Author: Ron Davis

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He Posted this on May 18. Then He Posted the Same Thing Again on May 26. Then He Posted it Again Last Night. 

Trump has already suffered defeat at the hands of the Iranians. To try to hide that defeat from you—but most of all, to try to hide it from himself—he has fallen deeper and deeper into delusional narcissism. 

When you hold a losing hand, your best option is to negotiate the least bad deal you can get, and then walk away. But in order to implement your least bad option, first you have to get past your natural reluctance to admit how bad the situation actually is. 

If you are buying stock or oil futures based on the assumption that Trump and Iran are actually negotiating a deal and will soon finalize that deal, then you are a fool, and you richly deserve what’s coming to you. 

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Here’s a Howdy Do

Iran says it won’t negotiate any more unless and until Israel lays off Lebanon.

If Mango Mussolini tells Bibi to lay off Lebanon, and if Bibi follows those orders, then everyone’s going to say that Trump is a wimp for doing what Teheran directed him to do.

But if the war in Lebanon goes on, then a lot of people are going to blame Israel for torpedoing the deal with Iran. “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and rampant anti-semitism, here we come again!

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Not Looking Good for the Lyin’ King

The biggest losses seem to be with the core of the base—the four groups listed at the top of the graph. 

And the odds are strongly in favor of It getting worse for the Tangerine Toddler. Today brings news that negotiations with Iran are off and the war is back on. And you know what that means for gas prices and for the US economy, generally. 

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Still Working for the Orcs

Today, the ever insightful Michelle Goldberg writes, in the New York Times, There’s No Escaping the Rot in This Justice Department. She observes, 

In the face of Trump’s attempts to turn the Department of Justice into his legal praetorian guard, many career employees seem to think they can keep their heads down and wait out their new masters. “We are the mole people now,” one department employee told the New York Times reporter Devlin Barrett in his forthcoming book, “The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice.” But at a certain point, it may be impossible to serve both the cause of justice and an unjust government. …

The White House’s demands for political prosecutions “are putting career prosecutors into very, very difficult situations,” Barrett told me, forcing people to constantly ask where their red line is. Some in the Justice Department, he said, make a “Lord of the Rings” analogy. “Most of the people there can still do their jobs well and do good, meaningful work in law enforcement until the Eye of Sauron turns to you,” he said, meaning you get pulled into one of Trump’s vendettas. The problem is that even before that happens, you’re still working for the orcs.

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Rest in Peace, and Well Done, Sgt. Davis

Your father made you quit school in the middle of the eighth grade, to work in the cotton fields. But farming was becoming increasingly unprofitable in the 1920’s. Soon, everyone in your family looked for some other way to earn a living. 

As car ownership spread, you saw the increasing demand for auto repair services, so you and one of your brothers taught yourselves how to fix Model T’s and keep them on the road. 

When World War II came, you were not eager to join the army, but you knew the danger our country faced. When Uncle Sam called, you did your duty. Soon, the Army discovered your mechanical skill and put it to good use. After D-Day, as the Army moved across France and into Germany, you and your platoon followed just behind the front lines, repairing the tanks, keeping the trucks on the road, and making sure the jeeps remained serviceable. 

You understood that, whatever the personal cost and sacrifice, we had to defeat the Nazis. 

In a time of danger and crisis, you did what you had to do, to defend our country and our way of life, and to make sure I grew up in a free society.

Well done, Sgt. Robert J. Davis, and thank you. 

On this Memorial Day, we remember. 

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I Love the Smell of Bullshit in the Morning

Concepts of a Deal

Today’s Wall Street Journal lucidly explains the situation:

Donald Trump has told US negotiators “not to rush into a deal” with Iran that would lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, saying “both sides must take their time and get it right”.

The US president’s remarks, in a post to his Truth Social platform, came a day after he suggested that an agreement was close, claiming it had “largely been negotiated”.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump said “final aspects and details” of a deal that would open the Strait of Hormuz were “currently being discussed” and would “be announced shortly”.

But his social media post on Sunday morning raised the possibility that talks would stretch beyond the weekend. 

“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner,” Trump wrote. He described the back-and-forth as the “exact opposite” of the two years of talks that led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 agreement that placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme and from which the president withdrew the US in his first term.

In a subsequent post he said the deal “isn’t even fully negotiated yet”.

A senior administration official later said the Iran agreement would not be signed on Sunday, but there had been “progress” made towards a deal.