"You don't spin up this kind of skyward muscle just to flex," said one observer.

Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025

Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.

Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    6 hours ago

    Everyone knew he wasn’t going to be able to curtail democratic elections without the excuse of a war. This is on schedule.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 hours ago

      I always thought Trump could curtail democratic elections without the excuse of war … by relying on a convenient terrorist attack instead.

      • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.mlEnglish
        3·
        2 hours ago

        I mean, Trump just illegally deployed the national guard and the marines in California. He needed the state’s permission (which he didn’t get) to deploy the guard and deploying the marines is on a whole other level of illegal.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        4 hours ago

        We’ve got an election in NYC right now, with a pro-Palestine Muslim threatening to upset Trump’s close friend Andrew Cuomo. Weird that nobody is claiming this election is being threatened by Trump, given that NYC has an enormous stock of Trump/Kushner accumulated capital.

      • ubergeek@lemmy.todayEnglish
        11·
        3 hours ago

        Not anymore. The SCOTUS ruled already that they must have their ballots approved by the Feds, and feds can overrule their ballots.

          • ubergeek@lemmy.todayEnglish
            1·
            1 hour ago

            So, Donald wasn’t allowed to appear on the Colorado ballot, being an insurrectionist?

            • RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              44 minutes ago

              That’s a state issue, not a federal issue.

              Donald Trump was allowed to remain on the Colorado ballot despite the challenge based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, because the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states lack the authority to remove federal candidates from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

              There is nothing about “approval” from feds, nor is there a process federally to approve such things. There’s courts. That’s it.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        4 hours ago

        Unfortunately the republican run states will bend over whenever Trump tells them to.