https://twitter.com/krisvancleave/status/1215309192086675459

@cbsnews
: US officials are confident Ukrainian Flt 752 was shot down by Iran. US intelligence picked up signals of the radar being turned on & satellite detected infrared blips of 2 missile launches, probably SA-15s, followed shortly by another infrared blip of an explosion.

https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-mistake-sources-1481313

The Ukrainian flight that crashed just outside the Iranian capital of Tehran was struck by an anti-aircraft missile system, a Pentagon official, a senior U.S. intelligence official and an Iraqi intelligence official told Newsweek.

How about you, Mentus, did you see the documentary film “The Dish“?

sdferr: no, I haven’t seen it. I clicked on the link and watched the trailer and I’m sold.

The Dish is just what I’m looking for, thank you very much.

Ima make my friends watch it with me later today.

I’d put that more intensively, Kate: that must not get better.

For what sane carrier would want the risks? At what price?

A commenter somewhere reminded me that we, the US, accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner in 1988. This may be the same — a bad mistake in which a commercial airliner is mistaken for a military plane.

In any case, it’s bad for Iran. Carriers from around the world are cancelling service to Tehran. If Iran won’t allow an open investigation, that might not get better.

Evidence accumulates that the plane was shot down, although it’s certainly still not known.

We’ll probably never know for sure… but come on. This is their signature move from back in the day. This is who the mullahs *really* are.

They shot down that fucking plane… on purpose.

*THIS* is the real retaliation, the real escalation. The missile attack was for the domestic audience, just an undercard. For us, for our allies, the downed passenger plane is the main event.

Attacking civilians is a part of war, probably the worst part. We’ve done it, too. And we’ll
do it again. So, no sanctimony from me about this… this time.

The mullahs are desperate so they’ll do whatever they have to do to preserve their regime and avoid possible El Duce-ization.

This latest move, however, will result in further isolation and alienation from the international community. I think the mullahs welcome this to a degree, for the same reason the chicoms want to be alone with the HKers: so they can put on a scary face and cow their subjects… and then run them over with tanks… without an international audience.

How should Trump respond? That’s a toughie…

We don’t need the burden of choosing their form of government and/or political leaders. The Iranian people appear to desire the responsibility of self-government. I think it’s cheaper and safer to help them achieve that on their own than to either do it for them; or bomb the shit out of them.

I say we drop knowledge on them.

Is there any way we can make their internet access more reliable, so they can continue to use social media to coordinate with each other during “events”; document atrocities; and distribute evidence of the regime’s crimes?

As long as the regime can flip a switch and cut off internet access, opposition networks will likely never achieve the kind of discipline that makes radical change possible.

That little phone screen is a window to a better world. It’s a new-and-improved version of the TV screens that took down the USSR. They see how other people live around the world and say “why can’t we be free, too? Why must *our* children suffer senseless tyranny?”

Hard to call “free WiFi” an escalation btw.