Stocks Down Five Straight Weeks, US Oil Tops $100, Huge Republican Infighting

you see, right about now is when Trump usually declares bankruptcy .

From another blog.

When Donald Trump speaks of a “10-day pause” before any strike on Iran’s infrastructure, he is not merely putting a number on the calendar. In the logic of war, time can matter as much as firepower. Properly understood, these 10 days are neither a clear sign of peace nor necessarily evidence of retreat. They look more like a deliberate pause—one that may serve simultaneously to reorganise the battlefield, shape the narrative, and perhaps prepare a less costly exit from a war that has not unfolded the way Washington had hoped.

On the surface, invoking negotiations always carries the appearance of restraint. Even when there is no serious intent to reach an agreement, merely placing “diplomacy” on the table serves an important purpose for Washington: it creates the impression that the diplomatic option was tried.

This is a familiar pattern in U.S. foreign policy. Negotiations are not always pursued to secure a deal; sometimes they are meant to ensure that if the next blow is struck, no one can say there was another path left unexplored. In that sense, the 10-day window may be less a genuine opening for talks than a political shield before the next move—a way to reduce the international cost of military action.

These 10 days could serve several military purposes at once:

assessing the actual level of damage inflicted and identifying which targets may require a second strike;
repositioning naval and air assets involved in the campaign;
moving equipment and closing operational gaps;
and re-coordinating with allied or proxy forces

These 10 days should also be read through the lens of the U.S.-Israel relationship. On the surface, both are in the same camp. In practice, however, they do not always fight according to the same logic.

Israel typically seeks rapid, hard, and maximalist blows; the United States, by contrast, must think beyond the battlefield: energy markets, domestic political costs, potential casualties, regional spillover, and the risk of being dragged into a prolonged war.

That is why any pause is not necessarily only a message to Iran; at times, it is also a message to Tel Aviv.

A message suggesting that Washington may no longer be willing to absorb unlimited costs for a war whose returns, for itself, are increasingly unclear.

If that reading is correct, then this pause is not just the space between two strikes. It may also signal that the U.S. and Israel are no longer standing at exactly the same point in this war.

These 10 days also matter inside the United States:

the media is given time to absorb and reproduce the preferred framing;
the Republican political base has space to align itself behind any coming decision;
opponents are allowed to exhaust the initial burst of reaction;
and the White House gains time to package whatever comes next in a more disciplined form.

In other words, this pause is not only for the outside world.Part of it is for managing the domestic front—so that if a strike is coming, the language that justifies it is already in place.

In the end, Trump’s 10-day pause should not be read simplistically. It is neither necessarily a sign of retreat nor, by itself, evidence that the crisis is winding down. More plausibly, it is a multi-purpose pause:

one designed to build political legitimacy, reset military positioning, manage fractures inside the alliance, shape public perception, and perhaps most importantly, prepare an “exit without openly admitting defeat.”

And that is precisely why the number 10 matters: not as a deadline, but as part of the operation itself.
–WANA
Iran understands all this, so it will not stop striking Israel, the US assets in the Middle East. Hezbollah is continuing attacking Israel, and it is Israel retreating. The Houthis just joined the exercise.

…from another blog.

Those 10 statements should be put on Trump’s triumphal arch. On the bright side, Americans finally get a sense of what life must be like in North Korea.

We need to redo those Dos Equis commercials for “the most ignorant man in the world”.

I’m going to be a no good dirty bear until all four of the economic horsemen have shown up and done significant damage. 1. The Iran war and the resulting energy pinch. 2. Private Credit unwind. 3. The AI bubble unwind. 4. Housing, which is still 25-40% too expensive to “pencil” for anyone. I am not sure where commercial real estate falls into that list, but we’ve been hearing about that one for years now and nothing ever materialized.

President Donald Trump made a wildly condescending admission about the sort of people he likes to surround himself with during an event in Miami shortly after the signing of his executive order to move money around to pay Transportation Security Administration officials in the absence of a congressional deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
“I hang out with losers because it makes me feel better,” said Trump. “I hate guys that are very, very successful and you have to listen to their success stories. I like people that like to listen to my success.”

One of these days the Republicans in congress are gonna wake up and roll this guy outta office either by impeachment or the 25th amendment

If you are someone who absolutely hates this country and wants to see it destroyed and in ruins, the Chief Pedophile of the United States is your man.