And speaking of negotiations …
…Netanyahu made this announcement:
“In light of Lebanon’s repeated requests to open direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed at the Government meeting yesterday to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,” he said in a statement. “The negotiations will focus on the disarmament of Hezbollah and the establishing of peaceful relations between Israel and Lebanon.”
Ahead of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had called for ‘direct talks’ with Israel, setting an immediate ceasefire as a precondition, the BBC reports:
Netanyahu also said there is no ceasefire and that attacks on Hezbollah will continue.
It’s not the first time the two countries have talked. But I wonder how weakened Hezbollah is at this point, and if it will matter. I think Lebanon would like to be rid of Hezbollah and be its own country for a change, but Hezbollah isn’t on the same page (an understatement).
Does this merely have to do with damping things down in order to facilitate the Iran talks?
The Associated Press reported that the talks would be led on the U.S. side by Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa and on the Israeli side by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter. It’s not clear who would represent Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on the social platform X on Thursday that he directed his government “to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible.” The Israeli leader said the talks would focus on the disarmament of Hezbollah and establishing peaceful relations between the two countries.
President Trump on Thursday said he told Netanyahu to scale back Israel’s deadly strikes, as they threaten to upend a tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
“I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump said.
In other news, Fetterman says he will vote against a resolution to halt strikes on Iran:
Fetterman, a staunch supporter of Israel, said on Fox News’s “Hannity” that he will vote no on the measure.
“We have to stand [with] our military to allow them to accomplish the goals of Epic Fury,” he told host Sean Hannity, referring to the operation in Iran.
“I’m old enough to remember we used to root for our military, and we would all agree that Iran is the world’s leading terrorism underwriter.”
You can be a toddler and be old enough to remember that.
Negotiating with Iran
Query: if everyone to the right of AOC knows that the Iranian leaders (or players to be named later) are not to be trusted, why would people think that the US negotiators are blissfully unaware of that and inevitably will be duped by them? Why assume this administration is that stupid?
It pays to be nervous about this, of course – very nervous. And I am. But I find it odd to assume that the negotiating group is ignorant of what everyone else on the right seems to already know. I suppose it depends how desperate to end the war you think the administration is. I happen to think that Trump is willing to keep going unless something very reassuring happens as a result of the talks, or at the very least will be making sure there is compliance – or else.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued an ultimatum to Iran Wednesday, urging the nation to give up its enriched uranium — or President Trump will launch another “Operation Midnight Hammer” to seize it.
While the two-week cease-fire deal between the US and Iran does not address the nearly 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium in Tehran’s possession, Hegseth told reporters on Wednesday that the US will secure the atomic material no matter what.
“We’ll get it. We’ll take it, we’ll take it out,” Hegseth said of the enriched uranium, vowing to complete one of President Trump’s main goals of the war. …
“But what’s clear… is they’ll never have a nuclear weapon or the capability to get a path to one.”
Recall that this war was preceded by several weeks of negotiations – probably with a different crew of Iranians – and they failed. Recall that most people online felt that we would be duped by those negotiations, but that’s not the way it worked out. In fact, we seem to have learned a few things from them.
I would like very much for the Iranian regime to change. But I don’t think that’s going to happen yet, if ever. But if it does, I think the Israelis (Mossad, etc.) will be highly involved.
DeCarlos Brown and competence to stand trial
I see a lot of people on the right are angry at this news about Iryna Zarutska’s accused killer:
A December 29, 2025 report indicated that Brown was “incapable to proceed to trial,” according to the motion filed by one of his attorneys, Daniel Roberts. The next step will be a capacity hearing in Mecklenburg Superior Court at which a judge will determine if Brown should stand trial. Roberts said in the motion that the hearing can’t happen while Brown is in federal custody.
In addition to first-degree murder, Brown also faces a federal charge alleging he committed an act of violence resulting in death on a mass transportation system. State and federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. …
Brown is undergoing a separate psychological evaluation in the federal prison system. A report from that evaluation is expected later this month. If Brown is deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge will have to hold a capacity hearing in federal court. The state case is also at a standstill while Brown is in federal custody. Brown won’t go to trial in either court until questions surrounding his mental state are resolved.
I’ve read several articles on this, and the reporting is so disjointed and unclear as to be very confusing. It partly has to do with the state versus federal proceedings, and it partly has to do with how far along his incapacity examination has gone, and what will happen if he’s found incapable.
One thing I want to clear up, however, is that this has nothing to do with a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. That has to do with his state of mind at the time of the murder, and the governing federal or state laws on criminal responsibility. What’s going on now with the incapacity evaluations has to do with his present state of mind and whether he is able to understand the charges against him and assist in his own defense. In other words, is he in any kind of touch with reality or is he flagrantly schizophrenic, for example. If the latter, he will be stabilized – most likely with medication, most likely in some sort of secure mental hospital. Then, once he’s stabilized, he will stand trial.
Brown actually does seem to have a bona fide record of schizophrenia, not just a claim as a result of his crime. The issue of capacity or incapacity to stand trial has to do with our justice system’s focus on protecting defendants in the sense of making sure they have an opportunity to receive a proper defense.
I’ll say once again, though, that I find the reporting on this case especially murky.
Open thread 4/9/2026
Time and tide wait for no man:
On the Georgia special election
Marjorie Taylor Greene is quite the piece of work, and she has become a big Trump-hater as well. Since she’s resigned from her Congressional seat, she’s been excoriating Trump and just about everything he does. She had long been an Israel-hater, and that continues. Let’s just say she’s more or less on the Tucker wavelength.
The Georgia special election was won by the Republican Clay Fuller, but the results were much closer than in 2024, when Trump won by 37 points. Fuller won by 12. So the left and the press is spinning this loss as a Democrat victory of sorts.
Greene won by 29 points in 2024. She had been endorsed by Trump and so we can assume some of her victory was on his coattails, although she was also the incumbent.
Turnout is nearly always lower in these special elections and favors the party with the most motivation. That would be the Democrats, at the moment. But this is still a red district and it wasn’t close. Nevertheless, it certainly would have been far better had Fuller won a much bigger victory, and in the recent past (not just in Greene’s election) the margins were far bigger for the GOP candidates.
I’ve looked for a while, but can’t find comparative turnout statistics except that it was lower just now than in 2024. If you can find anything more specific, please put it in the comments. I also have looked for Greene’s remarks during the recent campaign – whether she backed Fuller or badmouthed him, or even might have praised Harris (the Democrat). I can’t find a thing; maybe you can. She did keep trashing Trump, however, and Trump backed Fuller.
A most unusual election.
What Shakespeare had to say about need
Yesterday I wrote a post about Liz Warren’s desire to confiscate more of Jeff Bezos’ money. The title of the post was, “How much money does Jeff Bezos need, anyway?”
Afterwards, a line from Shakespeare kept coming to me: “Oh reason not the need.” I couldn’t recall in which play it appeared. Perhaps The Merchant of Venice? So it was time to look it up, and it’s King Lear.
Here’s the whole speech:
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous:
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life’s as cheap as beast’s: thou art a lady;
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear’st,
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need,–
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both!
If it be you that stir these daughters’ hearts
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women’s weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man’s cheeks! No, you unnatural hags,
I will have such revenges on you both,
That all the world shall–I will do such things,–
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth. You think I’ll weep
No, I’ll not weep:
I have full cause of weeping; but this heart
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws,
Or ere I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!
I could use more patience.
More photos from Artemis
You can find them by clicking here. Once you get there, you can get information on each photo by clicking on the image.
My favorite:
The lunar surface fills the frame in sharp detail, as seen during the Artemis II lunar flyby, while a distant Earth sets in the background. This image was captured at 6:41 p.m. EDT, on April 6, 2026, just three minutes before the Orion spacecraft and its crew went behind the Moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes before emerging on the other side. In this image, the dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime, while on its day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater shows terraced edges and a relatively flat floor marked by central peaks — formed when the surface rebounded upward during the impact that created the crater.
Predicting Trump; predicting the Iran War
It continually astounds me how many people make predictions about what will happen in Iran, when in many cases they don’t even seem to know what’s already happened. There’s an awful lot of garbage in and garbage out.
A tremendous amount of garbage, period.
If a person hates Trump already and thinks him a dangerous clown, of course that person will interpret everything that happens in the worst light. For the rest of us, there’s an acknowledgement that much has been accomplished already with a stunningly low casualty figure on our side, but the situation is inherently very tricky – and that Trump is well aware of that and is trying to navigate through the perils by using his considerable bobbing and weaving skills.
I keep saying I certainly don’t know what will happen. But hey, like so many, I think about it a lot. And I try to recognize patterns.
So here’s what I see:
World War II featured a great deal of bombings of civilian populations with huge death tolls. The culmination was Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brought about the surrender of a heretofore implacable enemy. However – despite the rantings of Trump-haters on Twitter and the like – I don’t see Trump contemplating anything like that. He’d much rather make a deal of some sort. And besides, he doesn’t see the people of Iran as the enemy; au contraire. He threatened infrastructure, not the population – although the population would suffer from the bombing of power plants and the like.
Trump also has no intention of a long war, both temperamentally and because he reads the American people (correctly, I think) as no longer having any stomach for a long slog. However, I can’t say what his definition of “long” is, except that I doubt the war will last more than a couple more months. He will stop when he believes he’s gotten enough from it, although not everything. But he’ll remain willing to start the war again. Therefore I predict he will never promise Iran not to attack again if conditions warrant it, and especially he will not allow Iran to keep its enriched uranium (unless it’s buried so deep it’s unrecoverable, which I don’t believe).
The enriched uranium issue is paramount; it was the stated reason for the war, not regime change. I don’t know how it could be settled by negotiation, because the regime can’t be trusted. Perhaps we – or the Israelis – have some intelligence as to where it is and how much there is, and that would help in terms of either snatching it or negotiating a meaningful surrender.
Trump’s enemies – and they are legion – will sharply criticize and mock any solution to any of this. If there’s no regime change, they’ll say he failed. If there is regime change and it’s imperfect, they’ll say he failed. The bottom line is that they will never credit him, just as they haven’t credited him for what’s been accomplished. Nor will they acknowledge the extreme danger Iran has represented, and the perils of doing nothing.
Commenter “huxley” mentioned this commentary from General Keane:
–Fox News, “Gen Jack Keane: I don’t like this…”
Keane argues, persuasively IMO, that the Iranians are just playing for time as usual and hoping that after traffic flows in the Strait, Trump won’t have the stomach to keep pushing for the other demands:
* the enriched uranium
* guarantees that Iran won’t pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,
* not continue to foment violence with proxiesIt will be harder, after a two-week ceasefire, to muster the energy to threaten the end of a civilization.
I’m not a general, but I disagree with those points. I don’t think Trump will give the first and second up. Those are his bottom lines. Those are why he went to war in the first place. If he can’t get some guarantee or substitute for a guarantee, it will be an obvious failure (as lack of regime change wouldn’t be, because even though he wanted it he made it clear that regime change was up to the Iranian people).
I also think that the Israelis might have some tricks up their sleeves regarding regime change.
But I don’t even know if the Iranians will keep their side of the present bargain – or even if the people “in charge” of Iran are the ones who made the bargain. Even as I write this, you can get conflicting reports on whether the Strait is open. For example, this is datelined just few minutes ago:
Iran is accusing Israel of violating the conditional ceasefire announced by President Trump by continuing its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iranian media outlets say Tehran is suspending tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and considering pulling out of the deal with Washington over Israel’s actions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump is aware of reports saying the strait has been closed, but said the reports “are false.”
And this, also very recent:
Since the ceasefire was announced, conflicting accounts have emerged over whether Lebanon is included in the agreement. Pakistan and Iran said the pause in fighting would extend to Lebanon. Israel and the White House have denied this.
The White House on Wednesday announced that Vice President JD Vance will be leading in-person peace talks in Pakistan this weekend. He will be joined by Middle East special envoy Steven Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Leavitt said.
I’ve also read that Rubio will be involved. But I don’t think much of most of the coverage these days. I know I’d prefer Rubio to Vance, but perhaps both will be there.
Trump is neither crazy nor stupid. But there are times when he wants to be seen as crazy. I believe that’s what his threat this past weekend was all about. The point is to make the enemy struggle to predict what he will do – which means that we will have the same struggle.
Open thread 4/8/2026
Fabulous dog:
The Iranian regime exploits our compassion for the Iranian people – a compassion the regime lacks
[See UPDATE at end of post.]
So, what will happen in Iran – to Iran – this evening?
Trump has issued an ultimatum, threatening various things such as that “a whole civilization will die”:
Pakistan, which is an intermediary between the U.S. and Iran, asked for a two-week delay in escalating attacks on Iran.
President Donald Trump sharply ramped up his threats against Iran on Tuesday, warning “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless a deal is struck.
The White House will respond to Pakistan’s request, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The left is extremely incensed at Trump’s threat, putting out the unified message that he’s insane.
Current Islamophile Tucker Carlson says Trump’s going to nuke Iran (despite Carlson himself having advocated nuking Iran not so very long ago), and also says that Trump is trying to “eradicate” Christianity by rescuing the downed airman on Easter [Ace has corrected his report to say that Carlson’s assertion about Trump and Easter was due to Trump’s threatening tweet using the F-word on Easter]. Read those links; it’s so far gone it’s hard to believe – and even if 99% of Carlson’s audience is bots and foreign Muslims, what he’s saying is horrendous and it does also reach many people in the US although it’s impossible to say how many.
I kid you not about his message:
Desecrating Easter was the first step toward nuclear war. Christians need to understand where Trump is taking us.
What is this “civilization” of which Trump writes? Those who think Trump is insane – or want to make others think Trump is insane – think it’s the Iranian people, although that makes no sense. I assume it’s his usual hyperbole, and that he means the mullahtocracy that’s been in control of that country for nearly half a century. But he likes to keep people guessing and seem like a wild man; whether that will work to his benefit in this case I simply don’t know.
And no, it’s not a war crime to bomb bridges and power plants – although there’s no dearth of leftist “experts” who are willing to say it is.
As for the Iranian regime, it’s threatened to destroy the economy of the Gulf States and the economy of the world by holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage.The leaders, past and present (if there are any now) do not care if there’s a great deal of destruction. It is part of their religious belief that this is necessary for the coming of the Mahdi. They don’t mind how much their own people suffer, but they count on the US and Israel to spare the people and the most important infrastructure for the people.
And that’s why they have asked their young people to surround power plants to “protect” them:
Iranian officials on Tuesday urged their people to form human chains around power plants as the country faces a deadline set by President Trump to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or risk major strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure.
The regime called on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to protect power plants threatened by Trump, according to The Associated Press.
These are more or less the same groups of people the regime killed by the many thousands when they protested. It’s a win/win situation for the Iranian regime: either the US and Israel desist because of their own compassion for the people (a compassion the regime lacks), or the regime can claim war crimes if and when the people are killed by the US or Israel.
The West has stood for decades in an extremely difficult position regarding Iran: let them be, while they arm more and more and become more and more dangerous, until they feel strong enough to attack. Or attack them now, when the hour is already late in terms of their missiles and drones and uranium, and bear the criticism of the left and much of the world.
The Iranian regime are not Nazis. But they resemble them in at least two ways: hating Jews and wanting to destroy them, of course. And not caring about their own people in the end – in fact, in that respect, Hitler wanted to destroy his people as having been ultimately unworthy of the task he’d set for them. Ever hear of
Hitler’s Nero Decree?:
Even as the Third Reich he had once prophesied would last a thousand years crumbled all around him, Adolf Hitler desperately clung to his racist vision of the world. In March 1945, Allied forces poured over the Rhine River after the Americans captured the Ludendorff Bridge on March 7. On March 16, the German army’s last offensive of the war, Operation Spring Awakening in Hungary against the Red Army, collapsed. For the Führer the impending defeat proved that Germans were simply neither strong nor ruthless enough to do what was necessary to achieve victory. Deeming Germany a failure of a nation, Hitler prepared a decree that would seal the country’s collapse with catastrophic finality. …
… Speer reported the German economy could only hold out another four to eight weeks. That was the absolute limit for the Third Reich’s war effort. In the text, Speer went on to urge Hitler to concentrate on doing everything possible for the country’s population to ensure their survival.Unmoved, Hitler did not yield an inch. In Gitta Sereny’s biography of Speer, Hitler is quoted as responding, “it is not necessary to worry about their [the German people’s] needs for elemental survival.” He stunned his Armaments Minister, accustomed to the Führer’s fulminations against the “inferior” peoples of the Soviet Union, by declaring “the future belongs entirely to the strong people of the East.” On March 19, Hitler then promulgated a special decree titled “Destructive Measures on Reich Territory.” Otherwise remembered as the “Scorched Earth Decree” or “Nero Decree,” for the brutal Roman Emperor Nero (ruled 54-68 C.E.), the order mandated the destruction of Germany’s infrastructure. …
The order applied to all production, communication, and transportation facilities. Railroads, bridges, communication lines, docks, public utilities, factories and mines were to be demolished.
Speer didn’t carry it out, however. But the impulse was there.
I don’t predict that the mullahtocracy will do this to the Iranian people – although if they really feel they are defeated, I bet they wouldn’t mind in the least. Then again, to accomplish their goals, they need something short of utter destruction.
UPATE 7:05 PM:
I started out this post with a link to something that mentioned Pakistan’s suggestion of a 2-week ceasefire, and that Trump’s press secretary had said that the White House will respond to Pakistan’s request. Sure enough, this announcement just came out a few minutes ago:
The U.S. has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran proposed by Pakistan, President Trump said Tuesday night.
The big picture: The Pakistani proposal, which came hours before Trump’s deadline to launch massive strikes if no deal was reached, involves a pause on Trump’s threat and a commitment from Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks.
Fancy that. He got what he wanted – if they comply. And if they don’t, he can always carry out his threat.
I seem to recall that Trump’s art of the deal involves always being willing to walk away.
And I continue to wonder with whom these negotiations are happening – negotiations the regime initially denied were taking place.
How much money does Jeff Bezos need, anyway?
Says Liz Warren (who’s got a fair amount of money herself, although she’s nowhere near Bezos territory):
Jeff Bezos has $222 billion.
If he paid my wealth tax this year, we could fund insulin in America for everyone who needs it plus free school lunch for every kid in Texas—and have plenty of money left over.
And Bezos would still have $215 billion dollars to spare.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 5, 2026
What a brilliant, never-heard-of-before idea, Liz! And while we’re at it, could I have some of your eight million or so? I’d only take maybe two million, leaving you with about six – more than anyone really needs. I’ll put it to good use, and I don’t think you’d really miss it.
Here’s a takedown of Warren’ proposal, with some details.
Some of the responses to Warren’s tweet are pretty good, too, such as:
Just stop, we all know your scam.
Democrats raise taxes.
Money flows to NGOs packed with Democratic operatives.
Those operatives take their cut, write a check to Democratic campaigns
Report back that the problem still exists and needs more funding.
And
Bezos spends $15B, develops a space program, creates new technologies.
California spends $15B to build high speed rail, zero miles delivered.
You’re proposing to move capital from the best capital allocator to the worst, one rife with fraud and overspending.