Also, Trump threatens to bomb Oman, an ally.
Frustration with Trump Sets In
The Washington Post reports Frustration with Trump grows among U.S.’s Persian Gulf allies
Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly issued threats against Iran, only to withdraw them, citing progress in talks. After months of conflict, and continuing missile and drone strikes by Iran and its proxies, three officials and a former U.S. diplomat told The Washington Post, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration. Some have begun to debate the utility of continuing to host large U.S. military installations on their territory.
“Trump started this war,” one Gulf official said, “and we are paying the price.” Like others in this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject. Anger with the United States, the official said, was at its highest point since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.
The Gulf states continue to rely on Washington as a close security partner and major arms supplier, and Qatar and Bahrain host large U.S. bases. But the frustration is leading some states to consider new arrangements. These dynamics are unlikely in the near term to significantly reorder the region, analysts say, but some countries have begun to explore their options.
A mutual defense agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan last week was “a signal to the U.S.,” a senior European official said.
“There has been frustration from the get-go,” said Firas Maksad, director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at the Eurasia Group. U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, he said, feel they were “unnecessarily entangled” in a war that Trump is now struggling to resolve.
Maksad, who has extensive contacts within Gulf leadership, said Trump’s Iran policy is often described in the region as “erratic” and “unpredictable.”
Anna Jacobs, a fellow with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said there has been “diminished trust” of the U.S. since the start of the war. U.S. allies think the country’s “conduct in the region is making them less safe, not more safe,” she said.
“At the beginning of the war, they were — I don’t want to say, supportive — but honestly, they were not totally against the war,” the senior European official said. The thinking in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, he said, was that a quick, definitive victory could prove beneficial.
That began to shift in the lead-up to the first round of talks between Iran and the United States in April, the official said, when it became clear that not only would the Iranian regime not fall, but it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
In the months since, Trump’s inconsistency has alarmed the Gulf, said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University.
“Even before all this back and forth with Trump, there was no clear strategy,” said Al-Saif, a fellow of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He cited the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran in June.
“The MOU was a joke,” he said. The agreement didn’t address the Gulf states’ top concerns, including Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal or Tehran’s support for proxy forces.
“Those terms were not terms of our liking,” Al-Saif said, “and that’s why it died out sooner than later.”
Was the MOU a Joke?
No. It was a necessary Trump capitulation, unfortunately temporary due to Trump’s incompetence.
Trump’s implementation of the MOU indeed was the joke. Trump expected Iran to honor things it never agreed to.
Trump lost the war.
The MOU provided Trump a good opportunity to cut losses.
The price of gasoline would have dropped and he was free to hype up the deal, no matter how bad.
Instead, true to self, Trump wanted more than he could get. As a result, the strait is blocked again, oil is shut off, and the price of gasoline and diesel is headed back up.
The result is now so bad that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration.
Iran is laughing at the incompetence of Trump.
Meanwhile in Oman
Comments on Oman
Illegal Orders
One assumes this is just the usual Trump BS. But perhaps it’s worth saying that if Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.
How Trump Thinks
Total Embarassment
Seriously, did you vote for this?
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Whether intentional or not, Trump is dismantling the American Empire.
I like it!
Q: What boxed foods does Trump prefer to hide behind when fleeing in an airline catering truck?
A: 1) chicken-liver pate
2) chicken wings
3) chicken drumsticks
Kid’s meal. Word on the street is Kegsbreath was in there with him mooching on the drinks.
Chicken Tacos.
LOL!
I too would be looking at alternatives considering we cant repair our ships quickly USS Benfold Was Stalled in the South China Sea for Four Days After Engineering Casualty
https://news.usni.org/2026/08/14/uss-benfold-was-stalled-in-the-south-china-sea-for-four-days-after-engineering-casualty
This particular destroyer first entered service exactly 30 years ago. It is not an exception, the average age of the US Destroyer fleet is 25-30 years. Ships at this age require a lot of maintenance, and most US bases in the region are out of action. This makes the whole proposition of a continuing naval blockade of Iran very difficult and costly to implement.
it’s quite interesting really. not only is donald POTUS. he is a cult leader like no other president in our short history of 250. it’s quite amusing to watch the Yokels
Hicks, bumpkins hayseeds, fawn over the Con Man like he’s bigger than jesus and even babe ruth………..i must say it makes me LOL
I think we are all very lucky that he is as impulsive, transparent, short tempered, abrasive and chaotic as he is.
A demagogue that was more methodical, calculative, subtle and strategic would put the US and the whole world in a shit ton of more trouble.
correct assessment. we already had our past century of those types from FDR to ike in persia to the bush crime family and obama…………..now we have our dumbfuck hick cult hero……….
As one of the hicks, bumpkins and hayseeds, I think Trump has it right: the Persians are good poker players.
I think (and hope) that Trump is a lot smarter than any of you, at least as a strategist – I give Mish credit for being smart as an analyst of numbers.
Holmes, if Donald Trump were to begin and end every speech with “All Praise To Lord Satan!” – his cult would start wearing Dracula capes and babbling about devil worship.
Yes, including the Evangelicals, who rival any battered wife.
What amazes me is that Trump does not use this trolling power.
He is too busy looting with both hands
Let’s not forget booger eaters.
Meanwhile the diesel crack spread hit $100 today in New York. With WTI at $85, a barrel of diesel is $185 right now.
Just twelve container ships passed through the strait of Hormuz today. And ONE tanker.
Don’t worry Papa, Frosty says he has contracts for cheaper diesel. It’s not like those contracts could become VOID with a force majeure declaration. But I wonder what all those other non-hedged farmers are gonna do.
🤑
farmers are welfare queens. they will get bailed out like always. only my old pals at the NYC investment banks are bigger welfare queens. the MICC also is quite good at that game, too.
One NYC investment bank sucks up more at the government tit than all the single mothers ever to get ADC or WIC or whatever.
And I won’t even get started on military contractors.
Trump’s latest tactic is to create his own reality. In his mind:
Everything is good, nothing to see here!
He actually told an interviewer that we actually now in the golden age of America…
well duh he would say that look at all the gold patina he surrounds himself with!!
i have refurbished my living room to look like the oval office. a gallon of yellow paint to make it all glitter like gold. i was in the kuwaiti embassy decades ago. solid gold faucets……in the goddamn bathrooms.
LOL!
We can’t survive another twenty nine months of him. Since the 25th Amendment route doesn’t seem workable, it’ll have to be impeachment or divine intervention.
i hear you, but face reality, the usa has endured far worse. us civil war exhibit A. i do agree our empire is crumbling, but beneath that are 50 states that will function just fine without the world wide empire of warfare.
the amerikan bases in Gulf are there to protect the emirs and princelings from being ass raped by the slave labor they import from india and pakistan and indonesia…… and steal their passports to keep them slaves…….the amerikan military are basically just palace guards. they high tailed it quickly when persia started firing. the amerikan empire is crumbling world wide. that’s a good thing in my book. i vote in italia and usa. the romans lasted 2000 years and finally crumbled. amerikan empire won’t make it 300. a republic that minds it’s own business is better whether in italia or north amerika. this is anthropology and classical history 101. the amerikan morons in flyover country have a cult leader named trump. this will be studied by students for centuries to come. it’s quite hysterical in fact. us new yorkers have known that the donald was a clown for the past many decades.
True. NYC residents always knew he was a clown. Only the rubes haven’t figured it out yet.
we happily gave him the finger in a traffic jam on the BQE in the 1980s. he was leaning out the window of his limo waving to everyone, like he was the president of amerika, or something……………
He may be a clown, but at least he is our clown.
I’d much rather he be someone else’s clown with a lot less power.
Many of the enlightened “us new yorkers” voted for Zohran Mamdani. Just sayin…
NYC mayor has no real power. little figurehead. all the dough re mi, is in albany old sport.
It ain’t just India and Pakistan and Indonesia and the Philippines.
Most of the Arabs who live in the gulfie tyrannies are not citizens and have basically zero rights, including the Shia who make up a significant chunk of the populations there.
This is entirely by design, from when the british set up these tyrannies.
Operation Epic Epstein Us Military Graffiti
I Love Israel, i am a Good Goyim
Bibi’s Cucks
Operation Epstein Fury
Be a good goy and do what Israel tells you to
All this for the Holy Land
https://ibb.co/bgXf9qPX
you have it all backwards. israel is a useful idiot for amerikan empire. the british set it up for them. we took it over. look at the deal. convince european jews after ww2 to move to middle east and tell them it’s their promised land. live on kibbutz and farm and fight the arabs. total useful idiots in the middle of the sea of oil the british and french and amerikans wanted access to. the hasidic jews, my pals and neighbors in brooklyn all agree with this. most folks don’t get the scam. it’s quite amazing really. the biggest useful idiots on planet. israelis.
sure thing, buddy. The useful idiots who made nearly every member of congress their bitch. Doesn’t track…..
sometimes things change and sometimes both things can be true. there is NO doubt israel was setup by the brits to use the jews as useful idiots and for sure amerika uses them as a trip wire and also for intelligence in the sea of oil. it can also be true that the aforementioned useful idiots have also created useful idiots, in the us congress and amerikan people. you sound simple minded. no offense. but you don’t get it.
what’s also true is with the british mandate, you had some very violent israelis that bombed the british in their hotels………like common terrorists. their first president was one of them. history is not so simple as your HS classes
Since the United States went to war for Israel in Iraq, Syria, and now Iran, while Israel stood by idly, I question that.
Why should America NEED a colony on the eastern end of the Mediterranean? Arabs are notoriously unable to unite for the greater good, and you would always find somebody in that part of the world who was willing to take your side, for pay. Look at the Egyptians: Jimmy Carter bribed them with clean uniforms and new guns, and they have been America’s loyal ally ever since.
Iran threatens new offensive while US rules out extending ceasefire deal
Trump wants the Hormuz issue to go to the backburner as we approach the mid-terms while Iran knows that the US is vulnerable and the time to apply pressure is now.
What a shift, the US is now on the defensive and reactive while Iran is the one dictating the pace and direction of the war. A true “Suez Canal” moment.
The US had an almost $1 trillion dollar military budget in 2025 and yet a country with the same GDP as the state of Louisiana has disrupted the entire US military logistics chain in the Middle East and Indian ocean.
This is truly a historical watermark moment.
Bring it! Walk the talk Iranian Regime. Waiting on you.
We always feared that ignorant MF Trump would F’up tons. I can only hope (but doubt) some of these moderate Middle Eastern countries say they’ll just kick us out until needle brain, I mean Trump is out of office.
Why let us come back? We’ll elect an even bigger dipshit within a decade.
What moderate middle easter countries?
Anyway, the gulfie tyrants have no choice, lest their western bank accounts get frozen, their western investments and trophy properties get seized, their shiny western toys rot away for lack of spare parts, human rights organization suddenly start to notice that they use slave labor, etc..
No big deal. We can move the bases to our new lands and ports in Gaza.
seems to me the most obvious reason is just a distraction to trump being named in epstein files hundreds of times. this is all just operation epstein distraction. amerikans have been weaned on bombing the living hell out of smaller nations for many decades now. since at least vietnam and laos and cambodia.
There is no end to the regions where UncleSam can exacerbate tensions:
After killing hundreds in boat strikes, U.S. military expands campaign on land in Latin America AP
“…But in Colombia, where Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella took office this month, Hegseth raised the prospect of U.S. forces joining strikes against armed groups including the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s last major guerrilla group.”
Weapons of mass incoherence and bluster. Malicious little boys with whiskey, shotguns and car keys.
Hosting an American base in your country is like an OR gate, not XOR.
Either you are occupied and must be compliant with infiltration of the body politic.
OR you will be sacrificed.
OR Both.
The GCC countries are not organic nations in any sense.
Without American/British force they would not have existed and could not maintain their own existence. Their ruling comprador elites are beholden to their American overlords, and cannot muster any army without importing and paying foreigners. These emirs and corrupt royals need the American suzerain.
They are caught between Charybdis and Scylla:
With American bases they are subject to American caprice and to being sacrificed.
Without American bases, they are subject to extinction.
Poor Oman, bombed by their friends & enemies, without being able to determine which is which.
Cool. So who are they going to turn to for defense when Iran attacks them? Israel? China? Russia?
The truth is that they are just blowing steam. None of them are capable of defending themselves against a much stronger military power like Iran.
The US has not been very effective in most of the conflicts in the Middle East and the always sides with Israel so would they really be losing very much?
The only reason they might stay is that Trump will one day be gone. The rest of the world and about 50% of the US is anxiously waiting for that to happen.
Be careful what you wish for – it might come to happen. AOC as president?
If the last six month period has shown anything, it’s that the U.S. cannot defend these Arab states. Their safest path is to get along with the Iranians rather than antagonize them.
The US can’t even defend its own military bases in the region
The US and the allies using US weapons successfully defended against most of the attacks. Sure, a few drones or missiles here and there got through but the vast majority were taken out.
The results speak for themselves. The Iranian Regime suffers large infrastructure damage, high inflation, a disabled economy, their ability to bring in more revenue via oil sales blocked by the US Navy.
The Gulf States are still going about their business, having not suffered very much damage from the Iranain weapons.
We can sit and wait while the Iranian Regime implodes. Our siege will eventually have the Iranian Regime coming out to stand on the shore of the Persian Gull with their hands up begging for mercy.
😛
“So who are they going to turn to for defense when Iran attacks them?”
They are going to expect the US bases that they have allowed to exist in their country to defend the… oops! 😆
“Seriously, did you vote for this?”
Voting is a distraction ritual.
The people that control policy are monied interests.
They fund lobbies and think tanks who articulate policy and draft legislation.
There is no correlation between what the population wants and what they get.
Politicians are paid liars who polarize and toy with the voting populace.
Like a cheer-leader who yells: “Yeah!! We’re going to win!!”
Give your head a shake. Voting matters. Do you seriously think that if the democrats had won in 2024 we would be here right now? We would not be at war with Iran, we would not have Ice agents murdering US citizens, we would not have 50% tariffs, and as a result inflation would be lower.
We got Trump because it was planned, not voted! Planned for the reason, and reason is on display now.
Need I remind you how Harris hugged Netanyahu like a teddy bear? Need i remind you of Biden’s role in Gaza?
The only difference is a Team D president would justify the war with more self-serving and hypocritical human rights talk, less macho swagger. A Harris Administration would pretend to care very much about women and gays in Iran, while ignoring the far worse treatment in Saudi Arabia.
Voting is a distraction ritual! Perfect 👌. Mish spending a lot of time trying to convince us of opposite! I love his economic analysis though!
Right on, Mario. It is a show which people are addicted to, have been groomed to be addicted to. It satisfies their desire to believe they actually have a say in anything. It resonates with basic elements of human psychology, not exactly its best features, though…
And while we are getting entertained/distracted…
We have front row seats for the unraveling of the US empire. Diplomatic relations are very tightly coupled to economic success, and the rest of the world is turning away from the US. It takes time, but is an unmistakable trend that will accelerate over the next few years
So sad, so preventable
Yes, infinite blood and treasure were invested in a workable, reasonably secure world order. Nations could join and succeed. The USA was benefiting. Was.
Matt Bracken explains that the US bases destroyed by Iran can’t easily be rebuilt:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVuD-6HdUA&ra=m
They are way better off with China, we were heading this way anyway but Trump accelerated it
Wait a second. Bill Kristol, current Neocon in Chief, does not support bombing the $hit out any country??! Color me shocked.
I once saw someone post this imagined conversation between Bill Kristol, the eternal warmonger and Rand Paul, who blames “regulation” for every problem:
Rand Paul: “My toilet is not working. I blame government regulations.”
Bill Kristol: “Well, have you tried bombing the toilet?”
Best Satirical Joke of 2026
Wrong target because Rand Paul is definitely anti-war
It’s true, check out his stuff on the Bulwark. Their old neocon shit is so fucked up even Robert Kagan is trying to “come in from the cold”.
He might even be sick of his own wife.
Victory has a thousand fathers, while defeat is an orphan.
This should be interesting….
* SENIOR IRANIAN OFFICIAL TO REUTERS: IRAN HAS DECIDED TO SHIFT ITS POLICY FROM DEFENSIVE TO A ‘FULLY OFFENSIVE’ ONE
* IRAN HAS SET A DEADLINE OF A FEW WEEKS FOR FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF MOU BY U.S. – SENIOR IRANIAN OFFICIAL
That sounds like tough guy talk to me.
The GCC, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are totally frustated with US because they are totally blocked except partially relieved Saudi when Iran is blocked by US navy. Their economy is in free fall together with Iranian economy. And their infrastructure and water plant will be attacked if Iran is attacked. So their economy and infrastructure are totally at the mercy and wisdom of US. Not strange they are rethinking to ally with US.
The longer US is blocking Iran, the same thing happened to them.
wsj
Aug. 12, 2026 9:00 pm ET
Thousands of North Korean operatives are using fake and stolen identities to land remote jobs at U.S. companies—funneling hundreds of millions of dollars back to the regime.
Leaked data, interviews and never-before-seen videos obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveal how a single team of these workers infiltrated at least eight companies in just a few months.
I don’t think there is any question Trump has greatly weakened the world perception that the US is an unstoppable Power. Iran has shown that it doesn’t take allot to force the US’s hand, you just have to find the weak spot and in this case it’s Oil. It really is almost a checkmate for Iran. The US Military could go in and level Iran but in the process Iran could take out most of the Oil production of the Middle East which would throw the entire World into a Depression or worse assuming Agriculture and Transportation is greatly effected due to fuel shortages.
I wonder if the Maga group has finally realized maybe there were better choices, you know like Ron Desantis? That being said the Democrats have become a party ranging on one end from Socialists to Marxists to outright Communist lunatics on the other end. This is not the Bill Clinton Democrats anymore.
Trump is edging toward becoming a fascist dictator right before our eyes and you see democrats as a threat?
“Trump dwarfs his predecessors in the number of ultra-rich in his second White House” -AP…In all, 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and the remaining 40 in senior posts across the executive branch.
I read it as more that Moi laments that many of the Dems have become so unmoored. Moi didn’t say threat.
Don’t be dumb. The American evacuation from Saigon didn’t change anyone’s perception that the U.S.A. was a world power. The fact that you can’t beat tough little savages on their own turf doesn’t mean that you can’t destroy cities and turn civilized countries into deserts. You can also get other people to destroy each other in your interests, as the Ukrainians are doing right now, and as the Persians and the Iraqis did for years and years.
Tell the ME countries, “help is on the way!”
meanwhile: Physics PhDs Are Leaving the US at a Record-high Rate
https://www.aip.org/fyi/physics-phds-are-leaving-the-us-at-a-record-high-rate
Yeah, losing physicists is quite alarming. There are the top of the science talent. If the best go and become established then students will follow to learn from the best and those on the cutting edge. It took a while but America finally pulled enough talent from Europe to become the scientific leader. That could easily change.
There’s an interesting commentary video about the 2025 Annual Report of the “Financial Stability Oversight Council” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mwH3OTBXk
It throws a little bit of light in some dynamics. Some Greek analysts have been saying similar things for years, though from a different angle, and in the past I thought they were exaggerating (about the involvement of the British in both the Ukraine and Iran wars).
“Seriously, did you vote for this?”
No. I voted for the “Peace candidate” (whose lie was bolstered by a relatively non-interventionist 1st term–he even ordered US troops out of Syria, though the Pentagon ignored him). Just like we voted for the “Peace candidate” Obama, who killed thousands in the Middle East & Libya. Just like we voted for “kinder, gentler foreign policy” Bush II. Did Biden advertise he was going to foment the Ukraine war?
Voting seems like something the Epstein class stages just to convince the sheep they’ve endorsed their subsequent loss of freedom.
“Voting seems like something the Epstein class stages just to convince the sheep they’ve endorsed their subsequent loss of freedom.”
Of course. Voting is done to make the masses feel like they have a say, sort of like those kiddie car seats that have a steering wheel so the little tyke can think he’s driving.
Great analogy. I’m using that.
Go buck wild. My other favorite analogy is “high school student council”. A purely symbolic election, where neither the winners nor the students have any real authority.
Trump is a liar. You were well aware of that when you voted for him.
Harrold, that’s not true. He has become a quantum level worse since the election. Do you really think so many well-intended people would knowingly vote for such a Judas? So many things he said in the entire decade before his election consistently were in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy.
And look at the alternative the Epstein class provided us. Don’t be mad at your fellow American. They aren’t the enemy. The enemy is the corrupt cancerous organism that is the Swamp.
This is white washing to an extreme. He’s always been a nut job who lies out of both sides of his mouth, just now the news is obliged to report on it.
He’s always been a liar and a cad. He hadn’t been this crazy until early 2025.
They did vote for a Judas. January 6 happened before the 2024 election.
I’m always intrigued that people can’t perceive the J6 Fedsurrection for the manipulated psy-op it was. Maybe because I don’t watch TV?
I’m amazed how people still think it’s Trump. No it’s America’s political system! Trump is a suit….. right time , right place, right suit 😉
Lol! Sorry Brutus. Trump has been consistent his entire life. You would have to be willingly blind not to see him for the piece of shit he is. He will spend eternity in hell and many of his supporters will join him.
Why do you think people vote for him? I think it’s because the average run of politicians are even worse: they are what I call “cardboard cutouts.” At least Trump has some sort of personality. You can compare him with the characters in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.” Perhaps he most resembles Gail Wynand in “The Fountainhead.” Most of your American politicians, and most Australian politicians, are just fakes trying to look like leaders.
As for hell, if you believe in that, all I can say is that you haven’t grown up yet. Try to keep in touch with the real world.
He lied his ass of through his and biden’s terms. He never stopped.
If those people were well intentioned, they were morons not to see it.
Didn’t you ever see Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous? Taco was nothing but a playboy millionaire. No one in NYC ever took him seriously. He became an untried and untested politician who was never before elected to public office or served the public in any meaningful way. Then he showed you who he really was on Jan 6th. The swamp coward but that just emboldened his followers. Next time please pick a candidate who actually has a record of public service.
Americans are voting for uniparty of psychopath war mongers.
There is one united party ( they call it bipartisan – we call it Epstein class ) on this foreign policy.
This is just false equivalence to the point where it’s dishonest and misleading. Stop with the excuses.
People like this crowing that voting does nothing are exactly the issue with this nation today. It’s never their fault for electing a known fraud, it’s the “uniparty” and the Jews and anyone else
Amen
Buncha folks looking for stock tips to juice their retirement who’s idea of being a member of their community is to “serve” as a rent-seeking landlord
There is a famous Ivy League study that shows clearly that the desires of the electorate have virtually no effect on the laws Congress passes. Never mind the totally unaccountable executive, judiciary, and Deep State. And then the “national security state” (the top dog of the DeepState, the evil CIA) is in a league of unaccountability of their own; God doesn’t even ask to see their budget or who they’ve murdered, knowing he wouldn’t get the truth.
Having said that, Phil, I didn’t exactly say they were equivalent. I’m glad for the border invasion having been stopped and crime being diminished. But on the mass of issues, the corrupt Uniparty rules and individual liberty is diminished regardless of how you or I vote.
When is the last time you heard a Uniparty politician (even Bernie Sanders or AOC) complain, or even talk negatively about the CIA?
1963
As Mr. Twain said: “if voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it”
Love the handle. Democritus was one of the smartest/wisest widely known people to have ever lived.
Well you can vote for me, or yourself, or Libertarian
The only way to get rid of the Uniparty is to stop voting for it
i always pull the lever for federal offices for libertarians and sometimes a green. never the warpath parties. i’ve got about 20 pals that vote for me, which i never asked for. i’d rather it go to libertarian candidate. i was elected to 16,000 population community board in a major city in usa. it was great experience.
If voting doesn’t matter why are you feeling remorse for voting for Trump?
Also, if voting did not matter, why is Trump trying to stop voting all the time. Why is he so miserable that voters did not reelect him in 2020 and needed to continue the Big Lie? Yes…voting fucking matters. We may not get many more chances, if this dictator gets his ways.
CJW, I still had a vestige of hope before Trump bombed Iran.
Exactly 👍🏻
“If Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.”
What a beautiful summer child!
“if Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.”
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the authoritarian structure of the US Empire’s military is such that a general refusing to follow the order–whether quitting under protest or being fired–loses his pension. And the people who have climbed into the upper ranks of the Dept. of WAR are not likely to be high enough on the integrity scale to sacrifice their pensions. Just to save the lives of a lot of purely innocent people.
Of course, those same generals would shrug at their oath in order to keep their pensions. That is, they are all petit bourgeois traitors.
YOU are exactly correct.
Trump has threatened Denmark over Greenland and Canada over a multitude of things. Threatening Oman is just par for the course and not to be taken seriously.
Iran Venezuela Somalia Nigeria Yemen Iraq Syria
Just this year
I am quite sure that all the countries that Trump has threatened take it quite seriously.
Trump has a talent for turning former US friends and allies into enemies.
Think our original reason there was to fill the vacuum left by the British. To keep the russians out. We have been stuck in the middle ever since. A bad guy from the Iranians to rally their people around. And a buffer for everyone else. Better for iran to target us bases than oil infrastructure. Better to kill american military than our ( pic oil country) own people.
It must be weird for Gulf states — as the US goes from supportive ally to feckless fumbling loser state in a few months. Watch Netanyahu batting Kushner around. All these players hold veto powers over USA fantasies (now only existing for domestic PR propaganda anyway). Will Gulf investors ask for their Kushner (alleged) graft money back? At least one crypto grafter has done so toward his Trump family-linked “investments.”
Where is a non-extraditing jurisdiction the Trumps can abscond to now?
I’m sure that the Orangutan will sic Hagseth to cancel the bonds held by those recalcitrant GCC.
Well there is that Albanian Island Jared is trying to turn into his redoubt.
Nobody will ask them. You think a rattlesnake asks a gopher if it would mind sharing its burrow?
The old man’s recent rhetoric is almost medically concerning.
Recent? Almost? Have you been under a rock since January last year and just stuck your head out?
His comments about North Korea and Oman are a new level of strange.
Maybe there is some functioning brain there, weird as it is: it ratchets up malicious absurdity in some pretty constant ratio to the need to distract from current failure.
operation epstein distraction is winning
“Illegal Orders”
25 Year ‘War Of Terror’ – For ‘Greater Israel’ Land Grab.!
(‘Finishing Off – Iran’) Gen W. Clark 2001
US Troops Told ‘Iran’ War Is ‘Armageddon’ – Return of Jesus.!
Post-Apocalyptic Event.! (Samson Option).!
If we have been at war with Iran for “47 years” what set of Pentagon geniuses built a whole critical offensive/defensive system that was lightly defended and bottled up behind Hormuz?
The lack of wisdom is apparent to all in the region.
Paper tiger.
Wealthy elements within the US control the oil produced by those 5 countries. We allow the ruling classes there to share in the profits. Those bases are there to protect “American interests”: oil profits. They let the local Arab populations that there are severe consequences for any attempt to change the status quo. That’s why we’ve been at war with the Iranians for 47 years: they rose up and kicked our shareholders (and wealthy Brits) out. We want back that which rightfully belongs to US oil barons.
If we have been at war with Iran for 47 years, how is Oliver North not in prison for providing arms to our enemy?
GAO’s 2025 assessment found that DOD’s major acquisition programs were taking nearly 12 years just to provide an initial capability while GAO’s 2026 assessment says the average has now exceeded 12 years.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107569
Everything Trump does weakens the United States. If he had a functioning human brain I’d posit he’s following orders.
Netanyahu & Putin pull Trump’s strings like a marionette.
If Russia had any influence over Trump, why is the US still providing arms, intelligence and targeting to the regime in Kiev?
Kim Jong Un wants into that club.
As in the Get Smart TV spy comedy, I might imagine those orders are from KAOS, the evil rival Cold War spy agency. Except I think Trump’s “orders” come from the more generic chaos. They come from mental illness compounding in the USA psyche, and politically manifested as Trump. It is a hairball of poor quality action movie scripts, snarling aging male macho ego rants, and various other sordid ingredients. It might resemble the death instinct posited by Freud.
“Trump started this war,”
I thought it was Israel that started this war and that the USA had to jump in and bomb Iran because if the USA didn’t jump in the Iranians would bomb the USA.
Starting in January, the US conducted the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the Iraq invasion in 2003. The shooting war didn’t start till the end of February. Kelly Conway once described Trump as being like a couch that bears the impression of the last person who sat on it. Trump is easily manipulated if you know what buttons to push. Besides Bibi, Graham and other senate war mongers pushed his buttons (as they have so often.) His cabinet and advisors, both ignorant and afraid to voice dissenting opinions told him Iran was going to be a push over and Trump, lacking any sort of cognitive ability, thought it was a swell idea and would make him look like a tough guy to his dictator friends (one of his buttons.) So, no, Israel didn’t start the war and then the US “jumped in”. Israel and Bibi certainly had a hand in convincing Trump to do it but they weren’t the only ones.
Maybe someone told him if he saves Israel god will forgive him for his pedo ways.