@NiohBerg @michaeljknowles And, they’ll get the $$. No enforcement and with more money.
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Ken Jackson
598 posts
@michaeljknowles Let me put this in a way everyone understands:
When Donald Trump leaves office, there will be no world leader left to enforce a deal. The regime in Iran will then go back to enrichment because it will be safe from consequences.
Short term, short lived nonsensical deal.
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One of the chief arguments against a peace deal with Iran is that we already had one under Obama.
Speaking with a senior admin official, I’m hearing any viable deal would have to be much tougher: no pallets of cash, of course, but also no more stockpiles of enriched material, and no permission for further enrichment.
Alongside the near-total obliteration of ballistic missile production, such a deal at this stage—if a deal is reached—would put U.S. strategic interests in a much stronger position than before.
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The nighttime street grid of Chicago as viewed from an airplane, 1989 ...
In 1989, Chicago was the third-largest city in the United States, with a population of nearly 2.8 million people. Decades of growth had produced one of the most recognizable urban patterns in the world: a vast grid of streets stretching for miles in every direction. Much of that layout originated after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, when rebuilding efforts emphasized straight streets, standardized blocks, and modern infrastructure.
Chicago's street grid became a model for urban planning, making navigation, land development, and public services remarkably efficient. By the late 1980s, the metropolitan area was home to more than 7 million residents and served as one of North America's most important transportation hubs, linking railroads, highways, waterways, and air travel.
The city's electric glow also represented a century of technological progress. Chicago had been a pioneer in electrification, architecture, and engineering since the late 19th century, helping shape the modern American city.
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was the world's busiest airport for much of the late 20th century, handling more passengers than any other airport on Earth during several years of the 1980s and 1990s.
© History Pictures
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From a senior administration official re: Iran:
- This MOU framework gives us 60 days to reach final deal points that will deliver on President Trump's priorities and ensure the United States and the region are safer and more prosperous going forward.
- The president has consistently said the Iranians cannot have a nuclear weapon. This MOU commits them to that.
- It commits the Iranians to giving up the nuclear dust and working out the mechanism for that will be part of us talking with the Iranians over the next 60 days.
- It gets the Strait of Hormuz de-mined and back open for business.
- It brings relief to American families at the pump. The President fought this war to protect American security and American prosperity, and this MOU delivers on both.
- The important part of how this is structured is, if Iran doesn't perform, they don't get anything. No dust? No dollars. As the Strait opens, the blockade loosens proportionately. This is "trust but verify" on steroids.
- Unlike past agreements where America paid Iran upfront and hoped they'd comply, this MOU is structured so Iran gets nothing until they deliver. That's the difference between a dealmaker and a hostage payer.
- The region is uniting behind the United States under President Trump's leadership. There's no way this could have happened without the entire region uniting behind it.
- As a result, we're on a path for this to be the President's second time reshaping the Middle East. It started with the Abraham Accords, this is the Abraham Accords Plus. Everyone's talking now. More economic normalization agreements are possible. This could be just the beginning.
- The MOU ensures we and our allies -- and the Iranians and their proxies -- cease fighting across the region. It also guarantees Israel's right to act against imminent threats. They, as we all do, have a right to self defense.
- President Trump has been a master of expanding optionality throughout this process. And now there are unlimited options for the region to spread peace and prosperity like never before.
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@TreyYingst @DanLinnaeus And the wholesale slaughter of the Iranian people will begin again as soon as the U.S. leaves the neighborhood, if it isn’t already happening.
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Israeli political source to Fox News:
"The United States is updating Israel on the negotiations over a memorandum of understanding for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and entering negotiations on a final agreement regarding the disputed issues.
In last night’s conversation with President Trump, the Prime Minister stressed that Israel will maintain freedom of action against threats on all fronts, including Lebanon, and President Trump reiterated his support for this principle.
President Trump made clear that he will stand firm in the negotiations on his longstanding demand for the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program and the removal of all enriched uranium from its territory, and that he will not sign a final agreement without these conditions being met.
The Prime Minister again expressed his appreciation to President Trump for his longstanding and exceptional commitment to Israel’s security."
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🚨 Fox News: The emerging agreement stipulates that US forces will remain near Iran for 30 days
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@MOSSADil @ArutzSheva_En Trump will cave on the Israeli provision.
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🚨 TRUMP REPORTEDLY DRAWS A RED LINE ON IRAN
Full @ArutzSheva_En report link in comments.
According to a senior Israeli official, President Trump told Prime Minister Netanyahu he will not sign a final agreement with Iran unless it includes:
✔️Full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program.
✔️Removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory.
✔️Preservation of Israel’s freedom of action against threats on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Full report link in comments.
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Ken Jackson retweetledi
@SpeakerJohnson Seems like Trump got tired of winning bc this is a whole lot of losing.
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In plain terms, this ceasefire is a terrorist ransom payment. But release and exchange timelines matter greatly. And whether they live to enjoy their blood money is another seriously open question. History of US actions would suggest otherwise.
dan linnaeus@DanLinnaeus
This is lopsided, hyperbolic and relies on Iranian and Arab sourced spin that portrays a still-unfinalized diplomatic track as “total surrender” by Trump and the US. It’s a classic horseshoe trap we see recurrently in Iran hawk commentary and IRGC propaganda: maximalist framing of US downsides and Islamic Republic upsides in diplomatic contexts. It also doesn’t hold up too well under scrutiny of 1, actual timeline, 2, incentives, and 3, reported terms. What matters upfront is that the $6B remains an Iranian ask, and that release of funds is stratified, gradual, and conditional in the ongoing talks. There is no credible report of an immediate payout or the quid pro quo terms involved in any financial line item. What matters for an objective assessment of the deal’s merits is the sums, timelines, sequencing and cross-implementation, freedom of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz, and any reported leak origins. Briefly and parsimoniously, on the Strait of Hormuz issue, after US blockade was imposed on April 13 and the ceasefire was extended on the 21st, Project Freedom was launched on Monday, May 4 to escort stranded ships out of the Strait. Some 1,500 vessels and over 22,000 mariners have been stranded since the start of the war and have sporadically been targeted by drones and fast attack craft. The IRGC immediately refuted US claims that the vessels would be permitted to traverse the Strait unharmed through their Tasnim news agency, saying “maritime movements contrary to the announced principles of the IRGC Navy face serious risks, and violating vessels will be forcibly stopped.” Trump paused Project Freedom the next day, Tuesday evening, at Pakistan’s request citing progress in Iran negotiations. For the US extracting the hostage vessels and crew is valuable for global energy demand pressure, humanitarian reasons and notably vital for theater-shaping because 1,500 vessels strewn across the littoral dilute defensive capacity along the Gulf. This is a critical constraint along two concurrent axes: saturation risk and interceptor magazine depth. Protecting these vessels drains bandwidth from critical ports, terminals, refineries, and strategic sites like the more than four hundred desalination plants and vitally, UAE’s Barakah nuclear plant -- which water pressurized nuclear reactor was attacked last week with three drones after IRGC Iraqi proxy Awiyah al-Wa'ad al-Haq announced a Jihad against on March 10 and the IRGC directly threatened to strike it on March 23. A drone penetrated defenses and struck an electric power generator within the plant but outside its inner perimeter according to the UAE ministry of defense. That followed Al-Saadi’s arrest by less than 48 hours (see x.com/danlinnaeus/st…). That should clarify for policymakers the scope and magnitude of the stakes. What we now know is that a deal is “largely negotiated” and will include reopening the Strait of Hormuz. It involves multiple regional players including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and others via Pakistani mediation. For additional discussion, x.com/danlinnaeus/st…. In plain terms, this ceasefire is a terrorist ransom payment. But release and exchange timelines matter greatly. And whether they live to enjoy their blood money is another seriously open question. History of US actions would suggest otherwise.
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@RepFine @WhiteHouse Normally, I respect you, except when you wear the kippahs that you picked up at various bar mitzvahs. Trump will spin the agreement but it’s not on our terms. The Iranians out negotiated our president.
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I’ve been in touch with the @WhiteHouse tonight about the potential Iran deal and let me say this:
President Trump will land this deal and end the conflict on his terms.
The Mullahs will never have a nuclear weapon.
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@reesetheone1 I’m curious. why exactly do you hate Bibi so much? Be specific.
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If a deal means Netanyahu loses, I can live with that.
I CANNOT STAND THAT DUDE.
Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش@citrinowicz
It’s hard to overstate how deeply Netanyahu views this moment as a possible personal and political defeat. A U.S.–Iran agreement under Trump would be a major blow to him mainly diplomatically, but above all politically. For years, Netanyahu built his political identity around being “Mr. Iran,” the leader who insisted that only pressure, deterrence, and force could stop the Iranian regime. And now, after multiple rounds of operational successes but one resounding strategic failure, and after finally succeeding in drawing the United States into direct confrontation with Iran, he may be forced to accept an agreement that not only legitimizes the very regime he sought to weaken, but also exposes the collapse of his long-standing Iran doctrine. His approach was based on the belief that more pressure, more military power, and tighter coordination between Israel and the United States would eventually either force Iran into submission or destabilize the regime itself. Instead, the result has been a more radicalized, more resilient, and more dangerous Iran, one that even Washington now hesitates to confront militarily again. If this confrontation ends with an agreement, an even bigger strategic question emerges: what future American president would be willing to commit U.S. forces to another major Middle Eastern conflict after seeing the political and military costs of this one? Netanyahu had what may have been his greatest opportunity to prove his central strategic theory: that a close Israeli-American military partnership could fundamentally reshape Iran and perhaps even threaten the regime’s survival. By every indication, that assumption failed. Against this backdrop, reports of a tense conversation between Trump and Netanyahu become much easier to understand. They also help explain the extraordinary level of pressure now coming from Jerusalem, and the extent to which Netanyahu is trying to persuade, or pressure, the administration not to move toward a deal with Tehran. The bottom line is that a U.S.–Iran agreement would not only signal the failure of the military confrontation Netanyahu pushed for, but also the collapse of the broader strategic doctrine he has championed since entering Israeli politics, all on the eve of what could be the most critical election of his career. In that sense, the next Israel’s leadership need to learn the fundamental lessons of this war. More than ever, this conflict demonstrates the urgent need for Israel to develop a different long-term strategy for dealing with Iran and especially to understand the following: Israel’s confrontation with Iran will not bring normalization with the Arab world, nor will it resolve Israel’s most fundamental security challenges, first and foremost, the Palestinian issue. The belief that regime change in Iran would transform Israel’s position in the Middle East was always detached from reality. In fact, the consistent opposition of Gulf leaders and major Arab states to further escalation against Iran has demonstrated this repeatedly throughout the conflict. Israel will not be able to use the “Iran card” as a substitute for addressing the core political issues shaping the region. Anyone arguing that military confrontation with Iran alone can unlock normalization is mistaken and, more importantly, misleading others about the strategic reality of the Middle East. Because despite the undeniable tactical and operational achievements of the campaign, this failure may ultimately leave Israel facing a more dangerous strategic reality, one that has not fundamentally improved its position in the Middle East. #IranWar
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@DumisaniTemsgen The goal is any deal at any price, as long as there’s a deal.
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Dumisani Washington@DumisaniTemsgen
Reporter: Do you believe that (the Iranian regime) is still committed to peace? Trump: Yeah. I do. We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing. (So, “Death to Israel” is no longer a thing because of a social media post. That’s not how this works.) #4DChess
ZXX
Consider again two major decisions by President Trump in light of these probable developments:
1. He told the Iranian people to protest in the streets leading to 10s of thousands of their deaths at the hands of the ayatollah regime — for no apparent reason.
2. He ordered Israel to stop Operation Rising Lion against the ayatollah regime (June 2025), and publicly chided the Israelis for not knowing “…what the f*ck they’re doing,” only to launch the US’s Operation Epic Fury the next year, ultimately preserving the IRGC.
Sarah Adams@sarahadams
No one planned for or expected a long-term engagement in Iran, so it’s good to hear a deal is soon to be announced. But it’s also probably a punch in the gut for most Iranians knowing the IRGC still remains firmly in control. In the end, I’m not sure anyone trying to do the right thing really walks away winning here.
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@RepFine @Jim_Jordan Get rid of the bar mitzvah kippah, and keep your distance from Jim Jordan.
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“Folks in your district in Florida are lucky to have you.” — Chairman Jim Jordan
Thank you @Jim_Jordan for joining my telephone town hall last night and for the kind words.
I will never stop fighting for America.
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@drdivine @TimesofIsrael It’s a total cancer. The Jewish leaders who demand the that the ambassador apologize should peddle their fake outrage elsewhere.
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Hundreds of Jewish leaders demand Israeli ambassador apologize for calling J Street a ‘cancer’ timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry… via @timesofisrael
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Never dare me! 🤣
Meet Maxim.
He’s a neighbor and a friend. He’s also a member of Chabad.
Anyway, one Shabbat, I approached him in synagogue and complimented his Kapota. A Kapota is the long coat he’s wearing in the photo. It’s something Hassidic Jews wear.
Anyway, I complimented him and told him I like the look.
“How about I make you one? A custom Kapota!”
I replied, half jokingly, “Let’s do it!”
But he wasn’t kidding.
“Would you really wear it?”
“Hells yea!”
Well, a few weeks later, he told me to come to a store that makes custom suits of all kinds. I’ll share more about that store later. Stay tuned for that.
They took my measurements, we chose the fabric, the buttons, the lining, and everything else, and off they went to make me a custom Kapota!
Obviously I have never worn one before so I had no idea how it would look.
Well, yesterday, it arrived!
Not gonna lie, I kinda love it!!
No, I’m not becoming a member of Chabad but who said I can’t dress like one?
Btw, while I was at the store designing the Kapota, the owner, who follows me, suggested they make me a suit too and we can collab on it if I like it.
Well, the suit is being prepared and should arrive in a week or two but meanwhile, say hello to my first Kapota, and let’s be honest, probably my last. 🤣
Watya think? Ridiculous or am I rocking it? Or both. 🤣
HT @Mottel
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@DBashIdeas @NIRCnews I initially thought this was about the refusal of some men to give their wives a gett.
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"Because when you're in love, you do crazy things."
-My Rebbe, Rav Tzvi Berkowitz, on why we stay up all night on Shavuos
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@JewishWarrior13 He’s taking over late night tv with his comedy act.
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🚨 Trump: "I'm right now at 99% in Israel. I could run for prime minister. So maybe after I do this, I'll go to Israel, run for prime minister. I had a poll this morning. I'm 99%."
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@bentziavtzon @AhinAher @MottiWilhelm @ShaisTaub Skinny jeans are an abomination to fashion. Better bell bottoms.
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The “bochurim wear white shirt” rule at least in Lubavitch is symbolic of everything wrong with how we “enforce” community
- Made up after 3 Tammuz
- Arbitrary
- Shoehorns everyone into lookalike paradigm that’s intrinsically annoying
- discarded by many at first opportunity
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@ShaisTaub @bentziavtzon Didn’t bring Daf Yomi but they brought tfellin into the public domain.
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Yeah, no kidding. The whole identity is about insecurity. But my point is that they officially pride themselves on at least (ostensibly) not feeling any need to conform to other communities' standards, so it's funny that they bought the white shirt thing. They should have bought daf yomi before they bought the white shirt thing.
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