John Carlos Baez15h ago

It's a truly depressing day, waiting to see what will be the whims of a mad king whom we failed to stop in time. What would it be like to be in Iran now?

Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi of the New York Times give a taste of it. I'll just quote:

With President Trump’s deadline to unleash mass destruction on Iran just hours away on Tuesday, Iranians faced the threats with a mix of indifference, defiance and bewilderment.

"The first thing that came to my mind is that I think Trump is under a lot of pressure, and that he has lost his mind,” said Lili, who works in the arts scene in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Lili said she and her family had made no contingency plans at all, and they were not planning to flee Tehran. They were not stocking up on goods, or bracing to hole up at home. “We need to continue with our lives,” she said, adding there was no clear haven to flee to: Attacking infrastructure meant almost anywhere could become a target.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/world/middleeast/iran-shock-defiance-trump-deadline-threat.html

Iranians Voice Shock and Defiance in Face of Trump’s Looming Deadline

President Trump has threatened devastating attacks if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Some Iranians questioned what had happened to American values.

The New York Times
Show threadBartosz Milewski14h ago
@johncarlosbaez
Maybe some republicans could be persuaded to join in the vote for invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment
Show threadryk04713h ago
@BartoszMilewski @johncarlosbaez Congress doesn't get to vote to invoke the 25th admendment, just the cabinet. Given that the cabinet is currently entirely controlled by Trump, it's very (very!) unlikley to be invoked. Yet another sad thing about the U.S. today.
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez
@ryk047 @BartoszMilewski - When I was a kid I was quite proud of the system of checks and balances in the US constitution, but now it's clear how they require a lot of people to stand up for them at every step, so they don't help much precisely when we need them most: when a demagogue is supported by a voting block that his party members rely on to stay in power.
7:42pmWeb