We are two weeks into a war with Iran, and the fallout is already arriving at our doorstep. The administration—Trump, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Patel, and Bondi—has fundamentally miscalculated the firestorm they ignited. By underestimating the primitive power of revenge, they have left American citizens to pay the price for their aggression. Yesterday’s visceral attacks on Jewish communities and citizens are a chilling testament to this failure. Our strikes on Iranian soil have not 'contained' the threat; they have instead kicked open the door for radical extremists to exact their toll here at home. While we must honor the staggering heroism of the enforcement officers and ROTC cadets who stood as the final line of defense, we cannot ignore the rot at the center of our strategy. The preposterous, hubristic delusion that the United States is an untouchable titan that can act with total impunity must be shattered. Politicians on both sides of the aisle must finally confront this lethal arrogance. As we stare into the chaos we’ve created, we are reminded of a dark truth: We have forged the very blade that now seeks our own throat."
Yesterday, in his press conference, Hegseth said "The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that."
Similarly, the only thing prohibiting Hegseth from being sober right now is all the drinking. Sobriety is possible should Hegseth not do that.
Duh, and the only thing preventing the USA from prospering right now is the Trump administration and the gutless Republicans in Congress enabling his insane actions. We the people can say "You're fired!"
I think we should put our commander in chief Donald Trump, and our secretary of war Hegseth on the bow of a ship going the straits and see how much courage they have
Sure, after Pete finds his courage at the bottom of his 2nd bottle of booze of the day and The Great Donald stands in the bow of the ship knowing that no harm will come to him, the greatest human to have ever lived. The world has never seen anything like him before.
But according to Hegseth today 3/13 the Iran miitary is ineffective, so how could they be shooting at shipping to prohibit transit through the Strait of Hormuz? It is of course unpatriotic to state or print or communicate electronically that the US does not seem to have anticipated that Iran could exploit its influence over this critical narrow passage to inflict harm upion the global economy, and also then strengthen Russia's ability to pursue its war (or "special military operation "in Russian or "excursion" in Trumpian English). Truth has become antiAmerican. The only strait narrower than Hormuz is the strait in the metaphorical or delusional straitjacket which confines the minds and brains of Hegseth, his boss and fellow Cabinet Secretaries ifrom letting facts and realities, let alone the principles and practices of strategic planning or understanding of enemies and allies. penetrate their consciousness and their conscience. Conscience is anyway as irrelevant to their characters as an appendix used to be thought of (vestigial, serving no purpose) with respect to the human body.
It is unpatriotic to have terrorists in the Oval Office and terrorists appointed as cabinet members actively working to destroy the United Stares of America and supporting our Russisn adversaries, adversaries who are working with Iran to kill Americans.
Yes, I love it when Smarmy Little Petey Hegseth comes on the telly and pretty much tells anyone listening that we're pretty much done here cuz Iran doesn't have any military left, no army or navy or air force or tanks or ammo or soldiers or whatever else it takes "to war." Even my feeble old brain cannot begin to absorb such horsepoop. A huge country (600,000+ square miles!) with 90 million people has
Oops, this got prematurely sent. I just wanted to say that it seems to me a big country surely has its defense forces spread out all over the place. We didn't manage to poof it all away in one week!
Chinese tankers transporting oil from Russia and/or from Iran and other gulf countries? I believe that Iran plus these other Gulf countries have been supplying about 45% of China's oil imports Despite being the leader in clean energy, China remains heavily dependent on imported hydrocarbons, and I believe that its latest development plan includes a new gas pipeline from.... Russia. So another consequence of Trump's idiotic and chaotic polices is to push China and Russia closer together, with Russia in an increasing state of vassalage. China will be able to apply a massive combination of leverage over Russia with leverage over the global including the US economy thanks to its grip on critical minerals - which it was able to use in fighting Trump's tariffs. So HE WHO IS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING put tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, but not China which buys much more. "Stupid is as stupid does" should be emblazoned in BOLD ALL CAPS on the new White House Ballroom and every new statue and monument installed at his request or demand.
Things are falling apart for the this moronic regime. Now is the time to keep calling, esp if you have a GOP house rep or Senator. Even in Louisiana - polls are not going well for Cassidy. Sherrod Brown is up in Ohio and now is the time for Ohioans to call Husted every day.
Dems in Senate have voted again and again not to fund DHS despite TSA and FEMA employees not getting paychecks - they are united. We have to keep calling our Dem Senators to say we agree with them and to keep voting no.
But Regime needs more money - I have called both my Senators to say - no funding for war and regime can take it out of ICE 75 BILLION budget. ICE Is still running rampant, the building of concentration camps keeps going.
And to your great post, Wendy, I'll add that Ds offered to fund TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and just have the shutdown relate to ICE/CBP. But Rs refused and voted down the D's offering.
Sent this email today to both Dem Senators and my Dem Rep:
Hold the line. Do not authorize a penny more for the Department of Defense. They are swimming in cash. If they can dine on steak, crab legs and lobster tails they can finance an extravagant war of their choosing. No money from this taxpayer.
where are the expereinced military leaders that showed up for the 'meeting' a while ago who sat stoically to listen to the drivel - where are the experienced military leaders that we need right now??!! How/why are they not asserting their experience?
Horrible position to put our military in, thinking military vessels can be escorted through the Hormuz willy nilly. Imagine how terrified these naval officers are including the military officials stuck in that region, uncertain as to what the hell is going on. Can’t imagine the American majority (including many MAGA voters) will be thrilled to see more members of our military killed unnecessarily. Not to mention the nerves many are feeling now towards the possibility of sleeper cell attacks God forbid.
So Iran didn't close the straight when we didn't kill Iran's leader, but, surprise!, when we did kill Iran's leader Iran closed the straight. No one could have anticipated . . . .
I called my congressman and senators about ICE and Iran. I also asked them to regularly bring up Trump's declining mental state. I'm writing postcards to NC voters today.
I think the thing that haunts me most about our national political discourse is just how little time the experience of ordinary Iranians, Lebanese, and the residents of the gulf more generally receive. We start by talking about how this might impact inflation or gas prices. But millions of people have already been displaced, over a 1000 killed, and many more to die because of their displacement. And somehow, whether that's okay depends on gas prices. We have no public morality any more. No sense that we should care about how what we do impacts other people. I'd love to restore that some how.
I am a fellow substacker (billcarstensen.substack.com) doing geographic analysis of Trump issues with maps, statistics using REAL (as in not Trump) DATA. Wrote a short piece yesterday on the idiocy of overlooking the Strait of Hormuz which is probably the best example in the entire world of a geographic "choke point" that can be controlled during a military operation with relative ease. Add Geography of oil shipments and reserves and it is double idiocy.
The senseless lack of concern for consequences, the totally unqualified cabinet of advisers that just say "yes", and the constant "Varuka Salt" childish impulsive behavior within this administration are insults to every American.
I'm not smart enough to understand what our adversaries want to accomplish with the AI injection into our discourse.....surely they still favor a weak America, which means they want Trump.....but these videos weaken him and make him more likely to lash out in dangerous ways with our considerable assets.....I guess maybe they just assume he'll be here through January, 2029 no matter what, so they want his incompetence, and for him to be as weak as possible? I know that even when they attack my adversary, I feel pretty queasy being on the same side of basically any issue with them. Anyone have any thoughts about what they're doing? Is it just to sew chaos in general, regardless of who is in power? I keep promising to stop day-dinking, but here we are again!
CNN quotes sources, "President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration."
Simon, I agree 1000% that "The Trumpian incompetence the entire world is experiencing now - incompetence magnified by his extraordinary malevolence and stunning recklessness - should cause the immediate departure of Hegseth, Wifkoff, and Kushner," [and TRUMP!!!]
This past week, each call to senators have included this action to force resignation and/or removal of these corrupt incompetents. This afternoon I am attending a protest in Memphis against the Iran War.
The posts by Iran and China are brutal and spot on. I'm really having a hard time believing that one crazy man can can wreak so much damage to the whole world. I'm reminded what Joe Biden frequently opined about that the presidency is defined by the character and ethical standards of the individual holding the office, rather than just the power of the institution itself. That thin line of character and ethics has mostly kept us from this kind of chaos since George Washington until this vulgar example of a human. We've been very lucky.
The titanic eff up also includes revealing to the world the limits of our military power. If they weren’t such toxic men, the Trumpsters could have looked at Russia’s debacle in Ukraine. And why are we looking to fund multi-million dollar munitions that can be destroyed by a $20k dollar drone? Such stupidity.
Is it just me, or has the CreepyVeepy gone silent? What does he have up his sleazy sleeve??
HCR’s opening today: “In Ohio today, Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy launched a $10 million TV and digital ad campaign to run until Election Day. Jeremy Pelzer of Cleveland DOT com explained that this ad buy alone is more than twice as much as the $4.4 million Democratic candidate Amy Acton, the former state health director, has raised, and it is only about half of the $19.5 million Ramaswamy’s campaign has raised.”
We are two weeks into a war with Iran, and the fallout is already arriving at our doorstep. The administration—Trump, Vance, Miller, Hegseth, Patel, and Bondi—has fundamentally miscalculated the firestorm they ignited. By underestimating the primitive power of revenge, they have left American citizens to pay the price for their aggression. Yesterday’s visceral attacks on Jewish communities and citizens are a chilling testament to this failure. Our strikes on Iranian soil have not 'contained' the threat; they have instead kicked open the door for radical extremists to exact their toll here at home. While we must honor the staggering heroism of the enforcement officers and ROTC cadets who stood as the final line of defense, we cannot ignore the rot at the center of our strategy. The preposterous, hubristic delusion that the United States is an untouchable titan that can act with total impunity must be shattered. Politicians on both sides of the aisle must finally confront this lethal arrogance. As we stare into the chaos we’ve created, we are reminded of a dark truth: We have forged the very blade that now seeks our own throat."
My mistake. Arthritis in my little finger must have hit the " key. I don't know how to edit the error.
Powerful and succinct, Art B.
Hear, hear!
Yesterday, in his press conference, Hegseth said "The only thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that."
Similarly, the only thing prohibiting Hegseth from being sober right now is all the drinking. Sobriety is possible should Hegseth not do that.
Duh, and the only thing preventing the USA from prospering right now is the Trump administration and the gutless Republicans in Congress enabling his insane actions. We the people can say "You're fired!"
I think we should put our Commande
Sick burn man
I think we should put our commander in chief Donald Trump, and our secretary of war Hegseth on the bow of a ship going the straits and see how much courage they have
Sure, after Pete finds his courage at the bottom of his 2nd bottle of booze of the day and The Great Donald stands in the bow of the ship knowing that no harm will come to him, the greatest human to have ever lived. The world has never seen anything like him before.
The Secretary of Excursions
But according to Hegseth today 3/13 the Iran miitary is ineffective, so how could they be shooting at shipping to prohibit transit through the Strait of Hormuz? It is of course unpatriotic to state or print or communicate electronically that the US does not seem to have anticipated that Iran could exploit its influence over this critical narrow passage to inflict harm upion the global economy, and also then strengthen Russia's ability to pursue its war (or "special military operation "in Russian or "excursion" in Trumpian English). Truth has become antiAmerican. The only strait narrower than Hormuz is the strait in the metaphorical or delusional straitjacket which confines the minds and brains of Hegseth, his boss and fellow Cabinet Secretaries ifrom letting facts and realities, let alone the principles and practices of strategic planning or understanding of enemies and allies. penetrate their consciousness and their conscience. Conscience is anyway as irrelevant to their characters as an appendix used to be thought of (vestigial, serving no purpose) with respect to the human body.
@Martyn Roetter
It is unpatriotic to have terrorists in the Oval Office and terrorists appointed as cabinet members actively working to destroy the United Stares of America and supporting our Russisn adversaries, adversaries who are working with Iran to kill Americans.
Yes, I love it when Smarmy Little Petey Hegseth comes on the telly and pretty much tells anyone listening that we're pretty much done here cuz Iran doesn't have any military left, no army or navy or air force or tanks or ammo or soldiers or whatever else it takes "to war." Even my feeble old brain cannot begin to absorb such horsepoop. A huge country (600,000+ square miles!) with 90 million people has
Oops, this got prematurely sent. I just wanted to say that it seems to me a big country surely has its defense forces spread out all over the place. We didn't manage to poof it all away in one week!
The Iranians are letting Chinese oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Chinese tankers transporting oil from Russia and/or from Iran and other gulf countries? I believe that Iran plus these other Gulf countries have been supplying about 45% of China's oil imports Despite being the leader in clean energy, China remains heavily dependent on imported hydrocarbons, and I believe that its latest development plan includes a new gas pipeline from.... Russia. So another consequence of Trump's idiotic and chaotic polices is to push China and Russia closer together, with Russia in an increasing state of vassalage. China will be able to apply a massive combination of leverage over Russia with leverage over the global including the US economy thanks to its grip on critical minerals - which it was able to use in fighting Trump's tariffs. So HE WHO IS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING put tariffs on India for buying Russian oil, but not China which buys much more. "Stupid is as stupid does" should be emblazoned in BOLD ALL CAPS on the new White House Ballroom and every new statue and monument installed at his request or demand.
And... other than that... how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Things are falling apart for the this moronic regime. Now is the time to keep calling, esp if you have a GOP house rep or Senator. Even in Louisiana - polls are not going well for Cassidy. Sherrod Brown is up in Ohio and now is the time for Ohioans to call Husted every day.
Dems in Senate have voted again and again not to fund DHS despite TSA and FEMA employees not getting paychecks - they are united. We have to keep calling our Dem Senators to say we agree with them and to keep voting no.
But Regime needs more money - I have called both my Senators to say - no funding for war and regime can take it out of ICE 75 BILLION budget. ICE Is still running rampant, the building of concentration camps keeps going.
Keep calling everyone!
And to your great post, Wendy, I'll add that Ds offered to fund TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and just have the shutdown relate to ICE/CBP. But Rs refused and voted down the D's offering.
Contribute to: http://www.dscc.orgwww.SenateMajority.comhttps://dccc.org
THEHOUSEMAKPRITYPAC.com
I personally find it annoying when ppl come on our comments thread and tell us what to do. our comments section is not a bulletine board.
David, do you not believe in Simon's endorsements and Hopium's strategic donation focus?
that is the Indivisible message this week. Not one more cent for the Pentagon!
Sent this email today to both Dem Senators and my Dem Rep:
Hold the line. Do not authorize a penny more for the Department of Defense. They are swimming in cash. If they can dine on steak, crab legs and lobster tails they can finance an extravagant war of their choosing. No money from this taxpayer.
Thank you
Absolutely! I try to post on my local grassroots FB groups for people to take the easy actions. One simple email is so easy to do!
where are the expereinced military leaders that showed up for the 'meeting' a while ago who sat stoically to listen to the drivel - where are the experienced military leaders that we need right now??!! How/why are they not asserting their experience?
This saying seems appropriate in these crazy times:
"Bow deeply so the big boss doesn’t see you laughing at him."
As I recall the experienced top brass were ordered to show up for that meeting. IMO, Trump doesn't want them there any more.
Early on in the regime, they were fired and replaced by generals willing to pledge allegiance to trump
Horrible position to put our military in, thinking military vessels can be escorted through the Hormuz willy nilly. Imagine how terrified these naval officers are including the military officials stuck in that region, uncertain as to what the hell is going on. Can’t imagine the American majority (including many MAGA voters) will be thrilled to see more members of our military killed unnecessarily. Not to mention the nerves many are feeling now towards the possibility of sleeper cell attacks God forbid.
So Iran didn't close the straight when we didn't kill Iran's leader, but, surprise!, when we did kill Iran's leader Iran closed the straight. No one could have anticipated . . . .
I called my congressman and senators about ICE and Iran. I also asked them to regularly bring up Trump's declining mental state. I'm writing postcards to NC voters today.
TY for continuing to include Trump's mental decline in your calls to MoC.
Crew of six confirmed dead in crash of refueling tanker. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/13/iran-war-news-live-updates-us-israel-middle-east-crisis-latest.
I’ll make my calls.
I think the thing that haunts me most about our national political discourse is just how little time the experience of ordinary Iranians, Lebanese, and the residents of the gulf more generally receive. We start by talking about how this might impact inflation or gas prices. But millions of people have already been displaced, over a 1000 killed, and many more to die because of their displacement. And somehow, whether that's okay depends on gas prices. We have no public morality any more. No sense that we should care about how what we do impacts other people. I'd love to restore that some how.
Well WE have public morality, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But yes.
Clarissa Ward spoke to the horrific effects that war has brought to people in the Middle East. She has seen it for years.
I am a fellow substacker (billcarstensen.substack.com) doing geographic analysis of Trump issues with maps, statistics using REAL (as in not Trump) DATA. Wrote a short piece yesterday on the idiocy of overlooking the Strait of Hormuz which is probably the best example in the entire world of a geographic "choke point" that can be controlled during a military operation with relative ease. Add Geography of oil shipments and reserves and it is double idiocy.
The senseless lack of concern for consequences, the totally unqualified cabinet of advisers that just say "yes", and the constant "Varuka Salt" childish impulsive behavior within this administration are insults to every American.
I'm not smart enough to understand what our adversaries want to accomplish with the AI injection into our discourse.....surely they still favor a weak America, which means they want Trump.....but these videos weaken him and make him more likely to lash out in dangerous ways with our considerable assets.....I guess maybe they just assume he'll be here through January, 2029 no matter what, so they want his incompetence, and for him to be as weak as possible? I know that even when they attack my adversary, I feel pretty queasy being on the same side of basically any issue with them. Anyone have any thoughts about what they're doing? Is it just to sew chaos in general, regardless of who is in power? I keep promising to stop day-dinking, but here we are again!
I think this is trump's war, and Iran sees him personally as their enemy.
Pretty sure all along trump et al have assumed foreign actors would only ever interfere to help them, and never hurt them.
The payback would be delightful if everything wasn't so damn dire.
CNN quotes sources, "President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration."
Simon, I agree 1000% that "The Trumpian incompetence the entire world is experiencing now - incompetence magnified by his extraordinary malevolence and stunning recklessness - should cause the immediate departure of Hegseth, Wifkoff, and Kushner," [and TRUMP!!!]
This past week, each call to senators have included this action to force resignation and/or removal of these corrupt incompetents. This afternoon I am attending a protest in Memphis against the Iran War.
Did Trump and Hegseth know where the Strait of Hormuz was?
LOL
The posts by Iran and China are brutal and spot on. I'm really having a hard time believing that one crazy man can can wreak so much damage to the whole world. I'm reminded what Joe Biden frequently opined about that the presidency is defined by the character and ethical standards of the individual holding the office, rather than just the power of the institution itself. That thin line of character and ethics has mostly kept us from this kind of chaos since George Washington until this vulgar example of a human. We've been very lucky.
And speaking of character, ethical standards and, indeed, moral clarity--this from Pope Leo:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-leo-says-christians-who-start-wars-should-go-to-confession/ar-AA1YyX6J?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=69b40dbe272c450ab59c980fe082bf3f&cvpid=69b4430dd44d40e58bd3bbb18c48952c&ei=21
The titanic eff up also includes revealing to the world the limits of our military power. If they weren’t such toxic men, the Trumpsters could have looked at Russia’s debacle in Ukraine. And why are we looking to fund multi-million dollar munitions that can be destroyed by a $20k dollar drone? Such stupidity.
Is it just me, or has the CreepyVeepy gone silent? What does he have up his sleazy sleeve??
Gas prices are up almost one dollar in the Md/Pa area.
HCR’s opening today: “In Ohio today, Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy launched a $10 million TV and digital ad campaign to run until Election Day. Jeremy Pelzer of Cleveland DOT com explained that this ad buy alone is more than twice as much as the $4.4 million Democratic candidate Amy Acton, the former state health director, has raised, and it is only about half of the $19.5 million Ramaswamy’s campaign has raised.”
Ugh
Money advantage does not guarantee victory. This will be an interesting race.