A tourist wanders into a back-alley antique shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. Picking through the objects on display he discovers a detailed, life-sized bronze sculpture of a rat. The sculpture is so interesting and unique that he picks it up and asks the shop owner what it costs.
"Twelve dollars for the rat, sir," says the shop owner, "and a thousand dollars more for the story behind it."
"You can keep the story, old man," he replies, "but I'll take the rat."
The transaction complete, the tourist leaves the store with the bronze rat under his arm. As he crosses the street in front of the store, two live rats emerge from a sewer drain and fall into step behind him. Nervously looking over his shoulder, he begins to walk faster, but every time he passes another sewer drain, more rats come out and follow him.
By the time he's walked two blocks, at least a hundred rats are at his heels, and people begin to point and shout. He walks even faster, and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of rats swarm from sewers, basements, vacant lots, and abandoned cars. Rats by the thousands are at his heels, and as he sees the waterfront at the bottom of the hill, he panics and starts to run full tilt.
No matter how fast he runs, the rats keep up, squealing hideously, now not just thousands but millions, so that by the time he comes rushing up to the water's edge a trail of rats twelve city blocks long is behind him.
Making a mighty leap, he jumps up onto a light post, grasping it with one arm while he hurls the bronze rat into San Francisco Bay with the other, as far as he can heave it. Pulling his legs up and clinging to the light post, he watches in amazement as the seething tide of rats surges over the breakwater into the sea, where they drown.
Shaken and mumbling, he makes his way back to the antique shop.
"Ah, so you've come back for the story," says the owner.
"No," says the tourist, "I was wondering if you have a bronze politician."
Firstly I would discount anything Israel ever said about Iran and it's nuclear program. Netanyahu has been saying for 20+ years Iran was months or weeks away from a nuclear bomb. Clearly all those statements - dozens of which are in print and on video for you to see for yourself, were all lies driven by an agenda, just like his sales pitch to Trump to engage in the current war.
Before the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was terminated in May 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had unprecedented access to Iran’s nuclear program to verify compliance.
Under the 2015 agreement, often called the Obama agreement, Iran allowed IAEA inspectors "continuous and robust" monitoring of declared sites, along with implementing the Additional Protocol, which allowed for inspections of suspicious, undeclared sites.
Based on reports up to the 2015-2018 period, the IAEA consistently reported that Iran was complying with the technical requirements of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), limiting its nuclear program. While the IAEA identified minor issues, it did not report a concerted effort to build a nuclear weapon before the U.S. withdrew from the agreement.
Those are facts and that is simply "counting".
You and others are free to believe that the rest of the world are stupid or naive - you can choose not to believe experts in the field and on the ground. Peen can voice his opinion that anyone that doesn't agree with Netanyahu or Trump "wants Iran to have Nukes" ... That's your choice. But it is driven by emotion and opinions, which is fine, but worth highlighting.
For reference: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is composed of 181 member states (as of late 2025), a 35-member Board of Governors, a General Conference of all members, and a Secretariat led by a Director General. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
Being a Browns fan takes a lot of Faith although I have been around awhile and seen some pretty Good teams. I send my grandkids old games off the internet ...
I'll ask you again Peen, since it seems all you want to do is throw crazy, unfounded, baseless accusations around.....
So did trump "obliterate Iran's nuclear weapon program setting it back many years if not decades" in June of 2025 or were they "less than a month away from having a nuclear weapon" in February of 2026?
One of those things is a lie. So which one do you believe is true and which one is the lie?
Obama had a deal set in place that prevented Iran from having a nuclear weapon. In case you missed it, he is one of the "you people" you're are talking about. Enrichment was limited and open inspections were being done. Iran was complying. Now if you want to start using trump talking points about that, please bring some facts to the table as to why it was such a bad deal and didn't to that instead of just more baseless rhetoric like you're using here. It was actually trump, one of "you people" that opened the door when he blew up the deal we had in place with Iran. He made it clear to Iran that the American government was no longer trustworthy to honor the deal they made.
So don't blame "us people" for the situation we're in because it was one of "you people" who created this mess.
Now what should we have done about Iran? Who knows? Because we have no idea which time trump was lying to us and which time he wasn't. And neither do "you people".
Sometimes the reality of the world has to smack people in the face. Some snap out of it, some remain delusional in the hope that non reasonable zealots become reasonable.
The Trump family has officially bought out Kool-Aid
The Trump family has officially bought out the Kool-Aid brand in honor of America's 250 birthday. They changed the brand name to Trump-Aid. They are packaging it in cans. They also changed the formula and ingredients so that now no matter which flavor you buy it all tastes like crap. But then again all of the Kool-Aid they've been selling since Donny took office has tasted like crap so nothing really new here.
Well - this isn't really about politics to me. It's about counting.
What have we gained. What has it cost. Was it worth it. I guess the politics might be about commenting on the absolute sh*t show on display regarding the "negotiations" and the tantrums and attacks on western allies.
Trying to spin this onto the Democrats as being the bad actors .... really just plain flat out dumb.
(FATE)