Have a peaceful night's sleep, hear?

Public Occurrences August 8, 2026

                     Third World Nation

As Blanche’s path to confirmation is cleared, Trump’s tax audit immunity remains in place

AP

4:03 pm:

Statement issued by the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr

There are six explicit conditions required from the United States for Iran to alter its current position and consider reopening the strategic waterway:

• End all threats: Stop threatening Iran and insulting the religious beliefs and sacred values of the Iranian people. 
• Halt regional aggression: Permanently end all military actions and wars against Iran and its regional allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq.
• Lift the blockade: Remove the naval blockade of Iranian ports and completely withdraw all U.S. naval and air forces from the region surrounding Iran.
• Pay war damages: Provide full financial compensation to Tehran for damages resulting from what he described as two aggressive wars imposed on Iran. Remove economic restrictions: Lift all U.S. sanctions targeting Iran.
• Remove economic restrictions: Lift all U.S. sanctions targeting Iran.
• Release blocked capital: Unconditionally release all frozen and seized Iranian assets globally.

T'ain't happenin', Mo Zo! You want endless war. I very, very much doubt you can win a full-scale war against the U.S.

8:43 am:

"Iran is going after the enemy’s defeat — not an agreement.”

-Mahdi Mohammadi, Iranian national security analyst and advisor to the chief negotiator with the U.S.

GOOD SATURDAY MORNING PUBLOCCIANS! I ❤️ YOU!

Eleven can look so strange. In the last photo, malevolent, bat-like, her eyes so strange, two different colors, and up there next to the gaping mouth of the shower head like a bat gargoyle. In the photo before, the question-mark tail that she has always had.

I think I can explain the bat-gargoyle photo. I tried to get her with the lights out but the phone said turn on flash so I did, but I then turned the bathroom lights on and snapped the photo. I'm not positive but I don't think I turned the flash off. I'm pretty sure that's the camera flash off the shower head. Maybe the flash caused her right eye to appear yellow? Her eyes are green. Maybe her left eye is picking up some of the green in the towel causing her eye to look more green? Idk, but lordy, lordy, that is still a strange photo.

In the previous photo I don't think the question-mark tail has ever been that prominent. And I just didn't happen to catch the tail in one photo, I took five or six others in rapid succession. She just woke up and is stretching, she's not arching her back in anger. 

Eleven is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. I mean that, and lord knows I have posted dozens, maybe hundreds of photos where she looks as angelic as she is live. ...But not those. Those are two strange, chilling photos.

Normal

 

👀

It's Friday Night...

 

Public Occurrences August 7, 2026

U.S. Intel Finds Putin Could Test NATO’s Resolve With Limited Incursion

New assessment updates past forecasts that Russia’s leader wouldn’t provoke the alliance during the Ukraine war

The assessments, described by U.S. officials, come amid a shortfall in certain critical munitions that the military would need to confront Russia or China in a potential future war. The U.S. has severely degraded its stockpile of these weapons because of transfers to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, as well as the U.S. conflict with Iran. 

Wally

3:30 pm:

U.S. Lost 23,000 Jobs in July, delivering political setback to Trump

Wally, AP

Turkey: 'Missing' man joins search party looking for himself

BBC

😂

10:40 am:

Trump won't drop war, tariffs or monuments to save the GOP

😂

Him. Only him. Doesn't care about country. Only himself.

Even some longtime insiders fear he's trapped by a war he shouldn't have waged, tariffs he shouldn't have levied, monuments he shouldn't be obsessed with.

These three topics chew up much of Trump's time and attention. All three are widely unpopular in polls.

And it's almost impossible to see the public suddenly warming to war, tariffs or more statues.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman estimates 70% of the president's mindshare goes to renovations and monuments. "It's a legacy thing," she told her colleague Ezra Klein.

Axios

"Dad you are making far too many movements on the bed."

Miami Beach Occurrences

 

Golf-cart traffic stop deepens beef between Miami Beach police, city commissioner🙄

Two hours of good sleep beats a night of tossing and turning anytime.

"And of course, we are Yankees"

Today is the first time I have ever seen this photo. It is also the oldest photo of a member of my family that I have ever seen.

That is a man of evident prosperity, well-earned pride, with an intelligent face that promises covert humor and great benignity. That is Peter Garman, my great-great-grandfather, and my son's namesake, in 1900 when he was 78 years old.

Peter's granddaughter, my maternal grandmother*, and great-granddaughter, my mother, were also namesakes. And then there is the eponymous Garmantown, formerly the village of Garman, originally Garman's Mills. 

Circa 1940, with identifying turret top from the hill above the road leading into Garmantown. 

Same angle from the Sulfur Creek, aka the Shit Creek (acid mine drainage).

                                 The mill in 2013

    The inviting road leading into Garmantown in 2010

Across the street from the mill was the family homestead which lodged employees at the mill and had a dining table that seated twenty-two. The Garman House also hid runaway slaves as a "documented stop on the Underground Railroad." 

Peter and another man owned all of the land that became Northern Cambria, originally Barnesboro (named for the co-founder of the Barnes and Tucker Coal Mine), my hometown. Peter had another home, a large brick house where he retired, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. That structure also still stands and has for many years been an administrative building of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Peter died at age 87 in 1909. Obituary "from The Indiana Democrat of March 10, 1909 (page 1)":

Peter Garman, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of this county died at his residence in this place Wednesday evening, March 3, 1909, aged 87 years...

The deceased was born and reared at Chambersburg, Franklin county. Later he moved to Garman's Mills, on the west branch of the Susquehanna river and in Cambria county just across the line, where he engaged extensively in the lumber business. He retired from the lumber business in 1881 and moved to Indiana (county), where he has since lived a quiet and useful life keeping in close touch with church and business circles. Mr. Garman was married August 14, 1845, to Lucinda Dunkle [or Dunckle], and after her death to Carolyn W. Bracken [sic, Caroline] (note - abt 1861)...All the children with the exception of Mrs. Kirdendall [Spokane, Washington] , attended the funeral which was held at the Garman home, Friday afternoon, with the interment following in Greenwood cemetery.

Peter Garman died as he lived, in honored prosperity. Greenwood Cemetery: "The cemetery’s design and layout were the work of a professional gardener from London whose plan featured lots and sections arranged in unique shapes with wide, graceful driveways."

It does have the look of an English cemetery.

Peter Garman was the greatest man on my mother's side of the family. The name Garman is scattered throughout the generations and Peter Garman's legacy still is present in tangible form in the area where he settled. It is thus strange that I never was taken to, never visited, or even knew where the Garmans were buried.

*In 1971 "Gram", as we called her, wrote a family history. One line in particular on the Garman family's origins has always tickled me:

"The Garman family came from around the Dutch border of Germany and in Ireland there is a Loch Garman indicating that the name was common there. This gives us a Dutch-German-Irish descent, and, of course, we are Yankees."

The guy's got game

Abdul El-Swiftie

USMLE Today

I suck :(. 20%. Dr. Ana is always in sync with her fellow PROFESSIONAL medical students. I am always in sync with random dart throwing. BOO HOO HOO :)

We had a question today that only 12% of real medical students answered correctly, by far the fewest of the thousands of questions Dr. Ana and I have had in these over two and one-half years. There is no teaching moment in a question like that, it is just designed to lower students' scores. Bullshit question.

 

The motherfucker's half asleep. Camp David, July 26.

Do you know what my name would have been had I been a girl? TONI! Frigging TONI!! I would have committed PARRICIDE if I had been a "TONI". What was my middle name going to be, huh? Can't use Franklin. Henrietta, my grandmother's middle name? Can you imagine going through life as Toni Henrietta Harris? My initials would have been a stutter, THH. That's child abuse. 

I don't know where they got Benjamin, I never did know, unless once they settled on my middle name (Franklin was my doctor Uncle Harry's middle name) they just decided in for a dime in for a dollar.

I think I have repressed trauma from "Toni". 

Cat Bath

 

Kitties is soo silly.

 

How's your day been so far?

I KNOW, BROTHER!!!! PINCH ME!

 𝙃𝙀𝘼𝙏 𝙉𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

@HeatvsHaters

Giannis is a Miami Heat player yall can you believe it

4:02 PM · Aug 5, 2026

21.5K Views

Public Occurrences August 5, 2026

I read about this a month or so ago and didn't want to believe it.

Public Support for Aid to Israel Dropping? No Problem! Make it a Legal Mandate!

Now, with U.S. political support for sending military funding to Israel dropping off sharply, Congress is considering phasing out the financial commitment and instead undertaking a far more integrated defense and technology partnership built around legally mandated defense industrial cooperation between the two nations.

Both the House and Senate have included such a proposal in the annual defense policy bill, laying the groundwork for melding U.S. and Israeli defense and intelligence capabilities in profound ways that some critics find alarming.

Trump and Netanyahoo are pushing for the shift, which comes as lawmakers on the right and left have grown increasingly hostile to sending taxpayer dollars to Israel’s military.

Supporters argue the move would benefit the United States, allowing it to capitalize on Israel’s defense and intelligence innovations. They say it would elevate the U.S.-Israel relationship from one of donor and recipient to a strategic partnership.

THAT is the motivation! To "elevate" Israel from vassal status!

But some lawmakers fear that such deep ties could blur the lines between supporting an ally and effectively allowing Israel’s military to become intertwined with the Pentagon in ways that could be dangerous and difficult to unwind.

The United States and Israel already partner to produce defense technologies...The defense policy bill, which passed the House last month and is awaiting action in the Senate, would enshrine those partnerships in law.

The House measure would create an office in the Defense Department that would be legally required to facilitate cooperation between the United States and Israel. 

A separate intelligence bill that is expected to be merged with the defense legislation would call on the president and the director of national intelligence to “expand and enhance intelligence sharing with the government of Israel,”

Why is Congress considering this now?

The [old] memorandum, which mandates that the United States provide $3.8 billion a year in military aid to Israel, ends in 2028, and lawmakers in both parties have said they would oppose a new deal based on billions of dollars in direct aid to Israel.

See? Members of Congress "oppose" a new deal based on the old, so under the current proposal they won't have to vote against military aid to Izvassal!

[Passing the new bill] would provide extraordinarily valuable support to Israel and its military and intelligence service without explicitly requiring Congress to sign off on sending a set amount of federal money to Jerusalem each year.

TOLDJA!

The idea has gained traction as the future of traditional U.S. military assistance to Israel has become increasingly uncertain following a backlash to Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

The push also stems from Mr. Netanyahoo’s public campaign to appear less reliant on U.S. military aid ...

Why has the proposal generated controversy?

Opponents argue that the idea would give too much control over sensitive U.S. defense matters to a foreign nation.

Ooh, a NYT reporter said that out loud. Hope Robert Jimison is okay.

"The U.S. government can always choose on a case-by-case basis to enter into joint production agreements,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said in an interview. “What’s sort of jaw-dropping about this is that it mandates it.”

With Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, [lameduck Congressman] Massie attempted to strip the provision from the defense bill. But the two lawmakers were blocked by Republican leaders from bringing the matter to a vote.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, warned in a social media post that the proposed partnership would “merge parts of our military with the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. She warned that such a move would be “an existential threat to American sovereignty and democracy.”

AOC! AOC! AOC!

Defense industrial partnerships are a key feature of the U.S. relationship with close allies, including Britain, Australia, Canada and NATO partners. But the new proposals would establish one of the broadest such partnerships with Israel, with which the United States does not share any formal mutual defense treaty.

Van Hollen and other critics argue that the mandated joint production provision could constrain the United States militarily. He pointed to Israel’s repeated objections to transferring Iron Dome air defense batteries to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, out of concern that the weapons could fall into the hands of Russia, be delivered to Iran, then used against Israel.

“The one precedent that we have is the Iron Dome co-production agreement, where the government of Israel did exercise that authority,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “That should be a very cautionary tale.”

Maybe Robert Jimison's last article for NYT

Here, he is not

NYTPitchbot

@DougJBalloon

Max Miller has learned his lesson. 

by Susan Collins

7:51 PM · Aug 3, 2026

74.8K Views

Here, he is being serious (I think lol)

 NYTPitchbot

@DougJBalloon

Tonight’s primaries are a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

9:48 PM · Aug 4, 2026

23.5K Views

Talarico Will Flip Texas

Paradigm Shift

"Why do you think Talarico is going to win?"

"One, he's a really good candidate. And then, he's running against a criminal."😂

YEAH!

Dowd makes a really good point that I think is also accurate. As i say, "A Democrat cannot win Texas until a Democrat wins Texas." But if they do, when they  do, a paradigm shift can occur. Paradigm shifts are real things that happen, not some academic construct. It's not foregone that when there's change a paradigm shift will occur, but it happens frequently.

This race is unlike Roy Moore in Bama a few yrs ago. That was a change against another uniquely unqualified candidate but only for a few months until there was a new election. Republicans could say, "It's only for a few months and we can get rid of the Democrat."

This in Texas is for the full 6-year term. This change can settle in. And once you do something once it becomes easier to do it again. That's not an earthquake, that is, as Dowd says, a shift in the tectonic plates of national politics. Talarico is going to win Texas. That changes everything.

"The case against Benjamin Harris being a true Socialist"

For five months in 2023, until Oct. 7, I was a proud and loud member of Democratic Socialists of America. I have no one to blame but myself. I didn't read the platform. Thought DSA was socialist like the Labour Party is, like the Social Democrats across Europe are.

Shortly after joining DSA I had lunch with a friend, and told him. There was a look of shock on his face but he didn't say anything.

This past weekend, utterly befuddled by what a "regulation capitalist" was, and now unsure what socialism was and what Social Democrats were, I expressed my confusion to the same friend. "I never thought you were a real socialist," he texted me.

I am sincere--often wrong, always certain!-- but sincere. So I was very curious why my friend of 30 years didn't believe me when I proclaimed myself a socialist. I asked him to explain.

The case against Benjamin Harris being a true Socialist

1.  Socialism is a cult. Everyone has to eat the whole enchilada. Period. If our discourse proves nothing else you don’t take anything at face value and more than most can hold two seemingly disparate ideas in your head. I don't need to regurgitate them you know of several we have discussed. You see nuance that people in cults just don’t.

2. You are generally too non conformist. You worked as a prosecutor but wouldn’t do DP [death penalty] cases thereby limiting your advancement. You saw that shooting [a police shooting] was bullshit, said it was bullshit and when noose boy [a proud hangman who we both worked with] and his posse came after you, you fought back hard. Socialists who go to the meetings aren’t the guys going against the grain.

3.  You never struck me as angry at those who had money. I remember you telling me about your publisher friend and how much money he made ( and lost and made) back in the day and you didn’t resent his success, you were impressed by it. True socialists dislike the entrepreneurial class. I don’t think you do.

4 . I think people who work for gov as long as I have and you did develop a healthy skepticism of putting Gov in control of business. Do we want airlines to run like the clerks office or [a screening unit] at the [prosecutors office]— we have seen the incompetence first hand.

5. You have a live-and-let-live libertarian streak that also doesn’t fly in DSA.

6. While you and I have had skirmishes on wokeness and cultural issues —- I know in my heart, in my bones if you really were subjected to the group think virtue signaling of it you would not swallow all of it hook line and sinker.

7. I think what you ARE is a euro “ social democrat” à la Sweden. You want gov to help people more. You think rich people should pay more taxes to support a beefed up safety net so we don’t have as much poverty. You want workers to have more rights.  That doesn’t mean you want gov to run publix where 11 gets her pie and you get the steaks you microwave (😂)

Those are my thoughts 

Wonder what you think 

My reply, such as it was, I was so nonplussed:

what i think is i am extremely thankful to have you as a friend. that touched me, i'm not ashamed to say. thank you, buddy.

Aug. 1-Aug. 5, 1,000,000 More

 

 

 I’m proud to be your nominee

Inbox

Abdul El-Sayed via The Democrats <feedback@e.democrats.org> Unsubscribe

10:34 AM (11 minutes ago)

to me

Friends, it’s Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan.

A year ago, this campaign was a handful of us in a room and a belief: that it shouldn't be this hard, in the richest country in the world, to see a doctor, or pay your bills, or believe your kids will have it better than you did.

We brought this movement to every corner of Michigan, meeting with folks who are sick and tired of the status quo and are ready for change.

Now, it’s time to lock in and keep this must-win Senate seat blue.

But here’s the thing: Our Republican opponent Mike Rogers has Trump’s backing, more than $45 million in Super PAC money, and the national GOP on his side.

[Yes, that IS the thing! Control of the United States Senate is at stake.]

I need your help to build up our resources for the fight ahead. Will you split a donation of any amount to our campaign and the DNC right away to win in Michigan and beyond?

[I don't know.]

A recent general election poll shows we are TIED with Mike Rogers.

The MAGA money machine knows we’re inches away from taking the lead — and that’s why they’re already funneling cash into Michigan to try to flip this seat red and keep Democrats from taking control of the Senate.

Every day we’re playing catch-up is a day Mike Rogers gets to define our campaign before Michiganders hear from us first.

I’m not going to pretend that isn’t a challenge, but it’s one we can overcome with a grassroots team that shows up when it matters.

So, I’ll put it plainly: I need your urgent support to keep our momentum going and defeat Mike Rogers. Can you split a donation of $20 or any amount between our campaign and the DNC so we can take the lead and take back the Senate in November?

[I don't know, yet. I have regretted contributing to out of state candidates.]

Abdul El-Sayed Wins Democratic Primary in Michigan

Associate Press called the race for El-Sayed at 9:54 a.m., almost fourteen hours after the polls closed.

Congratulations ABDUL! BEAT Rogers!

Stevens backs El-Sayed, pledges to support him vs. Mike Rogers

AP

Good people, Haley Stevens.

Epic! Undecided!

It's El-Sayed by 1 with 96% of the statewide vote counted, 88% in Stevens Country, Wayne County, Detroit.

I'm taking a step back from a race that I cannot vote in and paid almost no attention to until last weekend. Haley Stevens is good people. Solid, nice. She makes me proud to be a Democrat, especially compared to virtually every Republican candidate or person. I have confessed that I have had last-minute difficulty getting a grasp on the politics of Abdul El-Sayed. But what an accomplished man. Michigan, Oxford, Columbia, a Rhodes Scholar, MD, and epidemiologist. Only 41 years old. 

Haley and Abdul are the best of the best. I am so proud to be a Democrat.

EPIC! The Eyes (not mine after this) of the Nation are on Michigan. 68% OF STATEWIDE VOTES COUNTED.

Abdul El-Sayed has led Haley Stevens all night long--but it has been close and Associated Press has NOT called the race as of post time. 

Per cent of vote counted statewide: 71%

El-Sayed 49.8%: El-Sayad +3.5%

Stevens 46.3%

This is already much closer than the polls and the pundits predicted as recently as yesterday.

Major bloc outstanding: Wayne County (Detroit) 53% counted (Stevens 52.3%-44.4%). 

Publocc take: It all depends on Detroit. Stevens lead is substantial but it has modestly shrunk and has not been enough to overtake El-Sayed. Still, it appears to me that if she can hold +7.9, she will be the Democratic nominee...but she has not been able to hold it and it is slow-dripping away. It will be a major upset for the comparatively quiet Congresswoman Stevens. It will also be a major victory for AIPAC.

Whoever wins, the Nation's eyes will then turn to the general election, the Democratic winner vs GOP Congressman Mike Rogers in a state that the Florida Criminal won by 1.42%. Failure to hold Michigan, and Dem chances at winning the Senate are severely compromised. Will the Democrats unite behind the winner of this contentious primary?  I would think it would be easier to rally behind El-Sayed. I think it less likely that his supporters would support wholeheartedly Rep. Stevens.

Last Call! El-Sayed EXPANDING lead, losing less in Detroit: 50.1%-46.2%, 43% statewide vote in, 26% Detroit

Oh my GAWD!!! Tighter than a 10-year old's asshole! El-Sayed 49.7% Stevens 46.7%!

Stevens is TROUNCING El-Sayed by THIRTY in Wayne County (Detroit), only 22% of votes counted there. To state the obvious, if Stevens wins the remaining 78% of the Detroit vote, she's the Democratic nominee.

El-Sayed is NOT Trouncing Haley Stevens

El-Sayed +6/6, 22% of vote in. Hoo-doggie, this is going to be CLOSE.

I don't know if I would have voted for El-Sayed tonight if Iwere a Michigander, but these new generation southpaws have got the messaging down!

That is TRUE and FUNNY!

Look at this pic:

I've paid next to no attention to this race and can't figure out what Abdul is all about but look there. I have no idea who the Hitler Youth is, he may be Abdul's best friend, but Abdul in jeans and muscle shirt--a Rhodes scholar MD!--pointing at that guy like he's a recently-discovered specimen of a thought-to-be-extinct species, is just...FUNNY.

 The littlest queen on her queen-sized bed.

Public Occurrences August 4, 2026

US used ‘virtually all’ long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say

...raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts. 

The missiles...principally the Army’s surface-to-surface weapons, known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). The U.S. has used “virtually all” of these weapons, according to two of the sources.

...

 U.S.-supplied ATACMS have played a key role in the war in Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian forces to attack targets inside Russia. The PrSM is a newer, more advanced generation...

...such weapons —...cost over $1 million each — would also be important in any conflict with China.

Reuters via Military Times

7:35 pm:

‘Voters have had it’: influence of pro-Israel lobby

 group sparks backlash in US 

That would be the American Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC (fittingly pronounced I-pac). Yes, voters here have had it with AIPAC and, increasingly with their client state. I am one of those voters. Unless the alternative gets caught with a live boy or a dead girl, I will vote against the AIPAC candidate all damn day. AIPAC has become the kiss of death in Democratic primaries and it will prove to be fatal tonight. Abdul El-Sayed, a Rhodes Scholar and physician is going to trounce Haley Stevens, a completely fine candidate and an incumbent member of congress. Candidates now focus their attacks on opponents who receive AIPAC money, and El-Sayed has done that. Stevens accepted THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS from AIPAC.

Up until, I think 2022, AIPAC was a respectable super-PAC that focused on educating Americans about Israel. But their main issue was not their only issue. Since, they explicitly have made unequivocal support for Israel their only issue: they gave money to Jim Jordan and other election deniers solely for their support of continued martial and economic aid to a foreign government. It drives American Jews nuts when a non-Jew refers to Israel as a foreign government and it drives me (and I assume some other non-Jews) nuts that calling Israel a foreign government drives American Jews nuts.

Rep. Stevens, I am truly sorry. AIPAC, Israel, shove your money up your ass.

The background color tells you that's Financial Times

4:39 pm:

He's DOING It! 30% Off: Mamdami Announces Five New York City Owned Grocery Stores

Project Overview and Pricing

Discount: 30% off a core basket including fresh produce, meat, seafood, dairy, and pantry staples.
Budget: $70 million allocated for construction and setup across the five locations.
Restrictions: No sales of alcohol, tobacco, or nicotine products.
Access: Open to all shoppers with no income verification or ID required. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Hunts Point (Bronx): First targeted location, expected to open in late 2027.

For many years, from the early aughts into the teens, this blog was sinocentric, and achieved a degree of renown. It is the most satisfying work here that I have ever done. I saw the following, from a communicant in China, when going through old emails on my gmail account, snipped it, and post it here.

 

Public Occurrences August 3, 2026

Trump says this is Iran's "last chance before decapitation"

“I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We’ll see what happens.”

Trump is tempting his own assassination. The words, phrases, and sentences he has thrown around since he and Izvassal started this war have been Outer Limits, "an entire civilization will disappear tonight", and he did assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader. He is tempting the wrong people in Iran. They hate him and the Toilet Nation, with good reason. That takes nothing away from how despicable and homicidal Iran is. It is to say in fact, that Iran could get even and take out Trump. I predict that Trump will be assassinated either during his presidency or when he is lulled into fat, lazy security in Mar-a-Lago. But every nation's leaders have their limits. Trump is 1-0 in assassinating Iranian leaders. Now Trump is threatening further "decapitations". I don't think that Iran has the capability to carry out so delicate an operation as the assassination of a U.S. president, but Iran will see what it can do. Any further attempt by Commander of Turds to further "decapitate" Iran, I do predict will unleash unrelenting attempts to assassinate Trump and giving a mistake, they could do it. Trump is insouciant. Very well. Keep incompetent and carry on. I predict that his is Trump's last chance to avoid decapitation,

The Hill

Trump says new talks are Iran’s ‘last chance’ to make a deal 🙄

AP

9:53 am:

One of the tropes that Trump uses that he at least considers a winning line is to claim that some other has contacted him or his regime to plead for some counterintuitive something. "The soldiers who I got killed in Iran said, all of them, Iran must not have a nuclear weapon." Or "The people of Iran are saying 'Bomb us more, please sir!'" Living in the fantastical space between his ears again.

There's also a rule of construction there. Take his "We have just been asked by Iran...to hold off any attack." My construction is that the truth is closer to the opposite in Trump's tropes, and it's closer to the opposite in that Saturday night post. That is, it is Trump, not the Iranians, who are making the overture; it is Trump, not the Iranians, who are begging for an end to the war, which has already gone on four times longer than Trump predicted.

The Islamic Republic has always been a despicable, pariah, and dangerous, regime. Its size, its educated populace and its nuclear ambitions are the components of its danger. Its danger is the reason it must be handled with such care. Today, Iran is no less despicable and dangerous but it is not nearly as isolated.

It was sneak-attacked by an ignorant regime and its vassal state, both headed by criminals. The world recoiled. America's allies disappeared. The isolators became the isolated. Statements made by Iran became more credible than statements made by the Trump or Netanyahoo regimes. It's a zero-sum game and Iran is winning. They know by now that they can push Trump's buttons, that when they do A or B, Trump will do X or Y.  Iran does not want the accretion to its credibility dissipated and does not want the dissipated credibility of its enemies replenished. Iran has leverage to end this war on its terms. They have no interest in ending the war prematurely.