You can't polish a turd

Just as the Insurrection was a 'tourist day out', we are now expected to believe the US won the war with Iran. It would be funny were it not so tragic.

Yesterday, I listened to the President of the United States make a fool of himself as no American president before him had done. I felt deeply embarrassed for the American people, as a man so disconnected from reality attempted to roll a turd in glitter live on TV to millions around the world.

It really is difficult to know where to begin, but in case you didn’t notice, Marco Rubio looked throughout as if he wished a hole would open in the ground and help him escape from the utter nonsense being spouted by a verbally incontinent idiot. Oh, the price of fealty. Howard Lutnick couldn’t give a damn. I just had a vision of him and Scott Bessent waving pom-poms, dressed in ra-ra skirts and tank tops with a big letter T on the front. I’m now concerned about what that says about me, to be honest. That was how bizarre both Trump’s statement and his later press conference ramblings were.

Before we discuss anything else, you can take a look for yourself if you’ve not already read the full text of the American surrender document- sorry, memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran to end Trump’s catastrophic war of choice. You can read the full text in this article from Axios. If you are a member of the Iranian leadership team, today is a truly historic moment, a day on which Iran brought ‘the great Satan’ to heel. From a US perspective, the first act of its newly macho-named Department of War was to lose a war. For the alleged most powerful military on the planet, the collection of war loser medals is certainly piling up. Proof that a change of name does not a victor make. If losing wars were an Olympic event, the US would clearly be the gold-medal winners and reigning champions.

When you send your son-in-law and a real estate buddy, fluent only in corruption and self-dealing, to negotiate a peace deal with a nation-state known for its ability to endure crippling sanctions while maintaining a threat to global security, it should be no surprise to anyone that the ending has not been as advertised. The US has had decades of diplomatic experience dealing with some of the most complex and dangerous geopolitical crises. The highly qualified members of the diplomatic service exist for very good reason; they have a track record for guiding the US through dangerous times. To this regime, they were an impediment to self-enrichment, so many of them had their careers destroyed at the altar of presidential self-enrichment.

The damage this unnecessary and ill-advised adventure has caused to the US will take decades to recover from, if it ever does. The very essence of government has long been nuanced and complex. Governance is not just a balance sheet and a profit and loss statement; it has grown-up elements to it beyond profit, and that’s where this regime has failed so miserably. Geopolitics truly is a game of chess, but Trump decided to build his diplomatic efforts around a couple of tiddly-wink players (no disrespect to those who love tiddly-winks, of course).

Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Michael M. Santiago / Getty; Samuel Corum / Getty; Jeff Spicer / Getty.

The truth of the matter is, we are living in a world under assault by corporate oligarchs in pursuit of global economic domination. These people are inherently cowards, just like drug dealers who pay others to do the dirty work that may put them at risk. However, the problem goes much deeper than a few rich people meeting up to discuss how to get richer still. This is about rigging the geopolitical deck of cards. It’s about shadow governance without sovereign nation boundaries. Once again, Peter Thiel’s name emerges with his secretive annual gathering of ‘Dialog’, an off-the-books invite-only members club of players at the heart of big business, big tech, government, and the military.

As reported by Pareesa Afreen on June 17th 2026, for TheNews :

Recent data leak has revealed 222 members of Dialog, Peter Thiel's invitation-only network, including NATO's top general.

For nearly 20 years, Dialogue kept its membership invisible. That changed this week. A data leak has exposed the inner circle of the invitation-only society co-founded by the former PayPal CEO and billionaire investor Peter Thiel in 2006, revealing a roster that spans NATO's top military commander in Europe, sitting US senators, Silicon Valley founders, and a sitting university president.

Her report goes on:

According to Wired, General Alexus Grynkewich, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, had been a part of the group since 2021. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Sen. Ted Cruz were also on the list along with Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded Palantir.

In another leaked document of 113 members, which was released by Crimew, Jonathan Levin, the president of Stanford University; Sen. Cory Booker; Elon Musk; and writer Ezra Klein were named, as mentioned by The Stanford Daily.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, and I’m certainly not going to indulge them here, other than to say that I have long held the belief that there are larger global forces at work shaping the political direction of travel. Now you could rightly argue, there has long been a neoliberal democracy cabal that has created and managed the current global order the right has long railed against. It comes back to the human condition and our seeming inability to embrace balance. We appear to be a zero-sum species, I’m afraid. Why have balance, inclusion and equality when we can focus our attention on the few dictating the way the many should live?

Image - Getty Images

Thiel has long been a member of the few, and he has known for a long time that the maths don’t add up if the few want to gain power, because there are so few of them. His whole modus operandi is that democracy is an impediment to societal progress (and to him getting rich beyond imagination, of course). The rich have long held the belief that they know what’s best for the rest of us, so we should mind our business and trust them to do right by us (try not to laugh). It’s a philosophy born of the Reagan years when supply-side economics radically reshaped American policy, finance, and the broader social contract. We saw the birth of ‘trickle-down economics’, a long-debunked lie that, despite proof it has failed, still forms the basis of Republican thinking today. It’s long been a fairytale advocated by corporate and establishment Democrats too.

It’s the same snake oil that champions free-market principles, arguing that reducing government oversight of areas such as the environment, labour, and financial regulation stimulates the economy and eliminates barriers to growth. It was the central premise for both the 2017 Trump tax cuts and their permanent extension in Trump’s so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. We know tax cuts for the rich NEVER pay for themselves, and all deregulation does is improve the bottom line for big business. To add insult to injury, they don’t even have the decency to share the dirty proceeds of their rape and pillage of the nation with the workers who carry out their demolition work. Workers who fear losing their jobs and, with it, their healthcare if they don’t comply. All of course, at the expense of safety and the planet.

You would think that no right-minded person would vote against their own interests, yet in 2024, millions of Americans did exactly that, and because they are human, they find it all but impossible to admit they were wrong as they continue to punch themselves in the face on the road to economic slavery. Why on earth would anyone do that, you might ask? It’s because the likes of Peter Thiel have shown a convicted criminal how to use technology to build a cult. For him and his PayPal mafia, they have been blessed with a once-in-a-generation village idiot in the form of Donald J Trump, their beagle in the lab called the Oval Office.

Beneath all the praise the likes of Thiel, Musk and the rest of the cabal heap on Trump, they know he’s a fool easily manipulated. I would suspect that in private, none of them has an ounce of respect for him. He is the price of achieving their objective, and they are willing to pay it, despite the downside. JD Vance was the nanny installed to protect him; if you’ve seen the Omen films, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Damien was the servant of a much higher power, but he was the vehicle to deliver the world into the darkness required. The nanny was the volunteer bullet catcher.

Yesterday at the G7 was the first time that none of the cabal could protect him from himself; there was nothing Vance and Rubio could do to protect him from himself as he descended into a geopolitical bumbling idiot making up stories as he refused to accept that he had lost a war to a ‘shithole country’. He kept on rolling the turd in glitter while the gathered press held their noses as the stench grew exponentially from the turd he was attempting to polish. NOBODY can help him spin this, because a loss is a loss and this is a BIG LOSS. Not just in a literal sense, but in terms of the US military's fear factor. Iran has proved that it’s not about how many bombs you drop; it’s about economic leverage.

I am still stunned by the level of Trump's capitulation. As reported by Andrew Roth and Patrick Wintour for The Guardian today:

In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting the country had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles programme and the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets.

Those remarks, as well as the full text of the agreement – which was hailed by the Hezbollah chief, Naim Qassem, as a “great victory” – are likely to fuel anger in Israel and among hardliners in the Republican party who had urged Trump not to make a deal with Tehran.

Completely as I predicted weeks ago, Trump had no option but to concede to Iran’s demands. As he himself put it, “the alternative would be a worldwide depression”. His defense? “There is nothing as smart as the market – and the market loves it”. Correction: the markets love the fact that they think they won’t wake up tomorrow and find he’s flattened Tehran or stirred things up further. On the day President Obama’s Presidential Centre opens, the JCPOA looks like a masterstroke alongside Trump’s polished turd, I have to say.

As Americans can’t afford to put gas in their tank and food on the table, let alone afford healthcare and energy costs, it’s worth taking a moment to look at the price Americans have paid to make Iran great again. They are now stronger and about to be much wealthier than they were the day ‘bomb boy’ and his good puppy Secretary of War allegedly crippled a regime that is now taking them to the cleaners. In reporting by Scott Horsley, Ruth Sherlock, Tom Bowman and Danielle Kurtzleben for Reuters on June 17th 2026, they note:

Moody’s Analytics estimates the war has cost U.S. consumers and taxpayers about $132 billion so far, and the meter is still running.

The most visible piece of that cost is higher energy prices, resulting from the near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. Gasoline prices, which averaged just under $3 a gallon when the war began, soared as high as $4.56 a gallon after that vital artery for crude oil was cut off, according to AAA.

When it comes to the global costs, they note:

The Iran war has delivered a tumultuous blow globally. This month the World Bank cut its 2026 global economic growth forecast to 2.5%, the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic.

Finally, if we move on to the military costs, they continue:

The latest tally on the Iran war is $29 billion for operational costs, according to Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst, who cited that figure during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on May 12. That estimate was $4 billion higher than the administration's figure in April. Hurst told the committee that the increased number was for repair and replacement costs of equipment.

It’s important to note that the above costs DO NOT include the high cost of repairing damage to US bases in the region. Might I be so bold as to suggest that the above is a very high price to pay to make Iran great again, unfreezing their assets, allowing them to sell their oil on the global market and facilitating a $300 billion reconstruction fund. I’d be more than happy for some clown in the administration to tell me which part of this is a win for the US? Oh, and as for missiles, Iran ‘can keep some’, CoCo the clown says.

One thing often missing in discussions such as this is the human cost. Trump is now walking away, or should I say running away from this failed war. So much for liberating the people, as was one of his supposed objectives. The people of Iran now face an even harder-line regime as Trump rides off into the distance, having paved the way for the regime to pick up torturing and hanging its people where it left off.

It’s hard to measure the political cost to Trump, but it is significant, and on the domestic front, that will simply make him take more desperate measures to protect himself against certain impeachment if he loses the House in November. It really is time for America to prepare itself for an all-out war on the election process in November. PLEASE keep checking your voter registration regularly. If Democrats had any sense, they would already have set up a fund to help voters obtain the necersarry documentation to prove they are eligible to vote, because this is going to get VERY UGLY.

I wrote this longer piece today because I won’t get time to write, I don’t think, until after the weekend, although I will try. This weekend, I hope to complete all the final infrastructure changes for my gardening project. All the raised beds are in; veg has been grown, hardened off, and partly planted, so I have that to finish. I’m also installing a carefully planned drip irrigation system from a newly installed water butt and preparing the ground for a summer planting bed design.

Anyone who is a gardener will know that when you are a one-man army tackling such a project on a tight budget, time evaporates, and days seem to turn into hours. If all goes to plan, I should be able to sit in my new refuge to get back to writing daily, so I hope you’ll indulge me for one last weekend. Who knows, the US could be back at war with Iran by Monday.

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