Khamenei, One of Most Evil People in History, is Dead
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 2, 2026 05:42
VIEWED: 15626
PAGE 52 of 73
If Only Trump Knew What Vice President JD Vance Is Doing
If the president is infallible, there must be some other explanation for his Iran defeat.
By Jonathan Chait | June 18, 2026, 1:05 PM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/vance-surrender-iran-trump/6
87597/
Yesterday, Donald Trump admitted that he was being crafty when he elevated J. D. Vance to sell the resolution of the war with Iran. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Trump said of the peace deal. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming J.D.”
Trump was smirking when he said this, but it was not a joke. Judging by the messaging emanating from across the Republican Party, letting the president claim victory while making the vice president own an obvious defeat is the GOP strategy.
The administration’s Plan A is to claim the war was a complete success—10/10, no notes, would wage it again. A handful of hawks have been willing to repeat this line. The primary argument is that the bombardment set back Iran’s conventional and nuclear military capabilities enough to justify the cost to the United States. “The fact is that the missile program is in ruins, just like the nuclear weapons program,” the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt proposed.
This rationalization overlooks a few small points, such as the fact that Iran’s missile program is not in ruins at all. American intelligence reportedly estimated last month that Iran retains 70 percent of its missiles and launchers, and has restored 30 of its 33 missile sites. Trump himself is now arguing that Iran must retain ballistic missiles as a matter of fairness. (“They have to have some,” he said yesterday, “because other people have some.”) Moreover, Trump’s deal would ultimately give Iran enormous new revenue streams by eliminating decades of economic sanctions, along with providing hundreds of billions of dollars in what Iran calls reparations. The money will eventually allow Tehran to build its military capacity beyond current levels.
As for Iran’s nuclear program, if it were in ruins, that would primarily be as a result of bombings that occurred last year; outside experts believe that the most recent war caused less damage to the program. In any case, ruins seems exaggerated. Iran’s nuclear material is buried underground but can be recovered, and its ability to deter attacks by threatening the Strait of Hormuz will permit it to restore the program over time. This is precisely why Iran hawks were insisting for months—even as Vance reportedly expressed skepticism of full-scale war—that the continued military action was necessary.
After having claimed that Iran’s missiles and nuclear efforts are existential risks to American interests, most hawks will have trouble bringing themselves to call the deal that leaves the programs intact as a great victory. Republicans who have too much self-respect to reverse themselves so nakedly have a fallback plan: pretend that the defeat was Vance’s doing.
“Conservatives on the Hill are stunned that Vance would erase all of Trump’s military victories in such a terrible deal. Trump effectively won the war and at the 11th hour Vance is negotiating his way to a loss,” one unnamed congressional Republican told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer. The conservative commentator Ben Shapiro complained, “The vice president of the United States, the chief negotiator on this particular project, has not well served the president.” On Fox News, Brian Kilmeade tentatively suggested, “I just wonder if the vice president, who was against this, by all reports was against the conflict to begin with, maybe he wasn’t the right person to bring this conflict to an end.”
But why would Trump authorize his vice president to make unnecessary concessions? Why, indeed, would a supposedly brilliant negotiator leave such an important negotiation to Vance at all? (Kilmeade explained that Trump “has too many plates in the air that he can’t be into every detail,” as if obsessing over the color of the Reflecting Pool is a more important use of the president’s time than avoiding a g
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
'We've made the world more dangerous': Former top CIA official reveals global havoc caused by Trump
Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon joins Nicolle on Deadline White House to give her assessment on the likely ramifications for global security in the aftermath of Trump's war with Iran.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Donald Trump’s Iran war has delivered a huge boost for renewable energy around the world — except in the U.S.
Trump has so far done more to shift the global economy away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy than any other single individual in history.
Yet here’s the irony: On Wednesday the Interior Department announced that it would pay the energy developer Invenergy $765 million not to develop three offshore wind farms. This is the third such payment by the Trump administration to undo offshore wind projects that have been years in the planning. Trump has so far committed $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to killing renewable energy projects. The administration has also tried to stop offshore wind farms already under development — moves that have been blocked by the courts — while the Pentagon has been refusing to grant routine permits for onshore wind projects.
Yes, $2.5 billion to destroy already-approved, cost-effective clean energy projects while Americans are suffering from soaring electricity prices thanks to high natural gas prices.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/donald-trump-champion-of-renewable
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Price of Defeat in Iran
An indeterminate end to a foolish war leaves Americans more disillusioned than ever with engagement in the Middle East.
By Thomas Wright | June 19, 2026, 7 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/06/iran-defeat-marshall
-plan-price/687600/
Seventy-nine years ago this month, at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced a plan for the reconstruction of Europe. The Marshall Plan, as it quickly became known, committed more than $13 billion for Europe’s postwar recovery—approximately $150 billion in today’s dollars. Donald Trump’s deal with Iran, which he signed yesterday in Versailles, commits the United States and its regional partners to ensuring that Iran receives “at least $300 billion” for its “rehabilitation and economic development.”
This is, in effect, a Marshall Plan for the Iranian regime, albeit not one funded with American taxpayer dollars. But whereas the original was designed to consolidate an American victory, this one is designed to manage the consequences of a defeat that pushes the United States closer to disengaging from the Middle East.
The text of the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran is remarkably vague. Point one commits the United States and Iran to regional peace and stability. Vice President Vance told CNN that this means Iran will stop funding proxy forces and destabilizing the region; Tehran might well interpret that differently. The text does reiterate Iran’s commitment not to build a nuclear weapon, and it says that Iran agrees to “downblend” its highly enriched uranium on-site (which basically means diluting it). But the memorandum includes no other details regarding limits on enrichment. It says that Iran will not charge a toll for passage through the Strait of Hormuz for the next 60 days, but after that, nothing is specified.
When asked about the $300 billion, Vance claimed that the Gulf countries would supply it all. But the deal makes no such provision. It tasks the United States and its regional partners to develop the plan. Perhaps this is why a senior administration official told CNN that “people should not read too much into the language.” The official went on to describe the memorandum as a political document, saying, of the Iranians, “We came up with language that allows them to say what they need for their domestic politics.” But Iran will almost certainly demand that the United States stick to the letter of the agreement.
What we do know is that the relief for Iran is to come in stages. An immediate waiver of sanctions will allow it to export oil. This is a return to the arrangement under the Obama-era nuclear deal and is estimated to be worth up to $60 billion a year. Once the memorandum is implemented but before a final deal, Iran’s frozen assets will be released for it to spend as it seems fit. This reportedly consists of $24 billion held in banks in Qatar, Oman, and Iraq, although Tehran believes that its total inaccessible assets worldwide may exceed $100 billion. Only if a final agreement follows on this provisional one will Iran be provided with $300 billion and the lifting of all sanctions, including those linked to terrorism, its ballistic-missile program, and human-rights abuses. But Iran will already have received quite a lot up front.
The prospect of a final deal is remote, given the gap between the two sides. History is replete with wars that end in interim agreements, deferring difficult issues to future negotiations, only for the interim arrangement to become permanent. That is very likely to happen here.
When it does, Trump will face a choice. He can applaud the downblending of uranium and accept the new status quo. Or he can end the waivers and reimpose sanctions on oil. If he chooses the second course, Iran will, at a minimum, begin to charge a toll for transit through the strait, using the leverage it gained in the war. Things could spiral from there, but Trump has been clear that he wants out of the war and fears the economic consequences o
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
How Iran won the war
Iran’s next generation is taking over.
By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Jun 19, 2026, 6:15 AM CDT
There were a few days when this war was about, “Let’s bring freedom to the Iranian people.” Then there were a few days when this war was about the death of the Islamic Republic. And then this was going to prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon, even though in June 2025 we supposedly obliterated their nuclear weapons program.
It was never really clear what this was really about. We had huge decapitation strikes that happened across Iran on the first days of this war that took out essentially the founding generation of the revolution. We thought the Islamic Republic was on its last legs, and all we had to do was push it a little bit more.
Now, in June 2026, three and a half months after this war started, we have a completely new and younger generation in charge in Iran that is bolder, that is not as afraid of the United States. And then have the Strait of Hormuz, which was not under Iranian control before. Now it is, and Iran is basically saying Israel needs to pull back from Lebanon.
These were conditions that Iran could never have made in February 2026. What we have coming out of this war is a stronger and more entrenched political establishment that leans heavily towards the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the Iranian military, that is bolder and that now has sort of shown itself as being a key pillar of West Asia. That’s going to create a fundamentally different Middle East going forward. . . .
What we now see is that the Gulf understands that having American bases is actually a liability because the United States started a war without consulting them. It was not able to protect any of these Gulf countries and their economies.
Iran is the size of Western Europe. I feel like we forget that a lot in the United States, but the reality is, Iran is a massive country geographically. It’s a massive country population-wise, and so the Gulf countries need to figure out a way to live with Iran. That is no longer guaranteed through a big-brother protection of the United States that actually didn’t materialize.
Moving forward, first of all, it seems like the Gulf Arab countries have come to this realization — some quicker than others — but in essence, they are making payments to Iran now. They’re figuring out ways to be able to co-live with them into the future, without Iran being isolated like it was in the past.
That’s a huge difference. The Persian Gulf region is fundamentally transformed. It will no longer be a place where the Americans can do whatever they want. It will now be a place where Iran will reassert its hegemony over that region.
Iran sees itself as having won this war. And because this generation is bolder, it’s actually going to be like, ‘We’re not going to budge. If that means your economy is going to hurt more, fine, you’ve been hurting our economy for 47 years. We’re going to play a game of chicken and see who blinks first.’ That’s this new generation that we’re dealing with.
Much more at https://www.vox.com/podcasts/492390/us-iran-war-peace-deal-how-iran-wo
n
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
If Only Trump Knew What Vice President JD Vance Is Doing
If the president is infallible, there must be some other explanation for his Iran defeat.
There is.
It was a defeat, just like J6 was a riot.
You're all fucking idiot cultists, and you are all irrelevant going forward.
--------------------------------------------------
Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Iran had all the munitions it needed to destroy the gulf states, Israel, and regional USA bases. It also had tremendous geographic leverage over the Straits. So it doesn't make sense for Iran to settle for promises and a temporary cease fire except that China pressured them.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The era of free and open global commerce, underwritten by American power, has ended
June 19, 2026
https://attentiontotheunseen.com/2026/06/19/the-era-of-free-and-open-g
lobal-commerce-underwritten-by-american-power-has-ended/
Edward Fishman writes:
The United States and Iran have a deal: For 60 days, Tehran will allow ships to sail through the Strait of Hormuz without charging tolls; in return, Washington will lift its naval blockade, waive sanctions on Iranian oil and help Iran get access to its frozen assets. Negotiations on the future of Iran’s nuclear program are also set to begin.
Even if the deal holds, Iran is poised to emerge from the war battered militarily and economically but strengthened strategically, the newly empowered gatekeeper of the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Other countries will take note — and seek their own chokepoints to exploit.
Though President Trump has declared that the Strait of Hormuz will be “permanently toll-free,” Iran’s grip on the waterway is unlikely to loosen. Over the past three months, its authorities have reportedly charged some ships up to $2 million for passage. Even if fees were much lower than that — say, several hundred thousand dollars per ship, roughly in line with rates at the Suez and Panama Canals — Iran would still receive a multibillion-dollar annuity, giving Tehran an overwhelming financial incentive to preserve its new status.
Controlling the strait also offers Iran considerable strategic benefits. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan is just one of the many world leaders who have appealed to the Iranian government to secure passage for tankers carrying oil to her country, signaling that Tehran is now in a position to cut side deals with governments all over the world. Over time, the Islamic Republic could use its newfound leverage to obtain further sanctions relief and other diplomatic concessions. And of course, any threat to close the strait — explicit or implicit — will provide Iran with a powerful deterrent against military strikes or economic pressure.
Shipowners and energy traders will bristle at paying fees to Iran, but the costs are unlikely to be prohibitive. For a large oil tanker, $2 million amounts to about $1 per barrel of oil, less than a typical credit card transaction fee. Iran’s threats to shipping in the strait have sent insurance rates soaring, with some premiums estimated to have risen to $7.5 million per voyage. If paying Iran guarantees safe passage, insurance costs could fall, offsetting much of the toll. The Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, who manages a fleet of over 200 vessels and tankers, has said that he would prefer paying a toll to “all this hassle.”
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates may grudgingly reach a similar conclusion. They would be among the biggest losers if their greatest geopolitical rival maintains control over the waterway, but they are also desperate to see the Strait of Hormuz reopened so they can restart their lucrative oil exports at full tilt. These Gulf states could accept an Iranian toll as a necessary, if temporary, evil, as it would buy them time to build new pipelines that circumvent the strait, a project that could take a decade. The deputy prime minister of Qatar has already conceded that a “temporary” fee is “negotiable.”
Though Mr. Trump has been adamant that neither Iran nor its cross-strait neighbor, Oman, can administer the waterway, the past few months have revealed that the United States cannot simply force the strait open. When the U.S. military tried to do so in early May, Iran retaliated aggressively. Within 36 hours, Mr. Trump suspended the mission. That same day, Tehran unveiled the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a government body to oversee traffic through the waterway. Since then, Iran has steadily entrenched its control.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Iran had all the munitions it needed to destroy the gulf states, Israel, and regional USA bases. It also had tremendous geographic leverage over the Straits. So it doesn't make sense for Iran to settle for promises and a temporary cease fire except that China pressured them.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Yeah. Didn't have anything to do with 3 of our 11 aircraft carriers bunking out right in their back yard.
--------------------------------------------------
Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Trump’s Second Gamble on Iran
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yeah. Didn't have anything to do with 3 of our 11 aircraft carriers bunking out right in their back yard.
If the regime can’t be dislodged by force, maybe it can be bribed.
By Karim Sadjadpour | June 20, 2026, 7 AM ET
Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focuses on Iran and U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/trumps-second-gamble-on-iran
/687650/
Donald Trump’s war against Iran began with one gamble and ended with another. Initially, the president bet that he could stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions by bombing Iran’s revolutionary regime out of existence. So he spent tens of billions of dollars, and upended the global economy, only to sign a memorandum of understanding undoubtedly weaker than any deal he could have struck before the war. Embedded in this document is a new gamble: that if Iran’s revolutionaries can’t be dislodged by force, they might instead be bribed to abandon their identity.
The memorandum offers a bundle of American inducements so lopsided that it reads as if Tehran wrote the plan unilaterally. Of its 14 provisions, 13 either amount to diplomatic boilerplate or heavily favor Iran on their face. Tehran will receive military and economic concessions—and de facto acknowledgment of its control over the Strait of Hormuz—in exchange for a concession that it will not develop or buy nuclear weapons. Never mind that Iran has made and ignored such promises before, and the CIA doubts its sincerity now.
The humiliation of the memorandum is doubly egregious for Trump, who withdrew from Barack Obama’s multinational agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programs. Trump called that agreement the “worst deal ever negotiated,” but it was less costly to America, was less generous to Iran, and offered more concrete nonproliferation guarantees. Trump is paying far more for far less.
He has acted like a poker player who believes his own bluffs. Trump vowed to raze Iran’s missile industry to the ground; defang its proxy militias, such as Hezbollah; unseat its regime; choose its next leader; and control the Strait of Hormuz. While none of his maximalist war goals were achieved, Trump celebrated the cease-fire, and lifting of the blockade, as if he had had no role in creating the whole mess in the first place.
The Islamic Republic, one of the world’s most brutal, isolated, and unpopular regimes, has emerged with its economy and military further decimated but its confidence restored. On the eve of the war, it was a bankrupt global pariah that had just massacred thousands of its own people—perhaps tens of thousands—to crush a national uprising. Today it celebrates having defied America and Israel, and basks in Western commentary that it is a rising power.
Virtually every American president since the 1979 Iranian Revolution has wanted to improve relations between Washington and Tehran. Doing so would be in the national interest of both America and Iran, but no administration has achieved this outcome. Iran’s revolutionary theocracy thrives in isolation and has made resistance against the United States and its ally Israel central to the regime’s identity, its internal legitimacy, and the cohesion of its security forces.
Having assassinated the regime’s top leadership, Trump is now trying not only to negotiate a new nuclear deal but to engineer a grand bargain that transforms U.S.-Iran relations. But he is hedging his own bet by putting J. D. Vance in charge of the effort. Vance recently told The New York Times that Tehran’s new elite are rethinking the revolution and coalescing around a new consensus that “47 years of Iran policy towards the United States has been a mistake.” Trump, however, has made no secret of his calculations. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” he s
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME