also without an IRGC. The problem then is to support Iran’s population.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

't backup to "Old MB BU." It suggested I run first aid. I did and that said the external disk is OK. Anything else I can do?

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@RodDMartin How can you say the Lebanon deal is great when it’s not Lebanon that’s the problem. It’s Obviously Hezbollah which Lebanon can’t control. And Israel can’t defeat. And the US doesn’t want to go to war with. So how does it get better?

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@pati_marins64 Unconditional surrender, if it gets to that point, means the defeated nation does not decide what it will do and will not accept.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@ianbremmer Just look how well credentials and experience have served us over the last 30+ years.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@OfficerJimLayh @Breaking911 Iran had been at war with us since 1979. You just didn’t know it.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@pati_marins64 The times are only strange if you’re blind to the US retreat to the Western Hemisphere. And what that portends.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@Breaking911 Who’s your clerk-typist on this one?

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

China and the US are tearing the world into separate blocs: military, commercial, cultural.

This is not a clean process. It doesn't happen smoothly, or all at once, or just in one place, or only at a negotiating table.

A better image is the disruption in space-time caused by a massive Black Hole passing a section of the universe.

The Buddhists say' "Everything Changes." We are witnessing those changes: in the Middle East, in global finance, in barely understood technologies racing toward an unknown future, in previously unseen demographic changes across continents, and more.

The separation of China and the US does not necessitate war. But it does demand adjustment of critical sectors: energy, agriculture and food production, water resources, commercial trade routes, where human populations can survive, and how the two blocs talk to each other.

The effects Patricia Marin describes are certainly significant to the countries and people affected. How and whether these effects are mitigated will be a marker of how civilized today's nations are. But, regardless, the changes will continue.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@cyrilXBT When a model is built by liberals, of course it wants everything to be given away free to everybody.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

Many Western nations believe that if Iran had nuclear weapons they would use them. Iran’s leaders have repeatedly stated their intent to destroy “The Little Satan” and to blunt the power of “The Big Satan.” The US and others carefully watch Iran’s development and preparation for nuclear delivery, and most importantly, for their readiness to strike. If Iran ever reached that point it’s likely that the US and/or Israel would preempt, even with nuclear weapons, rather than suffer an Iranian nuclear attack.
The disruption you describe across the Middle East is significant, but acceptable weighed against a fanatical nuclear Iran.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@ctindale Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the votes to legislate a lot of what you suggest. And the Left with NGO’s and some billionaires with TDS are better organized than the Trump administration. The filibuster could be killed, the SAVE act passed and enforced, but not yet.

[Durbin Peter @Horizonburn]

@QTHESTORMM Yes