Tag: War

Clay Jones, With Commentary

Memorandum Of Capitulation

What’s in the Iran deal?

Clay Jones

Today, this cartoon was challenged on Facebook by a couple of MAGAts.

One wrote, “One would think with the superior ‘intelligence’ of liberals, they could do a little better job at convincing the masses they’re right than grade school cartoons and hyperventilated delusions…….”

The other argued, “More dumbass dumbocrap shit.” Thank God, Donald Trump told him there’s a B in dumb.

The Trump regime and Iran have a peace deal to have a peace deal in 60 days. Donald Trump said that he digitally signed the deal on Sunday in Washington, and today, an administration official said Trump signed it in Versailles on Wednesday. We are not sure if Donald Trump signed it twice, or if he lied about signing it on Sunday, or what. Later, Trump said that he had signed it in Versailles. This regime that can’t even clean a swimming pool has not been straight about anything. Wasn’t this supposed to be the most transparent administration in American history?

Did they or did they not take Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center last Saturday? The Kennedy Center says they have, but we can’t be sure because the tarp is still in front of it.

It wasn’t until today that anonymous US officials read the language of the memorandum on ending the war to journalists after days of secrecy. The Trump regime blamed Iran for the secrecy, saying that’s how they wanted it. Who’s calling the shots here?

The terms of the agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, outline a $300 billon plan for Iran’s reconstruction, and lift restrictions on the country’s oil exports. It kicks the can down the road on Iran giving up its nuclear material. It calls for Israel to end its attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite the fact that Israel is not a party to the MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding.

The MOU is a 60-day extension of the ceasefire. It outlines that Iran and Oman will manage the Strait of Hormuz and that there will not be a toll for ships to pass through during the 60-day ceasefire. There’s no mention of there not being any tolls in the future.

This agreement is different from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated by President Obama, which Trump ended, which eventually led to this war. The JCPOA was broad in detail and was working in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, while Trump’s Iran deal is about as vague as that peace treaty he signed with North Korea several years ago.

As you may recall, the so-called peace treaty with North Korea didn’t obligate North Korea to do anything. And this so-called peace deal with Iran achieves none of the goals that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth laid out at the start of the war. But remember, Donald Trump is the greatest negotiator in the world.

This deal does not accomplish regime change in Iran. It doesn’t end their missile program. It does not end the persecution of its people. And Iran does not surrender unconditionally. What it really does for Donald Trump is that it gives him an out from this war, so maybe he can focus on his next conquest, Cuba.

Iran walks away from this conflict with more power and more money. The United States walks away with nothing it set out to do, and after spending billions of dollars.

Senator Bill Cassidy said, “Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Before the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,” Cassidy said, “Now, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.”

Cassidy found his spine after losing his primary reelection bid after Trump endorsed his challenger, and is now free to openly criticize Donald Trump. “This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” he said.

Senator Ted Cruz, who doesn’t even have a spine, said, “Giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president, unfortunately, is receiving bad advice.”

He also said, “Setting up Iran to be in charge of the Strait of Hormuz in perpetuity and to charge tolls is not in America’s interest. In my view, the Ayatollah should not reap a single penny from the free transit of the seas.”

What does it tell you when even Republicans are not happy with this deal?

Creative note: Right after I finish the lettering in this cartoon, news broke that some anonymous administration officials had read details of the agreement to reporters. So I almost shelved this. But after talking to Laura and another friend, they convinced me that I should still go with this, so I did. But while building up to that decision, I wrote two more ideas that I like, and I plan to do them over the next couple of days.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see!)

“The Day The War Began”

A spoken poem by friend of Playtime Bee Halton, The Bee Writes.

Clay Jones, Open Windows

So much winning

Trump keeps claiming he’s won the war

Ann Telnaes

And Don’t Call Me, Shirley

Surely Donald Trump should not be allowed around children

Clay Jones

Anytime Donald Trump is accused of being a pedophile, his base runs to the rescue as if they were personally slapped in the face. Currently, there are over 80 comments on this cartoon on my Facebook page, with the bulk of them being MAGAts demanding “verifiable” evidence that Trump is a pedophile. Of course, the same people who are demanding “verifiable” evidence are posting memes with fake quotes about Joe Biden and his daughter.

But how is this for verifiable evidence? Donald Trump went on the Howard Stern show in 2005 and bragged about walking into dressing rooms for teenage contestants in his beauty pageants. He bragged about it as if he had just won Michigan.

Here’s a small portion of that conversation: (snip-MORE; go read it!)

Masters Of War

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxcRbDnMs-OZRd4YLOay14vzCBEdbb1V7B

Lard’s World Peace Tips

Sorted!

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

How Trump’s Vulgar, Criminal Easter Threat Enriches Iran

Juan Cole 04/06/2026

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Easter Sunday, God’s chosen in the White House issued a vulgar and unbalanced posting on his “Truth Social” that epitomizes the insanity of his Iran War. Attending to it closely will help us understand how Trump has strengthened the government of the Islamic Republic and put it in control of global energy. Trump fondly imagines that he can dislodge Iran from this new ascendancy, but he is wrong, since it depends on sabotage, a sabotage that cannot be policed.


Piers Morgan

@piersmorgan·

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This is embarrassing, Delete it, President ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ – unless you want everyone to think you’ve lost your marbles.

The foul language and clear mental imbalance visible in this announcement sparked a further round of calls for Trump’s removal under Article 25 of the Constitution, which is nothing more than an internet meme since Trump has surrounded himself on his cabinet with people even more certifiable than he is, and who wouldn’t dare move against him.

Trump, having imbibed whatever substance it is that makes him manic, announced that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!”

He is repeating a threat he made previously, to bomb Iran’s civilian electricity-generating plants as well as its civilian bridges.

Iran has 98 major power plants fueled by fossil gas, which generate 85% of the country’s electricity. The largest, the Damavand power plant south of the capital, Tehran, has a generating capacity of over 2.8 gigawatts.

One of Iran’s power plants is nuclear, at Bushehr. If Trump or Israel bombs it, the consequent radiation pollution will deeply harm the Arab Gulf states, not only through airborne particles but also by contaminating sea water, which is drawn on by the region’s desalinization plants. This exposure to radiation would certainly increase cancer risk in the region. There are mountains between Bushehr and the Iranian interior, so the radioactive particles would be blown west toward other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Striking civilian power plants, and above all nuclear ones, endangers the noncombatant population of children, women and unarmed men and violates International Humanitarian Law.

In fact, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued “warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu and Mr Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov, in the context of the situation in Ukraine for alleged international crimes . . .” on June 24, 2024. They were indicted for “for the war crime of directing attacks at civilian objects (article 8(2)(b)(ii) of the Rome Statute) and the war crime of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects (article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute), and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts under article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute.”

Among the “civilian objects” that these Russian officials ordered attacked in Ukraine were power plants and structures such as the Kryukovsky Bridge.

So Trump is talking like a war criminal, which tells you why he has placed sanctions on International Criminal Court judges.

Trump already struck the unfinished B1 bridge linking Tehran to Karaj. Since it was not finished, it could not possibly have had a military purpose, contrary to the lies of the lying liars in the Trump administration who gave that as the excuse for hitting it.

Trump continued, “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell– JUST WATCH!

It is not clear how a body of water such as a strait could copulate. However, it can engender revenue, and does so for Iran. A lot of revenue.

Iran has not actually closed the Strait of Hormuz entirely. It is exporting its own petroleum through that narrow aperture, mainly to China. Trump has been forced by the global oil shortage to lift sanctions on the Iranian tankers, and so Iran is also selling again to India. Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed Trump into war on Iran on February 28, Iran was exporting about 1.4 million barrels a day to China. The price of petroleum was about $67 a barrel then, but Iran had to offer a steep discount to offset American sanctions, and so was probably only getting $57 or less a barrel. So Iran was getting something like $29 billion a year for its petroleum from China and a few other customers (90% goes to China).

China is now likely having to pay $110 a barrel for Iranian petroleum.

Iran’s oil income just went up to $55 billion a year if these prices and this volume of trade persists, which is plausible. So the “crazy bastards” in charge of Iran have nearly doubled their income off the Netanyahu-Trump war because of the fertility, under their control, of the “fuckin’ Strait.” The Iranian oil industry is state-owned, so all the money goes to the clerics and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as to the conventional army and the elected institutions, the parliament and president. This extra income helps the government tamp down resistance, strengthening it against civil society. In any case, many Iranians under foreign attack are rallying around the flag. Of course there are also tax losses from the economic disruption of the war, but the vastly increased oil income helps make up for them as far as the government is concerned. If the price of oil goes to $200 a barrel, as it may well, Iran’s government could get $100 billion a year for its petroleum.

Not only that, but Iran has instituted a toll system, wherein countries that have good relations with Iran and pay a fee can transit the Strait without fear of an Iranian drone attack. In contrast, countries that Iran believes contribute to the American war effort against Tehran such as the Emirates and Kuwait, are blockaded by the threat of such strikes. These tolls could be an ongoing and lucrative source of income for the government. Before the war, 138 ships transited the Strait daily. If that traffic resumes but each has to pay Iran a $2 million toll, that would bring in $96 billion a year, i.e. four times what Iran was getting for its petroleum before the war.

So here’s the thing. With the advent of Iran’s Shahed drones, which can be manufactured inexpensively and of which it has tens and thousands, there is no way for anyone, including Trump and the US military, to stop Iran from sabotaging ships that won’t pay the $2 million. At least, I don’t see how it could be done. You’d need tens of thousands of interceptors, and we hardly have any left. Moreover, interceptors cost $1.5 million apiece, so it makes much more sense to allow each ship to pay Iran the $2 million.


Container ship in Strait of Hormuz. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Indra Beaufort).Public Domain. Via Picryl .

Trump has shown Iran how it can go into the protection business in the Gulf for the long term. Nice oil shipping industry you have here, it would be a shame if anything happened to it. And off that, Iran actually increases its GDP substantially.

If Trump takes out Iran’s electricity and bridges, he can interfere with its economy and its society in a big way. But he can’t stop the drones or the protection racket that way. Moreover, Iran has made it clear that its response will be to take out the power plants in the Gulf Arab states as well as in Israel. Since the US and Israel are running low on interceptors, and since even small Shahed drones have great range and can do a lot of damage, Iran’s threat is credible.

If Trump takes out Iran’s petroleum-production capability, Iran will crash oil production in the Gulf, taking 20 million barrels a day off the market for years to come. That would certainly be another Great Depression and likely would spell the end of the oil industry, since everyone in the world would migrate to electric vehicles quickly.

So although Trump meant the phrase ironically and blasphemously, the Iranian authorities may well end up saying “Praise be to Allah” over Trump’s monumental stupidity.

https://www.juancole.com/2026/04/trumps-vulgar-criminal.html

Along With A Thing We Can Do:

On Easter Sunday, Another Message of Hope

Clay Jones, Walt Whitman?

Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the “Terrible Duties” of Democracy

Abraham Lincoln’s faith in the Declaration of Independence ultimately influenced Walt Whitman’s harsh but optimistic appraisal of the American experiment.

Ryan Reft

Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln (Library of Congress)

“The United States are destined either to surmount the gorgeous history of Feudalism, or else prove the most tremendous failure of time,” wrote American poet Walt Whitman in his 1871 work, Democratic Vistas. Despite writing in the wake of a brutal civil war and a failing Reconstruction Era, Whitman remained optimistic. “Not the least doubtful am I on any prospects of their material success.”

Known more for his poetry, exemplified by Leaves of Grass (1855), Whitman’s dark 1871 treatise on the nation remains a harsh but ultimately optimistic appraisal of the American experiment. It serves as a useful tool for thinking about the nation’s current state on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Whitman’s revolutionary patriotism had long been part of his worldview. He celebrated the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution in the preface to Leaves of Grass, noting that a poet must “enter the essences of the real things and past and present events,” among them “the haughty defiance of ’76, and the war and peace and formation of the constitution.”

But for all his celebration of the Declaration and the nation’s founding, he did not mince words regarding the nation’s failings. He wrote of a “hollowness” at the center of American life at the time, calling the business classes depraved and the government saturated in corruption. (snip-go see the rest!)

Trump Age

Trump threatens to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age

Clay Jones

Donald Trump is threatening to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, which, if he does, would be a war crime.

Trump’s chosen war is with the government of Iran, not the people, yet he continues to threaten to destroy its infrastructure. The more Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth brag about their success in the war, the more it seems that Iran fights back.

Trump tells us that the war is won and that Iran’s ability to wage war is nearly depleted if not already destroyed, yet missiles still rain on Israel and our other allies in the Gulf. And if Iran doesn’t have any weaponry left, then how did they shoot down two American jets? If the war is already won, then why are we still fighting? (snip-click on the title to get the rest!)

Gah. Wish I Hadn’t Read This

But it’s important info, nauseating though it is. Also, click on through to the story, as everything I copy on their page to paste here turns into the title, with “Read more at:” and the link. So, my apologies, but this is a thing that we need to know.

“From Greenland to Guyana, our security perimeter is one hemisphere”: Pete Hegseth unveils ‘Greater North America’ strategy

“From Greenland to Guyana, our security perimeter is one hemisphere”: Pete Hegseth unveils ‘Greater North America’ strategy
Read more At:
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/us/from-greenland-to-guyana-our-security-perimeter-is-one-hemisphere-pete-hegseth-unveils-greater-north-america-strategy20260330080242/

Good News From Spain-

Not that the planes won’t go elsewhere, but it’s good to see other countries stand up for right instead of so very wrong.

US aircraft leave Spain after government says bases cannot be used for Iran attacks

By Reuters

  • Summary
  • Spain, US jointly operate military bases in Moron, Rota
  • US tankers head to Germany, France from Spanish bases, maps show
  • Spain says its bases will not be used for Iran attacks

MADRID, March 2 (Reuters) – Fifteen U.S. aircraft have left the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain since the U.S. and Israel launched weekend attacks on Iran, maps by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed on Monday.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Spain would not allow its military bases, which are jointly operated by the U.S. and Spain but under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran, which Spain has condemned.