We are entering into our 5 week of our lame conflict with Iran and to this day no one has given an accurate reason for our attacks….it was not nukes or some vague terrorism accusation, yada yada…..
Since the very beginning of this conflict our Little Donny has had multiple statements and each one has made the markets go up and down like some crazed yo-yo….and there you go just the reason that myself and many others have said was the reason for this war….market manipulation.
Just after noon on Friday, March 20th, US president Donald Trump declared victory to a group of reporters in his broadly unpopular war with Iran. Just two minutes later, however, he announced he was sending US marines anyway. The next minute, the president said there would be no boots on the ground after all. A few beats later, he admitted he didn’t want a ceasefire, then declared victory again, then requested a ceasefire.
The volley continued like this for nearly half an hour, the president’s stream of consciousness pouring from within, in a prime example of Trump’s contradictory messaging on Iran. In addition to exhausting reporters and scrambling the news cycle, episodes like this have fueled speculation that people close to the president are feeding off the chaos.
As a recent analysis by economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman argues, there’s evidence that insiders are profiting off the war in Iran. On Monday, for example, Trump reversed his weekend commitment to deliver painful retribution on the Iranian people if the country failed to open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. At 7:05am on Monday morning, however, Trump chickened out, issuing a five-day pause on hostilities via a post on Truth Social.
The price of crude oil, which had flailed upward for weeks as shipments from the Persian Gulf slowed to a trickle, plummeted immediately, from around $112 a barrel before the announcement to a low of $97 by 11:00am.
However, about 15 minutes before Trump’s post, CNBC reported, there was a massive increase in the amount of S&P 500 e-Mini futures trading on the market, right before their price skyrocketed from around $6,500 to around $6,700. Someone also got incredibly lucky playing the oil market, with West Texas Intermediate May futures seeing a massive spike in trading activity at the exact same time — a sign that someone had shed theirs before the price experienced a major drop.
This manipulation is making speculators millions….and after all war is big business and Donny’s butt buddies are making out like bandits (which they are).
There is you answer, the real answer, to why this…..PROFITS!
Another week of Donny and the clowns he has around him….they seem to get more silly and more extreme with the passing of every week.
This past week was fully of disgusting and pathetic dribbles from Donny and of course his butt boys in DC….
Where to begin?
Donny likes feeding his ego so let’s start there…..
With the war with Iran raging Donny re-names the Straight of Hormuz….
President Trump called the Strait of Hormuz, the “Strait of Trump” at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit on Friday as the war in Iran continues to escalate.
Trump spoke in Miami at the Saudi Arabia-run summit, where he discussed some of his most pressing economic issues, including the war in Iran, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
“They have to open it up. They have to open up the straight of Trump. I mean, harmless. Excuse me. I’m so sorry. Such a terrible mistake. The fake news will say, he accidentally said that. There’s no accidents with me. Not too many. If there were, we’d have a major story,” he said.
(themirror.com)
How about a statue?
While Americans are dealing with rising gas prices, Donald Trump appears to be more concerned with getting a statue of himself built, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
During his Cabinet meeting on Thursday, March 26, the president shrugged off a possible solution to increasing gas prices, instead taking the discussion in a whole other direction.
(radaronline.com)
That worthless douche/bag Speaker of the House wants to make it official…..
Congressional Republicans created an award to give to President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
House Republicans held their annual National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. Before Trump spoke, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that the NRCC had come up with a new honor to bestow on the president.
“We wanted to do one thing before we bring the president out to the stage,” Johnson said, before saying Trump works “literally around the clock to fix every issue” and is solving “all the domestic problems.” As such, the speaker said, House Republicans created a new award:
And we want to honor him in some small way, some token of our appreciation for his leadership. And so, tonight, we have created a new award. We’re going to do something we’ve never done before. We’re going to honor him with a new award that we’ll present annually from this point forward. But he is the suitable and fitting receipient of the first-ever America First Award. We could think of no better title for what that is. That’s this beautiful golden statue here. Appropriate for the new golden era in America.
Then there his signature on our paper money….pathetic.
Louisiana is naming a bridge after this total buttwad….
A new bridge spanning the Mississippi River will likely be named after President Donald Trump after the full Louisiana state house approved the bill to build the bridge, which could cost as much as $3 billion, WWL radio reported Tuesday.
State Rep. Jeremy Lacombe said that they’re hoping that they can get federal funding for the bridge to be built, and that naming if after Trump might help.
(alternet.org)
Just a few of the feedings of Donny inflated ego.
Then there is the pack of idiots that do as they are told….Pistol Pete for instance….
The Pentagon is working with private companies to control what we know about Donald Trump’s reckless military campaign in Iran.
Leaked U.S. military guidance obtained by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein Tuesday revealed instructions to dozens of commercial satellite operators about how to describe the extent of the damage in Iran.
The Pentagon warned against using language that assumed “operational conclusions,” such as “Target destroyed” or “Target eliminated.” Instead, the language should describe only “observable infrastructure damage.”
Rather than saying things like “Strike successfully destroys facility,” companies were urged to say things like “Imagery shows the structure largely collapsed with debris covering the building footprint.”
Perhaps the U.S. military was hoping to avoid more claims that Iranian assets had been “obliterated” that they would have to walk back afterward. In any case, the Pentagon appears to be exercising censorship over what Americans are allowed to know, allowing Trump to prosecute his war in Iran with impunity.
“I hang out with losers because it makes be 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.”
Even people on the inside doubt his abilities…..
Yet behind closed doors, doubts about Trump’s own intelligence have circulated among his inner circle, Michael Wolff said on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast.
Wolff, who was granted inside access to the White House during the chaotic opening months of Trump’s first term, recalled a conversation he had at the time with “Trump whisperer” Sam Nunberg, who advised Trump in his early political forays before being forced out of the 2016 campaign when racist Facebook comments he made resurfaced.
“I remember Sam looked at me and he said, ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ And I was like, ‘Tell me.’ And he said, ‘He’s an idiot,’” Wolff recounted.
In response to Wolff’s comments, Nunberg, 44, previously told the Daily Beast, “That was a long time ago and President Trump has certainly proved me wrong by getting [re-elected] in 2024.”
Wolff said Steve Bannon, another political adviser and a key source for his 2018 tell-all Fire and Fury, “absolutely” believed Trump was an “idiot,” too.
(thedailybeast.com)
We all know just how fucking crazy Donny’s boyz are but this guy at FEMA takes the cake (at least for last week)….
A senior Federal Emergency Management Agency official with a history of violent rhetoric and promoting conspiracy theories says he once teleported to a Waffle House 50 miles away.
“Teleporting is no fun,” said Gregg Phillips, who leads FEMA’s critical Office of Response and Recovery, according to a CNN File report. “It’s no fun because you don’t really know what you’re doing. You don’t really understand it, it’s scary, but yet um – but so real. And you know it’s happening but you can’t do anything about it, and so you just go, you just go with the ride. And wow, what just an incredible adventure it all was.”
CNN describes Phillips as “a far-right activist who spread conspiracy theories about voter fraud and frequently used violent rhetoric toward political opponents.” In December, when Phillips started at FEMA, CNN described him as a “longtime Republican operative” and an “election fraud crusader” who “rocketed into the spotlight with his unsubstantiated fraud claims, which were touted by Trump.”
Once all this is making my skin crawl and I need a diversion from the slimy people running this country.
Something to lighten the mood….
Our area has had a bunch of porch pirate incidents in the last couple of months….I even lost a 20 lb bag of bird seed in an Amazon box…..so I started looking for how others have handled porch pirates.
No sympathy from me…..
That Was The Week That Was…..
Have a wonderful Sunday and as always…..Be Well abs Be Safe…..
More news that needs to be reported but somehow missed out to the antics of the lunatic we have for a leader.
Local–Troubling news for the Gulf Coast….
Mississippi has a high risk of tropical weather impacts this year. The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1.
AccuWeather forecasters say the developing El Niño is one of the biggest factors shaping hurricane season. It could mean there’s an average or below average number of storms.
“It’s very important that everybody from South Texas all the way to Maine prepares equally for each and every hurricane season, regardless of what the official forecast is,” AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said in their hurricane season forecast. “Even if it’s expected to be a slightly below average hurricane season, we can still see major hits across the United States.”
The Coast is hosting a Triathlon this weekend and major roads will be impacted….I will stay close to the house.
A poplar food stuff down here is crayfish and there is a shortage of workers so there is an impact to be felt….thank you ICE and Donny.
Plus there will be protests in 5 cities on the Coast for ‘No Kings Day’.
Personal–Weather has been fairly cool and sunny still no rain to speak of…..so I guess I will do a little gardening today.
Visit to my cancer doctor and he ordered another scan because the spot in my lung is growing but when biopsy showed negative they are confused…..so another loo see is in order.
News from neuroscience….
The concept of “cryosleep” — spending prolonged periods of time in suspended animation in a deep freeze state — has been a mainstay in the world of science fiction.
While the idea of slumbering peacefully while covering vast distances in space on board a spacecraft remains a distant dream, researchers are inching ever closer to turning it into a reality.
As detailed in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month, a team of researchers at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Germany managed to return activity to mouse brains after carefully preserving the tissue in a glass-like state, a method called vitrification, before slowly thawing them.
“If brain function is an emergent property of its physical structure, how can we recover it from complete shutdown?” lead author and University of Erlangen–Nuremberg neurologist Alexander German told Nature.
Maybe to test this on humans I propose using the cabinet members and their idiot boss.
There seems to be endless reports about toilet paper….this one involves cancer….
Toilet paper may play a role in the contamination of groundwater with potentially harmful substances called PFAS.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASTrusted Source) are found in a wide variety of consumer products, including cosmetics, cleansers, and firefighting foams.
While research is not conclusive, PFAS are suspected of playing a role in a variety of conditions, including cancer, reduced immunity, and reproductive and developmental problems.
“Exposure to PFAS through drinking water puts people’s health at risk,” Dr. Katie Pelch, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Healthline. “Groundwater can also be used for agricultural uses and it has been shown that plants, including crops, can take up PFAS, so food in the diet is another potential source of PFAS exposure.”
Most coverage of the upcoming all-electric Ferrari Luce fixates on the headline numbers: 1,000 horsepower, four electric motors, over 310 miles of claimed range. But the really interesting story is buried underneath all of that. Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna has been open about a problem that most EV manufacturers either haven’t noticed or haven’t bothered to admit. Electric acceleration, delivered at full force with no interruption, can feel wrong. For most, it’s too linear and too relentless, in a way that Vigna says can begin to disturb the brain. That is a strange thing for a supercar maker to say, and it is also a very honest one.
In an interview with Autocar India, Vigna said Ferrari went to NASA to understand at what point acceleration starts to make occupants uncomfortable. NASA has spent decades studying exactly how the human body responds to g-loads, vibration, and sudden changes in motion, first for astronauts and pilots, then more recently for passengers in air taxis and high-motion environments.
Bozo’s ex-wife is proving the billionaires can do more…..
At a moment when Washington is squeezing higher ed, MacKenzie Scott is writing some very big checks. The billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Jeff Bezos has quietly become one of the most significant private backers of colleges and universities, especially those serving students who are often left out of elite fundraising cycles, reports Fast Company. Through her Yield Giving initiative, Scott handed out $7.16 billion in grants last year—almost 2.6 times what it awarded the year prior. At least $700 million went to historically Black colleges and universities, $214 million to institutions that primarily serve Latino students, and more than $70 million to tribal colleges. Fortune notes that despite Scott’s immense giving, she’s secretive about it, and thus didn’t make the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 50 philanthropists.
Scott recently gave $42 million to Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, and the school’s chancellor tells WTKR that the gift has set ECSU up to grow its “mission bar none” of expanding quality degree programs. Scott’s donations come with an unusual feature for gifts of this size: no strings attached. That trust is what stands out to Howard University interim president Wayne Frederick, who says Scott is telling schools, in essence, “you make the decision about what’s the best way to use this money.” In a time when many billionaires are focused on influence and access, he adds, her approach is rooted in something simpler: “supporting humanity.”
I have not seen too many others rushing to help the nation…..have you?
Something for my UK visitors…..
New data from the Environment Agency shows water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers and seas 291,492 times in 2025.
While that marks a 35% decrease from the previous year, the numbers are still alarming, especially given that 2025 was England’s driest spring in over a century and one of its warmest years on record.
Storm overflows, designed to release excess wastewater only during heavy rainfall, were used far more frequently than expected. In total, sewage flowed into waterways for an estimated 1.8 million hours.
“When sewage is pouring out even in a dry year, you really know the system is broken,” said Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, per the Guardian. “These aren’t stormwater overflows; they’re all-weather waste pipes. Rivers, lakes, and seas should not be pressure valves for pollution. Any sewage in our waters is too much.”
My region is known for our oysters and n ow there is more news about the empty shells…..
New research from a team at Trinity College Dublin has unearthed a cheap and environmentally friendly new option for removing pollutants from our water. The key? Oyster shells that would ordinarily end up in landfill sites after consumption. The research, just published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, shows that waste seashells—especially those from oysters—can capture and remove rare earth elements from polluted water. And what’s more, they do it entirely naturally, turning them into stable mineral crystals.
Rare earth elements are essential components of modern technologies, from wind turbines and electric vehicles to smartphones, but their extraction and processing creates environmental risks when these metals leak into water systems. They are also at the center of growing geopolitical tensions, as global supply is heavily concentrated in a few countries and demand for these strategic materials continues to increase.
Every now and then I try to be an FYI site when possible…..this is this week’s entry….
Doctor’s orders on getting enough fruits and veggies often doesn’t include one important caveat: Try to avoid picking up items that are tainted by pesticides. In its annual shopper’s guide, EWG clarifies which produce to scoop up and which maybe to avoid if you’re concerned about chemical contamination, deeming the two respective lists the “Clean 15” and “Dirty Dozen.” The guide found that almost 60% of the fruits and vegetables on the “clean” list featured no residue that could be detected, while almost all of the “Dirty Dozen” (96%) failed the residue test and contained pesticides. The guide isn’t designed steer consumers away from fruits and vegetables, “but rather to help shoppers better understand what may be on their produce so they can make informed decisions at the grocery store,” EWG’s Varun Subramaniam tells Food & Wine. Check out both lists:
Clean 15
Pineapple
Sweet corn
Avocados
Papaya
Onion
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Watermelon
Mangoes
Bananas
Carrots
Mushrooms
Kiwis
Dirty Dozen
Spinach
Kale, collards, and mustard greens
Strawberries
Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Cherries
Apples
Blackberries
Pears
Potatoes
Blueberries, as well as green beans and peppers (bell and hot)
Tomorrow, 28 March, a large national protest against Donny and his band of idiots….some think it could well revival some of the protests from the Vietnam era.
A third round of “No Kings” protests is coming this spring, with organizers saying they’re planning their largest demonstrations yet across the United States to oppose what they describe as authoritarianism under President Trump. Previous rallies have drawn millions of people, and organizers say they expect even greater numbers on March 28 in the wake of Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where violent clashes have led to the death of two people. “We expect this to be the largest protest in American history,” Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the nonprofit Indivisible, told the AP ahead of Wednesday’s announcement. He predicted that as many as 9 million people will turn out.
“No Kings” protests, organized by a constellation of groups around the US, have been a focal point for outrage over Trump’s attempts to consolidate and expand his power. Last year, Trump said he felt attendees were “not representative of the people of our country,” insisting, “I’m not a king.” The latest round of protests had been in the works before the crackdown in Minneapolis. However, the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in recent weeks has refocused plans. Levin said they want to show “support for Minnesota and immigrant communities all over” and oppose “the secret police force that is murdering Americans and infringing on their basic constitutional rights.”
“The only way to defend those rights is to exercise them, and you do that in nonviolent but forceful ways, and that’s what I expect to see in ‘No Kings’ three,” Levin added. In June, the first “No Kings” rallies were organized in nearly 2,000 locations nationwide. Those protests followed unrest over federal immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. They also addressed a military parade in the nation’s capital that marked the Army’s 250th anniversary and coincided with Trump’s birthday.
During a second round of protests in October, organizers said demonstrations were held in about 2,700 cities and towns across the US. At the time, Levin pointed to Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, his unprecedented promises to use federal power to influence midterm elections, restrictions on press freedom, and retribution against political opponents. “This isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans,” Levin said. “This is about: Do we have a democracy at all, and what are we going to tell our kids and our grandkids about what we did in this moment? I think that demands [this] kind of persistent engagement.”
This time around we have a war that needs immediate attention by Americans something that is lacking these days.
If there is any media coverage here are some of the signs you may see….and some are very clever.
No Sign Is Big Enough To List All The Reasons I’m Here
I Know Signs. I Make The Best Signs. Everyone Agrees.
Clean Up On Aisle 47
Sorry For Being Weird, This Is My First Dictatorship
Donny’s war has helped drop his poll numbers to record levels….
President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell in recent days to its lowest point since he returned to the White House, hit by a surge in fuel prices and widespread disapproval of the war he launched on Iran, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The four-day poll, completed on Monday, showed 36% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, down from 40% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week.
(reuters.com)
With crappy polls and a defiant Iran Donny is scrambling to find someone to blame for his failure….he has already whacked Noem so he could he possibly blame for Iran?
And what better person to blame than Pistol Pete Hogsbreath?
President Trump is already trying to throw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth under the bus for the fruitless war on Iran.
“I called Pete, I called General Caine, I called a lot of our great people … and I said, ‘Let’s talk. We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country … that for 47 years has been a purveyor of terror. And they’re very close to having a nuclear weapon. We can keep going and get that 50,000 up to 55 and 60, there’s no end. Or we could take a stop and make a little journey into the Middle East, and eliminate a big problem,’” Trump said Monday at an event in Memphis.
“Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up,” Trump continued. “And you said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
“Hegseth about to give his next briefing from under the bus,” liberal podcaster Jon Favreau wrote on X.
This quick comment is magnified by the chaos of Monday morning, which saw Trump announcing a five-day pause on bombing Iranian energy sites while claiming that he was close to a deal with the Iranian government. The Iranian government then denied speaking to him in any capacity at all, sparking rumors that Trump was engaging in market manipulation. And if the war is going as badly as it appears to be, Hegseth may be in trouble.
(newrepublic.com)
I cannot think of a better person for Donny to blame.
And the sooner we see the back of him the better the military will be.
A fascinating question and the simple answer is…..because he is an idiot.
But that is from me….writer Andersen looks a bit deeper…
Acclaimed journalist and author Kurt Andersen has unlocked the secret behind Donald Trump’s appeal to his own voters.
Speaking to The Daily Beast Podcast’s Joanna Coles about the president’s actions overseas, including most recently in Iran, Andersen claimed Trump has “no clue” about the history of Iran and the Middle East.
“He’s an idiot. He’s always been stupid. And his stupidity has been an under-remarked-upon, unheralded part of his—long with the lying, along with the mental disorders—the stupidity is important.”
The Daily Beast has meticulously documented the president’s visible decline since his return to the White House, including interviewing medical experts who believe his obvious cognitive decline is the result of a serious medical event like a stroke. More than 60 percent of Americans believe that Trump has become increasingly erratic with age.
Andersen argues that the president’s stupidity, which predates his recent decline, is a feature that appeals to a broad swath of the voting public.
…
“But his most devoted supporters are evangelical Christians, because once you get a country in which so much belief in any old thing you want and hear and disbelief in things that are true, anything goes.”
“That wasn’t always the case,” Andersen notes. “It always tended to be the case in America a little bit, but then it got out of control in the last 60 years and, along with the internet, gave us Donald Trump.”
The Iranian thing has been going on for 4 weeks or so and from what I see here on IST there is little interest on what Donny and his buddies in Israel are doing to the Middle East.
Awhile back Donny ordered 3000 Marines to the region and to be a stand-by and now he had ordered the 82nd Airborne, about 1000 troops, to be ready….
Approximately 1,000 US soldiers with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division are expecting to deploy in coming days to the Middle East, according to two sources familiar with the matter, adding to the growing military firepower in the region as the Trump administration says it is in talks with Iran to end the conflict.
The contingent includes Maj. Gen. Brandon Tegtmeier, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, and division staff, as well as a battalion of the 1st Brigade Combat Team which is currently acting as the division’s Immediate Response Force (IRF), the sources said. The initial elements of the division staff and battalion are expected to begin deploying within a week, one of the sources familiar said; other elements within the brigade are also expecting to deploy at a later date, though those expectations could change as the situation develops.
US officials approved written deployment orders late Tuesday, the second source familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday.
The brigade will be the “ready unit” in the Middle East, prepared to be called upon if needed, the source said. The 82nd Airborne Division made a similar movement in 2020 after the killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
What does it take to get Americans off their collective butts and care about what is being done?
Will the deaths of more American soldiers impress them enough to care?
These are the same people that feel it necessary to wish vets, ‘Thanks for your service’ whenever they are around.
When most of these people mean ‘glad it was you and not me’…..this saying is getting as offensive as the usual ‘thoughts and prayers’ after massive shooting.
I know that gas is expensive, food is expensive of Hell everything is expensive but that will not change even when Americans start dying…..it make things worse….but that matters not to some.
Everyday year I get a little more disappointed in my fellow Americans.
The Iran conflict has been going on for about 4 weeks and we have heard all sorts of crap and now more stuff to ponder.
Donny has made his offer for this war to end…..
US officials said late Tuesday that Iran had been sent a 15-point plan to end the war, and Pakistani officials confirmed on Wednesday that Iran got it. The plan was submitted to Iran by intermediaries from the government of Pakistan, which has offered to host renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran, a source tells the AP. More:
What the US seeks: The Wall Street Journal reports the proposal would reportedly require Tehran to dismantle its three main nuclear facilities, halt all uranium enrichment at home, freeze ballistic-missile development, ease support for regional proxies, and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
What Iran would get: In exchange, Washington would lift nuclear-related sanctions and help oversee a civilian nuclear program.
Nothing new: The Journal reports the plan largely mirrors a prewar offer made by President Trump before the war began on Feb. 28. The Guardian’s sources paint it as even older, saying it’s based on a plan that was shared with Iran in late May 2025.
Tough prospects: In the AP’s view, any talks between the US and Iran would face monumental challenges. Many of Washington’s objectives, particularly over Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs, remain difficult to achieve, and it is not clear who in Iran’s government has the authority or would be willing to negotiate.
Tough prospects II: Bloomberg sees a similarly uphill battle, reporting Tehran is “signaling little willingness to compromise.” Bloomberg flags a Wednesday comment from Iran’s armed forces to that end: “The level of your internal conflicts has reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves,” the statement said, per state-run IRIB News.
Now Iran has given a response….
The Trump administration’s 15-point proposal for ending the war in Iran did not get a warm reception. The AP reports that Iran has rejected the plan, citing Iranian state television’s English-language broadcaster, which quoted an anonymous official. The Guardian reports the official characterized the asks as “excessive” and said “Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met.”
The Wall Street Journal offers a similar report, saying Iran’s information council—part of the government’s communications arm—dismissed the plan as a wish list of goals that hadn’t come to pass through the use of force. “Trump’s statements are false and should not be taken seriously,” it said.
But Reuters describes the door as not being fully shut; it quotes a senior Iranian official as saying the view on the proposal was “not positive” but that it is still being reviewed. Reuters separately reports that Pakistan, which delivered the proposal, is still waiting for a reply.
The Guardian adds that the senior political security official quoted on Press TV shared five conditions that Tehran seeks:
A stop to “aggression and assassinations.”
An end to the war on Iran and “all resistance groups” in the region.
“Concrete” guarantees of no future military action against Iran.
Reparations and war-damage payments.
Recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
Now the wait to see what late night BS Donny will send out over Truth Social (a name that sends shudders through my body).
Is this a place to start negotiations or just Donny whipping off some crap for the media?
Both Donny Do-Little and his lap dog Little Marco have been thumping their chest for months about Cuba.
After 60+ years of sanctions and embargoes the damage has starting effecting the island like never before and no that Donny smells blood in the water he has started circling with his usual bravado.
Amid reports that the US is pressuring Havana to remove its president from power, President Trump is renewing his talk of taking control of the island nation. “I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump told reporters on Monday, reports the Guardian. “Whether I free it, take it—I think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.” The comments came as Cuba grapples with a nationwide blackout amid tightened US oil restrictions, per the BBC.
On Monday evening, meanwhile, NBC News reported a notable shift in Cuban policy: The government will allow Cuban nationals living abroad, including in the US, to invest in the nation’s private sector and to own businesses. “Cuba is open to having a fluid commercial relationship with US companies” and “also with Cubans residing in the United States and their descendants,” Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, deputy prime minister, told the outlet.
Washington has ramped up pressure on Cuba since cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments and threatening penalties on other suppliers, moves that have strained the country’s outdated power system. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, 65, has said he is open to talks under terms of “equality and respect.” The Guardian describes him as a “key figurehead,” noting that the Communist regime that has run Cuba for decades would remain in place should he be ousted.
For me the terminology “Taking” Cuba has an ominous tone.
Then the statement of “commercial relationship with US companies” smacks of exploitation that they suffered in the 40s and 50s.
But what will be Donny’s plan for the expansion into Cuba?
An aspiring emperor needs an empire. Trump seems to have settled on the Western Hemisphere as his imperial domain, as laid out in his National Security Strategy. The liquidation of regimes that Trump regards as adversaries began with Venezuela, and now Cuba is in the crosshairs.
Trump’s brazen claim that he can do anything he wants with Cuba is typical of his audacious bluster, but this time it cannot be discounted. He has Cuba over the proverbial barrel… and literally barrels of oil. After cutting off Venezuelan oil shipments, Trump threatened to sanction any other country sending oil to Cuba, imposing a complete oil blockade on the petroleum-dependent island.
A few months back a small group of invaders tried to get into Cuba and try and start a counterrevolution….did not end well…..now an official has made it known that the island will prepare for US aggression.
Cuba’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday that the nation’s military is preparing for “the possibility of military aggression” from the U.S. and that it would be “naive” for Cuba’s leaders to ignore the possibility of conflict.
“We would be naive” not to consider the possibility of conflict, he added, “looking at what’s happening around the world.”
Fernández de Cossío said the country’s leaders “truly hope that it doesn’t occur. We don’t see why it would have to occur, and we find no justification whatsoever.”
Tensions between the U.S. and Cuba have been escalating following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of that nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who had a close relationship with Cuba’s leadership.
It is no secret that I have detested the Dem leadership in Congress for a very long time….I have been calling for them to be replaced with someone with some balls.
Now there are many others that are calling for the same action.
A coalition of peace groups on Wednesday launched a new national campaign calling for the top Democrats in Congress—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—to resign from their leadership roles, citing their failure to sufficiently fight back “against a war-crazed Trump administration.”
The coalition, which includes Peace Action and RootsAction, launched a petition declaring that it is “time for congressional Democrats to replace Schumer and Jeffries with leaders who are willing and able to challenge the runaway militarism that has dragged our country into launching yet another insanely destructive war,” this time against Iran.
“Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have not acted to prevent war on Venezuela or the current war on Iran,” the petition reads. “They worked to delay a vote on Iran until after the war had started, while failing to clearly oppose it before or after the launch of the war. Schumer and Jeffries have shown that they cannot be trusted to prevent more wars, more threats of wars, or the transfer of another half a trillion dollars a year into the war machine.”
Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action—the largest grassroots peace network in the US—said in a statement that he doubts “at this point whether many people look to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries for ‘leadership’ in Congress, but we would settle for them getting with the program and representing their base, and the majority of Americans, who want them to stand strongly against Trump’s illegal wars and domestic terror campaigns against the American people.”
Chuck Schumer may not be on the ballot this fall, but the Wall Street Journal reports that his political future is very much in play. Behind closed doors, a growing bloc of Senate Democrats and progressive activists is venting about the 75-year-old minority leader and quietly gaming out what it would take to push him aside after November, according to more than four dozen lawmakers, aides, strategists, and donors interviewed. Among those privately dissatisfied: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, and Chris Murphy, part of an informal progressive “Fight Club” that chats on Signal and believes Schumer is tilting too hard toward centrist candidates in key Senate races.
The frustration stems from several fronts: Schumer’s handling of last year’s lengthy government shutdown, his tightly held decision-making style that some colleagues say leaves them in the dark, and positions—like robust support for Israel—that critics view as out of step with Democratic voters. Some donors are pushing what they jokingly call the “chuck Chuck movement,” and say his image is dragging on fundraising. Yet Schumer still has influential defenders, including Sen. Brian Schatz, widely seen as his preferred eventual successor, and several other Democrats who credit him with recruiting a strong 2026 slate. Progressives, meanwhile, are floating alternatives such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen or Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, even as both signal they’re not actively seeking the job.
Schumer, for his part, says grumbling “goes with the territory,” calls his backing “deep and strong,” and maintains he’s focused solely on winning back the Senate, not on whether he’ll seek to remain leader afterward. The Hill notes that Murphy was asked on Meet the Press over the weekend about emerging reports of dissatisfaction, and he didn’t answer directly when asked if he wanted to replace Schumer. Instead, he acknowledged that Schumer has a “tough job” but declined to answer directly again when pressed by host Kristen Welker.
I like this news a lot….the progressives floated to replace Schumer are not the ones I would choose but for now if we can get rid of the spineless fool so much the better.
