I totally hear you. I was in Lebanon in 2006 and it the US only *five days* — with no warning — to charter a cruise ship, escorted by two destroyers, and deploy
sailors and marines from the 24th expeditionary force.
Five days. That’s extraordinary and shows you what the US can do when it wants to.
This “good luck!” BS is just pathetic and embarrassing.
Well, this is going to be a bitter pill for Progressives to swallow:
Seems that Florida Governor DeSantis has dispatched four planes to "evacuate" 1,500 Americans previously ferried to Cyprus by a cruise ship. (I suspect that several trips by each plane will be required)
This administration is a clusterf**k. The Felon is going to get us into war and we will never ever be these united states. I'm glad that you got home, Julie, and that you and your family are safe.
You would be in the line of fire for a terror attack designed to drag the US into the war. Trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near that embassy or on any US sanctioned evacuation flights. You took the best route for your safety.
I am just reading Politico Berlin and after Poland and the Czech Republic decided to fly their people out of Israel via Jordan, Germany decided to do the same thing as well. They are also evacuating their people out of Iran. I heard that yesterday 1000 people were registered on the crisis list. There the plan is to move them out through Turkey and Iraq. As of yet, I have not heard of any similar plan for the US.
Trump left the G7 early supposedly at first to work on the crisis with Iran and Israel, but later it was not that. I am sure it was to go to bed, or to go golfing.
I also read in Politico Berlin that Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that everyone in Tehran should flee. I guess that is supposed to imply that he is going to help Israel bomb Tehran. They also report that the IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi, says that the Iranian centrifuges are severely damaged if not completely destroyed.
What is Trump doing? Sounds like he cannot handle the G7, and we can see he is not handling any diplomacy in the world. He is letting Russia continue to bomb Ukraine for a while longer, and threatening Tehran. He is shutting down US embassies and consulates all over the world, and ending trying to decrease the number of foreign students in US universities, and arresting immigrants except now maybe not in agriculture and hotel work. So, every immigrant who feels vulnerable is going to want to work in those industries. What a coup for those industries. Further exploitation of vulnerable people.
American First means Trump First, US citizens last.
My only modest disagreement is with your final sentence. It should be, "everyone else" last.
I'm sure he left because he can't conceive of having to deal with people as equals. "The nerve of these G7 leaders thinking they are as good as he is!" After all, aren't they just future governors in states 51-57?
Seriously, those millions of Tehran residents are already exiting the city; have you seen the pictures of traffic on the highways? Iran is a big country and they are likely dispersing throughout it to friends and relatives.
Julie, be assured your Substack community is thinking of you with great love and also with compassion for the suffering of everyone that remains there.
Julie, welcome back! Aren't you glad that all your progressive followers supported you, your family, your choice of travel, and the country you visited?
I bet that sub with Mike looks better and better!
Will you be covering the next Bernie/AOC rally? I understand that they booked that TV station in Tehran!
Horrifying! I can only consider the contrast with the way Americans in Warsaw, Poland, were treated by former Ambassador Brzezinski. My friend Michael Walker posted a few years ago from a Warsaw hospital after suffering a serious injury in a bicycle accident. He was getting good care but no one spoke English. I called a former diplomat for instruction on how to call the US Embassy in Poland to ask that they check on Michael. Within hours someone was there to translate and help Michael Set up transport for after his surgery. We agreed—this was America at its best. Your family deserved nothing less!
Fuck me entitled moi? Goes to country committing genocide against the people of Gaza whilst driving out the people from the West Bank. All for a wonderful celebration of the son's right of passage. And then said wonderful country of cultural heritage goes and bombs Iran. I am so sorry you missed your connection. And actually agree with all you say re US and the dictator in your midst. But I see nothing in what you say about the people of Gaza and any critique towards you is met with oh antisemitism. But really? This is easy, comforting for you, but not good enough. You missed a plane or two. The country that hosted your son's celebration obliterated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Who are we really supposed to feel sorry for? Your missed plane, your troubled country. Or the genocide that was within miles of your stay on that tiny troubled country.Have a good look in the mirror, and reflect. Then accept who are the real victims. Not you. But women and children who could be and indeed eighty years ago, were you. And there's the lesson. Not entitlement. But empathy. If this post flags up my email address I am happy to do continue this privately. Best wishes. Andy
Thanks, Kenneth. I’ll look at that book. As for Israel having no state religion, I beg to differ, at least insofar as political heft and marriage go. The orthodox rabbinate exerts tremendous influence on the “secular” government, analogous to Iran’s structure, though not as iron-fisted. As a Jew, born of a Jewish mother, I am automatically entitled to “right of return” to the “Jewish homeland”. But because I am not a certified Orthodox Jew, I’d have to go to Cyprus to get married. Civil marriages not kosher. A lot of Israelis go to Cyprus and elsewhere. Forty-two percent of Israeli Jews identified as secular in a 2021 census. As for flags, unless a religious order is chartered by the monarch, there should be none. But we play “pretend.” I once asked a reform rabbi why there is a big gaudy silver crown atop the Torah scroll as it stands in the Ark. His answer: “As Jews, we have no king. The Torah is our king.” This scroll, “the Old Testament,” is loaded with good ideas and a lot of Stone Age poison that is the bedrock of three religions. Well, I’ve read it all and that’s my opinion.
Granted, this was Julie’s family’s personal choice to have a bar mitzvah in Jerusalem. There are two stories here: one is the utter failure of the U.S. government, and the other is the sacred nature of an old wall of stone that people have killing one another over for decades. I’d have chosen my local synagogue (although I have quit membership in part because of the board’s refusal to remove the flags of Israel and the U.S. from either side of the Ark (for non-Jews, that’s where the Torah is enshrined).
Without getting into any philosophical discussions, national flags are out of place in any religious sanctuary. The "state" should guarantee the right of all people to freely practice religion. Religion should guarantee the right of all people to believe in the unbelievable. (To its credit, Israel has no official State religion.)
As an aside totally irrelevant to this--or any other--thread, I don't know if you ever read science fiction. Harry Turtledove recently wrote a book about the discovery of the original Ark of the Covenant, hidden beneath the ruins of the Second Temple. Anyone who touches it dies. Oh well.
I wouldn't go to either country myself. But if I did go to a terrorist state like Israel or Iran, I wouldn't moan when I got stuck there. After all, they both have good track records of mass murder and killing kids - and seemingly enjoying it too.
That's very clever. How long did it take you think of that one?. I've noticed - unsurprisingly I suppose - that people who support genocide and starving children aren't very good at humor.
And, that "genocide" thing simply reinforces your ignorance, since regardless of how many people are being killed in Gaza, there is absolutely zero evidence, either by Israel or by its detractors, that it has anything to do with ethnicity. Unless "terrorist" can be considered an ethnicity.
This is totally shocking and very scary, something must be done about this madman, how awful to find that the help you have got used to for many years just isn't there anymore.
I totally hear you. I was in Lebanon in 2006 and it the US only *five days* — with no warning — to charter a cruise ship, escorted by two destroyers, and deploy
sailors and marines from the 24th expeditionary force.
Five days. That’s extraordinary and shows you what the US can do when it wants to.
This “good luck!” BS is just pathetic and embarrassing.
Well, this is going to be a bitter pill for Progressives to swallow:
Seems that Florida Governor DeSantis has dispatched four planes to "evacuate" 1,500 Americans previously ferried to Cyprus by a cruise ship. (I suspect that several trips by each plane will be required)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/1500-jewish-americans-evacuated-from-israel-desantis-sponsors-rescue-flights-tampa
This administration is a clusterf**k. The Felon is going to get us into war and we will never ever be these united states. I'm glad that you got home, Julie, and that you and your family are safe.
You would be in the line of fire for a terror attack designed to drag the US into the war. Trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near that embassy or on any US sanctioned evacuation flights. You took the best route for your safety.
This is exactly what I've been telling friends. Resign yourself to the fact that we are truly on our own.
I am just reading Politico Berlin and after Poland and the Czech Republic decided to fly their people out of Israel via Jordan, Germany decided to do the same thing as well. They are also evacuating their people out of Iran. I heard that yesterday 1000 people were registered on the crisis list. There the plan is to move them out through Turkey and Iraq. As of yet, I have not heard of any similar plan for the US.
Trump left the G7 early supposedly at first to work on the crisis with Iran and Israel, but later it was not that. I am sure it was to go to bed, or to go golfing.
I also read in Politico Berlin that Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that everyone in Tehran should flee. I guess that is supposed to imply that he is going to help Israel bomb Tehran. They also report that the IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi, says that the Iranian centrifuges are severely damaged if not completely destroyed.
What is Trump doing? Sounds like he cannot handle the G7, and we can see he is not handling any diplomacy in the world. He is letting Russia continue to bomb Ukraine for a while longer, and threatening Tehran. He is shutting down US embassies and consulates all over the world, and ending trying to decrease the number of foreign students in US universities, and arresting immigrants except now maybe not in agriculture and hotel work. So, every immigrant who feels vulnerable is going to want to work in those industries. What a coup for those industries. Further exploitation of vulnerable people.
American First means Trump First, US citizens last.
My only modest disagreement is with your final sentence. It should be, "everyone else" last.
I'm sure he left because he can't conceive of having to deal with people as equals. "The nerve of these G7 leaders thinking they are as good as he is!" After all, aren't they just future governors in states 51-57?
Gaza?
Seriously, those millions of Tehran residents are already exiting the city; have you seen the pictures of traffic on the highways? Iran is a big country and they are likely dispersing throughout it to friends and relatives.
Julie, be assured your Substack community is thinking of you with great love and also with compassion for the suffering of everyone that remains there.
No time to help citizens, too busy grafting money from meme coin and cheap phones.
Julie, welcome back! Aren't you glad that all your progressive followers supported you, your family, your choice of travel, and the country you visited?
I bet that sub with Mike looks better and better!
Will you be covering the next Bernie/AOC rally? I understand that they booked that TV station in Tehran!
Horrifying! I can only consider the contrast with the way Americans in Warsaw, Poland, were treated by former Ambassador Brzezinski. My friend Michael Walker posted a few years ago from a Warsaw hospital after suffering a serious injury in a bicycle accident. He was getting good care but no one spoke English. I called a former diplomat for instruction on how to call the US Embassy in Poland to ask that they check on Michael. Within hours someone was there to translate and help Michael Set up transport for after his surgery. We agreed—this was America at its best. Your family deserved nothing less!
So happy you and your family got home safely. Not sure most of us are safe in our country any more.
Fuck me entitled moi? Goes to country committing genocide against the people of Gaza whilst driving out the people from the West Bank. All for a wonderful celebration of the son's right of passage. And then said wonderful country of cultural heritage goes and bombs Iran. I am so sorry you missed your connection. And actually agree with all you say re US and the dictator in your midst. But I see nothing in what you say about the people of Gaza and any critique towards you is met with oh antisemitism. But really? This is easy, comforting for you, but not good enough. You missed a plane or two. The country that hosted your son's celebration obliterated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Who are we really supposed to feel sorry for? Your missed plane, your troubled country. Or the genocide that was within miles of your stay on that tiny troubled country.Have a good look in the mirror, and reflect. Then accept who are the real victims. Not you. But women and children who could be and indeed eighty years ago, were you. And there's the lesson. Not entitlement. But empathy. If this post flags up my email address I am happy to do continue this privately. Best wishes. Andy
Unfortunately this story is appalling but is absolutely no surprise
So glad to hear you made it out. The lack of concern and morality is abhorrent.
Pretty hard to feel sorry for people who would choose to travel to a country that is starving kids to death.
Thanks, Kenneth. I’ll look at that book. As for Israel having no state religion, I beg to differ, at least insofar as political heft and marriage go. The orthodox rabbinate exerts tremendous influence on the “secular” government, analogous to Iran’s structure, though not as iron-fisted. As a Jew, born of a Jewish mother, I am automatically entitled to “right of return” to the “Jewish homeland”. But because I am not a certified Orthodox Jew, I’d have to go to Cyprus to get married. Civil marriages not kosher. A lot of Israelis go to Cyprus and elsewhere. Forty-two percent of Israeli Jews identified as secular in a 2021 census. As for flags, unless a religious order is chartered by the monarch, there should be none. But we play “pretend.” I once asked a reform rabbi why there is a big gaudy silver crown atop the Torah scroll as it stands in the Ark. His answer: “As Jews, we have no king. The Torah is our king.” This scroll, “the Old Testament,” is loaded with good ideas and a lot of Stone Age poison that is the bedrock of three religions. Well, I’ve read it all and that’s my opinion.
Perhaps she should have taken her son to Iran for his Bar Mitzvah. A country that hires terrorists to strangle children and babies.
Granted, this was Julie’s family’s personal choice to have a bar mitzvah in Jerusalem. There are two stories here: one is the utter failure of the U.S. government, and the other is the sacred nature of an old wall of stone that people have killing one another over for decades. I’d have chosen my local synagogue (although I have quit membership in part because of the board’s refusal to remove the flags of Israel and the U.S. from either side of the Ark (for non-Jews, that’s where the Torah is enshrined).
Without getting into any philosophical discussions, national flags are out of place in any religious sanctuary. The "state" should guarantee the right of all people to freely practice religion. Religion should guarantee the right of all people to believe in the unbelievable. (To its credit, Israel has no official State religion.)
As an aside totally irrelevant to this--or any other--thread, I don't know if you ever read science fiction. Harry Turtledove recently wrote a book about the discovery of the original Ark of the Covenant, hidden beneath the ruins of the Second Temple. Anyone who touches it dies. Oh well.
I wouldn't go to either country myself. But if I did go to a terrorist state like Israel or Iran, I wouldn't moan when I got stuck there. After all, they both have good track records of mass murder and killing kids - and seemingly enjoying it too.
Well, at least you're an equal opportunity ignoramus.
That's very clever. How long did it take you think of that one?. I've noticed - unsurprisingly I suppose - that people who support genocide and starving children aren't very good at humor.
Which is why I'm EXCELLENT at humor!
And, that "genocide" thing simply reinforces your ignorance, since regardless of how many people are being killed in Gaza, there is absolutely zero evidence, either by Israel or by its detractors, that it has anything to do with ethnicity. Unless "terrorist" can be considered an ethnicity.
Now that is funny.
This is totally shocking and very scary, something must be done about this madman, how awful to find that the help you have got used to for many years just isn't there anymore.
At least the embassy in Saigon in 1975 was staffed by professionals.