tradesetupsnotcalls

@MikemanCommeth @WeTheBrandon The 6000 sorties were not in Iranian airspace

@WeTheBrandon Nothing is stealthy doing close air support. The F-35 is the wrong plane for that sort of hunt-and-kill mission, which is why the A-10s have now taken the field. That said, 6,000 sorties and one wounded fighter isn't exactly the disaster you are trying to paint.

The F-35 program was billed as the most advanced stealth fighter ever. It cost us $2 trillion over 20 years. And it gets clipped by a missile belonging to a military that I have been told repeatedly by the Pentagon was totally defeated. LOL. Hope the pilots are OK, tho!

@Megatron_ron Other than the elderly clapping, what can Saudi do that America hasn’t done?

JUST IN: 🇸🇦🇮🇷 Saudi Arabia with a video message is now threatening Iran

@CityNewsTO Too many whiny old stock losers playing the victim card online. Once the victim card disease gets entrenched it’s hard to eradicate. They need help before it’s too late

A new report says Canada has dropped down to 25th place in world happiness rankings toronto.citynews.ca/2026/03/19/can…

@BeshearStan Ironically this actually makes him the Hispanic MLK

This Cesar Chavez shit is WILD. If you lived in Cali when young then he was taught as the Hispanic MLK.

@HalfwayPost Source?

BREAKING: DOJ officials are reportedly struggling to figure out how Jared Kushner having no actual government job while making secret plans and deals with Israel our national security officials don't know about that dragged us into an unpopular war isn't "textbook treason."

@shaunrein He’s dealing with a situation he was put in. If anything he’s being apolitical and rational, something sorely lacking right now in the administration

So Bessent has unsanctioned Russian oil & might unsanction Iranian oil I told you last year when he was named Treasury Secretary - in all my dealings with him, he was an idiot I have been proven right everyday for a year

@DD_Geopolitics This feels like the breather scene in between action scenes of a low budget action movie

🇺🇸 My 13-year-old son came into my office last night while I was editing these remarks. He asked about the war — and the families I met at Dover. I looked at him and said, “They died for you, son.” Dollar Store Templar, Brother Hegseth, needs to work on his propaganda.

@Megatron_ron ‘While Israel provides intelligence’ lmao

BREAKING: 🇺🇸🇮🇷 US and Arab nations are negotiating to put boots on the ground to secure the Strait of Hormuz- Kann News US building up forces for an extended operation to secure the Strait of Hormuz. US and Arab forces will provide troops, while Israel provides intelligence – Kann News.

@AcademicAgent_X It’s insane how iconic Iranian leadership has become overnight

If you're gonna go out, at least go out with an image that goes as hard as this.

@EvanWritesOnX What about Israel bombing gas fields? Is that still part of the plan? Thr way things are going you’ll be justifying nukes as part of the plan

Larijani alive, was the bridge figure who could have negotiated the Islamic Republic’s transformation from the inside. He had the revolutionary credentials, the institutional weight, the factional connections, and the pragmatic orientation to walk Iran from the militant posture to the integrated posture while keeping the old guard on board. He was the man who could tell the hardliners “this is still our republic, we are just adapting” and be believed. That made him the most dangerous kind of transitional figure, the one who could have managed a soft landing that preserved enough of the old structure to constrain the new one. Alive, he kills the Islamic Republic slowly. He negotiates its transformation into something that keeps the name and the institutions but hollows out the revolutionary content. The IRGC gets domesticated, the proxy network gets retired, the economy gets integrated, and the clerical establishment gets reduced to a ceremonial role. All while Larijani brokers each step with enough factional buy-in that nobody can call it a betrayal. That is the slow death of the Islamic Republic as a revolutionary project, managed by one of its own architects. Larijani dead, means he does it faster. His martyrdom removes the bridge. There is no longer a figure with enough cross-factional weight to slow the transition down, to insist on preserving old guard equities, to demand that the revolutionary character of the republic be maintained in some meaningful form during the integration process. The people who replace him will be Araghchi-type figures, pragmatists of the new era with no institutional debt to the old one. They will move faster because they have no reason to protect what Larijani would have protected. And his death does something Larijani alive could never have done. It makes the old Islamic Republic a martyrdom narrative rather than a living political project. You cannot argue with martyrs. You can only honour them and move on. The revolutionary generation gets its shrine, its memory, its respect. And the next generation builds something completely different while laying flowers at the grave. This is a foreign minister going on camera to calmly explain that the man who was just killed was replaceable. That is not how you eulogise someone whose death demands retaliation. That is how you talk about someone whose removal was already priced in. Araghchi is using the moment to deliver an institutional continuity lecture. Iran is transitioning. It has been transitioning since before the war started. That transition requires shedding the old guard, the figures and structures tied to the revolutionary era that would complicate the new order. But shedding your own people is politically expensive. Factional rivals ask questions. Hardliners cry betrayal. War solves that problem. When the enemy kills your people for you, the removal comes wrapped in martyrdom instead of suspicion. Araghchi’s statement is not grief processed as defiance. It is institutional signalling executed with precision during a live war.

@KatsyTheremin @KateBDoll He’s not deeply closeted. It’s widely known in the industry.

@KateBDoll Either he is a deeply closeted homosexual or he’s just going for broke to spawn more memes

He would have been a star even in the silent film era. Some people are born for it

@dacianbromulus @cirnosad And that’s why the people who ordered that should be targeted. A random oil rig worker has nothing to do with that.

@setupsnotcalls @cirnosad They did not care when they k1!!ed Iranian workers

BREAKING NEWS: Iran orders the evacuation of Ras Laffan. 😎

@dacianbromulus @cirnosad No reason for people working there to be killed.

@cirnosad STOP ANNOUNCING YOUR NEXT TARGET!!!!!! WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK THAT THIS IS SOMETHING GOOD???

@KenRoth Honestly, fuck off

At the UN Human Rights Council, two damning reports detailed Iran's bloody repression of protests earlier this year. The clerics were willing to murder thousands to retain power. trib.al/4ryB57k

@maybeitscarma A disproportionate percentage of expat Iranians are Jews. The L.A. diaspora, particularly the wealthy part, is mostly Jewish. That’s why.

How some Iranian-Canadians have and continue to cheer this on is beyond comprehension to me.

@DNIGabbard Pound for pound, this is one of history’s greatest political betrayal’s

Donald Trump was overwhelmingly elected by the American people to be our President and Commander in Chief. As our Commander in Chief, he is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat, and whether or not to take action he deems necessary to protect the safety and security of our troops, the American people and our country.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is responsible for helping coordinate and integrate all intelligence to provide the President and Commander in Chief with the best information available to inform his decisions.  After carefully reviewing all the information before him, President Trump concluded that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.

@noquarter @axios Who the fuck is Shawn and Nick??

@axios He should do Tucker, Shawn, and then sit down with Nick.

The latest: Trumpworld is now bracing for an expected Tucker Carlson interview of Kent, sources tell Axios. Carlson has been one of the most vocal right-wing critics of both the war and Israel. axios.com/2026/03/17/joe…

@TMT_arabic Imagine there was an AI mediation between Netanyahu and Larijani

🚨 JUST IN: Iran has clarified the fate of Ali Larijani following reports of a U.S.–Israeli targeting operation. Iran confirmed that Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was not harmed. According to Tasnim News Agency, he is expected to deliver a new message in the coming hours. Earlier, Israel announced a special operation targeting him, while Israeli military sources said they are still verifying whether he was killed or not. Larijani is considered one of Iran’s most prominent political figures and has been vocal against Donald Trump, particularly on social media amid the ongoing U.S.–Israeli campaign.

@arash_tehran It’s an israeli policy alone. And America fights like Israelis now ie. No honor Israel/America target leaders and civilians and leave out the actual military as they struggle in actual combat.

On Larijani's killing: Do we realize that, until recently, it was extremely rare for countries, even those at war, to simply kill each other's top political officials? Are we ready for this to be the 'new normal'?

@EvanWritesOnX You’re giving the market too much credit. Thr markets are so drunk on an endless bull run with easy cash that they now lag bad news, rather than front run it. Even during Covid the market kept dismissing it until it became too serious

So, on the Israeli side, Netanyahu has not appeared at a security cabinet meeting since early this month. But the question is not whether all these videos are real or not. The question is why the Prime Minister of Israel, in the middle of a military operation, is proving he is alive through coffee videos instead of chairing war cabinet meetings. Yariv Levin has 'reportedly' been named interim Prime Minister. If confirmed, this is the most significant political development in Israel since the war began, and it has generated almost no mainstream coverage. On the Iranian side, Old Khamenei was killed on Day 1 of the war. His son Mojtaba was named successor on March 9. As of today, Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared on video or audio. Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and the man who was effectively running Iran since Khamenei's death, was reportedly struck by an Israeli airstrike overnight. Israel's defense minister announced the kill. Iran has not confirmed it. This is a major surprise. I expect major escalation and retaliation. But so far. Nothing. Silence. So what we have is; Israel's prime minister absent and possibly replaced. Iran's supreme leader has never been seen. Iran's de facto wartime leader may or may not be alive. And no one really seems to care. The markets are calm. The VIX, which measures market fear, has dropped from 27, three days ago to ~22 today. The financial markets, while leaders are going MIA, are pricing in resolution, not escalation. This means one of two things: either global financial markets are collectively delusional about the severity of a war that threatens, or they see something that the headline coverage does not. A negotiated settlement requires both sides to prefer the deal over continued conflict. The problem in this "war" has been managing the leaders within the calibrated conflict, on both sides, that have personal incentives disconnected from their nations' strategic interests. Netanyahu's incentive structure was transparent. He faces corruption charges that carry potential prison time. As long as the war continues, the political and legal pressure pauses. On the Iranian side, Mojtaba Khamenei inherited leadership during a war, which means his legitimacy is entirely tied to how the war ends. A Supreme Leader who accepts a ceasefire in his second week looks like he surrendered before he started. His consolidation window, the period during which he needs to establish authority and credibility before making any concessions, created an unavoidable delay in negotiations regardless of what the broader Iranian strategic calculus demanded. So this means, the specific leaders in place on both sides could not be the ones to make it. Netanyahu's personal legal exposure made him a spoiler. Mojtaba's political immaturity made him incapable of delivering a settlement this early in his tenure. The rational outcome, a negotiated ceasefire, is being blocked by the irrational incentive structures of the two people who would have to sign it. What appears to be happening now is the removal of both obstructions simultaneously. If Netanyahu has been sidelined, whether through injury, incapacitation, or a quiet political decision that his leadership is no longer sustainable, the Israeli security establishment gains the ability to negotiate without his veto. Katz has been running the war cabinet. Levin has reportedly assumed interim authority. Neither man carries Netanyahu's personal legal baggage or his specific incentive to prolong the conflict. On the Iranian side, if Larijani has been relocated or killed, and if Mojtaba is being kept out of public view for his own protection rather than because of incapacity, then Iran's actual decision-making apparatus may be intact and functional behind a deliberate veil of ambiguity. The objective appears to be; remove or sideline the leaders who cannot make a deal, install or empower actors who can, and use the fog of war to obscure the transition so that neither side's public feels like their leader was taken out to force a settlement. The war provides cover for a political restructuring on both sides that would be impossible to achieve through normal domestic politics. The real challenge is that propaganda saturation on both sides makes verification nearly impossible in real time. Israel claims it killed Larijani. Netanyahu's office says he is fine. He is absent from meetings. Mojtaba issued a statement. No one has seen him. Every factual claim about leadership status is coming through channels that have strong incentives to lie. The behavioral pattern though, shows that both sides are experiencing simultaneous leadership disruption, and the market response to that disruption is calm.