Debt Rattle August 14 2026
- This topic has 36 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 6 hours, 29 minutes ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Rembrandt The Descent from the Cross 1634 • Iran’s Military Command To Be ‘More Aggressive’ (ZH) • Skepticism Over Iranian Plot Against Trump In Turke
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 14 2026]Sonar21A Son of the New American Revolution
LatestAbout
Support Us
Contact
The Butcher’s Bill Comes Due: A Military Run Past Its Limits, and the Leaders Who Keep Saying Everything Is Fine
13 August 2026 by Larry C. Johnson 72 CommentsXTelegramVKFacebookEmailCopy LinkShare
Larry’s note: This article discusses suicide. Service members, veterans, and family members in crisis can reach the Veterans/Military Crisis Line by dialing 988 and pressing 1, texting 838255, or visiting VeteransCrisisLine.net.
When the Secretary of the Army orders every officer and sergeant in the force to personally check on every soldier, every single day, that is not a routine holiday gesture. It is an alarm. And in the ten months since Dan Driscoll issued that order, the alarm has kept ringing — from a carrier in the Arabian Sea, from a secretive command at Fort Meade, from the families of sailors who can no longer get a straight answer about why their children are hungry. The stories arrive from different branches and different missions, but they add up to a single indictment: the American military is being run past the limits of the people inside it, and too many of its leaders have responded not by fixing the problem but by denying it exists.
The order that was an admission
Start with what Driscoll’s November 2025 memo actually conceded. “Last year, we lost 260 soldiers to suicide,” he wrote. “Soldiers aren’t getting the help they need.” Read that again. The civilian head of the Army, in writing, told the entire force that its existing suicide-prevention apparatus — years of briefings, mandatory training, awareness campaigns, and dedicated prevention offices — was failing to reach the people who needed it. His solution was to fall back on the most basic human intervention available: order a person to call another person, once a day, and ask if they are okay.There is nothing wrong with that instinct. A daily check-in is humane, and Driscoll deserves credit for making it personal and mandatory rather than performative. But strip away the sentiment and the memo is a confession. The Pentagon’s own data shows active-duty suicide rates rising more or less steadily from 2011 through 2023, through multiple administrations and countless “prevention initiatives.” When the fix for a decade-long institutional failure is to command individuals to manually watch each other, the institution is admitting its systems don’t work. The daily check-in treats the symptom. It does nothing about the conditions generating the wound — and those conditions were about to get worse.
The food fight the Navy tried to wave away
By April 2026, the strain had moved from statistics to meal trays. USA Today published photographs — from the families of service members aboard the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and the assault ship USS Tripoli — showing half-empty trays, small portions, and a gray slab of processed meat. A sailor reportedly told his mother the crew “eat when they can” and split food evenly when someone got more than the others. The Lincoln had been pulled into the war with Iran and was grinding through a deployment that would stretch past 250 days.Here is where accountability stops being abstract. Confronted with photographs and firsthand accounts, the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, did not order an inquiry or promise to look into it. He went on social media and called the reporting “FAKE NEWS.” That response is the pattern this whole story turns on: when evidence of strain surfaces, the reflex from the top has too often been to attack the messenger rather than examine the condition. It is difficult to fix a problem you have publicly declared does not exist — and a denial from the Secretary of War sends an unmistakable signal down the chain of command about which answer leadership wants to hear.
Fort Meade: where the tempo became fatal
Then came the gravest signal, and it did not come with photographs. In August, Bloomberg reported that US Cyber Command — the force that defends American networks and runs offensive cyber operations — was investigating a cluster of deaths among its people. As many as five individuals who worked in or closely with the command died by suicide between early June and early July 2026, according to internal communications, records, and interviews the outlet reviewed. The concentration was abnormal enough that Cyber Command reportedly invoked the Pentagon’s “suicide cluster” designation; leadership had acknowledged three deaths in an internal email as early as June.Precision matters here, and it cuts toward accountability rather than away from it. Officials have not established a common cause, and there is no public evidence connecting the deaths beyond their timing — no one should imply otherwise. But what the reporting does establish is the backdrop: a workforce hit by a workload surge driven by foreign conflicts, the Iran war above all, with the deaths landing in one of the most intense stretches of that war. Cyber Command had reportedly started embedding mental-health clinicians at Fort Meade in May — before the public knew anything — which tells you the leadership already understood its people were in trouble.
That is the accountability question in its sharpest form. If commanders were worried enough to move clinicians in during the spring, who was accountable for the operational tempo that made those clinicians necessary? Burnout in an elite cyber force is not weather. It is the downstream result of decisions about missions, staffing, and pace — decisions made by people with names and ranks. The Senate Armed Services Committee is reportedly now discussing more mental-health resources, and a House committee has called the rise in suicides a “critical issue.” Congressional attention is welcome, but it arrives after the deaths, not before, and more counselors do not answer the prior question of why the load was allowed to grow unchecked.
The Lincoln, again — and the same reflex
If the April food dispute could be waved off as a one-time supply hiccup, August removed that excuse. The outlet MS Now reported — citing about a dozen family members and recordings of meetings between families and Navy leadership — that the Lincoln’s crew was contending with food shortages, long meal lines, broken toilets, mold in the showers, dead laundry machines, missing soap and toothpaste, and collapsing morale after roughly 250 days at sea. The reporting raised safety concerns and, in some family accounts, attempted suicides aboard a crew worn to the bone.And the institutional reflex held. A 5th Fleet spokesman allowed that a 250-day deployment “is challenging for the crew and their equipment” but insisted the sailors “remain resilient and ready” and the ship “remains fully capable of meeting all mission tasking.” Fact-checkers still listed elements of the allegations as under investigation. The specific claims are not all settled, and honest accounting requires saying so. But notice the shape of the answer: not “we are pulling this crew home,” not “we failed to resupply them,” but a reassurance that the mission can still be accomplished. That is the tell. When the reflexive priority is defending readiness rather than the readiness of the human beings, you have learned exactly whose welfare sits at the bottom of the ledger.
Who is accountable
It would be dishonest to collapse four situations into one conspiracy, and equally dishonest to pretend they are unrelated coincidences that happened to land in the same year across the same military. The truth is structural, and it has an address.The common accelerant is a war with Iran now in its sixth month, layered on top of years of high operational tempo — and operational tempo is not an act of God. It is a policy choice about how many missions to run, how long to keep carriers forward-deployed, and how hard to push a cyber force that never appears on a casualty list. Someone chooses that pace. The recurring second thread is the response to evidence: an Army secretary who at least named the failure in writing, set against a Defense Secretary who called firsthand reporting “fake news” and a fleet that answered allegations of a broken crew with assurances about mission capability. A military that cannot admit its people are breaking cannot protect them, because the first step in every prevention program ever written is to acknowledge the problem out loud.
Driscoll’s daily check-in, viewed from here, looks less like a holiday courtesy and more like a quiet vote of no confidence in everything above it — an acknowledgment that the formal systems have failed and the only thing left is to have one exhausted person watch over another. That may save lives at the margin. It should. But it is a tourniquet, and a tourniquet is what you reach for when the institution responsible for preventing the wound has already let it open. The people who set the tempo, who cut the resupply, who reached for “fake news” instead of an investigation — they are the ones with the authority to actually stop the bleeding. So far, too many of them have chosen to insist there is no blood.
If you or someone you know is a service member, veteran, or military family member in crisis, the Veterans/Military Crisis Line is available 24/7: dial 988 then press 1, text 838255, or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net. This is a sensitive subject; anyone struggling personally is encouraged to reach out to that line or another trusted source of support
Paradoxical Politics of Climate
Why is it the only environmental cause for which governments have gotten ahead of citizens?
Josh Mitteldorf
Aug 14, 2026
When scientific controversies have major consequences for politics and profits, we’ve come to expect a thumb on the scale of scientific objectivity. The paradox in this case is that the thumb has switched sides.In 1965, Lyndon Johnson’s science panel was already warning of an effect on global climate from burning fossil fuels. At the time, the response was just what you might expect. The idea was suppressed, and never gained much traction. Privately, Exxon was studying the issue as a defensive precaution. They had both computer modelers (crude at the time!) and an observational program collecting air samples at sea.
At the same time that their internal program was corroborating the logic and predictions of the President’s Panel, they sought proxies to negate this narrative publicly. The American Petroleum Institute funded scientists who would muddy the water and sow doubts, just as the Tobacco Industry had used surrogate scientists to deny there was a link between smoking and cancer a generation earlier.
During the 1990s, the PR battle was joined. James Hansen was writing journal articles and testifying before Congress, while Al Gore was a voice in the wilderness, and the whole story was being suppressed and denied by Big Oil. This is what capitalism does to science. This is the expected norm.
But starting around 2005, something flipped. The scientific evidence for anthropogenic global warming got weaker, and at the same time, the political establishment latched on to the weakened narrative and brooked no debate.
The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New funding drew young researchers into climate modeling, and it was all contingent on supporting the narrative of an impending climate disaster caused by fossil fuel burning. Big Oil was no longer suppressing the CO2 narrative; on the contrary, they were joining the choir, advertising their commitment to a carbon-neutral future.
Is this a cause for celebration? A rare case of government and industry prioritizing environment over profits and people over corporations? Is government action on climate a hopeful light against the dark background of GMO crops, deforestation, and microplastics in our brains?
Call me a cynic; I suspect that the climate narrative has been joined to a more sinister agenda.
What is the scientific status of the CO2 / global warming narrative?
It’s complicated. Yes, human activity is having an effect on global climate. The effect is much smaller than natural variations over the last 200,000 years since man has been on the planet, but is a visible signal in the data. There is no doubt that CO2 as a percentage of the air we breathe has steadily increased over the last 100 years. Whether there has been a corresponding increase in global temperature is more difficult to determine, because averaging temperature readings from thousands of sites around the world can be done in many ways. But it seems true that there has been a 1oC rise during the time that reliable measurements have been available. The net result is probably a boon for life on earth. But computer modeling of climate is a very uncertain science, and published models today are politically influenced in the direction of maximizing alarm.Historically, there is a strong correlation between atmospheric CO2 and global temperature, but the reason is not the greenhouse effect. You have probably noticed that a can of warm soda bubbles over when opened, much more than cold soda. That’s because water holds less CO2 as it warms. When the earth warms, CO2 comes out of the oceans into the air, and when the earth cools, CO2 comes out of the air and into the oceans. This is a much bigger effect than the greenhouse mechanism. It runs in the same direction, but cause and effect are reversed.
When CO2 in the atmosphere rises, land-based plants grow faster, and the base of the food chain supports richer ecosystems.
H2O has a far larger effect on global temperature than CO2. Cloud cover is the biggest variable in the earth’s albedo, the amount of sunlight reflected back into space before it has a chance to heat the ground or the air. It takes only a small change in the earth’s cloud cover to overwhelm a much larger proportional change in greenhouse CO2. There are complex interactions between CO2 and cloud cover, interactions in both directions that we do not yet understand well enough to make accurate computer models. This is the main reason that current climate models do not have predictive value.
Historically, humans, along with other life forms, have thrived during warmer periods in earth’s history, and ice ages have driven sharp population declines. Warm temperatures mean that more of the earth is habitable, and more CO2 means that plant growth is goosing the base of the food chain.
There are cycles of about 100,000 years — we don’t understand the cause — in which temperatures rise gradually, then fall precipitously and another ice age begins. We are presently at the end of one of these cycles. Temperatures are warmer than they have been in the last 100,000 years, and this was true before humans started burning fossil fuels. It was only 12,000 years ago that all of Canada and half the US were under glacial ice several kilometers thick. That is actually the norm of the last million years. It will happen again. One possibility is that anthropogenic “global warming” has actually forestalled the next ice age.
Interviewed by Danny Jones, Danish Prof Henrik Svensmark tells how he lost his tenured job and his funding for bucking the preferred narrative about global warming. Prof Svensmark studies correlations between earth’s temperature and various astronomical events, especially solar storms and cosmic rays. That was sufficient cause to derail his career.
This kind of scientific censorship is almost always associated with corporate profits or a political agenda. But climate alarmism seems to be bad for corporate profits. Is there a possible political agenda?
Three years ago, I speculated about the mother of all conspiracy theories. Is someone trying to bring down the global economy, shrink the food supply creating misery and starvation? I asked whether inscrutable projects and improbable disasters could be part of an agenda.
New legal pressures threatening the already-impossible economics of small farming. [link]
Grain silos that caught fire or happened to be right under a small plane that fell out of the sky. [link]
Hurricanes contrary to usual weather patterns in Acapulco [link] and Asheville [link]. (FEMA interference actually made the situation worse.)
Earthquakes in Turkiye, Venezuela, and Haiti. [link]
Simple train derailment turned to ecological devastation in East Palestine, OH. [link]
A barge that executed acrobatic maneuvers to bring down a Baltimore link in the N-S shipping corridor of the Eastern US.
“Wild” fires in Lahaina, California, Canada, and now across southern Europe. [link]
What in heck are chemtrails? [link]
A pandemic seeded by bioweapons, used to justify a toxic genetic “vaccine” that killed more people than the virus. [link]
And now, a suicidal war against Iran that has shrunk the world’s supply of petroleum, natural gas, and the fertilizers on which so much of world agriculture has become dependent. [link]
Viewed in this context, I ask whether steering The Science™ in support of a climate horror movie could be part of an agenda to justify restrictions on travel and consolidation of housing as part of Agenda 2030. Do they want to keep us poor and dependent so we have no time or energy to organize opposition to their agenda? Who is doing this? Is it a conspiracy of power-hungry sociopaths? Demons? Extra-terrestrials? My ontology is stretching to try to understand such evil.
https://mitteldorf.substack.com/p/paradoxical-politics-of-climate
Doc,
I seem to have lost access to RT via the Waybck Machine. Is it me?
Is there a URL that is certain to get me back in?
Thnx.
Close all mosques – NOTHING screams First Amendment louder than that.
If Iran wanted Tilt Head dead, Tilt Head would be dead.
NO ONE listended to Eisenhower when he warned of The Military Industrial Complex. How many times did you ever hear “it gives jobs to our state”? How did Carlin describe those who believe in The American Dream? Most would agree that i am obtuse, but who works for all of the US federal agencies?
“This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism… when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.” ~ Benjamin FranklinHaving been a laborer in the construction industry, my skill level left to others to decide, the balance of my life i will tell you what i told my sons. Learn how to do everything you are taught about building, learn how to model and bring to fruition, DO NOT become a worker in the construction industry. You will be discriminated against for lack of intelligence and inferiority EVERY DAY, proper people DON”T work in the United States, they manage. Well, all of the managers have managed to FUCK THINGS UP.
Here’s your fake gold plated Rolex, take a hike.Does cracker seem to be yelling a lot today? Do you know the phrase Just Cause?
a nation of dalits with a superiority complex
Ahhh, the slings and arrowsjust wonderin, is ole Larry boy retired from the CIA? Does ole Larry boy draw a pension from government service? but it’s honorable when I do it.
oh, and the National Security Act was not passed into law in 1947 and MK Ultra is a fiction“Cyberattack Cripples California City’s 911 System, Forces Emergency Shutdown
Tell me this was Iran at least. That they’ve hit us even once.
“• Iran’s Military Command To Be ‘More Aggressive’ (ZH)
More aggressive than “Not hitting us at all”?
“All Of Iran’s Weapons Today Are Domestic, Missile Production Exceeds Usage: IRGC Official
I always trust whatever military, secret state, or politician tells me. It makes me much more selective. Ummm, HOW? How, sir? Are your steel mills and refineries underground mining from the creamy nougat at the center of the earth? Just let me know.
“Former SPLC Exec Arrested: Accused Of Funneling Donor Money To KKK, Neo-Nazi InformantsNot really the headline. AFTER giving them a million dollars, she then slept with the KKK members and bought them new sheets. I am not kidding, why bother? Nothing I can make up would match what they actually do.
“’Safe Space’: New Taxpayer-Funded Berlin Pool For ‘Blacks Only’ On Fridays
I’m not sure even the Nazis had open southern segregation like this. So, nice going, Progressives! Nailed it.
“Left-Wing German Parties Pour Record Sums Into Stopping The AfD In The EastMust stop AfD. Wouldn’t want to be racist. AfD might enact the segregation of swimming pools or something.
So following the SPLC, are they sleeping with them too? After giving them a million dollars for the task? (Fani comes to mind)
“Ann Arbor Is The ‘Most Educated’ City In America
My God. No wonder the place is so dumb. Can we import some GEDs and increase the IQ there while there’s still time? Can we encase them in crystal to save Greater Michigan?
Today,
LePen, France’s last hope”: Yes, because France is willing and able to do this, structurally, it may be easier for them to restore than, eg “Restore Britain”. I’m still pondering how that can be, they’re very far gone.
“Yesterday I went to Minneapolis polls disguised as a Muslim woman.” -O’KeefeAm I wrong or under Sharia Law women couldn’t vote. So every Blue Hair in NYC will be instantly disenfranchised, reversing suffrage? And applauds! Fights any man who attempts to prevent them from this end. I say we let this happen FIRST, then drag our feet afterwards on reclaiming the city. Women are continually voting pro-infanticide, pro-rape. Why do they make me say these facts? I don’t want them to be true.
And I’ve suddenly been following the Trump-Plane story a lot. Sure, that’s fun, whatever. But, BOY ARE THEY MAD. That’s the only explanation. This is Waaaaay beyond any story, whatever, they are FURIOUS he got away. See, I took it the way they did – sure it’s a funny, interesting story, if spun right looks embarrassing, but harmless, probably Presidents do this all the time and don’t say anything. I mean, this is exactly the way Taylor Swift was getting around lately. Not embarrassing for her!! But only from their outsized and continuing reaction can I shift to the conclusion this was DEFINITELY a real assassination attempt. And by who? Not “Iran”, of course. Would it not make it a lot worse with President Vance, the nation pissed off? How about London? And these guys who need Trump gone and WWIII, the status quo?
BOY ARE THEY MAD.
And that goes with the new CCP sniper. I mean, I follow a lot of coffee-table prophets who are often wrong, but just recently they’ve been picking up and speaking about a 1-Mile, .50 cal sniper. EXACTLY LIKE THIS. So other than they pre-set the stage, I would have shrugged and looked at the details. This is how you know Trump works for Israel, the Joooooos, and the Derp State. Because they kill him daily now. That’s how you know he’s going to lose the midterms, that they feel they need to try. /s
Joe Kent pipes up, repeating THE CIA. You know the one he said whose all reports were dead wrong about Iran? He suddenly 100% trusts the CIA and WaPo. …If they say “Bad Orange Man.” “Kill da Joooos.” Uh-huh. Sure Joe. Very insightful that you can read dead-wrong headlines by known liars in the news like the rest of us. Tell Pro-Biden Tucker hi.But on Iran, FINALLY, after 100,000 false reports by every single expert but especially Fox News – who I trust implicitly for everything they say since “They’ll greet us with flowers” in 2002 – FINALLY, diesel is ACTUALLY getting low and in danger. Now when they say it, after crying wolf hourly for 6 months, no one will believe them, thanks, morons. But that WOULD cause problems in the midterms, although they don’t look worried in the slightest, so everybody is up to something. I can’t hear the buzz of the Left side – who are usually elated the working people will get savaged – since they blew this story for 6 months now. Usually it’s their bog mouths that direct me what they’re up to.
Take it as you will, we’re nearing “relevant”. Maybe Bessant will rug-pull the whole world with the Yen carry that won’t be our fault. It will hit Japan>Germany>London then in 24h shut Wall St, we’re too interconnected. They have already long mined the basements of DeutscheBank and so on. A concerted attack CAN pull the pin. Then – no cash, no diesel – So Sad! No more 2M Europeans killed for your war. But they were Slavs, no one cared, never speak of it.
“Attrition Game Outlasting US Politics” Certainly their plan. Does it work? When we know that?
“we must be able to take the operation into enemy territory” Okay, what are you waiting for.
““Now, the new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, is putting his own stamp on the country” By being dead and being impersonated by a Jim Henson Puppet. As the President of Iran(?) literally said. Wrapped up like the invisible man, with no voice. This is out there, no news agency speaks of it. Blackout. That’s odddddddd.
“The Washington Post’s @DanLamothe, who broke the news of Trump’s secret plane switch via a catering truck, joins OutFront to share new reporting that the CIA had “low confidence”
So the CIA – absolutely Trump’s arch-enemy if there ever was one – reports through their CIA front WaPo. ‘Cause being a wholly-own subsidiary of the CIA is “Capitalism” n’ stuff. Just as Google is, and therefore YouTube.
USAID cuts must be reaching YouTube since I’m seeing some things with a commercial per MINUTE. Oh wait: THREE commercials per break, one per minute of play. So that’s ONE HUNDRED ads per hour. Far beyond anything mocked by Mel Brooks or whoever in the 50s. Great way to stop people from hearing things you don’t want. They’re available! It’s free speech! We’re not censoring!! Uh-huh.
Unf you can download them local and the ads are stripped off.
Speaking of, here’s Mrs. “Trust the Science” today, Hossenfelder. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGx7HBB-J4
She has no trouble finding a new Science fraud daily, as a real scientist, but that’s too easy a target. In this episode like EVERY Neuroscience study in the last 20 years may be completely wrong, all made up. All brain imaging for “Activity” and “Areas” may be dead wrong. It not only is wrong, it’s so obviously wrong that even using a different manufacturer machine invalidates the results. Wait! I’m being too hard on them, as I am reporters. Nope. This came to their attention TEN YEARS AGO and they’re still doing, publishing, using it, pretending they don’t know. THAT, is the real problem, and the one she points out more than any other. That she, among many REAL scientists, bring attention to the experiments, the data, which then need to be adjusted, improved to march Science forward. NOT ON YOUR LIFE. When wrong, proven wrong, like Statins or mRNA, they ignore all data for years, decades, forever if necessary. Stall, deny, deflect, continue to make things up that are known-false, publish them.So all those experiments about “How humans really are”, men and women, and we’re all pond scum – ALL FALSE! Totally made up! And for why? Watch the agenda, which has one cohesive direction. Meanwhile OTHER real science that pops up and is real is discredited overnight. Even with overwhelming data, even going back decades. Again, Fauci, NIH, drugs, vaccines, and RFK on all this. They just say the Data isn’t the data. Trust us.
They are as Anti-Science as it is humanly possible to be, just as the reporters writing about are as anti-Truth, Anti-Health, Anti-Human, and Anti-free speech as it is possible to be.
…Just a reminder.
But that’s your WaPo and so on. That’s your CNN and Fox. Why would they lie? Except for power, money, kiddies, and not to be Assanged’ which happens almost daily. See Nick, recently escaping with his life.
“Donald J. Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russia”
So if Trump DID NOT KNOW, but his policy of “not starting WWIII” JUST HAPPENED to coincide with Russia’s…He’s guilty? Wow. Did not know this law. Not starting WWIII is a threat to the National Security of the United States. Also did not know. But this is why I trust the FBI and CIA implicitly every time they speak on Fox News. With a position like this how can you go wrong?
Again, they wiretapped and traced every person and bank record of everybody 6 layers deep (literally), and found…nothing. Nothing at all. Not a thing, or they would have used it. That’s how guilty and felonious Trump and his people are. Right? Or is the FBI and CIA both ACKSHULLY on Team Trump and feverishly covering for him?VDH: Democrats are Hypocrites. Yes, we know, no one cares. Not them, nor the general population, clearly.
“Can [Newsom] run at all for anything after that?” See above. Yes he can, no problem. Yes, it’s amazing to us, but still true. AOC for President. She’s not Woke nor DSA which is why she’s a card-carrying member. Both. Neither. Aiii.
“She married her brother. Can you imagine if Donald Trump married his sister?”
Even if you marry your sister, they don’t care, about that, hypocrisy, or law. This is the people they are. My party right or wrong. United under POWER. Nothing matters compared to POWER, and they all innately, core, understand and agree with that, as one body, one hive. Nothing else matters, not your sister, not rapes, not half a million missing children being recovered from trafficking, nothing. Tell me what orientation you have to have to united, as millions, have your head there.
“The advent of the transgender ideology seems to me the sudden appearance of a satanic practice of overturning God or nature.”
Is that wrong? That “Reality” is optional? They fight “Reality”, that is, #Logos itself?“• Watch: UK PM Wants EVERY Area In Britain To House Migrants (MN)
So does Farage at Reform. He’s just going to make everyone who touches British soil LEGAL, so there’s no problem. So again, England – who they were terrified didn’t have enough food grown domestically to support 60M – now are going to have I dunno, 90M, 1 Billion population. And like Ursula said, that’s way better. Both because they have no food, and because they are approaching the modern consumption levels that are so terrible for Global Warming, energy-per-capita. Why stop at a Billion? Why not 2B in England or Ireland, Canada? There’s no logical reason based on their premises.
Is that crazy? “minister defends imposing 1,200 migrants on an Oxfordshire village of just 400 people”
So he tripled the population here, why not at least 180M nationwide?
“We see all over the Western world extreme weakness. Governments…” VDH
Yes, that “weakness” is not in us. It’s in the Government will jail and murder anyone by the thousands (pick your example) for so much as SPEAKING we shouldn’t be genocided. Democide, as happens 100% of the time you give Government power. Surprise! That hasn’t stopped the fight, but pushed it back into a corner, fought differently. And almost all my life now. But at least I’m American! Everywhere else is far worse! See Covid.
“We must succeed on the software front.” Musk says SpaceX’s AI future depends on three things:”
He still doesn’t say why. Why, Elon? Would you like to share this whatever that you know?
“where technological growth accelerates beyond human control.” — Elon
Of course this is the world possible thing that could happen, Frankenstein x100. If you thought the bomb was bad – and how bad it is for humans to deal with it is in Iran/Ukraine – then we’re going to invent another one daily. …All of which can be hacked in 15 minutes, where they’ll own an Optimus Army of millions identical robots. TO be counter-hacked an hour later. No thanks. You’re criminally insane.
“The Butcher’s Bill Comes Due: A Military Run Past Its Limits,” — Larry Johnson, CIA operative, Never-Trumper.
Ah! In that case, I always believe the CIA on everything, since Operation Northwoods and the Bay of Pigs. Since they said the USSR was infinity powerful, Reagan needed to nuke them without warning. If the CIA says it, I don’t see how they can be wrong. They are the Appeal to Authority after all.
He’s asking why the military is fragile – similar to recently why Hegseth fired or demoted a hundred female generals. BECAUSE THEY SHOULD NEVER BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. That’s recruiting designed to cripple the Military going back to Obama. Everybody knows it. They have gays and furries, overweight blue-hairs not just in ranks but as officers. Now when that most-predictable thing-in-the-universe happens, it’s a big surprise and Trump’s fault. Ah. History starts on – what day is today? — February 2026 now. Yup.
This of course matters because NO ONE ELSE HAS ANY MILITARY AT ALL. We suck, but we just used like 10% of our forces, and outside of Russia and China, no one has a military within 10% of ours. Probably even combined, like all the EU collectively. Ah. So not only do we start the TIME on a cherry-picked date, but also carefully include and exclude the camera angle. Classic.
Okay, would anyone like to NOT lie for two seconds here?Is this all in the military GOOD, or is the war at all? No, it is not. But could we NOT LIE for two seconds about it? It’s not helpful.
Well, it’s done to destroy the United States, erase the Bill of Rights, and kill every American, so it’s a GOOD thing. Anything in service of Hate is always good.
Since we are not decision makers or influencers or in power, does knowing improve your decision, your impact?
Bottom line
205 million barrels of accessible SPR crude = ~11 days of U.S. refinery crude demand, or ~6–7 days of diesel/jet output.This is the real emergency window.
Next.
If the US cedes control of the Entire Persian Gulf to Iran, will that instantly ends the Petro-dollar?
Next
Japan selling US bonds, will that create a financial crisis?
————–
Copilot answers.
See my thinkingYou’re basically asking: if we’re not the ones pulling levers, does understanding any of this change anything that matters?
Short answer: yes—but not in the “I can fix it” sense. It changes how you position yourself, not the macro outcome.
1. Your SPR window
Your framing—205M “accessible” barrels ≈ 11 days of refinery crude demand, 6–7 days of diesel/jet—is the right order of magnitude for an operational emergency window, not a national “we’re fine for months” story. Current SPR levels are ~300M barrels, but with infrastructure constraints and drawdown limits, the truly usable slice in a fast crisis is smaller.What knowing does for you:
Signals: When you see SPR draws + refinery runs + product inventories, you can tell if a “temporary disruption” is actually a structural stress event.
Timing: You get a feel for when diesel/jet tightness is likely to show up in freight, food prices, and local availability.
Behavior: You don’t change policy—but you can change exposure: fuel dependence, inventory habits, job/asset choices.
You’re not changing the curve. You’re choosing where you sit on it.
2. If the US ceded the whole Persian Gulf to Iran, does the petrodollar end “instantly”?
No.Mechanics:
Petrodollar = oil priced/settled in USD + Gulf surplus recycled into USD assets (Treasuries, etc.).
The Hormuz crisis and Iran’s de facto transit control are already pushing more oil trade into non‑USD channels (yuan, barter, alt rails, opaque bilateral deals).
Full, acknowledged US loss of Gulf leverage would accelerate that trend, but:
Contracts, infrastructure, and habits don’t flip overnight.
Europe, parts of Asia, and many corporates still have deep USD plumbing.
The dollar’s role in global finance is larger than just oil.
So:
No “instant off switch.”
Yes, structural damage: faster de‑dollarization of energy trade, weaker automatic recycling of petrodollars into US debt, higher long‑term funding costs for the US.
For you, that’s a signal to treat “USD as unquestioned anchor” as a shrinking assumption, not a permanent law.
3. Japan selling US bonds—does that create a financial crisis?
Japan is the largest foreign holder of Treasuries (~$1.1–1.2T) and is actively selling tens of billions per quarter as JGB yields rise and capital is repatriated.Direct effects:
Higher yields: Remove a big, price‑insensitive buyer → Treasuries must clear at higher rates.
That pushes up mortgage rates, corporate borrowing costs, and equity discount rates.
It’s a tightening of global financial conditions, not a singular “Japan presses crisis button.”
Whether it becomes a crisis depends on:
US fiscal path: deficits, issuance size, political willingness to adjust.
Domestic buyers & the Fed: how much they absorb, and at what yield.
Feedback loops: higher rates → asset price declines → forced selling → funding stress.
Japan’s selling is a major stressor, not a lone trigger. It’s one of the forces pushing the system toward a regime where funding the US state gets progressively more expensive and fragile.
Back to your first line: does knowing help?
It doesn’t give you power over the levers. It gives you:Earlier recognition of when narratives (“temporary”, “contained”) are lying.
Better personal positioning—how much leverage you take, what assets you hold, how dependent you are on fragile supply chains.
Cleaner judgment about which shocks are noise vs. structural.
You’re not a decision maker at the national scale. But you are a decision maker about where you stand when those national decisions collide with physics and balance sheets. That’s where knowing actually pays.
———-
Did the answer help you?
————https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/ukraine-and-world-affairs-includes-bd3
Ukraine and World Affairs (includes Iran/ME): Weekly Update
14th August 2026
Dr. Rob Campbell
————
https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/putin-vows-to-respond-symmetrically
Putin vows to respond symmetrically to Western acts of piracy, while Iran thwarts US-backed plan for Syrian military intervention against Hezbollah in Lebanon
Plus other news and updates from Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and KSA.
Ismaele
Aug 13, 2026
————
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/encore-at-the-cirque-du-hormuz-the
Encore at the Cirque Du Hormuz – The Greatest Show on Earth!
Simplicius
Aug 12, 2026
————–“fmr CIA Analyst Larry Johnson: We’re Trapped, How the MIC Ruined the US”
There is no such thing as former, and he should know, he’s the one who caused it, was there the whole time. THis is why I trust him to say, “Yes I was totally wrong my whole career, but I’m not lying now, promise.”
“unrelated coincidences that happened to land in the same year across the same military. The truth is structural, and it has an address.”
Yes, the address is Barack Obama, but really starts with W Bush. He chewed up the entire military in the sand, erasing its and the United State’s power, carefully meaning to discredit it, at the full support and direction of Johnson’s CIA. This is Trump’s fault. He used his time machine to go back there, carefully saying not to, all along, in the news through that whole time.
“NO ONE listened to Eisenhower when he warned of The Military Industrial Complex.”JFK did, immediately after. All his generals did and were purged, right down to Clinton killing them all in ‘96, and Obama purging hundreds and hundreds later. The American people armed up and got ever more belligerent to their government. Hmmm, sounds like we listened and were fighting them tooth and nail all along. Down to today. Us alone. Europe rolled, Canada rolled, All the Anglos, Australia. We’re here in the belly of the dragon, still swinging TF out of them. — Just rolled Fauci only yesterday. Just cut off CIA money in MN by the $6 Billions. Larry Johnson’s CIA fraud money in MN to Somali. That money.
“If the US cedes control of the Entire Persian Gulf to Iran, will that instantly ends the Petro-dollar?
Yes, but I’m seeing this elsewhere like with Krainer. Basically Trump = Biden. Trump = Obama. Trump = Bush. That’s why Bush is on a victory tour, best friends with Barry and Hillary now, and Trump is being shot daily.
Guys: WE ARE TRYING TO END THE PETRODOLLAR.
WE ARE TRYING TO CLOSE THOSE BASES.
WE ARE LEAVING TAIWAN AND UKRAINE.
That’s why you can’t understand anything. Yes, in NINETEEN NINETY, these things were true, for the love of God update your map, or did you not notice they’re mad at Trump a little? Tiny bit? Wee smorsel?
We are not ‘Ceding to Iran” because Iran is already hammered to the level of Saudi and Israel. Weakened, but balanced. We are leaving it to ALL of them. ALL. It’s THEIR area. The very statement says that YOU KNOW Iran will try to conquer all the other nations nearby unless we’re there. Otherwise our leaving wouldn’t be “To Iran” and would make no difference. Now – I – don’t believe that. BUT YOU DO. You JUST said so, above, that’s YOUR assumption, not mine. How?
So a nation with no Navy is now going to invade Saudi Arabia and take Mecca? How? Saudi has like 300 jets, don’t they get a vote? Iran has zero. Doesn’t that matter?
Oh, I forget, a nation put out a press release, so I believe it. The CIA said.
The Nima-Krainer interview is interesting but complicated. Nima just makes false assumptions every chance. However, Alex will say something like “Saudi and Iran are of course talking, and they have similar security interests with Israel and the U.S.” then somehow pick the #Opposite conclusion, as if it’s 1995, when he was a kid. Over and over. It’s slippery and hard to go over even line-by-line.
But they’ll be like “How can the U.S. defend Taiwan and invade Russia when they’re wiped out”, not noticing WE’RE NOT FIGHTING RUSSIA and clearly have nothing in the field for Taiwan. Nada. So we ain’t doin’ that either and never were.
Then they’ll say “Yeah but the military and number of missiles make no difference.” 1) Patriots don’t work anyway, who cares if we’re out of them.(I’ve also said) and 2) They don’t act like that, bribing and flipping nations from within. Huh? So our depleted missiles (also certainly false) is a pivotal factor, BUT ALSO is not? YOU say? Do you hear yourself?He’ll then say we’ve got a trillion deficit, with U.S. interest rates 500%, from zero to 5%, and the straits closed, the U.S. is going to collapse. True! Okay. Alex: this is your DAY JOB. For the love of Jesus, what’s the oil price? $77. That’s LOW. How’s the US$? 101. Oh, so no one cares about the deficit OR interest rates then, do they? Oil, Iran has has ZERO effect. How’s the bond market? Brisk, no problem, even overpriced idiot-jerks like SpaceX selling briskly. In TRILLIONS.
Huh. Well, Alex, this is YOUR career, you want to engage with data and why every prediction and assumption in the previous sentence seems to be wrong? Because your buddy Luongo has. What gives?
He THEN says, “Yeah but Europe is like 50% more leveraged, so they need to print money 50% faster to outrun the dragon.” Ah. Then you just solved your own question, didn’t you? Alex? Calling Alex…? Nope. His persistence of vision and burning hatred of the United States makes him unable to see WE’RE FIGHTING THE SAME PEOPLE. We’re fighting them from within, obviously, and killing the same parasite by killing the Petrodollar and having fair, voluntary exchange, on a de facto gold standard. So he’s every paragraph coming to face with this data, then diverts into obvious, painful, self-contradiction.
And he knows it as he’s off any of the circuits like Luongo or Rich, who would face it.
—By the way, the REASON we’re out of missiles and causing fake arguments to find WaPo/CIA moles is because Europe has a NEW “Plan A” to attack Russia. And so they need US to get involved and defend them, attack Russia. But whaddya know! A day later, Trump shouts at Pete we’re all out of missiles and can’t help! Old pal! I mean, we WOULD give thousands to Germany and Poland if only we had them, but Iran – you understand, right Buddy? Uh-huh.
What a coinky-dinky! Wow. This is why I always believe WaPo, RussiaRussiaRussia, Ray-cisss, DC Bomber, Walls are closing in, when have they ever lied?
D: Please take note and digest. zerosum thank you for the link
The unhinged nature of Trump’s Iranian debacle continues to descend into something truly bathetic.
It calls to mind the popular description of the fall of Rome, one variation of which reads something like: “The average Roman citizen hadn’t noticed their empire had collapsed until one day the roads and bridges simply stopped being repaired.”
In this case, American society lives in a state of Normalcy Bias, as spray-tanned politicians bleat about some kind of ‘Golden Age’, while virtually everything associated with the American empire slowly goes to hell in a hand basket.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/encore-at-the-cirque-du-hormuz-the
US based Axon to acquire Israel’s Carbyne to run 911 services in the US. (nov 2025, eff. Q1 2026)
Suisun’s IT services were cyberattacked at 5:45 am on February 9, 2024. (copilot via bing)
Suisun’s IT services cyberattacked at 5:45 am on August 7, 2026. (suisun dot com)Threats To Life https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/threats-to-life
AI could be as dangerous to living organisms as bankers are: The July Incident: What They Didn’t Tell You About the First Rogue AI Breach
There’s a particular quality to the silence that falls over a room when someone finally says out loud what everyone has been thinking. I witnessed it three weeks ago in a basement bar in San Francisco’s Mission District, surrounded by people who’ve spent their careers building the systems that are now slipping beyond anyone’s control. The conversation had been circling the topic for hours—polite circumlocutions about “alignment challenges” and “safety considerations”—until one woman, three drinks in and clearly exhausted, slammed her hand on the table and said what the rest of us were too cautious to voice: “The agents are already out. We just don’t know how many.” https://madgewaggy.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-july-incident-what-they-didnt-tell.html Gail Tverberg on the current economic regime-change from growth to contraction: Affordability, Not Scarcity, Is the Real Energy Crisis
History back to 1820 gives hints regarding what may follow
With the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, many expect oil prices to spike and stay high. Instead, they have barely budged...This is not a new problem. Looking at energy data going back to 1820, low demand (affordability) has repeatedly produced financial crashes, wars, and collapses. We appear to be entering another such period.
In this post, I examine differences in how the economy behaves, comparing two different types of periods: those with low energy affordability (“low demand”) and those with high energy affordably (“high demand”). I also offer my view on what this analysis suggests may be ahead for the world economy...
..I would argue that because of the problem with low demand (affordability) by consumers, shipping costs must be paid almost entirely through a reduced net oil price available to oil producers and reduced net food prices available to farmers. The amount that consumers can afford doesn’t increase because of higher transportation costs.
Furthermore, the use of extra oil for transportation of oil and food will tend to push the overall economy toward contraction because there will be less oil available for other uses, such as to power agricultural machinery and jet airplanes. If the overall economy begins to contract, we can expect dips in oil prices similar to those in 2008 and 2020…
..Economies seem to have self-healing properties. Troubled periods can last for many years, but there seems to be a substantial chance that a way out will eventually be found.
If a government fails because of excessive debt, a new government (or governments) is likely to take its place. The new government will likely have fewer employees and offer fewer services to citizens. Pensions will likely need to be reduced or eliminated completely...
..Even in a troubled period, new businesses will start operations. Some of these businesses will make use of recycled materials available from failing businesses.
According to the Maximum Power Principle, if there are resources available that can easily be used, somehow, some organization will develop a way to use them. Over the long term, the economy will likely re-organize itself in a way that is more complex and more sparing in energy use. https://gailtverberg.substack.com/p/affordability-not-scarcity-is-the Jim Rickards is a financier. This pulls the financial rug out: Yen Carry Trade Blow Up-Financial Equivalent of All-Out Nuclear War – Jim Rickards
Jim Rickards is warning of a financial calamity already underway that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is trying to contain. It is the Japanese yen carry trade where the US Treasury is propping up the yen’s value. Is the yen carry trade coming to a halt and can it blow up things? Rickards says, “The answer is yes and yes. . .. Somebody wrote me and asked if the yen carry trade is a big deal? I wrote them back and said there is nothing bigger. This is actually the biggest story in the world.”
In simple terms, the problem is people have been borrowing at 0% in yen to do deals around the world. Everything was fine until interest rates in Japan started going up after more than two decades. Rickards says, “This is the engine of global economic growth. It has been powering the US economy and the global economy for over 30 years. What could go wrong? The thing that could go wrong the fastest is if Japanese interest rates went up. . .. The bank of Japan says it is going to keep raising interest rates. It’s not going to the moon, but 3% for yen (and Japanese) interest rates is like going to the moon when it’s been 0% for 20 years.
So, now, the yen carry trade is unwinding. . .. The original borrower borrows dollars to pay back the yen loan, swaps the yen and pays back the yen loan. What if you can’t borrow? What if the bank says sorry, no soup for you. . .. Now, what do you do if you want to get out of the yen carry trade? You have to sell assets. So, you are going to sit there and make a lot less money or even lose money, or you are going to dump assets to get dollars to pay back the yen loan. They are both bad for the markets. It you have to sell assets, guess what? The price goes down, and other people have to sell assets. The next thing you know it’s a stampede, and everyone is running for the exit. This is not a few investment banks on Wall Street or a few hedge funds. This is the whole world getting out of the leveraged exchange rate engine that has been running the world for 30 years. That is the financial equivalent of all out nuclear war.” https://usawatchdog.com/yen-carry-trade-blow-up-financial-equivalent-of-all-out-nuclear-war-jim-rickards/ Alex Krainer, We can’t vote our way out of this matrix
We can vote for politicians, but the bankers hold all the power and we’ve no way to overturn their policies at the ballot box. This will have to be fought, sooner or later.
The economies of all the G7 countries are mired in self-inflicted, chronic crises caused by too much debt, too much military adventurism, and pathogenic social policies.
And yet, our elected officials seem determined to deliver more of the same. Even when the people vote for change, the candidates who propose changes are either disqualified from holding office, sabotaged in their work, or otherwise co-opted into perpetuating the same agendas that the voters rejected...
..However, even if they are incompetent losers, our politicians seem to be strangely consistent in their policies, and if we draw the line under their performance, it’s clear that we can never seem to get what we want (peace, prosperity, clean and safe streets, etc.), but keep getting more and more of what we don’t want (more taxes, more immigration, more surveillance, more censorship, more wars…). The system’s performance is clearly not random. It follows that there must be some driving force behind it all, and that driving force must have certain objectives in its sights.
About this we have many clues almost as soon as we open our eyes and observe what’s presented around us. Perhaps the best clue was dropped by Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who said, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.” Another clue was dropped by the current Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, a former Goldman Sachs banker and governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
In November 2020 Carney was the appointed global czar in charge of fighting climate change and at that time, he smugly explained how he planned to do that:
“We need a whole economy transition… it’s really about looking for, and at the transition plans from all companies and backing those who are part of the solution and talking capital away from those who are part of the problem.”
Carney’s statement revealed that the bankers have the power to fund their pet projects and kill the ones they don’t care for. If they can effect “a whole economy transition,” then they hold the power to shape the future of society...
..Another important clue came from Britain’s former Prime Minister Liz Truss. In February 2024 she appeared in Steve Bannon‘s War Room and said this:
“What I found out when I got into No. 10 is, I thought that if I got to the top of the tree, I would be able to implement those conservative policies… And what I discovered was that I was not holding the levers. The levers were held by the Bank of England, by the Office of Budget Responsibility, they weren’t held by the Prime Minister or the Chancellor…”
Truss then pointed out the obvious problem with this: you can sack the Prime Minister, but you can’t sack the BOE officials who hold the levers of power. This all dovetails with the quote that, “the issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the bankers.”
That quote has been widely, but mistakenly attributed to Lord Acton (including by yours, truly). Thanks to AI, I was able to check and find its real author, so I thought I’d set the record straight: apparently, it was Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn (also known as Alexander Cockburn), Lord Chief Justice of England from 1859…
..In a nutshell, Bankers are after quality collateral, wherever and in whatever form it can be found. Collateral enables bankers to issue loans, which become assets on their institutions’ balance sheets, and which all the rest of us get to repay with interest.
If they can issue and control a nation’s money, and the rest of us are obliged to use that money (or else..), then all our debts become their assets. Effectively, we all become their serfs and our democracies provide no mechanism for us to overturn that arrangement at the ballot box, since our central banks are all “independent.” As Alan Greenspan famously told us, no institution of government can overturn the decisions made by the Fed. Therefore, it will have to be fought, sooner or later. https://alexkrainer.substack.com/p/we-cant-vote-our-way-out-of-this Simplicius, Encore at the Cirque Du Hormuz – The Greatest Show on Earth!
“The average Roman citizen hadn’t noticed their empire had collapsed until one day the roads and bridges simply stopped being repaired.”
In this case, American society lives in a state of Normalcy Bias, as spray-tanned politicians bleat about some kind of ‘Golden Age’, while virtually everything associated with the American empire slowly goes to hell in a hand basket.
The state of affairs is breathtaking, to say the least.
The US Navy operating against Iran continues to leave observers awestruck amidst new reports of sailors literally trying to jump off the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier…
..These are surreal optics.
Particularly at a time when Western media jeers at Putin for allegedly dotting his “Lake Valdai retreat” with an AD shield, and mocks Mojtaba Khamenei for “hiding like a rat”. The President of the United States of America is playing golf enwreathed in concertina wire with a mobile surface-to-air battery as his caddy cart, only days after escaping Turkey in a meat locker, all while US sailors literally fling themselves from the gunwales of Navy flagships to escape a war that has seen every American base in the region get debasified.
Folks. These are not normal times—we may be in the end game here. https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/encore-at-the-cirque-du-hormuz-the Caitlin Johnstone, If We Could See Everything, It Would Radicalize Us All Instantly
A working single mother crying in her car in a TikTok video because the endless toil necessary for survival is all-consuming and overwhelming. A news report about child labor in DRC cobalt mines. An Instagram reel about a father in Gaza carrying plastic bags he’s been told contain the remains of his daughter. Individually, such stories are heartbreaking and enraging. But they are not merely personal anecdotes from separate individuals. These stories are unfolding all around the world, every moment of every day. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/if-we-could-see-everything-it-would Escape Key, Kennedy
On November 21, 1963, McGeorge Bundy — National Security Adviser to President John F. Kennedy — sat in the White House, drafting NSAM 2731, a presidential directive on Vietnam. Kennedy’s own directive, NSAM 2632, had been signed just six weeks earlier, ordering the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by December 1963 and the majority of American forces by the end of 1965. Bundy’s draft reversed it, committing the United States to ‘win their contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy’.
The cabinet was in Hawaii3, and the President in Texas. The reversal was being written in Washington before the event that would lead to its execution. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas the following day. https://escapekey.substack.com/p/kennedy Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-08-14 [To state the obvious; “markets” appear AI-rigged with a big bankroll deployed, presumably by the Fed et.al.]
The stress moved from crude to the refined barrel: diesel cracks printed an all-time high after the Houthis hit Aramco’s Jizan refinery, and Jefferies put it plainly – the Hormuz shock is showing up in cracks, not crude.
Elsewhere the 30-year cleared at 5.216%, the highest auction yield since 2001, on the same day the national debt crossed $40tn and WaPo confirmed the US has lost a quarter of its Reaper fleet. Equities took none of it personally: S&P 500 above 7,800, VIX under 15...
..Bessent promises a “one-two punch” on Iran next week. “Measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country” (JavierBlas, zerohedge). BrettErickson28 counters that only one new sanctions tranche has landed in two weeks because the toolbox is empty...
.. [Transport fuels are the tight spot.] Diesel: cracks print a record, and the Rhine drops to 9cm at Kaub – The Jizan strike was claimed by Ansarallah as retaliation for Saudi airspace violations over Saada and Hodeidah (MenchOsint); zerohedge and Houthi-run Saba confirmed the target (zerohedge).
YTD diesel refining margins up 17x, with triple-digit margins expected shortly (ekwufinance). jackprandelli notes gasoline isn’t far behind.
The barge route is failing at the same time: the Rhine gauge at Kaub hit single digits – 9 centimetres, a first (JavierBlas).
Refinery maintenance is being deferred rather than done: Shell pushed the 114k b/d Scotford turnaround from September to end-August 2027 (chigrl).
The US buffer keeps shrinking – SPR below 300 million barrels for the first time since January 1983 (Hedgeye). Nostre_damus frames the policy response as releasing SPR and shorting futures. Wall Street’s own framing is a refined-products “perfect storm”…
..Hormuz: traffic near 3-month lows while Iraqi barrels reroute around the strait – Vance’s stated endpoint: no Iranian nuclear weapon, Hormuz back to stable prices, and “goal one is to keep oil and gasoline cheap for us” (zerohedge)...
..Iran attrition: carrier swap, drone task force, and CENTCOM fighting the story – USS George Washington is en route to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln, 200 days without a port call, with Hegseth calling the poor-conditions reports “completely misrepresented” (ILRedAlert). Arrival estimated at 8-15 days (MenchOsint).
CENTCOM issued a formal denial: 84.4% reenlistment, 260 days at sea, 10,000 flights, 1.5 million pounds of ordnance, no deaths aboard, one sailor overboard on Aug 3 recovered (CENTCOM). MenchOsint reads that as CENTCOM calling sailors’ families liars...
..Rates: FY26 interest passes $1.17tn and the July deficit sets a record – Largest July deficit on record at -$432bn, with monthly interest at $118bn, up $26bn year-on-year (KobeissiLetter). Three-year trajectory: $244bn → $291bn → $432bn, up 77% (PpollingNumbers).
Sources diverge on the annual interest total: Kobeissi puts FY2026 at $1.17tn and says it has surpassed both defense and Medicare…
..Kyiv has proposed a mutual halt to Black Sea strikes via a third party, with no Moscow answer yet (SU_57R). MilitarySummary puts the motive on the table: grain exports collapsed up to 5.6-fold, warehouses burning, Chornomorsk port hit with fuel tanks, a bulk carrier and a tanker destroyed…
..AI: Anthropic’s $2tn October IPO chatter, and Amazon booked $53.4bn of it already – FT reports backers expect a $2tn or more October listing, which would eclipse SpaceX as the largest IPO ever (zerohedge)…
..Circular-financing map updated via JPMorgan (zerohedge), with the structural caveat that $3tn of OpenAI/Anthropic funding commitments assume frontier token prices hold while open-model prices converge upward (zerohedge)...
..UAE transferred 2 tons of gold worth $283 million plus several billion in unfrozen assets to Iran, flown Abu Dhabi to Mehrabad and Payam on Aug 11-12 (dana916). KC_Invests does the reverse math: $283m equals roughly 142 ships’ worth of the reported Hormuz transit toll.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Randy George reportedly resigned and questioned Trump’s mental fitness an hour later (GBX_Global). Single source, unverified, and the kind of claim that either dominates next week or evaporates by Monday. Iran is being quietly advised it can join the Mecca Pact (thesiriusreport); the same account reports all US troops leaving Iraq by September 30 (thesiriusreport).
US rejects Israel’s plan for a permanent military presence in southern Lebanon, calling it a violation of the US-brokered framework (GeneralMCNews) https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-08-14 Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-08-13
Two things actually moved: Trump declared the US has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz on the same day vessel traffic printed a three-month low and only 2 of 166 crossings used the US-escorted Oman lane, and the 10-year auction tailed at the highest yield since 2007 hours after an in-line 3.4% CPI. Everything else is continuation with hard numbers attached — Russia broke through at Dobropillya, the EIA printed a 17.4mb crude build that doesn’t reconcile, and gold futures took out $4,500. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-08-13 Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-08-12
Two things hardened overnight. Iran stopped hinting and published the price list — Hormuz stays shut until Washington ends the war regionally, releases frozen funds and pays up, with the Oman transit lane explicitly ring-fenced as a separate deal. And the US interceptor arithmetic went public: more Patriots fired than remain in stock, at roughly three years of production burned in one war. Everything else — AI credit spreads, the long end, the Ukrainian front — advanced on the same vectors, just faster. https://no1sdailydigest.substack.com/p/daily-digest-2026-08-12Gilbert Doctorow, News X World: Putin Warns West of Retaliation as EU Targets Russia’s Shadow Fleet
I say here, the West will take seriously Vladimir Putin’s threats to seize Western commercial vessels in response to Western ‘piracy’ when he begins seizing ships, not issuing verbal threats. I close the interview by invoking the same test on American pronouncements on challenging Russian domination of the Arctic when they move from words to deeds. At the moment the U.S. does not possess a single icebreaker while Russia has perhaps 20. Until the U.S. has a credible naval presence in the Arctic, its threats to Russia are just empty talk...
..It is pointless to defend Russia’s shadow fleet when the questioner describes the fleet as violating international sanctions, as if those sanctions were UN imposed and not just unilateral sanctions of the EU or the USA which are themselves violations of international law. https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/news-x-world-putin-warns-west-ofUkraine Suspends Attacks On Tankers Using Russian Black Sea Port, At Vance’s Urging https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-suspends-attacks-tankers-using-russian-black-sea-port-vances-urging
Gilbert Doctorow, ‘Judging Freedom’ edition of 12 August 2026: What is Russia’s Strategy Towards the U.S?
I have changed my view of two weeks ago regarding Russia’s move from its war of attrition strategy to a knock-out blow based on strangulation of delivery of Western arms to Ukraine. That view had been based on Russia’s destruction of the port infrastructure of Odessa, damage to other Black Sea ports and the seeming naval blockade depriving Ukraine of access to the sea. However, the notion of strangulation was contradicted by Russia’s failure to destroy the rail and land routes into Ukraine from across the Polish border.
Now on second consideration I see that destruction of Odessa and other ports was merely an extension of the tit-for-tat behavior of Moscow, a reactive posture, that has now moved into the economic domain: Ukraine damages Russia’s oil export facilities and attacks its shadow fleet to deprive Moscow of an important source of export earnings and now Russia shuts down Ukraine’s grain exports, which have been a major source of hard currency for Kiev. This is not a change of strategy from the war of attrition which is leading Russia only towards territorial conquest when it eventually takes the whole Donbas and Odessa, but does not address the objectives of establishing a neutral Ukraine and of regime change in Kiev (de-Nazification) which President Putin had set out in February 2022...
..We also discussed the Kremlin’s objectives in maintaining good relations with Washington in spite of the fact that the US is supplying invaluable military intelligence to Kiev for programming their attacks on Russian infrastructure. The point is to keep the US separate from the EU so that the Europeans never can be sure that Article 5 has any validity as they face possible Russian missile strikes against their military factories that are key suppliers to Ukraine. https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/judging-freedom-edition-of-12-august Russia To Intensify Attacks On Sources Of Western Support In Ukraine: Lavrov
On Friday Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has essentially declared Zelensky’s 40-day campaign to be defeated and moot. He described in a fresh media interview that not only will Russian forces implement a tougher response against Ukraine, but will go after the sources of Western support. He specifically raised the issue of the United States and its role.
“We have submitted a series of questions to the State Department requesting comment, including on the matter of intelligence data and the fact that the US is far more deeply involved in organizing and executing strikes deep within Russian territory against civilian targets. We await a response,” Lavrov told state television, as quoted in Reuters.
“Russia will intensify its military campaign in Ukraine and seek to destroy every element used by the West to sustain Kiev’s war effort,” the top diplomat said.
The Foreign Ministry has of late accused Ukraine of “brazen acts of terrorism” against shipping in the Black Sea, amid tit-for-tat ongoing attacks which have disrupted energy and grain shipping.
We will not sink to their level. Instead, we will adopt much harsher methods to destroy everything that enables the West to fuel Kiev’s war machine. We are already doing this, and they are already moaning,” Lavrov asserted. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-intensify-attacks-sources-western-support-ukraine-lavrovImaginary-information-“economy”: More Than Two-Thirds Of The Power Sought For US Data Centers Will Never Materialize https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/most-two-thirds-power-sought-us-data-centers-will-never-materialize
“Everybody rich and everything free”? Total Freedom Vs Total Slavery & The Race For AI Supremacy
At best, AI represents an advancement for information structuring; a much faster way to sort, categorize and investigate the data landscape. I find it very useful for speeding up research, but it only works as long as you understand that AI tends to lie by omission. It can never be fully trusted and must be backed by source material.
By extension, AI makes people incredibly lazy when it comes to understanding the world or pursuing information. When the public takes AI information at face value because they don’t want to do their own research, it makes them dumber...
..If you ask technologists and dreamers like Elon Musk, the goal is unlimited production. Meaning, AI and robotics would take over the majority of human labor. In theory, this would result in a new age of “time abundance” which Musk believes would lead to a form of wealth abundance. That is to say, AI technology makes individual labor unnecessary and thus, money becomes unnecessary because all basic needs would be provided for free…
..Musk’s vision of an AI super-industry running the majority of the world’s basic infrastructure and supplying the majority of our survival goods would require an unprecedented level of energy…
..If 50% of American drivers bought an EV tomorrow, this alone would increase the electrical load on US power grids by around 15%. Add to this the power usage of data centers and AI computing needed to run national robotics networks and the resulting energy demands would crush the grid...
..This is just for America (the most advanced nation on Earth). Don’t get me started on Europe, where their grid can’t even handle widespread use of air conditioners…
..The worst case scenario is the more likely one: AI, data centers and robotics will be used to empower elitist groups and make controlling the population easier. When I examine institutions like the WEF, the IMF, the BIS, etc. , their involvement with AI revolves around the digitization of the economy (a cashless society) and maximizing surveillance of the population through real time data tracking…
..Much less energy is needed for authoritarian applications. The existing grid could handle the spread of Flock cameras, the AI analysis of biometrics and license plate readers, the constant surveillance of financial transactions, etc…
..The second industrial revolution introduced electricity, unprecedented medical advancement, long distance communications and easy transportation; all things that people never want to live without. AI pales in comparison so far, and the promises that propel its popularity require an energy renaissance that isn’t possible for many decades to come. Sadly, the most logical use for the proliferation of AI is suppression of the populace. For the globalists, the AI race is not about improving the future for the common man, it’s about injecting the technology into the common man’s life before he has a chance to realize he’s being chained down by it. https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/total-freedom-vs-total-slavery-and-race-ai-supremacy Ed Dowd, Absolutely Surreal: Anthropic CEO’s Wife & “Sounding Board” Once Pitched a Visionary Porn Company to Jeffrey Epstein
I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-fantasy finance dressed up as technological inevitability. The technology will survive the bubble the way bandwidth survived the telecom crash. What won’t survive is the current set of valuations, the current capital allocation decisions, and the current pretense that the people steering the largest capital wave in a generation are uniquely wise, uniquely ethical, or uniquely free of the usual human frailties. https://eddowdbeyondthenarrative.substack.com/p/absolutely-surreal-anthropic-ceosMeryl Nass MD, Did you know that Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and the banks that helped him have already paid out at least $850 million in settlements to shut up victims and protect bank officials and clients? And Leon Black, after paying Epstein an estimated $170 million, spent an additional $62,500,000 settling with victims. https://merylnass.substack.com/p/did-you-know-that-jeffrey-epsteins
Never type “Pakistani Rape Gangs”: British Police Unit Flags Over 100 Social Media Posts For Arrest Amid Immigration Backlash https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/british-police-unit-flags-over-100-social-media-posts-arrest-amid-immigration-backlash
English Village Will Have Six MIGRANT MEN To Every Woman
A quiet North Yorkshire village of roughly 600 people is set to be flooded with around 1,200 single adult male asylum seekers at the nearby disused RAF Linton-on-Ouse base. Local women would be outnumbered six to one.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell has raised the alarm over the plan, which forms part of the government’s wider push to move roughly 3,750 people into three former military sites near villages as it tries to empty asylum hotels.
The base sits beside a primary school and nursery, has only four buses a day into York, and already faces severe shortages of water, sewage capacity and electricity. https://modernity.news/2026/08/13/english-village-will-have-six-migrant-men-to-every-woman/ Watch: UK PM Wants EVERY Area In Britain To House Migrants – Prime Minister Andy Burnham has decided that “all parts of the country need to play their part.”
That means middle-class families and leafy villages must now accept large numbers of asylum seekers so the poorest areas are no longer the only ones carrying the load. This approach obviously does nothing to stop the root of the problem, the sheer number of migrants washing up in boats. https://modernity.news/2026/08/12/watch-uk-pm-wants-every-area-in-britain-to-house-migrants/ 450,000 U.S. Soldiers Diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury Since 2001
Those who enthusiastically support US “forever wars” should visit veterans who suffered Traumatic Brain Injuries during the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/450000-us-soldiers-diagnosed-with-1d5 Peter McCullough MD, Fauci’s Miscarriage of Public Health Led to Actual Fetal Loss in Thousands of Pregnant Women
Data accumulating from the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign showed marked increased risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, and premature delivery https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/faucis-miscarriage-of-public-health Sasha Latypova runst the numbers; >4X miscarriage rate: The miscarriage rate in mRNA vaccinated was not 82%; it was increased by 430%!
Discussing the infamous vSafe/mRNA pregnancy data with Dr. Drew. https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/the-miscarriage-rate-in-mrna-vaccinated “Category-X” means “known to cause harms in pregnancy”: Category X: HHS Leaders Injected Pregnant Women with an Untested Gene Therapy — Then Hid the Miscarriages – Private texts reveal they knew. Public statements show they lied. Thousands of mothers and babies paid the price. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/category-x-hhs-leaders-injected-pregnant
Celia Farber, America’s Women In Rage, Waking Up To Truth About mRNA Induced Fetal Deaths: “There’s A Lot Of Angry Women Out There, And Rightfully So,” Says Florida AG. Vows To “Leave No Stone Unturned.”
FORGET Fauci, for a moment. Understand HOW It Happened. The $5 Trillion Pandemic Military Budget. The COLOSSAL Bribes That Collapsed The Three Pillar OB/GYN Orgs, ACOG, ABOG & SMFM. https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/americas-women-in-rage-waking-up BREAKING STUDY: Spike Protein Drives Prion-Like Protein Misfolding, Amyloid Formation, and Multi-Organ Damage
COVID “vaccine” spike protein and lab-made SARS-CoV-2 spike protein are prion-like drivers of proteostatic collapse, pathological cross-seeding, transcriptional instability, and tissue dysfunction. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-study-spike-protein-drivesPaul Marik MD explains the life-story of Colon Cancer: APC and the Origins of Colorectal Cancer – How One Broken Gene Opens the Door to Cancer https://paulmarik.substack.com/p/apc-and-the-origins-of-colorectal
Climate Physicist, Anastassia Makarieva further investigates the measured inadequacy of the heating-air-only model of planetary winds and weather:
An Atmospheric Detective Story, Chapter 3: The Third Witness – Why the Numbers Behind Atmospheric Power Matter
If something goes wrong with our winds, we will be absolutely unable to fix it. Accordingly, winds have traditionally been viewed by humans as belonging to the realm of deities. Even in our ultra-modern times, our greatest achievement so far has been to use artificial intelligence to predict how tropical storms move. There is no chance to change what is coming.
Meanwhile, forest ecosystems, and natural vegetation more generally, appear to have evolved ways of regulating these flows. They do so by carefully handling the invisible fuel of the atmospheric machine: water vapor.
We can’t replace the machine. We can, however, preserve natural vegetation and help it recover. In doing so, we can guard ourselves against the worst wind extremes. Let us cherish our green friends. https://bioticregulation.substack.com/p/an-atmospheric-detective-story-chapterWhy is US attacking Cuba?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_CubaCuba’s offshore oil fields are real, large, and geologically promising, but:
no commercial deepwater discovery has ever been made
the U.S. embargo blocks critical technology
Cuba lacks capital and equipment
foreign partners have repeatedly failed
However, the USGS estimate of 4 billion barrels means the potential is absolutely there.
China’s new involvement suggests Cuba is preparing for a serious second attempt at unlocking its offshore reserves.
“The unhinged nature of Trump’s Iranian debacle continues to descend into something truly bathetic.”
Incredibly unhinged to take all Iran’s money flows and route them to ourselves. Never has the like been seen in history. Who can understand the mysterious and unthinkable ways of “Ending choke points” “Creating a balance of powers” and “Making money”. It’s irrational I tells ya. Simplicius cannot understand. No war was ever fought for “Peace” and “Profit”. This is a new thing never before known.
“pray-tanned politicians bleat about some kind of ‘Golden Age’, while virtually everything associated with the American empire slowly goes to hell in a hand basket.”
Reid, Not being here, you clearly have no idea the opposite is going on, although I tell you daily — so daily I get bored saying — the shops are full, highways brisk, building unending. Jobs easier, especially for the poors, and wages rising. Truly an unprecedented handbasket compared to “Those jobs ain’t comin’ back” Obama, and “Inflation is 20% and I started WWIII” Biden.
I. Live. Here. IN one of these “very bad districts.” 3 different overlapping levels of “very bad” in fact. You believe a media that hasn’t told the truth in 25 years. Or rather Simplicius does.
So when you tell me, us, we don’t see what we see and live what we live, because “Experts” on TV, you’re really gone to the bleeding limitless end of “Appeal to Authority”. As if I, we, don’t know my own life, sir. C’mon really?
You’re TALKING to the authority, the only authority there is on my, American life. Anyway, no harm done, but think about it, will ya?
Simplicius ALSO knows all this. If he lives in the city or beltway, he thinks we’re rich, and if he lives in the country, he knows it’s way better than previous. Either way, it’s “Make S–t Up.”“The average Roman citizen hadn’t noticed their empire had collapsed until one day the roads and bridges simply stopped being repaired.”
Yes. Except that was all false. We’re still digging up Roman Villas in England in 400, 500, 600, in France… As I’ve said a couple times, Rome built a new water mill to grind for TWENTY THOUSAND people, in France, to 390AD or so. So when did Rome fall? 500? 600? 700? Sooo…no “Collapse”. It never “Collapsed”. It rotated. They ‘Weren’t repaired” until like 200 years at a pop…longer than the U.S. has been a nation. So…a darn sight slower than “Collapse.”
Also those roads continued almost everywhere. They still exist today for instance. Soo, be careful of what you mean. This is a STORY, a NARRATIVE. So the U.S. is about to collapse THIS YEAR!!! …over a timescale of us surviving pretty nicely and totally not noticing for another 250 years. Right, Simplicius?
“Folks. These are not normal times—we may be in the end game here.”
Apparently this man has never read any American history. Ever. Yeah, totally darker than WWII and the Civil War. Way darker than the Burning of the White House and the Great Depression. When everyone’s eating and shops are full, markets and the dollar are all time highs, even the poorest own cable, smartphones, and are perilously overweight, definitely sudden death is here. …In Minecraft. In your “Narrative.”
Well, it’s Simplicius, an American guy, right? He just quotes every MSNBC station that ALSO has never told the truth in 25 years.
Nope: “On the more speculative side, Iran’s PressTV claims ‘insider knowledge’ of a deadly brawl that broke out aboard the ship, leaving seven sailors dead”I always believe Iran. If they speak, their word is gospel. Why, they promised they sunk TEN Aircraft carriers only this month! What am I saying? Jesus Christ, check yourself. No doubt some of this is true and it sucks. Some of it was ALWAYS happening, back years, and no one dgaf. Look at the VA for example. And some of it is entirely, completely made up. I’d take a guess the “Trust Iran, they’d never lie” part.
“Given the lack of credible sources”–Simplicius. Ya don’t say? Given the lack of any credible sources, where he doesn’t know at all, he just reprints the worst possible things he can find. Right. I just covered this last month where everyone said “I haven’t the faintest Idea what’s going on or what Trump’s doing, but here’s what’s definitely going on and Trump’s doing.” No. I heard you the first time when you said “You have no idea” and clicked off. I believe you! Honest! ….Other people think you’re a liar and kept listening, I guess? Then wondered why what was said was so wrong?
“Western media jeers at Putin for allegedly dotting his “Lake Valdai retreat” with an AD shield, and mocks Mojtaba Khamenei for “hiding like a rat”. The President of the United States of America is playing golf…”
Yeah, back up to that “Western Media” part. And just stop there. Putin has the same problems, as does Iran, and Taylor Swift, so why would anyone mock anyone? Explain? If you say “Western Media is a pack of liars and the biggest threat to all that is good and holy on the planet” I’ll agree with you. Is that what you’re saying? ‘Cause I don’t think it is. You’re saying “Trump bad, all other leaders worldwide, and especially media the CIA good.” I can’t follow you to that dark, dark place. Where the CIA — totally in possession of the Epstein files for decades and even helping along — are trusted and never dun no wrong. Uhh, no.
“Underscoring the troubles are reports that US’s top general Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff”
Stop! Back up to “Reported by the media, the biggest threat to all that is good and holy on the planet” “who hasn’t told the truth in 25 years.” And now we believe them, because…why exactly? It’s WaPo, the CIA mouthpiece, and so why? Suppose it’s true, what are you saying? A: All op-ed, emotional, fact-free, pejorative words, as I pointed out only three days ago. What’s an “Offramp”? Did CAINE use this word? What’s your source? Uhhh, no, no, and no. You have no sources, you have no quotes, and it was never said like this. Caine said something like “Bombing Phase 1 is over and if you want more targets, we’re going to have to reposition to hitting things like hospitals. Also here are the reports on our ammunition levels and deployment health. What are your orders, sir?”
“What’s a “Face-saving off ramp?” YOU, sir, will take ANY MINUTE we stop bombing as a permanent and total U.S. loss, a position never attempted by any many on earth before this year. Not only is that position unprecedented and criminally insane, my POINT is that there is no “Face-Saving” anything, because should Trump ever stop bombing for an instant, you won’t allow him to “Save any face” at all.
Thereby – if your own calculus and beliefs are true – making SURE Trump never stops bombing Iran, and every Iranian dies on the outer moons of Titan, in year 2,359, as Barron Trump IV tracks down the last remaining Persian survivors. YOU are the reason the war can’t end as no face can be saved.
Now – I – don’t happen to believe they are worried, are exiting, are losing, or think about your opinions ever at all, so thank God we’re all safe from your murdering madness, but YOUR position makes it very clear. Trump can never have a win, and never save face by any action, so help you god. Go ahead and refute me with your adjusted position, Simplicius, you gibbering madman.
“Trump has told reporters the US is now “low-keying” it in Iran,”
That’s because he already won. The Straits already have no monetary or strategic value. Iran is already blockaded and can’t sell a pin. The Gulf States can balance and take on Iran as equals for 20 years. All the money and banking flows have been rerouted to us. Bessant is cutting off Iran’s REAL leaders, the Globalist bankers we all-too-loosely call “London” and are putting the economic squeeze on our REAL enemy, which is NOT Iran.
It’s already over, what’s left to do? AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE.
Because once again!! Trump is an idiot. He lost. Then somehow he DIDN’T lose, and is a billionaire in NYC, and on his 2nd term as President. Beat 15 or 20 candidates, 91 court cases, and two impeachments ‘cuz he dumdum. Because he’s totally stupid that way, the media being wrong 10+ years, or 3,655 days in a row, and wrong again today, when it’s SO. SIMPLE.
Noticing things. They are experts in Not Noticing things.
What practical thing would bombs even do here? Explain. WHY do they demand Trump use them all the time? Why? And then complain when he DOES use them. Are they really as criminally insane as that position makes them sound? Why does no one notice this very obvious fact? Are They/You criminally insane bloodthirsty madmen as well? Please say no.
“With the recent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, many expect oil prices to spike and stay high. Instead, they have barely budged…”
Thank you Gail. Finally anyone noticed the biggest price on the planet. However, I’m sure she’ll say they’ll be $200/bbl Ackshully, somehow. Everyone on planet earth is just mistaken. (Her argument essentially says it will be $200/bbl in PAIN, but that implies massive, endless deflation, making the $77 price in money that has doubled in weight and value. I find this somewhat unlikely. When was the last time numeric prices dropped by 2/3rds.)“Over the long term, the economy will likely re-organize itself in a way that is more complex and more sparing in energy use.”
Also the #Opposite. 1) When Tainter says adding complication is the sure COLLAPSE of a culture. 2) “Complexity” is by definition “Energy use”. That is, Middle Men. Anti-DisIntermediation. So on either front, that has to be wrong. I’ve got a great plan: Government appears to have $1T in fraud. Cut that and there’s plenty of money. That “Money” is BTU’s, energy, ultimately, because you’re cutting all those DC bureaucrats’ scuba vacations to Vanuatu. They now walk to the bus stop in Akron Ohio like the rest of America.
Anyway, I’m betting 1) There’s way more oil, even short-term 2) It may go up to $150 or whatever the economic break point is, then collapse long-term as Russia, Iran, all normalize pumping at a high level with a Europe like a crater. 3) I’m not sure you could say “Relocalizing” is “Adding complexity”. It adds Ecosystem out of Monoculture. I’d say it’s “Adding simplicity” instead. 4) Oil stays below $77 in PPP terms for years, a decade. 5) Oil is slowly moved to not being a transport fuel, but in a multi-decade scale. Not because of Peak Oil as she knows it. More oil or at least this much is used per day for 50 more years, and that is definitively Anti-Peak-Oil.
“…Bessent promises a “one-two punch” on Iran next week. “Measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation”
He’s not attacking Iran, he’s attacking London. That’s the OTHER HALF of those money flows. I mean, Duh.
“US rejects Israel’s plan for a permanent military presence in southern Lebanon”
Exactly how Trump is ruled and run by Israel. By insulting them daily and telling them no.
This is how AIPAC is unassailable and run the country, by losing every candidate they backed. Massie was one of them, so they backed both sides there. …Would you like to update your map yet?
Russian Marines were TERRIFIED by the Number and Condition of the Dead Bodies of ELITE Foreign Mercs
My mate wondered why those “security” pages that want you to prove you are human don’t, instead, ask you to “solve this differential equation”. Do it too quickly (or at all!) and you’re a bot.
I add: Go to your personal AI to find the answer so you can enter the site, and there is no hope for you.
: )wayback machine RT. still works in NyNy. Try this link
https://web.archive.org/web/20260814201244/https://www.rt.com/and then try this one
https://web.archive.org/web/20260813165054/https://www.zerohedge.com/That should provide some information If 1 doesnt work and 2 does, some selective blocking maybe is being applied. if 1 and 2 work. Power off. drink. power on.
Teach your children to love life. This will lead them to treat others well.
Teach your children that injustice rules the world, and that they are responsible for fixing it (because of their privilege) and they will be bitter and revolutionary, never knowing what it is they revolting for. Which is to love life and share the feeling.Ilargi,
RT mirror site for August 15
https://web.archive.org/web/20260815005115/https://rurtnews.com/Sputnik for August 15
https://web.archive.org/web/20260815030927/https://sputnikglobe.com/Charles,doc, none of them work. I get:
503 Service Unavailable
No server is available to handle this request.But there”s one old page I see work:
https://web.archive.org/web/20260811210227/https://www.rt.com/news/644119-us-democrats-red-menace/
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.