A rapidly declining Trump is living in a “dark fantasy” world as the Iranians close the Strait in anger at his lies. Meanwhile the MSM is beginning to break some bad news about the war.
White House insiders are struggling to deal with POTUS Trump’s increasing dementia but are so far unwilling and unable to stop Trump and his enablers from doubling down on military and economic disaster.
Robert Barnes, a long-time MAGA insider with a history of having impeccable sourcing inside the Trump administration guested on Larry Johnson’s Countercurrents and made some alarming claims.
Among other things, Barnes tells Johnson that :
Robert Barnes: (Trump’s) declining mental state started in the fall and it’s a combination of age and stress.The president’s definitely running the show and he’s running the show to a degree that has everybody else around him nervous. I was up there in January, I heard from a range of people that were describing somebody that was starting to lose it.
…
It’s more like a three-year-old or for those that have been around loved ones and you see them regress all of a sudden.Trump’s always been unfiltered, but not like now, not, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll nuke the world tomorrow.’
Not, ‘Hey I’m going to take a pot shot at the pope.’
There’s a part of his brain that really thinks he picked the pope. I keep trying to tell people that’s legitimately what’s going through his brain but he thinks ‘Oh maybe I’ll be president of Venezuela.’
Everybody around him in the White House is nervous. It’s been said that basically everybody was told months ago, don’t share any negative information with him at all, it’ll trigger his rage.
And Susie Wildes reversed that two weeks ago when she realized that we might have the end of the world on our hand unless they start sharing negative (information). They were literally spoon feeding him two-minute videos of things blowing up.
hat’s why he’d get mad when he reads the New York Times. So, if you want to get negative information to him, you don’t go into the White House because you don’t want to deal with the temper. You leak it to the New York Times.
…
Trump will forget things from day to day. He’ll remember things that didn’t happen. Some of it he actually convinces himself is true. People around him would have to explain, no, that’s not true, but (now) they’re too scared of his temper and his rage (to do so).
…
Everybody around him is walking on eggshells in a constant basis. There are a bunch of people in the military that, were not going to go along or were talking about not going along with the order, if he did give that order, to mass exterminate the (Iranian) civilization.
…
Also his empathy is gone. (Trump’s experiencing) early onset dementia: you start to lose empathy, you start to lose memory, you start to lose temper control, your decision making ability disappears, your filter vanishes, all that’s there.Confabulation is another symptom of dementia. And confabulation is (when) you say something that’s demonstrably false, but you believe it’s true. You genuinely you don’t have the understanding that you’re lying. And he’s doing that all the time.
…
(Trump’s) living in a more and more of a dark fantasy world of his own delusion. He imagines things all the time like he really had convinced himself (the Iranians) hadn’t hit any of our bases.
Barnes also describes Trump’s limited information diet.
Trump talks to Sean Hannity every single night (and Trump is always) watching Fox News, occasionally watches CNN, occasionally reads responses on his Truth social posts and always reads the New York Times. That’s it.
Barnes also claims most of the White House insiders are looking for the exits, including Vance who allegedly has abandoned any hopes of running for President in 2028.
Finally, Barnes alleges that Vance and others are actively trying to manage or subvert Trump’s impulses to prevent disaster. He claims the Navy is feeding Trump false information about the success of a naval blockade to keep him satisfied and prevent him from escalating the conflict or ordering impossible maneuvers.
Checking in on Trump’s Truth social posts this weekend shows nothing that contradicts Barnes’ narrative. The only post resembling a coherent or timely statement is the following about Israel:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) April 19, 2026
Administration mouthpiece Axios reports on an important Situation Room meeting Trump presided over before going golfing:
President Trump convened a White House Situation Room meeting on Saturday morning to discuss the renewed crisis around the Strait of Hormuz and negotiations with Iran, according to two U.S. officials.
…
The situation room meeting was attended by Vice President Vance — who is expected to participate in the next round of negotiations with Iran — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to a U.S. official.White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratliffe and Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine also attended, the official said.
…
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Saturday, Trump said Iran “got a little cute … they wanted to close up the Strait again,” and later added that the nation “can’t blackmail us.”Trump said the U.S. is still talking to Iran and noted he will know by the end of the day if the parties are going to move forward with a deal.
Axios also provides plenty of hopium about the ceasefire negotiations and that the U.S. and Iran are this close to coming to terms on Iran’s complete capitulation nuclear materials.
With that out of the way, let’s look at the war news.
Iran Calls Out Trump Lies
(M.B. Ghalibaf), the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, releases a statement on President Trump’s claims from Friday:
“Delivering uranium to America, the complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, continuation of the American maritime siege of Iran, and zero enrichment are just a part of Trump’s April lies and fabrications.”
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) April 19, 2026
Ghalibaf’s tweets take on a new cast in light of Robert Barnes’ allegations about Trump’s mental state. I wonder how the if the Iranian leadership is operating under a similar understanding of Trump’s thinking.
Iran closes the Strait
Middle East Spectator had the statement from the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters:
Unfortunately, the Americans, with their repeated record of breaching promises, continue to engage in piracy and banditry under the guise of a so-called blockade.
For this reason, control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state and this strategic waterway remains under the strict management and control of the armed forces.
As long as the United States does not enable the complete freedom of movement of vessels from Iran to its destination and from its destination to Iran, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain strictly controlled and in its previous state.’
Notably, Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi did not update his Twitter account all day Saturday, leaving his declaration that the Strait was open online long after it had been closed.
This follows reports that the IRGC was frustrated by Aragchi’s messaging in response to Trump’s claims.
There is an unverified audio making the rounds that some have interpreted to be the IRGC calling Aragchi an idiot, but others have interpreted their statement “idiot on social media” to mean Trump.
David Miller makes some serious allegations about Aragchi (which clashes with Barnes’ version of the 10 points confusion cited above):
Araghchi has been running a parallel policy to rush through an agreement that suits the Americans while hiding the actual terms from the NSC and the Beit.
That’s what he did with the Ten Points, cooking up a lie to the NSC and the Beit that Trump had agreed to the Ten Points set by Sayyed Mujtaba. This was a very obvious lie, and should have been caught by the IRGC. He had in fact given a very different Ten Points to the Americans, which then became the basis for the Islamabad talks.
Hence some Iranian negotiators were surprised by the maximalist demands being made by the Americans in Islamabad (including financial control of the Strait, which Araghchi was ready to sign over). Araghchi and Asim Munir’s hucksterism had convinced other Iranian negotiators they were going to Islamabad to fix an agreement in which the Americans understood they had lost the war. Instead, they were met with an American delegation (encouraged by the Pakistanis) who thought they were there to take Iran’s highly enriched uranium and to permanently shut down Iran’s enrichment and all its nuclear sites, effectively killing the civilian nuclear programme and its independence.
But Araghchi’s lies could only persist for so long, and now they’ve caught up with him. Throughout the process, he has worked hard to sideline senior IRGC figures (and inexplicably, succeeded) from the talks.
The Iranians backed up their talk by firing on two ships trying to cross the Strait:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) April 19, 2026
NBC had more on at least one of the two ships fired on:
One of the two Indian-flagged ships that were allegedly shot at while in the Strait of Hormuz today has been identified as the Sanmar Herald.
Radio transmission audio from Tanker Trackers, a maritime intelligence company that tracks shipments, was shared with NBC News. In the audio, an individual can be heard identifying the vessel and saying that they received clearance to transit the strait.
“You gave me clearance to go! You are firing now! Let me turn back!” the individual can be heard saying.
How’s That American Blockade Going?
This good, per the local Iranian consulate on Indian shores:
New Iranian oil shipment arrives in India despite blockade.
🔹The Iranian supertanker Dorna, which was last seen in Iran just hours before the blockade, has now appeared on the AIS off the southern coast of India and is scheduled to deliver about two million barrels of crude oil… pic.twitter.com/NGs8zVyhVg
— Iran Consulate – Hyderabad (@IraninHyderabad) April 18, 2026
MSM Starts Breaking Some Bad News
A whole spate of stories came out in the American corporate media that I’m sure come as no surprise to Naked Capitalism readers, but might be a shock to the more credulous who’ve been believing Trump and Greasy Pete Hegseth.
There’s this from Bloomberg “Iran Has Limited the Impact of US Strikes, Intelligence Says” Archived:
Iran’s pre-war planning helped mitigate the impact of US-Israeli strikes on its weapons arsenal and leadership, according to Western military intelligence assessments.
The country retains the ability to respond if the ceasefire fails, with solid reserves of long-range missiles and thousands of drones in its armory.
Iran’s military planning and “mosaic” defense strategy have allowed it to minimize disruption to its command structures and retain its military capabilities, despite sustaining massive damage to its infrastructure.
…
(Iran) was able to minimize disruption to its command structures when they were targeted in the first days of the war, the people said.It also appears that Iran retains solid reserves of long-range missiles, according to assessments provided by European and Gulf officials. It still has thousands of drones in its armory, the people added.
…
Iran has dispersed its missile launchers and drone infrastructure across the country and also shifts launchers around to different sites, making it harder for the US to quickly eliminate them.
As Simplicius commented, “It doesn’t make it harder to “quickly eliminate them”. It makes it impossible to “eliminate” them at all. And since the time the US stopped eliminating any of them weeks ago, Iran has likely already built dozens of new ones, and is building more as we speak.”
The Wall Street Journal points out that the Iranian regime has changed…for the worse (archived):
The U.S. and Israel launched the war with the hope that killing top Iranian officials—starting with Mojtaba’s father, Ali Khamenei—would create the conditions for regime change or at least the emergence of leaders more willing to bend to America and Israel’s interests. In an address to the nation one month into the war, President Trump called the new leadership “more reasonable.”
Instead, the void is being filled by radical new leaders who have shown little interest in political compromise at home or abroad.
The WSJ lards up their telling with plenty of scare stories about brutal Iranian domestic crackdowns, Sunni radicals awaiting the messiah, and “regime supporters” being “deployed on the streets” but, you know, they’re working for Rupert Murdoch which is probably why their admission that Trump’s regime change failed is coming about 48 days late.
The NYT admits Iran still has plenty of ordnance left:
U.S. intelligence and military estimates vary, but multiple officials said that Iran has about 40 percent of its prewar arsenal of drones. Those drones have proved to be a powerful deterrent. While they are easily shot down by American warships, commercial tankers have few defenses.
Iran also has ample supplies of missiles and missile launchers. At the time of the cease-fire, Iran had access to about half its missile launchers. In the days that immediately followed, it dug out about 100 systems that had been buried inside caves and bunkers, bringing its stockpile of launchers back up to about 60 percent of its prewar level.
Iran is also digging out its supply of missiles, similarly buried in rubble from American attacks on its bunkers and depots. When that work is done, Iran could reclaim as much as 70 percent of its prewar arsenal, according to some American estimates.
Officials note that the counts of Iran’s weapon stocks are not precise.
I left that last sentence in there for comedy relief.
In a separate piece, the NYT admits that “Iran’s ‘Mosquito Fleet’ Remains a Potent Threat in the Strait of Hormuz“.
Note how they reinforce Trump’s claims about destroying Iran’s navy up front:
Iranian warships sunk by U.S. and Israeli attacks litter naval harbors along the Persian Gulf coast, but what is sometimes called a “mosquito fleet” lurks in the shadows.
It is a flotilla of small, fast, agile boats designed to harass shipping, and it forms the heart of the naval forces deployed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a force separate from Iran’s regular navy.
These boats, and especially the missiles and drones that the Guards navy can launch from them, or from camouflaged sites onshore, have been the main threat stymying shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
“The I.R.G.C. navy works more like a guerrilla force at sea,” said Saeid Golkar, an expert on the Guards and a political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“It is focused on asymmetrical warfare, especially in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “So instead of relying on big warships and classic naval battles, it depends on hit-and-run attacks.”
The NY Times just can’t stop and adds another piece on “How Iran’s Cheap, Low-Tech Drones Have Cost the U.S.“:
(Iran) has proven itself to be a surprisingly capable adversary against the United States. In addition to its willingness to go on the offensive, Iran has forced the U.S. and its regional allies to confront the rise of cheap drones on the battlefield.
Iranian drones, made with commercial-grade technology, cost roughly $35,000 to produce. That is a fraction of the cost of the high-tech military interceptors sometimes used to shoot them down.
…
In just the first six days, the U.S. spent $11.3 billion on the war with Iran. The White House and Pentagon have not provided updated estimates, but the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, estimated in early April that the U.S. had spent approximately between $25 and $35 billion on the war, with interceptors driving much of the cost. Many missile defense experts also fear interceptor stockpiles are now running dangerously low.
In news that the sanguine and confident Mr. Market will be especially shocked by Reuters points out that “Loss of energy output in MidEast will take about two years to recover“:
It will take about two years to recover the energy output lost in the Middle East from the conflict there.
“That will vary from country to country. In Iraq, for example, it will take much longer than in Saudi Arabia. However, we estimate it will take approximately two years overall to reach pre-war levels again,” Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said.
Birol added that the market was underestimating the consequences of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipments of oil and gas that were already en route to their destinations before the war in Iran began have now arrived, mitigating the impact of shortages, he said.
“But no new tankers were loaded in March. There were no new deliveries of oil, gas or fuels to Asian markets. This gap is now becoming apparent. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened, we must prepare for significantly higher energy prices.”
Mr. Market must have felt like the Washington Post was piling on with “What the stock market might have gotten wrong about the Iran war“:
As stocks soared this week and oil prices dropped amid an apparent cooling of tensions between the United States and Iran, it may have left the impression that the energy shock that rattled the world would quickly fade, along with the risk of sending the global economy into recession.
The optimism may have been short-lived…
beneath that surface, a starkly different reality is unfolding. It is defined by disrupted supply lines and damaged infrastructure, sparking increased concern among the people who produce, transport and depend on energy.
“The people closest to the industry are far more concerned about these disruptions and recognize the length of time it will take for things to return to normal — if they ever do,” said Gerry Morton, oil and gas co-chair at the law firm Baker Botts. “The further away you get from actually being involved in producing oil, the less you seem to be concerned about the physical reality and problems that are there.”
Even investors rushing to tap into market optimism warned in interviews that it masks deep, underlying problems that threaten a reckoning in the not too distant future.
“We know supply chains are breaking down in Asia and even Europe,” said Ritesh Jain, founder of the investment firm Pinetree Macro. “We know a correction is eventually coming. But everybody wants to live the present moment.”
Western Media Singing From Same Old Ukrainian Hymnal
Simplicius tears into the MSM-aganda:
The US’s risible lies on Iran mirror the pattern used against Russia by the West in general: the West’s enemies are always characterized on the basis of what fits the momentary narrative…
In Iran we see this same playbook: Iran is both “completely destroyed” yet continues to pose some kind of existential threat requiring all kinds of countermeasures and threats of further “decimation” (as if a “completely obliterated” enemy could be “obliterated” even more). Iran’s nuclear materials have been destroyed by the invisible B-2 bombers when that heroic PR blurb is needed, but at the same time these “completely destroyed” materials still need to be gathered by the US, despite their having apparently been converted to “dust”.
The entire war is premised on an obvious fraud: Iran is said to pose a grave danger to the West for simply the suggestion that it might one day acquire nuclear missiles. Meanwhile, North Korea has not only nuclear weapons, but the long-range ICBMs necessary to reach the US mainland (which Iran doesn’t even have, regardless of the nuclear warhead). Yet for some reason, it is Iran that is the threat, despite North Korea openly threatening to nuke the US repeatedly.
Clearly, a nation with nuclear weapons threatening to use them against the US is not the issue, otherwise the broken down US carriers would be threatening to blockade North Korea’s oil as they are now doing to Iran. The real issue, of course, is that Iran poses a threat to Greater Israel and the genocide of all the region’s semitic people it would require.
Simplicius also embeds a video statement from the Iranian Parliament spokesman that includes this quote:
M.B. Ghalibaf: We are not militarily stronger than America. It is clear that they have more money, equipment, and resources, and because they have carried out so many aggressions around the world, they also have more experience than us. The Zionist regime, which is America’s servant and agent in the region, also possesses high power. We fought in an asymmetric war in such a way that, with our own design and preparedness, we pushed the enemy back. The enemy had money and resources but did not act correctly in design. They make mistakes in strategic decisions. They are wrong about our people, just as they are wrong in their military design. The U.S. government claims that “America First” is important to it, but in practice it has shown that Israel is first for it, because it makes decisions based on false information from Israel.
Policy Tensor has a complimentary analysis:
There was a time when the West had the stronger grip on reality. That time is gone. The West is increasingly living in a world of make-believe. It’s right there on the front pages.
The Americans insist on having won a great tactical victory, by which they mean that they have released a lot of weapons over Iranian territory. The British and the French say they will secure Hormuz, by which they mean they will secure it from the Barbary pirates after the Iranians stop firing.
Meanwhile, we’re told that the Western forces that could not retake Hormuz will somehow repel Chinese forces from Taiwan, that one more set of sanctions will collapse the Russian economy, that preventing China from accessing advanced chips will close the defense-industrial gap, and that a god will soon appear in a data center that will pull the West’s chestnuts out of the fire.
I’ll drop by Lebanon and Syria before we wrap this up.
Ceasefire, What’s a Ceasefire?
From Friday, via The Independent (UK):
The Lebanese army reported multiple Israeli violations of a ceasefire that began at midnight, hours after Donald Trump praised the “historic” truce.
Intermittent shelling was reported in several villages in southern Lebanon, prompting the army to advise citizens against returning to the area.
A French UN peace worker has been killed in southern Lebanon as Israel accuses Hezbollah militants of breaching the 10-day ceasefire with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said Saturday it had established a “Yellow Line” demarcation in southern Lebanon, similar to the one separating its forces from territory still held by Hamas in Gaza, adding that it had already struck suspected militants approaching its troops along the line.
“Over the past 24 hours, IDF forces operating south of the Yellow Line in southern Lebanon identified terrorists who violated the ceasefire understandings and approached the forces from north of the Yellow Line in a manner that posed an immediate threat,” the military said, referring to such a line for the first time since a ceasefire came into effect.
“Immediately after identification and in order to eliminate the threat … forces attacked the terrorists in several areas in southern Lebanon,” it said, noting that the military was authorised to take action against threats, despite the ceasefire.
“Actions taken in self-defence and to remove immediate threats are not restricted by the ceasefire,” the military said.
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem said that the ceasefire with Israel must mean a complete halt to aggression, warning the group will retaliate against Israeli violations in southern Lebanon.
“There is no ceasefire from one side only,” Qassem said in a statement, adding that Hezbollah fighters “will respond to violations of aggression accordingly.”
He outlined five key steps: a permanent halt to hostilities across Lebanon, a full Israeli withdrawal, detainee releases, the return of displaced residents, and reconstruction with Arab and international support, Xinhua news agency reported.
Hezbollah had not been defeated and would continue to pursue Lebanon’s liberation and independence, he added.
Qassem also said Hezbollah is open to “a new page” of cooperation with the Lebanese government, stressing readiness to work with state institutions to strengthen national unity and safeguard sovereignty.
What About Syria?
The Jerusalem Post has an interesting piece about the West’s favorite failing state:
Thousands of Syrians took to the streets last week in an unprecedented wave of mass protests against Israel, sparked by the Israeli Knesset’s approval of a controversial law allowing the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners convicted of terrorism. From the southern city of Ankhal in Daraa province – and all the way to Damascus, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo and Idlib – armed groups announced a general mobilization against the Israel. Videos circulating on social media showed protesters chanting “The nation wants jihad declared” and calling for the borders to be opened to confront Israeli forces. In Daraa and Quneitra, demonstrators moved toward the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, prompting Israeli forces to fire illumination flares to disperse the crowds.
The unrest escalated beyond mere street chants. In Damascus, rioters targeted both the U.S. and UAE embassies, causing significant alarm within the diplomatic community. In a formal statement, the UAE called on Syrian authorities to ensure the absolute protection of diplomatic missions and to hold the perpetrators accountable. This campaign, which lasted four consecutive days, bears the distinct marks of an orchestrated pressure campaign designed to corner the new Syrian government and signal possible support for the Iranian regime and its regional proxies.
What distinguishes these protests from previous demonstrations is the documented participation of Syrian government officials. The official spokesperson for the Interior Ministry was filmed among protesters, while members of the armed forces were also seen participating and inciting the crowds. This official endorsement of popular mobilization represents a significant departure from the government’s previously cautious approach to confrontation with Israel. In a striking display of state-sanctioned agitation, the 60th Division of the Syrian Army – headed by trusted ex-HTS commander Awad Al-Jasim – paraded in Aleppo in official military uniform while chanting support slogans for Gaza. This participation of a formal military unit in political protests, signals a significant erosion of the boundary between state military institutions and grassroot activism. Rather than maintaining military neutrality, such involvement raises serious questions about the chain of command and the government’s ability – or willingness – to control its own armed forces.
Sounds like the zionist entity is gearing up for another attack on Syria. That is if they don’t take 1945’s recommendation to preemptively attack Turkey.
That’s all for today, y’all stay safe out there.
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If Delcy Rodriguez in Venezuela has at least 2 brain cells active, she’s ordering up 100,000 drones from Iran/Russia/China and pronto.
All those little Chavista community groups in the hills around Caracas need to be trained in drone assembly workshops ASAP. They need to lay off the bitcoin mining and playing PS5 and XBOX, and focus on doing Hezbollah-style FPV operations with fiber-optic drones.
Every country that even thinks for a minute it might get targeted needs to prepare like this. This is the new approach to guerilla warfare. IEDs, roadside bombs, are old hat, very early 2000s. They need to get up to speed with the new style!!!
She’s a smart woman:
——————————————————————————————————
Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced today that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has resumed relations with Venezuela after a six-year institutional blockade.
Through state televisionon April 16, the Acting President Delcy Rodríguez made the announcement, affirming that the country is normalizing “all processes involving rights and responsibilities in the body.”
The announcement coincided with the promulgation of the Venezuelan Organic Mining Law, marking a significant step towards economic recovery and international reintegration for the South American nation.
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez highlighted the return to the IMF as a shifting geopolitical landscape and a major diplomatic victory for Venezuela, dismantling the opposition’s lobbying efforts.
“It is a very important step for the Venezuelan economy, but also what Venezuela means for our region. It has been a great achievement of Venezuelan diplomacy”, Rodríguez declared, extending gratitude to those who facilitated the process, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their respective teams, alongside the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Qatar.
[…] In a related development, the World Bank (WB) also announced the resumption of its relations with Caracas, following the outcome of the IMF voting process. This synchronized reintegration into major international financial institutions signifies a crucial turning point for Venezuelan economic prospects and its standing on the global stage…
https://www.telesurenglish.net/rodriguez-announces-venezuela-imf-return/
A judo move. Good for her. Thanking Trump and Rubio is a heck of a zinger.
Sincere apologies if I’m being thick-headed, but I’m not seeing the win here. Isn’t she further entrenching Venezuela in Western looting programs (IMF, opening resources to multinational control)?
Yes, “tender ministrations”
The IMF is doing a good job keeping Egypt down
https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/564866.aspx
Closes with
As per the report, the path to a stable, resilient economy depends on Egypt’s ability to implement these reforms in a timely and effective manner, ensuring long-term fiscal health and growth. The IMF’s continued engagement and Egypt’s commitment to reform will be critical in navigating the challenges ahead.
Commitment to re form.
If you’re good at reading between the lines there’s some heavy stuff thats breezed over
Not seeing the win either. And looking more closely at the excerpt:
“Rodríguez declared, extending gratitude to those who facilitated the process, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their respective teams, alongside the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Qatar…”
Brazil…right there with them.
https://www.telesurtv.net/venezuela-rescata-activos-bloqueados-en-fmi/#
“For 10 years, Venezuela was unable to transfer a single dollar to most of the world’s banks. It couldn’t collect what it was owed , it couldn’t recover its gold reserves , and it couldn’t access the $5 billion that the International Monetary Fund allocated to it during the pandemic.
All of that remained frozen due to the financial blockade imposed by the United States and its allies.”
“The most immediate change is operational. Venezuela regains access to 11,000 financial institutions worldwide , allowing the Central Bank of Venezuela to open accounts, make transfers, and receive oil revenues from any country. For a decade, this ability was blocked.”
“In 2022, when the International Monetary Fund distributed special drawing rights among its member countries due to the Covid-19 crisis, Venezuela received $5 billion.
Those funds were frozen by the sanctions and never reached the State. Now, with its reintegration into the financial system, the Central Bank can present an investment plan to the IMF to access them.”
https://www.telesurtv.net/venezuela-recupera-activos-derechos-fmi/
“This is not a debt program, it is the recovery of our rights and assets frozen at the IMF,” Rodríguez told reporters
The acting president stated that “this will allow us to invest in the recovery of the national electricity system, which has been hit hard by the sanctions imposed by the United States; in health and basic services.”
replikante:
Great clarification! I would – to borrow a phrase from our esteemed author, Nat – refer to the actions here as “taking advantage of an opening during this interregnum of unreality“.
PS: #NeverForget (via Reuters)
JohnnyGL:
> she’s ordering up 100,000 drones from Iran/Russia/China and pronto
… another good use of the interregnum as well. However, she can’t jump the gun. There is to my reckoning a potential five or six year period (a.k.a. “the good cop” season) on tap if the GOP does effectively burn the house down and the Dems get elected in both midterms and the next general. And really, this elongated interregnum should be used by what I’m now calling the Humanity-Aligned-Community-Of-Nations to build the complete set of international operations, structures, alliances and yes, weapons, necessary to counter and defeat the Western War-Monger Axis.
This raises an interesting question: how good and fast do military organizations really learn about recent developments in warfare?
A quick look at how drone warfare evolved in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
2022: Ukraine successfully deploys Bayraktar MALE drones, a large type of aircraft requiring launching/landing pads, for observation and bombing duties. Once the Russian AA has (rapidly) adapted to the threat, both sides shift to small quadcopters dropping a grenade, mortar shell, etc, vertically on targets. Armored vehicles get a flat metallic grid atop turrets to deflect or prematurely detonate the explosive charge.
2023: Both sides rely upon attack drones designed to carry anti-tank charges; they can manoeuvre around a vehicle, find the weak spot, ram it, and explode. Soon, the protection of armoured vehicles is enhanced: they are surrounded by grid skirts, while heavy chains are hung all around the top grid.
2024: Drones now attack in groups: the same vehicle is repeatedly pummelled, one drone after another smashing into it till it is reduced to a flaming wreck. As a protection, electronic warfare becomes widespread (to confuse drones), and tanks are now encased in large metallic plates adorned with a profusion of spikes. There are videos of such hedgehogs charging ahead, impervious to the drone wolfpacks slamming into its protective carapace. Alternatively, Russians start using soldiers on motorbikes instead of APC.
2025: Electronic warfare has become so effective that drones controlled via optical fibre (and immune to electromagnetic jamming) become prevalent. In the air, drones duel against drones via ramming, impaling on special-purpose spikes, or throwing nets. On the ground, entire roads are covered with protective nets to safeguard all vehicles driving in range of drones.
Russians and Ukrainians are thus the most experienced in drone warfare.
Let us see what happens with the conflicts Israel has been involved in.
Gaza: Right from the beginning, Palestinians rely upon the quadcopters dropping charges vertically on Israeli tanks, groups of Israeli soldiers, and notably to destroy the automatic machine-guns of the wall enclosing Gaza. Israelis rapidly enhance all their tanks with the “flat grid atop turret” protection, while deploying large MALE drones (like Hermes) for surveillance and bombing, and smaller quadcopters for vertical-dropping of charges on refugee camps and also for observations at the level or ruins.
There, drone warfare does not seem to have evolved further: it remained at the 2022-level of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Lebanon: In the very recent fighting, videos published by Hezbollah give an interesting picture. Hezbollah is still relying upon the “drone dropping a charge vertically on targets”, but is already using the manoeuverable attack drones that strike at selected points of enemy armour. Israel, on the other side, is way behind the curve: most of its armoured vehicles have no anti-drone protection whatsoever, or at most the “flat grid atop turret” of the early days of the war in Gaza. It is still using large Hermes MALE drones (some of which have been downed by Hezbollah).
There, Hezbollah has advanced to 2023-level of drone tactics, while Israel is standing at an early-2022 stage of drone warfare — even behind what it applied during the fight in Gaza. I find this very odd.
I also notice that there are plenty of videos of Mexican drug cartels fighting each other with drones, and they all seem to be still relying upon the “vertical dropping of charges” kind, i.e. 2022-vintage tactics.
I am always mystified by the sheer inertia of military organizations when adopting new weapons and tactics, even when their survival is at stake. Hence, I have some doubts that Venezuela will really prepare properly for a possible conflict against the USA.
On the other hand, I increasingly find remarkable what Iran has achieved. Its military seems to have truly studied the various wars of the last 25 years, thoroughly analysed the utilization of drones (Armenia-Azerbaijan, Ethiopia-Tigre, Russia-Ukraine, Palestine-Israel, Lebanon-Israel, the initial applications by Al Qaeda and Daesh during the Syrian civil war), and elaborated a whole concept integrating drones, missiles of all kinds (ballistic, cruise, hypersonic), and other weapons that has proved to be quite effective. Iranians also have designed what will probably become the workhorse for all military drone units throughout the world: the Shahed, already copied and modified by Russia (Geran) and the USA (LUCAS). It is a bit reminiscent of the French 3rd rate 74-cannons frigate that was found to be such a well-balanced, well-rounded warship that it was copied by all other countries (Great Britain, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain…) and became the workhorse of every navy in the 18th century.
“Ground war” in Iran….
Done properly requires a large US mobilization including large increase to the manpower of US forces.
That said the loss of MC-130’s in Iran shows US tactical air is unsuited/tied to thick concrete to invasion war. It takes too much to build runways for F-35’s!
WW II B-17, P-47, P-51 flew out of grass strips, many open days after infantry cleared out the enemy. Not feasible (except A-10 and attack helos) these days
How long to establish railroads across KSA? If they can keep the Red Sea open.
Logistics!
If you have the wherewithal there’s probably a complete article here in itself that I’d be interested in.
A note on Iran specifically – my understanding is that they have a deep military/technical relationship with Russia that goes beyond drones. The details and make/model designations elude me, but Stas Krapivnik in various talks has discussed how Iran possesses planes not simply supplied by Russia but in all likelihood operated by Russians. Inevitably this exchange of materiel is accompanied by trading information, such that a competent military apparatus would long have been scheming to integrate the lessons of Ukraine into its own doctrine, even before the 12 day war kicked off.
Thanks for the drone timeline
Thanks for the analysis of weapons and techniques. I wonder if you’ve spent any time looking at Africa. The largest fight against JNIM terrorists is going on in the Sahel. The AES are getting supplies from russia and some of the Middle Eastern countries at the very least. I know they heavily use soldiers on motorcycles. Another interesting aspect of the fighting there is the use of civilian militias that are armed and trained by the state so that they may protect themselves and their neighbors from the roaming bands of JNIM fighters.
I really wonder what’s going to happen in Burkina Faso, which has used fertilizer to great effect to improve life there. But without fertilizers, how stable will the country be? How will those armed militias be used in the coming great step backwards?
Thanks for also talking about how these weapons are used by criminal organizations. I don’t see that talked about much and I think it’s something we should really worry about.
It is very easy to find (e.g. in Twitter/X) accounts entirely devoted to tracking every single operation by the Ukrainians and the Russians, with maps meticulously recording the latest moves by each party, and how many drones/missiles of what kind shot by aircraft of what type have been striking which Ukrainian/Russian infrastructure with the flight path minutiously depicted on maps. There are accounts recording every bombing in Lebanon/Gulf/Israel, how many drones/missiles have been fired, which piece of infrastructure has been damaged/destroyed, etc, etc.
Africa, on the other hand, seems to be a black hole. I do not know of anybody following what is happening in the Sahel on a sustained way with a comparable level of detail. There are videos being published (typically some jihadist group boasting about the capture of some weapons from Burkinabe/Nigerien/Malian army), but I am not aware of day-to-day followups and analyses — though they might just exist. If any commenter here knows about such sites, please chime in!
Vao, please name or link to some of the best X.com accounts for this stuff that you follow. Thanks!
As I said, there are plenty of Twitter/X accounts following the developments of some conflicts in excruciating detail:
AMK Mapping and Marat Khairullin for the Russo-Ukrainian war;
Suriyak Maps and Theti Mapping for the conflicts in the Near East.
I stopped following them a while ago: the information overload is too much, with every minute front movement recorded, every fight for unknown hamlets described, every day a new map with grey zones and unit positions and arrows.
Hence, I generally overflow those contributions and rarely delve into them (sometimes I do, but not often) when they are re-published in other Twitter accounts.
The other interesting sites that I follow more closely are aggregators of videos published by parties to a conflict:
War Noir collects videos and photos published by Burmese insurgents, African jihadists, Baloochi or Kashmiri independentists, Hamas, Hezbollah, IRGC, Mexican drug cartels — very rarely (almost never) Israeli, Ukrainian, and Russian military. I am not interested in all of those topics anyway (e.g. I skip the Burmese part entirely), others (e.g. what happens in Lebanon or Palestine) I follow closely.
For the conflict in Ukraine, South Front provides a similar aggregation service.
General caveats:
1) Those sites can be very tendentious (e.g. South Front).
2) Only people competent in the field can assess the validity and relevance of the information presented. Thus, War Noir always indicates precise specs of the weapons appearing in a photo/video (Bulgarian copy of AK 74 with a NATO-compatible visor XYZ, Yemeni version of Iranian VWX cruise missile modified to run on Beidou, whatever). I am wholly unable to determine whether these data are correct or not. And even if they are, I am unable to assess their relevance (Perhaps the fact that the AK74 is a Bulgarian copy is very, very significant — but how should I know?)
3) There are disagreements amongst those sites: has such town been actually taken over by Russia/Israel or is it still under the control of Ukraine/Hezbollah? I have little or no basis to believe or disbelieve these reports.
Ultimately, and this is especially valid for videos, it is the long-term perspective that allows me to get an idea of what is happening. The evolution of drone warfare I sketched derives from viewing videos of the Russo-Ukrainian war and noticing the evolution along the years. After viewing quite many Hezbollah videos, I have also observed notable differences between the way Hezbollah waged the conflict in 2024, and the way it operates in 2026.
I like what you’ve laid out here, as far as broad concepts of innovation. But I’d pick at your critique of Hezbollah.
They’ve clearly got way more stuff like FPV drones and fiber optic drones than they did two years ago. They’ve also changed tactics and gone back to setting ambushes and focusing on causing lots of casualties and getting away from view, instead of trying to hold ground as much as they did in fall of 2024.
In any case, don’t knock what works. They can use those Kornet anti-tank missiles quite effectively since the Israelis can’t/don’t counter that tactic. It’s a Soviet-era weapon, but if your enemy isn’t countering the move, then why change?
In any case, I’d say the difference between what has happened between Venezuela’s revolution and Iran’s revolution is rooted in the Iran-Iraq war for almost a decade. I think that fighting a fully-equipped late 20th century army for a long period of time required a total societal commitment and that spawned institutional creation like the Aerospace branch of the Iranian military, which launched a whole series of innovations in guided missile technology.
Also, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 seems to have sent different messages to each of the two countries:
Iran: “Oh crap, the Americans just invaded Iraq, we’re next on the menu, let’s build up the PMUs and run an insurgency campaign to trap them, there. Plus, we need to plan for American air power. Let’s put everything underground…deep underground!!!”
Venezuela: “The Americans backed off on their coup here and left us alone. Iraq went terribly for them, they won’t try that again for a long time. Let’s focus on domestic affairs.”
Also, Iran got sanctioned hard for decades. That’s lots of time to figure out solutions. Venezuela got sanctioned hard for less than a decade and was only beginning to dig its way out of trouble.
Plus, geography. Having Russia and China as neighbors is different than having Colombia and Brazil as neighbors.
Ukraine may be more complicated than simply how drones are used. From Links a few days ago, an interesting look at local design and production and how it’s integrated into R&D, customization and re-assembly by individual units at the front lines.
https://www.chinatalk.media/p/how-ukraine-build-drones
What to do suggestions for next woman or man up when the long handled shepherd’s hook reaches from offstage to drag the miserable DJT off stage.
+terminate all military contracts
+remove all staff at military colleges (consider recruiting Iranians to replace)
+remove all pentagon military advisors
+rebuild public health
+cancel student debt
+restore and augment all non-military research money
+disband ICE and prosecute where applicable
Good list. I’d add this:
Start treating the climate crisis like grownups.
The US MIC supply chain is all about building mansions in Arlington.
This model of procurement is as solidly embedded as the Epstein class and thus unable to even think about the necessary investments to rebuild a supple and effective (not efficient) supply chain and manufacturing base.
Our misleadership class prefers expanding homelessness to keep labor desperate to the education, nutrition, health and cultural reproduction necessary to actually sustain real capabilities in the physical world. As they say in Maine, “you can’t get there from here.”
Great comment @vao! thanks
Great comment and great question about the inertia of military organizations.
A traditional answer in the form of a quip is that any army is well prepared to fight the last war. The next one not so much. A corollary might be that the military organizations where bad commanders die with their troops (rather then escape and get to fail again) adapt faster. Because we do see pretty quick development during wars, at least in the last centuries or so. People who tend to rock the boat might not get promoted during stable peace time (or unequal fights against weaker opponents) but may get the chance if an existential war is raging and the old strategies are working poorly.
Bret Deveraux (military historian, focus on roman republic, prolific writer) often writes that an army is determined by the peacetime social organization. He mainly refers to such things as which social groups are valued in an ancient society, but I think it also translates today where it is more about who gets promoted within a military organization, and which economic interests influences that. Here Iran may have had an advantage if their social system allowed for quicker implementation of new technologies into the military. (Of course the existential threat hanging over Iran since at least “the axis of evil” may have sharpened minds.) The finer details of what that may have looked like I must leave to someone more knowledgeable about the Iranian military, the republican guard and the industrial structure backing them.
Great comment! Regarding Iran in particular, I’ve wondered if they also carefully studied the results of the Millenium Challenge 2002. This was way before the development of drone warfare, but their “mosquito fleet” of small attack boats mentioned above seems to bear close resemblance to what proved very successful for red team in that exercise. This would be another sign that they study (and learn from) warfare around the globe.
Well, how about the little community groups in the hills around Mendocino, Brownsville, and Ann Arbor? Why should they want to be left out?
The woman who betrayed Maduro and is now set to become fabulously rich working for the US?
The dog doesn’t bite the master’s hand if it wants to keep getting fed.
With Washington said to be in control of some budget requests, ever stop to think of the possibility of any number of those drones being sold to the USA?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI7rXKtPMmE
This is a really good Q&A between Mario Nawfal and Dr. Robert Pape. Watch as Dr. Pape patiently says, “we’re heading down the path to catastrophic ground war, because all other options are unfathomable” and gently bats away each of Mario’s counter-arguments and ideas for finding an off-ramp.
Also, I really loved Pape’s suggestion of one off-ramp was to leash and collar Israel by making it join the NPT and subjecting it to inspections at Dimona and other sites around the country. Man, that one gave me a huge laugh!!!
It really says something that it’s much more plausible to imagine Israel self-destructing its own fabric of society rather than subjecting itself to what it sees as humiliation like nuclear inspections in order to satisfy Iran’s security concerns.
Pape really hit the nail on the head when he discussed the Legacy Theory as Trump’s main motivation. It wasn’t mentioned, but we see this domestically in spades, with the Great Ballroom, the Arch de Tr(i)ump(h), and last if not least, the Trump-Kennedy Center, which is Trump’s not-so-subtle way to assert that he is a better president than JFK. Legacy is what is motivating him to solve all of the world’s perceived ills—Iran, Venezuela, Cuba; illegal immigration and illegal drugs, etc. etc. etc.
I’ve watched Mario Nawfal in a few videos.
Nawfal is willing to bring on capable guests and is unafraid to show ignorance.
Nawfal’s optimism bias seems to be in conflict with his more knowledgeable guests in several recent videos I’ve seen.
Nawfal is far more “everyman” than “knowledgeable elite” which makes makes him easier to discount.
Pape carefully and politely guided Nawfal in this interview.
People will be glad to know that Apple are doing their part in the Israeli war on Lebanon. On Apple maps, they have deleted the names of towns & villages in southern Lebanon, some of which are thousands of years old. Apple Maps still show local businesses, salons and some street names but as far as the names of the villages? Poof, they’re gone-
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/04/17/did-apple-remove-lebanons-villages-from-its-maps-it-says-they-were-never-there
Since when does Apple work for Israel? Google still shows the names of towns and villages but not Apple. Of course if Israel builds settlements there, I am sure that Apple maps would note their location.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/apple-tv-new-israeli-thriller-backlash
However I wouldn’t assume that Google, whose founders have ties to Israel, is all that different. Those of us who read the comments here know that the ties between Silicon Valley and what Marandi calls the “tiny colony” on the Med are strong.
“Apple’s ties to Israel are much deeper than you think”
https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/apples-ties-to-israel-are-much-deeper
“Apple Matches Worker Donations to IDF and Illegal Settlements”
https://theintercept.com/2024/06/11/apple-donations-idf-israel-gaza-illegal-settlements/
As always, thank you Nat and the NC commentariat.
Thanks for the above. The Barnes stuff is shocking even if it’s what we all suspected. That we now have two presidencies in a row that seem to be out of control is very damning of our current system. Dukakis got it right with that golden oldie (even if not literally true). “The fish rots from the head.”
Reading those bits from the Barnes stuff reminds me of the saying that the ship of State is the only ship that leaks from the top. :)
One thing about Barnes’ comments that bothers me is how is it the US institutional framework, public and private, seems unable to deal with such a thing as having a demented POTUS and keep him sinking the whole country in a well which will be difficult to climb up later. What is what keeps him in this position. Unfettered Zionism is enough to keep any crazed guy in charge in the US?
Speaking electorally: the Uniparty has been filled with Zionists and people accepting Zionist dollars for decades, and people vote en masse for the Uniparty. Believing the Democrat Party is an actual opposition party is simply delusional, just look at the War Powers Act charade.
So who is supposed to push back against this insanity? The people who benefit from it?
Unfettered cringing Democrats were equally unwilling to push Biden out of office, to be fair. For all of Nixon’s crimes, it wasn’t until the recording of his ‘smoking gun’ that his party finally turned against him, for their own survival. Republicans are only starting to see their survival at stake, like Vance does. Conceivably they’ll get there?
I think that what has kept him in his position (without the 25th amendment being triggered) so far is due to two things: 1) he picked his cabinet for loyalty above anything else, thus minimizing the chances that they would trigger the 25th, and 2) he so thoroughly dominated the Republican party in the last 10 years that it also minimized the chances that a Republican-controlled congress might trigger the 25th. Both groups are so completely in fear of him that they wouldn’t dare, at least not yet.
I don’t think the people who wrote the 25th amendment could have foreseen this exact situation, and even if they had, I don’t think that they could have done anything about it without making it too easy to remove any president.
Trump is starting to sound like the 3-year old boy with lethal psychic powers in the old Jerome Bixby story “It’s a Good Life” (which got turned into a Twilight Zone episode). All the adults in the town are terrified of him and the power that he wields and constantly walk on eggshells around him. And this was a horror story, so don’t expect a happy ending. Whether our real life horror story with Trump, the emotional 3-year old who can destroy a civilization (or all civilizations) on a whim, will have the same unhappy ending is unclear. It’s long been suspected that elements of the Secret Service were complicit in the JFK hit, so perhaps there are some in that organization now who are similarly entertaining plans that contravene their stated duties. If not them, it would seem to be up to the military, as none of the civilian leaders around Trump have the gumption to invoke the 25th amendment process. And the Schumer-Jeffries faction in Congress would rather see America destroyed than renege on their commitments to Tel Aviv, so there is no help to be found there, despite the clouds of hot air and performative hand-wringing that we’ll all have to suffer through. The President really is an elected King in the 21st century US, as we are finding out now, which makes the fake bipartisan helplessness to do anything good of Obama even more repulsive in hindsight.
Oh, wow, great analogy for this situation. Here’s the (obviously completely filled with spoilers) plot summary for anyone who hasn’t watched or doesn’t quite remember this episode.
And here’s a clip. We’ll probably see a Lego video based on it.
This is one case where I think the original story is far superior to TZ’s adaptation.
And here’s an online copy.
Isn’t this a lovely timeline?
The BBC reports that guests at the Serena Hotel in Islamabad are being asked to leave, roads are being blocked, and heavy traffic banned. Radio, so no link yet.
Excellent coverage, Nat. What Iran is doing is providing a master class on how a middle-tier power can defend itself against the U.S. and its proxies. The BRICS nations are all taking notes, and this will expedite the decline of the U.S. empire.
While I wish that were the case, I feel that this specific method is very unique to Iran. They have the size, natural and human resources, geography, culture, and strong will to make this happen. That’s not to say that other countries can’t learn a lot from it.
Islamabad ramps up security near hotels as preparations appear under way for US-Iran talks AlArabiya
Security preparations appeared to be under way in Islamabad on Sunday for a possible second round of US-Iran talks, ahead of the expected end to the two-week ceasefire.
Rolls of barbed wire and heavy police presence could be seen near the Serena Hotel — in Islamabad’s ‘red zone’ — where the first round of talks on April 11 between the United States and Iran was held.
The hotel told guests on Sunday they would need to leave due to a government event, a hotel representative said, adding that no reservations were being taken until further notice.
Guests were similarly seen leaving the Marriott Hotel, where delegates stayed during the first round of talks on April 11.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116431297579272777
My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations.
I haven’t felt ‘represented’ at the local, county, state, or federal level in years.
I may sign their paychecks, but I know I am not part of The Club funding the development of their portfolios and Private Idaho(s). Sequestered Tax Mule, Debt Serf, and Voter.
Talk about Role Play and getting eff’d— gross!!
Thanks for war coverage. Fun to juxtapose what I learn here from the MSM. Can’t wait for Sunday morning talking heads to blow smoke up the collective American bum.
Between Pape, Mr. Market, and The Calendar, my bet is Trump and Nuttingyahoo string the yoyo along for a few more weeks (its already almost May), but the other shoe drops and T S H T F on triple-witch Friday the last week of May?
Wonder what coy Ploymarket and the insiders will ‘do’ in the interim.
Jesus. Hey, Zeus— or is that just Trump? He’s got the Whole World, in His hands…*
*teeny-tiny concealer-slathered hands
Why would Iran talk to Trump’s representatives?
25th Amendment this week!
Also from that same post:
We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END! President DONALD J. TRUMP
We’re back to where we started…..
> Ghalibaf’s tweets take on a new cast in light of Robert Barnes’ allegations about Trump’s mental state. I wonder how the if the Iranian leadership is operating under a similar understanding of Trump’s thinking.
I assume so. I think they know what they are dealing with rather better than most in the Western political class.
This is worrying ofc but notice that the best way to deal with this situation is actually the same as how to deal with a counter party that is agreement incapable. Enforce your new reality and explain it to the world, clearly, consistently, much repetition, eventually de facto conformance to the new reality will emerge and you don’t need documentary agreements. It seems to me that Iran has been behaving as though they understand this.
One thing that I have recently noticed is that there is lots of reporting on how western countries feel & think about Iran and here you are talking about places like the UK, France, etc. But there is a virtual blackout on what people in the Global majority of countries feel and think about Iran. Even those, no, especially those that are effected by the double blockade of Iran. Do they support Iran? Do they agree with the US & Israel? Who knows as it is not being reported much.
Agreed, actually. I don’t live in the ‘West’ and even here, it’s not clear where the general consensus lies (though, it seems to be in support of Iran).
It’s also likely that uninvolved countries are trying to remain that way to avoid offending either party, regardless of how the conflict shakes out.
Well, here in South America the bias against the US has developed from long experience. But people here, if they’re paying attention at all, are worried about economic effects, not ideology. They wonder why their people have to suffer for a Far away war they have nothing to do with.
As to mu personal views, it’s a special situation here. If the US is driven out of West Asia, and withdrawals from Europe, then it will certainly focus it’s remaining power on subduing the people of South America and controlling their resources. So, like Russia and China, we will directly benefit from Iran’s demilitarization of US forces. But I don’t think anyone here is focused on national defense with drones, which is what would be necessary based on vao’s analysis above.
I’m not even sure what the consensus in the US is. The pro and anti voices I do hear offline tend to be about the morality or personalities, on both sides. The groups are made up of about who I’d expect on either side, regardless of who we’re at war with. No one is talking about the possibility and consequences of “losing”, and aside from gas prices, there haven’t been any consequences.
Locally however, several neighbors are planning larger gardens or raising more animals than usual.
Well there are the popular lute como um iraniano (fight like an Iranian) t-shirts in Brazil (now available internationally). Here in Mexico the very widespread support for Palestine — the greeter at a posh new restaurant in town sports a From the river to the see, Palestine will be free, complete with Palestinian flag tattoo on her forearm — is being expressed as support for Iran.
My son wore a “I love Iran” t-shirt of his own making that he wore around Bangkok to widespread and vocal approval.
It will be interesting to see who will show up in Islamabad to represent Iran. “From the start of the process Araghchi (Minister of Foreign Affairs) has been running a parallel policy to rush through an agreement that suits the Americans while hiding the actual terms from the NSC and the Beit.” IRG is pushing back.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/hormuz-deal-collapses-amidst-us-lies
Maybe, but I won’t be surprised if it’s a “just so” story…
On the other hand, they haven’t blown him up yet so…
I’m not sure how true that story about Araghchi can be. He may get some sort of agreement but doesn’t the Iranian Parliament have to sign off on it? In any case, I have read how much of a hardliner he is and now suddenly he wants to roll over for Trump and make out that Trump won this war? Really? If Trump believed that then certainly he will decide to attack Iran again some time next year so that this time he can grab the Iranian oil fields. This whole thing sounds like a planted story to divide the Iranian government.
The puzzling thing is that the source, David Miller, has pretty impeccable credentials as an ardent critic of Israel, and of Western imperialism in the Middle East in general. He has long been the subject of media smears because of this, and in fact lost his job at the University of Bristol due to a bulls**t “antisemitism” charge, from which he was later cleared (of course). He is quite familiar with how propaganda operates. So if he is the source of a planted story, then it must come from very deep cover. But *is* there a source for his vehement criticism of Araghchi? I can’t tell, but he has been denouncing Araghchi as a traitor ever since Iran agreed to meet the US in Islamabad. Maybe he is just frustrated that Iran would grant the US even a semblance of good faith. But then why is his attack on Araghchi so specific and personal?
My tendency is to agree with you, Rev. But I have to admit that Araghchi’s original tweet was very misleading.
Thanks for the background, I wondered who he was
Not sure how being a critic of Israel gives him any standing with regards to Iran.
I’ve been reading his tweets and have been completely underwhelmed by his positions on Iran.
I think you may be right about his position on Trump clouding his judgement on all things Iran. The fact he thinks the Iranians are so stupid as to not see when someone is so blatantly selling them out to the US, as he is claiming, makes me think is a hardcore neoliberal in the same style as H. Clinton. If so he is no different from the rest and really just wants Iran to give up and give the US it’s resources.
The counterargument to this view of Araghchi, spread by people like Miller, is that Araghchi is a skilled diplomat who has been trying to provide rhetorical off ramps for Trump.
Impossible to know for sure, but I am sure that in general, Iran is analyzing opinion in the US much more effectively than the US is doing in return.
Judging from results, it created opportunities for both off ramps, and the declaration of suicidal intent we’ve now seen.
How David Miller comes to possess the “information” he shares would be interesting to know.
Are the attacks or questions about Araghchi happening in a coordinated cluster?
Barnes says Trump has lost all empathy? I disagree. You can’t lose what you never had.
Soon after the election Alexander Mercouris confided he’d never seen the slightest sign that Trump would act vindictively. This is not a stupid man. This is an instance of how even the intelligent don’t always derive beliefs from reality (enclose “reality” in quotation marks, if you like) but wrap reality around beliefs. So it is for Barnes. He has been a relentless promoter of and apologist for Trump. You can see him at work by sampling the Duran archive from a couple of years ago, where you’ll find him manspreading and mansplaining with gusto.
I mention this because there’s a popular “Trump isn’t the same” meme among apostate Trump choristers. There may be truth to it. (Maybe “reality” deserves those quotation marks.) But forgive a suspicion of blamewashing. It’s like a One True Scotsman argument: this Trump is not the true Trump. Au contraire. He may not be “the same” (nod to Heraclitus), but as the saying goes, he’s close enough for government work.
Which really ought to be much too close for government work, let alone the presidency, but such is the genius of democracy, U.S.A., U.S.A.–style.
Agreed. Have listened to The Duran for years, Mercouris surprised me with his ingenuous take on Trump,
and as for Barnes – touche: ‘mansplaining with gusto’…
still, good to see Trump losing their support
Yes, and to my knowledge neither Mercouris nor Christoforou have ever accepted any responsibility for their touting of Trump. Quite disingenuous of both of them,
I always considered it stupid and undignified to ingratiate themselves to Trump this way after somewhat standing up for other opinions. Yes, they are orthodox, conservative in their social (and even economic views) but not seeing who Trump “grab them by the pussy” really is, it is dissapointing. Oh, the need to find a leader to follow! They seem to forget that the Athenian democracy was based on sortition…
Barnes went on a riff near the end, predicting that Trump will grant immunity for 17 million illegal immigrants, then Democrats will come in and find a way to grant them all citizenship, thus potentially creating 17 million new democratic voters. It’s all just replacement theory hogwash and makes me question anything else he had to say. Of course, Larry Wilkerson just nodded along.
Likewise with Col. Macgregor and his Gen. Ripper-esque POE (for Purity of Ethnicity) song and dance. You listen to these guys sounding fairly sensible, then suddenly you’re in Cloud Cuckoo Land. It’s like, Ohh, they’re not the keepers; they’re the inmates.
But the inmates’ depiction of reality is closer to my perception of the same when it comes to international affairs. In some cases–like their urgent warnings about going to war against Iran–they would seem to be a lot closer to reality when it comes to matters within their expertise than corporate media pre-war. They all have their idiosyncrasies, but none have the air of Ezra Klein or warmonger Maggie Brennan or Anne Appleb
aum, preserver of “Western civilization” as if it were something to be retained at all costs, but especially at other people’s expense.Alignment along all axes is likely to produce very small groups, especially when one doesn’t include the infiltrators in the count. Tucker Carlson, a fellow who likes to tout his outdoorsman credentials, is a complete idiot when it comes to what human activity is doing to the planet that is our one and only home. But I still appreciate his critiques of the Iran war and Israel’s influence on U. S. policy, and I’m glad to see those views disseminated so widely.
And when only the inmates seem to be connected to reality, it’s time to understand that it’s the people runnin’ the joint who are nuts.
That’s been a constant of our era. Tucker Carlson is the apotheosis of that stuff. He’ll destroy Ted Cruz in a one-on-one interview then follow it up with a long segment on demonic possession. He’s also 100% for ICE and domestic crackdowns and most Western hemisphere antics.
Distasteful as it was, I had a certain tolerance for Mercouris’ Trump apologia in 2024, given how Blinken and Sullivan were working tirelessly to get us nuked. But eventually it got to be too much.
I’ve been puzzling over the relationship between the right and antiwar rhetoric quite a bit, recently. Did the leading voices at this intersection just follow Trump’s posturing because it was the thing to do, or did the selling of endless war with liberal talking points (to say nothing of the sense of national humiliation felt acutely by the base) create an opportunity that would have been irresistible, regardless? This is before even getting to the rhetoric itself, most of which leaves the value of non-American human life and self-determination distinctly open to question.
The Michael-Wolff-esque part of the Barnes interview is consistent with other reports, but I had to stop listening when he started talking about how Vance is “absolutely really antiwar,” and is willing to sacrifice himself, etc. While Vance is not a traditional (or at all talented, though it is unclear that he is aware of his own talentlessness) politician, and while his reptoid* owners would rather avoid a nuclear winter, he is a pure social climbing machine, and any imputation of motives not rooted in this fact can safely be dismissed.
*I am using this term metaphorically. It is a good metaphor.
thb, they give me the creeps. I value the information Barnes as a quasi-insider brings in this conversation with Johnson but it gives me the creeps to listen all the same, especially towards the end of the conversation as they are back slapping each other as great patriots. I gave up on Mercouris in 2022 after listening to his eulogy for Abe. The whole “alt media” of YouTubers (many of whom wanted Trump admin jobs and didn’t get them) have some valuable insights, sometimes useful readings of foreign media, and sometimes even inside info not available elsewhere but they often give this pinko the creeps.
When Barnes says Trump has lost all empathy, he does not mean that Trump was not an asshole before and has now become one. He means that he has lost the ability to read others’ emotional states, which is a pathological condition associated with dementia, and which seems evident in his weird inability to understand why people react to his actions in the way that they do.
Trump’s incapacity should scare the crap out of everyone.
He is not sane and he is very likely to continue to escalate the War in ways that are likely to cause a lot more unnecessary deaths. Including members of the US Military.
And there’s the Bomb, TRUMP IS INSANE.
He is more likely to Nuke Iran than Minneapolis…unless someone convinces him that ANTIFA!!! has its headquarters in Minnesota.
Let it set in, Trump is Nuts and the people around him will tell him whatever he wants to hear.
Reality is not welcome at the White House.
On a happy note, I will have some time with my daughter Rosetta later today, what a time to be alive!
You didn’t! You named your daughter Rosetta Stone? Fiend!
(I’m still laughing and hope that your daughter has a great sense of humour.)
Stay safe.
Could be worse. Bill Lear, who designed the Learjet among many other accomplishments, named one of his daughters Shanda-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lear
I do hope that she didn’t turn out to be a ‘swinger.’
Used to know an Iona Gunn
I used to know a Beatrice Gadd.
I give you my fellow undergraduates Isabelle Oon (who sadly was no waif), William Richard Treblecock and Heather Uprichard (I don’t if the second obeyed).
Also a schoolteacher, Mr Poustie, threatened to name his child Cornish. And Mr Hunt, who avoid naming his Isaac.
I raise you with a cashier I worked with as a teenager: Anita Cox. And later there was a student I had who named her daughter LaTrine. There also was the poor bastard tied-up in the Western PA court system whose parents had named Cleveland Brown… in Steelers town.
For the life of me, what the hell is wrong with these parents?
Then there was Janet Taylor.
Houston had a Rep in the US House named Ima Hogg.
Ima Hogg was a major philanthropist and supporter of the arts but she never served in Congress or any elected position. Her father, however, was governor of Texas.
Ima Hogg
Thanks for refresh old memories!
it took me too long to figure this one out :s
The gypsy fortune teller near my apartment calls herself Clair Voyant.
In re Bill Lear and his daughter Shanda, I recall it being said at the time (with what degree of accuracy I don’t know) that her full name was Crystal Shanda Lear. That this joke was beyond the satirical capacity of most middle-school students makes it still sound plausible, though Wikipedia doesn’t mention it.
As a minor passtime, I’ve collected around 350 of those ‘punny’ names, including, among others:
Ann T. Cline
Annette Curtin
Cara van Syte
Chris P. Ness
Ernest Lee
Frank Ness
Gene Pool
I. C. Yew
Jay Walker
Kit Chen
May B. Nott
Minnie van Dryver
Mo Lusk
N. Deering
Polly Amory
Sal Lammy
Tom E. Gunn
Will Ingly
Y. Nott
There are probably hundreds more! Obviously, I have more time than sense.
Please allow me to present the Car Talk staff credits.
Thanks for getting the long list.
Don’t forget the former Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Sin.
Welcome to the House of Sin. (He actually said that when greeting visitors)
You roll with it if you are in that spot.
You’ve already heard all of the amateur attempts.
Hey, be nice. I live with a challenging family name* and am sympathetic to other people with tough family names.
Since I have to review computer records and new users needing access to programs, if I say that someone has a challenging family name to live life with, trust me. Some make me say “Wow” and sympathy cringe.
* I have approached airline gate podiums when I hear the gate agent say “Oh hell no” or equivalent when trying to call passengers to the podium to issue boarding tickets. “Hi, I’m passenger (the name you don’t want to try saying over the PA)…”.
My grandmother’s name was Pearl Eveline Bottoms, or Pearl E. Bottoms. Naturally she used the name Eveline.
Great thread here! thanks for the chuckles. Humor always appreciated in these tragic times.
His daughter Shanda is mentioned in Wikipedia under ‘Personal Life’-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lear#Marriages_and_children
See also here-
https://www.aviationspeakers.com/shanda-lear
One tidbit by Barnes might help some people sleep better: there was talk that military leaders were planning not to follow through on Trump’s civilization ending threat if ordered.
This is reminiscent of the first term, when the presence of resisters within the administration was publicly acknowledged (or at least asserted) in, IIRC, an NYT editorial. At the time, D cheered and Rs were offended.
Now, hilariously (aside from the event-horizon-level gravity of the situation), we are back in an analogous situation, in which we can take some comfort in the thought that there are some adults in the administration.
History may not repeat, but it sometimes rhymes, and sometimes the rhyme is nearly verbatim.
Could it be that some of the military elite, seeing the misuse of forces that has left us conventionally defenseless, can perceive in the distance the possibility of a real American defeat by a peer foe that requires the submission of U.S. officials to be prosecuted for war crimes? Going along with Trump and Hegseth might get you on a future list that you don’t want to be on.
We can hope, no?
Interesting timing that talk of invoking the Insurrection Act evaporated with the Venezuela operation and hasn’t come up since then.
Tweet by @IRAN_GHANA:
(April 14, 2026)BREAKING: “Rich Starry,” a Chinese oil tanker sanctioned for shipping Iranian oil, flying the flag of Malawi — a country with no coastline — just sailed through America’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Navy, with its many “big beautiful ships,” issued repeated warnings.
Reportedly, The tanker’s captain upgraded to premium to skip the ads. EDIT: We’re being told the blockade only applies to countries the US isn’t afraid of. That list used to be long. It now fits on Trump’s McDonald’s receipt, Delivered by DoorDash.
===
This post was widely shared and mocked the effectiveness of the US naval blockade. It was one of the most viral diplomatic troll posts during the conflict.
This is fake news and misleads observers by feeding the mischaracterization of the blockade. It is NOT IN THE STRAIT but hundreds of miles further east in the Sea of Oman. So leaving the Strait means absolutely zero. It is whether the vessel gets past the blockade and then to the open sea.
Richard Starry stopped east of the Strait and turned back through the Strait.
Just for a second there I thought you had typed “Richard Scarry stopped….” Now all we need is a tanker named “Waldo” to try running the blockade.
Safe travels. May the force of the law be with you.
Thanks, Nat.
So, where do I go to get my 869 Dow points back?
Mr. Market went on a bender, all based on a lie. Can we get the prices from Thursday’s close reinstated, SEC?
Hello, Buehler?
Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-tells-iran-sign-deal-130033422.html
The Iranian government ridiculed EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas’ calls to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and respect international law
https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-mocks-eu-calls-to-reopen-strait-of-hormuz/
India invited to join UK–France maritime initiative for Strait of Hormuz security
https://www.newsonair.gov.in/india-invited-to-join-uk-france-maritime-initiative-for-strait-of-hormuz-security/
Major change in Kuwaiti citizenship laws sees thousands lose nationality
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-893470
Allies fear a rushed US–Iran framework deal could backfire, leaving technical deadlock.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/allies-fear-rushed-usiran-framework-deal-could-backfire-leaving-technical-2026-04-19/
Two foreigners arrested in Iran for importing Starlink technology, Tasnim reports
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/two-foreigners-arrested-iran-importing-starlink-technology-tasnim-reports-2026-04-19/
Dutch cabinet activates first phase of national oil crisis plan
https://nltimes.nl/2026/04/18/dutch-cabinet-activates-first-phase-national-oil-crisis-plan
Iranian President insists on country’s nuclear rights, ISNA reports
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iranian-president-insists-countrys-nuclear-rights-isna-reports-2026-04-19/
Israeli shekel hits 30-year high against dollar
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-shekel-hits-30-year-high-against-dollar
Wow, back to wiping out the country already. Lots of things look set to implode now, to be frank. Many thanks as always, Ann.
You’re very welcome, Huey
‘Iran mocks EU calls to reopen Strait of Hormuz’
Not only Iran. The Russian rep tore stripes off her at the UN for her refusing to criticize what the US and Israel have been doing-
https://www.rt.com/russia/638473-russia-kallas-un-hypocrisy/
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are more serious negotiators than Kallas is and that is a very low bar indeed.
Thanks Ann, big jump start on tomorrow’s post.
Richard Medhurst has a compelling short documentary called “Birth of the Petrogas Dollar and the Pirate State” on yutoob with lots of evidence that USAChevron has already successfully interrupted, destroyed or taken over oil/gas resources around the world with the primary goal of driving desperate buyers directly and exclusively to them. This seems like the actual game with the rest being mostly secondary distraction. After I watched I felt sickened that they may in fact be quite successful at this global energy takeover unless other countries understand it and collectively take countermeasures to thwart – but things don’t look good based on this video.
Saw the same video. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if China offered free plug-in, solar panels to everybody around the world to reduce world oil consumption? Can you imagine?
I saw the video and was alarmed, but talked myself down as not much agency is given to the diminished power of the west and increased power of some segments of ROW. Generally though his scenario is one that the smart people in DC would script. Berletic has a finger on that beat. I don’t get Venezuela. It seems tome the entire oil infra will need to be rebuilt, high prices will of course help with that. I think we’re still murdering boaters. Something tells me there is a divide between urban and rural Venezuelans, but maybe they just rolled over to Uncle, time will tell.
“Something tells me there is a divide between urban and rural Venezuelans…”
That tracks with what happens in every country. Maybe some that avoid those divisions could be named on one hand, but no large country seems immune to those dynamics over various issues.
To be shipped using what?
Thoughtful conversation between Lena Petrova and Einar Tangen on China’s preparedness and resilience, and shifting alliances as result to the actions of US/Israel, that speaks to the likely failure of the US to achieve this plan in any longterm way if it does, indeed, exist.
Tangen even uses the “own goal” metaphor to respond critically to Western analysts claiming China is winning.
As well as reality checks on the fact that the only way to real deescalation in the Gulf is to collectively remove Israel’s nukes (and how unfortunately unlikely that is), and that the now unavoidable upcoming food shortages will cause widespread “regime change” (my term) across global governments.
https://youtu.be/M6lrw1J1oZY?si=-3vFil0JICGonIRc
I do not know what is primary or secondary, or sometimes even what is real or imaginary, but I did think out loud about this thesis a week or so ago in Grab ‘Em by the Petroleum.
Allusion to “Access Hollywood” recording purely intentional.
Yes, Medhurst does a great job reporting on this. But will the other powers simply sit by and take it? We have seen the effectiveness of asymmetric warfare by Ansar Allah\, Hezbollah and Iran. So smaller powers could conceivably fight back, and then the elephants in the room are Russia and China. At some point they will not put up with being strangled and the powder keg goes off. With a bunch of hubris-drunk buffoons and a dementia-addled emperor in charge, all bets are off
Regarding China and Russia, Fee Isabel and Vanessa Beeley have been pointing out in their videos all year that a lot of the alternative media promote this false idea that Russia and China are fighting some sort of revolutionary and idealogical battle against the Empire. Unfortunately the evidence shows they are perfectly willing to work with the Empire where ever they can if it is in their country’s elite’s interest.
Look at John Helmer’s reporting regarding the influential Kiril Dimitriov faction in Russia, as well as both China and Russia abstaining rather than vetoing the first UN Security Council resolution, which was absurd on its face regarding the actual facts about the war itself. They continue to go along with fictions that are so patently absurd, such as it’s the Ukrainians alone attacking Russian ships and that the GCC countries were somehow illegally attacked by Iran, even though the US wages their war from these. There doesn’t really seem to be any evidence at all that China or BRICS are working towards a different currency arraignment either, which the alternative media often likes to suggest it is.
Who knows but it seems like the only way the Empire is going down is by destroying itself. That will certainly happen at some point but in the meantime Medhurst’s reporting clearly seems to fit with Eldridge Colby’s strategic thinking regarding how to wage the war, and the Empire may have bought themselves at least a few more decades it they are able to actually execute it.
I posted two replies to Horne Fisher, but both disappeared after pressing “post comment” button.
“There doesn’t really seem to be any evidence at all that China or BRICS are working towards a different currency arraignment either, which the alternative media often likes to suggest it is.”
The Cadtm.org site has archives of stories about what many of the writers frame as the “subimperialism” of BRICS.
I keep meaning to include Medhurst’s analysis. I think it’s solid and fits with what Col. Wilkerson was saying about the motives of the people behind Trump.
I think it describes an acceptable outcome and is therefore supporting US choices. Head we take Iran, tails we deny everybody else Iran etc.
The problem is that it is tantamount to denying China raw materials and look where that got the USA and Allies in WW2 against a non-nuclear Japan that did not have Russia lending support….
And Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge University, has some similar views:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZorjJr4DpA/
From March 19, on the Unherd show.
One cause of US insane policy toward Venezuela is Chavez nationalized Chevron assets.
Sure Trump can kill for oil, now.
But…
I doubt his story. Just over half of the world’s natural gas reserves are held by 1) Russia, 2) Iran, 3) Qatar. That’s the long term.
In the short term, where does Chevron come up with all the LNG tankers, liquification and export facilities, and import facilities that would need long term, exclusive contracts to be feasible?
re: Dementia
Seems there’s a pattern and problem.
I have a theory that wealthy people and people in power suffer from something dementia-like by virtue of everyone around them solves their problems for them. In other words, their brains and thought processs atrophy from lack of use, they enter a vegetative state, a state similar to when they were in their mother’s wombs fed by the umbilical cord, in darkness from the world outside them, experiencing no lack or needs.
That said, what are the checks and balances against a dementia (or deranged or brain atrophied) president? Is there a layered system which ensures no one person such as the president can act unchecked, things like shared signing authority, division of powers, checklists of requirements? If there isn’t, doesn’t it seem like there should be?
Also, if the only information sources for the president are Fox and the NYT, isn’t that a significant problem, severely limiting a president’s decision-making capacity?
Or, alternatively, perhaps the president was put in the WH not to read anything else but to follow orders. Such a president would deliberately limit their sources of information, simply take instructions.
I second your theory and would expand to say – much in the same way it’s believed that brain games like sudoku, crossword puzzles, or just a good old fashioned lifetime of learning can help stave off cognitive decline and keep you sharp in your golden years, a lifetime of being the unquestionable boss renders certain faculties inherently stunted. It’s not just that Trump, from his silver spooned youth, had others to solve his problems for him – it’s that at least from when he became personally wealthy and famous, he was too important to challenge to his face. The part of his brain meant to digest and synthesize dissent and critique is derelict machinery, rusted by saltwater and coated in the guano of seabirds alighting, so long has it been since anyone has told him “no” with any success. This could be understood not as explaining the dementia itself, but the seeming rapidity of its development – there was a part of his mind that was already on the very edge of absolute dysfunction. Maybe it caught a little shrapnel back in Butler.
“The part of his brain meant to digest and synthesize dissent and critique is derelict machinery, rusted by saltwater and coated in the guano of seabirds alighting, so long has it been since anyone has told him “no” with any success.”
Wonderful! Sounds like F Scott Fitzgerald 🖋
Congress is quite content with what demented Trump is doing. They plan on sticking him with all the political blame, too.
Anytime Trump even hints at doing something they don’t like, they immediately gum up the works like when he suggested banning private equity from buying residential housing. That move got memory-holed in a hurry.
I tend to agree. Having a “mad king” is a facile excuse. Biden was a mad king when he leaned into a proxy war between Ukraine and Russia. Obama was a mad king when he bailed out all the crooks that imploded the world economy and nobody went to jail. W was a mad king when he ignored all of the warnings leading up to 9/11, and then started America’s disastrous Middle East wars which are being continued today.
All along America elites have just “assumed” America was as “strong” and capable as it ever was despite over forty years of wrecking America internally which sooner or later means the same for the American empire. American billionaires and elites live in a bubble of their own making. Trump may have unique characteristics, but I don’t really see America’s power elites complaining and demanding change.
> I have a theory that wealthy people and people in power suffer from something dementia-like by virtue of everyone around them solves their problems for them. In other words, their brains and thought processs atrophy from lack of use
One can easily replicate the effect in oneself these days by delegating effortful thought to an LLM harness. Atrophy is guaranteed unless you force yourself to do things the hard way regularly.
‘It’s Because Of Security’: Trump Says Vance Won’t Join US Delegation In Pakistan
So does that mean that Iran will have to deal with two Zionist real estate hucksters yet again?
The US delegation might be negotiating with themselves tomorrow:
No Iranian negotiating team being sent to Pakistan yet due to US blockade
I hope that this time they stick to it. No negotiations until demands are met (especially as the whole thing is just a bad faith distraction, at best).
I wonder. It’s possible he wants to avoid further reputational harm. Alternatively, he is aware that there will be a security risk. If so, might be Pakistan also be aware, hence their increased security (“We did the best we could, securing the premisis. It was unfortunate, also, please regime change now that you have lost so many heads, so that we can have a re-opened strait.”)?
You are correct, sir!
Trump sends envoys to Pakistan as talks aim to ‘extend ceasefire’
The real estate shysters again!? That’s yet another slap in the face. At this point the Iranians should insist that a proper negotiation team show up, headed by the US Sec. of State. no real estate grifters will be allowed this time.
It’s just as well the Iranians weren’t coming in the first place, since we haven’t lifted the ‘blocade’, sanctions etc as they required for another meeting. Keeping Vance at home, and sending back Nepo-boy and the rando real estate guy who’ve already disgusted the Iranians with their ignorance and bias–yeah, this is designed to go nowhere. It’s so obvious you’d think even the press could say so.
True, but the sycophant-stenographers in the mass media are seldom capable of rational assessment. They haven’t figured out that the emperor is suffering from a mental health crisis. The hubris and normalcy bias is remarkable
If Ukraine negotiations are any clue, Trump will probably send Kushner and Witkoff to Islamabad to negotiate with the Europeans about good sites for investments in golf courses and resorts in Iran once the war is over…or whatever the hell it was that top US and European folks spent days “negotiating” about while sipping fine wine and munching caviar during past “summits.”
“two Zionist real estate hucksters”
It also means to me that those two had nothing to fear.
Perhaps the threat is confined to those persons who might possibly be willing to actually end the war?
Quick note on that oft-repeated 35k drone/figure. This excellent analysis suggests more like 4k.
https://www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/cost-of-a-shahed/
very informative. thanks!
Dollar signs would be useful — I initially thought you were referencing the quantity of drones possessed (by some entity) — made me click on the link though.
And possibly COVID. We know it causes brain damage, cognitive decline. Trump’s had it at least once. We are still, very much, in the middle of an ongoing plague.
IDF chief: Israeli Air Force ready for immediate strike, including in Iran
https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/04/16/idf-chief-israeli-air-force-ready-for-immediate-strike-including-in-iran/
Iran navy says any ship trying to pass Strait of Hormuz will be targeted
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/18/iran-reasserts-control-of-hormuz-strait-as-trump-warns-against-blackmail
Iran replenishes launchers at higher rate than pre-war, guards commander says
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-replenishes-launchers-higher-rate-than-pre-war-guards-commander-says-2026-04-19/
The Divine Right of Presidents Is a Dangerous Idea
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/opinion/trum-christ-pope-image.html
Think Trump will read the above?
China begins building US$1 billion hydropower station in Cambodia amid energy crisis
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3350480/china-begins-building-us1-billion-hydropower-station-cambodia-amid-energy-crisis
Pete Hegseth’s pastor describes his terrifying Christian nationalist dream for the U.S.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/04/pete-hegseths-pastor-describes-his-terrifying-christian-nationalist-dream-for-the-u-s/
Thanks for all the links Ann.
The very fact that NYT would have an article with “divine right” is surreal. The Mad Emperor already fancies himself as Jesus or some sort of god. (see Roman emperor Commodus)
What happened to the Enlightenment and the so-called Age of Reason? We have circled back to Medieval mindset. History recycling? In this historical cycle, we could call this Neo-Feudal Techno-Totalitarianism
You’re welcome, JonnyJames. It might be that the U.S. is recycling to the Medieval mindset, but I am re-reading The Three-Body Problem right now and the description in the first two chapters of the Cultural Revolution really hit a few nerves. Re-education camps, public beatings unto death, “right thinking” et al. seem to be happening currently.
Yeah, we have privatized profit prisons, rampant prisoner abuse, and “detention centers” in the US which has the highest incarcerated population in the world, both proportionately as well as absolute numbers, even more than evil Communist China with 1.3 billion people. Land of the free eh.
For example, Ben Norton lives in China, and reports that it is extremely safe, clean and quality of life is quite high there.
Public murders by ICE and police forces, rampant lawlessness, corruption (both illegal and institutional), abuse of power, an insane emperor who fancies himself a god, catastrophic illegal wars of choice, war crimes, genocide etc. etc.
Not much to be optimistic about in the west.
more great/horrifying stuff. Lordy lordy! Thanks for helping us sift through it.
China begins building US$1 billion hydropower station in Cambodia amid energy crisis
Both the headline and the article sort of imply the two are linked. The hydro station, with pumped storage, is not a new idea:
CHMC signs BOT agreement for Stung Tatay pumped storage power station in Cambodia – 2025
What was ‘news’ a week or so ago was the ground-breaking ceremony.
https://www.internationalrivers.org/news/sites-of-struggle-sacrifice-mapping-destructive-dam-projects-along-the-mekong-river/
Isn’t that related to some of the conflicts going on in the region?
It isn’t on the Lancang/Mekong, but many of the issues raised in the article still apply. It was announced in, or by, March last year, before fighting between Thailand and Cambodia broke out again.
Under how to understand Mad King Trump, MOA posts this very interesting article from his 2016 campaign.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/donald-trump-2016-norman-vincent-peale-213220/
The above also puts to rest the notion that libertine Trump has never darkened the door of a church. As a child at least he did and was imbued with the prosperity gospel before there was such a thing. Later Trump was married in Peale’s NYC church.
Yves linked the Indi.ca using The Great Gatsby to explain Trump, and Fitzgerald’s tale about American yearning to join the rich “who are different” fits right in with the prosperity worship theme. It’s a belief where if you are rich enough and successful enough you really might become Jesus despite the latter’s teachings that said the opposite.
The Prosperity Gospel goes back a long way, at least to the 1920’s when a man by the name of Bruce Barton had a best-selling book entitled The Man Nobody Knows. In it, he described Christ as the first Big Businessman.
Also, if I remember correctly correctly, Nixon was a fan of Peale’s.
Even a bit before-1890s and the popularity of mind cure and the New Thought. See TJ Jackson Lears classic No Place of Grace
Sounds rather like the ‘word of faith’ stuff discussed here yesterday.
‘[The book The Secret’s] central idea was that if you wished for something hard enough, that it would come into your life like magic.’
And now ‘Rule one: “formulate and staple indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding’.
Definitely magical thinking and entirely non biblical.
Most of it is Gnostic thought without some of the mythical baggage. Thought controls matter. One must know “the secret.” It really appeals to people who are used to getting their way. They never built Christian Science buildings in poor neighborhoods.
I’m at the point where I feel like the Iranians are the only adults left in the room. This is not a great feeling, but it’s hard to avoid given the erratic and absurd performance of the US leadership, the Israeli leadership, the European leadership, and the leadership of the other Gulf States. I’m not sure if there is something in the water or what, but I don’t remember things being this disconnected from reality in my many decades of watching the geopolitical scene on Earth.
Hopefully Trump is reaching a breaking point, in the sense that his former supporters will finally decide he has gone off the deep end, something that should have happened long ago but didn’t (we had a very similar experience with Joe Biden). The need to take Trump seriously, or at least pretend to, explains much of the persistence of the current situation.
The world has many people of great intelligence, experience, and knowledge, but they seem to be shut out of the discussion in what is likely to be a pivotal time in the history of the human species.
Perhaps there’s a kind of “system evolution” taking place, a “survival of the least badly led” competition among governance systems. Provided we avoid “Jackpot”-level or worse catastrophe, what emerges might be better in the sense that the worse governance systems will have self-damaged so badly.
Nat, I did not see this analysis of yours cross-posted here– forgive me if I overlooked it:
Ramadan War Could Be Decided by a Sunni Coalition
A nascent coalition of Turkey-Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan could decide that Iran is on the verge of destroying Israel and decide to jump in against Israel to claim a big part of the prize.
Pakistan certainly does have the nukes and the presence of these could counter the Israeli threat so long as Israel itself is not facing extermination.
Were this coalition to come together, I don’t see how Israel, Israel and the US, could stop it.
Ah thanks, I should probably have linked to it. A lot more speculative than I feel comfortable getting here at NC.
But also important to note that a coalition of Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey coming in heavy and openly on the US side would really complicate things for Iran. On the knife’s edge.
Good point, it could go the other way. If I were Iranian, I wouldn’t trust any of those countries to side against Israel given their track records. Pakistan may be the most “reliable” of the three.
Slightly different than the four working opportunistically for their advantage, Amb Freedom in several recent appearances has brought up the potential of a regional security arrangement created by Egypt, Turkey, Saudi and Pakistan. Pakistan taking a leading role in negotiations is for him an early sign of this grouping working towards peace. He also sees Chinese backing. He believes Pakistan taking the lead as mediator came about because of Chinese support.
That’s definitely the case as I noted in my piece for Ian Welsh, cited by LawnDart.
But I also noted Pakistan’s incredible (and likely to be short-lived) position in the geopolitical catbird seat.
And Iran complied with a full negotiating team. It fell apart because it turns out they were negotiating with israel, not us, and that doesn’t seem likely to change, which I assume all those you mentioned have noticed.
Of course China wants everything back to normal, but I assume they’d also like the us out of gulf states and less able to threaten their access to the gulf. Plus maybe it suits them for global south to see Iran make serious efforts for a deal. Trump’s blockade changes the optics if not the reality.
What happens next? What if trump attacks Friday, us/israel run out of off/def missiles and Iran tho taking serious damage, still hasn’t lost? Imo if we rule out nukes the war is over. The situation is quite dynamic – I would think your gang of 4 can comfortably wait a few weeks and just watch the movie.
“watch the movie”
Not if USreal hits electric and desal infrastructure and Iran uses some of its missiles/drones to do the same to the Gulf states (especiallyif one of them (UAE?) decides to join the fun)
There’s a long history of Pakistan occupying the owl’s nest: it was Pakistan’s close ties to both US and PRC that allowed it to function as the conduit for Kissinger, eventually leading to Nixon in Beijing.
I’ve been wondering why Iran left saudi cross-country pipeline pumping stations alone.
Winning by not losing is logically encouraging Les Autres, particularly as ‘not losing’ includes driving us out of gulf bases. Maybe it’s time to make the Arab street happy. There’s more than way to do an Arab spring.
I believe they are saving escalatory steps. They demonstrated the threat, now it’s a round in the chamber.
Orange Caligula is sending the same two serial liars to Islamabad to negotiate with themselves? Didn’t the Iranians say they would not negotiate directly with these two charlatans?
Iran says no negotiation will happen as long as the US imposes the naval blockade (act of war).
Or is this just more theater and happy talk for Mr. Market on Monday? (Market Manipulation Monday, TACO Tuesday?)
from The Guardian:
From ‘Open’ to Gunfire: The Strait of Hormuz Signals a Fractured Iranian Command
https://irannewswire.org/strait-of-hormuz-tensions-fractured-iranian/
Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/18/iran-war-bets-ethics-concerns
Iran currently has no decision to send a negotiating delegation to Pakistan, Tasnim reports
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-currently-has-no-decision-send-negotiating-delegation-pakistan-tasnim-2026-04-19/
Trump kept out of the room during operation to find downed pilots in Iran after ‘screaming’ at aides for hours, report says
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-screamed-aides-missing-pilots-iran-b2960603.html
White House Leak Reveals Trump Booted From Briefing After Hours-Long Freakout
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-leak-reveals-trump-booted-from-briefing-after-hours-long-freakout/
Have we been given a glimpse of the man who was rescued yet?
Trump’s profane crusade is taking America down a dark path
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5836320-trump-war-rhetoric-danger/
Iran rejects second round of talks with US – IRNA
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202604195885
Well, that is significant, (she says with bated breath).
Re: DJT screaming and freaking out, the thought occurs that if he doesn’t treat his subordinates better, there might in future be audio recordings leaks. That would be epic.
Someone wants him gone if they’re leaking that kind of stuff. Foaming the runway to use the 25th.
Unfortunately likely to be written off as AI Deepfakes by the MAGA base…
Those whom Iran sends to Islamabad may well be assassinated as the initial “gesture” of a new wave of Israeli/US attacks after talks break down.
Jeremy Scahill:
Trump’s Erratic Behavior May Tank Negotiations, Iran Says, Warning of “Significantly Greater Costs” to the U.S. if War Resumes
Trump is bearing more and more resemblance to Captain Queeg of the “Caine Mutiny”. How many more lego reels will it take to send him over the top? If the light bulb ever goes on and he realizes that he has been fed false information, paraonia will strike deep. Everyone in his circle will become suspect and untrustworthy. Everyone will be considered of trying to humiliate him and to work around him. My bet is that Iran, Reaganesques, might indicate it is willing to negotiate with someone who is not a memeber of the Trump party. Mid term elections might put this holding of the Hormuz Straits hostage on a new trajectory.
“Ole Orange Stain”.
Maybe behaving more like Captain Stransky in the Sam Peckinpah film Cross Of Iron (1977). Stransky, seeking fame and glory by recently getting sent by request to the Eastern Front during the German retreat, cowers in a bunker transmitting by field phone gibberish to his commander during a Soviet attack on his fortified position.
Stransky’s superiors are old dogs/dragons, and remind me of experienced senior diplomats dealing with a novice to the position.
In other news:
Palantir has just published its manifesto. Read it.
Not for what he says about tech. For what he says about politics. About the ideology of Karp and Thiel. About war. About you.
When a private company takes it upon itself to define who should be monitored, targeted, predicted, and neutralized, and simultaneously publishes a text explaining why challenging this would be a sign of civilizational weakness, we are no longer dealing with corporate strategy. We are witnessing the privatization of sovereignty. The right to decide on the enemy, which has always been the founding political act of states, is being bought out by a company listed on the Nasdaq.
https://nitter.poast.org/ced_haurus/status/2045608811243684167?s=46
(in French)
It is a text that operates simultaneously as justification, strategic doctrine, and ideological declaration, situating the company not merely as a vendor of software but as an architect of sovereign power. It is the ideological self-portrait of a company that wants to be indispensable to the state, wants the state to be permanently on a war footing, wants the citizens of that state to bear the costs of that posture without having meaningful democratic input into it, and wants the billionaire class that profits from it to be shielded from accountability. Every single one of those interests is served by this manifesto. None of it is coincidental.
Well, Karp and Thiel are too late. There is another “manifesto” making the rounds. It’s hard to read and incomplete, but will be inevitable within the next 100 or so years.
Climate change.
What we currently know as human civilization and the things we take for granted will be gone. Back to the stone age without the help of nuclear weapons, although that could still happen.
Hard to force Techno Feudalism on humanity when everything has come crashing down.
Isn’t that the point? They need the state’s punitive apparatus firmly in their hands before everything starts crashing down.
I recently stumbled on another “manifesto” on the substack. A little bit stirring, a little bit revolutionary. Maybe more for an American audience though… https://squirrelbrain77.substack.com/archive?sort=new
Quite good.
This is not for the smucks like me and my ilk, but for the billioneaire class. A sort of updated Powell Manifesto from the 1970s, now updated to the evolved economic-social-political realities. It is not a conspiracy if it is in the open!
On Ruben’s article linked at the end:
Dr. Rubin’s piece is not strategic analysis — it is advocacy dressed in analytical clothing, and the institutional affiliation tells you everything you need to know. A Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Middle East Forum writing about a prospective Israeli strike on Turkey is about as neutral as a tobacco company funding research on the health benefits of smoking. This is an opinion piece, and should be read exclusively as one.
The 1967 analogy collapses on contact with reality. Egypt under Nasser had no NATO membership, no S-400 integrated air defence systems, no domestic drone industry producing swarm-capable platforms, and no blue-water navy. Turkey has all of these. More damningly, Rubin ignores a directly relevant precedent he should know well: in November 2015, Turkey tracked, deliberated, and shot down a Russian Su-24 that violated its airspace for approximately two minutes. Russia — a nuclear power. Turkey did not hesitate. The idea that Israeli aircraft would operate freely over Turkish territory, striking bases in Incirlik, Izmir, and Ankara, belongs in a fantasy novel, not in serious defence journalism.
Then there is what the article conspicuously never mentions: the International Court of Justice found in January 2024 that it was plausible Palestinian rights under the Genocide Convention were at risk, with South Africa’s case now supported by submissions from Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and others. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Under the Genocide Convention, signatories carry an active legal obligation to prevent and punish — not merely an option. When Rubin frames Turkey’s shipping restrictions and diplomatic pressure as Erdoğan “ramping up attacks on Israel,” he is inverting the legal reality. Compliance with international law is being packaged as aggression.
This connects to what the article most carefully avoids: the concept of Greater Israel — Eretz Yisrael — and the territorial ambitions that provide essential context for the entire regional dynamic. This is not a fringe idea; it is a well-documented ideological current within Israeli politics, openly articulated by current coalition members. The fear driving Israeli strategic calculations is not simply Erdoğan’s rhetoric — it is that growing international legal pressure, combined with regional resistance, is creating friction for a long-running project of territorial expansion and the displacement of the indigenous Semitic population from lands under Israeli control.
One final point that rarely surfaces in these discussions: Israel is virtually unique among the world’s nations in having deliberately undefined borders. No other state of comparable standing refuses to formally declare where it ends. That ambiguity is not accidental — undefined borders are a precondition for ongoing expansion. Any honest strategic analysis of the Israel-Turkey tension must begin there.
Without this context, Rubin’s article is simply a neoconservative wish-list masquerading as sober military thinking. It should be shelved accordingly.
PS. I appologise for making Erdoğan looking as the sensible guy her. It is definitely not my intention. Erdoğan’s motivations are not purely principled. He has maintained significant trade with Israel for years while criticising it rhetorically,
used the Palestinian cause instrumentally to consolidate domestic Islamist support, and has his own seriously bad human rights record in Kurdistan, against the press, and against political opponents.
So the recent Turkish actions against Israel may be legally defensible in their direction while still being politically opportunistic in their motivation. Both things can be true simultaneously.
That Russian Su-24 that was shot down by Turkey was only in Turkish territory for a matter of seconds. It was part of a well-planned, complicated Turkish ambush and the Turkish fighter that shot down that Russian plane had to fly outside Turkish territory for longer that that Russian plane was inside of Turkish territory to do so. Russia launched sanctions against Turkey over this until the Turkish economy started to scream so Erdogan had to back right down. It was yet another example of an Erdogan own-goal for no reason at all.
(This was supposed to be a reply to Nat re Richard Nedhurst’s theory but it jumped to here, sorry!)
I think it describes an acceptable outcome and is therefore supporting US choices. Head we take Iran, tails we deny everybody else Iran etc.
The problem is that it is tantamount to denying China raw materials and look where that got the USA and Allies in WW2 against a non-nuclear Japan that did not have Russia lending support….
Trump said the US forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship Sunday that tried to get around its naval blockade
Recently some vessels attempting to transit the Strait were fired on by Iranians.
Given DJT’s propensity to appropriate for himself “strong” postures adopted by the Iranians, I would not believe stories of this kind until they are founded on something firmer than a DJT social media post. Maybe it happened, but the “% based on reality” of DJT posts regarding Iran has not lately been high.
I’ve been scrounging for another source besides his tweet but have come up empty (still rummaging around the intertubes).
The current status on MarineTraffic has its navigational status as “Not Under Command” (which I understand to mean not able to maneuver) and has it listed as sailing under Iran’s flag so it looks like the tweet may have some substance to it. Interestingly, it was on an inbound route.
This was posted by the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan about four minutes before Trump’s TS post; I’d suggest it’s possible it was triggered by the same news:
Reza Amiri Moghadam
@IranAmbPak
You cannot keep violating the international law, double down on your blockade, threaten Iran with further war crimes, insist on unreasonable demands, pace out with rethorics and pretend to be pursuing “Diplomacy”.
The Iranians are now confirming it with additional (conflicting) details on their response:
Iranian sources report confrontation with US forces in Sea of Oman
CENTCOM has also chimed in. Annoyingly, AP did not include a link to the video they reference…
Video released of the US firing on Iranian vessel Touska
DD Geopolitics has the video
https://nitter.poast.org/DD_Geopolitics/status/2045980709328703558#
Thank you. A DJT social media post turned out to be grounded in reality, which I suppose is reassuring.
I wonder what the point of disabling propulsion was. If USN is in position to board and seize the vessel, it would seem to be less problematic to seize it in condition to drive it to a friendly port, than to disable it and then seize it.
I wonder whether DJT may have wanted “fire on, then board”, for dramatic effect.
US Navy destroyers have a deck gun and are capable of shotting various shells. Usually a shot is fired across the bow if radio not answered.
Hitting the engine room is pretty accurate, maybe the fire control computer is that good.
“The Iranians backed up their talk by firing on two ships trying to cross the Strait:”
thanks for that info.
it is good to see such balanced reporting.
the global problem of getting resources shipped thru the strait has been and continues to be caused by Iranian warcrimes on civilian ships and other civilian targets.
Seems you already forgot who started this war, and why.
The siege of Iran by the US and the zionist colony is the war crime.
Israeli soldier filmed smashing Jesus statue in southern Lebanon: Report
Israeli Forces Respond After Soldier Photographed Smashing Jesus Statue in Southern Lebanon
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/182389#
I’m surprised that the IDF did not say that that story was antisemitic. People forget that the Israelis despise Christians just as much as they do Muslims. They want the Christians out as well.
https://t.me/s/Sohaibpress
The latest reports on the feed do not look promising. US and Israeli planes in the air, possibly en-route to Iran.
Israel attacks three nations for alleged backing of Iran
https://www.parisguardian.com/news/278998139/israel-attacks-three-nations-for-alleged-backing-of-iran
U.S. struck, seized Iranian-flagged ship Touska in Gulf of Oman, Trump says
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/19/trump-navy-iran-ship-gulf-of-oman.html
US launches fifth strike on alleged Pacific drug boat in a week, killing three
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/16/us-launches-fifth-strike-on-alleged-pacific-drug-boat-in-a-week-killing-three
Turkey says Muslim countries concerned by Israel-Greece-Cyprus alliance
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-says-muslim-countries-concerned-israel-greece-cyprus-alliance
Trump says US captured Iranian-flagged ship after it tried to break blockade
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense/4535022/trump-us-iran-cargo-ship-captured-blockade/
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President of Argentina Javier Milei
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-893528
That Paris Gurdian headline nearly gave me a heart attack. I was wondering what poor third countries were being drawn in when it’s really a show of disaproving of Europe.
The “attack” was verbal. But when a headline states “Israel attacks”, one clicks expecting the worst.
Tasnim news is reporting that Iran had replenished its missile and drone stockpiles at rates faster than before the war which I assess as true due to expected help from China and Russia who were certainly holding back to see if Iran folded in 3 days per Venezuela and that the refurbishments includes upgrading missile launchers for newer more powerful missiles.
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/04/07/3559593/irgc-to-unleash-new-wave-of-missile-strikes-commander-warns
People with full blown Dementia do not get better, they get worse.
If you think Trump is in bad shape now, wait until the rage takes over completely and he turns his attention to “The Homeland”.
It’s going to get right lively.
Iran Says It Won’t Negotiate With ‘Erratic’ Trump After Genocidal Threat to ‘Blow Up’ Whole Country
https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-no-talks-trump-threats
The Pentagon wants GM, Ford to build weapons and bombs
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/pentagon-wants-gm-ford-build-110500812.html
Hegseth Says Climate Change Is ‘Crap.’ The Military Is Still Bracing for It
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-17/us-military-prepares-bases-for-climate-change-despite-pentagon-policy
US Seizes First Iran-Flagged Ship in Blockade, Imperiling Talks
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-19/hormuz-at-standstill-denting-us-iran-peace-deal-hopes
Trump energy secretary says gas prices might not drop back under $3 a gallon until 2027
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/19/trump-energy-secretary-chris-wright-gas-prices
Conservatives Want the Government To Pay Americans To Get Married and Have Kids: A Heritage Foundation report proposes tax credits and family accounts to incentivize family formation.
https://reason.com/2026/04/19/conservatives-want-you-to-have-more-kids/
DOJ civil rights chief sends demand letter to Wayne County for 2024 ballots
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/doj-civil-rights-chief-sends-demand-letter-to-wayne-county-for-2024-ballots/
Miriam Adelson’s $40 Million Boosts GOP’s Midterms War Chest
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-15/republican-midterms-war-chest-gets-40-million-boost-from-adelson
Oil prices jump after Strait of Hormuz setbacks
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/19/oil-prices-us-iran-war-strait-hormuz-ship-seized
US Draft Update: Major Tech Company Urges Universal National Service
https://www.newsweek.com/us-draft-update-major-tech-company-urges-universal-national-service-11850885
Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-public-bravado-private-fear-59814dca
The mayor of Haikou, China, who reportedly accumulated about $4.5 billion during his career and was found with 13.5 tons of gold and 23 tons of cash in his apartments, has been sentenced to death.
https://startupfortune.com/a-chinese-mayor-sentenced-to-death-had-135-tons-of-gold-and-23-tons-of-cash-hidden-across-his-apartments/
Only 3,427 to go.
Farm Bureau Survey Reveals Real Impact of Fertilizer Availability and Price
Economic assistance won’t magically produce more fuel or fertiliser, though it might help US farms get access and stay afloat while others go under.
I find it difficult to believe that Trump’s staff don’t tell him the truth because they’re afraid he’ll get angry. Are they children? It’s not like he could beat them up, at his age, and I’ve heard no indication that the Secret Service are willing to do it at his request.
I think it’s more likely that he goes into shoot-the-messenger mode and fires them, and so by a process of elimination, all he has left around him are people who’ve learned to manage him by feeding him a strictly controlled information diet, pandering to his narcissism, and generally seeking to manipulate him to their advantage. While this certainly has the effect of selecting for people who are able to manage Trump, it probably filters out much in the way of competence or honesty. So we have spectacles like Hegseth getting the war with Iran that he always wanted and proving wholly unequal to the task of prosecuting it.
I find it completely believable.
Beat them up? Not very imaginative. But Trump could end their political or government careers. He could make it so that no conservative think tank or network will ever touch them. He could make it impossible to grift the right.
Trump also surrounded himself with true believers to avoid the issues of his first term of having people push back on him.
Maybe not every single person, but the large majority, yes.
Reading about Trump’s anger issue I ask if you believe the US only suffered 13 fatalities? Or are they hiding the real number? I remember reading Trump being anti-war because he hates signing deceased letters from the military. Are the numbers higher and are they scared to tell Trump the truth?