Let's talk about Trump, lies, and mines.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump, lies, and minds.

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland didn't pull punches when he was talking about his view of Trump's disputed claims of being in negotiations with Iran. The senator said, "We know he's lying when he says that the Iranians are talking with us and they're about to give Donald Trump everything he wants." Yes, that's a lie.

This is, of course, after Trump engaged in his patented chicken and waffles foreign policy by stating the United States would begin targeting power plants in Iran if they didn't reopen the strait. Iran basically said they'd hit energy facilities and keep the strait closed until any of their damaged power plants were rebuilt.

After that, Trump claimed there were negotiations underway and that they were very promising. Iran said no such negotiations were taking place. So far, Trump has not said who these negotiations were supposedly taking place with, but he did say, "We're dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader, who he believes is a leader, so he doesn't know."

This is likely once again encouraging and emboldening Iran. Much like when he publicly indicated the US wasn't sure if there were mines in the Hormuz Strait. It's sending a message of absolute ineptitude to Iran.

In related news, yes, there are mines in the Hormuz Strait, and it seems likely that Trump knew of a high probability of mines being present at minimum. That would seem to indicate Trump was acting like he wasn't sure about the mines to calm the markets. I guess the lives of the sailors, who might have believed the strait was clear, weren't as important as Trump having a good social media post.

So, what do we know about the mines in the Strait? It looks like they are Maham 3 and Maham 7 mines. The three is a traditionally moored mine like you see in most movies. The seven is a little different. It's a limpet mine that rests on the sea floor and is built in a way to make it harder to detect underwater. Think of it like a stealth mine. These mines can be deployed by just about anything to include just being dropped from a helicopter.

When we talk about Navy analysts joking about Hegseth, saying they were removing the ability for Iran to deploy mines, this mine is one of the reasons why. Back to the negotiations.

When asked about the negotiations, the White House press secretary said, "This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House."

I'm not even sure what that means. I guess what Trump says isn't official. He needs to clear it with his handlers.

What this looks like is that there weren't any real negotiations underway, much less bigly successful ones. It looks like somebody mentioned a back-channel conversation to Trump and Trump didn't understand what he was told. A back-channel is more of an informal conversation that occurs between negotiations that don't exist and minds that do. Welcome to Trump's Golden Age.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.