Our collective condolences to the (yet to be assessed) hundreds of Lebanese who have recently lost their lives.
'It's Like Hiroshima': Terrifying Seismic Shock From Blast Devastates Beirut https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/did-nuke-just-go-beirut-terrifying-mystery-blast-shockwave-filmed-over-lebanon ... Lebanese Prime Minister says Beirut explosions caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years in a warehouse <BE WARNED: The following is a RANT, speculation, possibly entirely hypothetical postulations of an intense, sad and altogether unfortunate situation> There is something remarkably short sighted about the Israelis - they seem to imagine that the following are simultaneously true: 1) That Americans will believe that "securing the Lebanese-Israeli border" is the USA's #1 national priority. 2) That creating such "friendly" relations with __Israel's immediate geographical neighbours__, is somehow a good thing. Go figure, muh j.gger wh.iggers… And a message to the Lebanese: it seems you may have missed the memo that EVERYBODY needs to clean up their back yard. As in "Are you firetrucking serious, you _really_ left 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years in a warehouse" ???!!?! Speaking about off your nut, I guess you decided that leaving such low hanging fruit around was too much effort to do anything about? A note to the entire fricken world, since everybody seems to have missed the memo: CLEAN UP YOUR BACK YARD ALREADY!! (2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, in ONE warehouse, in downtown $MAJOR_CITY?? Please! This is nothing but negligence of the first order!) and before you can even say "boo", Trump is running round like an Israeli parliamentarian on crack desperately trying to implicate America in "securing the Israeli-Lebanese relationship": Trump Calls Beirut Explosion "A Terrible Attack - A Bomb Of Some Kind" After Briefed By Generals https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-says-beirut-explosion-attack-bomb-some-kind-after-briefed-generals .. Trump says military experts tell him Beirut blast a 'bomb of some kind'. .. Trump said he had been briefed by “our great generals” and that they “seem to feel” that the explosion was not an accident. .. "It was a bomb of some kind, yes" — he emphasized when questioned on it. How can such statements of "feeling" be useful on almost any view? Sometimes Trump ought consider that when he speaks WITH HIS GENERALS, perhaps he should ACTUALLY ASK THEM what they think might be worth communicating to the public, BEFORE communicating with the public. If he really believes that they are "great generals", surely he should seek their advice a little more? One imagines that the generals may finally have had a wake up call that Trump tends to tweet out the other ear, what comes in the one ear... better late than never I guess (that the generals realise Trump's nature). At least both Isreal and Hesbollah seem to be both in agreement _and_ in totally unequivocal denial that this was any sort of "security related incident": Israeli military sources tell Israeli 10 News reporter: Israel didn't bomb Beirut. The explosion did not occur in a Hezbollah weapons depot. This was not a security-related event. https://t.co/hgDXFVxZdH — Elizabeth Tsurkov (@Elizrael) August 4, 2020 There is certainly no doubt that a few thousand tons of "ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years" may well have experienced degredation in the storage and or electrical cables in the warehouse - on this planet we have these things called rats, and mice, and other critters which sometimes gnaw through electrical cables (and data cables, and some cables which carry both power and data) and cause problems, also vessels (especially metal, but also plastic) can have problems too (sufficiently hungry rats do gnaw right through plastic if they think there's a chance of food on the other side of that plastic). Also, a piece of degraded metal which falls, may strike other metal and cause a spark.
