peterms

All those contacts in Hollywood, and he can't get anyone to teach him to act more convincingly than this? He seems to have underplayed it, as well. He should really have been on a stretcher, with someone holding a drip in his arm, and someone walking alongside with a clipboard and stethoscope, furrowing their brow.

Seems a fair summary.

I've not yet seen corroboration of the exact detail (though I have seen other accounts of Trump demanding Iraq's oil), but sometimes it takes time to emerge, and there would be a spinning operation to discredit anyway. It certainly fits very well with other comments and threats Trump has been reported making over the course of years, but of course any false account would try to reflect that. I'd say not yet proven, but entirely plausible.

Seems consistent with US style, and entirely in character for Don Trump.

At least he didn't say "thirsty".

Speaking of fanatical numbskulls, look at this bunch of crazed mullahs, slavering over the leader of the rogue state, sponsor of terrorism, urging him on to still greater regional hegemony.

Favourite words: I, me. Favourite paper: mirror. Favourite flower: narcissus.

Fake news. That's actually stolen footage of the crowds at President Trump's inauguration.

A thread about some off-the-record discussions the writer says they've had with US officials.

It works well as a minor ingredient in a noodle soup. It gives another texture, and it absorbs flavours from what it is cooked with, and is reputedly nutritious. I would use chicken or pork, but you can easily do a veggie version. First make your stock according to your preference. It's all about the stock. I tend to make meat stocks from scratch but use stock powder for veggie stock, which I see as a background flavour rather than a main ingredient, but if I were doing this as a veggie dish I might make a veggie stock from scratch. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, drain, and place in a bowl of cold water until needed. Make the soup base. Soften chopped onions and garlic in oil, with carrots and celery if you like. Add some ground spices, maybe star anise, cumin, coriander, chili, black pepper, sichuan pepper. Add soy sauce, fish sauce, ketchap manis, and the stock. Taste for salt and adjust accordingly. Add whatever veg you want, probably including mushrooms, maybe some seaweed, kale, sliced peppers, a few beansprouts if you have them, but not things that are dense and take ages to cook like chunks of carrot. Add meat before the veg if you are using it, so that it is fully cooked, add the cubes of tofu. Some sliced spring onions and chopped coriander, maybe some thinly sliced red chili, to finish. Don't let the veg cook for so long that they lose their texture - you need some firm textures alongside the soft tofu and noodles. Chuck the cooked noodles in a bowl of boiling water to reheat for a minute or so, drain and place in preheated bowls, ladle over the soup, and there you go. Pretty filling stuff. You could make extra of the soup base, and freeze it in portions, so that you can throw together a soup like this in half the time. Would also work as something to take to work for lunch, if you have access to reheating facilities.

Ssshhh. They might not notice if we keep quiet.

His instincts, as expressed over several years, seemed to be to avoid entanglement in miltary adventurism, and that was compounded by his fear of "paying for" things that others should have been paying for. His base also seemed to want to get away from endless foreign interventions. I'm not sure what changed, though his position on Iran has been illogical and disastrous for some time. There's a lot of talk about "dominionism", a far right Christian belief that apparently infects people like Pompeo, mush as the "rapture" crowd influenced Reagan. I'm sure Israel plays a part, and Netanyahu has been pressing for war with Iran for ages. Probably that oily little slug Kushner is wittering in Trump's ear to that effect, too. But he seemed to be able to resist the more unhinged advisers, like getting rid of Bolton. There's a suggestion here that it's as superficial and stupid as fear of looking weak, which sounds crazy but I suppose would fit his character. The decision to assassinate Soleimani appears to have been as abrupt and arbitrary as many other Trump decisions. The Los Angeles Timesreports: One briefing slide shown to Trump listed several follow-up steps the U.S. could take, among them targeting Suleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to talk about the meeting on the record. Unexpectedly, Trump chose that option, the official said, adding that the president’s decision was spurred on in part by Iran hawks among his advisors. One reason that the president ordered the attack seems to be the fear of appearing weak: Trump was also motivated to act by what he felt was negative coverage after his 2019 decision to call off the airstrike after Iran downed the U.S. surveillance drone, officials said. Trump was also frustrated that the details of his internal deliberations had leaked out and felt he looked weak, the officials said. The president made a terrible decision that puts more Americans at risk in part because of his own insecurity and vanity, and he ordered the military to commit an act of war against another state without any legal justification. Congress and the public need to make it absolutely clear that we reject war with Iran. The first thing Congress can do is to approve Sen. Kaine’s war powers challenge to the administration. The president has recklessly led the U.S. into an unnecessary conflict, but there is still a chance to halt it before more lives are lost. On the point about "imminent attack", the claimed justification for this act, Craig Murray has explained where the notion comes from, and what nonsense it is.

Ah ok, thought you meant the thread as a whole with the various comments. Yes, it's a bizarre threat, like a child acting out a fantasy of being a tough guy. It's a pity his bone spurs don't prevent him tweeting these threats.

Is this a voodoo ceremony?

This, however, is a thread which conveys a little more.

Really? I spent minutes trawling it, and it's the usual gibberish, knee jerks, retailing received opinion and so on. What have I missed that is worth reading? Can you link to it specifically, rather than the whole mess?

I don't press it. Just drain it, cube it, pat dry with kitchen paper, coat with cornflour and fry in a wok in batches, using enough oil to half cover the cubes, about 1cm deep. Works. I don't bother seasoning the cornflour if I'm doing the Ottolenghi recipe above - there's so much going on in the sauce, you wouldn't be able to tell if the tofu was seasoned. I add cumin and coriander and Sichuan pepper and chili to the black peppers before adding to the garlic/ginger in making the sauce. It's not for those who only like subtle flavours. In a milder dish, maybe season the cornflour, but give it a go without the pressing. You want the surface of the cubes to be pretty much dry, but still able to let the cornflour adhere, and then to fry it quickly to form a crust.

Mustique come back? Sorry.

Agree with that. Ottolenghi does it in cornflour for this recipe, which I can recommend. Black pepper tofu.

We have a veggie moving in with us - looks like I'll be doing lots of veggie dishes.

They were on the same side, for a while, with bin Laden fighting alongside the mujahadeen, and US money and arms being channelled to the mujahadeen via Pakistan, another of those large, covert CIA programmes. US involvement is not about making the world a safer place. It is keen on stability where that furthers its interest, and keen on instability and the breakdown of the rule of law where that might benefit the US. I don't suppose we're disagreeing on that. But I really don't think the other countries you name come anywhere near the US in the destabilising stakes.