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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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I don't know of a nicer way to put this. Your takes show signs of significant delusion. It's like you're in Trump's PR team.

I don't care how nice you are, but I think it would be appropriate to actually disagree with his points here and ideally back up your rebuttals instead of accusing someone of delusion.

No matter, Google and ChatGPT have everything cached anyways:

4 months ago you wrote

I suspect they [America] weren't prepared for the most obvious of Iranian responses - blocking the Strait. If it were easy to rectify the block, the US would have just done it weeks ago. They don't have enough troops or hardware in the area; an aircraft carrier was put out of commission ((Russian intel-aided) missiles/drones) and had to leave the theater; the replacement aircraft carrier left Norfolk three days ago and will take another 10+ days to arrive near Iran. The US is lacking popular support at home for the deployments that would be big enough to break Iran militarily, Trump's only diplomatic gift is to offend allies, and at the same time they can't just leave either, because leaving right now is tantamount to surrendering the petrodollar without a real fight and losing hegemonic credibility.

Two months ago you wrote:

This is what your country's parties only offering up two midwit incompetents to choose from gets you. Anyone who had studied Iran would have known that they would grab the world economy by the balls by blocking the Strait.

A month ago you wrote:

Iran's strength is worrying, IMO. They hold the strongest hand of cards. We won't get any accurate information on the damage done (aided by Russian satellites) to US bases and forces, but I suspect it's significant, given how unafraid and bold Iran has seemed lately.

And you wrote:

That's what I'm saying. They have the upper hand and can't be forced into submission.

Is it still the case that Iran has the strongest hand of cards because they hold the world economy by the balls and America wasn't prepared for this most obvious response? Does Iran still have the upper hand?

Your takes are hidden behind private mode.