British surrender at Yorktown. For the nation's 250th Anniversary, King Donald, who stands in polar opposition to what the Founding Fathers stood for, gives us the American defeat in the Persian Gulf.
Of course nothing is going to stop the hardcore MAGAs from claiming this is the greatest deal ever. The IRGC could be marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and they'd still be celebrating Trump's genius.
The entire war was a real example of our Sixth Law of History, "When a war ends is when the defending party decides that it is over" but now the fifth will visit in spades. Trump thought the war would be easy, a testament to his intellectual shallowness, but it was hard. The peace is going to be hard too. During the war we moved from a super power to a regional power, and we will not regain our former position, ever. Like many regional powers, we still have global commitments, but now it's evident that we cannot fulfill them. During the war Trump visited China was was treated like an amusing irrelevancy, as that is what he is to the Chinese. The war makes a Chinese invasion of Taiwan more likely, and moves up the timetable for that as China knows that the next President, no matter who it is, will not be a demented old fool. Western Europe is emerging to take much of the place we formerly occupied as well, and we will dance to their tune, which at least is not insane as ours has recently been.
The timing of the end of the war is impossible not to note. Trump is racing towards death and is desperate for a legacy other than the one he has. He's not going to achieve it. The war basically ended on his birthday. His association with war was originally absent:
Desperation, dementia, and hubris, combined with the absolute failure of the American political system.
There remains an opportunity to set some, but not all, of this right. And that starts with the law. Trump is increasingly worried that he will be impeached. He really should be worried. The first act of the new Congress in January, 2027, should be for Articles of Impeachment to be introduced in Congress. More than that, as war is killing and breaking things, Trump, Hegseth, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be charged with murder and tried.
We failed with Nixon, on impeachment, and that gave us Trump. We don't have much of a chance to get this right.
It should not, however, stop there. Those GOP sycophants who have some power who have sat around supporting the war in one way or another should likewise bear some repercussion, it at least at the ballot box.
And on that, now that Trump doesn't have to worry about Iran, look for Rubio to try to pivot to invading Cuba. Marco has only a few months to convert himself from Vyacheslav Molotov into José Martí, and he knows it. Getting the support of the Cuban American community is his only real chance to obtain the Presidency, which is why he sold his soul to Trump in the first place. J. C. Vance no longer has any pathway at all, and appears to know it, maybe even be comfortable with it. He's likely hanging on in hopes that the 25th Amendment removes his obviously demented superior from office, which is his only pathway, or in the anticipation that Trump goes to sleep in a press conference and simply never wakes up, which is becoming an increasingly likely scenario.
So much so, in fact, that you know everyone standing behind Trump who retains a brain, which not all of them do, have a rush for the treasury plan* in case Trump slumps over and enters the next world. It'd be mere days before you'd hear the disclaimers of ludicrous and disastrous plans and the political executions would start at the same time.
In the meantime we have a President who is declining mentally and who can see the Reaper standing at the doorway, and by the bedstand, every day. He doesn't want to be remembered as the friend of a kiddy diddler, or a person who had a vapid irrelevant life. He wants to be remembered as a hero. The man who conquered Iran and brought in the "Don Roe Doctrine". He want to be remembered as the man who cleaned up Washington D.C. and made it a place that Albert Speer would have been proud to work on.
Ballrooms that won't get completed. A triumphal arch that might get started, but which will be a monument to a looser. Trump will be the first leader with a arche de l'échec.
And a brilliantly green reflecting pool, clogged with algae.
Absolutely incredible.
The Great Man Theory of history is, we're told, dead. Trump's legacy will cause us to question that. Trump's great, in a negative sense. He's a remarkable example of what one really bad man can do in a democracy. Of course, being a democracy, he couldn't have done it without the willing help of about 1/3d of the electorate, the incompetence of the political parties and the moronic two party system, and voters who just stayed home and ate Ding Dongs or whatever.
To heck with the "Don Roe (row?) Doctrine. . . time for the Do Ho Doctrine.
Footnotes:
* In Medieval England, if a king died suddenly the claimants of the thrown rushed for the treasury to secure it, as that was their best chance of becoming the next king.
Egyptian soldiers fired into a crowed of Muslims Najadis, killing 25 of them, following a protest that began when the Egyptians were playing music while carrying the Mahmal through the holy city of Mecca during the Hajj pilgrimage, to which the Najadis took offense.
It's often forgotten in the West that Islam is far more internally divided than Christianity, a fact that's aided by the fact that there is no central head of Islam.
The Fédération Internationale de Philatélie was formed for stamp collecting and other branches of philately in at Castagnola in Switzerland.
It's the oldest such organization in the world.
Princess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, 74, former Queen Consort of Greece from 1867 to 1913 as the wife of King Geórgios I, and briefly regent for one month in 1920, died in exile in Rome.
Congress was getting ready to go home.
Congress of that era, and all the way up into at least the 90s, really did work harder than it currently does. I've heard an interview of a member of Congress who was out of office for a decade or more and who was shocked when he went back about how much real work had decreased. It's not hard to see that the current Congress is a model of being ineffective.
I wonder, in part, if modern transportation contributes to that. And the net definitely does.
You could get really fresh butter in Casper.
I knew that you could get locally produced butter in the 20s (and 30s, and 40s, and at least the early 50s), but I didn't really give that all that much thought.
The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 16 to 15 after coming back from being down 13 to 1 earlier in the game, a feat that has bee duplicated only twice, once in 1925 and once in 2001.
The ongoing efforts to recover the wreckage of the USS Maine resulted in water in the ship being raised lowering to the point where human remains began to be recovered.
The ambassadors to China from the Eight-Nation Alliance voted against allowing Chinese Army soldiers to return to Beijing, a fundamentally insulting vote.
Lawyer, St. Thomas More, who was executed for his adherence to his faith.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts
The Justice Department is going after James Comey for posting a photo of seashells arranged to spell "8647" on a beach somewhere, asserting it was a death threat on President Trump. Apparently this is due to the old use of the term "86" to do away with and "47" for Donald Trump's completely illegitimate but widely accepted illegal claim to be President.
It wasn't.
This prosecution will go nowhere whatsoever, but it is more evidence that everyone in the Trump Administration is essentially a fascist with no regard for reality or the rule of law right now. We are in monumentally dangerous territory. It's 1534 in the United States with Donald Trump our King Henry VIII.
And the spirt of the age has spread:
What Gray did was flat out illegal. Gray is relying, in essence, on the advice of the Attorney General and when that's a defense, the attorney client privilege is waived. The AG's office knows that, but it has to defend the privilege It's being pretty assertive about it.
Nobody is more opposed to abortion than I am. I wouldn't allow for the largely bogus "rape and incest" exceptions that many people will. But this is really beyond the Pale. Powell should be ashamed of itself for even appoint this guy to its city council.
Elsewhere, in a nation where we brought a modern justice system, it's still functioning.
Judges reject Trump push
to obtain state voter rolls
But of course our Secretary of State, Chuck "If you disagree with me you are a radical communist, fascist, monarchist, podiatrist" Gray just handed Wyoming's over.
It appears that Trump's settlement deal in his IRS suit may actually prove to be a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.
The deal, which frankly is the epitome of corruption, would create a slush fund to pay pardoned January 6 criminals for their inconvenience in being prosecuted as traitors to their country. That's what they are, and they should not have been pardoned, but Trump sought to go one step beyond that and reward the pack of Horst Wessels. Frankly, as soon as possible, the pardons should be unrung as illegitimate (Trump isn't a legitimate President and can't pardon anyone). Anyhow, Republicans are openly balking on the slush fund, amazingly. It must be really angering constituents, or just too much to stomach.
Indeed, they not only are balking, they sidetracked the ICE funding bill, showing that they're actually willing to do something that is guaranteed to send the Orange Mussolini into a screaming fit, but the fit will pit Trump's ICE demands up against his now open and obvious corruption and the hemorrhaging of the US budget. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as once they break with Trump, their relationship with Trump is broken, and if he doesn't come to heel, they can't.
By way of an analogous example, Massie wouldn't come to heel on the Epstein files, but he was one man. Once it's a pack, it tends to grow.
So, a match is on.
May 29, 2026
A court ruled that Trump's adding his name to the Kennedy Center was illegal and ordered it removed within two weeks.
A different judge enjoined the IRS settlement slush fund from going forward.
June 2, 2026
Trump's insurrectionist slush fund seemed to be getting questioned by the court and now the Attorney General is saying it won't occur.
While Wyoming's Congressional delegation didn't protest it, a lot of Republicans in Congress were finding it to be a bridge too far.
A Wyoming district court held that the whiney fascist crybabies leading the GOP have to follow state law and seat elected Republican precinct members, something another court did two years ago. The state central committee didn't want to do so as that keeps it from picking fascists.
It argues that its a private entity and doesn't have to follow state law. . . except of course when it comes to getting preferential places on ballots, having the state run party elections for it, and getting to pick members of certain offices when they become vacant. It's fine with all of that.
Satire aside, this would have been an opportunity for the Court to wipe all of that out, and it should have.
All they really have to do is to quit having state funded primaries.
June 15, 2026
Last Friday retired Judge Campbell struck down a series of provisions regarding abortion. There was some chance that these would survive challenge, as they did not directly restrict abortion, such as there being a time delay after seeking one, an ultrasound, etc., but he ruled that the Wyoming Supreme Court's earlier decision meant that these were in the nature of health care and could not stand.
I disagree with him on that, but given the absurd Wyoming constitutional provision on health care I've addressed here before, and the S.Ct. decision, it's an understandable result. It'll go on to be challenged at the Wyoming Supreme Court level, probably.
I keep wondering if anyone has argued the true existential aspect of the questions. I don't know if that's been done or not.
On the nature of things, one of the local news outlets has had photos of a woman protesting holding a sign that says "Forced Birth = Violence".
Almost all abortions in the US are due to people who just had sex, and then sex resulted in what it results in. That's not forced birth, that's nature. The common "well what about ten year olds" and the like brings up a case scenario that's exceedingly rare. The reply to that would be to ask that person if they're opposed to all other abortions, which they are not.
Even at that, however, killing is killing. It would be just as logical to go out and determine every living American who came about due to rape or tike and shoot them dead now. Yes, rape and incest are horrible. Murder is probably the ultimate horrible, however.
Apparently the S.Ct asked, in its opinion, why those challenging abortion in Wyoming don't seek to amend the constitution. It was a constitutional amendment that got us here, so that makes sense. So far nobody's lifted a finger to do that. The likely reason is that they know that amending the provision to allow for making abortions illegal won't pass in the state. Instead, they feel their odds are better litigating about it, or complaining about it.
On other matters, the case challenging the primary system filed by Skovgaard is a pro se case, as I suspected, meaning it has about zero chance of actually succeeding.
In other news, some members of the WFC are criticizing Wyoming courts as "activist", an absolutely absurd accusation, for not upholding the most recent abortion laws when the legislature itself is completely responsible for the constitutional amendment that causes those laws to do down in defeat.
The legislature could forward a repeal of that amendment, but it won't, as it's afraid that would go down in defeat. The whole thing is an example of playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize.
Rufus T. Firefly: Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.
Duck Soup.
Trump doing is signature creepy old guy dance..
June 4, 2026
Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky crossed party lines to vote with Democrats in favor of the resolution to end the illegal assault on Iran.
The measure goes on to the Senate. We'll see what happens there, as Trump's stabbed some Senators in the back, and they're ready to gut him like a fish now.
The action of the Senators is based on conscience. I believe its the right one, but it also serves to remind us that we're now in an incredibly bad spot in regard to the war against Iran, and in the Middle East in general.
It should have been obvious to anyone that decapitating the Iranian regime would not lead to a liberal democracy. The Iranian people have no real ability to overthrow their government and when they tried before the war, after we urged it, they were mowed down. It's the IRGC that has the guns.
When the July 20 plotters mapped out their attempt to kill Hitler, in the attempt that almost worked, it involved wiping out the Nazi state. The idea wasn't just to kill Hitler, but to remove the Nazis in every form. Men like Himmler, Goebbels and Goering would have ended up against a wall had the plot succeeded. Removing those in the seat of power just opens up a vacuum for those positions to be filled. Moreover, in the Iranian case, they'd planned for such eventualities, which we should have known as prior selective US assassinations didn't change the direction of the regime at all.
Moreover, the regime has no place to go. It's not as if they can walk out of their offices retire to cabbage farms. They have to remain in power. Like the German SS in 1945, the IRGC has no place to go. It has to keep the regime in power.
All of this is obvious.
It was likewise obvious that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz and that would so severely disrupt the world's petroleum supplies that it would actually boost the move to green energy, although people still have really awakened to that reality.
And it should have been obvious that those advocating for the war had ulterior agendas. Israel doesn't care about U.S. global considerations and is well aware that the U.S. is a declining power. Convincing a weak minded Trump to go to war with Iran was completely in its interest, and it doesn't care about considerations about defending Taiwan or South Korea.
Pete Hegseth and the pack of far right wing Evangelical would be Crusaders don't care what this will cost. In the view of those in that minoritarian group of American Protestants, a big war will bring on the end of the world and the return of Christ, now. They don't worry about the Just War Theory, as their convinced this is a Divinely ordained mission.
And, it's obvious right now, that the Iranian regime can in fact outwait Trump and its doing it.
The war can only come to an end in one of two ways. We quit, and leave the mess we created as it is, which is a complete and total defeat, or we undertake a largescale ground invasion. Those are the only two options.
The second one leaves open the question of should a country pursue a victory against a legitimate enemy when the war started illegally. It's only a hypothetical question, however, as Trump, who was so stupid as to believe the war would end in a few days, does not have the stomach for that. That really would cause there to be a vote on the war and he knows he'd loose it.
That means the only other option for ending the war is simply leaving, which is a complete defeat. Trump also can't bring himself to do that, as he can't stand the thought that he is what he is, a loser.
So, Trump's option will be increasingly just to ignore the war. He basically just hopes it will go away. In the meantime, like Hitler in the bunker, he plays with models of a reimagined gaudy capital city.
And increasingly look like this to the world.
June 8, 2026
Iran launched something on the order of thirty ballistic missiles on Israel today, and Israel retaliated with air strikes on Iran.
Israel also hit sites in Lebanon.
June 9, 2026
Iran shot down a U.S. helicopter, the US retaliated with airstrikes
Iran hit a U.S. airbase in eastern Jordan with ballistic missiles.
June 11, 2026
The IRGC has announced its shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
Pete Hegseth is at Guantanamo Bay being a blowhard.
June 12, 2026
Trump claims a deal has been worked out, Iran says no final deal has been reached.
Trump claims he called off massive attacks. Iran claims it controls the Straits of Hormuz.
Frankly, Iranian state media is much more reliable than the stream of crap that comes out of the Oval Office, so we don't really know what's going on. This is the 39th time in the war that Trump has claimed a deal is close, so you have to be extremely gullible to believe what he's saying at this point. It's not even at the "trust but verify" level, so much as the distrust and see what happens in a day or two level.
June 13, 2026
Leaked details of the Trump deal with Iran show Iran pretty much prevailing in the agreement. There will be, under the agreement, 60 days in which to discuss nuclear topics, which means that if Iran chooses not to resolve them, they won't be resolved. Once the war is stopped, and it never should have started, there will be no stomach for resuming it.
June 14, 2026
In the "I'll believe it when I see it" category, a CST headline:
TRUMP: PEACE DEAL
TO BE SIGNED SUNDAY
We'll see.
cont:
Iranian sources have indicated that there is a deal immanent, and it will include:
Fully opening the Strait of Hormuz immediately
U.S. to lift naval blockade within 30 days
No new sanctions imposed while negotiations continue
The U.S. will suspend current sanctions, allowing Iranian oil to be openly sold
$25 billion in Iranian assets to be unfrozen, including direct cash transfers
Formation of an economic development and reconstruction plan
Iran agrees it will neither produce nor acquire nuclear weapons
Fate of the nuclear program, including stockpile of highly enriched uranium, to be negotiated and finalized within 60 days
Full sanctions relief following a final agreement in 60 days
This is an overview, so it doesn't say anything about anything else. Some of these things can just happen, but the big thing the war may have been over (it was never clear what it was over), that being the nuclear program is really vague. Nothing will mean anything unless there's a way to verify what Iran is doing.
The $25B in frozen assets is about 1/4 the total amount that's frozen, I think. That's a major concession by the United States as the assets have been frozen since 1979.
The war has been completely illegal all along. Now the question is whether the war was worth it. It really doesn't seem that this achieved anything that the Obama era agreement hadn't. It might actually achieve less.
That it's time for Trump's birthday is interesting. I suspect a bit of political theater there. His administration will be declaring it a great victory, but it's pretty clear it isn't. The Iranian regime is more hard line than it was before, and its more in control than it was before. It actually retains a significant missile inventory, and there's no reason to believe it won't resume its past behavior pretty quickly.
June 15, 2026
So it seems like a deal has been reached, but it seems that for the most part the war didn't achieve much over what Obama's had, with no illegal war.
More than that, Iran's government is now more hardline than it was before, and they'll be receiving a massive infusion of cash.
June 17, 2026
The Memorandum of Understanding (not treaty) between the illegitimate Trump regime and Iran to end the Trump illegal war, with comments:
1 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the remaining Articles.
Interesting that its admitted that its a war, confessing that its launching by the United States is a crime. Frankly, Trump should be impeached for this.
2 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.
So, not only did we not change the regime, we've agreed not to touch Iran's.
3 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to negotiate and reach a final agreement within a maximum period of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent.
4 — Immediately upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, the United States lift the naval blockade and prevent any interference or obstruction against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and restore traffic within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity; the traffic of ships shall be proportional to the pre-war volume of traffic on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States also undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement.
So, we're pulling out.
5 — Upon signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take steps to ensure that the movement of merchant ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa is resumed within 30 days to the pre-war volume, taking into account the need for the removal of technical obstacles and the neutralization of mines by Iran.
6 — The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.
So we're paying for the damage we did during the war.
7 — The United States commits to ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, both primary and secondary.
And we're lifting the sanctions.
8 — The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran’s nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement; the final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article.
Iran promises not to build what it had already promised to build, and there's no agreement on nuclear materials.
9 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that, pending a final agreement, they will maintain the status quo: Iran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear program, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.
10 — The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the United States Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.
11 — The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.
Some Iranian assets have been frozen for 47 years.
12 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that an implementation mechanism will be established to oversee the successful implementation of and future commitment to the Final Agreement.
13 — Following the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and upon receipt of assurances regarding the commencement of implementation of Articles 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this Memorandum of Understanding, and the continued implementation of these steps, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States will enter into negotiations for a Final Agreement solely with respect to the remaining Articles.
14 — The final agreement will be approved through a binding resolution of the UN Security Council.
Effectively, the war was about nothing. We killed people, murdered them really as there was no declared war, didn't change the regime, don't know where the nuclear material really is, didn't actually deplete their missile stockpiles as much as thought, demonstrated to the Chinese that we're much weaker militarily than might have been supposed, encouraged Israel to take advantage of the situation by invading Lebanon, and used up a significant amount of our weapons stockpile.
Incredible.
With this astounding result, we'll close out this edition.
