PALATE CLEANSER

 

The Tartan Army took over Boston, and we love it! (Bostonian speak: "The Tahtin Ahmy.)

Boston City Hall Plaza

Why Are Scottish Soccer Fans Putting Traffic Cones Atop All The Statues In Boston?

The late former Mayor of Boston, Kevin White statue, @Quincy Mahket

General George Washington statue at Boston Public Gahdens

The Charlestown Navy Yard

John Harvard (Hahvid in Boston speak)

And my neighborhood, the Paul Revere statue in The Prado, North End, Boston

Dave Miller posted a comment that...

 

perfectly describes what the Iran War and the negotiations to end it look like:

Dave Miller:

Iran can now start selling oil and looks to get about 8 billion. 

Now, the US did release 1.7 billion under Obama to settle a legal dispute from 1979. That was flown to Iraq in cargo planes and is the frequently cited money that people like skud and Geezers always complain about. 

Iran now looks to receive a windfall because they can sell oil on the open market since the Trump Administration has agreed to end economic sanctions on them. 

The annual projected amount of oil money is about $60 billion. 

Then there are frozen assets, which estimates put in the $24-$100 billion range. 

Then there are the reconstruction funds. That amount is $300 billion. While not directly providing the money, effectively, the US is guaranteeing that amount to Iran, pledging to get our partners in the region to pony up. 

Also, there is only a 60 day moratorium on Iran charging fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. After that, all bets are off. 

 

So let's recap: Six months ago Iran was under sanctions by the US and the UN. It could not sell oil. It did not control the Strait. It did not have access to its frozen assets. It was not part of the world community. It did not have either, at least according to the Trump Admin, a nuclear capability or a nuclear weapon. 

Now within 30 days, it will have billions. It can start rebuilding the military facilities the US bombed, because we've stated numerous times, "We are not bombing civilian sites". Because it has demonstrated it can close the Strait, it now has total control and any challenge to that can be met with ballistic missile attacks on the oil facilities of our allies. 

In a matter of weeks, the billion dollar spigot into Iran will be turned on and for the first time in decades, they will be flush with cash. All courtesy of the Trump Admin. Somehow, the US after "winning" a war, got the short end of the stick in this "negotiation". 

 The Art of the Deal.

******************************

(Or as some are describing it, "The Art of the Kneel." --S.K.)

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy calls it "...the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."

OMG!!!!!!

 

Donald Trump embarrassing himself and our country in front of the world!

What the hell is wrong with his people. This is pathetic.   

ARE WE WINNING YET?

 

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL TODAY:

The preliminary deal ending President Trump’s four-month war with Iran is welcome but brings with it hard truths. Mr. Trump made a terrible mistake starting this war. He prosecuted it recklessly and in open defiance of the law. The United States is emerging weaker — militarily, diplomatically and economically — and will pay strategic costs for years to come.

The details of the deal are unclear, but the announced framework suggests that Mr. Trump has won few of the terms he insisted that he would. It is a humiliating comedown for him and the nation he leads.

Since the war began, he has said the United States would achieve “total and complete victory” and that Iran must agree to “unconditional surrender.” He suggested that regime change would occur. He said that Iran would be permitted “no enrichment” of uranium and that “the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried” near-bomb-grade nuclear material that it already holds.

None of this appears to be true. Iran’s hard-line government remains in place. The specifics of the nuclear agreement will apparently be negotiated over the next two months, but the terms seem likely to resemble those of a 2015 deal that President Barack Obama negotiated and that Mr. Trump canceled in 2018. He described the Obama agreement as the “worst deal ever” and said it put Iran on “a route to a nuclear weapon.” He criticized it for failing to force Iran to stop supporting terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and for loosening economic sanctions. Yet his destructive war seems likely to leave him with a similar deal. 

***********************

I did not check my mail this morning before I posted about Trump's Memorandum of Understanding with Iran. This is from Dave Miller, and it relates to this post, so I'm inserting here: 

"President Trump lost. 

The war he waged against Iran promises to conclude in a humbling whimper with the signing of a cease-fire agreement later this week. 

The United States is left weaker—diminished militarily, strategically, economically, and perhaps morally. 

The war, which the United States fought alongside Israel, accomplished none of the goals that Trump named at the outset. Instead, it only empowered the hard-liners in Tehran and arguably emboldened them to someday seek a nuclear weapon. Despite that, the president was so desperate for the war to end that he repeatedly backed off his threats—allowing Iran to call his bluff—and upbraided his close ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for responding to attacks in the region in a manner that jeopardized the negotiations." 

The above is from Jonathan Lemire in The Atlantic. 

Before you all go crazy on your keyboards, here's the salient question for us today. Is anything Lemire wrote untrue? If your answer is yes, tell us exactly what that is and why. 

To help you consider the above question, here's a list of the earliest goals POTUS Trump enumerated for the Iran War. 

Unconditional Surrender & Regime Change... Unfulfilled. 

Abolishing Nuclear Ambitions... Unfulfilled. 

Obliterating the Missile & Drone Industry... Partially fulfilled. 

Annihilating Naval and Air Power... Mostly achieved. 

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz... This is harder to ascertain. Before the war, the Strait was wide open. Once it was closed, it became an additional goal. Before the war, up to 3,000 ships a day were transiting there. No one knows when we will, if ever, reach that number again. 

 "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" --D. Miller

 Thanks, Dave!

*********************************

Trump trashes everything that came before him so that he can step in, make changes that are not necessary and not wise, and then try to con Americans into thinking he saved the day. It's part and parcel of his insecure, narcissistic, dishonest need to be praised. 

In reality, of course, Trump and his extremist, right-wing allies almost always makes things worse. There was absolutely no need to kill the accord that the U.S. and four other nations negotiated with Iran 10 years ago, which was successfully constraining that country's nuclear ambitious. But Trump killed it because, IMO, he's a racist who has sought to nullify any and all former President Obama's achievements, and because Netanyahu, a documented war criminal, has never wanted an accord with Iran.  

Trump unleashed DOGE to eliminate federal "waste and fraud," but very little of either was uncovered, and his cronies fired thousands of federal workers who had to be rehired when administration clowns realized that their expertise was needed. His tariff program was a chaotic mess. He lied about the Kennedy Center being in bad shape so that he could mess with it and then shamefully angled to steal its identity---which led to nobody wanting to perform there anymore.

Basically, many many things Trump has touched in his life have ended up badly. His casinos went belly-up, his merchandising of wine and other goods failed, and he ran a sham university to teach people his business skills. To top it off he is ruining our government and our standing in the world.  

Like the Hollies song, “He’s King Midas in Reverse,” everything he touches turns to dust. #ETTD!

TRUMP AT THE G7

 

A perfect metaphor for where we stand in the world because of him and his policies:

Two days ago...

 

one of the participants in Trump's self-aggrandizing MMA birthday party on the grounds of the White House uttered a racial slur against former First Lady, Michelle Obama.

The sitting POTUS who gave himself that party to celebrate turning 80 never distanced himself from what his guest uttered, never condemned that slander, never rebuked the racist who said it.

When people complain that "not everything is racist," they are refusing to see the reality in front of their noses.

Trump is a racist, and those who support him, accept and cater to that racism are, IMO, just as indecent as he is.

According to Yahoo! News, this is what the camera caught just after Hokit vomited his smear against former First Lady, Michelle Obama.

See that smirk? This is how the Convicted Felon-in-Chief will be remembered: 

When America needed a leader with moral strength, dignity, and decency, we Americans ended up with a failed human being, Donald J. Trump.

"No insult can shrink a woman whose legacy is already larger than the people attacking her." --Holly Robinson Peete

HOW LOW CAN THE US GO? TRUMP AND MAGA, "HOLD MY BEER!"

Trump’s White House UFC fights marred by ugly Michelle Obama smear 

Trump brings UFC to White House for 80th birthday 

Josh Hokit targets former First Lady after TKO win

 

"The ignorant creature in the above image personifies the gulf between 'us' and 'them' in 2026. The vulgarity. The indignity. The bigotry. The lies. The hate. Yet, he was rewarded from the assembled masses with roars of approval. They cheered him on as if to say, 'Someone finally had the guts to say it on national television.'

We're no longer one people divided by ideological differences. We've become two nations uncomfortably living within common borders. Other than the air that I breathe, I have nothing in common with this mindless punk, or any of the other creatures who laughed along with him. We're on more giant leap further along the path to irreconcilability." --Bruce Lindner

This is what The People's House looked like to the world. 

All of it brought to you by the trashiest, most indecent human being to ever defile the White House.

Hokit smeared a former First Lady. MAGA and Trump cheered the insult to her, and our country was degraded once again by the convicted felon and adjudicated SA/rapist in the White House.

"It was all disgusting, demeaning, and as far from being patriotic and celebratory of our country and its values as possible. It was like watching Trump's J6 insurrectionists smearing feces on the Capitol again." --C.L. Waryas, Facebook commenter