losing face

DHH is afraid of losing face over his role in making Marcus an Asian American star.

“Regime survival is #1,” Karim Sadjadpour, a Middle East analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on X. “Khamenei is now in a dilemma of his own making. By not responding strongly, he keeps losing face. By responding too strongly, he could lose his head.”

They say both countries - for once - communicated their intentions accurately; they realised they could de-escalate without losing face; and they both had a scare that will re-establish mutual deterrence.

“It seems that since Moscow itself has cut off most of the communication channels and does not know how to restore them properly without losing face, they are trying to use the hostages. … At least that’s what it looks like,” said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who quit after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

With it impossible for the court to avoid losing face if it ignores the Constitution’s plain language, a credible delay might be its best hope.