Khamenei, One of Most Evil People in History, is Dead by 6ixStringJack

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Khamenei, One of Most Evil People in History, is Dead

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 19, 2026 06:29
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Thursday, August 6, 2026 9:29 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I see we cross posted and, shockingly, we agree.

But I have the strange suspicion that the only reason you object to war with Iran is bc TRUMP started it, and if some Dem had done the same you'd be for it.

I read this before the Iraq Invasion:

The Fifty-First State?

Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders—and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?

By James Fallows

November 2002 Issue

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/11/the-fifty-first-s
tate/302612/

Signym, the article suggested the cost for Iraq would be many $billions. Actual costs were many $trillions with a T.

The True Cost of the Iraq War: $3 Trillion and Beyond
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/true-cost-iraq-war-3-trillion
-and-beyond

Signym, I strongly disapprove of the government starting projects like the very optional wars on Iran, Vietnam, and Iraq unless the cost is known. WWII? That was not optional for the US government. At the time, the Republicans in Congress started investigating President FDR, convinced the war was optional because FDR had tricked the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor. https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/pearl-ha
rbor.htm

Ukraine War? That was not optional for the Ukrainian government. If the US government did NOT want Russia to eventually invade the rest of Eastern Europe, that war wasn't optional for the US, regardless of the cost.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 10:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Good luck, Shit Golem.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, August 6, 2026 11:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I see we cross posted and, shockingly, we agree.

But I have the strange suspicion that the only reason you object to war with Iran is bc TRUMP started it, and if some Dem had done the same you'd be for it.

SECOND I read this before the Iraq Invasion:

The Fifty-First State?

Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved. These would include running the economy, keeping domestic peace, and protecting Iraq's borders—and doing it all for years, or perhaps decades. Are we ready for this long-term relationship?

By James Fallows

November 2002 Issue

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/11/the-fifty-first-s
tate/302612/

Signym, the article suggested the cost for Iraq would be many $billions. Actual costs were many $trillions with a T.

The True Cost of the Iraq War: $3 Trillion and Beyond
https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/true-cost-iraq-war-3-trillion
-and-beyond

Signym, I strongly disapprove of the government starting projects like the very optional wars on Iran, Vietnam, and Iraq unless the cost is known.

I strongly object to optional wars no matter what the cost.

Considering that we actually provoked Russia by breaking our "not one inch eastward" promise and threatening Russia's security, after we had pillaged it for 10 years, and breaking SEVERAL peace agreements about Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is 100% optional.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, August 7, 2026 6:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I strongly object to optional wars no matter what the cost.

Considering that we actually provoked Russia by breaking our "not one inch eastward" promise and threatening Russia's security, after we had pillaged it for 10 years, and breaking SEVERAL peace agreements about Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is 100% optional.

You are joking, right? Because Poland joins NATO, Russia has to attack Ukraine? That makes zero sense for Russia. This makes sense: Because Poland joins NATO, Russia has to attack Poland. Instead of doing the sensible thing, Russia attacked Ukraine because Putin believed he'd win in a day, but years later he is in the same position Trump is in for attacking Iran with the solid conviction he'd win in a day or two.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 7, 2026 6:33 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Iran's parliament is considering an agreement with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal would ban ships connected to the U.S., Israel and other "hostile countries" from the key waterway until Iran receives compensation for war damages. Commercial vessels passing through the strait would be subject to fees of up to 7% of cargo value and a 20% fine for noncompliance. On Wednesday, Iran said it was finalizing a shipping route agreement with Oman, a U.S. ally. The Trump administration disputes Iran's characterization of the agreement, maintaining that the U.S. currently controls the strait through its naval blockade of Iran. Oman has not commented.

Trump's public statements about progress in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran don't seem to align with the reality of what is understood by Iranians. Trump is facing significant pressure to end the war, but Iran remains unyielding despite military pressure from the U.S., and it's making its own demands regarding the Strait. The stalemate has raised concerns from observers that the U.S. may have to accept terms worse than the previous status quo, which was free movement through the Strait. Current negotiations are also focused on the waterway reopening rather than issues like uranium enrichment, which Trump originally cited as justification for the war.

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/07/g-s1-137730/up-first-newsletter-trump-b
irthright-citizenship-iran-oman-strait-of-hormuz-anthony-fauci-mitch-mcconnell

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 7, 2026 6:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

By dragging out talks, Tehran aims to damage the US president politically in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/07/iran-war-trump-midterm-b
allot

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, August 7, 2026 3:45 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I strongly object to optional wars no matter what the cost.

Considering that we actually provoked Russia by breaking our "not one inch eastward" promise and threatening Russia's security, after we had pillaged it for 10 years, and breaking SEVERAL peace agreements about Ukraine, the war in Ukraine is 100% optional.
You are joking, right? Because Poland joins NATO, Russia has to attack Ukraine? That makes zero sense for Russia. This makes sense: Because Poland joins NATO, Russia has to attack Poland. Instead of doing the sensible thing, Russia attacked Ukraine because Putin believed he'd win in a day, but years later he is in the same position Trump is in for attacking Iran with the solid conviction he'd win in a day or two.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

You're evil and, worse, stupid.

Because POLAND HAS A US MISSILE BASE on Russia's border. You think they want more US missile bases in Ukraine? Would we want Russian missile bases in Mexico?

Seriously, STUPID, your brain is fucked.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, August 7, 2026 3:47 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Shit Golems don't have brains.

Just more shit.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, August 15, 2026 10:44 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump says he wants the Strait of Hormuz to be a U.S. territory

By Amin Khodadadi | Aug. 15, 2026, 5:47 AM CDT

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-rejects-delusions-trump-strait
-hormuz-us-territory-rcna592666

Iran called on the U.S. to “accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in delusions” after President Donald Trump suggested that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz as a “territory of the United States.”

The crucial waterway that handled one-fifth of the world’s oil before the war “cannot be seized with a tweet, nor with an aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order, nor through an election speech,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on X early Saturday.

“This strait will only be opened and closed under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” he added.

With oil tanker traffic through the strategic strait at a trickle and peace talks between the U.S. and Iran at an impasse, there are few signs that the war, launched on Feb. 28, is close to being over.

A 60-day negotiating period intended to hammer out a deal to end the conflict, set when Trump and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June, ends on Monday with few direct negotiations having taken place.

Speaking Friday at a police academy in Nassau County, New York, Trump said Iran was being “very badly defeated,” and once victory was secured, “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

. . .

Vice President JD Vance, who has been tasked with leading negotiations to end the war, told Fox News on Thursday that the number one goal was to “keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country.” He added that “obviously goal No. 2 is ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.” Tehran has repeatedly insisted it has no desire to develop one.

Trump and his team have offered various reasons for conflict, initially saying they wanted to support mass anti-government protests, before prioritizing a desire to end Iran’s nuclear program and topple the hardline Islamic regime.

In an interview with Iran’s Shahrara News published Friday, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there were “no negotiations currently taking place between Tehran and Washington.”

Qatar and Pakistan, as mediators, were exchanging messages and remained in contact with Iran, “but this does not at all constitute negotiations,” he said. “No decision has yet been taken to resume talks with America.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, August 17, 2026 6:58 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Misery Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Why Trump is eviscerating the military

Paul Krugman

Aug 17, 2026

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-misery-will-continue-until-mora
le

According to an old military maxim, amateurs talk about strategy, professionals talk about logistics. But these days we need a third category: Immature, insecure guys think that war is about acting tough and looking cool.

Hi, Paul Krugman with a podcast update for today. I want to weigh in on the incredible rash of stories about how Trump and company are eviscerating the military. It is truly remarkable. If there’s one thing that we thought that the United States was still kind of number one at, it was that we had the world’s premier military. Now, of course, we managed to rather quickly effectively lose the war with Iran, although current management will never admit it.

But also just a series of stories, some of them related to that war, some of them going beyond and to other areas that just are truly shocking, even for somebody like me, who had no expectation that this administration would be doing any good for the nation.

Just to remember the story: So first we had the big warning that the U.S. military was basically running out of ammunition. That the precision missiles that are so essential to waging war were largely gone, expended unproductively against Iran. And clearly the cost benefit calculus was a disaster because the Iranians were sending cheap drones and we were using multi-million dollar weapons in an attempt to counter them.

After that, we got the story about the horrific conditions on board the USS Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that’s been stationed for a very long time without, it appears, adequate resupply and with toilets flooding. Apparently just horrific conditions, which turn out to be not unique to that ship: Other ships are having problems. There’s the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, which apparently has run out of feminine hygiene products, among other things.

Okay, so we have those horrific stories. And then we have the stories about Trump intervening. Demanding, first, that the Navy construct a whole new class of ships, Trump-class battleships, which are useless and would be sitting ducks. Then demanding that the Navy replace modern catapults with steam catapults, which he thinks are cooler. And then demanding that they relocate the command tower on aircraft carriers because he wants them to look more like the way they looked during World War II.

Is this America? I mean, think about the American way of war. We are not a warrior nation, which is fine. We are a lot of other things.

We were a nation that was supreme in the arts of peace. We were a nation of know-how. America won its wars by doing the arts of peace right, by building better and more stuff than other countries. By getting our act together in ways that didn’t necessarily involve fighting.

Of course, you always need courageous warriors. You always need people able and willing to risk death in the service of their nation. But what America was supreme at was logistics. If you ask how did America and its allies pull off D-Day, well, a lot of it was being able to deliver supplies to the beaches of Normandy in a way that the Germans never thought was possible.

America was always the place, the country that was really good at logistics. For us to be not feeding our sailors, not able to keep ships that are not, after all, under fire all the time, to keep the plumbing working, that is incredible.

The idea that the president is imposing his personal aesthetic preferences to undo design decisions that were made by military professionals is also basically incredible.

Okay, what is this all about? And what happened? Some of it is specifically military, but mostly it’s not. I think these military failings should be put in the same context as the frantic and disastrous destruction and redesign of Washington, D.C. The demolition of the East Wing. The disastrous attempt to refurbish the reflecting pool to reflect Trump’s aesthetics. Even the gold leaf and gold lettering that is polluting the White House. All of this is really part of the same picture. So what is going on here?

Obviously we have a seriously mentally ill, mentally deficient guy with his finger on the button. The president of the United States is clearly dissociating, I’ve been calling it sundowning because I personally saw sundowning during my father’s awful last year.

Trump is not in full possession of his faculties, and he is obsessing about things that are really just kind of remnant ego trips. I haven’t read the Haberman book yet, but reportedly he spends a large fraction of his time and probably a larger fraction of his mental energy on his redecoration projects, which aside from all being carried out disastrously are also in incredibly bad taste. But this is where he is. He’s actually more interested in his giant, tacky, gilded ballroom than he is in the fate of the nation.

But how does somebody like this end up able to impose his will on these disastrous things? How does he end up able to eviscerate the military?

Well, part of it is that this is a wannabe authoritarian regime. We’re in a peculiar state now where the United States is not yet a police state. It is not yet a place where the secret police will cart you away for expressing the wrong opinion, unless you are not a white U.S. citizen. Maybe the time is coming when that will happen. But in any case, we are not yet East Germany under the Stasi. We are not yet Putin’s Russia.

But the Republican Party, senior politicians, who should be feeling that they have at least some dignity, ability to take a stand, behave as if they were living in an authoritarian state. They’re obviously terrified. They’re afraid to express any dissent. They go along with Trump’s wishes.

On top of that, I think it really helps to think of the ruling party in America right now as being a party that behaves as if we were a full-on authoritarian state. And one of the things we learn about in studying how authoritarian regimes behave is, first of all, that the leader actually can be possibly the worst informed person in the nation because nobody dares to tell him bad news. We’re hearing this a lot about Putin, that he doesn’t know how badly his war is going. Well, Trump in many ways probably still doesn’t understand how badly his war is going.

The really striking thing about the munitions shortage and now the horrible conditions on US ships is that to the extent that any action has been taken on either of those issues is it has been only after extensive reporting in the press. So now the Pentagon is talking about a crash program to have defense manufacturers produce more of the missiles that we’ve been running out of. But it’s not clear it’s even started yet, and that call didn’t happen until many months into the war, whereas the munition shortage was obvious to independent observers just a few weeks in — that we were expending munitions that we couldn’t replace. Nothing happened until there was widespread press reporting.

The USS Lincoln has finally been recalled for refit and shore leave. But that didn’t happen until after many press stories about it, all of which were denied, but it’s very obvious just looking at the behavior that the Pentagon and Hegseth and Trump finally reacted saying, oh, I guess something needs to be done. We can’t let this go on. But they didn’t do it until after the press reported.

Now, is this because they’re totally callous? Well, they are. They don’t care at all. The people who yell support the troops most loudly are the people who actually have no interest whatsoever in supporting the troops. But I think it’s probably also the case that they may not have known. That nobody told Trump that we were running out of missiles. He may have read some press stories to that effect, but he said that’s all fake news and nobody within the administration was willing to tell him.

They may not have been willing to tell Hegseth either, who by all accounts flies into a rage and punishes anybody who brings him bad news. So they just didn’t hear about this. They didn’t hear about the munitions. They didn’t hear about the conditions for US sailors until the drumbeat from the press became too loud for them to remain insulated, to remain in denial.

So this is what happens. This is the problem with authoritarian regimes. It goes with the related problem with authoritarian regimes, which is that they have a single point of failure. You elevate one person to a position of untouchable authority, and if that person loses it, that person is sun-downing, there is no recourse.

One more thing to say about what’s going on is that authoritarian regimes systematically promote incompetence. This is Hannah Arendt on totalitarianism. That it’s not just that they value loyalty above competence. They actually actively dislike competence. Because someone who is competent, someone who knows what they’re doing, might stand on their dignity, might refuse to follow instructions from above. You need third-raters or worse.

This has long been true in areas that I know something about. It’s been true of right-wing economics forever. It’s long been the case that although there are plenty of conservative, competent economists, what the right-wing wanted, even pre-Trump, was creatures like Steve Moore or Larry Kudlow, people who had no idea actually how to do economic analysis, but were unimpeachably, unquestionably loyal because after all, they had no constituency to fall back on.

So we have this mix of leader principle, Führer-prinzip. Yes, I think we’re allowed to use the original German here. Information blackout at the top because nobody wants to tell the leader bad news. And incompetence as a general principle throughout the government.

And if you want to understand how the Reflecting Pool happened, if you want to understand how we ended up with this hole in the ground, that was previously the east wing of the White House, all of this is fundamentally the same stuff and it’s true of lots of other areas of policy as well.

Still, I guess most of us thought — I thought, mea culpa — that the military would be among the last places to be hit by this. That, first of all, it should be obvious even to people like Trump and Hegseth that you don’t muck too much with the military, that you don’t destroy the one instrument you really have, and also that the military itself had, so I thought, a strong enough culture, was highly enough respected among the populace that the military would be able to stand up and say no.

But it turns out that I was wrong. And so instead of being insulated from the craziness and incompetence, the military is actually possibly the most acute victim of everything that’s happening.

At this point they might manage to start feeding the sailors and fix the toilets, though I wouldn’t put 100% odds on that. But the broader problem of really destroying one of the last real sources of U.S. strength, that is not going to go away. Instead, it’s going to be the same thing. And the misery will continue until morale improves.

Have a great day.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, August 18, 2026 1:30 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Incoherence of Trump’s Past Week of Foreign Policy

As the war with Iran drags on, the president is in disagreement with the vice president, military leaders, and long-standing American allies.

By David A. Graham | August 17, 2026, 5:36 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/08/trump-foreign-policy-i
ncoherence-iran/688312/

A memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, reached in June and intended to provide breathing room to end the conflict between the two countries, expired today. The agreement will be little missed: A cease-fire had effectively ended within about three weeks of its signing, and the MOU had failed to produce fruitful negotiations or a real opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The president’s actions in the days leading up to the deadline demonstrate that his approach to the world, always contingent and improvisational, has lost its last shred of coherence. The White House cannot agree on the goals of the Iran war, much less on how to achieve them. The president is clashing with long-standing allies, in conflict with his vice president on the aims of the war, and publicly at odds with uniformed commanders over conditions for American troops stationed abroad.

Trump on Friday called on Americans to accept higher gasoline prices as the cost of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He posted this morning that the “number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon”—even though his administration assessed before the war that Iran was not actively building weapons, even though the White House hasn’t offered any explanation for how the war will prevent the regime from restarting its weapons program, and even though the war may make Iran’s desire for a nuclear arsenal only more urgent. Meanwhile, Vice President Vance says that lowering fuel prices is actually now “goal No. 1” of the war.

In practice, the real aim of any diplomatic or military action now is resuming ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran seized early in the conflict—a risk foreseen by many analysts but not by Trump. For weeks now, Trump’s basic choice has been clear: Either launch a much larger military operation, including ground troops, or else surrender de facto control of the strait permanently.

The president refuses to accept this. He continues to complain that the Iranians are bad-faith negotiators, which is surely true but was well known before the war. During a speech on Friday, Trump said that “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” This is dishonest, delusional, or both. Such a declaration would contradict Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s insistence on the neutrality of the strait as well as Trump’s repeated statements that the U.S. should not act as a global policeman. But it’s also beside the point, because the United States has no means to control the strait.

The conditions for those U.S. troops already in the region are reportedly awful. Aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been at sea for nearly nine months, sailors report shortages of basic supplies, malfunctioning systems, and faltering mental health. When Trump was asked Friday about service members’ families who have publicly voiced their worries, he insisted that they were not concerned: “No, they’re not,” he said, adding that the ship’s deployment had not gone on “nearly long enough” yet. In a sign that military brass takes these worries seriously, the admiral overseeing the war visited the carrier this weekend and acknowledged mental-health issues.

With the U.S. unwilling or unable to break the Hormuz deadlock, Oman has embarked on negotiations with Iran to create a toll system for ships. This morning, Trump threatened to expand the war with strikes against that country. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” he told Fox News. Trump’s frustration with Oman is understandable, yet a threat to attack a venerable regional ally is still shocking.

This kind of public conflict with allies has become typical. Over the weekend, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—who has no official government post—met with Hamas officials in an attempt to revitalize an administration plan to disarm the group and rebuild Gaza. That plan is struggling for several reasons, including a flat rejection from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long been close to Trump and reportedly talked him into the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Trump announced yesterday that he was curtailing joint military exercises with South Korea, “based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea.” This supposed friendship has produced a splashy 2018 summit and flattering correspondence that Trump purloined from the White House after he lost the 2020 election, but it has done nothing to advance American interests. Most important, it has done nothing to curtail North Korea’s nuclear program. At the same time that Trump is fighting a war in Iran that he claims will prevent nuclear proliferation, he’s bestowing a favor on North Korea, which has offered no concessions and many threats. But Trump also gave another reason for his snub, noting that South Korea—like every other major U.S. ally—has declined to get involved in the Iran quagmire.

Throughout Trump’s two terms, many analysts have sought to discern some sort of guiding doctrine to his foreign policy. The incoherence of his actions in the past week alone should provide further evidence that looking for a framework is futile. Earlier this year, my colleagues Missy Ryan and Ashley Parker reported that the White House’s foreign-affairs philosophy was “Fuck around and find out.” Administration officials meant this as a warning to the leaders of other countries. But as the current crisis festers, they, too, are finding out.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, August 19, 2026 6:15 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

‘There is no breaking point’: The problem with Trump’s plan to economically strangle Iran

As the administration promises unprecedented economic isolation, former US officials and Iran experts warn Tehran may be willing to absorb far more pain than Washington anticipates.

By Megan Messerly and Sam Sutton | August 18, 2026 04:06 PM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/18/there-no-breaking-point-probl
em-with-trumps-plan-teconomically-strangle-iran-01040781

President Donald Trump is waiting for Iran to cave to his economic pressure. Tehran may be willing to wait even longer.

Even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises a level of economic isolation “never seen before,” former Trump administration officials, U.S. ambassadors and other Middle East experts are skeptical that tightening the economic vise will force Iran to relinquish its desire to toll ships passing through the State of Hormuz and make the other concessions Trump is demanding to bring an end to the war.

“It’s an attrition campaign, and I am sure Treasury tweaks this or that to fill gaps or expand coverage of sanctions,” said James Jeffrey, a former ambassador who served in the Middle East during three presidential administrations, including Trump’s first term. “But, it’s hard to believe [there will be] something decisive after 20 years of U.S. sanctions and Iranian experience of going around them.”

It’s an acknowledgement that underscores the asymmetry of the situation. The Trump administration is staring down a consequential midterm election amid an unpopular war that has sent oil prices back up to roughly $90 a barrel and helped push long-term borrowing costs to their highest level in nearly two decades as hope dims that a peace deal is near.

Iran’s leaders, meanwhile, see the conflict as existential, giving Tehran reason to absorb the extraordinary economic pain rather than accept terms it believes could imperil the regime — especially as U.S. inflation remains elevated and treasuries sell off.

The yield on 30-year U.S. government bonds, a figure Trump has in the past been attuned to, jumped on Tuesday to its highest level since just before the global financial crisis.

The increase in the yield to its highest level in nearly two decades isn’t solely because of the six-month war; global fuel shortages and broader instability have kept energy prices higher for longer, increasing the threat of persistent inflation. And that’s heaped even more risk on global bond markets that have repeatedly blanched at Trump-related shocks.

“We are in a situation where we’re spending more and more to finance more and more,” said Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives. And the war has created “a riskier world full of more frictions, full of more supply shocks.”

Iran’s outsized incentive to muscle through the pain is partly why some former administration officials doubt that the naval blockade, while unprecedented in its scale in the modern era or whatever new strategies Bessent may unveil, will change Iran’s calculus.

“I think the economic pressure would need to hit them in new ways we haven’t seen so far to change the mindset of the regime,” said one former Trump administration official, granted anonymity to candidly assess the impact of the U.S.’s economic pressure campaign.

The administration has yet to indicate what further action it plans to take, but options include going after major Chinese banks that facilitate Iran’s oil trade, expand secondary sanctions on countries doing business with Iran and confiscating Iranian assets under U.S. jurisdiction instead of just freezing them.

Iranian leaders publicly mocked U.S. efforts to sanction them into submission.

“Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, posted on X Tuesday.

“Bessent and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth are way out of their league,” he wrote. “Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made.”

White House aides, however, continue to contend that the leverage is on its side.

“The crushing sanctions and one of the most successful blockades that have crippled Iran’s economy and has left Iran completely broke,” said one administration official, granted anonymity to share the U.S.’s thinking. “There are many levers the president can crank harder in the weeks and months ahead.”

In the half-year since the Iran war began, the president has deployed an array of pressure tactics to choke Iran economically, including physically preventing the country from selling its most important export — oil — as part of an ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports. The administration has also sanctioned foreign buyers of Iranian oil, targeted the country’s shadow fleet of ships that ferries it and sought to cut the country off from the financial networks it uses to move money.

That economic pressure has sent Iran’s economy, which was already troubled before the war, into a deeper tailspin. Now, Iran is grappling with year-over-year inflation of 88 percent, long lines and rationing at gas pumps and food prices that have more than doubled.

But those who have worked on previous Iran negotiations say that’s far from enough to get the regime to cave, especially after six months of U.S. bombing that has killed, by Tehran’s own measure, more than 3,000 Iranians.

“It’s undeniable that there is economic pressure. The question is whether there is a breaking point, and I would say for a regime that is fighting for its life and has never hesitated to transfer economic pain to its population, there is no breaking point,” said Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, who helped work to bridge differences between Iran and world powers during negotiations over the 2015 nuclear agreement.

Yet Trump continued to project patience on Tuesday, signaling that he was prepared to let the pressure campaign play out.

“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss the situation in Iran, insisted that Iran will cave long before the pain in the U.S. or world markets become intolerable.

“Ultimately we want a deal, but in the interim, the Iranian economy is tanking … people are lining up for gas, just for a half gallon of gas. And there’s a lot of civil unrest going on in Iran, that’s not being played on the news for whatever reason,” the official said late last week. “We’re fine if that’s the route they want to take.”

Still, there are signs inside the White House that the economic impacts are a growing concern. Vice President JD Vance last week said on Fox News that the administration’s first goal in the Iran war was to “keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over the country.” The president, meanwhile, has repeatedly insisted voters will bear the pain of higher gas prices for an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The voters have a more dyspeptic view. A Reuters/Ipsos survey released this week showed Trump’s approval rating at 33 percent, the lowest level of his presidency. Roughly 80 percent of Americans — 87 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of Republicans — think U.S. involvement in Iran “will go on for an extended period of time,” the poll found.

But some former Trump administration officials, however, are holding out hope that patience will be rewarded and that the administration’s economic pressure campaign will work, in part because they see the other options on the table, including putting U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, as politically untenable.

Fred Fleitz, Trump’s former National Security Council chief of staff and vice chair of the American First Policy Institute’s American Security, predicted that the U.S. could be “dealing with a different Iran” in 30 to 60 days.

“I think patience is the best approach,” Fleitz said. “I don’t believe that a large-scale military attack right now is going to make a difference in changing the regime’s position, and I strongly oppose the idea of seizing Kharg Island or sending in American troops. The American people don’t want that. That would really bog us down in a quagmire.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, August 19, 2026 6:29 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Midweek Update #24: The USA Is Not A Serious Country

In Strategy And Planning The USA Is A Self-Destructive Mess: Here Is A Short-Term Way To Stop The Bleeding

By Phillips P. OBrien
Aug 19, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-24-the-usa-is-no
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The USA in many ways has not been a serious country during this entire Iran War. It started it without a strategy, with no match between ways, ends and means, and it has been going downhill since then. It is now fighting this war simply because it has no idea what else to do, and does not have the courage to admit that it has failed.

And this week stories came out that indicated that things are heading in the wrong direction. The President is shaping the military in his own image, which means corrupt, gaudy and heading towards bankruptcy. What we are seeing is not just weakening the USA now, it will weaken the USA for years, maybe decades going forward. The only way to keep it from spiraling out of control is for drastic action now, which is to put much of the military in cold storage until a new administration takes power. More on that below.

Also, a quick note. I often say the “USA” instead of the “Trump Administration”, and that can make some people upset. They say, and I understand the emotion behind this, that what we are seeing is Trump in action, not the USA. However, as I think I have said before, blaming Trump and absolving the country seems to me at least to be dangerous and wrong. The American people chose Trump as their leader by solid majorities in the electoral college and a clear plurality in the popular vote. And they did this almost four years after he tried to block a free and fair election from being finalized on January 6, 2021. The American people have also voted for the Congress that approved his Cabinet members and is allowing him to do what he is doing.

This is the US government, chosen willingly by the American people, in action. Not acknowledging that is dodging the reality that the American people are ultimately responsible for this. So, I will keep referring to the action of the administration as that of the USA—because it is the truth and it is important to ultimately remember why this came about. America chose to do this to itself.

And that means the American people ultimately chose to make the USA not a serious country. Understanding that is maybe the key step to changing the situation.

The USA Is Engaged In A War With No Purpose

The USA is still engaged in a war (a blockade is an act of war) which has not the slightest purpose beyond the ego of the commander in chief. The war has already weakened the country and the longer it goes on, the weaker the country will become.

Over the last week, the pointlessness and lack of direction of the war was once again made brutally clear. First it was said that in Trump’s desire to get out of the war with something, he was willing to give up any nuclear demands and focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Here was what the White House was leaking on the question to the Wall Street Journal just over a week ago.

Quote:
1. Trump thought opening the Strait of Hormuz was imminent. Iran had other plans.

President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war if Tehran fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz—even privately floating to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal. But Iran’s recent demand for billions in reparations and a total U.S. troop withdrawal has thrown those plans into chaos. The recent hardline shift shows how Tehran is narrowing the White House’s options to wrap up the conflict ahead of the midterms.

Then two days ago he came out with this.

Quote:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
6.84k ReTruths 32.5k Likes
Aug 17, 2026,11:18 AM

Of course, Trump cannot even get the Strait open (in other words a return to the situation on February 27, 2026, before he started his war of choice), so he is just blustering about seizing the Strait for the USA.

The USA, btw, would be too weak to hold the Strait in a war for very long. It would have to mobilize many more forces, would run out of some advanced munitions, and in the end would be forced out—if it actually tried to do this (which it will not).

Actually, Trump is frozen. He has his blockade, which will take months and months to have effect and which Iran has already started finding ways around. Moreover, the Iranians are rebuilding their military far faster than the USA thought possible. And the Russians are sending in military supplies to the Iranians, and we can assume the Chinese are as well.

Every day this goes on, it is Iran that has greater strategic choices and it is Iran, not the USA, which is actually contemplating escalation. Indeed, there are multiple reports of this Iranian planning, including escalation into Europe.

So, while Trump has already exhausted the US military (more on that below) and has to abandon the vital western Pacific because he has bungled things so badly, Iran is rebuilding and planning on expanding the war. And, once again, former US partners in the region can see how weak the USA has become and are planning on a very different future. Oman, which has provided the US Navy with very useful support in the past, is clearly exploring cooperating with Iran in the Strait. Trump’s response to this, a situation he caused, was to threaten to bomb Oman! Indeed, the threat that he made towards this one time US friend was to “bomb the shit out of them.”

If the USA were a serious country, it would realize it has lost this war (actually it would not have started it). And having lost, it is best to get out of it ASAP, as each day it lasts, as I’ve been trying to get across for months now, weakens the USA and strengthens Iran.

Midweek Update #20: Each Day The US Weakens Itself
Phillips P. OBrien
Jul 22
Read full story

The US was strongest on February 27, 2026 and has put itself in a weaker position every day since. In other words, the USA is not a serious country strategically.

Note: I am not holding back in the last two sections, so will reserve these for paying subscribers. The rot in the US military, which we saw reach a new high point this week, means only drastic steps can stop the decline. So there are two more sections, one on what is happening in the military and then a proposal to try and stop the bleeding.

The US Military Is Fast Becoming An Unserious Organization

This week highlighted how the US military is fast becoming a farcical organization, as it contorts itself, with little opposition or even resignation out of principle, to the destructive impulses of the President. . . .

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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