"The American people spent the whole day wondering if their mad king would destroy the world, only to find out he was terrorizing them in order to protect his ego after starting a disastrous war."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/1

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-7-2026

April 7, 2026

At 5:06 this morning, President Donald J.

Letters from an American

"This is a crazy person, who did a crazy thing, and is likely to do many more crazy things soon. ...

For years, conservatives told themselves that Trump’s constant escalations were crafty gamesmanship, that he was keeping all options on the table to avoid tipping his hand to the enemy. This barely-averted disaster cuts the knees out from under their creative fiction. Trump'’s not performing as a madman.

He’s just barking mad."

~ Liz Dye

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity
/2

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-iran-taco-tuesday

TACO Tuesday's lasting hangover

It'll take more than Pepto to calm this shitstorm.

Public Notice

"The question isn’t whether he’s crazy—he’s always been crazy—the question is, Just how crazy has he become?"

~ Lewis Grossberger

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/3

https://grossbergerbulletin.substack.com/p/just-how-crazy-is-he

Just How Crazy Is He?

We're All Just Guessing

Lewis Grossberger's Raw Truth Bulletin

"You wouldn’t ask someone who acted like Trump to watch your laptop while you went to the bathroom at Starbucks, let alone run your country."

~ Dan Pfeiffer

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/4

https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/the-25th-amendment-isnt-coming-to

The 25th Amendment Isn't Coming to Save Us

Trump's deranged behavior has some Democrats selling a fantasy to voters

The Message Box

"Not since the Bay of Pigs has the United States seen a president look as epically stupid and trapped and outplayed and overmatched as Trump looks to be now. Even the most rabid of the right-wing public asswipes are now saying Trump is nuts and hinting that he might need to be straitjacketed and deposed: Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Joe Rogan, Candace Owens … even noted lunatic Alex Jones.

~ Gene Weingarten

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing
/5

https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/two-weeks-one-fartnight

Two Weeks. One Fartnight.

We’re back in “two-week” territory!

The Gene Pool

"To those of us in the intelligence community, it's pretty clear. This may have been a singularly epic defeat in the history of the United States. ...

Trump started a war, became enamored with the high-tech glitz and explosions, and in the end, surrendered to the reality that he was going to destroy the global economy. He gave Iran a much stronger hand than it had before the war began."

~ Malcolm Nance

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/6

https://substack.com/home/post/p-193563690

Operation Epic Failure: How We Lost the First US-Iran War

Trump's desperation for a cease fire gave Iran full control of the Persian Gulf and a toll booth

"Last night, 90 minutes before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The U.S. has now stopped bombing Iran.

So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war."

~ Robert Reich

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/7

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-to-defeat-trump-every-time

Trump's Defeat in Iran

It's consistent with how other countries, organizations, and people have defeated him

Robert Reich

"Donald Trump surrendered to Iran last night, in exchange for nothing. It was a war he started for no reason, and he got nothing. ...

Fox & Friends counted the ways this morning, or at least one of their hosts did:

Co-host Lawrence Jones walked through the initial demands one by one, in plain language. 'We have not reached any of those objectives,' he said."

~ Evan Hurst

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/8

https://www.wonkette.com/p/two-weeks-trump-caves-on-murdering

Two Weeks Trump Caves On Murdering Entire World. Whew, What A Relief All Over Again!

Plop plop. Fizz fizz.

Wonkette

"The list of objectives? Dismantling nuclear facilities ('that has not happened'), ending uranium enrichment ('they are still enriching'), transferring uranium stockpiles out of Iran ('that hasn’t happened'), accepting international inspections ('they are still not willing to do it'), and suspending the ballistic missile program ('they’re still firing them off')."

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/9

“'We received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate,' the president announced on Truth Social – apparently referring to the 10-point plan that Iran had presented to the US before he threatened to murder its entire population."

~ Andrew Perez, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Prem Thakker

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/10

https://zeteo.com/p/did-iran-just-win-this-war

🇮🇷 🇺🇸 Did Iran Just Win This War?

Instead of trying to wipe out Iran’s ‘civilization,’ Trump will negotiate an end to the war using Iran’s 10-point framework in a pretty huge humiliation for both the US and its ally Israel.

Zeteo

"Using this 10-point plan as a framework for a deal, rather than the previous American 15-point plan, is obviously a major win for Iran – which is, indeed, declaring victory. Experts and commentators see it that way, too."

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/11

"In the span of several hours yesterday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran by ensuring that 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,' to giving Iran everything it could possibly have wished for — and more."

~ Julie Roginsky

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/12

https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/breaking-what-trump-just-agreed-to

Breaking: What Trump Just Agreed to In Iran

The devil is very much in the details

Salty Politics with Julie Roginsky

"In this conflict, which Trump began, Iran has kicked Trump’s ass."

~ Brian Beutler

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/13

https://www.offmessage.net/p/25-thoughts-on-the-humiliation-of

25 Thoughts On The Humiliation Of Donald Trump

Where do we go to get back all the precious things this terrible loser has wasted?

Off Message

"The war has cost 13 US soldiers’ lives & hundreds wounded, thousands of civilian deaths in Iran, conservatively $250 billion in military expenditures, and a major depletion of ammunition.

In exchange, Iran has more leverage and credibility than they could have imagined before the war."

~ Jim Stewartson

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/14

https://www.mind-war.com/p/taco-tuesday-good-news-and-bad-news

TACO Tuesday: Good News and Bad News

Trump’s surrender will accelerate his breakdown.

MindWar: The Psychological War on Democracy

"The Iranians have agreed tonight to their own proposals."

~ Mehdi Hasan

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/15

https://zeteo.com/p/iran-ceasefire-reaction

WATCH: Will the Two-Week Iran Ceasefire Deal Hold? Mehdi Asks the Experts

Mehdi is joined by Trita Parsi, Harrison Mann, and Asawin Suebsaeng to break down the Iran ceasefire deal 10-point plan and whether it will last.

Zeteo

"Iran comes out of Trump’s announcement tonight looking like a winner. They’ve still got their nuclear program. They have enough missiles and drones that they have been able to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage from day one of Trump’s big war on Iran, and they can still shut down the Strait any time they want to because Trump’s Truth Social post doesn’t say a fucking word about defanging Iran’s missile and drone capabilities."

~ Lucian K. Truscott

#Trump #Iran #war
/16

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/its-not-taco-its-chicken-nuggets

It’s not TACO, it’s chicken nuggets

We don’t have the fine print yet, and even if we did, it would be meaningless, but the big news just after 6:30 tonight is that Trump has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran.

Lucian Truscott Newsletter

"They portrayed it as a victory in the press conference this morning. It really looks like just a terrible black eye for our country. We've lost world standing. We didn't come out of this war, which cost us American lives and large numbers of lives lost on the ground in Iran without any measurable gains."

~ Joyce Vance

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/16

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/coffee-with-contrarians-and-joyce-daf

Coffee with Contrarians and Joyce Vance

A recording from Joyce Vance and Jennifer Rubin's live video

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

"The real focus of the highly contingent ceasefire agreement was the Strait of Hormuz, which was free and open before President Trump’s elective war and is now throttled by Iran. Trump is declaring the strait open for his own political purposes, but the terms of the ceasefire give Iran more control over the vital waterway than it had before the war started."

~ David Kurtz

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/17

https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/declaring-victory-and-walking-away

Declaring Victory and Walking Away Can’t Conceal the Scale of Trump’s Folly

INSIDE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia ... Cassidy Hutchinson ... Todd Blanche

Morning Memo

"So the world’s greatest military power went to war with a poor, medievalist theocracy. It was an incredibly uneven match. … Yet Iran won. The Iranian regime has emerged far stronger than it was before, controlling the Strait of Hormuz and having demonstrated its ability to inflict damage on both its neighbors and the world economy."

~ Paul Krugman

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/18

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ignorance-and-ignominy

Ignorance and Ignominy

Our Hormuz humiliation was not an accident

Paul Krugman

"The Dow is up 1,300 points this morning. …

The market is celebrating one sentence on Truth Social while the region burns."

~ Mike Brock

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/19

https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/trump-derangement-syndrome

Trump Derangement Syndrome

A Crisis Dispatch

Notes from the Circus

"Here’s a math quiz: If a leader who has the nuclear codes threatens genocide, then calls it off, and Congress is on vacation, how many billionaires make money from the market manipulation?"

~ Roseanne Cash

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/20

https://www.threads.com/@rosannecash/post/DW2ZtGEjvWY

Rosanne Cash (@rosannecash) on Threads

Here’s a math quiz: If a leader who has the nuclear codes threatens genocide, then calls it off, and Congress is on vacation, how many billionaires make money from the market manipulation?

Threads

"Iran Deal By Obama:

•Strait of Hormuz open for free
•Iran limits Uranium enrichment
•Iran agrees to make no nuclear weapons
•Iran allows Int'l inspectors to ensure compliance
•Inspectors confirm Iran's full compliance"

~ Qasim Rashid

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/21

https://bsky.app/profile/qasimrashid.com/post/3mix74ljo4s2n

Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com)

Iran Deal By Obama: •Strait of Hormuz open for free •Iran limits Uranium enrichment •Iran agrees to make no nuclear weapons •Iran allows Int'l inspectors to ensure compliance •Inspectors confirm Iran's full compliance 1/2

Bluesky Social

"Iran Ceasefire By Trump:

•Strait of Hormuz closed, only open for $2M Per Ship
•Iran makes no guarantee of limit on uranium enrichment
•Iran makes no guarantee of no nuclear weapons
•Iran makes no guarantee to allow Int'l inspectors

MAGA: Trump Playing 5D Chess! Art Of The Deal!!"

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/22

https://bsky.app/profile/qasimrashid.com/post/3mix74ljvws2n

Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com)

Iran Ceasefire By Trump: •Strait of Hormuz closed, only open for $2M Per Ship •Iran makes no guarantee of limit on uranium enrichment •Iran makes no guarantee of no nuclear weapons •Iran makes no guarantee to allow Int'l inspectors MAGA: Trump Playing 5D Chess! Art Of The Deal!! IMPEACH NOW! 2/2

Bluesky Social

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth drew attention for framing the military campaign in explicitly religious terms, saying 'God deserves all the glory' for the outcome of the conflict and describing operations as guided by 'divine providence.'”

~ Aaron Parnas

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/23

https://aaronparnas.substack.com/p/news-republicans-upset-with-trumps

NEWS: Republicans Upset With Trump's Deal and Demand Congressional Approval, Iran Celebrates, Democrats Score Major Election Victories, Strikes Continue

Good morning everyone.

The Parnas Perspective

"Well, that was all pretty dumb, wasn’t it? …

Oil market researcher Rory Johnston wittily called this 'Schrödinger’s ceasefire.' …

As Jonathan V. Last put it on last night’s Bulwark livestream, that 'This entire thing was avoidable and predictable. Donald Trump made America walk into the diner to eat the shit sandwich.'”

~ William Kristol

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/24

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/its-not-a-taco-its-a-surrender-trump-iran-ceasefire-plan-hormuz

It’s Not a TACO. It’s a Surrender.

Iran 1, Trump 0

The Bulwark

"God knows there’s plenty of competition. But for my money, the last twenty-four hours of Donald Trump’s utterances may take the prize as his most insane single-day run yet."

~ Andrew Egger

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/25

"This terrorizing White House occupant is no less deranged and reckless today than he was yesterday. Are we really going to live through 33 months of this ongoing madness, required to endure his obvious inability to discharge the powers and duties of his office? ...

His profane genodical ultimatum on Easter Sunday was a turning point…."

~ Steven Beschloss

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/26

https://www.americaamerica.news/p/yes-trump-must-go

Yes, Trump Must Go

Watch now | Mad Hattery and Other Outrages: A Short Video

America, America

"The '10-point proposal' wasn’t new. Iran had delivered it to Pakistani mediators on Monday, a day before Trump threatened genocidal war crimes. …

Nothing in the proposal actually changed between Monday and Tuesday night. Trump’s big announcement was to pretend the Iranians had come forward with something new when they hadn’t. In short, there was no statecraft, only stagecraft."

~ Jay Kuo

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/27

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/did-trump-fabricate-an-iran-war-off

Did Trump Fabricate an Iran War Off-ramp?

The proposal Trump called “workable” on Tuesday was the same he rejected as “not good enough” on Monday. Then things got really weird.

The Status Kuo

"We're waking up today in a new and stupider world. …

Welcome to the Age of American Humiliation."

~ Jared Yates Sexton

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/28

https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-age-of-american-humiliation-is

The Age of American Humiliation is Here

We're waking up today in a new and stupider world.

Dispatches From A Collapsing State | Jared Yates Sexton

"Let me start with the the obvious and important piece here, and that's that he president of the United States is incapable of fulfilling his job. He is in serious mental trouble. He is deteriorating. ...

The bottom line is we don't know what he's going to do because he is completely unhinged. And this has never happened before in the United States of America."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zlAjh0GAjc

There’s No Going Back After Trump’s War of Choice | Explainer

YouTube

"Donald Trump is not a political genius or a genius of any kind. He ran for president out of pure narcissism and accidentally tapped into a thick, rich vein of American stupid."

~ John Hartzell

I might quibble with the word "accidentally" — I think Trump has known all along that he appeals particularly to that thick, rich vein of American stupid, and intends to do so. But the rest is right on target.

#Trump #Iran #war #insanity #MadKing #megalomania
/30

https://www.threads.com/@middleageriot/post/DW3-PUxDcja

Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) on Threads

Donald Trump is not a political genius or a genius of any kind. He ran for president out of pure narcissism and accidentally tapped into a thick, rich vein of American stupid.

Threads
The Koch network says it wants to remake public education. That means destroying it, says the author of a new book on the billionaire brothers.

« Here’s the actual political philosophy. Government is bad. Public education must be destroyed for the good of all American citizens in this view. »

The Washington Post
@Npars01 @wdlindsy Yup, the rich know they need the stupid to gain and hold onto power - hence the continued attacks on any and all public education. And Trump’s toadies are trying to destroy US unis because they educate the wrong people.
How the Nazis Used Jim Crow Laws as the Model for Their Race Laws

Not only did Nazi lawyers reveal a deep interest in American race policies, the most radical of them were eager advocates of using American law as a model.

BillMoyers.com
Britain is still blighted by the class system

One thousand years after William the Conqueror introduced the feudal system, we still define ourselves in terms of social divisions

The Guardian
@Npars01 Human beings, aside from being viciously violent, are exceptionally slow learners. Makes one wonder how long such a species can survive. We might already be living on borrowed time and we (OK, not all of us, but far too many) love being led by idiots.

@alex_p_roe

The idiots of the Epstein class buy idiots for public office, after years of grooming.
Pedophiles do that.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/stephen-miller-duke-donald-trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/16/donald-trump-adviser-stephen-miller-duke-newpaper-column

The idiots fostered by Koch Network were manufactured & groomed to be dumb

The Federalist Society grooms lawyers for decades

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/the-conservative-pipeline-to-the-supreme-court

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/how-the-federalist-society-became-the-de-facto-selector-of-republican-supreme-court-justices.html

Example: the wealthy seek unhappy & unsuccessful people in their formative years & immerse them in a system of public corruption & radicalization.

1/

How Stephen Miller Rode White Rage from Duke’s Campus to Trump’s West Wing

At the young age of 31, Stephen Miller has his own office in the West Wing and the President’s ear. He also has held a shocking worldview since he was a teenager. From his writings on the 2006 Duke lacrosse-team rape scandal, which gave the then–college junior national media exposure, to an alleged association with a white-nationalist advocate, William D. Cohan dives deep into Miller’s tumultuous past.

Vanity Fair

2/

Such people are of utility, sometimes unknowingly.

Charlie Kirk flunked out of college, as did so many broligarchs like Zuckerberg.

Steve Bannon still ignores how his maladaptive social skills killed his Hollywood writing career & ousted him out of Trump’s inner circle.

Bannon, Kirk, & Miller are stuck in adolescent rage & unable to self-reflect, learn, & grow. They never realize their blameshifting is manipulated and put to use by the wealthy. They're useful but not trusted.

3/

We must also recognize how The Moneyed manufacture idiots in bulk.

Precarity & economic duress produces an electorate too busy surviving to engage in democracy. Perpetual endebtedness & high unemployment for example.

Constant disinformation to engender FUD & TMT creates a group that has had their amygdala hijacked so badly they vote against their own self-interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt

Trump's Iran threats are just the latest example.

FUD started as a marketing campaign tactic &....

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt - Wikipedia

@Npars01 Also Vance - another bought and paid for billionaire funded destroyer of democracy funded by Theil - who seems to be borderline nutty with an antichrist fixation.

@alex_p_roe

Thiel is invoking the wish fulfillment fantasies of survivalists, preppers & end-times evangelicals.
https://jacobin.com/2025/11/peter-thiel-palantir-apocalypse-antichrist

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/peter-thiel-looks-everywhere-for

https://www.wired.com/story/the-real-stakes-real-story-peter-thiels-antichrist-obsession/

He's trying to bolster self-serving narratives of "Nothing Matters. Why bother?"

Nihilism & impotence is a useful toy for FUD disinformation. It hijacks people's fears and is utilized for his agenda as people freeze.

They delude themselves that a post-apocalyptic world means that they "win".

1/

Peter Thiel’s Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy

Peter Thiel recently generated headlines with his rambling diatribes about the Antichrist. Thiel’s lurid, apocalyptic view of world politics may be ludicrous or even deranged, but his wealth and power mean that we can’t afford to ignore it.

2/

There are no "winners" in an ecocide or nuclear war. Everyone becomes a loser.

Irradiated corpses crumbling into dust in a nuclear winter are indifferent to your delusional political agenda.

Thiel & others like him think their bunkers will save them, not entrap them.
https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/

https://theecologist.org/2026/jan/23/bunker-billionaires-burning-planet

https://www.vice.com/en/article/billionaires-are-building-luxury-bunkers-to-escape-doomsday/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly17834524o

In frequent past examples, the owners are shot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler

The Masque of the Red Death | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

Inside Gaddafi's bunker – in pictures

Libyan rebels search the bunkers and escape tunnels under the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli

The Guardian

RE: https://rustedneuron.com/@jackwilliambell/116359895647075912

@Npars01 @alex_p_roe

Did you know he's funding a company building electric shock behavior modification collars? It's supposedly for cows, but…

@jackwilliambell @alex_p_roe

Octavia E. Butler's sci-fi novels continue to be prescient.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/04/unpacking-peter-thiels-big-bet-on-solar-powered-cow-collars/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again

https://bracero.substack.com/p/octavia-butlers-survival-guide-for

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Talents_(novel)

Of course the Epstein Class would be enamored with something that can reconstitute slavery, human trafficking, & pimping out youngsters.

It's like how rifles can be easily altered to use bump stocks, technology misuse is adored by technofascists, while providing implausible deniability.

Peter Thiel's big bet on solar-powered cow collars | TechCrunch

Why did Founders Fund invest $220 million in cattle management startup Halter?

TechCrunch

@Npars01

Reggae fi Thiel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeMAR9xTV58

[edit: the original version is better than the 2012 remix IMHO, less Fi, more funk]

@alex_p_roe

English Beat - dream home in new zealand

YouTube
@wdlindsy He tapped into the rich vein of American stupid for sure but also American hate.

@wdlindsy

'Merca, 40% stupid af!

@wdlindsy How about we humiliate the Mango Moron in the mid-terms?
@wdlindsy I wouldn't be a bit surprised. DJT's entire life appears to be a fabrication.

@wdlindsy

pour prendre sa part sur les 2 millions.

la nouveauté, c'est que la monnaie choisie est la crypto.

@wdlindsy
Fart loudly and carry a small stick…
@wdlindsy In other words, the entire "I made a deal" is a sham?

@wdlindsy

The market can remain irrational etc etc....