DCUM Weblog

One thing that I've been trying to stress in my posts about the United States-Israel war against Iran is that it was a terrible mistake by our cognitively challenged president. Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's brain is mush and, lacking the intellectual wherewithal to know better, he was convinced that Iran would be a repeat of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. The reality has turned out to be much different. While the U.S. military has performed nearly flawlessly — though we should never forget the bombing of the Minab elementary school that killed over 150 school girls — strategically, the U.S. has lost the war. The most important damage resulting from the war, other than the lost lives, is economic. Trump's war is threatening a global recession. It is likely already too late to recover from significant economic damage and, as the war continues, things will only get worse.

It was an eventful weekend with regard to the United States-Israel war against Iran. Most of the events were driven by cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. While Trump may view himself as a master deal-maker, it is unlikely that very many others, least among them the Iranians, see him that way. To the contrary, Trump has a primitive approach to negotiations, preferring bluster and bullying to understanding and compromise. Consider that free passage through the Strait of Hormuz was simply taken for granted before the war. So much so that Trump did not expect that Iran would close the strait. Now, in the aftermath of Trump's war, reopening the strait has become a major demand for ending the fighting. Trump's own actions created a problem that he now has to negotiate to resolve. Trump is now about to repeat the mistake of playing into Iran's hands by threatening his own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The strongest weapon that the Iranians have is economic pressure on global economies, including that of the United States. Trump is about to increase that pressure.

On March 4, shortly after the start of the United States-Israel war on Iran, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to reporters and said, "Let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics." Regardless of whether or not Rubio's statement was correct, he might do well to look at his own government, especially Secretary of State Pete Hegseth, for signs of religious fanaticism. Hegseth has not shied away from stamping his own religious beliefs onto the Department of Defense, implementing practices that, in normal times, would be extremely controversial. Hegseth has imbued the war against Iran with a layer of extreme Christian nationalism that contradicts America's heritage and values.

I ended yesterday's blog post by suggesting that the ceasefire to which cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders had agreed would not last and that the two sides would not reach a peace agreement. As I pointed out, there are a wide range of opponents of the proposed agreement between the United States and Iran. These include Trump supporters (and some opponents) who want to see Iran soundly defeated, petroleum industry executives who don't want to be subject to Iran's proposed toll for traversing the Strait of Hormuz, Trump's Gulf Arab allies who have provided him with billions of dollars, and, of course, Israel. Of these, the largest threat to the ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement is Israel.

I am sure that I write a lot of foolish things in these posts, but yesterday I got a couple of things correct. After reviewing possible scenarios that might occur as a result of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's threat to destroy Iran's civilization, I concluded "As such, the most likely outcome remains Trump TACOing, perhaps with a fig leaf of negotiations." I also noted that "if the Iranians can achieve their goals through negotiations, Trump could be the ideal mark for them." Both of these observations proved to be right on the money. Yesterday evening, 88 minutes before the expiration of Trump's 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to either make a deal or suffer the destruction of its civilization, Trump posted the following on Truth Social:

By any objective measure, the United States appears to be led by a genocidal maniac. That cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is a narcissist who is suffering from significant cognitive decline should be obvious to anyone. Now our mad king is threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization. For those who have not yet seen it, here is a "truth" that Trump posted on Truth Social this morning:

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Yesterday, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump recognized Easter by opting out of church services and sending a profane "truth" on his Truth Social social media network. The truth, in full, said:

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP

As I have previously documented, threats by Trump to wreck destruction on Iran if it didn't open the Strait of Hormuz have come fairly regularly since he launched his war on Iran, the first one coming on March 9th. On March 27, Trump truthed:

Recently, Hasan Piker has become a controversial figure within the Democratic Party. Who is Hasan Piker, you ask? I'll rely on Wikipedia to answer that question:

Hasan Doğan Piker (born July 25, 1991), known online by the name HasanAbi, is an American Twitch streamer, influencer, and left-wing political commentator. His content primarily consists of political and social commentary and media consumption. As of 2026, Piker's Twitch channel ranks among the platform's most-subscribed. Piker has been described as one of the biggest voices on the U.S. left.

After the 2024 presidential election in which online media played a major role, many Democrats asked, "where is the left's Joe Rogan?" One answer was "Hasan Piker." Piker may have been invisible to most of the typical DC Urban Moms and Dads audience. Face it, we are getting old. But he was well-known to my college-aged sons. Conventional wisdom after the election was that Democrats were struggling with youth, especially young males. That was a demographic with whom Piker was very popular.

There is a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, though in all likelihood he did not actually say it, that goes "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." I thought of this advice after watching last night's address to the nation by cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. However, in Trump's case, the quote might be better paraphrased as "It is better to remain silent and be thought to have no idea what you are doing about the war than to speak and remove all doubt." I have been writing for weeks that Trump has no clue how to end the war he launched against Iran. I have repeatedly been astonished by financial market upswings based on nothing more than optimistic-sounding musings by Trump. Any objective appraisal of events would suggest that we are headed for a very difficult time. Apparently, investors were not convinced that Trump was really flailing as much as it appeared. However, in his speech last night, Trump removed all doubt.

One of the themes to which I have repeatedly returned in this blog is that cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump did not choose his cabinet members because of their abilities to lead and manage their departments, but rather due to their personal loyalty to him and their ability to promote Trump on television. Take, for instance, Linda McMahon, the Secretary of the Department of Education. She has absolutely no background in education, coming from the world of World Wrestling Entertainment. However, she is perfectly capable of delivering a televised brown-nosing of Trump, such as when she described him as the "education president" and praised him for elevating education in the country. To succeed as a Trump cabinet secretary requires a complete lack of shame and a single-minded focus on promoting Trump. The result is that cabinet members frequently appear on TV, but tend to shed little light on the work of their departments, devoting most of their efforts to praising Trump or talking about unrelated issues.