The United States completed its withdrawal of troops from Thailand and closed the last military installations that it maintained there. Thailand had played a major role in the U.S. air campaign during the Vietnam War.
The United States evacuated Americans and Westerners from Beirut by sea.
Last edition:
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:
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.
Last edition:
It was Memorial Day for 1976.
Indeed, it's probably just a trick of the calendar and memory, but this year's Memorial Day seemed freakishly early to me. We probably went fishing.
I was a newly minted teenager as of a few days prior.
Syria invaded Lebanon, occupying part of the country until 2005. In the weird way that history works, the first column which was targeting Sidon was stopped by the PLO, a second by the Lebanese Army, and a third column by Christian militias.
That says something about how crappy the Syrian Army was, and frankly always was. They endured huge casualties.
The goal was to annex Lebanon into Syria. They'd never achieve a full occupation of the country, but they would over time expand the amount of territory they were occupying.
The Indonesian installed "People's Assembly of East Timor" voted unanimously in favor of the "Act of Integration" to make East Timor Indonesia's 27th province.
The UK and Iceland entered into negotiations to end the Cod Wars.
Last edition:
Maronite Catholic Jacelyne Khoueiry and six other Lebanese Christian women defended a building in Martyrs' Square in Beirut from an attack by 300 Palestine Liberation Organization fighter.
Khouneiry would go on to command a female Christian unit of 1,500 members before laying down her arms in 1986. She'd go on to found charitable and prolife organizations and participated in a 2012 synod on the Middle East and the 2014 Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. She was appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Last edition:
April 8,2026
What MAGA wizard King Donny said at the start of the war:
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. . .
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
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.
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:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
You have to make sure you know why you are going to war and then use decisive force to end it as soon as possible.
Colin Powell,
March 3, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
The war continues on, obviously, with the Administration struggling to explain what its about, why now, and why it can omit Congress from its constitutional duty.
It's expanded into a regional war, so far all aircraft and missiles. Included in the exchanges are those between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon.
It's become perfunctory to note that the Iranian government is horrible, which it is. It murders and rapes its own citizens in the name of an extreme variant of Shi'a Islam. But, there are a lot of horrible governments in the world. North Korea and Russia's are two such examples, Afghanistan's is another, and Trump of course cut a deal with them allowing them to return to power.
The Iranians were going to have a nuclear weapon, it has been claimed, soon, with soon being a bit of a moving target. A nuclear armed Iran would be frightening and that's the best argument for this offensive war, which would make it a preemptive defensive war. Even that argument, however, seems very poorly developed.
Marco Rubio gave the justification that, if another nation (Israel) attacked Iran, they'd attack us back, and that was an imminent threat. He claimed Iran was going to be attacked.
That basically would amount to handing the power to declare war for the United States over to Israel.
It just seems that, in reality, an aged demented Trump looking for some sort of legacy was talked into it by the Neoconservatives and Apocalyptic Evangelist in his circle of influencers, with perhaps, probably, Israel itself playing a role in that. Of all those goals, the Neocon one would be the least disturbing, which is not to say that it would not be disturbing.
One disturbing thing about that is that NPR, in its Politics podcast, ventured the opinion, not put this way, that Trump is basically drunk on power and will keep toppling governments as long as he's successful in doing so. If that's the case, we can predict that Cuba will be next as its a pet project of Marco Rubio.
The US has lost some aircraft to friendly fire, which in the age of cell phone video, makes for interesting video.
An interesting thing on this video, other than its a female pilot (she was lucky, as she nearly went down in the sea) is that the video shows the airplane to be an F-15, which means the Air Force, and not just the Navy, is flying some of these missions.
The U.S. death toll is up to five.
Afghanistan v. Pakistan
Hardly noticed in all the general war exploding in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting.
Cont:
United States and Israel v. Iran
Reports have revealed that at more than 30 military installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war in support of its being launched. One NCO reported that their commander told them today that the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ.
I know that this was going to occur, and at least one Evangelical pastor in the U.S. has said essentially the same thing. This, I'd note, how Mike Huckabee sees the world.
So now we're at least partially in an American Evangelical Christian holy war against Shia Islam. It'll be a shock to Evangelicals, but they're a tiny percentage of the globe's Christians, and the percentage of them that hold such Millennialist views is even smaller. This is going to hurt us all, however.
It's also being reported that J.D. Vance encouraged Trump to go "all in", for lack of a better word. I'm not sure of his thinking, but he might be approaching this with a Clausewitzian view of how to wage the war, although that will require ground troops in the end. From a military prospective, that argument has merit to it. What it lacks here is legality.
March 4, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
A Republican official attempted to justify the war on Iran with the figure that 700 Americans had been killed by Iran in the past 47 years.
Over 800 Iranians have now been killed by the US and Israel in the past five days.
Cont:
The US sank an Iranian frigate off of Sri Lanka yesterday. The attacking ship was a submarine.
Sinking enemy ships in wartime is legitimate. . . but this isn't a declared war.
United States in Ecuador
And we're now fighting somebody, just designated "terrorists", in Ecuador.
March 4, 2026, cont.
United States and Israel v. Iran
A Turkish missile was shot down over NATO ally Turkey and the Iranians launched a drone strike on an RAF base on Cyprus.
Without it apparently being obvious, both sides of this war are now lead or heavily influenced by competing apocalyptic visions. The US, by the theologically thin and ignorant New Apostolic Reformation Puritans and the Iranians by the Shia theocrats. Both want the wider war that they envision.
March 5, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
The Senate did vote on a war powers resolution that would have limited King Donny's ability to wage war. It failed.
This is being somewhat hailed as a King Donny victory, but it isn't. Actually, no matter how you regard the war, the fact that the vote occurred is a good thing as it somewhat, albeit very imperfectly, legitimizes the war. There has been some sort of vote, in other words, although less than that which is required.
The vote was largely on party lines.
| Name ▼ | State | Party | Vote | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angela Alsobrooks | Maryland | D | yes | |
| Tammy Baldwin | Wisconsin | D | yes | |
| Jim Banks | Indiana | R | no | |
| John Barrasso | Wyoming | R | no | |
| Michael Bennet | Colorado | D | yes | |
| Marsha Blackburn | Tennessee | R | no | |
| Richard Blumenthal | Connecticut | D | yes | |
| Lisa Blunt Rochester | Delaware | D | yes | |
| Cory Booker | New Jersey | D | yes | |
| John Boozman | Arkansas | R | no | |
| Katie Britt | Alabama | R | no | |
| Ted Budd | North Carolina | R | no | |
| Maria Cantwell | Washington | D | yes | |
| Shelley Capito | West Virginia | R | no | |
| Bill Cassidy | Louisiana | R | no | |
| Susan Collins | Maine | R | no | |
| Christopher Coons | Delaware | D | yes | |
| John Cornyn | Texas | R | no | |
| Catherine Cortez Masto | Nevada | D | yes | |
| Tom Cotton | Arkansas | R | no | |
| Kevin Cramer | North Dakota | R | no | |
| Michael Crapo | Idaho | R | no | |
| Ted Cruz | Texas | R | no | |
| John Curtis | Utah | R | no | |
| Steve Daines | Montana | R | no | |
| Tammy Duckworth | Illinois | D | yes | |
| Richard Durbin | Illinois | D | yes | |
| Joni Ernst | Iowa | R | no | |
| John Fetterman | Pennsylvania | D | no | |
| Deb Fischer | Nebraska | R | no | |
| Ruben Gallego | Arizona | D | yes | |
| Kirsten Gillibrand | New York | D | yes | |
| Lindsey Graham | South Carolina | R | no | |
| Charles Grassley | Iowa | R | no | |
| Bill Hagerty | Tennessee | R | no | |
| Margaret Hassan | New Hampshire | D | yes | |
| Joshua Hawley | Missouri | R | no | |
| Martin Heinrich | New Mexico | D | yes | |
| John Hickenlooper | Colorado | D | yes | |
| Mazie Hirono | Hawaii | D | yes | |
| John Hoeven | North Dakota | R | no | |
| Jon Husted | Ohio | R | no | |
| Cindy Hyde-Smith | Mississippi | R | no | |
| Ron Johnson | Wisconsin | R | no | |
| Jim Justice | West Virginia | R | no | |
| Timothy Kaine | Virginia | D | yes | |
| Mark Kelly | Arizona | D | yes | |
| John Kennedy | Louisiana | R | no | |
| Andy Kim | New Jersey | D | yes | |
| Angus King | Maine | I | yes | |
| Amy Klobuchar | Minnesota | D | yes | |
| James Lankford | Oklahoma | R | no | |
| Mike Lee | Utah | R | no | |
| Ben Luján | New Mexico | D | yes | |
| Cynthia Lummis | Wyoming | R | no | |
| Edward Markey | Massachusetts | D | yes | |
| Roger Marshall | Kansas | R | no | |
| Mitch McConnell | Kentucky | R | no | |
| Dave McCormick | Pennsylvania | R | no | |
| Jeff Merkley | Oregon | D | yes | |
| Ashley Moody | Florida | R | no | |
| Jerry Moran | Kansas | R | no | |
| Bernie Moreno | Ohio | R | no | |
| Markwayne Mullin | Oklahoma | R | no | |
| Lisa Murkowski | Alaska | R | no | |
| Christopher Murphy | Connecticut | D | yes | |
| Patty Murray | Washington | D | yes | |
| Jon Ossoff | Georgia | D | yes | |
| Alejandro Padilla | California | D | yes | |
| Rand Paul | Kentucky | R | yes | |
| Gary Peters | Michigan | D | yes | |
| John Reed | Rhode Island | D | yes | |
| Pete Ricketts | Nebraska | R | no | |
| James Risch | Idaho | R | no | |
| Jacky Rosen | Nevada | D | yes | |
| Mike Rounds | South Dakota | R | no | |
| Bernard Sanders | Vermont | I | yes | |
| Brian Schatz | Hawaii | D | yes | |
| Adam Schiff | California | D | yes | |
| Eric Schmitt | Missouri | R | no | |
| Charles Schumer | New York | D | yes | |
| Rick Scott | Florida | R | no | |
| Tim Scott | South Carolina | R | no | |
| Jeanne Shaheen | New Hampshire | D | yes | |
| Tim Sheehy | Montana | R | no | |
| Elissa Slotkin | Michigan | D | yes | |
| Tina Smith | Minnesota | D | yes | |
| Dan Sullivan | Alaska | R | no | |
| John Thune | South Dakota | R | no | |
| Thom Tillis | North Carolina | R | no | |
| Tommy Tuberville | Alabama | R | no | |
| Chris Van Hollen | Maryland | D | yes | |
| Mark Warner | Virginia | D | yes | |
| Raphael Warnock | Georgia | D | yes | |
| Elizabeth Warren | Massachusetts | D | yes | |
| Peter Welch | Vermont | D | yes | |
| Sheldon Whitehouse | Rhode Island | D | yes | |
| Roger Wicker | Mississippi | R | no | |
| Ron Wyden | Oregon | D | yes | |
| Todd Young | Indiana | R | no |
Now the Republican Party owns this war.
The Administration is already in violation of the War Powers Act as it didn't give proper notice for the war. It would appear that under the act it's ability to wage war legally will expire in about 90 days. Trump appears to be just dumb enough to believe that everything will certainly be okay in that period of time, which is far from guaranteed.
European wags are calling the war, which some idiot named Operation Epic Fury, Operation Epstein Fury.
cont:
The United States and a Gulf state are now seeking to purchase drone interceptors from Ukraine.
Rather ironic, really.
Trump has called on the Kurds in Iran to revolt.
That's a really problematic call to arms. The U.S. has a history of doing this with the Kurds and then not fully supporting them when the rise up. Right now, there's a rump Kurdish state in Syria, and a Kurdish population in Iraq, that would like to form a bonafide state. If the Kurds achieved a measure of autonomy in Iran, it'd be hard not to grant them full statehood.
That's fine, in my view, but it won't be fine in Turkey's view, which creates all sorts of problems.
cont:
The House also rejected a War Powers resolution to halt the war against Iran. The vote was 212 to 219.
While this will go back in sixty days or so, this effectively amounts to Congressional authorization, although again, imperfectly.
Two Republicans voted to halt the war. Four Democrats voted in favor of it.
March 6, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
It's increasingly clear that the U.S. is responsible for the strike on a school that killed over 100 young girls. Apparently the structure was once used by the Iranian military, but has not been for some time.
Meanwhile:
The pastors told Trump that the love of money was the root of all evil and that he needs to repent for his deeply immoral life. . . oh wait, that didn't happen.
God will not be mocked
Galatians 6:7.
Sen. John Barrasso, who is mostly seen now days standing behind John Thune with a serious look on his face, dutifully spouted the "we've been at war for 47 years" line in the last couple of days, as if anyone cares what his opinion is on anything. Everyone knows that if Trump came out later this week and said that we're killing school girls as we hate pistachios, Barrasso would repeat that.
Time asked King Donny about whether Americans should be worried about attacks in the U.S.. His reply:
I guess…We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.
Frankly, if Americans die, unless their names is Trump, Trump doesn't appear to care. But why would anyone think he would care?
On this, Iran had decades to insert sleeper cells into the U.S., and they don't have to be staffed by Iranian nationals. That doesn't mean, however that they did. Some nations that we assumed had done that in the past, like Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, didn't.
It's always been assumed, and probably correctly, that the Soviet Union did.
Iran? If they didn't, I can't imagine why they did not, but they may not have.
What is sure right now is that they haven't struck. That doesn't mean they won't. Using sleeper agents is usually reserved for what basically amounts to total war, and its risky. Right now, all Iran really has to do is hang on until August or so, by which time if it hasn't surrendered, disgusted Americans will use the war against the GOP for being Trump toadies. That appears likely to happen anyhow. Use of agents might serve to simply make Americans mad, which could change that.
Strikes against economic targets, however, are another matter. There's not an oil refinery in the US that a terrorist can't damage somehow and that would not only be potentially hugely disrupting, but it would require the domestic deployment of troops and drive up the price of oil like crazy. It might also not so much anger, as opposed to scare, Americans.
What average Americans have to worry about is rogue individuals. In a country in which its so easy to acquire arms, we're very open to attacks like that which happened recently in Austin, or in Australia. The Trump regime would react to that by cutting into the 2nd Amendment.
Will that occur? Well it already has. But even at that, it didn't happen during the Vietnam War, which might be the most comparable to what we're enduring right now.
Which doesn't mean that we shouldn't be worried.
But don't worry too much. Donny, who lamented how many young men were being killed in the Russo Ukrainian War at one time, isn't concerned. If you die, well, that's just one of those things.
The Washington Post reports that Russia is providing Iran targeting information.
Cont:
King Donny has demanded an "unconditional surrender" by Iran, thereby completely removing any incentive the Islamic Republic has to enter into any sort of arrangement with the US whatsoever.
Generally, demand for unconditional surrenders are monumentally stupid and rarely work. Such a demand in part caused the Third Reich and Imperial Japan to fight beyond the point at which political forces in both countries would have ended those wars, and they (if we consider them to be two different wars) beyond the point at which they otherwise would have. Even at that, Japan's surrender actually turned out to have conditions imposed by Japan.
An unconditional surrender here would completely turn Iran's fate, and that of its Islamic regime, over to the United States. Why wouldn't they just fight on? This likely serves to strengthen the unpopular government.
It also puts the US military in a situation in which a ground invasion of Iran is practically mandatory. Staging that will be difficult as the US is unlikely to gain the cooperation of Iraq or Turkey in that, and of course thanks to Donny's brilliant first term diplomacy, Afghanistan as a staging area it not an option. Therefore it would appear a large scale maritime landing would be required.
Cont:
Well, the admiration is already trying to walk that back:
When he as commander in chief determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the US and the goals of Operation Epic Fury have been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional.
Leavitt.
March 8, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
No end in sight.
Kurdish sources have apparently indicated that the US asked for them to take action against Iran, but they don't trust Trump so they declined.
United States v. Cuba
The administration is giving every indication that it intends to take unauthorized military action against Cuba next.
March 9, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the killed Supreme Leader, is the new Supreme Leader. So the attacks did not effect regime change whatsoever, so far.
The United States lifted a sanction on Indian oil allowing that country to receive it, in light of rising prices, thereby giving Russian an economic benefit in the war.
March 10, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
At least commentator holds Iran's new Supreme Leader is more extreme than his father.
Cont:
I had a very good call with President Putin. We talked about Ukraine which is the never ending fight…It was a positive call on that subject
We obviously talked about the Middle East. He wants to be helpful…We had a very good talk, and he wants to be very constructive.
Trump.
At this point, even if you are the MAGAist MAGA of the MAGA, to not believe that the relationship between Donald Trump and Putin isn't weird, it's a willful decision. The Russians are giving Iran intelligence against us and our reaction is to lift sanctions on their oil.
And Putin wants to be helpful. Yeah, right.
Cont:
Nobody seems to notice, but acts of terrorism against the U.S. have spread into New York and Canada.
March 11, 2026
United States and Israel v. Iran
Headline from the Casper Star Tribune:
US, IRAN DIG IN
Which in Iran's case at least, was obviously going to occur. Our President didn't realize that, as he's an idiot.
Sen. Roger Marshall on high gas prices: "Freedom is not free. Americans are gonna have to make some sacrifices."
Quite a statement in support of a war Americans didn't want launched by an oligarch who doesn't even drive.
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