Thanks, Jack. I was 13 for Bay of Pigs. So, it all went over my head, but it wasn't long after that we heard we were a hair's breadth away from nuclear holocaust. I now picture trump saying, "Hold my diet Pepsi." trump is a weak boychild trying to act tough, but will do anything that someone he believes is stronger, or who compliments him or gives him gold asks him to do. Netanyahu has had a direct pipeline coming from Fort Knox for years, mainly guilt payments because we waited so long to enter war against Hitler. Because, in my opinion, one hell of a lot of Americans were Nazis then too, so "luckily" Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and we were off to the races.
So Netanyahu told trump he could take out Iran, and use his really big bombs, and trump rubbed his little hands together and here we are.
What a thing to have lived through at 13. The Cuban Missile Crisis is proof of how close brilliant men...can come to catastrophe...AND...how much depends on WHO'S in the room.
"Hold my Diet Pepsi" made me laugh, though I think he's a Diet Coke man hahaha. Point taken either way. 😉
This simultaneously horrifies me and makes my blood boil…. You NEVER give up the power position in your own space (talking diplomacy, negotiations, etc here)!! WTAF?!? I am also horrified that Bibi was invited to the situation room….. like he was equal somehow…? and was in on calling the shots….. my god. I am sitting here telling myself ‘deep breath, deep breath’…. and then t ignored the people that KNEW how this would go. I’m actually not terribly surprised but wow. And I believe Congress did pass the bill that has our military and Israel’s entwined? Not good in my opinion but hey…. what do I know.
JD is one to watch…. he is no dummy and a complete snake watching out for self (and possibly Peter Thiel since he’s his benefactor). I believe he will do literally anything to advance or makes the moves to get where he wants to be…..
I hope I don’t come off as hyperbolic but….. are we even sovereign at this point?? T is SO easily manipulated, not very bright and very, very damaged. JHFC. Just who the hell is in charge…?
Thank you for this, Jack…. even though I am very disturbed and upset about it all….. we need to know.
The fact that Trump had Netanyahu in the Situation Room, for a sales pitch no less. It made me think of Trump showing off what his war room looks like, like the child he is.
I do agree with the premise of the yes men contingent in Florida while the doubters remained in DC. And ultimately it all lands on Trump’s shoulders for getting our country into a war that we didn’t want. Rubio and Vance cannot talk their way out of their complicity in enabling him.
EXACTLY!! Trump has the emotional and intellectual development of a 5th grade boy…and showing off is standard for him, attention and praise are what he needs a constant supply of…and Netanyahu is clever manipulating Trump with praise and flattery. We are, I’m afraid, in a spiral downwards as long as this regime is in power!
Jack — file this under things I noticed twice: once with my gut, once with my head.
Start with the chair, because that's the whole story compressed into one piece of furniture. The President of the United States gave up the head of his own table, and in twenty years of watching men perform strength for cameras, I can tell you exactly what that means without needing a leaked transcript: he wasn't running that meeting, he was auditioning for it. Note the framing, too — Netanyahu lit up on a screen with his own generals behind him like a campaign backdrop, and Trump sitting off to the side like the guy the pitch is aimed at. That's not protocol. That's a status tell dressed up as seating arrangements, and you don't out-argue a man who's already won the room before he opens his mouth.
File the sequence next, because the order of operations here is the actual finding, not just the headline. Seventeen days between the pitch and the bombs. In between: agencies whose entire job is being right about exactly this, telling him the regime wouldn't fall, it would harden — and that warning didn't move the trajectory an inch. That tells you the intelligence assessment and the sales pitch were never actually competing. One was about Iran. The other was about how he wanted to feel walking out of that basement. Jack is correct that this is the more interesting psychology than the seating chart, though the seating chart is what makes it legible to people who'll never read the intelligence assessment.
And can we talk about the real cowardice in this story — because it isn't Trump's. It's every official who called the plan "farcical" to a reporter six months after the missiles were already in the air. That's not conscience. That's an alibi with a byline, filed late enough to cost nothing. Tenet spent a decade explaining "slam dunk" away, and nobody in that room missed the lesson: you don't object where it would cost you something, you object to a journalist later where it buys you absolution. Note who talks, and note when.
Which brings us to Vance and Gabbard, parked on a phone line 900 miles from the room that mattered. That's not operational security, that's an org chart with teeth — you don't need to silence the people who'd say slow down, you just make sure they're never standing in the building when the decision gets made. Access is the authority. Everything else is theater built for a primary four years out, and "I asked the hard questions two days before" is a sentence written for a debate stage, not a security briefing.
Jack is correct, last time, that the primacy effect is the frame holding all of this together — the first persuasive account anchors the room, and every warning that comes after is fighting gravity, not making a case on the merits. Netanyahu didn't need the last word. He needed the first one, and everyone who spoke after him spent seventeen days renovating a house whose foundation was already poured.
Keep filing the dates, Jack. Somebody has to, and most of this town is too busy building its alibi to bother.
Thanks, Jack. I was 13 for Bay of Pigs. So, it all went over my head, but it wasn't long after that we heard we were a hair's breadth away from nuclear holocaust. I now picture trump saying, "Hold my diet Pepsi." trump is a weak boychild trying to act tough, but will do anything that someone he believes is stronger, or who compliments him or gives him gold asks him to do. Netanyahu has had a direct pipeline coming from Fort Knox for years, mainly guilt payments because we waited so long to enter war against Hitler. Because, in my opinion, one hell of a lot of Americans were Nazis then too, so "luckily" Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and we were off to the races.
So Netanyahu told trump he could take out Iran, and use his really big bombs, and trump rubbed his little hands together and here we are.
#HoldFast
Sue
Sue P...thanks!
What a thing to have lived through at 13. The Cuban Missile Crisis is proof of how close brilliant men...can come to catastrophe...AND...how much depends on WHO'S in the room.
"Hold my Diet Pepsi" made me laugh, though I think he's a Diet Coke man hahaha. Point taken either way. 😉
#HoldFast
-Jack
As with the MOB;
It is ALWAYS someone closest to the BETRAYED (trump and maga)...
Who IS the BETRAYER!!
WATCH who goes down First!
It's ONLY a matter of time now!
Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock 💣🤯
"Tick Tock", Sky Blue...seems to be the theme of a lot of things in this country, eh?!
-Jack
I agree with you Jack. Very good analysis… precise and concise… convinced me. Well done.
CJ…thank you for the feedback. That’s helpful….and is helpful for continuing to make what readers like you are paying for…a worthy trade.
-Jack
I'm not intending this to be funny. It is not funny:
If any memorial to Trump is ever erected in gold, you've indicated two of the three words, which is all it should say as his legacy:
Farcical Murderous Bullshit
This simultaneously horrifies me and makes my blood boil…. You NEVER give up the power position in your own space (talking diplomacy, negotiations, etc here)!! WTAF?!? I am also horrified that Bibi was invited to the situation room….. like he was equal somehow…? and was in on calling the shots….. my god. I am sitting here telling myself ‘deep breath, deep breath’…. and then t ignored the people that KNEW how this would go. I’m actually not terribly surprised but wow. And I believe Congress did pass the bill that has our military and Israel’s entwined? Not good in my opinion but hey…. what do I know.
JD is one to watch…. he is no dummy and a complete snake watching out for self (and possibly Peter Thiel since he’s his benefactor). I believe he will do literally anything to advance or makes the moves to get where he wants to be…..
I hope I don’t come off as hyperbolic but….. are we even sovereign at this point?? T is SO easily manipulated, not very bright and very, very damaged. JHFC. Just who the hell is in charge…?
Thank you for this, Jack…. even though I am very disturbed and upset about it all….. we need to know.
The fact that Trump had Netanyahu in the Situation Room, for a sales pitch no less. It made me think of Trump showing off what his war room looks like, like the child he is.
I do agree with the premise of the yes men contingent in Florida while the doubters remained in DC. And ultimately it all lands on Trump’s shoulders for getting our country into a war that we didn’t want. Rubio and Vance cannot talk their way out of their complicity in enabling him.
#HOLDFAST #OUTLAST #STANDFAST
EXACTLY!! Trump has the emotional and intellectual development of a 5th grade boy…and showing off is standard for him, attention and praise are what he needs a constant supply of…and Netanyahu is clever manipulating Trump with praise and flattery. We are, I’m afraid, in a spiral downwards as long as this regime is in power!
Jack — file this under things I noticed twice: once with my gut, once with my head.
Start with the chair, because that's the whole story compressed into one piece of furniture. The President of the United States gave up the head of his own table, and in twenty years of watching men perform strength for cameras, I can tell you exactly what that means without needing a leaked transcript: he wasn't running that meeting, he was auditioning for it. Note the framing, too — Netanyahu lit up on a screen with his own generals behind him like a campaign backdrop, and Trump sitting off to the side like the guy the pitch is aimed at. That's not protocol. That's a status tell dressed up as seating arrangements, and you don't out-argue a man who's already won the room before he opens his mouth.
File the sequence next, because the order of operations here is the actual finding, not just the headline. Seventeen days between the pitch and the bombs. In between: agencies whose entire job is being right about exactly this, telling him the regime wouldn't fall, it would harden — and that warning didn't move the trajectory an inch. That tells you the intelligence assessment and the sales pitch were never actually competing. One was about Iran. The other was about how he wanted to feel walking out of that basement. Jack is correct that this is the more interesting psychology than the seating chart, though the seating chart is what makes it legible to people who'll never read the intelligence assessment.
And can we talk about the real cowardice in this story — because it isn't Trump's. It's every official who called the plan "farcical" to a reporter six months after the missiles were already in the air. That's not conscience. That's an alibi with a byline, filed late enough to cost nothing. Tenet spent a decade explaining "slam dunk" away, and nobody in that room missed the lesson: you don't object where it would cost you something, you object to a journalist later where it buys you absolution. Note who talks, and note when.
Which brings us to Vance and Gabbard, parked on a phone line 900 miles from the room that mattered. That's not operational security, that's an org chart with teeth — you don't need to silence the people who'd say slow down, you just make sure they're never standing in the building when the decision gets made. Access is the authority. Everything else is theater built for a primary four years out, and "I asked the hard questions two days before" is a sentence written for a debate stage, not a security briefing.
Jack is correct, last time, that the primacy effect is the frame holding all of this together — the first persuasive account anchors the room, and every warning that comes after is fighting gravity, not making a case on the merits. Netanyahu didn't need the last word. He needed the first one, and everyone who spoke after him spent seventeen days renovating a house whose foundation was already poured.
Keep filing the dates, Jack. Somebody has to, and most of this town is too busy building its alibi to bother.
Suspicions confirmed!
Leaking like a sieve.