Monday, April 13, 2026

Pirro Really Wants Bondi’s Old Job

And she remembers the “Central Park Seven.”* The Statue of Liberty with a shield over her face? And wings? I dunno; nothing in that picture makes any damned sense. So...no hurry, then?  Now, I would argue this isn’t a sign Trump is detached from reality. Being a sole proprietor is his reality. He’s never known anything else, except Daddy bailing him out.  He’s always existed as if he’s the only one who matters (and I know a lot of people like that, and they aren’t malignant narcissists), and he’s been able to make that work for him. He’s never had so much as a partner (a real one, a legal partnership where the other party is co-owner and operator). So he’s never understood government, and never will. 

Having won re-election with a GOP majority in both houses, Congress just gave him the reins. Remember when he said all Congress had to do was pass the OBBB, and they wouldn’t have to do anything else? He meant it. He wasn’t being autocratic. He has no concept of government, not even the governance of a corporation (which is NOT like government, no matter what the right wing autocrats say). He just thinks he’s the sole proprietor, so give him all he wants (the OBBB, with a massive budget for ICE so Miller can make all the brown people go away), and leave Trump to do as he pleases.

Yes, that is detached from reality, but it doesn’t have to be explained by dementia (Occam strops his blade in the background). It can be explained by stupidity and ignorance, qualities Trump has had in abundance for all his life. And an overwhelming ego that made him think he could be POTUS. “Man got to know his limitations.” Most of us do, or figure them out by the time we’re 70. Trump didn’t, and thinks he doesn’t have any. That’s not necessarily dementia; but it certainly is a specific kind of ignorance.

Is he suffering from dementia? Probably. That would explain some things. But dementia is tricky, usually seen in hindsight (I see now how my father’s faculties were failing to the brain tumor diagnosed a few weeks before his death. I think I see it going back for years before that, but how do I know?) In matters of failing mental faculties, one size does not fit all (my sister in law died of an organic brain disease. Her “dementia” was radically unlike my father’s, and different again from the church member I knew in Illinois, who died from Alzheimer’s. She knew who I was until the very end. He quickly forgot who his wife was.). Is Trump unable to cope with the responsibilities of the Presidency? Undoubtedly. That’s clear enough, and enough for me to work with.

I was never satisfied with the rump psychological diagnosis of Queeg. He clearly was unfit for his position. But was he mad? Or just broken? Either way, he had no business being a captain. In that sense, Trump is not unlike Nixon; or Queeg. Trump is only going to get worse; but that’s because he’s never going to come to terms with the responsibilities he’s agreed to take on. I suspect most of us couldn’t, either.

And that’s the problem. We recognize that; Trump doesn’t. And never will.



*Ask yer Grandpa! And git offa mah lawn!
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“You Don’t Get To Fuck With The World Economy!”

"Only we can do that!”

“Two can play at that game”? Does he think we’re on the playground? Or in a B movie?
Intruding into a foreign country's election is a good thing? I’m pretty sure when that happens in America, it doesn’t win friends. Also pretty sure there’s a good reason no POTUS or VPOTUS has ever done that before. Or ever will again. But I can think of a lot of Democrats who want you to campaign for their opponents this year. You’re right. Promoting peace and urging people to consider the value of life over death; what was the Pope thinking? Everybody knows, if you don’t agree with Trump, you have to shut up and let him work. Or do whatever he wants to do.  That’s in the Constitution, somewhere.
BAIER: I wonder as a catholic how you consider this picture which a lot of people took as the president posting a picture of himself as Jesus?

VANCE: I think the president was posting a joke and, of course, he took it down because he recognized that a lot of people weren't understanding his humor in that case.
And the punchline was? I’ll hang up and listen…. Oh, one other question: 🙋‍♂️ Why didn’t Trump say he was joking?🙃  He’s explained himself several times; never mentioned he was just kidding.  Unless the President rants about it in writing, and thereafter every time there’s a camera in range. The Pope has already walked away from this; why can’t Trump? (Honestly, does Vance NOT know when to shut up?)
Baier: Is there a next step? Are there more talks coming? Are you leading them?

Vance: That question would be best put to the Iranians. The ball is in their court… This is ultimately why we left Pakistan—because what we figured out is the team there was unable to cut a deal. And they had to go back to Tehran, either from the supreme leader or somebody else to get approval.
And that’s why Trump is blockading the Strait and planning for more bombings? Because the negotiators need to get new instructions? (Does Vance realize he’s not helping? Or is this as good as this Administration gets? Never mind. That was definitely a rhetorical question.)
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Then Read The Rest Of The Amendment 🤦‍♂️

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide,
Congress has not, by law, provided for “other such body.” Nor are they likely to this year.

Do you really want to throw this into the Supreme Court? It’s bad enough already.  Section 4 continues:
transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
So, Congress hasn’t provided for “such other body,” and the declaration goes to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate from the VP and the Cabinet. (By the way: as it reads, the VP is ALWAYS required. Read “such other body” as excluding the VP, and you wind up before the Supremes. Rely on “such other body” and you wind before the Supremes, on the question of whether the “other body” was properly constituted. You might even get into who “principal executives” are, if any (like Blanche) are merely “acting.” How do you count the “majority” then? Some of the Justices would love to chew on that one.) And the body of people you’re relying on now? All Republicans. And then Trump challenges, and if the VP and the majority of Secretaries stand their ground, the whole mess goes to Congress. And within 21 days, by 2/3rds vote in both houses, Congress has to back the VP & Co., or the POTUS reclaims his office.

And if Trump loses, he goes to court, keeping the issue of the legitimacy of the POTUS alive and then in the hands of the Sinister Six. Who said this was a good idea, again?

What a shitshow that would be. And you expect this to happen before November?

The House can instigate an impeachment investigation on its own authority, and send articles of impeachment to the Senate, which must then hold a trial. I can imagine Trump making all kinds of legal challenges to being removed under the 25th. (I don’t say he’d win, but it would be ugly. And with this Supreme Court? Probably uglier.) But the legal precedent for impeachment (it’s not just presidents who can be impeached and removed. It’s been done for lesser offices.) is that it is not reviewable. If the Senate removes Trump after a trial, he’s through.

The 25th amendment is not impeachment. Leave that one for episodes of “The West Wing.” It only really works smoothly in fiction.


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“And Had To Do With The Red Cross”

Trump said the fake news did that! And that it was not a “depiction”! (Does he know what words mean? I’m really beginning to wonder….) (Does he even know what the Red Card logo looks like? Because there’s not even the hint of one in that picture.)
Asked earlier at the White House about one of his posts last night on TruthSocial, which included a picture of himself depicted as Jesus Christ, President Trump responded: “I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross, as a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one. It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”
The longer the explanation, the worse it gets. I still can’t believe MTG knows when Orthodox Easter is.
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“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers….”

This is better?
The Colony Ridge hearing happened today. U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett held up the original lawsuit in one hand and the settlement in the other and asked the federal prosecutor out loud: "Who in the settlement room said it would be a good idea to give $20 million to law enforcement? Where did that come from?"

The answer: it came from Ken Paxton's office. The Texas AG, whose own lawsuit mentioned nothing about public safety or immigration, proposed the provision. The federal government adopted it.

Bennett asked DOJ and Colony Ridge if they would consider revisions to get his approval. Colony Ridge said it would consider it. DOJ said it wasn't interested.

So DOJ invoked a federal law provision that lets it proceed without court approval - which means the court will not supervise Colony Ridge's compliance. No judicial oversight. No enforcement mechanism. And because the case is now resolved, DOJ cannot bring the same claims against Colony Ridge again.

Johnathan Smith, who helped build the original lawsuit as Biden's deputy assistant AG for civil rights, called it a "get out of jail free card." He said the DOJ is "turning its back on the victims" and they are "left with no recourse."

Keilah Sanchez collected complaints from Colony Ridge residents for three years. Her response to today's outcome: "It's unbelievable, but at this point, I don't expect much from these agencies."

Neither do the people who were defrauded.
That’s the short version.
During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett questioned why the settlement had no compensation for those who were harmed and grilled a federal prosecutor over $20 million devoted to police and immigration enforcement. He said he was uncomfortable with the provision because the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Colony Ridge, which has massive subdivisions north of Houston, mentioned nothing about public safety or immigration.

“I thought I was dealing with … folks who had been defrauded, with allegations of above-market interest rates, improper foreclosures,” Bennett said, holding up the original lawsuit in his right hand and the settlement in his left. “Now, all of the sudden, I’m being asked to OK increased law enforcement?”

“Who in the settlement room said it would be a good idea to give $20 million to law enforcement?” Bennett asked early in the hearing. “Where did that come from?”

The original idea came from the state, said Justice Department senior prosecutor Varda Hussain, referring to the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton’s office filed a similar lawsuit that would also be resolved through the settlement. He did not respond to a request for comment. Hussain, a principal deputy chief at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters, said that the federal government stood by the provision even though neither its lawsuit nor the state’s raised concerns about crime.

Colony Ridge residents told federal investigators that they were worried about crime in the development after the lawsuit was filed, Hussain said.

“I understand what it might look like to you, but I am telling you that this is a concern that friends of the court and residents will tell you exists,” Hussain said.

The settlement ends a three-year legal dispute in which the Justice Department and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accused Colony Ridge of deceiving tens of thousands of Hispanic consumers into taking out high-interest loans that many could not afford. The developer then benefited when it foreclosed on their properties, prosecutors said.

Former attorneys and investigators with the Justice Department and CPFB, including those involved in filing the original lawsuit in 2023, told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune they were stunned that the Trump administration had reached a settlement that did not seek to compensate victims.

Of the 183 housing and civil enforcement settlements the Justice Department has announced since 2018, only 6% lacked money for victims, and none included funding for police or immigration enforcement, an analysis by the news organizations found.

Including such a provision in a predatory lending case has never been done before, said Bennett, who sought to find a compromise.

An hour into the hearing, Bennett asked the Justice Department and the attorneys for Colony Ridge, which has denied any wrongdoing, whether they would consider his suggestions to revise the settlement to obtain his approval.

Colony Ridge attorney Jason Ray said his client would consider it. Hussain said the Justice Department wasn’t interested.

Instead, the Justice Department said it would pursue the settlement without seeking judicial approval under a provision of federal law that allows it to do so. That means the court will not supervise Colony Ridge to ensure the developer follows the terms of the settlement, said Johnathan Smith, former deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Biden administration.

Smith, who helped assemble the Colony Ridge lawsuit three years ago, said now the case simply goes away because there is no one to enforce it. He added that the Justice Department cannot sue Colony Ridge based on the same claims in the future.

“By having settlements that are public and that are court-enforced, it sends a clear message to other potential bad actors that there could be real consequences for their actions,” Smith said in an email.

He said the Justice Department’s decision amounts to a “get out of jail free card.”

The “DOJ is turning its back on the victims, and those victims are left with no recourse and no assurance that any actions will be taken to remedy the harms that were identified in DOJ’s original complaint,” Smith said.
This is what Trump is praising Blanche for overseeing. I know tout le Democrats want to tut-tut over Eric Swallwell. I’d much prefer they left that to the House Ethics Committee, and pay attention to things like this.
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“It wasn't a depiction. I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor.”

Yeah, probably it has. 🤔
Cardinal Cupich: "We're dehumanizing the victims of war by turning the suffering of people and the killing of children I and our own soldiers into entertainment. To splice together movie cuts with actual bombings and targeting of people for the purposes of entertainment is sickening. This is not who we are. We are better than this."
Actually the message of the Hebrew Scriptures, too. There is a through-line from Genesis to Revelation. But  I digress.

And then Trump got in front of a camera, and the day just fell apart.
  What does he think doctors do? Leo needs to trade the Popehat and Popemobile for Batman cowl and a Batmobile. Preferably one that shoots missiles. Unless it’s us. Words  just fall out of his mouth with absolutely no connection to each other, with no sense of context or coherence at all. If this were a family member, you’d just make sure they were pointed at the TeeVee, and check the schedule on their meds.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER

Trump is having a mental health episode right now. He’s been posting on social media all night. He posted at:

9:49pm (Ai Jesus photo)
9:50pm (Trump tower on moon)
10:10pm (dumb meme)
10:32pm (news clip)
10:53pm (news clip)
12:43am (announcing Hormuz blockade)
2:35am (article about Biden)
2:36am (article on naval blockade)
2:37am (article on Rep. Swalwell)
2:37am (posted the same article about Biden again)
2:38am (article on his ballroom)
4:10am (article on Iran)

He’s not sleeping, he’s pretending to be Jesus, and he’s posting all night. He’s not well.
On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus. This comes after last week’s post of his evil tirade on Easter and then threatening to kill an entire civilization.

I completely denounce this and I’m praying against it!!!
In the past week, Donald Trump has threatened nuclear war against Iran, called for the genocide of 93 million Iranians, publicly attacked the Pope, and compared himself to Jesus Christ.

Recall July of 2024 when every pundit and reporter in American media were urging President Biden to step down due to concerns over his cognitive health.

Where are those voices now? Where are the demands for Trump to be removed? Where is the flood of op-eds and cable news panels and social media posts calling for the 25th Amendment to be triggered?

Why are you all so silent on this?
Where is George Clooney when we need him?
In response to a personal attack by President Donald Trump the night before, Pope Leo told journalists on the papal plane to Algeria:

“I have no fear of the Trump administration or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do, what the Church is here to do. We are not politicians. We don’t deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the Gospel, as a peacemaker.”
The Pope is TOTALLY WEAK on Immigration. He lets people just walk into the Vatican, right into Saint Peter's Square, and his Guards, who for some reason are Swiss (and come from a Country that has only Snow and not ICE), just stand there and do NOTHING, even though the Vatican has a Wall. If I was Pope, I would close the Vatican for renovation, and build a much LARGER and more beautiful Wall, like the one I built for America. People would come to My Most Holy Wall in Rome and say "Sir, Holy Father Donald, Vicar of Mar-a-Lago, you have a magnificent Wall, like no one has ever seen," but they wouldn't be allowed in without paying a Toll. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER
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Having A Normal One

The U.S. was so anxious to defray the economic impact of the war that it actually unsanctioned not just Russian but Iranian oil to help stabilize global markets. Now its apparently going to impose a blockade on that same oil which will accelerate the crisis and may even trigger an even more devastating Red Sea blockade. This won't even affect Iran in the short-term since they still have large numbers of tankers already offshore that can sell oil for the next 40 days but it is going to extend the blockade on all the other Persian Gulf states while annihilating every other country on earth that relied on maritime energy shipping from the region. The whole U.S.-led international order based on protecting maritime transit is going to be a smoking crater at the end of the massively unforced error that was this war, and for what purpose exactly?
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France and the UK will hold a conference of nations willing to participate in a multinational coalition “aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the [Strait of Hormuz].” President Macron called it a “strictly defensive mission, separate from warring parties.”
I’m a little surprised that isn’t more widely understood. Nope. No bottom at all. I dunno about the general public (who does? They’re the ones who elected Trump, twice.), but that post didn’t go down a treat:
I don’t know if the President thought he was being funny or if he is under the influence of some substance or what possible explanation he could have for this OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy. But he needs to take this down immediately and ask for forgiveness from the American people and then from God.
The post was deleted from Truth Social, but: the horse was out, and the barn had burned down. Little too late to be think about closing the door.
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Sunday, April 12, 2026

Blasphemy And The Political

One of my seminary professors liked to put pictures on the wall outside his office. Most were in the vein of one I remember best, because it was so familiar. It showed a very white Jesus (you know the one, as surely as you know what “Batman” looks like) playing baseball with very white (of course) young children.

I’m inured to this crap, IOW. Maybe I shouldn’t be. I have a high regard for sacred imagery, and a low regard for humbug. I grew up on pictures of “white Jesus.” I find them silly, now.  But public figures as Jesus? Outside of actor portrayals, I can appreciate the offense of anyone presenting themselves as equivalent to the Christ.

Trump should apologize for a lot of things. 
I have to admit the picture is offensive to the concept of the divine; it also offends and abuses the concept of religion. It is as unchristian a picture as can be imagined. Crudely manipulative, to say the least. And there’s the offense of Trump making himself the Christ. Especially in this picture.

What political benefit does Trump think this gives him? Does he believe it? Or does he just think it’s useful to him? And do those questions matter? This is the POTUS we’re talking about. Isn’t that what matters?
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The Vicar of Christ v. The Fool of the World

Because "#Peace"?
Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee. Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. #Peace
Funny, Trump doesn't mention this: He does mention this: Leo owes Trump! Whose motto now is “Le monde, c’est moi!” Or maybe he’s stolen James Bond’s family motto: “The World Is Not Enough.”

Or maybe he’s just completely deranged, and thinks people give a wet snap what Trump thinks of the Vicar of Christ. Or that Vatican City worries about its relationship with America. Over…tariffs, maybe? I mean, look what he did to the penguins! 🐧 

Interesting that Leo never mentions Trump; or America; or Iran. He speaks as a Christian pastor/priest should speak, and Trump can’t stand it.  🤔

(By odd coincidence, I’m watching the newest version of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” The Count and two guests are watching a public execution, when a rider stops the proceedings to deliver a pardon from the Pope. (They had more power in those days.) The Count has paid the Pope for the pardon; all part of his plot for revenge. An admixture of fiction, history, and the contemporary, but with very different players. Life is full of such ironies.)
Because…of course he did. (I used to wonder if Trump believed this shit, or if he’s just using it to shill the rubes. In a court of law, the distinction might matter (change the facts, change the outcome). But whether he’s demented or just that manipulative hardly matters anymore. Either cause is aimed at achieving the same end.)
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So…

Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, says in a post earlier on X that this weekend’s peace talks in Islamabad were “not an event but a process,” providing a much more optimistic view of the recent talks than U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other Iranian officials, stating that the talks “laid the foundation” of a future peace agreement with the United States.
Let’s blow that up!
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation, U.S. President Donald J. Trump is considering resuming limited strikes inside Iran as a method to break the current impasse in the peace talks process with Iran. Per the report, a less likely scenario, that is also on the table, is resuming high tempo strikes on Iran as well. Should such measures be employed, they would be in addition to the blockade of maritime traffic from Iranian ports announced earlier by U.S. Central Command.
Nothing says “we’re serious about peace!” like dropping more bombs (which we are running out of). And Trump has (again) promised “obliteration” (or just threatened it), but now he wants “limited strikes.”

(Notably, he still doesn’t want boots on the ground. He also doesn’t want to bomb Iran into the Stone Age. He really is a paper tiger. Could it be more obvious?)
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The World’s Supply Of Copium…

... comes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Draw your own conclusions.
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Meanwhile, In The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave….

... where we’ve had elections for over 200 years, where national elections are run by the several states, where Trump’s last attempt to overturn his election loss was a dismal failure, where Trump has NOT been in office for 16 years, has NOT systematically consolidated power (on the contrary, he’s been chaotically destroying his power even when the Supremes and the GOP Congress have been shoveling as much to him as they can), has NOT fixed the electoral map (he failed at that, too), HAS abused power and tried to censor media (and how has that worked out for him? The country hates ICE and his war, and white, non-college educated voters (i.e., his real base) are running away from him because of both issues.), and has lost so many special elections (his endorsements have made him our man on their side) it’s almost as big a record as the number of grand jury rejections and losses in court history DOJ has delivered….

… we’re done for in November, because Trump is going to send ICE to the hundreds of thousands of polling places nationwide, or ban mail ballots (except his?) with an EO, or just send Markwayne Mullin out to get in front of cameras and tell us more about how he beats his young daughters because he can.

Anyway, Hungary kicked Orbán out so decisively Orban conceded, but America is doomed because all the Cassandra wannabe election experts on the Intertoobs say so.

Our only hope is to pay attention to what those people wring their virtual hands about and to worry with the same intensity they do, because Hungary cannot happen here. 

For some reason. I dunno.🤷‍♂️ 
💯 
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Don Tzu

According to Fox News, citing two U.S. officials, Vice President JD Vance’s final offer delivered to the Iranian delegation in Islamabad last night, prior to the breakdown of peace talks between the two countries mediated by Pakistan, consisted of the following demands:

1. End all uranium enrichment
2. Dismantle all major nuclear enrichment facilities
3. Retrieve highly enriched uranium
4. Accept a broader peace, security and de-escalation framework that includes regional allies
5. End funding for terrorist proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis
6. Fully open the Strait of Hormuz, charging no tolls for passage
And they couldn’t get all of that immediately, so they walked? Does anybody in this Administration know what “negotiations” means? Or “obliterate”? Or “decimate”? Because I’m beginning to think they don’t.

They certainly don’t know what “government” means.

Hard to understand why. Um...👆 Trump to his mirror: 🪞 “FAKE NEWS!” That was then. This is now. "RIGGED!" FAKE!  AI!! (Imagining Trump trying to cope)
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Dumbest Sonofabitch On The Planet

Trump on the phone with Maria Bartiromo: "We don't get our oil from there. We have so much oil. We have boats pouring up to the United States. They'll be filling 'em up, and they'll be leaving and they'll be packed with the best oil you can get. Light, sweet, crude. We don't need the strait."
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE THIS IDIOT’S TOYS AWAY? HAS THE WORLD SAID “THANK YOU”?
Trump: "We're putting on a complete blockade. We're not gonna let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don't like. It's gonna be all or none, and that's the way it is. You saw what we did with Venezuela. It'll be something similar to that, but at a higher level."
His frame of reference is still Venezuela. He has no clue what’s going on. And yet they sent your team home AFTER ONE DAY!  THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS! THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS! Funny, it didn’t keep them at the table. THEY TOOK OUT A HELICOPTER AND TWO JETS!  AND FORCED US TO ABANDON A FORWARD AIRBASE AND DESTROY TWO MORE PLANES AND ANOTHER HELICOPTER! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING YOUR INFORMATION?  NEWSMAX? "IT IS MOST UNLIKELY.” Maybe you should shake that Magic 8-ball a little harder.
Trump: "I could take out Iran in one day. In one hour, I could have their entire energy, everything, every one of their electric generating plants, which is a big deal. I hate to do it because if I do it, it takes you 10 years to rebuild. They'll never be able to. And the other thing you take out are their bridges. I took out one just to show them."
Last week you said it would take 4 hours. Now it’s down to 1 hour. And yet you said: So we’re going to bounce the rubble? “Who da fuck knows? Who da fuck cares? Know wut I’m sayin’?”
Trump: "I hear news reports about China giving the shoulder missiles. I doubt they would do that because I have a relationship and I think they wouldn't do that, but maybe they did a little bit at the beginning, but I don't think they would anymore. But if we catch them doing that they get a 50% tariff."
Those “news reports” are based on information from U.S. intelligence agencies! Where the fuck does he get his information? Twitter?!?

And if China is selling missiles to Iran, the way to fix it is to punish U.S. consumers? A bag of rocks is smarter.
The slightly silver lining.

A chimpanzee could fool Trump. In order to save Lebanon, Israel had to destroy it. Petulance is not really a winning foreign or economic policy. But it is a great way to burn the world down. Europe learned that in the 20th century. Israel shouldn’t even be allowed at the adults’ table right now. Did I wake up in an alternate reality? Pretty sure it started when Trump backed out of the JCPOA, and Congress clapped like trained seals. Now Iran is “obliterated,” but we have to destroy them in an hour because they closed the Strait that we’ve now closed because NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER! Except…Baby?

And we’re going to hit ourselves in the face if China is selling missiles to Iran. But it’s okay if Russia is giving Iran targeting information.

Everything stopped making sense in November, 2024.
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Smell The Coffee ☕️

Do they look like serious statesmen?
Yep. By abandoning the JCPOA and then once again by starting this war, Trump has completely negated and inverted the incentives the Iranian regime once had to negotiate with us.

They once understood that refraining from producing HEU and interfering with navigation of the Strait would avert the cost of being subjected a large-scale air attack. But now that we've conducted that attack, and they've withstood it, they have virtually no incentive to refrain from doing the things we want them to refrain from doing.

Which is why we negotiated the JCPOA in the first place, and why no prior American administration (from Reagan to Trump I) ever decided to start the war that Trump started last month.
From my standpoint, I’ve stopped expecting the adults to take over. 
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote.

“At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.”
"You can’t blockade the Strait! Only I can blockade the strait!” This is how we win friends and influence people? This is how we resume negotiations? We will never be extorted, so… we’ll extort ourselves?

Oh, and, we’re going to interdict shipping: That’ll bring Iran back to the table!

I’ll retire to Bedlam….
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Reversing LBJ

"...make America into a third world country.” We’ve certainly already become third-rate.
"Iran has exposed the fragility of the system that makes U.S. airpower possible: aging tankers parked out in the open, a handful of irreplaceable Airborne Warning and Control Systems, and radar networks at fixed positions visible to commercial satellites. These are structural vulnerabilities, and this is not an isolated episode."
History is starting to rhyme. And repeat itself.

But I repeat myself.
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Now They’re Just Fucking With Us

We can’t even win the propaganda wars. We left town. The nearest historical analog I can come up with are the Paris Peace Talks.  And those lasted five years, even though they ended with the U.S. just walking away after 5 more years of useless war. This fiasco is the cherry on the shitcake of this entire effort. Trump said recently that NATO is a paper tiger. The paper tiger is us. The “superpowers” are not super. Ukraine is turning the tide on Russia. Iran stood us down, and now we’ve pissed ourselves and gone home rather than just change our pants. And what’s our alternative? More useless bombing? More Tomahawks fired, at the cost of $1 million apiece? More depletion of our stockpile that made us Master of the Universe? A naval blockade of the naval blockade?

Trump is not the cause of our national failures, Trump is the culmination. He is not destroying our democracy single-handedly; this is what we’ve been working on since LBJ defeated Goldwater. 

and what i
want to know is
how do you like your blue-eyed boy
Mister Death
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Trump’s Genius Plan To End The Blockade…

...of the Strait of Hormuz is to:

Blockade the Strait of Hormuz?
Are the Three Stooges in charge of the country now?
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Saturday, April 11, 2026

“True Strength Is Shown In Serving Life”

Those who pray are aware of their own limitations; they do not kill or threaten with death. Instead, death enslaves those who have turned their backs on the living God, turning themselves and their own power into a mute, blind and deaf idol (Ps 115:4–8), to which they sacrifice every value, demanding that the whole world bend its knee. Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life. #Peace

What? On the first day? The better to deny responsibility. It certainly has nothing to do with serving life. UPDATE: THAT’S IT? That’s fucking it? 16 hours, and go home? Do we have no competent, qualified negotiators in the State Department? People who do this for a living, know what they are doing, and don’t have to stay in America to be sent to funerals as needed?
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