For months now the conflict with Iran has been on again and off again….someone needs to make up their mind and pick a course preferably a peaceful one…..so once again Donny may have shift in tactics?

President Trump appears to be shifting into a new strategy with Iran for the time being, one that emphasizes economic pain over military strikes. “We are low-keying it,” Trump tells Axios. “We are only semi-negotiating with them,” he said, asserting that Iran is buckling under inflation, lack of cash, and a US-led naval blockade. With oil prices back under $80, Trump said Americans are feeling less strain and likened the standoff to “a chess game.” (Has he even looked at a gas pump?)

The immediate flashpoint is the partially closed Strait of Hormuz. A US-Iran-Oman deal to reopen it, granting Tehran some new authority over shipping, has stalled as Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief unveiled tougher conditions, including sanctions relief and compensation. The president’s new posture comes amid widespread reports that the US is running short of key weapons, which the White House denies. Still, Bloomberg reports that Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg asked defense companies to “accelerate” munitions production days after Trump called him about the issue. One US official tells the outlet it will take years to replenish the stocks.

I guess a shortage of missiles can have that effect on the on-going conflict.

Iran has issued a list of demands….

Iran issued a broad, new set of demands to the US on Saturday for the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a senior security official, laid out the conditions including an end to the US naval blockade and sanctions, withdrawal of American forces around Iran, payment of war reparations, release of frozen assets, and a halt to attacks on Iran’s regional allies. The list complicates ongoing talks between Iran and Oman over how to manage the strait, which Iran largely shut down after the US and Israel began their attacks in February, the New York Times reports.

The strait will not open until the US “corrects its behavior,” the statement said, per the AP. White House officials did not immediately comment. The strait runs between Iran and Oman; Iran’s foreign minister said it’s close to a deal with Oman on a temporary shipping route but insists any reopening hinges on US compliance with a June cease-fire memorandum that the two sides interpret differently. Traffic through the strait has fallen from about 130 ships a day to just over a dozen, per the Times.

Of course could not stand by and let Iran grab the headlines.

Iran has called for reparations from the US and not to be outdone Donny thinks Iran should pay to the US…..(seriously?)

resident Trump is trying to flip Iran’s push for war reparations back on Tehran. In a Truth Social post Monday, the president said he’s told his negotiators to demand compensation from Iran for Americans killed or injured in attacks linked to Tehran, calling Iran’s own reparations demand “an interesting idea” to copy. He cited deaths from roadside bombs, “many conflicts,” and even the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole—an attack attributed to al-Qaeda, not Iran, the Independent reports. The government blames Iran-backed militants for the deaths of more than 600 US troops in Iraq and the bombing that killed 241 US military personnel in Beirut in 1983, reports the AP.

• In a follow-up post, Trump said, “Also, with respect to the Iran negotiations, Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!  (they did not killed themselves….Israel is the aggressor)
• Trump also said Tehran should pay compensation to the “hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.” The Independent notes that it’s not clear where Trump got the 52,000 number. US and Israeli estimates of war deaths so far are a little over 6,000. The Times of Israel notes that it’s also not clear how significant Trump’s announcement is, “given that negotiations with Iran are said to have hit a dead end.” On Sunday, Trump said the US is “low-keying it” and only “semi-negotiating.” (should the US pay reparations to it’s innocent protesters?)
• Over the weekend, a senior Iranian official laid out six conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including lifting sanctions, ending US military operations in the region, and paying compensation for “imposed wars.” An interim ceasefire framework expires in just over a week, with no clear path to an extension.

I apologize for I feel I must be blunt….Donny could f*ck up a wet dream.

This so-called ‘diplomacy’ that he and Little Marco and Pistol Pete play at is laughable if it were not so f*cking sad.

I weep for the diplomatic corps of this country.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”