Good morning and Happy Monday! Thanks for starting your day here.
Trump’s attempt to negotiate a peace treaty with Iran is going about as well as expected. After Trump triumphantly announced that the Strait of Hormuz is and always has been open late last week, Iran announced that the Strait was closed again on Saturday.
Twenty-five ships traveled through the critical channel on Thursday, according to data from marine intelligence firm Kpler. However, lead oil analyst Matt Smith told CNN the number of tankers fell back to single digits on Friday after the first round of talks between Iran and the United States to work out the details of their agreement was canceled.
“It’s not like you’re suddenly seeing a mass exodus,” Smith said. “You’re seeing a pickup in traffic… but not material. We are still not at the point where a ‘first mover’ is emerging.”
Thursday’s vessel traffic was the highest since mid-April, when Iran briefly opened the Strait to commercial traffic. However, it was still a fraction of the 100 to 120 tankers that sailed through the passage between Iran and Oman daily before the war, said Smith.
In addition, Trump did his level best to derail talks on Sunday, because Trump has the impulse control of a toddler and apparently thinks the Iranians can’t see what he posts on social media or says on FOX News.
Vice President JD Vance held talks in Switzerland with Iranian officials Sunday as Tehran protested President Donald Trump’s recent comments potentially threatening the days-old peace.
“The Iranian delegation has expressed its protest to the American side and is now reviewing appropriate response to Donald Trump’s recent verbal threats,” Iranian officials said through Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency translated to English, adding that “any form of threat is considered a serious violation of the agreement.”
It was unclear which of Trump’s statements they were referring to, however earlier Sunday Trump posted on Truth Social that “we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” unless it stops “their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon,” referring to Hezbollah.
And in a phone interview Sunday morning with Fox News, Trump said he spoke with the Iranians overnight, delivering a stark warning that if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. will “blow the s--- out of them.”
“You close it and you won’t have a country,” Fox News’ Trey Yingst reported the president’s telling him Sunday morning. “You won’t even make it back to your f------ country.”
Gosh, how could anyone take offense at that?
By the way, just a brilliant decision to send the universally loathed JD Vance to negotiate peace with the Iranians. A huge part of diplomacy is being a smug dipshit, after all. I’m sure he’ll win the Iranians over. Did I mention the Iranian delegation refused to shake hands or participate in the photo op with Vance? Can’t really blame them, though. I would never voluntarily touch Vance, either.
There have been conflicting reports on whether the Iranians walked out of the peace talks on Sunday or simply made their unhappiness known, though MS Now reported that talks were ongoing late into the night. Either way, we’re not off to a great start in Switzerland.
Amir Handjani, a fellow at the Quincy Institute, said on MS Now last night that the Strait will never go back to the way it was, i.e., free and open, saying “Iran has now realized that control of the Strait is even more important than having nuclear weapons.” That realization is 100 percent on Donald Trump and his batshit plan to bomb Iran into submission.
The best case scenario for the US is that we go back to the way things were in February, meaning the Strait is open and free. But as Natasha Yarin, a Yale professor pointed out last night, the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran already contemplates giving Iran a metric shit ton of concessions.
Trump has repeatedly called the Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — presided over by President Barack Obama in 2015 the "worst deal ever," and Trump abandoned the agreement in his first term in office. But the framework agreement signed this week hands major financial concessions to Iran that could ultimately go much further than the Obama-era arrangement.
The document says the U.S. will work with regional partners to create a fund of "at least $300 billion" for Iran's reconstruction and economic development. Vice President Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount.
It also promises that the U.S. will unfreeze Iranian funds and assets that amount potentially to tens of billions of dollars. Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN Iran wants to see the release of $24 billion.
The bottom line: We're going to end up coming out of this thing far worse than we were going in, and that’s before we even take into account the increased prices that the Strait of Hormuz tolls will inflict on the worldwide economy. Trump even acknowledged last week that he signed the deal with Iran to avoid an “economic catastrophe.” This is what it looks like when a much smaller country calls your bluff.
I hate to keep harping on it, but all of this is a direct result of kicking career diplomats out of the State Department and firing top military brass because they wouldn’t bend the knee to Trump. The death of expertise is going to screw us all. It already has. People spend their entire lives training to make deals like this, and Trump sends over Jared Kushner and JD Vance.
In other news: Trump blames the Reflecting Pool disaster on “vandals;” The US is ending AIDS funding in South Africa; The SA World Cup; and The High Note.
Let’s go.
Trump tries to spin the Reflecting Pool disaster
Shout out to everyone who called this move last week. Donald Trump is blaming “vandals” for the pea green swamp that is the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.
On June 19, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying without providing evidence that vandals had poured an unknown chemical in the Reflecting Pool to “try to destroy and demean our beautiful work."
"We've cleaned, renovated, and beautified over 45 Monuments and Memorials, 28 Statues and 22 Fountains in Washington, D.C. Things are looking really good in our Nation's Capital," the Truth Social post stated. "However, we've had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial."
Trump went on to say that the Pool had been “seriously vandalized” and that “we” had already arrested “many people.” So far, though, we know of one person who was arrested — 67-year-old Olympian David Hearn, who said he pulled on the end of a “flapping piece” of epoxy that was peeling off the bottom of the Pool.
“I didn’t vandalize anything,” the 67-year-old told the outlet. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”
Last week, after workers had poured hydrogen peroxide into the Pool to combat the algae problem, which then led to the lifting of the epoxy coating on the pool, Bluesky posters were warning people not to peel off the epoxy, which was sticking up above the waterline, as they feared Trump would use it as a pretext to blame vandalism for the botched Pool renovation. Turns out, that’s exactly what happened.
Trump now says the whole thing will probably need to be drained and fixed. Oh, they also found a dead baby duck floating in the pool. (No, I’m not sharing the image.)
The US is ending AIDS relief to South Africa
This is really disgusting. We’re not ending AIDS funding because it’s no longer needed or because we need the money for something else. No. All of this is about Trump’s bizarre fixation on the “abuse” of white South Africans.
The Trump administration will begin phasing South Africa out of a signature American program that has supported the prevention and treatment of H.I.V. in Africa for more than two decades, according to a statement issued by the State Department on Friday.
In an emailed statement described as “attributable to a State Department official,” the department said South Africa was being removed from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, because it had failed “to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration.”
While the official did not specify the policy requests, the administration has in the past called on South Africa to repeal a law allowing for the expropriation of land without compensation, to exempt American companies from Black empowerment laws and to not align with U.S. enemies such as Iran.
South Africa has the highest rate of AIDS infections in the world, with around eight million people suffering from the disease.
The SA World Cup
On Wednesday, I wrote quite a bit about my feelings about seeing Jameis Winston, infamously and credibly accused of sexual assault (SA) both while in college and in the NFL, being the face of the World Cup on FOX. Sadly, Winston isn’t the only accused-rapist being sportswashed by FIFA and FOX.
In addition to Cristiano Ronaldo (accused by multiple women) and Neymar, who was cut loose by Nike after he refused to cooperate in their investigation into SA allegations against him, we have three, count ‘em THREE, other players who are currently being accused of SA on active rosters.
Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey was formally denied a visa to Canada due to SA allegations, but he was, of course, allowed into the US, as Ghana’s home base for the tourney is in Providence, RI. Japan’s Kaishu Sano was previously arrested for a gang rape in Tokyo in 2024. And finally, Morocco’s captain, Achraf Hakimi, was ordered on Friday to stand trial for SA by a French court.
On top of all that, I have to see Jameis Winston’s mug every time FOX goes to the fans, and my Insta timeline is full of people discussing what a delight he is.
This is what rape culture looks like.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
Take it away, Stevie!
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
