Cartoon roundup about Trump's Iran quagmire
Both Paul Krugman and Phillips O'Brien are saying now that the winner of the US-Israel-Iran War will be China.
China? Huh?Krugman writes:
... Trump began torpedoing our alliances on day one. Discussions of the Trump tariffs, even critical ones, don’t emphasize enough the fact that every one of these tariffs broke international agreements made by the United States in the past. So Trumpian tariff policy, by itself, was an announcement to the world that agreements with the U.S. government are worthless. Add to this the demands that Canada become the 51st state, that Denmark hand over Greenland, and so on, and America had thoroughly lost the trust of its former friends even before the Iran war.O'Brien writes:
Then came the war. And in the past five months the U.S. has shown itself both erratic and ineffectual. Trump launched a war that, in addition to creating death and destruction, cut off much of the world’s oil supply without so much as consulting other nations. Once the war began, America proved both incapable of imposing its will on Iran and unable either to open the Strait of Hormuz or to protect regional allies.
So now the world neither trusts nor fears us. The chart at the top of this post, drawn from the Pew survey of global attitudes, shows views of the US and China in multiple countries. Even many of our oldest allies, the nations that helped us win World War II and the Cold War, now have a more favorable opinion of China than they do of us.
Let’s be clear: The end of U.S. leadership and China’s growing geopolitical ascendancy are bad things. China is a corrupt autocracy, with little respect for human rights and none at all for democratic values.
But people around the world have concluded that the Chinese are serious people, and that we are not. So America lost the war — and China won.
...I think we are witnessing the death throes of Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran (which I really think historians should call “Trump’s War”). Unless he really plans to blow through the November elections still waging the most unpopular war in US history, the end will have to happen in the next few weeks or months. The elections are 94 days away as I write.Trump's Iran War will go down in history as America's greatest foreign policy disaster.
Another reason we might be seeing the death throes of this ludicrous war is that the Chinese, if reports are to be believed, might be going in for the kill. They certainly seem to understand the weakness of the US, the sad state of the US military under Trump, and the (regrettable) resilience of the Iranian state. The upshot is that to a large degree they hold America’s military fate in their hands, and they seem to be about to use that terrible leverage.
Reports started coming out this week, first in Reuters, that China is preparing to send Iran finished, advanced munitions—in this case QW-12 and FN-16 MANPADs (think a Chinese version of the famous Stinger missile)....
These are the latest generation of Chinese MANPADs. which could provide a much-needed new layer of air defense for Iran. Both systems have received praise in the military/analytical press for their performance and both would serve as important deterrents to any US attempt to exercise lower level airpower over Iran going forward....
It would basically provide the Iranians with these MANPADs with a regular succession of vulnerable targets. And considering the shoddy performance of the US military so far, I can only imagine the already historic losses of US airpower would rise steeply.
The threat of these weapons is so great that Trump might either be forced into an immediate escalation (before they arrive) or have to admit that he cannot afford to escalate at all. That is because they would do the one thing that would further erode his political standing with the election looming: lead to more US losses and feed the idea that the war is a losing quagmire...
A laughable Trump attempt to destabilize Spain
Trump has done it again -- he tried and failed to destabilize an "enemy" country.
Trump has done it again -- he tried and failed to destabilize an "enemy" country.
This time his target was Spain - whose PM wouldn't give him permission to use Spanish airspace for his war against Iran. And more importantly, whose PM was cheered at the World Cup while Trump was booed.
Trump has tried to pull this kind of stunt before.
Remember that odd story from November 2025 when the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was caught trying to cut off his ankle monitor and was sent to jail immediately? I still think Trump and Rubio had set up some kind of plot for Bolsonaro to scoot to the US Embassy - it is just a few blocks away from his house - so they could whip him out of the country before Brazil could react.
And remember how it was revealed in June that Trump's intention to take over Greenland was much more serious than the world had been thinking at the time. It was the European troops landing in Greenland that stopped him.
And remember how he kidnapped the President of Venezuela, tried to get Viktor Orbán re-elected in Hungary, threatened Colombia, blockaded Cuba, threatened Canada, launched a war with Iran, and tried to take over the Gaza Strip so he could build hotels on the beach?
Mostly, these adventures haven't worked out very well. In Hungary he actually succeeded in getting Péter Magyar elected. And of course in Canada it was anger at Trump that saved the Liberals and elected Mark Carney.
Well, last week Trump did it again - he tried to set up a Morocco immigrant "invasion" of Spain to destabilize the Pedro Sánchez government and undermine them in the EU.
And once again, it didn't work out very well.
Here's what happened:
There is a small territory of Spain on the African side of Gilbralter, its called Ceuta and no, I don't know the history of how it came about.
Anyway, last week around 50,000 to 60,000 people — mostly young Moroccan men — crossed into Ceuta by land and sea after rumors spread on social media that border checks were down. At least 67 people died from drowning or in stampedes during the chaotic rush, which overwhelmed local forces and water supplies in the territory. Spanish PM Sánchez sent in the army to restore order and they have now installed a 500-meter floating containment barrier off the coast. Within a few days, most of the migrants went back to Morocco, but meanwhile some of the European Union countries flipped out - Italy tightened border controls for travelers coming from Spain and the European Union met for emergency talks.
Anyway, here's the story behind the story:
It also wouldn't surprise me if Trump is also thinking the Ceuta threat could muscle Spain into going along with his attempt to extradite a wealthy pro-palestinian activist Fergie Chambers who was arrested in mid-July when he was in Spain on holiday. Wheels within wheels...
Europe now understands what happened, and they won't be so credulous again
It is some of the people around Trump who worry me the most. While many are just incompetent, some are not. And they are all obsessed with turning America into a police state.
And just a World Cup hero update:
And remember how it was revealed in June that Trump's intention to take over Greenland was much more serious than the world had been thinking at the time. It was the European troops landing in Greenland that stopped him.
And remember how he kidnapped the President of Venezuela, tried to get Viktor Orbán re-elected in Hungary, threatened Colombia, blockaded Cuba, threatened Canada, launched a war with Iran, and tried to take over the Gaza Strip so he could build hotels on the beach?
Mostly, these adventures haven't worked out very well. In Hungary he actually succeeded in getting Péter Magyar elected. And of course in Canada it was anger at Trump that saved the Liberals and elected Mark Carney.
Well, last week Trump did it again - he tried to set up a Morocco immigrant "invasion" of Spain to destabilize the Pedro Sánchez government and undermine them in the EU.
And once again, it didn't work out very well.
Here's what happened:
There is a small territory of Spain on the African side of Gilbralter, its called Ceuta and no, I don't know the history of how it came about.
Anyway, last week around 50,000 to 60,000 people — mostly young Moroccan men — crossed into Ceuta by land and sea after rumors spread on social media that border checks were down. At least 67 people died from drowning or in stampedes during the chaotic rush, which overwhelmed local forces and water supplies in the territory. Spanish PM Sánchez sent in the army to restore order and they have now installed a 500-meter floating containment barrier off the coast. Within a few days, most of the migrants went back to Morocco, but meanwhile some of the European Union countries flipped out - Italy tightened border controls for travelers coming from Spain and the European Union met for emergency talks.
Anyway, here's the story behind the story:
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Two top Republicans, both originally pro-Trump, confirm the US attacked Spain using Morocco as a proxy. US paid Morocco at least $40M two weeks before the Ceuta breach.
— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) August 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM
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It also wouldn't surprise me if Trump is also thinking the Ceuta threat could muscle Spain into going along with his attempt to extradite a wealthy pro-palestinian activist Fergie Chambers who was arrested in mid-July when he was in Spain on holiday. Wheels within wheels...
Europe now understands what happened, and they won't be so credulous again
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It is some of the people around Trump who worry me the most. While many are just incompetent, some are not. And they are all obsessed with turning America into a police state.
In Defector, Sohini Desai writes Eventually Everyone Will Be Called A Terrorist
Here is another of the incompetent Trump whisperers:
Wildfires Update
Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened representatives from 66 different nations on July 16 for a “ministerial meeting” on the resurgence of “political terrorism.” The White House described the summit as the launch of “an unprecedented global offensive against the transnational threat of Radical Left terrorism.” This historic occasion took the form of Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent taking turns as they said Nazi shit for an hour.In this article, Desai also reported on the arrest of Chambers - this is what promted my speculation that the extradition request might explain Trump's attempts now to pressure Sánchez. Canada, of course, could tell Spain about our own dismal experience going along with a half-assed Trump extradition request.
...At one point, Miller suggested that “one of the hallmarks of left-wing violence” is its “appeal to civil liberties,” which “the left always uses to try to protect itself from facing criminal punishment.” Of course: the sinister tactic of having rights. If you wait to intervene until someone actually does something illegal, according to Miller, “you’ve already lost the battle.”
To get away with this agenda, Miller is wagering that a meaningful share of Americans agree that broad swaths of people living in this country are disposable and worthy of violence. The idea espoused by him, that these protestors are motivated by hatred and jealousy of normal people, gets things completely backward, of course. Risking brutality to stand in solidarity with your immigrant neighbors and people thousands of miles away in Palestine is a bare-minimum repudiation of harm done in your name at the very least, and an act of love at best. The acts of solidarity that repulse and bewilder him are signs that not as many people subscribe to his categories of “us” and “them” as he’d like to think....
Here is another of the incompetent Trump whisperers:
Colby is the guy who recently dissed Europe for supporting Carney’s Davos “middle powers” doctrine, and dissed Pope Leo with an Avignon Papacy threat. He seems to enjoy trying to throw his weight around, but he's actually pretty light-weight, like everyone else who works for Trump.Not stupid, just wrong
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) August 2, 2026 at 2:00 PM
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Wildfires Update
The truth of this is becoming more apparent by the hour.
The latest news from BC:
Now Washington State and the Pacific Northwest are getting hammered:
And in Europe
Commonwealth Games
Kyle Reyes Gold Men's Judo -100 KG
Coralie Godbout Bronze on Women's Judo -78 kg
Maggie Coles-Lyster Bronze Women's elimination track cycling
CBC's closing montage of the Commonwealth Games 2026
The Okanagan Indian Band issued an evacuation order on Saturday as a wildfire burns near the city of Vernon in British Columbia’s north Okanagan.
— APTN News (@aptnnews.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 6:00 PM
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Now Washington State and the Pacific Northwest are getting hammered:
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And in Europe
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Commonwealth Games
Medals on the last day:Signing off from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The 149 Canadians competing powered the country to a third place finish in overall medals. But it was more than sport. More than the medals. A showcase of humanity. Some final thoughts from the Friendly City.
— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) August 2, 2026 at 3:04 PM
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Kyle Reyes Gold Men's Judo -100 KG
Coralie Godbout Bronze on Women's Judo -78 kg
Maggie Coles-Lyster Bronze Women's elimination track cycling
CBC's closing montage of the Commonwealth Games 2026
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