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Strange Things Are Happening
American Thinker ^ | 19 Jul, 2026 | Clarice Feldman

Posted on 07/19/2026 4:49:48 AM PDT by MtnClimber

On one hand, we are winning the war with Iran. This week, bombings greatly accelerated and are not likely to end without real capitulation and surrender. On the other hand, the Vice President seems to be at odds with the administration, unhappy that we are in a (winning) war and casting blame for the failure of his peace effort, which is really only Iran’s fault.

On one hand, the President has declassified documents credibly showing foreign influence and interference with our elections. On the other hand, major news outlets seem determined to keep their viewers from knowing this. If viewers did know how insecure our elections are, they might support remediation measures -- like SAVE -- to the detriment of the media’s darlings, the Democrats, whose decades-long election cheating is manifest.

The president has made clear that he regards what are known as the groypers as stupid and not worth paying attention to:

Donald J. Trump • O

@realDonaldTrump I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon -- Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They're stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too! Look at their past, look at their record. They don't have what it takes, and they never did!

Yet, this week Vice President Vance, who has yet to distance himself from Tucker Carlson, had a lengthy three-hour interview with Joe Rogan in which he blamed Israel for the war in Iran and, by inference, suggested the President is a tool of Israel.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: americanhatingtroll; americansphincter; iran; rubio2028; vance; vanceistoast
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To: odawg

What a stupid thing to write.


81 posted on 07/19/2026 11:41:01 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: MtnClimber

There is an extensive quote about Vance, without attribution as far as I can tell. So what good is it?


82 posted on 07/19/2026 1:07:57 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: enumerated

Thanks. A lot of the negative I’m getting on Vance is negative opinion based on the negative opinion of other people. Nothingburger.


83 posted on 07/19/2026 1:12:36 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: MtnClimber
Vance willingly but naively believed in his mission. No one else in the Administration did, although they did nothing to undercut him. If he succeeded, it was good. If he failed -- and he certainly did because the task was futile from the outset -- he bore the brunt of it. Now, because of his own naivete, he’s exposed as unfit to handle defense matters, which is, after all, the most important role of a chief executive.

I think this is a little harsh on Vance. As I posted here:


They serve in different roles so they behave in different ways.

I know that the opposition media wants to frame it as a conflict or rift, but Vance can say what Rubio cannot.

Rubio must convey the diplomatic arm of the United States in a way that allows foreign adversaries cover to explain their engagements with the United States. If Rubio uses inciting or inflammatory rhetoric, foreign countries will be pressured to distance themselves from us. Rubio has to maintain an arm's length from the political bomb-throwing that goes on domestically for electoral consumption.

Vance, on the other hand, is throwing red meat to the base, ginning up enthusiasm for the agenda and motivation to turn out for the mid-term elections. He's not appealing to foreigners, he's making President Trump’s case domestically.

We know that, but I doesn't stop the opposition media from throwing out their own red meat to their base in response.


I'm not implying that Feldman is opposition media, but she might be falling for the opposition media line.

If the situation is as described by Feldman, that "Vance willingly but naively believed in his mission," then she's suffering from accepting the left's frame.

There is a tenet of debate to never let your opponent frame the discussion. In this case, the frame has been wrong from the start, so any derivative analysis will be wrong, too.

Feldman starts with the premise: "Maybe he wanted to deflect responsibility for the failure of an MOU he helped negotiate".

The fact is that the MOU was not a peace treaty, nor was it a peace agreement, nor was it any commitment towards peace, but the media has been framing it that way as the benchmark to declare failure by the Trump administration.

The MOU was simply an agreement on the agenda for the topics of negotiations that would follow in the next six weeks. When the Iranians "violated the MOU," they were demonstrating that they would not be good-faith actors in the future because they were never good-faith actors in the past. Vance wasn't "naively believ[ing] in his mission," he was advancing the message that President Trump was repeatedly pursuing the peace option despite multiple setbacks.

By offering an MOU that, on the surface, agreed to discuss everything that the Iranians wanted (but agreed to nothing), when the Iranians destroy even that, Trump would have proven to the world that the Iranians were never serious about negotiating and that he could resume the attacks with clean hands. It's similar to when Israel agreed to all the Palestinian demands at the Oslo Accords, but Arafat still walked away in the end.

That should be the proper frame: that President Trump, Marco Rubio, and JD Vance, were coordinating the means to expose Iran as uncategorically bad-faith actors who cannot be reasoned with under any circumstances.

Maybe Vance is still pushing the narrative that we were all-in on peaceful alternatives and that he still believes it is possible if the Iranians oust the IRGC and let cooler heads take over. From that perspective, I disagree with the frame of a structural rift at the highest levels of the administration.

Trump always says he seeks all opinions and wants robust discussion. Vance is simply keeping alive that sentiment for the portion of the MAGA base that doesn't want "endless wars." By Vance continuing to push the peace process, he's signaling that Trump hasn't walked away from it, either.

Also, at some point, there will have to be a peace negotiation, and Vance is protecting his credibility as the good-faith actor when that time comes.

This flips Feldman’s logic: instead of Vance being the only believer in a doomed mission, he becomes the designated instrument of a controlled test. He's the person who pushes the peace offer so that its rejection has maximum evidentiary and political force after Iran is exposed.

At some point, if hostilities taper, there will have to be a negotiation or at least a structured de‑escalation. President Trump benefits from having at least one senior figure whose public record shows they consistently argued “we tried peaceful options, we were willing to negotiate, we wanted an off‑ramp,” rather than only “we bombed relentlessly until capitulation.”

Vance’s continued emphasis on peace possibilities that are conditional on changes in Iran’s behavior and internal politics protects his credibility as that person. If President Trump wants one high‑profile figure continuously reminding the base, “We tried peace, we still prefer peace if Iran changes, we don’t lust for endless war,” then Vance is performing precisely that job.

Feldman has completely misread the situation.

-PJ

84 posted on 07/19/2026 1:14:10 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: Gunslingr3

“government by bombing school girls, etc.”

Muslim terrorists have a history of using human shields. Unless one appreciates that despicable practice, one is lost.


85 posted on 07/19/2026 1:22:40 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: Danie_2023

I suspect that many of Vance’s critics would criticize anyone who replaces him.


86 posted on 07/19/2026 1:24:40 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: CodeToad

It would be great if someone asked Vance about the views he held in the past and follow-up, as appropriate, about how his views changed.


87 posted on 07/19/2026 1:29:12 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: Organic Panic

Well said.


88 posted on 07/19/2026 1:31:08 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Infidels of the world unite against the evil that is Islam.)
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To: MtnClimber

Only the people on the inside know what’s really going on, and it isn’t the propaganda agents in the media.


89 posted on 07/19/2026 2:17:01 PM PDT by Rlsau1
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To: Vermont Lt

I recollect that you in your, continuous fatuousness, are wrong about so much else.


90 posted on 07/19/2026 2:27:55 PM PDT by mosley
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To: ChessExpert

I am a Vance critic and will not criticize Marco (his replacement).
He’s saying most everything that I can agree with…just like President Trump.


91 posted on 07/19/2026 2:43:33 PM PDT by mosley
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To: ChessExpert

It’s easy to find things in a two-hour, unscripted, un-edited interview that you can purposely take out of context in order to push people’s buttons - and that’s exactly what is happening here.


92 posted on 07/19/2026 3:07:35 PM PDT by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
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To: mosley

I am hardly ever wrong. But if it makes you feel better to say so…

Look at your insulting people on the internet. You must strut around your cellar at night.


93 posted on 07/19/2026 3:09:09 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: MtnClimber
"To the shame of ABC, NBC and CNN, none of these outlets carried the President’s address this week. "

On the grounds that it would incriminate them?
94 posted on 07/19/2026 5:13:46 PM PDT by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: woodbutcher1963
I have greater support of Rubio after hearing him speak. As a Cuban American from West Miami his connections with the Cuban population in Miami, gives him a greater appreciation of America's culture of freedom. The Marxist DemonKKKratick Socialists taking over the DemonKKKrat Party need to be defeated. Rubio knows what to do. Vance, not so much.
95 posted on 07/19/2026 5:17:09 PM PDT by jonrick46 (The DemonKKKrat Marxists ride Unicorns on their fantasy farms.)
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To: SMARTY

I’d have thought that the civilian population would have made a move to take over by now or before. Then again I don’t have enough awareneness of the situation over there to know if this is quite possible yet.Isn’t that what we are are all waiting for, though?


96 posted on 07/19/2026 7:38:02 PM PDT by oldtech (oltech)
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To: oldtech; All
Right. But here we are again thinking THEY are like us and like all populations who have thrown off oppressive leadership

With next to NO assistance at all and with no proper army or navy to speak of, we challenged THE most formidable land force on earth ... and succeeded!

Here's the US and Israel bombing the s*#t out of Iranian warmaking abilities and the population is still sitting around waiting for deliverance!!! WTF...?

Isn't it enough that the US will likely bank roll their reconstruction???? 😡

97 posted on 07/20/2026 2:01:13 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: MtnClimber

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4388608/posts?page=40#40


98 posted on 07/20/2026 6:12:31 AM PDT by Danie_2023 (I'm America First, but I stand by Israel and against 'anyone' that acts against America or Israel.)
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To: Alberta's Child

“Well, that’s like you opinion man”

The Dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j95kNwZw8YY


99 posted on 07/20/2026 6:14:25 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: ChessExpert

“”I suspect that many of Vance’s critics would criticize anyone who replaces him.””

***

Some are being paid to bash Vance and some are just lazy and stupid enough to believe the propagandists out there that are reframing what Vance actually said into something he didn’t say.

Bottom line, the rabid left is already attempting to marginalize and destroy Vance way in advance of 2028. They obviously fear him the most. And for good reason.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4388608/posts?page=40#40


100 posted on 07/20/2026 6:14:51 AM PDT by Danie_2023 (I'm America First, but I stand by Israel and against 'anyone' that acts against America or Israel.)
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