Dear Friends and Patriots,

A huge game is afoot!

I'm not sure of all the elements, but am certain there's a huge scam of some kind in play.

Why?

No assurance out of Iran has ever been true. Lying to us is their habit. It's their preferred way to communicate. They can't be the greatest enemies of The Great Satan and The Little Satan for 47 years, chanting "Death to America! Death to Israel" every day throughout their country and then turn on a dime and all of a sudden be honest and sincere in wanting peace with us. THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN!

Now consider this – Trump needs to win. He HAS to win. Even if he hasn't won, he has to position things in a way that allows him to declare complete and total victory. That's all about November.

Has he/have we won?

It's a bit early to tell, but if he/we hasn't/haven't I suspect the Iranians will do something really dramatic before November, just to put a stake in Trump's eye. I assume he understands he's dealing with vipers and understands the huge risks he takes.

What does Iran want?

They want a break in the fighting so they can regroup, realign, recover, and figure out how to survive another round of mass bombings. Agreeing to negotiations is one way to get that break. Consider that our mediator country is ... Pakistan? Really? We want arbitration, so we turn to one of the least trustworthy Muslim countries in that region and expect them to help broker a legitimate deal. C'mon ... that's like buying a used car because you believe the salesman is a great and honest guy.

Who's the bigger scammer?

Trump could be just re-setting his chess board and buying time to reassess things. Remember – a break in the fighting definitely serves Iran, but it serves some of our interests, too.

Iran's government is a canny bunch. They can do the calculus on this as well as anyone. The only question in my mind is whether they can behave for even two weeks.

We shall see.

I see this as nothing more than a brief holiday. The speculation that Trump is going to embrace a "newly peaceful Iran" strikes me as ignorant. That makes as much sense as me hugging a porcupine.

What do I think is about to happen?

Iran's newest "peace offer" has nothing Trump CAN agree to. He can't agree to allowing Iran to set a $2M/ship toll as a price for transiting through the straits. That's precisely the thing that caused President Jefferson to go to war with the Barbary pirates. He can't agree that the Iranians have a natural and legal right to enrich uranium or possess nuclear weapons. He also can't agree that the U.S. and Israel will fund the rebuilding of everything our airplanes and bombs destroyed. So, the Iranian wish list is already trash. That's how I know this is just a temporary truce that might not even last two weeks. Sooner or later, probably sooner, this little war will resume.

Trump is trying to manage the optics of the Great Satan picking on a vastly weaker country. The Iranians, meanwhile, have many agents in our country who are pushing their case – that they are being unfairly killed, maligned, and greatly disrespected. The Iranian propaganda never mentions the country's internal problems. They don't mention many things we know are true. Anything they say is designed to paint the U.S. as an unprovoked aggressor and Trump as a madman. Look for that line of reasoning to dominate the MSM narratives. There's already talk by Democrats of a need to exercise the 25th Amendment.

By my watch, Trump gave the green light for this adventure about three months too late. There's still time to finish Iran's regime off, but not a lot. If it's NOT done it will be an albatross around Trump's neck and will certainly be the main talking point of the Democrats for the next 7 months. There are enough anti-war people around that those who run as Trump Republicans or MAGA candidates, will be branded as "new neocon warmongers" and will find success in November to be tough sledding.

Americans are a fickle lot. It takes a lot to convince them of anything at all, other than the greatness of their favorite Hollywood celebrity, pop singer, and football team. Because far too many people still dine at the propaganda buffets laid out by the MSM, that fickle nature is always a problem. Trump has to understand that the only assurance he has of maintaining a Republican majority in the House and Senate is gained by a positive, decisive conclusion in Iran. It's a box he jumped in, and I'm certain he understands that it's a box he shares with a nest of rattlesnakes. There's only one way out of that box now, and somehow he has to get out of it without getting fatally bitten by one of the many rattlers.

That's my take,

In Liberty,

Steve