mabellgottheillcommunication
6K posts
I don't think I've been shy about criticizing Pahlavi. But the White House's position that an IRGC figure is preferable to Pahlavi (or an opposition coalition that includes Pahlavi) is a real betrayal of Iranian people who thought America had their back.
@iamrahstradamus It's the only league where a certain political segment hates because reasons, and some of its "fans" also hate watch it. Weird.
.@getnickwright: “I just don't think Wemby can be, right now, the best player in the world." @Chris_Broussard: “What can’t Wemby do offensively?” Nick: “Consistently score 30 points.” Brou: “His team doesn’t ask him to do that. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t.”
Khaman Maluach’s fluidity from 3PT range is what separated him from other big, rim-running prospects in the past, in my opinion His shooting form is quick, compact, and repeatable Pair that with his good FT% and you can easily see him developing into a reliable floor spacer
Así se mueven los comunistas extranjeros de vista en #Cuba… como en safari por un parque temático. Luego nos piden resistir en nombre de su criminal ideología… inmorales todo. Foto. Roberto Suárez
The irony of history When Trump decided to withdraw from the nuclear deal, there was an Iranian leader in power, Hassan Rouhani — who, in many ways, resembled the kind of counterpart Washington often hopes to find. He believed in engagement with the West, spoke directly with President Obama, and tried to push the Iranian system from within. Rouhani wasn’t weak. After defeating Ebrahim Raisi in the 2017 election, he was politically strong enough that Khamenei viewed him as a potential threat. Then came the U.S. withdrawal from the deal and the return of sanctions. Iran accelerated its nuclear program, and Rouhani became a convenient scapegoat, blamed for the country’s failures. Over time, the space for pragmatists inside Iran narrowed dramatically. Fast forward to today: Trump appears to be looking again for a “deal partner” in Tehran. This time in figures like Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. But this reflects a similar misunderstanding. Ghalibaf, even if seen as relatively pragmatic by Iran’s current standards, is deeply rooted in the Revolutionary Guard system that now dominates Iranian politics. He is not someone who will fundamentally change Iran, if anything, he represents the system as it is. In effect, U.S. policy since 2018 from exiting the nuclear deal to the current conflict, has helped close the door on the rise of pragmatic actors in Iran. Instead of getting a negotiable partner, Washington may now be facing a system that looks increasingly like a smaller version of North Korea: more rigid, more ideological, and far less open to compromise. #iran
SCOOP: The Trump administration is quietly weighing Iran’s parliament speaker as a potential partner — and even future leader — as it looks for a diplomatic endgame. An administration official tells me he’s a “hot option,” but says they’re still “testing” multiple candidates. Full story: politico.com/news/2026/03/2… w/ @EliStokols @diana_nerozzi
Once again, people really underestimate how powerful and secure the US is, which is why they keep hoping against all evidence to the contrary that something terrible will befall to Americans because of their foreign policy blunders that will finally make them learn and stop doing stupid shit. But even in the worst case scenario, where Trump orders a ground invasion and it turns into a quagmire that lasts years, Americans will be fine. They will be harmed, but less than almost everyone else, because the US will be relatively insulated from the both the energy shock and the economic slowdown that will result from it since it's a net exporter of energy and is probably the least trade-dependent major economy. Moreover, while the cost will be huge even for Americans, it will be relatively invisible because 1) it will be very diffuse, 2) Americans are so rich that even a much larger cost per capita would still leave them very well-off and 3) people won't really see it for the same kind of reasons that Bastiat explained a long time ago in his parable of the broken window. For the rest of the world, especially some of the poorest people, it will be a different story, but Americans mostly won't feel much. Even the invasion of Iraq, which is widely seen as one of the worst foreign policy blunders in US history and cost the US trillions of dollar, didn't make such a huge difference for Americans. They complain about it and talk about how it was a terrible mistake, but for the average American it was mostly a non-event, for the same reasons I just mentioned. I also don't think it will have the effects some people think on US influence in the world in general and in the Middle East in particular. It's not going to end the role of the dollar and I don't think Gulf states will abandon their alliance with the US either. Where else would they go? It's not as if China was going to protect them from Iran or as if they had a lot of attractive yuan-denominated assets to buy with their earnings from oil and gas exports. To be clear, I don't say that to defend this stupidity or to deny that it will have large costs even for Americans in absolute terms (to say nothing of the effects it will have on the rest of the world), I'm just saying that people are fooling themselves if they think that it will teach Americans a lesson. At best it will be a very short-lived lesson they will forget after a few years because it won't matter much for them.
Politico: Trump administration officials say Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last Shah, is not being considered as a future leader, citing concerns about his legitimacy in Iran. “Now do you put in Reza Pahlavi? God, no… He grew up outside. That is the last thing you want to install there. That’ll mean chaos,” one official said. Another official said Pahlavi is “not on the table.”
Qalibaf has zero experience in negotiations with foreign powers. Nothing. A third-rate politician who climbed his way to the top filling the pockets of the IRGC, like when he was the Tehran Mayor. He raided the city's funds for the IRGC, including the IRGC Quds Force. He is extremely corrupt. His lack of experience will benefit the U.S. This is an important reason Larijani was killed. So that the incompetent and untalented assume control, leading to the regime's gradual collapse. #Iran
