REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

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

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Sunday, May 31, 2026 07:07
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Sunday, May 17, 2026 8:11 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't reply to me.

Your TDS has nothing to do with me.

Archived.

https://archive.ph/WXb2h

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Maybe you should start wearing a military helmet to protect your delicate brain from reality? You won't realize that Trump lost in Iran until gasoline prices rise another dollar per gallon.

Gasoline Futures Pricing
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/gasoline

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

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

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 8:12 PM

SECOND

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


Remember these two dates separated by 25 months.
U.S. Withdrawal from Vietnam March 29, 1973
Saigon's Collapse on April 30, 1975
https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-fall-of-South-Vietnam

For 25 months, Republicans were claiming victory in Vietnam before it was obvious they had lost. Republicans are again doing the same thing, but in Iran. Trump and Hegseth are attempting to obscure the loss by claiming victory. Only Trumptards are retarded enough to believe Trump just as only Nixon supporters were stupid enough to believe Nixon:

Fact-checking Trump and Hegseth's claims of U.S. 'victory' in the Iran war

Apr 9, 2026 5:14 PM EDT

This article originally appeared on PolitiFact.

After announcing a ceasefire in the weekslong war with Iran, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that the U.S. had emerged victorious.

When Trump declared April 7 that the U.S. would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks to allow for negotiations, he said the U.S. had "already met and exceeded all military objectives."

"Total and complete victory. 100%. No question about it," Trump told Agence France-Presse.

Hegseth was similarly triumphant. "Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital-V military victory," he said during an April 8 Pentagon press conference. "Epic Fury decimated Iran's military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come. "

It will take time to fully assess what the U.S. achieved — as well as any shortcomings or failures. More details will emerge to answer key questions: Will commerce flow through the Strait of Hormuz at its previous levels? When will gas prices decline? How will Iran's new leaders exercise their power? And how long will it take for the U.S. to restock its now-depleted military arsenal?

Much more at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trump-and-hegseths
-claims-of-u-s-victory-in-the-iran-war

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

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 9:11 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Don't reply to me.

Your TDS has nothing to do with me.

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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 10:40 PM

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't reply to me.

Your TDS has nothing to do with me.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Trump said in a Truth Social post Sunday that “For Iran, the Clock is Ticking.” Pretty soon, Trumptards will realize that Trump lost to Iran because gasoline prices will zoom higher.

Oil inventories globally are depleting at a record pace as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. “Rapidly shrinking buffers amid continued disruptions may herald future price spikes ahead,” the IEA said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/18/oil-today-brent-wti-iran-trump-hormuz-
iea-supply-crude-.html

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

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Sunday, May 17, 2026 11:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Don't reply to me.

Your TDS has nothing to do with me.


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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Monday, May 18, 2026 10:06 AM

SECOND

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


Donald Trump : "I had a total military victory, but the fake news, guys like you, write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy. Guys like you write about it incorrectly. We had a total military victory. We’ve had a total victory, except by people like you that don’t write the truth. You know, you should write—I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write. You and the New York Times and CNN I would say are the worst."

Donald Trump doesn’t understand why the world won’t admit that he’s won a world-historical victory over Iran. In one of his angriest rants ever, he berated a reporter at great length for questioning his success, even accusing the reporter of treason. It’s no accident that this eruption occurred on his flight home from China. The media coverage has been quite harsh, brutally revealing that he failed to make any real headway with China on Iran, among other things.

So we’re talking today with political scientist David Faris.

Sargent: David, has Trump won the resounding victory he claims?

Faris: Obviously not. The Iran war has not gone at all the way that Trump and his allies thought it would. They were expecting a quick victory, decapitation of the regime, and then replacing it with somebody more compliant—sort of the Venezuela scenario. In fact, they seem to have handed power to people who are even more hardline than the ones that they replaced.

And despite many decades of planning around the possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz, it doesn’t seem like anybody in the Trump administration thought for five seconds about what might happen if the strait was indeed closed for some period of time. Trump is in this pickle. He can’t get the Iranians to capitulate. He can’t change the regime without ground troops. And he can’t reopen the strait without a massive escalation that has no guarantee of success anyway. So he’s really between a rock and a hard place right now.

Much more at https://newrepublic.com/article/210551/transcript-trump-rages-wildly-j
ourno-and-exposes-big-iran-blunder

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

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Monday, May 18, 2026 7:55 PM

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


Trump Admitted There’s No Reason to Continue His War With Iran

By Fred Kaplan | May 18, 2026 2:33 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/05/trump-iran-war-nuclear-rea
son-why.html

On a Fox News show on Friday, host Bret Baier asked Trump whether it might be feasible to retrieve Iran’s enriched uranium. Trump replied that it would be very hard for either the Iranians or U.S. troops to get at the material because his attack last June—a bomber raid on three sites encased inside a mountain—left the “nuclear dust” (as Trump called it) buried under heavy granite rubble.

“It was hit so hard,” Trump said, “the mountain literally collapsed on it.”

This seemed to startle Baier. “Why isn’t that good enough?” the host asked. “If your goal was to set back …”

“It is good enough,” Trump replied, “but you know what, it isn’t good enough public-relations-wise.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fox-bret-baier-confonts-trump-123614176.html

This wasn’t a one-time gaffe. In a separate Fox interview, aired on Thursday, Trump said, “We have nine cameras on that site, on those three sites, 24 hours a day. We know exactly what’s happening. Nobody’s even gotten close to it.” If the Iranians did try to dig out the material, Trump could bomb the sites again.

One might infer, as Baier suggested in his Friday interview, that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are thus effectively contained. But then Trump went on, “I’d just feel better if I got it, actually”—that is, if he somehow removed, or if Iran agreed to remove, the uranium. Then he added, digging himself into a deeper hole: “But I think it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-says-he-wants-iran-s-uraniu
m-mostly-for-public-relations/ar-AA23eeuZ?ocid=fujitsudhp

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

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Monday, May 18, 2026 8:30 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK




You and the people who make the media you consume are a bunch of fucking losers.


You keep trying to repeat your lies 100 times per day and see if they stick anymore.

SPOILER ALERT: They don't.

But you go right ahead and knock yourself out, loser.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 5:48 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 6ixStringJack:


You and the people who make the media you consume are a bunch of fucking losers.


You keep trying to repeat your lies 100 times per day and see if they stick anymore.

SPOILER ALERT: They don't.

But you go right ahead and knock yourself out, loser.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
The media is repeating Trump's words. The lies are Trump's.

Trump Is Twisting In The Wind

By Trying To Seem Strong, Trump Is Projecting Weakness; Iran's Delcy Rodriguez Is Known And It Is A Doozy

Phillips P. OBrien
May 20, 2026

This was actually an interesting week because, supposedly, Trump almost did return to the air attack on Iran. He remains as he has been for months stuck. His blockade is not having the quick effect that he first hoped/thought and the Iranian regime is showing no flexibility in the negotiations. In some ways, of course, that means nothing has changed (as always). However that is not entirely true as Trump is getting so desperate and that is making him more erratic. As he twists in the wind like this, he could lash out, though waiting as he is makes that even more risky. Its a really dangerous dynamic.

Other stories that are worth noting this week are that the excuses Trump gave this time not to restart the bombing (other countries asked and the negotiations are going really well) are the exact same ones he has used now for almost two months. They are almost certainly making things worse as in his desire to project strength he is only underlining how weak his position really is. The final story is a quick one that just came out. We have some evidence of whom the US and Israel expected to play Delcy Rodriguez for Iran, and its a doozy.

Trump Is Twisting In The Wind

Trump really did try to convince others, and indeed maybe himself, that he was going to restart the bombing of Iran this week. The White House was spreading the story far and wide (many people at the security conference in Tallinn who have strong Washington connections said an attack was imminent). I also heard from someone else in Washington that it was going to happen that “there is nothing more dangerous than an old king”.

The reality is that Trump got cold feet. He was trying to work up the courage/craziness to go back to direct military attacks and in the end he (once again) blinked.

I suppose it is a good thing that Trump has not lost all sense. The problem is, that his desire to restart military action and then his last minute backing off shows a few things that are very worrying for the USA. I would list them as:

The US Government does now understand that the blockade will take much longer to work than Trump originally claimed. As far as I know, no Iranian oil wells have exploded because of the blockade. Yes, the Iranian government will undoubtedly be faced by an economic problem, but that is not going to have them immediately bend the knee and Trump seems to get that.

The US Government seems to understand that restarting bombing will stand only a very small chance of achieving any of Trump’s strategic aims—especially his big one which is to get a concession on the nuclear question enough to say he got a better deal than Obama under the JCPOA. If Trump believed that there would be any reasonable chance to achieve anything by bombing, he would take that risk. Clearly the odds are judged to be not high.

The markets no longer react to the President’s claims of possible success. For once the oil markets took Trump’s claims for the BS that they are. The price of oil (here is Brent Crude) had a tiny fall on May 18 when Trump tweeted, but immediately rose back to the level it was before he spoke. The fall did not last long enough for insider traders to cash in.

Much more, including Trump’s unhinged tweets, at https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-11-trump-is-twis
ting

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

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Wednesday, May 20, 2026 5:33 PM

SECOND

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


Strait of Hormuz Live Tracker — Real-Time Shipping & Oil ...

Hormuz Strait Monitor

Live monitoring dashboard for the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Real-time ship transit counts, oil prices, stranded vessels, insurance premiums, throughput data, ...

https://hormuzstraitmonitor.com/

Today's traffic is 2% of normal. Since it is not 0.0%, the war must be over.
Trump calls that a total victory!

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

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Thursday, May 21, 2026 12:48 PM

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


Trump ignored warnings from defense experts [that Netanyahu was lying about nuclear bombs]

By Alex Henderson | May 20, 2026 07:37AM ET

https://www.alternet.org/trump-iran-robert-gates

. . . "Interviewed by CBS, he said that Netanyahu had told him, in July 2009, all the same things he had told Trump in the Situation Room in February. Gates said he had pushed back during that 'no-punches-pulled discussion' of Iran, telling Netanyahu he was underestimating the resilience of the Iranian regime. 'He was saying, in 2009: the regime is fragile, it'll crumble at the first attack, and they won't have time to do anything else.… I told him then, he was dead wrong.'"

Wood adds, "Netanyahu has — almost comically — been warning that Iran is weeks or months away from getting a nuclear bomb for decades."

Trump, Wood notes, "did not have to take Netanyahu's word" about Iran moving closer to developing a nuclear bomb."

"His own intelligence services contradicted the alarming claims," according to Wood. "Before last year's bombing, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told a Senate committee that the U.S. intelligence community 'continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.' At the time, Trump declared, 'I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.'"

Wood points out that CIA Director John Ratcliff dismissed Netanyahu's nuclear bomb claims as "farcical," while Secretary of State Marco Rubio called them "b– –."

"Carlson said he warned Trump that a war with Iran would destroy his presidency," Wood observes. "If it does, he has only himself to blame…. So far, in less than 18 months of his second term, Trump has bombed not only Iran, but also Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and Venezuela. He has threatened to attack Cuba, Panama, Greenland and even Canada. Though Netanyahu may have manipulated Trump, he was only feeding Trump's deep desires. Whatever regrets he might have, Trump owns this war."

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

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Friday, May 22, 2026 7:49 AM

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


U.S. bears brunt of Israel’s missile defense, Pentagon assessments show

May 21, 2026

https://attentiontotheunseen.com/2026/05/21/u-s-bears-brunt-of-israels
-missile-defense-pentagon-assessments-show/

The Washington Post reports:

The U.S. military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves, according to Defense Department assessments described to The Washington Post.

The imbalance, according to three U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, underscores the extent to which Washington has shouldered the burden of countering Iranian ballistic missile strikes during Operation Epic Fury, and raises questions about U.S. military readiness and security commitments around the world.

The United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel — roughly half of the Pentagon’s total inventory — along with more than 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors fired from naval vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, said the U.S. officials, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. By contrast, Israel fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors, some of which were used against less sophisticated projectiles fired by Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Lebanon.

Military analysts said the data described to The Post offers a rare window into how the United States and Israel work together.

“The numbers are striking,” said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center. “The United States absorbed most of the missile defense mission while Israel conserved its own magazines. Even if the operational logic was sound, the United States is left with roughly 200 THAAD interceptors and a production line that can’t keep pace with demand.”

The shortage of U.S. interceptors has alarmed U.S. allies in Asia, particularly Japan and South Korea, which rely on the United States as a deterrent to potential threats from North Korea and China. “That bill risks coming due in theaters that have nothing to do with Iran,” said Grieco.

U.S. and Israeli officials routinely tout their close cooperation and the strength of Israel’s multilayered air-defense system. But the Defense Department assessments suggest a more lopsided dynamic.

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

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Friday, May 22, 2026 7:59 AM

SECOND

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


Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender

He seems to hope to slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat.

By Robert Kagan | May 21, 2026, 4 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/trump-surrender-iran
-endgame/687252/

The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”

Trump has blinked many times in the confrontation with Iran—ever since March 18, when Israel attacked the Pars gas field and Iran retaliated with a strike against Qatar’s most important natural-gas-production facility. Trump then called for a halt on U.S. and Israeli targeting of Iran’s energy infrastructure, and the war effectively ended.

Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.

For Trump to respond to this defiance by now calling for another 30 days of cease-fire and talks is a tacit admission of defeat. If he does launch a performative attack in the next few days, the Iranians will understand it for what it is. No one believes that he is going to resume a full-scale war a month from now. Among other reasons, with 30 more days to heal, rearm, and fill its coffers with tolls, Iran will be a more formidable adversary.

In 30 days, moreover, the new Iranian strait regime may already be firmly in place. As the Institute for the Study of War reports, Iran has been using the cease-fire period to “normalize” its control over the strait by “compelling oil-importing countries” to establish transit agreements with Tehran and charging fees on vessels from nations without such deals. According to Iranian officials, the new strait regime will give Iran’s strategic partners, such as Russia and China, priority and allow nations friendly to Iran, such as India and Pakistan, to negotiate their own transit agreements. Vessels associated with nations that Iran regards as an adversary will be denied access to the strait entirely.

Several nations, including South Korea, Turkey, and Iraq, are reportedly already negotiating at least temporary transit agreements. Now that Trump has made clear he has no intention of fighting to reopen the strait, the stampede to get good terms with Tehran will begin. All nations heavily dependent on energy from the Persian Gulf will want to cut their deal quickly to get the oil and gas and other commodities flowing and rescue their battered economy. Those nations currently allied with the United States and friendly to Israel will feel pressure to distance themselves and make their peace with Iran. The international sanctions against Iran will collapse, and even more money will pour into the country’s accounts as its newly central role in the global economy becomes normalized. By the end of 30 days, most of the world will have a stake in the new arrangement and will oppose any resumption of hostilities, even in the unlikely event that Trump wanted to go back to war.

Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system. A major strategic setback for the United States need not affect Wall Street. The president may also hope that he can change the subject by launching another military operation, this time against the government in Cuba. And the news media have indeed begun writing more about Cuba than about the unfolding disaster in Iran.

According to one U.S. official, Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the call with Trump—for good reason. The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.

Will Israel go gentle into this good night? That is the wild card that may disrupt the financial markets’ dreams of a new stability in the Gulf. A stronger, richer, more influential Iran will mean new life for Hamas and Hezbollah. It will mean the end of the Abraham Accords, as the Gulf States will have to make their own peace with Tehran so that their economies can survive. Trump says that Netanyahu “will do whatever I want him to do.” But can Israel stand by while Iran replaces the United States as the arbiter of power in the region?

Most likely, the new normal in the Persian Gulf will be chronic instability and frequent disruptions in shipping. That’s what happens when the hegemon cedes hegemony.

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

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Friday, May 22, 2026 1:55 PM

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


Donald J. Trump 11/29/11 In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.

Donald J. Trump 1/17/12 @BarackObama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected.

Donald J. Trump 9/16/13 I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face!

Donald J. Trump 11/10/13 Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly – not skilled!

Every accusation is either an admission of guilt or something he plans to do.

Between 2011 and 2013, Donald J. Trump made multiple statements predicting that then-President Barack Obama would attack or start a war with Iran. He repeatedly claimed that Obama would use military conflict as a political distraction to win re-election, save face, or compensate for perceived poor negotiation skills. These predictions did not materialize during the Obama administration. Former President Obama never launched an attack on Iran, but instead pursued diplomatic negotiations that culminated in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement.

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

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Friday, May 22, 2026 3:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I remember when Barack Obama ran on ending the Electoral College, and then immediately told you that wasn't important after he was sworn in.

So what. Go fuck yourself, stupid.

You've got the brain of a 6th grader, zero ability for critical thinking, and you're completely incapable of holding two conflicting ideas in your hands at one time. That's why propaganda works so well on you every day.

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

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Friday, May 22, 2026 3:43 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:


You and the people who make the media you consume are a bunch of fucking losers.


You keep trying to repeat your lies 100 times per day and see if they stick anymore.

SPOILER ALERT: They don't.

But you go right ahead and knock yourself out, loser.



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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
The media is repeating Trump's words. The lies are Trump's.


Yup. Just like the media repeated Trump's words in Charlottesville.

That's called soundbytes. And they're all taken out of context. Always.

You are a moron and not worth having any discussion with.



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

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Monday, May 25, 2026 7:55 AM

SECOND

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


Why Trump Lost

The president failed to deliver on his Iran bluster, and in the end fooled only himself.

By David Frum | May 24, 2026, 10:45 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/05/why-trump-lost-iran/68729
1/

The first surprising thing about President Trump’s impending defeat in the 2026 Iran war is that he already fought and won a successful war against Iran last year. In June 2025, U.S. and Israeli air strikes badly damaged the Iranian nuclear program in 12 days of bombardment. Exactly how badly remains controversial. But they didn’t do nothing. If Trump had quit while ahead, he could have banked his gains from last June as a solid if imperfect win.

The second surprising thing about Trump’s impending defeat is that he does not seem to have cared at all about the only evident reason to resume fighting in 2026: the Iranian people’s rebellion against their brutal oppressors. Trump has never given any evidence of caring about Iranian democracy or human rights. He promised the Iranian people “Help is on the way” on January 13, but military operations did not commence until thousands were dead and the rebellion was already effectively crushed. During military operations, Trump made clear that he sought a deal with the existing regime. He made no effort to support or cooperate with Iranian dissidents before, during, or after the uprising.

The third surprising thing about Trump’s impending defeat is that even he himself seems never to have understood why he went back to war against Iran. What exactly did he think he would achieve? He kept saying that he wanted to ensure that Iran never developed a nuclear weapon. He also insisted that he had effectively prevented it from doing so in August. He seemed genuinely to believe that claim. If so, why resume the fighting? If, however, those words were wrong, then why not simply hit the nuclear sites again? Why the need for this bigger war?

Trump started the February 28 war for reasons of personality, not strategy. He is on his way to losing the war for the same reasons of personality.

Trump is arrogant. Think how often Trump mocks his predecessors as “dumb” and praises himself as “smart.” Those predecessors, from Jimmy Carter through Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, all had to ponder military responses to Iranian terrorism and aggression. They all ultimately decided not to wage a major war against Iranian national territory. Among the prime deterrents to action: the Strait of Hormuz problem. Trump apparently decided that a problem that was too hard for everybody else would magically disappear for him, because he is tough and growls in his official photographs.

Trump is reckless. Trump is not a plan-ahead guy. He plunges into desperate adventures without any clear endgame in mind. What really was Trump’s plan on January 6, 2021? After Mike Pence was seized by rioters and forced at gunpoint to recite the magic words Trump wanted him to say, what was supposed to happen then? The 81 million American majority who’d voted against Trump in 2020 would submit? The military, CIA, and FBI would follow blatantly illegal orders? In 2021, Trump provoked violence and hoped it would all somehow work out. He followed the same approach again in 2026.

Trump hates procedure. A lot of the apparatus of the modern presidency exists to force confrontations with unwelcome realities. Cabinet officers are confirmed by the Senate to assure the country that major offices are filled by people of character and competence. The National Security Council is supposed to process challenging data to ensure that the president receives necessary information. But to run the Department of Defense, Trump nominated and the Senate approved Pete Hegseth. Instead of choosing a national security adviser to replace Mike Waltz after Waltz’s resignation on May 1, 2025, Trump tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take on the role. But to double up that particular job dooms the job not to be done at all, especially because Trump has shriveled the NSC’s staff and subjected it to loyalty tests demanded by his most screwball supporters.

Trump is panicky. For all his bluster and boasting, Trump cannot take the heat. Presidents who believe in their decisions ride out bad polls. Trump panics and reverses course. Trump has been signaling since mid-March that he wants an end to the Iran war at almost any price. The Iranians have read those signals. For all the damage the U.S. military inflicted on Iran, the Iranians seem to have gambled that they could outlast Trump. They’ve been proven right.

Trump is gullible. As Trump’s present secretary of state observed back in 2016, Trump is most fundamentally a con artist. But Trump is often a self-defeating con artist who falls victim to his own con. Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Iran. Instead, he’s negotiating an exit that concedes most of Iran’s demands and leaves Iran in a more dominant position over Persian Gulf oil traffic than it occupied before the war. But Trump seems genuinely to have convinced himself that he’s won a mighty victory, and he seems truly baffled that others decline to endorse his flim-flam.

Trump can’t lead. Trump’s method of governance is command. He cannot work across party lines, and he cannot speak to any part of the American nation beyond his MAGA base. A war leader, however, must be a national leader. War imposes costly sacrifices. Leaders who take the nation to war must explain those costs and inspire those sacrifices. Trump simply cannot do any of that work, and he has no idea how it could be done.

For three years in his first term, Trump benefited from the strong economy that he inherited. Then the pandemic struck, and his first instinct was to hunt for someone to blame. In this second presidency, his main work has been spectacular self-enrichment, even as the economy has sagged under the weight of his catastrophic trade wars. He made no case for an Iran war to the public and never sought approval by Congress. There are some Iran hawks on the Democratic side, especially in the Senate. Trump never tried to ally with them.

Trump’s vision of the presidency is authoritarian and kleptocratic: Issue orders, grab money, luxuriate in flattery, erect monuments to oneself. That’s no way to lead a nation through the hazards and difficulties of war. Now the war is ending on disadvantageous terms for the United States. Trump’s old methods will be turned to a new task: trying to deceive the American people and the world into believing that the war he lost was really a big win, the biggest ever, so big you cannot believe it. He’s likely to discover that, indeed, nobody does believe it.

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

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Monday, May 25, 2026 8:02 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 6ixStringJack:
I remember when Barack Obama ran on ending the Electoral College, and then immediately told you that wasn't important after he was sworn in.

So what. Go fuck yourself, stupid.

You've got the brain of a 6th grader, zero ability for critical thinking, and you're completely incapable of holding two conflicting ideas in your hands at one time. That's why propaganda works so well on you every day.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Just checking if you got the story right. You didn't, but that is not surprising from a Trumptard. Trump twists facts out of shape, and so do his followers:

Barack Obama famously supported eliminating the Electoral College during his time as an Illinois state senator, notably stating during a 2004 debate that the system was breaking down. However, as he transitioned into the presidency, he never actively pursued its abolition. He addressed this shift in perspective directly during a December 2016 press conference. When asked about reforming the Electoral College, he acknowledged its drawbacks but explained that changing it was not an actionable priority. He cited the following reasons: Massive Constitutional Hurdles: Abolishing the system entirely would require a difficult constitutional amendment (requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress and ratification by 38 states).Priorities in Office: During his terms, he focused his political capital on issues like the Affordable Care Act, economic recovery, and other legislative priorities rather than structural constitutional reform. Ultimately, he noted that if the popular vote and Electoral College align, the system functions as designed without widespread public outcry, though he acknowledged it puts a premium on swing states.

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

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Monday, May 25, 2026 2:35 PM

SECOND

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


Why Hasn’t Oil Hit $150?

By Robert Rapier - May 25, 2026, 9:00 AM CDT

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Why-Hasnt-Oil-Hit-150.html

Global oil inventories and floating storage have acted as temporary shock absorbers against the Hormuz disruption.

OPEC spare capacity has stabilized markets, but it cannot fully replace lost Persian Gulf exports indefinitely.

Prolonged disruption could eventually exhaust market buffers and trigger a much sharper oil price surge.

The Market’s Hidden Shock Absorbers

The biggest reason the oil market hasn’t reacted more violently to the Strait of Hormuz closure is simple: the world entered this crisis with more inventory than many analysts appreciated. Those barrels have acted as a shock absorber. They don’t eliminate the problem. They just delay it.

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

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Monday, May 25, 2026 6:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Awwwwwwwwwww...

You sound disappointed, bitch.



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

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

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Monday, May 25, 2026 6:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I remember when Barack Obama ran on ending the Electoral College, and then immediately told you that wasn't important after he was sworn in.

So what. Go fuck yourself, stupid.

You've got the brain of a 6th grader, zero ability for critical thinking, and you're completely incapable of holding two conflicting ideas in your hands at one time. That's why propaganda works so well on you every day.

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

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Just checking if you got the story right. You didn't, but that is not surprising from a Trumptard. Trump twists facts out of shape, and so do his followers:

Barack Obama famously supported eliminating the Electoral College during his time as an Illinois state senator, notably stating during a 2004 debate that the system was breaking down. However, as he transitioned into the presidency, he never actively pursued its abolition. He addressed this shift in perspective directly during a December 2016 press conference. When asked about reforming the Electoral College, he acknowledged its drawbacks but explained that changing it was not an actionable priority. He cited the following reasons: Massive Constitutional Hurdles: Abolishing the system entirely would require a difficult constitutional amendment (requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress and ratification by 38 states).Priorities in Office: During his terms, he focused his political capital on issues like the Affordable Care Act, economic recovery, and other legislative priorities rather than structural constitutional reform. Ultimately, he noted that if the popular vote and Electoral College align, the system functions as designed without widespread public outcry, though he acknowledged it puts a premium on swing states.

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



I'm not complaining about what he didn't do after the fact, and I'm not suggesting that you do either.


What you should be pissed about is that he knew full fucking well that it was NEVER, EVER going to happen, but just like all of your chronic lying Democrats do, he ran hard as hell on the "fact" that it was going to be a top priority for his administration.

They get away with doing that every election. Over and over and over and overa again..

Because you are fucking stupid.




So don't talk to me about politicians who don't keep their promises if you're only ever going to talk about Trump.

Show me a politician that doesn't renege on most of their promises and I'll show you a fucking unicorn.
--------------------------------------------------

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

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Tuesday, May 26, 2026 2:59 PM

SECOND

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


‘Worse than Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan Combined’:
Donald Trump faces a political crisis like no other if Hormuz isn’t opened by Labor Day

By Harry J. Kazianis | May 26, 2026

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/worse-than-vietnam-iraq-and-afghan
istan-combined-donald-trump-faces-a-political-crisis-like-no-other-if-hormuz-isnt-opened-by-labor-day/

Labor Day 2026 falls on September 7. From today’s date, May 26, that is 14 weeks away. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed to normal commercial traffic since the opening of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, which means we are already at the 13 week mark of a disruption that energy analysts originally modeled as the worst-case sustained closure scenario.

If the strait remains effectively closed through Labor Day, the United States will be at the twenty-seven-week mark of disruption — more than double the duration the global oil market was designed to withstand without permanent damage. The SPR (U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve) would be at the lowest level in more than three decades. Brent would likely trade well above $130 per barrel under that scenario, with the upside ceiling energy analysts have circulated at $175 per barrel, representing sustained physical scarcity rather than a financial market panic. Gasoline at American pumps would reach $5.50 to $6.00 per gallon. Inflation, already running at 4.5 percent PCE through Q1, would accelerate sharply again. The Federal Reserve would face the choice of either tightening monetary policy into an active oil shock or accepting the kind of sustained price increases that produced the political destruction of the Carter administration in 1979 and 1980.

But, to be frank, the above is a more optimistic scenario. Some experts I have talked to are firmly convinced that if we get to Labor Day and there is no deal to open the Strait, a deep recession is very possible. These experts believe we will draw down the SPR much faster, creating an energy crisis we could only dream of. Think 1970s gas lines sort of stuff.

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

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Tuesday, May 26, 2026 4:38 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Maybe we'd take your warnings seriously if you didn't scream your fucking heads off all day, every day about every little tiny thing.

You're almost always wrong about everything too, so there's that.


Nobody cares about your opinions, Second, or those of the idiot assholes you get them from.

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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 8:05 AM

SECOND

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


The Military Strikes Do Not Hide The Fact That The US Has No Good Military Options Against Iran

Phillips P. OBrien
May 27, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-12-we-are-witnes
sing

Will Trump get some form of words from Iran about a nuclear deal that he can sell to the US population as better than that negotiated by President Obama under the JCPOA? The problem is that nothing he is getting so far, as he seems to grasp, is as good as the JCPOA. As such, it seems to be dawning on him that he might have to accept a deal that leaves Iran in control of its nuclear destiny. He even tweeted about it late on Monday in what looks like a clear attempt to prepare his supporters for this eventuality.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT

Anything “destroyed in place or, an another acceptable location” means out of US control—nothing more or nothing less. Maybe Putin’s Russia will do? It certainly would qualify under Trump’s criterion.

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 8:14 AM

SECOND

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


Trump called on almost all the Arab states in the region to agree to join the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel.

It was the reaction, or lack thereof, that was really illuminating of US decline. Trump did not just tweet this; he was very serious about it and mentioned it in a conference call to the leaders of key Islamic states. The response of those leaders was stunned silence, so much so that Trump was worried that the call had been dropped. As one story said:

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there”

Since then, not a single state has agreed to Trump’s request and no one even seems to be taking it seriously. The truth is that the states Trump was trying to cajole into joining the Abraham Accords are now more than acquainted with US weakness and unreliability. The last thing they are going to do is jump to the tune of a declining US that is being outmaneuvered by Iran. It used to be that when the US president suggested a major foreign policy move, people would at least respond.

The US is being defied by its enemies and dismissed by its friends and it is all happening in front of our eyes.

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-12-we-are-witnes
sing

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 3:29 PM

SECOND

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


Every few weeks, there's a new disaster that would have sunk any other president

By Noah Smith
May 25, 2026

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/are-you-tired-of-the-trump-era-yet

For example, take the war in Iran. Trump launched this war with no immediate provocation or casus belli — a simple opportunistic war of aggression that incinerated whatever shreds of goodwill remained towards the United States among much of the international community.

Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started. Despite the preemptive strike and America’s far greater technological capability, Iran reportedly retains most of its arsenal of weaponry:

US intelligence assessments show that Iran retains significant missile capabilities despite repeated claims by the Trump administration that Tehran’s military had been severely weakened, according to a report by The New York Times…The report said intelligence findings compiled in early May showed Iran had regained operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz. Officials familiar with the assessments told the newspaper that Iran still possesses roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile and mobile launchers…Citing reports from military intelligence agencies, the report stated that Iran has regained access to roughly 90 percent of its underground missile storage and launch facilities nationwide, which are now assessed to be “partially or fully operational.”

And:

Iran has already restarted some of its drone production during the six-week ceasefire that began in early April, one sign it is rapidly rebuilding certain military capabilities degraded by US-Israeli strikes, according to two sources familiar with US intelligence assessments. Four sources told CNN that US intelligence indicates Iran’s military is reconstituting much faster than initially estimated…The rebuilding of military capabilities, including replacing missile sites, launchers and production capacity for key weapons systems destroyed during the current conflict, means that Iran remains a significant threat to regional allies…It also calls into question claims about the extent to which US-Israeli strikes have degraded Iran’s military in the long term…

Iran has been able to rebuild much faster than expected due to a combination of factors, ranging from the support it is receiving from Russia and China to the fact that the US and Israel did not inflict as much damage as the two countries had hoped, one of the sources told CNN.

America’s own stock of weapons, on the other hand, has been dangerously depleted in the conflict, and our defense-industrial base is not managing to rebuild them.

Even as the U.S. has failed to cripple Iran’s military, Iran’s military has succeeded in closing the Strait of Hormuz, sending gasoline prices soaring and causing a significant bump in inflation:

Incapable of defeating Iran on the battlefield and increasingly wounded by Iran’s economic retaliation, Trump is pushing hard for any sort of face-saving deal that would allow him to exit the conflict quickly. Whatever deal Trump eventually cuts is going to leave Iran in a much stronger position — and American interests in the region — much weaker than before Trump launched his war. Here’s Robert Kagan:

Defeat for the United States, therefore, is not only possible but likely. Here is what defeat looks like.

Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz. The common assumption that, one way or another, the strait will reopen when the crisis ends is unfounded. Iran has no interest in returning to the status quo ante…The power to close or control the flow of ships through the strait is greater and more immediate than the theoretical power of Iran’s nuclear program. This leverage will allow the leaders in Tehran to force nations to lift sanctions and normalize relations or face penalties…

The new status quo in the strait will also occasion a substantial shift in relative power and influence both regionally and globally. In the region, the United States will have proved itself a paper tiger, forcing the Gulf and other Arab states to accommodate Iran…All nations that depend on energy from the Gulf will have to work out their own arrangements with Iran. What choice will they have?…

The American defeat in the Gulf will have broader global ramifications as well. The whole world can see that just a few weeks of war with a second-rank power have reduced American weapons stocks to perilously low levels, with no quick remedy in sight.

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 4:16 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started.


By what metric?

I don't recall Iran making a single strike on American soil. I've read that Iran has seen an estimated 3,500 dead compared to 13 Americans. That's nearly 270 times the amount of deaths of Americans. We've destroyed a ton of their infrastructure and war machines. To this day, not a single warship has been sunk by Iran, yet we've sunk dozens of theirs.

Explain yourself.

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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 4:18 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump called on almost all the Arab states in the region to agree to join the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel.

It was the reaction, or lack thereof, that was really illuminating of US decline. Trump did not just tweet this; he was very serious about it and mentioned it in a conference call to the leaders of key Islamic states. The response of those leaders was stunned silence, so much so that Trump was worried that the call had been dropped. As one story said:

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there”

Since then, not a single state has agreed to Trump’s request and no one even seems to be taking it seriously. The truth is that the states Trump was trying to cajole into joining the Abraham Accords are now more than acquainted with US weakness and unreliability. The last thing they are going to do is jump to the tune of a declining US that is being outmaneuvered by Iran. It used to be that when the US president suggested a major foreign policy move, people would at least respond.

The US is being defied by its enemies and dismissed by its friends and it is all happening in front of our eyes.

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-12-we-are-witnes
sing

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



This is fanfic written by somebody who should be deported and/or tried for treason.

You fucking people are so sick in the head with TDS.

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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 7:06 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started.


By what metric?

I don't recall Iran making a single strike on American soil. I've read that Iran has seen an estimated 3,500 dead compared to 13 Americans. That's nearly 270 times the amount of deaths of Americans. We've destroyed a ton of their infrastructure and war machines. To this day, not a single warship has been sunk by Iran, yet we've sunk dozens of theirs.

Explain yourself.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
The Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion in wartime funding from the White House to sustain military operations against Iran. Obviously, Iran did destroy American property.
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/3/25/congress-la
cks-clarity-on-pentagons-200-billion-iran-war-request

The Iran war has increased U.S. consumer fuel bills by an estimated $40 billion to $45 billion, according to analyses from Brown University's Costs of War project and energy market trackers. The soaring fuel costs break down as follows: Gasoline: Accounts for over $20 billion of the total increase. Diesel: Adds another $16.9 billion, which directly raises the costs of trucking, rail, and farming that get passed on to consumers.Aviation: U.S. airlines experienced a spike in jet fuel expenses, costing over $3.2 billion more commercially. On an individual level, this surge equates to an additional $300 to $330 per average American household. For further details on the economic impact, check out the full Brown University Costs of War Report or the OilPrice.com Analysis.
https://itep.org/iran-war-fuel-cost/

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 7:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started.


By what metric?

I don't recall Iran making a single strike on American soil. I've read that Iran has seen an estimated 3,500 dead compared to 13 Americans. That's nearly 270 times the amount of deaths of Americans. We've destroyed a ton of their infrastructure and war machines. To this day, not a single warship has been sunk by Iran, yet we've sunk dozens of theirs.

Explain yourself.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
The Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion in wartime funding from the White House to sustain military operations against Iran. Obviously, Iran did destroy American property.


Obviously? What property are you talking about. Provide legitimate links.


And on the flip-side, you fucking idiots have been telling us that Ukraine has been winning the war for 4 years now and the US alone has pissed away over $200 Billion in US taxpayer dollars on them.

Your double standards for judging everything are just gross.

TDS has completely wrecked your rotted brain.

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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 7:46 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started.


By what metric?

I don't recall Iran making a single strike on American soil. I've read that Iran has seen an estimated 3,500 dead compared to 13 Americans. That's nearly 270 times the amount of deaths of Americans. We've destroyed a ton of their infrastructure and war machines. To this day, not a single warship has been sunk by Iran, yet we've sunk dozens of theirs.

Explain yourself.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
The Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion in wartime funding from the White House to sustain military operations against Iran. Obviously, Iran did destroy American property.


Obviously? What property are you talking about. Provide legitimate links.


And on the flip-side, you fucking idiots have been telling us that Ukraine has been winning the war for 4 years now and the US alone has pissed away over $200 Billion in US taxpayer dollars on them.

Your double standards for judging everything are just gross.

TDS has completely wrecked your rotted brain.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
Did the US lose the Vietnam War? Hopefully, you are aware it did. Why did it lose? It wasn't because there are 58,318 names on the Vietnam War Memorial, but because North Vietnam wouldn't surrender despite millions of deaths. How much did it cost the US to lose? The Vietnam War cost the United States an estimated $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion in 2026 prices.

Ukraine has not lost until it surrenders. What little the US spent there is small compared to $1,500 billion of defense spending in Trump's Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/defense-funding-put-context

Iran has not lost until it surrenders all its enriched uranium, surrenders control of the Strait, recognizes the right of Israel to exist, and changes its government from an Islamic Republic to a Christian democracy, or something, maybe Trump Jr as the next Shah of Iran.

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 8:39 PM

SECOND

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


[Trump said he already won, so why is he talking about outwaiting Iran?]

Trump says he won't be rushed into a deal with Iran because "I don't care about the midterms"

By Adam Cancryn | May 27, 2026

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/27/world/live-news/iran-war-us-news

President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to strike a favorable deal to end the war with Iran, warning that the regime’s efforts to outlast him won’t work because “I don’t care about the midterms.”

“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know? We’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting, dismissing concerns about the war’s political toll at home.

“I don’t care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was a prelude to the midterms. People understand it,” he said, alluding to his endorsed candidate winning a Texas GOP Senate primary runoff.

The president expressed confidence that the US would soon reach an agreement to end the conflict, though he cautioned that his administration is not yet satisfied with the terms — and is willing to resume fighting if it can’t secure its demands.

“We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,” Trump said. “Either that, or we’ll have to just finish the job.”

He also touted the resumption of internet access in Iran as a sign the regime’s hardline stance was weakening, arguing that “their whole economic system is broken down.”

“They want to just make a deal,” he said. “I don’t think they have a choice.”

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 9:06 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump then proceeded — so far, at least — to lose the war he started.


By what metric?

I don't recall Iran making a single strike on American soil. I've read that Iran has seen an estimated 3,500 dead compared to 13 Americans. That's nearly 270 times the amount of deaths of Americans. We've destroyed a ton of their infrastructure and war machines. To this day, not a single warship has been sunk by Iran, yet we've sunk dozens of theirs.

Explain yourself.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
The Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion in wartime funding from the White House to sustain military operations against Iran. Obviously, Iran did destroy American property.


Obviously? What property are you talking about. Provide legitimate links.


And on the flip-side, you fucking idiots have been telling us that Ukraine has been winning the war for 4 years now and the US alone has pissed away over $200 Billion in US taxpayer dollars on them.

Your double standards for judging everything are just gross.

TDS has completely wrecked your rotted brain.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
Did the US lose the Vietnam War?


Shut the fuck up, retard.


The only reply I want to see out of your stupid ass is an answer to the question, otherwise you can go right to pretending I don't exist like Ted does.

I don't debate with idiot assholes. You have nothing worth saying.


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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 9:25 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up, retard.


The only reply I want to see out of your stupid ass is an answer to the question, otherwise you can go right to pretending I don't exist like Ted does.

I don't debate with idiot assholes. You have nothing worth saying.
6ix, do you remember this?
Quote:
I'm using a very specialized offshoot of Linux geared for a very specific purpose. Unfortunately, I don't even want to mention what that is here for reasons I'm sure you understand. Knowing that wouldn't automatically allow unfriendlys to find my project, but it is just another bread crumb I'm not going to trail back to me on these forums.
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12442
48#1244248

6ix, you are afraid of me stomping on your face. Your beligerance cannot disguise your terror.

When the war started, President Trump never declared formal war aims, but based on things the administration said, something like this seemed to be in their mind. They wanted a formal termination of the Iranian nuclear program that the United States had badly damaged through air strikes last summer. The Trump administration wanted some kind of termination of the ballistic-missile program.

The president of the United States had promised help is on the way to the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of Iranian people who rose up against their terrorist, repressive, theocratic regime. And you might have thought that some kind of help for the Iranian people would be part of the outcome that the United States sought—and maybe some kind of end to Iran’s practice of being the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, a status it’s held since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, with blood on its hands of people all over the world, including many Americans, from its terrorism and aggression. Some kind of change in the nature of the regime to make it less dangerous to its neighbors and its own people.

None of that happened, or none of that looks to have happened. All that looks to have happened is a reversion to the status quo as it was before the war started. It is a pretty humbling climbdown.

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/05/has-trump-corrupted-the-m
ilitary/687329/

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 10:23 PM

SECOND

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


Saying ‘we won’ the Iran war is easy. Now’s the hard part.

At one point, President Trump was demanding “unconditional surrender” from Iran. Now, the U.S. is working toward a different set of objectives to try to end the war.

By Ned Temko Columnist

May 27, 2026, 6:35 p.m. ET | London

https://www.csmonitor.com/Perspectives/Essays/2026/0527/Saying-we-won-
the-Iran-war-is-easy.-Now-s-the-hard-part

“We’ve got to finish the job, right?” When U.S. President Donald Trump made that remark at a rally in Kentucky back in March, the Iran war had barely begun. And with huge firepower at his command, he exuded confidence that the endgame would be a mere formality. The war, he told the crowd of supporters, had already been “won.”

Yet 2 1/2 months on, Mr. Trump’s definition of “finishing the job” has fundamentally changed.

Despite this week’s familiar dissonance between hints of an imminent peace deal and a resumption of U.S. military strikes in Iran, the focus is no longer on achieving a definitive battlefield victory.

It’s about getting to a political arrangement that the president can sell to his supporters, winding down a war that is broadly unpopular with voters, and – by reopening the Strait of Hormuz – at least beginning to halt soaring oil and gas prices before November’s midterm elections.

The outline of an agreement with Iran, as envisaged by the Trump administration, has started to become clear from mediators involved in the talks.

First, confirmation of the ceasefire announced in early April, not long after the Kentucky rally, and since extended by Mr. Trump well past its original two-week duration.

Then, a monthlong process of reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – with Iran allowing free passage, and the United States ending its counterblockade of Iranian ports.

And alongside this, negotiations on what Mr. Trump has defined as the central aim of going to war in the first place: closing off Iran’s pathway to getting a nuclear weapon.

That could be especially delicate political territory for the president.

Any new Iran deal will inevitably be measured against President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran, which Mr. Trump denounced as “horrible” and pulled the U.S. out of during his first term.

Even before achieving an acceptable resolution on any of these issues, Mr. Trump is being forced to confront a reality about the war that was becoming apparent when he claimed victory in places including Kentucky: its “asymmetric” nature, echoing America’s long involvement in, and ultimate retreat from, Vietnam.

Yes, U.S. and Israeli forces had comprehensively outgunned Iran. They had struck thousands of targets across the country, sunk much of its navy, and killed its senior leaders.

In conventional military terms, Iran was incapable of matching America’s power.

Yet Tehran showed no sign of wanting to sue for peace.

Its regime and its military had survived. It was launching drones and missiles at America’s Gulf Arab allies, and was effectively blocking the strait through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies usually traveled.

Iran retains that leverage. And, as Mr. Trump now seems to recognize, it’s unlikely to be undone even by a full-scale return to war – something key Arab allies are especially keen to avoid.

This means that the possibility, and eventual shape, of a negotiated agreement depends on Iran’s priorities as well.

Reports on the ongoing talks in recent weeks have suggested the Iranians are open to a ceasefire and a gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Even on some key nuclear issues – to judge by the indirect talks with Iran before Mr. Trump launched the war – there seems to be a prospect of common ground.

Iran’s leadership has long insisted that it does not intend to develop a nuclear weapon. It’s been receptive to diluting its near-weapons-grade stores of uranium, or perhaps moving them to an agreed third country such as Russia.

But in talks this week with representatives in the Gulf state of Qatar, Iran’s negotiators appeared insistent on an early U.S. commitment to free up billions of dollars of Iranian assets in foreign banks that have been frozen by sanctions – one of the features of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal that Mr. Trump most vigorously attacked.

The Iranians also appear to envisage retaining long-term control, along with the Arab sultanate of Oman across the Gulf, over the Strait of Hormuz.

How, and whether, Mr. Trump’s negotiating team manages to finesse these issues with Iran will determine whether a deal is as close as some of his recent social media posts have suggested – or, if it continues to prove elusive, whether he might act on threats to order further military strikes.

In remarks on Wednesday, the president gave what has become a familiar nod to both options.

The talks were going “very well,” he said. The Iranians were “starting to give us the things they have to give us.” But pointing toward Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, he added that if they didn’t do so, “the man on my left will have to finish them off.”

Still, Mr. Trump’s apparent reluctance to return to major combat in recent weeks suggests he has come to accept that all-out war is unlikely to bring the prospects for a negotiated deal any closer.

Last week, an article in Foreign Affairs drew a trenchant parallel with the Vietnam War. It said the Trump administration had taken a mere two months to “race through all five years of the [Lyndon] Johnson administration’s Vietnam policy: entry, escalation, frustrated stalemate, and negotiations.” Mr. Trump now finds himself on the Nixon administration’s homestretch: “first blustery threats, then gradual realization of the need to extricate via an unsatisfactory deal.”

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 10:43 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Shut the fuck up, retard.


The only reply I want to see out of your stupid ass is an answer to the question, otherwise you can go right to pretending I don't exist like Ted does.

I don't debate with idiot assholes. You have nothing worth saying.
6ix, do you remember this?
Quote:
I'm using a very specialized offshoot of Linux geared for a very specific purpose. Unfortunately, I don't even want to mention what that is here for reasons I'm sure you understand. Knowing that wouldn't automatically allow unfriendlys to find my project, but it is just another bread crumb I'm not going to trail back to me on these forums.
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=12442
48#1244248

6ix, you are afraid of me stomping on your face. Your beligerance cannot disguise your terror.


You? You little pussy? THAT is what I'm afraid of???



You're a fuckin' goofball dude.

Yeah... we already know you're a fucking creep and a stalker. Nobody would be comfortable knowing that you knew where they lived because they'd have to live the rest of their lives looking out for creepy stalker shadows, because everybody knows that little butt-fucking cowards like you only throw suckerpunches or shoot people in the back of the head like Luigi did.

I have no idea if you're a dying old man or a 22 year old snot-nosed shit living in his momma's basement, but I'll fucking put you into the ground if you come looking for me.

That's a promise.


You fucking creep


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

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 11:25 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Look out for a older man about 5'10", trim build, deeply incised lines in his face around his mouth, walks with a rolling limp. Likes to wear cowboy hats!





-----------

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

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Wednesday, May 27, 2026 11:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SIX, Iran has Trump the world by the balls oil lifeline. That's kind of the ultimate leverage.

Only China can moderate Iran.



-----------

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

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 6:09 AM

SECOND

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


US-Israel war on Iran driving historic levels of global hunger, UN says

Conflict and cuts in funding have left World Food Programme ‘taking from the hungry to feed the starving’

Julian Borger Senior international correspondent
Wed 27 May 2026 01.00 EDT

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/27/us-israel-w
ar-on-iran-driving-historic-levels-of-global-hunger-un-says

“On the funding side, we had a drop of nearly 40% year on year,” Skau said, adding that it immediately affected staffing levels, particularly in Afghanistan and Yemen, where the Trump administration has cut off all emergency food funding. “We had to let go of 5,000 people. In Afghanistan, it’s meant we went from supporting 10 million to 2 million. It was a huge, huge drop last year.” . . .

“The price of food and energy is so closely correlated that in some places if the price of energy goes up 30%, food inflation almost meets that,” Skau said. “In a least developed country, amongst the most vulnerable, they’re already spending all their money on food, and so that means they eat 30% or 40% less.”

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

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 2:45 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Awwww....

Too bad you don't have hundreds of Billions in NGOs and USAid that you can pocket and pretend you're feeding people with.

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

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

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Friday, May 29, 2026 7:04 AM

SECOND

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


Trump: "Oman will behave just like everyone else, or we'll have to blow them up."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/trump-threatening
-oman-why-hormuz-iran-b2985672.html

We are so far into "mad king" territory that the White House may not even bother to clarify whether Trump just confused Oman with Iran or is indeed threatening to bomb Oman.

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

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 7:05 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 6ixStringJack:
Awwww....

Too bad you don't have hundreds of Billions in NGOs and USAid that you can pocket and pretend you're feeding people with.

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

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
Do you recall that Trump requested $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon next year? The year after will be more. Two years will be even MORE! What does he intend to do with that mountain range of money? Each peak is bigger than the last.

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4465551/15-trill
ion-budget-request-prioritizes-service-members-modernization/

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

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 7:07 AM

SECOND

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


The War Trump Can’t End

Washington needs a deal, but Tehran needs an enemy.

By Karim Sadjadpour | May 29, 2026

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/iran-america-attenti
on-goals/687374/

For nearly five decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been preparing for a war that Donald Trump expected would take days.

As virtually every American president since World War II has learned, a monopoly on focus can outlast a monopoly on power. America under Trump is the attention-deficit superpower, pinballing from isolationism to interventionism in Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba, having hollowed out the State Department. The Islamic Republic is an obsessive-compulsive revolutionary state—a regime with a half-century fixation on resisting America, rather than advancing the welfare of its own people. Fighting America is not the regime’s policy; it’s the regime’s identity.

The deadlock is both ideological and structural. To justify the immense costs of conflict to American taxpayers, Trump must demand far more from Tehran in any deal than he would have before the war began. Conversely, having lost hundreds of billions of dollars and its top leadership, Iran’s theocracy must demand far more—and concede far less—than it ever would have previously. Neither side can afford a deal that the other might accept. And in a zero-sum negotiation, Iran’s monomaniacal focus is a greater currency than American military power.

Trump may pause his war against Iran. But the Islamic Republic’s 47-year ideological war with “the Great Satan, America, and its trained beast, the Zionist regime”—in the recent words of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader—will continue in earnest. U.S.-Iran negotiations yield zero trust and zero closure. A win-win scenario does not exist. Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, regional proxies, and missile programs will menace the Middle East so long as the Islamic Republic is in power.

Tehran is transparent about its negotiating tactics. “The Iranian negotiation style is generally known in the world as the ‘bazaar style,’ which means continuous and tireless bargaining,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in his 2025 diplomatic memoir. “This method is a process of interaction that requires great patience and time,” and thus, “he who gets tired and bored quickly will lose.” Trump has twice grown bored with diplomacy and resorted to military action against Iran.

The first phase of any deal would require Tehran to de-mine the Strait of Hormuz and cease harassing vessels traversing it, and the United States to lift its blockade proportionally—restoring, in theory, the prewar reality of an unfettered international waterway. For Tehran, the strait has become its greatest source of leverage. Iran’s implicit control over it—and the global economy—is both a potential fixed-revenue stream and a deterrent against future attacks. “This time, papers and signatures are not guarantees,” Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said. “The objective guarantee for preserving any agreement is the Strait of Hormuz.”

A coordinated reopening of the strait could be a prelude to successful nuclear negotiations, but it could also prove merely an intermission in fighting. The resumption of traffic through the strait would bring down oil prices—a crucial strategic objective in itself for the U.S., because it would make a return to war, if necessary, more sustainable, one senior official told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters. Similarly for Tehran, the pause would provide much-needed cash and an opportunity to refortify its military.

Trump-administration officials believe that once the strait is reopened, Tehran will have a hard time closing it again: “It’s a card they can only play once,” the senior official said. Tehran appears confident taking opposite bets: that it has established a de facto Strait of Hormuz protection racket, and that the closer Trump gets to the U.S. midterms, the less appetite he will have to restart the war. For both sides, a tactical pause may relieve economic pressure and make reaching a broader diplomatic compromise feel less urgent, rather than more so.

The most difficult negotiation is the nuclear one. Trump will seek a commitment from Tehran to never pursue nuclear weapons, including a freeze on long-term enrichment, removal of its 400-kilogram stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and the establishment of an invasive inspections regime. But Tehran has drawn an obvious lesson from modern history: The regimes that gave up their weapons programs—in Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine—made themselves vulnerable to foreign intervention. North Korea, meanwhile, has survived behind a nuclear shield.

A former Iranian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid government scrutiny, told me that Tehran retains the knowledge and now has the will to build nuclear weapons in short order. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims to have as many as 30 underground “missile cities,” likely built with North Korean assistance, some reportedly buried deeper than the nuclear facilities already destroyed. Like Gaza, Iran is becoming a place where the authorities and their weaponry thrive underground while citizens languish aboveground.

The U.S. official told me that Washington expects to know “within a few weeks” whether this peace process has legs. The Trump administration plans to present Tehran with two possible paths. The first would require Iran to abandon its nuclear-weapons program, its regional proxies, and its foundational hostility toward America and Israel in exchange for hundreds of billions of dollars in Persian Gulf investment that could make Iran “one of the richest countries in the world.” The second path would be to preserve the status quo: Iran’s revolutionary ideology would remain intact, but at the cost of a continued naval blockade, crushing sanctions, and the potential renewal of war.

The Islamic Republic has never been willing to trade its revolutionary principles for prosperity. As recently as May 26, Mojtaba Khamenei used the hajj—Islam’s most universal gathering—as an occasion to warn that the “terrorist” U.S. military was no longer safe in the Middle East, and that the “cancerous tumor of Israel” would soon experience the “final days of their wretched existence.” And the Trump administration appears to have little illusion about Iran’s priorities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a recent state visit in India that “Iran would rather invest in the rapists and murderers of Hamas” than in its own people.

Arash Azizi: Why Iran’s leaders think they’ve won

Over the past 47 years, Tehran has made major compromises only twice. The first was its 1988 decision to end the Iran-Iraq War—after eight years and an estimated 200,000 Iranian deaths—a concession that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini likened to drinking poison. The second was the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration. In both cases, when faced with overwhelming economic and diplomatic pressure, a viable diplomatic exit, and no demands to change its revolutionary identity, Tehran showed itself capable of tactical compromise.

“Iran never won a war,” Trump tweeted in January of 2020, “but never lost a negotiation!” This aphorism has become received wisdom, yet it misses a central fact: Any government willing to immiserate its own population rather than compromise can look like a tough negotiator. Today, the U.S. naval blockade is costing Iran an estimated $450 million a day. With Iran’s inflation nearing 70 percent, its currency collapsing, and its dire shortages of feedstock and medicine, the regime’s defiance resembles the strategic victory of Monty Python’s Black Knight.

“The main principle of bargaining is practice: repetition, repetition, and repetition,” Araghchi wrote, “so much that the other side of the deal, as they say, ‘gets numb’ and gives its consent.” Up until now, Tehran’s negotiating style has not numbed Trump into consent but agitated him into conflict. Yet conflict, like negotiation, has not resolved the fundamental problem that has confounded every American president since 1979: The United States needs a deal, but the Islamic Republic needs the United States as an adversary. America seeks resolution. Iran is committed to revolution.

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

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