King Donald's War, Part 12. The "Economic D-Day" edition. CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 152nd Edition, the irony edition.

The fearsome Scott Bessent.

August 26, 2026

King Donny sent the fearsome Scott Bessent out to cause the Iranians to quiver in their boots, announcing that the US would inflict an "Economic D-Day" on Iran.

Except the US is going to exempt China, meaning that Operation Economic Outcast was stillborn from the very beginning.

Midweek Update#25: Sanctions Without China Are A Sign Of Defeat

So, It Turns Out That The US Is Winning!; A Story Illustrating Why This Pentagon Cannot Be Trusted

The US is moving its ambassadors back to the Middle East, however, which suggests it either naively thinks this will work, or that it's just going to give up.

Meanwhile:

Pentagon reveals hundreds of new Iran war casualties

More than 600 troops have been wounded in the Iran war, officials disclosed Saturday, almost 200 more than previously known.

This post, by the way, is the first one that I've ever had Bessent's name as a label, which surprises me.  He's been mentioned before, but I've never put in a label.

One thing I've thought about doing is posting how he's sort of uniquely a symbol of hypocrisy in the Trump Administration, or maybe in MAGA.  MAGA proclaims loudly that it's for "Christian" values by which it means far right Evangelical values.

Christianity pretty clearly holds that homosexual sex is a mortal sin.  St. Paul was blunt about it.  And yet Bessent is a homosexual in a homosexual union in which two children are being raised.  Most actual Christians of any type would question this, and if Evangelical Christians are to be believed, they find it completely abhorrent.

But then, by the same token, having an alleged president who is a serial polygamist, a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, whatever that is, who seemed to be having an affair while in her earlier role and whose husband was wearing giant fake boobs in internet photos, etc. etc., is pretty odd too.

Indeed, it's impossible to reconcile.

Mind you, I'm not saying that a homosexual, including one who is in a homosexual union, cannot be an effective Secretary of the Treasury.  I'm saying you can't have an implied policy that everyone who isn't, white, straight, and sympathetic to far right Evangelicalism isn't a real American and still have a homosexual as one of your primary cabinet members and really mean any of that.

Making it all the more odd, Bessent is one of those cabinet members who has in recent months been dragged out to try to explain away whatever brain fart the Trump has uttered.  

That feature of this administration has been there all along.  Whereas for a transportation issue you might, in normal times, get a Transportation official, in this administration you might very well end up getting the Chief Chef of the White House to address it. And people appear and then disappear in that role pretty rapidly.  Chris Wright, the Secretary of Energy, regularly was being hauled out to address the Press on all sorts of things for awhile, right up until he said that Biden was validly elected to the Oval Office.

Goodbye Chris.

Anyhow, there's something extra weird about Bessent, who always seems extremely nervous, being hauled out to address the Press on the war while we have Pete "High T" Hegseth in charge of the "War Department".  Hegseth definitely fits into the far right Evangelical mold and is loud about it, while also being loud about the services being for manly men.  

Well, anyhow.  So much for Operation Economic Outcast.

August 31, 2026

Trump just shot some missiles at Iran and nobody cared

September 1, 2026

Iran, which you will recall supposedly lost the war, numerous times, hit Jordan with missiles within the last couple of days.

Only somewhat related, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is close to J. D. Vance, submitted his resignation.  It is well known that he does not get along with Hegseth.

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 11. The worst defeat in American History. Sic transit Gloria Mundi.

Labels: 2020s, 2026, 2026 Election, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Iran, Israel, King Donald's War, Operation Eagle Claw, Sic transit Gloria Mundi, Suez Crisis, The Second Trump Administration, United States and Israel v. Iran

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 151st Edition. Дональд Трамп. Нелегалы? Donald Trump, Moscow's man in the White House or just really stupid (probably really stupid)?

Labels: China, Donald Trump, Espionage, Iran, North Korea, Predictions, Russia, Russo Ukrainian War, South Korea, Stupidity, United States and Israel v. Iran, Weird, Zeitgeist, Дональд Трамп — агент России

Thursday, July 4, 1776. Declaring independence.

It's often been noted how hot the hall in Philadelphia was in July, 1776, in which case this illustration likely isn't accurate. Record heat was experienced there  yesterday.

On this day, the Continental Congress representing thirteen of the fourteen British North American colonies voted to approve a declaration of independence. The colonies had been at war with the United Kingdom for a little over a year at the time.

The declaration stated:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The act was bold as it was clearly treasonous and therefore the signatories stood a real chance of being executed if the effort failed.  It was additionally bold as it represented a minority opinion.  Only 1/3d of the residents of the colonies, at best, supported independence, while at least 1/3d opposed it.  While declaring all men to be equal, it came about with a large number of men and women being held in slavery, which was legal in all thirteen colonies at the time.

It's often been noted that its high principals have often failed to be realized and in fact they are not being realized right now. Several of the "intolerable acts" are presently afflicted upon the country by the illegitimate occupant of the White House, Donald Trump, including, in part or in whole;

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,

Given that there is really not much to celebrate on this, our 250th year of independence, and I don't intend to.  It would make a complete mockery of what the Continental Congress declared 250 years ago.  

We've surrendered our liberties to an old, demented, king.

A food item:

Last edition:

Saturday, June 29, 1776. A constitution for Virginia.

Labels: 1770s, 1776, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Declartion of Independence, law, Royal Navy, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Navy, Virginia

The 25th Amendment Watch List, Sixteenth Edition: The Addled.

May 12, 2026

Drugs coming by sea, by ocean, by water. A lot of people say, What do you mean by sea? Is it see? Like vision? No, it’s sea. SEA.

Donald Trump on the maritime transportation of illegal drugs.  Absolutely nobody was confused on this topic, maybe other than Trump.

We have a man who is doing a great job. I knew it! Because he kept me out of jail for years. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. He kept me out of jail.

Ummm. . . 

We're building a beautiful ballroom. I'm very good at ballrooms.

The ballroom, which will either never be built or will be ripped down, is a Trump obsession.

A new name I came up  -- dumbocrat. I think that could be a good one. I've come up with some extraordinary names. But I was talking about Hakeem Jeffries. He's a low IQ person. He's a dumb guy.

Trump has an obsession on intelligence like only a man who isn't intelligent can have.

Without you, we have Somalia. A fine place where we have a congresswoman who brilliantly came over to the country by marrying her brother. That was the first law she broke. She comes from a country where they have nothing but crime, bedlam, filth. Elan Omar.

Ilhan Omar  has been married three times, and none of her husbands were her brother.

This accusation taps into the deeply racist nature of a lot of MAGA in particular and the American far right in general. This has laid under the surface following the 1960s for years, but it resurfaced with the rise of Barack Obama which caused this demographic to flip out.  Trump tapped into it early with his clams that Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya.

Funny thing here is that Obama and Trump share a common item here in that both of them were born to a couple in which one of them was an immigrant.  In Trump's case, however, the immigrant was a white Christian, as opposed to Obama's. This item here really shows something that's deeply ingrained in the MAGA movement.  It really doesn't like anyone who isn't white and it really doesn't like anyone who isn't culturally Christian.

Otherwise, it's perfectly okay with people like Trump, who marry foreign women of a certain appearance and then divorce them later on, and whose Christianity is a variant of it that doesn't really require any actual effort or adherence to the Gospel.

The people that did it -- these people did not work for me. They said they work for me. They come from a different part of the country. But they were good. The people that worked for me recommended it and they recommend we do it this way. But I recommended it to them because I'm very good at construction.

Tide D Bowl.

No Republican has ever spoken to me about Cuba, which is a failed country and only heading in one direction - down! Cuba is asking for help, and we are going to talk!!! In the meantime, I’m off to China! President DJT

Donald Trump.

We'll address the super creepy "Trump babies" in another thread.

A note here.  Trump's 18 month mark will be July 20, 2026.  If I'm right, we're now in the final phases of his administration as he'll be removed by the 25th Amendment by then.

May 13, 2026

Trump, who came to office principally because he promised to deport the 10M to 12M illegal aliens in the US, most of whom are Hispanic, now wants to annex Venezuela, with a population of 31M, and make it a state.

Let's not pretend he's joking, he isn't.

The population of the US is currently 20% Hispanic.  Annexation of Venezuela and making its citizens US citizens would convert the country to being a 30% Hispanic country overnight.  MAGA has a strongly nativist anti Hispanic bias.  It'll amusing how they bend that to supporting this, but they will.

The entire thing is amusing about King Donny.  He's so dim that all he ever thinks about is the cash value of something, and Venezuela has oil.  He apparently doesn't realize that Venezuela, which is a large country which would probably come in as more than one state if it did, is also a Socialist one.  The Republican Party would be effectively dead, and the US would be far more left wing than it currently is.

This won't happen, as it would require the cooperation of Congress.  At least I don't think it would.  But the fact that MAGA will support this just shows how dim that movement is.

MAGA politicians, including Harriet Hageman and John Sycophant Barrasso, should be quizzed on this, and don't let them weasel out of answering or tell you its a joke.  It isn't.

On issues closer to home:

Wyoming Cattle Ranchers Worried Over Trump Proposal To Lower Tariffs On Beef Imports

Farmers and ranches who supported Trump were reading something into him that just isn't there and will regret it.

May 14, 2026

This item raises some really good and interesting points.

Bare minimum, as the wheels come off the Trump administration he's getting increasingly erratic.  Richardson proposes some darker motives, but even if there not there, there appears to be a dedicated effort to say things now to distract as things get worse and worse.

Last edition:

Ballroom Batshit. A demented president goes full bonkers. The 25th Amendment Watch List Fifteenth Edition and Court Watch Part VI.

Labels: 2025 White House Vandalization, 25th Amendment Watch List, Ascendant Ignorance in the Age of Donald Trump, Court Watch, Ignorance, The Madness of King Donald

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 136th Edition.Wyoming Republicans, not realizing they're Democrats, are criticizing Democrats, who are moderate Republicans, crossing over.

I saw an old friend getting hot and bothered by this today.  The small Democratic Party is having an  internal debate about its members switching their registration over to Republican so that the Wyoming Freedom Caucus candidates stand a bitter chance of losing.   Truth be known, almost all moderate Democrats in the state did that decades ago, some later running as fairly successful Republicans.  Cowboy State Daily Carpetbagger Dave Simpson has written an op ed about checking the "label" of Republican candidates.

Indeed, check it.  Most of the WFC candidates don't belong in the GOP at all. They aren't Republicans.

My old friend is supporting Brent Bien, who spent 28 years sucking on the government tit before taking a retirement (more sucking on the government tit) and is upset with Degenfelder and Barlow.  I'm not keen on Barlow either, but if you spend almost 30 years working in an institution that's funded by the taxpayers and then come out with a no taxes policy, you are some kind of hypocrite.  

And yes I'm speaking of a military career. Yes, there's a lot that's honorable about a military career, but I'm pretty familiar with it and you never have to 1) send out a bill, 2) worry about the competition, 3) worry your employer isn't going to have money to pay you, 3) work for fifty years before you retire, if you can ever retire, 4) worry that you line of work is just going to cease to exist.  Sure, you do have to worry about violent death, that's very true.  Like the Potts character says in Major Dundee; "that goes with the pretty girls and the pension", but the chances of that, while very real, are much less than they're made out to be for most career military people, although they are real, and the risk of violent death goes with a host of other professions too for which such worries do exist and you aren't going to get a "thank you for your service!" accolade and aren't going to be regarded as a hero.

Being a logger is actually the most dangerous job in the U.S., followed by being a commercial fisherman.  In a location specific sense, being a taxi driver was, and may still be, the most dangerous job in the U.S.

Anyhow, the criticism is that Barlow and Degenfelder might not adhere to, well:

Meine Ehre heißt Treue

Oh my, think for yourself, can't have that.

Anyhow, my friend is no doubt part of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus which is demanding loyalty oaths from Republicans.

But they aren't Republicans.

They're Dixiecrats through and through.

You'd be really hard pressed to find a Dixiecrat issue that the WFC didn't adhere to, somehow.

And you'd be hard pressed to find a Republican here who was part of the party in the Nixon or Reagan era who wouldn't look at the current party with utter disdain.

Ironically, being in the state GOP at the present time must be real torture for people who hold a no foreign wars, American First, white people only, sort of view, when their "Republican" President holds a war of the week, himself first, let's annex Venezuela and make it a state, sort of view.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 135th Edition. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus

Labels: Catholic, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, Ignorance, Islam, It was because of the Civil War, Judaism, Mormon, Orthodox, Protestant, religion, Sunday Morning Scene, The Law of Unintended Consequences, Zeitgeist

King Donald's War, Part 5. After 13/15 U.S. deaths, Hundreds of Iranian deaths, $50B spent fighting it, and a massive increase in the price of oil, King Donny surrenders to the Iranians. The "If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied" edition.

April 8,2026

What MAGA wizard King Donny said at the start of the war:

What the befuddled demented agreed to as an a starting point now:

The MAGA's I know and read about are already bragging this up as another example of Trump brilliance.  This demonstrates how completely brainwashed MAGA really is.  There is a Trump Derangement Syndrome alright.  It's what allows people who voted for no more overseas wars, lower prices, a return to (Calvinist) Christianity, and a deep belief in a conspiracy to keep the Epstein files hidden vote for a man who has now waged two wars, surrendered to a Muslim theocracy, caused higher prices, while hiding the Epstein files and living a life contrary to the Gospels to be worshipped no matter what he does.

We lost this war, completely.  We not only lost it for us, we lost it for Israel too.  Israel, which duped Donny into the war, deserved it.  The American people did not.

Thirteen American servicemen died for nothing whatsoever, other than an attempt at the greater glory of Trump.  Their lives were wasted. Their deaths didn't serve the nation, but one man.  Six were Army National Guardsmen.  Six were members of the USAF.

No Trumps or Musks, or the children of the rich, died.  If you visited Epstein Island, your family wasn't fighting.

And by the way, the oligarchs grew richer during the war, due to timely made trades and a rise in the price of oil, which made regular Americans poorer.

Trump once claimed that veterans were suckers.  The veterans of this war are.  But more than that, those who voted for Trump were proven to be.  There was no excuse to support him in the last election and there's no excuse not to remove him now.  

Before the war Iran was a theocracy.  It still is.

Before the war the Iranian people wanted freedom. They still do, and still lack it.

Before the war Iran could launch missiles and drones at their enemies. They still can.

Before the war Iran had 1000 pounds of uranium.  It still does.

Before the war the Strait of Hormuz was open.  Now Iran gets to charge a toll for its passage.

During the war Iran shipped more oil at a higher price than it did before the war.

The names of the thirteen known men and women who gave their lives, not for their country but for Donald Trump, are:

CWO Robert Marzan

SFC Nicole Amor

SFC Noah Tietjens

Sgt Declan Coady

Maj. Jeffrey O'Brien

Cpt. Cody Khork

Sgt. Benjamin Pennington

Maj. John "Alex" Klinner

Cpt. Ariana Savino

TSgt. Ashley Pruitt

Cpt. Seth Koval

Ct. Curtis Angst

TSgt. Tyler Simmons

Only some of the names of the 170 some Iranian girls the U.S. killed during the war are known.  Those names, including a few of the names of their teachers, are:

1. Hana Dehqani, eight years old

2. Fatemeh Salari, 34 years old

3. Reza Habashian, seven years old

4. Arya Bahadori, nine years old

5. Ali Asghar Zaeri, eight years old

6. Zahra Bahrami, seven years old 

7. Ahmad Soltani, eight years old

8. Hamed Par-ashegh-nezhad, seven years old

9. Fatemeh Yazdan-panah, young girl, age unknown

10. Mahdis Nazari, seven years old

11. Athena Chamani-nezhad, six years old

12. Amirghasem Zaeri, seven years old

13. Fatemeh Dorazehi, 10 years old

14. Arad Ahmadizadeh, eight years old 

15. Saman Karimzadeh, seven years old

16. Fatemeh Shahdadi, age unknown

17. Nadia Shahmiri, nine years old

18. Parham Ranjbari, nine years old

19. Mahmoud Gholamyani, 35 years old

20. Fatemeh Rahdar, 10 years old 

21. Amir-Hassan Rasouli, eight years old

22. Zahra Behrouzi, eight years old

23. Mohammadhatam Raisi, 10 years old

24. Asna Raisi, 12 years old 

25. Benyamin Jangjou, eight years old

26. Mohammad-Sadra Zarei, eight years old 

27. Maryam Pazark, 10 years old

28. Liana Mohammadi, seven years old

29. Mandana Salari, 29 years old

30. Sara Shayesteh, five years old

31. Zoha Pasand, eight years old

32. Esra Zakeri, nine years old

33. Salma Zakeri, six years old

34. Fatemeh Taherifard, 29 years old

35. Zahra Ansari, seven years old

36. Fatemeh Fadavi, 10 years old 

37. Mahna Zarei, two months old

38. Athareh Zarei, 10 years old

39. Alireza Zarei, nine years old

40. Mohammadreza Shahsavari, eight years old

41. Samira Basarde, 38 years old

42. Ehsan Saleminia, six years old

43. Fatemeh Zahra Karimi, seven years old

44. Zeynab Bahrami, 10 years old

45. Mohammad Shah-dousti, eight years old

46. Reza Barani, seven years old

47. Athena Ahmadzadeh, 10 years old

48. Khadijeh Darvishi, nine years old

49. Roqayyeh Karimi, 42 years old

50. Reza Ranjbar, six years old 

51. Marzieh Bashiri-far, 38 years old

52. Mohammad-Mehdi Chegini, 10 years old

53. Mohammadian Bahrami, 17 years old

54. Ali-Akbar Karyani Pak, eight years old

55. Hananeh Mehdikhah, seven years old

56. Fereshteh Sangarzadeh, 44 years old 

57. Mohammad-Ali Karyani Pak, seven years old

58. Parsa Mokhtari-nasab, 12 years old

59. Arina Arab-Kish, eight years old

60. Makan Nasiri, 12 years old

61. Esra Farahi-Zadeh, young girl, age unknown

About half of the American lives were due to a mid air accident, but they're just as dead as they would be had they died fighting.  All of the Iranian lives lost that are listed are due to a targeting accident.

What the death toll for anybody in Lebanon, which opened up as a theatre of war while this was going on, we don't probably really know.

May the perpetual light shine upon them.

If any question why we died, 

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

None of these people had a choice in the offering of their lives for Trump's desperate attempt to have a legacy.  American voters do have a choice on allowing him to continue to kill in an attempt to gain one, however.  They'll have that choice in November, and through their members of Congress, they have a sort of choice now.  The second it becomes clear to Republican members of Congress that their phony jobs are in danger by supporting a madman, they'll suddenly have never supported him. 

April 9, 2026

Nothing is going through the Straits of Hormuz yet. . . a sign that shippers doubt the ceasefire will hold.

And it hasn't in Lebanon, where Israel continues to conduct operations arguing, logically enough, that it doesn't apply there anyway.

April 13, 2026

Well negotiations are going badly so now King Donny is threatening to blockade Iranian ports.

The world's worst dealmaker screws up the Iran negotiations

Forget the "Art of the Deal” myth.

April 17, 2026

There apparently is an agreement for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

April 18, 2026

A suspicious package caused a lockdown on parts of F. E. Warren yesterday.

Related?  I don't know, but then, I don't know.

The Straits of Hormoz were announced open yesterday, and then Iran announced that they are under strict Iranian control today.

April 20, 2026

The United States announced a second round of talks in Pakistan and even discussed the delegation, with Trump claiming the parties were close to a deal.

Iran said nope, it wasn't going to any talks.

April 21, 2026

Some reporters are indicating that the US and Iran were close to a deal to end the war and that it was blown up by Trump's tweeting.

April 22, 2026

Trump was going to rain down destruction if things weren't moving yesterday, yadda yadda, yadda. . .

On other matters related to Mad King Donald's War, there are persistent rumors that recently he asked for the nuclear codes and was denied them by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Did that happen?  We just don't know.  If it did, we are way past the point where the 25th Amendment needs to be invoked.  But again, we don't know.

April 23, 2026

More head's rolling in the DoD:

Navy Secretary leaving role ‘effective immediately,’ Pentagon announces

Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as the Navy’s acting secretary amid John Phelan’s sudden departure.

It's well known that Hegseth has the Secretary of the Army in his sights but hasn't been able to pull that off yet.

Interesting . . . 

In other news, Iran is reporting that its Revolutionary Guards seized to vessels. Granted, that's not the Iranian Navy, but it does show that Iranian forces are more resilient than the US claims.

April 24, 2026

Trump's war on the global food supply

Just the latest moral and logistical atrocity.

April 25, 2026

Talks that were supposed to start today, aren't.

April 26, 2026

News has leaked that an Iranian Air Force F5 hit a US base in Kuwait awhile back.

The F5 was a great airplane.  They haven't been made since 1987 but they're in the class of weapons, like the A10, that just keeps on keeping on.

The interesting thing here is that we've supposedly completely destroyed the Iranian Air Force and Navy, and yet the Iranians are still capable of flying (they were pretty limited in this before the war) and putting small boats in the sea.  In order to really defeat Iran, we would have to be troops on the ground, and the Iranians will fight.

April 27, 2026

Guests and panelist on This Week made it clear that the momentum with the war is now with Iran and that if proceed on the current path, Iran will come out of the war stronger than they went in it.  

April 28, 2026

It's hardly been noticed, in part because of the attack at the Correspondence Dinner, but the US is on the verge of basically formally surrendering to Iran and leaving Iran a more powerful nation than it was when the war started.

Trump Blinked

This will close out this edition.  The man who is attributed with the Art of the Deal, which of course was ghostwritten, is being shown the Art of the Squeal by a nation that's not impressed with him, and which is run by people vastly more intelligent than he is.  He's going to surrender.  He won't call it that, but that's what he's about to do.

And with the surrender imminent, we'll go on to a new edition of this thread. 

Last edition:

King Donald's War, Part 4. The Raving Madman threatens to resort to mass war crimes.

Labels: Catholic, Christianity, Donald Trump, King Donald's War, religion, The Madness of King Donald, United States and Israel v. Iran, War Crimes