Monday, June 29, 2026
The Deal Sucks
Trump refers to this as a “deal,” but I am not sure that terminology is accurate, since we didn’t actually get anything from Iran. (I suppose some would say we secured a restoration of the status quo ante with regard to the Strait of Hormuz, hardly a victory and something that could better have been obtained by punitive bombing, or by letting the Europeans and Asians deal with the situation.) I would describe the Memorandum as a one-sided set of inexplicable concessions.
I have no theory as to how Trump could have done something this foolish. It is being viewed everywhere as a massive defeat for the United States, and the Democrats, who are unabashedly on Iran’s side, are turning cartwheels. Foreign Policy magazine, a voice of foreign policy liberalism, headlines “Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam.” That’s hyperbolic, but I take their point.
It is a sad day for America and for our allies.
No Basis
Seriously, I do think that the U.S. may be in the process of breaking up. When Democrats say they would like to live in a different country, I think it means they want a country of their own—a socialist country where there are 256 genders, no rich people, no free speech, no religion. Someday, I think they may get it. Because there is no basis for common citizenship between us, who love our country and want to preserve it, and them, who hate our country and want to destroy it.
Totally Legit
The thing is, my friends, that the vote counting, or should I say vote manufacturing, does not show a surge in voting by Democrats in the mail-in ballot. It shows a massive surge—in fact, a doubling in some cases—of Nithya Raman's pre-election-day vote percentage, and Nithya Raman is the candidate who needs the votes to knock Spencer Pratt off the ballot. A candidate who was getting around 20% of the vote is suddenly getting 40% of the vote, and those votes are coming at the expense of Spencer Pratt.
Not her Democrat opponent, whose vote percentage has remained steady.
And where are those votes coming from? Well, the massive vote counts seem suspiciously concentrated in areas where voters have no known address, so the ballots are automatically sent to locations run by the homelessness NGOs that Nithya Raman is deeply involved with.
Team America
Back to John Fetterman, perhaps the only voice of sanity in today’s Democratic Party. I think we are living through an era that resembles, in some ways, the years before the Civil War. Then, there was one great issue, slavery. Americans may have disagreed on a host of lesser issues, but if they were pro-slavery or anti-slavery, they were fundamentally aligned with others who shared that view. Similarly, our electorate today has divided into two groups: conservatives who love America and are trying to preserve her, and liberals who hate America and are trying to destroy her.
If you, like John Fetterman, are pro-America, you are on our team. We can sort out our disagreements later—marginal tax rates and the like. For now, in the battle that is raging, everyone who is for America is on our side.
Being a Leftist Must Be Exhausting
These entertainment people are "freethinkers," according to Anderson, who also says, contradictorily, that "the prevailing politics are extremely progressive," so "they don’t feel safe to question an asserted identity by one of their children."
So what is it? Do they feel compelled to go along with whatever the child says — politically compelled — or are they — because of their inherent creativity — celebrating and encouraging unusual expression?
"Hard Drive" Talarico
James Talarico is creepy as hell.
I don't say this as a Republican who disagrees with him on most things, but as a human male. The more you hear of him, the more repulsive he is.
No doubt he will get some male votes, but almost exclusively from people who think that Scott Weiner's campaign parties are really great.
What are the Odds?
Zeek Arkham's question is a good one: why is it that EVERY time there is a late vote dump, it is overwhelmingly Democrat? Why do media folks have to report that early surprise totals for Republicans may get wiped away by votes that are banked and uncounted?
Because it is assumed that vote dumps always help Democrats. It is an iron law of nature. Or, should I say, vote rigging.
The Alliance
Welcome to the Hezbollah version of the Hokey Pokey. This is the same dance perfected by Hamas, and by Iran's regime as well. They do not negotiate in good faith, they do not adhere to agreements, and they use splits between allies with the effectiveness of narcissistic teenagers who find cracks in parental fronts on discipline.
That is what makes this story so bad, no matter what words were used in this conversation. Neither the US nor Israel can afford to let Iran split this coalition, especially at this stage. Trump seems to want a deal with Iran more than he wants an actual end to terrorism against the Israelis, and the Iranians are taking that as a lesson every day of the so-called ceasefire already. Letting White House aides leak this story to the press unnecessarily exposes a split between the two allies that the Islamists are already all too eager to exploit. Whatever momentary political benefit comes from this leak will be paid for in blood if and when the IRGC succeeds in exploiting it to get the diplomatic escape it desperately seeks. Hezbollah's offensive in Lebanon is designed to produce this very result, and if the White House can't see that, then Netanyahu has every reason to start acting on his own to end the threat on his northern border the best he can.
