Our feral elite inhabit a completely different reality.

It’s what Naked Capitalism writer Nat Wilson Turner calls “The Interregnum of Unreality ” and what I refer to as La-La Land.

Trump’s daily social media posts set the standard, becoming more and more unhinged as his Iran adventure goes pear shaped. Nevertheless, he continues to declare victory in the war: “In a certain sense, we have already won.” In reality, there’s been so much winning that we read in an astonishing article from the New York Times: Iran’s Attacks Force U.S. Troops to Work Remotely, since Iran Rendered Virtually All US Gulf Bases Uninhabitable.

I wonder what losing looks like?

The fact that the U.S. initiated this war without a clear achievable goal, without a plan for contingencies or an exit strategy, only adds to the cray-cray. No surprise, but it appears that there is a financial method to the madness, as politically connected insiders are making bank on foreknowledge of Trump’s pronouncements.

Then there’s that old-time-religion where a group of evangelical pastors, led by Paula White-Cain, White House faith advisor, and other members of the Faith Office, have prayed for Trump and the U.S. to succeed in this war. Pete Hegseth, the self-designated Secretary of War, has also made explicit remarks about the religious nature of this war, and the U.S. military has framed it as “all part of God’s divine plan.”

I guess since it’s God’s will there wasn’t any need for the Trump administration to have a plan, or any need for accurate information on how things are going. It’s been reported that Trump thinks the war is going great and all the negative press coverage is wrong because the Pentagon provides him a daily “highlight reel” of successful strikes and stuff being blown up in Iran. It’s the new technological “Potemkin Village”, with Trump the distracted, social-media Tsar.

But there is lots of detachment from reality out there, from the corporate media’s cheery pronouncements to Wall Street’s financial complacency in reaction to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and catastrophic downsides that are starting to emerge. Yves Smith asks–“when will Mr. Market awaken from his relative stupor to force some sort of state change? 

Trump was able to sweet talk the markets by pretending that negotiations with Iran were underway, but now there are preparations for a ground attack with elements of airborne infantry, special forces and Marines moving into position. The attack appears destined to occur Friday night after the markets close, naturally.

Former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson lays out the force structure. “…when you see this kind of deployment, it can only be one of two things: it’s an exercise or it’s an actual mission. I don’t see this as an exercise…the fact that it looks like they’re bringing in both SEAL Team Six and Delta Force by and by themselves, those are just, you know, they’re not they’re not an assault force. They’re good at RA, you know, rescuing hostages, that kind of thing, but you know, somehow they’re getting activated, but they’re being accompanied by the 75th Rangers. And I recall in all the exercises that I scripted, when they involved either Delta or Seal Team Six, you always involved the Rangers, you know, at minimum they go in and seize an airfield, you know, and and and accompany that. And then you got the 82nd. So it looks to me like what’s happening that 5-day. So that started on March 12th. March 13 was when Trump activated the 31st MEU, the Marine Expeditionary Unit. They started setting sail. When do they arrive in theater?
Friday or Saturday. Gee, that’s right at the end of that 5-day period.”

There is talk of capturing Kharg Island, where Iran loads oil and gas tankers for shipment, but any cursory examination of the geography of the Persian Gulf, and knowledge of Iranian missile, artillery and drone capabilities, relegates the scheme to La-La Land.

It seems to be a theme, where the ship is taking on water fast while the first class passengers rearrange the deck chairs.

What’s worse is that as deranged as Trump is, nothing will fundamentally change by impeaching him. Trump embodies the American ruling class: greedy, immoral, and overconfident. Even Trump being held responsible for a failed war seems like a remote possibility because it would mean that the deep state has accepted being driven out of the Middle East.

Update: It’s not just Donnie Darko who’s living in La-La land. Melania Trump wants to replace teachers with robots. What could go wrong?

Update 2: Vice President Vance thinks Iran will be using nuclear suicide vests to attack Americans.

We are governed by the dumbest fucking people in America.