Update: Regarding what happened last night at the White House Correspondents Dinner — I wasn’t watching, I haven’t watched the videos, and I have read only a little about it. That said, it strikes me as a tad too choreographed. I never entirely bought the theory that the Pennsylvania assassination attempt was staged, but I am entertaining the possibility about last night. What better way for a POTUS whose approval ratings are in the toilet to gain public sympathy? Except I doubt it will work. At least no one was killed.
I was in the middle of writing a post about Trump and Iran when I saw this:
Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.
Members of the National Science Board, which helps govern the National Science Foundation, were dismissed in a message from the Presidential Personnel Office thanking them for their service, according to screenshots shared with The Washington Post: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I’m writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately.”
No reason was given. There’s no indication they will be replaced. Now on to the main topic:
Trump must be a dreadful poker player, if indeed he has ever played poker. He’s the sort who would draw a third six and go all-in.
President Trump said Saturday he called off plans for U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to travel to Pakistan for Iran peace talks. He cited wasted time and confusion over Iran’s leadership, adding, “we have all the cards.”
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!”
“Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership,'” he said. “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”
No, moron, “we” don’t have “all the cards.” They have the Strait of Hormuz. That is at least a straight flush, if not a royal flush. And after wasting so much ordnance to no good effect I’m not sure we even have a full house any more. More like a ten-high straight, at best. And heaven forbid anyone on your team actually did some work to clean up the mess you made. I keep reading Iran believes it can absorb more pain than the U.S. can, so don’t hold your breath waiting for them to call.
The Associated Press reports that Trump says Iran presented new offers 10 minutes after he canceled US team’s trip. The link goes to a video I haven’t watched. I doubt Iran presented anything. See Maziar Motamedi at Al Jazeera, Trump claims on Iranian concessions trigger questions, rejections in Tehran. This was published about a week ago, but it makes a point I don’t think most people are getting.
United States President Donald Trump’s announcements about securing major concessions from Tehran have riled supporters of the Iranian establishment, prompting rejections and clarifications from the authorities.
Several current and former senior officials, state media and the Islamic Republic’s hardcore backers expressed anger, frustration, and confusion after the US leader made a series of claims, with days left on a two-week ceasefire reached on April 8.
Trump on Friday said Iran and the US would jointly dig up the enriched uranium buried under the rubble of bombed Iranian nuclear sites, and transfer it to the US. He claimed Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium on its soil.
He also said the Strait of Hormuz had been opened and would never be closed again, while the US naval blockade of Iran’s ports remained in place, and sea mines were removed or were in the process of being removed.
Iran promptly denied all of that. The Strait, which may have been tentatively opened, was promptly closed again. Trump was lying his ass off. This may be a tactic he used in real estate deals, but it doesn’t work in international relations. And as I’ve said before, I honestly think what he’s trying to do is will what he wants to happen into reality. If he wants it enough and says it forcefully enough, it must come true.
It’s probably just as well Kushner and Witkoff aren’t going back to the talks. I’ve read the Iranians seriously don’t like them anyway. I don’t believe there can be any resolution between the Trump Administration and Iran. A lot of people are in for a lot of hurt until Trump can be forced to back off and let someone else engage with Iran in peace talks. And I don’t know how that will happen.
Update: Josh Marshall:
It all comes back to the foundational fact that Trump lost control of the situation and lost the conflict itself in the first days. Everything since has simply been an effort to ignore or bluster through or deny that fact. Trump wants out of the war so he’s not willing to use the level of force that might prevail over the Iranian blockade. The Iranian leadership sees that just as clearly as everyone else. And as he waits he and the global economy sustain damage. He’s stuck and since he won’t recognize that fact the conflict and the massive damage to the global economy continues, even if the scale of the fighting, for the moment, doesn’t.
Also — here’s an update from Mother Jones on Trump’s plan to reinstate firing squads to carry out the federal death penalty. Someone agrees with me that they just get off on brutality.
"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is a famous 1937 quote by Napoleon Hill. I found that in a Google search, expecting the quote is from Norman Vincent Peale, one of the people who influenced Trump. It might as well be – it's the same hokum that validates very rich people getting even richer because of some mystical power.
The conviction Trump has that he's superior, has superior genes, has mental powers beyond mere mortals, is a core belief for him and for MAGA. The last statement, "they can call." is a hint – Trump thinks he will overwhelm the Iranians if they hear his voice. (Think Sauruman from LOTR.) I think the Iranian leadership has total contempt for Trump. They are open to negotiations to end the war, but they don't have to unconditionally surrender. They can shut down the Straight of Hormuz – and they did within hours of Trump claiming that Iran had accepted conditions they had NOT.
We know what Trump wants, and he wants all of it at a minimum. The Staight open permanently with no threat of ever closing it again. All the nuclear material dug up jointly. I suspect the reply to the US establishing a base to excavate in Iran was, "Why don't you come get it?" It would take months, and would cost hundreds of US GIs, and there's a good chance that Iran has already moved the stuff if they had alternate tunnels dug. I seem to remember weapons of mass destruction that never were. I think these do, but it's a big country. We won't find them without a tremendous loss of life, which seems to have penetrated Trump's skull, which is why Trump's trying to get them to deliver it to his hands.
What does Iran want? The US fleet gone, with a deal not to return. Twenty billion of frozen assets thawed, and all oil sanctions lifted. That's impossible, of course – so is keeping the Straight of Hormuz closed for years, which Iran may be able to do
What about the rules? In the US Revolutionary War, the Brits were outraged that we would not fight on their terms in a gentlemanly way. Which would have guaranteed our defeat. The reply, in action, not negotiation, was that if you bring war to us on our shores, the war will be fought on the terms of the defender, not the aggressor. Iran may be in violation of international law. I presume we can write a traffic ticket. The FACT is, they can because they have. It's their best card, a joker in a game where the joker is wild.
There's a hint in the statements from Iran that they do not trust this administration to conduct honest negotiations. Iran HAS has conducted honest negotiations in the past, and kept their end of the bargain, until Trump tore up the deal. Maha broached the idea that 'somebody else' might conduct negotiations. I think that's inevitable – the question is how long it will take for Trump to accept it.
We are a week out from a deadline that requires Congress to authorize an extension of the war. The GOP can get hung either way they go. If they ignore the law, they are still sanctioning the war by inaction. If they give Trump a green light, they have to defend their vote. If they shut Trump down, MAGA may go after them in November. But if the proposal has been made to delegate negotiations, will a few republicans embrace the idea?
So Il Trumpi, the stable genius fired the scientists…
I was reading about Claudia Scheinbaum, Mexico's president (wikipedia). She has a doctorate in an energy field, somehow related to climate science. She recently announced that Mexico will be getting universal health care, in a few years – something she ran on to become president. It's an incremental process, necessary to bring the existing public and private programs together. Of course I have nothing but admiration for her and the progress she's making.
Seven more months for us in the US. The wheels are coming off, and it's going to get wild. Particularly in the financial markets.
If you study the data on UFOs, there is evidence that ETs can cut the power to ICBM missiles, preventing their launch, despite multiple backup systems. There is also a movie, made by the Air Force, recording a missile test, where a white object in the sky, zapped the top of the missile – where a war head would sit – as the missile was moving at over 12,000 mph. The ETs are forbidden to circumvent our free will, but will prevent us from annihilating each other and especially the planet. I take comfort in this, that the mad president is only going to go so far.
He is no more a poker player than a spiritual leader. He who needs no proper noun. He cheats. He does not play by the rules. He has no place in a friendly game, and no respectable poker parlor would allow him in. For him to even use card playing language "diplomatically" is absurd. Good card players know how to win even "without the cards" as they say. We see little evidence he knows how to win with good cards. Born on third base and all, he started the game well chipped up. Years later he underestimates both the opponents hand strength and stack of chips. That is not a good indication of a strong learning curve. It would be folly such a thing would appear now at his age. He passed the age to be a late bloomer years ago.
Oh, he lies too you say. He tore up a working agreement you say. He has no finesse or ability to bluff. Sure.
We know that, but he has that syndrome which distorts his assessment of his ability, property square footage, and percentage discounts over 100%. So, he does not seem to know that. Thank goodness the Iranians are nice people who won't use his syndrome in their favor. It won't matter if they're not nice anyway, because the military and the religious leaders know of his syndrome and are not known for tolerance for the disabled much less the disgruntled able ones.
All the cards? No, four cards of the same suit do not make a flush. Especially when the card up your sleave is not in that suit either.
Dang, that is a good reply. The wingnuts are saying that Iran is backing down to the man who wrote (heh, a ghost writer) "The Art of the Deal".
When I go about my daily life I see that we are all sleepwalking into a catastrophe.
*It’s probably just as well Kushner and Witkoff aren’t going back to the talks. I’ve read the Iranians seriously don’t like them anyway.*
Kushner and Witkoff are New York City property developers with no known international or diplomatic experience, almost certainly have no knowledge of Iran or entire Western Asia region than what they get from the New York Times and Fox News. Both seem to be prominant Zionists and Netanyahu is, reportedly, a close friend of the Kushner family. Thank heavens there is no conflict of interest here.
At least twice while Kushner and Witkoff were negotiating with Iran, the USA and Israel carried out sneak attacks killing many Iranian Gov't leaders and scientists along with many ordinary citizens. The second attack killed the supreme leader, several members of his family, a number of senior officials plus numerous other residents in the neighbourhood.
Apparently in the last negotiations, held in Islamabad, the Iranians arrived with a 70+ team of negotiators and assorted experts led by the Speaker of the Parliament with full authority to negotiate. I am not sure but it looks like the three stooges, Vance, Kushner, and Witkoff, arrived with a couple of baggage carriers. Vance is reported to have spent much of his time on the phone with Washington.
I can see why the Iranians seriously don't like them.
At least twice while Kushner and Witkoff were negotiating with Iran, the USA and Israel carried out sneak attacks killing many Iranian Gov't leaders and scientists along with many ordinary citizens.
Any objective observer being honest will admit that by our actions the Iranians have been given every reason not to trust the US in negotiations, and if an agreement is reached, that we can't be trusted to stick to it. We've also given them more reason than they had before the war to want a nuclear weapon as a deterrent against the US. They didn't attack us, we attacked them. Even if a third party comes in and negotiates an end, no matter how trusted they are, they're still negotiating on our behalf, and that doesn't mitigate our own untrustworthiness.
"the Iranians have been given every reason not to trust the US "
I believe this is the reason why almost everyone in NYC stopped doing any kind of business with him at some point…
Good pount but the "not trusting the word of the USA' goes deeper than that. Ask the Kurds how many times the USA has left them hanging.
Come to think of it there is a sizable Kurdish population in Iran. They may have heard stories from their cousins in Iraq and Syria.
"That said, it strikes me as a tad too choreographed"
I'm not one for tinfoil hat stuff either but I tend to agree that "assassination attempt" looked like a cheap reality show production? The video I saw the guy runs past ten to twelve security folks before any of them decide to give chase essentially letting him within ear shot of the crowd? Looked like something from my favorite movie of all time "the bank dick"! I don't buy it, if anyone thinks that trump is above staging something like this to help his whale poop pole numbers, then I have a bridge to sell!
The fact that the shooter was able to reserve a room in the same hotel, bring guns and then run past security as easily as he did while the POTUS and other top admin officials were gathered nearby are not necessarily tells of a conspiracy but yet another example of how Trump's "best people" are nothing more than unqualified sycophants with no business in their jobs.
That said, given Trump's TOTAL lack of credibility, given the lies, deceptions and disinformation that fuels the right, the mystery still shrouding the Charlie Kirk shooting, Butler and others, color me cynical as to whether last night's events were "real."
"One of many reasons that a lot of people were saying immediately after the incident at the WHCD — calling it an “assassination attempt” is perhaps a bit of stretch; the guy was never anywhere close to the room Trump was in, and wasn’t even on the same floor of the hotel when he was apprehended, so it was more of an assassination gesture"
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/04/strictly-ballroom
The photo of Miller behind is wife is amusing, as is the footage of RFK jr. running away while leaving his wife to fend for herself.
My suspicion is that the the surveillance state identified the guy and let him get to the door to have a little show. Yes, the fix is in with the perfect fall guy.
A return to normal happens so rarely anymore the return of has become a bit of a news item of late. With the illegitimate war soon to become the more illegitimate war the price of crude oil (American) rose above the price of Brent Crude (North Sea). I noted this abnormality some weeks ago. This is not so in the marketplace anymore. The Brent crude is back to its normal higher price.
As to the illegitimate war getting more-so:
Opinion | By Week’s End, Trump’s War Will Be Plainly Illegal – The New York Times
I think it's significant that 60 Minutes asked DJT about the shooter's manifesto, especially allegations that Trump participated in rape. More people on the right are questioning if the shooting was a put-up job. The GOP in Congress is becoming more vocal about an exit strategy as a condition for authorizing this disaster. And there is none as the midterms are shaping up with gas near record highs.
For a year, I've been suggesting that the 'win' for Democrats will be to split the GOP into two factions. The first would be the MAGA faction, including white supremacists and so-called 'Christian' fundamentalists under a banner of nationalism that pretends to protect the Constitution from 'radical' liberals who are actually the ones who understand and respect the ideals of the founders in a modern setting.
That MAGA faction is fraying – Trump-appointed judges are striking down the precpept that the president can write law. Tucker Carlson is a loathsome POS, and he's fleeing the ship with other rats. None of them has integrity – they aren't going down with the ship. They know Trump will fail – they're going to declare him unworthy to be the standard-bearer. They haven't given up on fascism, but they want a new messiah.
This is the lid of Pandora's box being opened. There's no shortage of ambitious tyrants in Trump's circle who want the power. These are the second, third, and fourth factions. Once there is a permission structure, they will turn on DJT, bloody knives in their hands, with evidence of his incompetence. From this anarchy, no one will emerge with the majority that Trump assembled twice.
Yup. There is no honor among thieves.
I saw the clip of the Jimmy Kimell joke of Melania "with the glow of an expectant widow…" I have a rough sense of humor and in the context of the moment, two days before the dinner, it was funny.
It was not a call for violence – it was the suggestion that Melania would not grieve the passing of her master? owner? sperm donor? The metaphor that made it comic was the comparison to a mother-to-be close to an event to celebrate, which is how I feel about Trump's passing. I plan to put loudspeakers on my car and blast the song from 'The Wizard of Oz' after a happy landing in Muchkin Land, "Ding-Dong, The Witch Is Dead.s" I don't care if it's a heart attack (unlikely, he has no heart) or syphilis, or generals from the Army defending the Constitution. In my mind, the close of a video that captures my feelings about Trump's demise would close with Melania raising a glass of Champagne to the hereafter with the toast, "Fuck You, Donald."
Much as MAGA wants to make it so, it was not a call for violence, just an end to an evil king.
Hahahaha, they hate the joke because it is hilarious and true! Orange Man's stripper-wife is the same as any other stripper-wife biding their time to get their payout. The GOP word-machine chases its tail to change the storyline on the fact that she is just a flat paper cut-out prop of "wife" but instead reminds us that she is just tacky stripper-wife.