Debt Rattle April 20 2026
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Edgar Degas Les repasseuses (women ironing) 1884 • Trump’s Cryptic ‘The End Is Near’ Post Sends Internet Into A Frenzy (MN) • Trump Warns Iran: ‘No Mo
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 20 2026]
“Global Chaos Ahead?? The End of the System as We Know It Bob Moriarty YT
Bob, terribly sad the Status Quo he hates is changing. What will he hate now?
Strategic Culture, wrong usually, but DEAD wrong for 50 days, As you can tell by their all-pejorative fact-free language.
“The Iranians, meanwhile, are just waiting. Asymmetrically. But make no mistake: they are itching to fight – in case the ceasefire collapses.” Soooo….they’re just baiting us in. They haven’t ACTUALLY started to fight and sinking their whole navy was just to give us a false sense of security. Hundreds of IRGC members were blown to pieces in this elaborate con where they’re going to start ACTUALLY fighting – you know, seriously – tomorrow. Got it. Literal straight face when they say this. No gears engage at all, not even the tiny ones.
“no confirmation at this time that a second round of direct negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will in fact occur on Monday in Islamabad, Pakistan,”
Then there’s no statement it isn’t happening either. Get some facts.
“although some media are reporting it as a possibility. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s multiple pronouncements to the contrary, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed”
Yes, he made those pronouncements when IRAN said it was open. And open permanently. Maybe notice.
“Patrick Henningsen: Indian Ships FORCED to Turn Back Near Hormuz – Iran’s Chilling Message to Trump”
Yes and the Message is: “We have no way to hurt you at all, ever, in the United States, not even a bit, or we would have done so already. Also We’re planning on making you and your GOP state of Texas, incredibly rich!” Very chilling. Houston is terrified of all the new Cadillacs they’ll buy with horns on the hood.
“https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/19/767156/iran-now-bonafide-regional-power-key-decisions-running-through-tehran-analyst
If there is ANYTHING less reliable on earth than AI and Non-Asian Non-Guy, it has GOT to be Iran’s own state-owned media. What are they supposed to say? “The U.S. blew the s—t out of everything and we’re only now running around with our hair on fire trying to figure what to do?” No. They go Baghdad Bob. That does NOT mean the U.S. isn’t ALSO Baghdad Bob, but at the least we can recognize it’s very near to pointless to listen to them.
Heck, the BBC is probably less reliable than Iranian State media, but that doesn’t mean we should be fools about it.
“…..This is not chaos. This is strategy.”
Clinton – War
Bush – War
Obama – War
Trump – War
Biden – War
Trump – War”Excellent point, but some of them have GOOD wars, but now they are uniquely bad, never before seen. And Trump removed us from wars (but still had enough to be counted) and Biden also saw the withdrawal from F-Stan (but approved of Gaza and Ukraine).
Krainer-Maneco64 “Everything bad predicted about Iran happened and now Trump is seeking an off-ramp.” Really? What bad happened at all Alex? That we now sell oil at 30% price increase? This interview is today as well. Why would the guy open the straits, and is hammering his rivals in Europe while making a ton of many making them come to him want to stop? If I were him, I’d hope the straits stayed in risk forever, making Texas richer than Saudi Arabia. But Krainer talks about “The West”. There IS no “West”, sir. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=orctGjfjEtU
This is THE major thing I see right now: there’s a major bifurcation of all Euro-analysts, and like so many other things they do, it shouldn’t be. Like they know there should be oil, should be an army, should be free speech, then go “Naaaaaah.” And since it SHOULDN’T happen, therefore it ISN’T happening. It’s something about the “get-along” mentality they have.
It goes like this: “We” are fighting the war. (Ukraine) “We have high gas prices”. “We” are…”The West”.
THERE IS NO WEST, guys! All of you. None, nada, zip. “We”, America, are the OPPOSITE of you. You say this all the time, you tell US! Filthy, stinking, ugly, crude, evil, barbaric Americans! We hates them for ever and ever!! Okay, sold. We get the message ya krauts and limeys, we can take a hint.
So “We” = both America, and not-America, America is the “West” and “Not-West”. Whatever makes their case in that half a sentence, then flips for the other half.
So Alex3 (Krainer, Mercoulis, Christophous) and say, Maneco (UK) say “Inflation is raging, gas is crashing the economy!!!” …So it’s a fail, the Hormuz was a disaster !!!! (Patented 4 exclamation points) Trump is a fool!”
NO. YOUR prices are raging. YOUR gas is high. YOUR army is depleted, YOUR economy has crashed. On all points ours is fine, perhaps even great. THERE IS NO WE, dudes. There is no “WEST”.
Gas here is $4, which isn’t even that high, places are finally now hiring pretty firmly, houses have stagnated, retail inflation is back to whatever 3%. Steak is $6.99, went to a Club Store to make sure this is a nationwide price. Chuck rounds – (I’m getting great porterhouse cheaper) at $6.99 how many truckloads do you want delivered? Eggs are $3. Price of vehicles is plummeting with the new Toyota stripped-down work truck. Etc.
In Europe they’re saying $30 for a steak and the mashed potatoes are EXTRA. And they have lower incomes than Mississippi. Gas is 2.47/L x4 = $10/gal. It’s not us, it’s YOU. YOU, Britain, Europe, Canada, California. Nobody has any problems but YOU. They’re self-inflicted. Stop hitting yourself with a hammer and blaming us.
While they’re talking about the economy crashing, Texas is raking in BILLIONS. So let me get this straight: there is no POSSIBLE motive for Iran except that Trump obeys anyone who talks to him, blackmail that BOTH Biden AND Obama couldn’t find and didn’t use, when closing the straits is killing Europe and making us filthy rich? THAT, is his “Stupid accident” Mr. Krainer? Totally inexplicable?
Golly I think I have detected a motive that doesn’t include Israel at all, except as a patsy.
Every part of it comes from assuming Europe = US. We’re identical. WHEN EUROPE SAYS THEY HATE OUR GUTS every day and openly interferes in our elections and impeaches our Presidents. Not going out on a limb saying maybe we’re not on the same team here. YOU say we’re not.
They say that, then it means nothing because “Orange Man”. England does everything but drop a nuke on us, and that’s just cricket, tardy hijinks and shenanigans, sir.
What else did Krainer say, not grasping what is AMAZINGLY apparent: Broccoli is $20 a box, doubled this month….IN FRANCE. Idgaf. Tell them to stop screwing their farmers white, paving their fields for Prime Minister’s Condos. Oil is at a $40 PREMIUM to Brent price, $140/bbl….IN ASIA. Good! Man, that is AMAZING good news! THEY have $150 oil and we have $80 oil in Tulsa. Sounds like we’re competitive again!
When Alex3 says “Oil prices are high” they mean, for “us”. There is no “Us,” there is YOU, over there, in Europe, and YOU, over there, in Asia. Idgaf what happens to any of you: figure it out. There is no “ONE” price, “ONE” inflation, One experience.
Likewise, we are day 50 of MAKING RUSSIA FILTHY BLOODY RICH. And Russia is taking NO RISK!!! Tumpeto-Man is the one taking all the heat! Putin is just cashing the checks! …From the oil he stocked up on since Alaska in the biggest coincidence ever. He just got China to stop f—king him and sign on SiberiaII at a good price.
…So we are LONG on our way of making up any reparations about Ukraine to Russia. And WE are not paying them: the rest of the world is. And WE lifted sanctions on Russia for this event only. And all Europe has to do to survive is buy Russian oil! Boom! Steak $18 again or whatever you fools choose to pay bc you’re screwing your farmers too hard.
Boy Alex, I cannot POSSIBLY see any motives here. Boy Russia sure is gonna be mad at Trumpeto! When they clear $100B they’ll be even MORE mad, taking it as they are out of the sole hides of Europe, who Trump warned til he was blue in the face, doing everything but jump on them.
Yup. What a dummy. Total coincidence. IF ONLY Trump would open the straits so oil prices could crash and make America and Russia poor again, how awful-awful that would be. Terrible if they were open and our ally Saudi Arabia were to lose billions in revenue that their rival Iran can’t pump – but is welcome to any time they want to sign.
Geez, worst war ever, can’t come up with any rational explanation except he’s elated blowing kids up n’ stuff like Sachs says, instead of watching our kids be trafficked and die here in Oklahoma as was going on before.
Whaddya say? Every Iranian kid is worth at least two Americans, right? Americans are all scum who deserve to die. If they’re dying we mustn’t MUSTN’T do anything to stop it and change the balance. That would be mean. If you’re getting held down and choked out, with millions of deaths like the last 40 years, you mustn’t do anything radical or fight too hard to escape! It wouldn’t be moral to punch the guys(s) strangling you, not Queensbury Rules!
The only moral thing to do is give up and die quietly in the manner that seems best to you.*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5aVLi_yhM “every 1% drop kills 40,000 Americans”.
I tell you, Am I crazy here? Does “Making money that saves our lives” not seem like a possible motive here?
Why can no one cotton on to this VERY SIMPLE, VERY OBVIOUS headline fact?
“• Trump’s Cryptic ‘The End Is Near’ Post Sends Internet Into A Frenzy (MN)
Apparently Trump is in charge then. If people pay attention to him. He’s in their heads, the only man in the universe. Fall for it again and again and again. Why? Their own egos won’t let them see Trump as some normal guy, another dummy, not Hitler or Jesus.
Every time you say something rational to them like “No one obeys him” they swat you away and reach again for Trump, the Precioussss. Precious, precious hate.
Back to reality: WHY on God’s EARTH would anyone care what music videos he posts? Kayfabe: You are psychologically involved. Co-Dependent. RULED. Ruled by Love of the Trump, HATE of the Trump. Instead of being a rational human, you’re a deranged jackal, a wendigo, fading away, exhausted, chasing him. He is your Idol, your god, outside yourself.
“Donald Trump is becoming so erratic and unstable.”
As here. If he posted Katy Perry or the Teletubbies, they’d say the same. ANYTHING he posts, does, eats, sneezes, causes this same hebephrenic reaction. But he’s the dumb one and you’re the smart one.
“they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing.”
He added, “In fact, many Ships are headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load up, compliments of the IRGC”He’s telling you his plan TO YOUR FACE, and the IRGC and Europe just go, “Nah. We want to make you filthy rich and for us to collapse instead.” Okay. Heck, if I was Trump I’d PAY the IRGC to act like this.
• Turkey Could Be ‘Next Iran’ For Israel: US Envoy Scrambles To Calm Tensions (MEE)
So they’re placing this on deck. This was like Luongo’s intuition when Syria folded up for no reason at all one Friday afternoon and Israel/Turkey were smashed together. Btw, Russia needs this. Turkey is a +100 traitor, and a reasonable non-double crossing govt there would really help world peace. Remember: Russia got him out of the (US) coup and he immediately stabbed them. Ah! The Turks! So much potential!
“• Netanyahu Left ‘Personally Stunned’ By Trump Rhetoric On Lebanon Strikes (ZH)What can I say? It’s Trump so they will “just make s–t up” and post fake AI about it.
“• Will This Atlantic Hit Piece Be the Final Straw? (Margolis)Did Kash even have to feed garbage to some inside mole to create this? Probably not, he looks really busy. So nobody cared if he took a jet joyride, so they move from what is real to “any fantasy that causes idiots to react”. I mean, same as Trump for example: if he’s so guilty then why do you have to keep making things up? I mean, use his ACTUAL CRIMES then, right?
Kavanaugh inset: So at college parties he put alcohol in the alcohol? Oh no. Was your lobster too buttery? The punch at High School and College parties is not Shirley Temple, you know. It’s meant to cause people to make out.
As no one is ever discredited, no Sachs, no Asian Guy, this keeps happening. As no one is arrested and fined, this will happen until the sun burns out. But that’s YOU, not them. If YOU stopped buying it, they’d stop vending.
“Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was seriously injured. Why would he have a beeper meant for Hezbollah operatives?”
Are you high? Israel would give an explosive pager to every Iranian worldwide, all the children, and every Muslim too. That’s not a bar. And Vance’s statement he’s decoding doesn’t need to be decoded. Seems very straightforward to me. UN President would say the same thing about the US in Peru: it’s not your country, stay out, I don’t care what you invested there.
“All of the calumnies thrown at Israel by the Groyper-Tucker Carlson wing of the party are lies. There have been no Israeli attacks on Christian sites,”
Also high. As far as I know, all of this is true and worse.
“The Liberty attack was a mistake; Israel apologized and paid reparations.” I do not remember this, as it is considered still in contention today. Likewise, every action taken on that day indicates it was no mistake. Even AS a mistake, they strafed people in the waters, a pointless, over-the-top war crime they’re famous for.
“The GOP has a Jew-hating problem imported from the Left/Muslim nexus.”
Huh? The Left is FAAAAAMOUSLY anti-Israel, and the moles of the pro-Israel are reported in the GOP (in fact both for both, complex). That’s one. Second, your argument is that the GOP loves imitating WOKE? That’s their long term M.O.? Yeah, no. If ever true, that’s not been true since Woke appeared, +10 years.
“But if Vance is the nominee and he can’t get his head around Israel as a good country and not a genocider or starver of the millions, then he will lose some of the MAGA base.”
Yes, but he will gain many more, as everyone hates their guts except Ellison, Congress, and this guy. So please, Bauer, take this position which will continue to highlight Israel and their constant attack on our nation and sovereignty. It will do far more good to have Vance “Learn but quick” and put a spotlight on you, instead of receding to the shadows of influence and limping on.
“It had a purely malicious purpose to embarrass or disrupt the Court.”
All paid for. All planned. All written, signed, published. Look to Bezmanov’s “Demoralization Campaign” the “Long March Through the Institutions”. ALL government must be discredited as weak, helpless, out of touch for the Communist Revolution 2.0 to work. To paint Tsar Nick as weak, against the people, etc, when really it was hundreds of traitorous, bribed, gold-hungry officials who acted tirelessly against Russian interests. …In order to collapse it and devour it for eg Britain. Then all those bribed, not only lived in a s—thole ’til 2002, but ALSO were first against the wall in the 10 year Civil war AND up against the wall by Stalin if they missed stage 1. …But if they weren’t feckless, self-serving morons they wouldn’t be bribed in the first place, you can always find some everywhere. Globalists depend on it.
So there is no “Leak”, they were under a concerted, paid, attack, meant to damage, collapse the U.S. and kill all of us inside, as many as possible. As has been going extremely well these 40 or 80 years.
In another way, it’s the “Democratiation” of all institutions. That is, we don’t want special, high, unique men there, we want “Everyman”. The man on the street, idiot, biased, do-nothings like Katanji.
This is true of the church, or of engineering, or street sweepers, or anything. Home Depot would die if a guy in the racks knew what a 2×4 was, while they jump on you at the doorway to ask if they can help using knowledge they don’t have. Look buddy – I – Know better where the screen door hardware is than you do: you started looking it up on your phone. Which, being AI, will also lie. (Several times)“… they embraced the business model of Howard Stern and Jerry Springer: saying and doing increasingly outrageous things.”
Democratiazation of media, etc. Clicks. Short term vs long.
Speaking of, looks like they all left Fox News…to be Fox News. Huh? Yeah, same Murdoch, MI6 money before and after. Go through the shell companies. So it’s a sheep-dipping. Very clever. Blackwater changes their company name every 18 months, but are the same murderers.
“Then, when they lost their jobs and had to get clicks to make money,”
Neither needed anything: He’s a multi-millionaire and she’s married to a British Lord. They do this completely voluntarily. They could spend their existing fortunes to do the #Opposite if they wished. Tim Pool “Loses” money every day taking the hard road.
“• Marjorie Taylor Greene Amplifies Viral Doubts About Butler (ZH)
Key item: they suddenly give non-stop coverage for free. Yeah, no, those are all paid, staged. Any real person they’d give the RFK treatment to. “Greene” Certainly something odd happened that day. Again, my take is, it was a real attempt, Cheeto found out about it and turned it. However, what’s he supposed to say? That he was supposed to go official when the official USSS are the ones staging it? That Curran informed him, but had to play along, and that Comperatore wasn’t supposed to die but they got multiple shooters in? Trump shouldn’t have played cute, he should have played the patsy and got shot, referring to the Derp State so they could laugh and call him crazy, claim it wasn’t happening, and not have the double-cross that caught them in the act? And him to the Presidency?
Yeah, we’ve been doing that since 1913 and losing, thanks. Let’s be so moral and honest we lose everything: good idea. Works in every war. Not a single bullet may go astray. Not a single man may die.
“• West Still Wants To Seize Ukrainian Black Soil, Russian Oil – Zakharova (TASS)
It exists, so yes. Humans like valuable things. Who knew? Also, there is no “West”. WHO wants this? Or do they NOT want it? Because if Ukraine is online how are they going to get that multi-million, multi-year famine they’ve got planned? They need it NOT working, so they can kill far more people. Farmers in France and Holland for example.
Feynman: I should have said not that the universe WAS the Ether, the ripples there making the illusion of matter, that is just yet another paradigm and metaphor: the thing IS what it IS. Whether we call it Tiny Rocks or Strings or Ether, we are abstracting, making a mental model that is not the real thing. Sometimes this needs to be said.
“Europeans Pay The Most For Public Transport
Thank God for public transport. I think Sargon said it was $25 for 20 miles?
“8 Of The Top 10 ‘Most Surveilled’ Cities Are Asian
Indian cities dominate the rankings, with Hyderabad (79 cameras per 1,000 people) leading globally…Like everywhere else there are cameras, women are gang-raped in the streets while the cameras are running. …No one does anything. Example: London as well. More Cameras = More Crime, year after year after year. Women then vote for it again rather than defense.
@DrD
How bad does Trump have to behave before you admit to yourself that he is a bad guy?
Rape and murder little girls?
Invite adversaries to a peace negotiation and murder them when they enter the room?
Get elected by promising peace to a war weary nation, and then deliberately launching the most destructive war in human history that will not only finish off the slow death of the people who voted him in, but kill billions of others in the engineered collapse of advanced civilization?
How about giving himself top billing over Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace? I can see the monument to himself in my minds eye. A field of smoldering ashes and rotting corpses stretching to the horizon in all directions, and smack in the middle of it all the name TRUMP so enormous that it’s peeling faux-gold paint is visible from space.
If you keep defending his travesties you’re going to end up believing your own bullshit so devoutly that your own little name will appear in fine print somewhere in the credits. It will be in print so small it would take an electron microscope to read it, but at least the name will be spelled in full and not just a three-letter abbreviation: “Doctor Death”. Your mother will be so proud.
Markets prematurely may celebrate, but the next phase likely will be more, bigger war
Trump’s tariff war will be seen in retrospect to be peanuts to the threatened strike on China’s supply lines.Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su
We are entering upon a new stage to this war on Iran. It may not be what many expect (especially in financial markets). Yesterday Trump said inter alia that Hormuz was open and that Iran had agreed never to close Hormuz again; that Iran, with the help of the U.S., has removed, or is removing, all sea mines, and that U.S. and Iran would work together to extract Iran’s highly enriched uranium (HEU). Trump wrote:
“We’re going to get it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and start excavating with big machinery … We’ll bring it back to the United States very soon”.
The President said earlier on Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over Iran’s HEU stockpile.
None of these claims were true. Either Trump was confabulating (holding to fantasies, albeit believing them to be true); or he was manipulating markets. If the latter – it was a success. Oil fell and markets soared. Reportedly, 20 minutes before the claim that the Strait of Hormuz was open and would never close again, a $760 million short on oil was placed… Someone ‘made a pile’.
All this turbulence created much confusion. Trump also said a new round of talks and an likely agreement with Iran would happen very soon — even during this weekend. The likelihood of talks is false. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reports that “the American side has been informed via the Pakistani mediator that we [Iran] do not agree to a second round [of talks]”.
From the beginning of the mooted Pakistani-mediated ceasefire, Iran was supposed to allow the daily passage of a limited number of ships. However, this was always subject to Iranian conditions for transit passage.
The net result of Trump’s manipulations has been to make Iran re-assert its existing conditions on Hormuz, on its stocks of HEU, and on its ‘right to enrich’ in tighter, less flexible definition.
The Islamabad talks had already showed Iran that its 10-point framework — initially affirmed by Trump to form a “workable basis” for beginning of direct negotiations with Iran — was no such thing. The Iranian framework was brushed aside towards the end of the day, as the U.S. pivoted to its key touchstones for its intended victory roll: Iran abandoning uranium enrichment in perpetuity; relinquishing to the U.S. its stock of 430kg of 60% enriched uranium, and the opening of Hormuz — free of tolls.
In short, the U.S. position was simply a continuation of Israel’s long-established demands. This added experience of Friday’s U.S. deceit will only have served to confirm Iran’s conviction to be continually on their guard and to view the contrived confusion as a possible U.S. diversion from planned military escalation.
Iran, in refusing these key demands, triggered the U.S.’ sudden, end of day, pulling of the plug on Islamabad, and thus pointed up the pivotal context behind the U.S. ‘walk out’: Netanyahu was frustrated. Very frustrated. “As [Netanyahu] tells it, ‘the media’, that convenient all-purpose ‘villain’, has managed to cement the narrative that Israel lost the [Iran] war”, Ravit Hecht has written in Haaretz:
“Not many people understand the power of short, sharp and unequivocal messaging – better than Netanyahu … With time running short and his international standing eroding – Netanyahu is desperate to deliver at least one unequivocal success story from the ambitious goals he proclaimed in the first week of the war – when hubris and adrenaline still seeped into every government briefing”.
“Regime change in Tehran? No longer on the table. The vague goal of “creating conditions” for such a change has evaporated. Ending Iran’s ballistic missile program now seems wildly unrealistic; Netanyahu’s ministers acknowledge that as well. As for Iran’s network of regional proxies, its influence may become subtler, but few believe it can be dismantled altogether”.
“That leaves one card still in play: uranium”.
“Netanyahu’s circle hopes that, as in past crises, mounting pressure might compel Iran to export its enriched uranium stockpile. Netanyahu is staking everything on that outcome – or, on the possibility that renewed war could still destabilise the regime”.
This is why Vice-President Vance — who was almost hourly taking instruction from the White House or Tel Aviv— wound up the talks prematurely. A short sharp victory messaging on which Netanyahu’s future depends clearly was not about to emerge from the talks.
U.S. Constitutional U.S. lawyer, Robert Barnes (who is a friend of Vance), reports in an interview that:
“Trump began exhibiting signs of early dementia in September 2025 … He frequently confabulates, he routinely loses his temper and unleashes screaming rants and he is incapable of doing critical thinking. And – according to Barnes, in this state – Trump genuinely believes that the U.S. has vanquished Iran and does not comprehend the massive economic damage that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is doing to the global economy”.
In short, Barnes says that Trump’s delirium that Iran is at the point of capitulation reflects his impaired mental state — an impairment of understanding ‘reality’ (a panglossian interpretation that Secretary Pete Hegseth does his best to reinforce).
Like Netanyahu, Trump likely believes too, that pressure and more pressure on Iran could yield the triumphantVictory trophy of (figuratively) waving aloft 430 Kg of enriched uranium — either compelled to be given up by economic pressure, or alternatively dramatically seized on the ground by U.S. forces.
In the face of this crisis at the heart of the White House, Vice-President Vance reportedly (Barnes again) has been working feverishly behind the scenes to arrange a new meeting with Iran in Islamabad – despite the political process being deliberately impaired through massive Israeli air and ground attacks in Lebanon killing and injuring up to 1,000 persons (almost all civilians) during the ceasefire negotiations, as well as continued attacks since Trumpsupposedly “prohibited” Israel from attacking Lebanon at the start of the Lebanon ceasefire two days ago.
However, after much toing-and-froing by Pakistan, with messages flowing in many directions, “last night, an Iranian military official said that Tehran had issued a final ultimatum to the U.S. that Iran was within an hour of starting a military operation and missiles strikes on Israeli forces attacking Lebanon, which [finally] forced Trump to declare a ceasefire in Lebanon”, albeit to great anger in Israel. Israeli officials were livid, complaining that they were only informed post hoc.
It isnot at all clear whether Israel will abide by it (they have already violated the ceasefire). Netanyahu, all Israel’s opposition leaders and a large majority of the Israeli public are untied in their desire for continued war.
The Islamabad talks failed firstly, because the gaps between the two sides were unbridgeable in a single session; and secondly, because the parties held different, and contradictory visions of the ground reality. The U.S., seemingly entered negotiations from the ‘hypothesis’ that the other party already was militarily destroyed and desperate.
Iran, by contrast, entered the talks with the conviction that it had emerged stronger than after the 12-day war. In their reading, this meant that the effect of the control of Hormuz and the Red Sea had not yet reached the stage at which the balance of pain could be said to be decisively in Iran’s favour — and certainly had not reached the point at which significant concessions from Iran might be appropriate.
What is likely to be the next stage? Well — more war. Bigger kinetic war with the focus likely to be on another massive series of missile strikes on mostly Iran’s civil infrastructure (since the Israeli/U.S. target bank was never intended to outlast a few days of strikes).
On 14 April, Russia’s Security Council warned that “ceasefire negotiations could be a cover used by Washington to prepare for a ground war [too] … The United States and Israel can use the peace talks to prepare for a ground operation against Iran, as the Pentagon continues to increase U.S. troop numbers in the region”.
Trump has now added a new front, intended to further maximize economic pain on Iran via sanctions and blockades. China is the primary target because, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent avers, China has been Iran’s biggest customer for discounted oil. Bessent claims the new dimension to be the financial equivalent to the earlier U.S./Israeli kinetic (military) strikes on Iran. He called it part of “Operation Economic Fury” — aimed at cutting off Iran’s revenue streams, especially from illicit oil sales and smuggling networks.
Bessent also said that the U.S. would impose secondary sanctions on any countries, companies, or financial institutions that continue buying Iranian oil or that allow Iranian money to flow through their accounts. He described this as a “very stern measure”. Bessent explicitly warned that if Iranian funds are proven to be moving through any bank’s accounts, the U.S. will apply secondary sanctions.
If this announcement is intended to coerce China into strong-arming Iran to capitulate to Israel and the U.S., then it constitutes an egregious misreading of the ground in both Iran and China. It will likely backfire on Trump.
This will constitute another economic front in the war — and extend the economic war to a global level.
Is it likely that China and Russia will not understand this statement as anything other than another U.S. attempt (after the Venezuela blockade) to squeeze China’s energy supply lines. Hormuz still remains open to Chinese vessels. Trump’s blockade attempt was the initial squeeze — and now he threatens to sanction Chinese banks and trade.
Trump’s tariff war will be seen in retrospect to be peanuts to the threatened strike on China’s supply lines.
Markets prematurely may celebrate, but the next phase likely will be more, bigger war
Evil is as evil does
“
Get elected by promising peace to a war weary nation, and then deliberately launching the most destructive war in human history that will not only finish off the slow death of the people who voted him in, but kill billions of others in the engineered collapse of advanced civilization?
“The term “unintended consequences” is an unfortunate misnomer. And an outright lie right there on the face of it. To assign the reason for an event to “unintended consequence” is as absurd as claiming, in writing, that an effect did not have a cause. It just happened, that’s all?
Of course the consequence was intended. That’s what the word “consequence” fucking means!
There are accidents, also of course, and Force Majeure, and even Acts of God, but those aren’t unintended either. All of them were intended.
The arguments (and dismissive side-stepping, excuses and misdirection) are all about who did the intending.
Let’s give God and random accident a temporary free pass, for the sake of this discussion at the moment, and concentrate on point #last. SOMEBODY intended the bad stuff to happen, and were happy when it did.
The collapse of civilization, for example, or the wars that keep popping up all around poor old innocent Israel, and the Epstein Files.
Just because things went South without blame being appropriately assigned is no valid reason for not having a look at who MIGHT have intended them to go bad. Cui Bono, ya know?
Did Trump and his war monger friends benefit from the slaughter of innocent children in Gaza? How about in Ukraine, where I hear one can buy child meat, sex slaves and adrenochrome on the blackest of markets if one knows where to ask and has legally protected connections. Huge profits in the oil markets are another miraculous windfall for some even more than they were an “unintended consequence” for everyone else.
Those might be good places to start looking for unintended consequences, if finding true answers is one’s intention.
@ DBS:
Among other things, a minion is a servant, a submissive follower devoted to doing the bidding of its master. It slavishly obeys its leader. A synonym for minion is henchman. Satan has an army of minions (Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 12:7-9). These are fallen angels (Jude 1:6) or demons
D may be a minion
Connecting the dots.
I saw 6 male students siting in a waiting area, during a school break time.
All of them were on their phones. No one was communicating with their classmates.
Therefore, I concluded that only people who have grey hair read TAE. 🙂
————
Thousands of jobs going unfulfilled
The Canadian labor market is currently facing a significant challenge with 529,700 job vacancies remaining unfilled for seven months, a figure that has not changed since March 2024.https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/home
Apprenticeship
https://www.workbc.ca/explore-training-and-education/trades-training/about-apprenticeship
Apprenticeship programs combine paid on-the-job training with learning in a classroom or shop setting. In most programs, you’ll spend about 85 per cent of the time on the job. Most programs take four years to complete.In B.C., apprenticeship training is delivered through a partnership of SkilledTradesBC, public or private training institutions, and employers.
To complete your training and become qualified as a certified tradesperson in B.C., you must:
Complete the required on-the-job hours and the in-school training.
Pass the examinations.
Earn the recommendation of your sponsoring employer.
Learn more about apprenticeship from SkilledTradesBC.
https://skilledtradesbc.ca/
———–
Attack sub USS Boise scuttled after only one patrol — 10 years ago
It’s been docked for repairs for a decade, costing the taxpayer $800 million — a poster child for the Navy’s procurement issues
The Navy inactivated the USS Boise attack submarine earlier this month, canceling its overhaul after spending $800 million to complete less than 25% of the vessel’s needed repairs. The cost of the full overhaul had ballooned from $1.2 billion to roughly $3 billion — nearly the cost of a new submarine altogether.
That pricey, nail-in-coffin decision capped off maintenance delays that had sidelined the Boise for over a decade — more than one-third of its career.
Trump doesn’t just believe himself to be bigger than Jesus, his hireling IDF good squad is taking out the competition to make sure that he stays that way.
https://x.com/ytirawi/status/2045851392527458672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Rejecting Christianity because Evangelicals are deeply racist genocidal killers and the Vatican organizes and protects pedophiles is not a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. (everybody gut level understands that you shouldn’t throw out the baby when disposing of dirty bathwater.)
The plan all along, the whole idea in the first place, was to get rid of the baby.
The bathwater is just cover.
Some headlines from Iran
DBS: You seem to be mistaking different things.
1) Germany IS GOING to invade Czechoslovakia.
2) I WANT Germany to invade Czechoslovakia.
3) I can UNDERSTAND why Germany WOULD invade Czechoslovakia.
4) These are the RESULTS of Germany invading Czechoslovakia.These are all very different things, and saying Germany can, will, why, and what will happen is not an approval, anymore than I approve or disapprove of Genghis Khan or King Edward. They are irrelevant to me as salt because the MORAL standard has no bearing on what anyone will do (clearly) nor is anyone asking me (clearly) nor if I spend my time focused on that instead will it make any difference at all (clearly).
But it CAN waste all our valuable time and very limited energy in a fast environment to spend 90% of our time looking at our belly buttons and lamenting that the world isn’t perfect, especially while we’re all very safely not going to lift a finger to resist. I mean, are you flying to Gaza, Iran, Donesk to resist? I’m not.
Besides to even ASK whether what is happening is moral, I have to understand WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THE FIRST PLACE, and it’s not “Aliens landed” and “Everyone was born evil, evilly Dr. Evil”. Nations have INTERESTS. They act a lot like humans, but not entirely because:
1) They’re immortal
2) They have the issue of “The many vs the few” in every act, unlike an atomized self
3) There is no higher law or morality constraining any of them, which we local humans take for granted and get accustomed to. Therefore every day they wake up in a hut waiting for the Barbarians to sweep over the hill…and they will.
4) Because reasons, every OTHER government and individual is a psychopath, coldly calculating their own interest, and turning on you always, both fast and slow.So the only way I can tell if ONE nation is behaving morally is also to know what all the other nations are secretly doing to it. Which no one does, not even the nations, not even the nation DOING the bad things, usually.
This level of poking while remaining hidden and denying is now elevated to the highest art now, and more millions are killed with the deniable poking than the actual wars. Yet if anyone takes a swing, they still run to teacher like a bunch of sissies and whine and tell on the big bad meany. This is of course, far MORE evil than any war (as well as evidenced by it killing more people) and can never be fixed until the secret actors take such a thrashing they lack the power to try for a generation. That may mean open war, and historically does.
Now WHO is WHO is what we’re trying to figure out, but to my mind what you’re saying is “I have all the secret information on earth, all the Intel that 250 sovereign nations would kill to get their hands on, and — I — Decide who is right and wrong, and — I — have decided what all the resources, actions, plans, and strategies on the board are. Nothing is hidden from me at. And from my perspective everyone is stupid and doing it wrong. All 250 nations are illogical.”
OR: Maybe THEY all have access to a thousand terabytes of strategic information we do NOT have, and the best we can hope is to comment and keep up WITHOUT wasting 90% of our time coming to and bantering moral situations, which IS a good use of our time since it allows us to predict the markets, local conditions such as food, recessions and so on, which can move our daily lives.
So what I hear is, it’s 1939 and I am NOT allowed to say “Germany will invade Czechoslovakia. I can understand their motives. This is what will happen because of it. And because I’m not going to stop them, or even if I AM planning to stop them, I can get out of the way by having this knowledge and discussion.” And when I can’t say that, also you’re essentially encouraging my, our deaths. I remember having this same discussion during Covid.
Everyone knew these four things in all history up to 2016, then suddenly history and logic all vanished.
Now we just continue in a frenzy of determined “Not Knowing” and “Pretending not to notice.” Before 2016 that was known to be the condition of an Ostrich, and not to work very well. Even if you declare me not allowed to identify national motives for geopolitical actions, I intend to anyway, because I DO notice.
But you are too: you are grabbing the first “Motive” handed to you by Fox, CNN, NPR, and BBC. You’ve just forgotten because, as part of planning this, they pre-planted that motive inside your mind to detonate and keep you from noticing the real motive, now.
Things like “They are trying to cause WWIII and tear the U.S. apart” and since there is ALREADY a war on, the best we can hope for is to retreat to Fortress America — same as Putin retreated to fortress Russia — and try to stay solvent (make money) and fix our nation without so many traitors sabotaging it daily, killing millions of Americans.”
That is a very CLEAR motive, and a very CLEAR world reality right now. In fact, if we do not admit that, and that we need to act VERY BIG to stop it, there is a very good chance we’ll all die and be ruled by the very evil you fear.
There are times in a war when you have a punch a guy and not be nice. There’s no time. And that’s even if you are going to drag him out of the building he’s burning and saving his own life.
D:
It is very clear to me you have an attitude not worthy of consumption that is expressed daily. At this point I zoom past most.
Repent
Regress
Find your soul and improve your attitudeUS Navy fleet tracker updated today.
The USS Bush carrier group is taking the long way around Africa towards Iran, now near Madagascar.
The burnt-out USS Ford carrier group went back through the Suez canal and is now is the northern Red Sea, away from Yemen.
No US ships are listed in the Persian Gulf.
A couple comments from below the update, about the unlikeliness of a Marine Expeditionary brigade forming (they’ll stick with boardings), and how “If the USN is too unwilling or afraid of convoy escort duty, Iran wins.”
With neither the Boxer ARG nor the Iwo Jima ARG advancing toward the Middle East, I no longer foresee a Marine Expeditionary Brigade forming up. The Tripoli ARG will continue to prosecute smaller missions such as boardings.
Until the USN provides real escorts for non-Iranian tankers or the Iranian regime is changed out, nothing will really change. As along as the non-Iranian tankers are too afraid to cross the Strait, Iran “wins.” It doesn’t matter if we deploy 10 carrier groups there. If the USN is too unwilling or afraid of convoy escort duty, Iran wins.
https://news.usni.org/2026/04/20/usni-news-fleet-and-marine-tracker-april-20-2026
Official pushback against US Navy food shortages and substandard meals.
The chief of naval operations pushed back Monday against reports that sailors were experiencing food shortages and substandard meals aboard several vessels stationed in the Middle East.
Adm. Daryl Caudle told reporters during a media roundtable at Sea-Air-Space 2026 in Maryland that food quantity and quality were meeting Navy standards.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2026/04/20/cno-denies-reports-
can the case be made that Greater Israel and Manifest Destiny are dovetailed together?
Read 1 Samuel 15
ask the question why some force is beating the antisemitism drum so loudlyWhere does your personal philosophy fit into the mosaic of this moment?
Do you have need to justify your position or do you take a just position?Yes and the Message is: “We have no way to hurt you at all, ever, in the United States, not even a bit, or we would have done so already. Also We’re planning on making you and your GOP state of Texas, incredibly rich!” Very chilling. Houston is terrified of all the new Cadillacs they’ll buy with horns on the hood.
For me this doesn’t hold water. Iran is perched on the moral high ground; their country viciously attacked with the intention of first subjugating, stealing its resources, and later destroying it. When Trump threatened to bomb all Iranian bridges and power plants, the locals formed human chains around them in defiance. Checkmate! Why do you think Trump cracked on his ultimatum? This is pretty strong evidence that the war has united Iranians like never before, no matter their previous grievances with the ruling clergy.
On the other hand, the US is divided. The majority are against the war and angry at Trump for breaking his election promises. Anyone with any sense or moral compass knows the US acted treacherously and like a terrorist state. With each passing day Trump broadcasts his madness on X, and the US navy sabotages their ships. Disunity and chaos are on every side, in DC and NATO.
As I wrote previously, what would happen if Iran decided to sink all our naval ships, especially the carriers? And what would happen if Iran suddenly activated a bunch of sleeper cells in the US, blowing up infrastructure, killing innocent citizens? You know exactly what would happen: the news cycle would bludgeon us over the head with the “horror” 24/7. Differences would be put aside, American flags would pop up everywhere like dandelions, suddenly everyone is a patriot ready to defend the homeland. Nope, that would be a strategic blunder on Iran’s part.
As for the increase in Texas oil revenue, someone always benefits financially from war, see one Oskar Schindler. Should we rejoice in these gains knowing that the reason for our boon was the destruction of others? I think that is where the terms “dirty money” and “blood money” come from. In this case, Texas may not be the direct cause for the Iran war, but I would be very cautious about proudly driving that new Cadillac around like your company just went IPO. I know it’s just a turn of phrase to make a point, but it sounds cold because it lacks any moral or ethical underpinnings.
Map showing where the Iranian container ship TOUSKA was disabled and seized by the US Navy.
Iranian news source announced that “Another Iranian ship is passing through the Strait of Hormuz“, on its way to India. It’s a container ship named “Shoja 2”.
I wonder if it could be bait, for somehow targeting a USN ship which tries to seize it?
(translated from Persian)
According to Tasnim news agency, a cargo ship with the flag of Iran and the name Shoja 2 is passing through the Strait of Hormuz despite the siege announced by the US terrorist army.
The ship leaves the port of Shahid Rajaee near Bandar Abbas and continues its route to the port of Candella in India
Adm. Daryl Caudle told reporters during a media roundtable at Sea-Air-Space 2026 in Maryland that food quantity and quality were meeting Navy standards.
The worst of our fears have been realized. The lives of those sailors are in dire jeopardy.
The Iranian container ship Shoja 2 (formerly the Hanne Christine of Norway) has a length of 90 meters and is passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It can be tracked here –
Article from Tasnim News Agency in Iran –
(translated from Persian)The Lloyd’s List data show that at least 26 of the ships of Iran’s shadow fleet have crossed the U.S. blockade line.
These statistics show that, contrary to the Pentagon’s claim, there is a continuous flow of the movement of the shadow fleet into and out of the Persian Gulf
@DrD
These [the 4 points as you listed them]are all very different things, and saying Germany can, will, why, and what will happen is not an approval, anymore than I approve or disapprove of Genghis Khan or King Edward. They are irrelevant to me as salt because the MORAL standard has no bearing on what anyone will do (clearly) nor is anyone asking me (clearl y) nor if I spend my time focused on that instead will it make any difference at all (clearly).
Ahh! The morality of pragmatism. You’re a pragmatist. That’s distinctly and almost admirably higher than outright amorality, but still well shy of the safer ground of standing up for the good and opposing the bad, on principle alone.
I think we can work with pragmatism as a start point.
In which case let me pose the cardinal rule of pragmatic self-interest, which is: Does a particular tactically executed strategy work?
If yes, then rinse and repeat. If not then change the fucking strategy before it makes the situation even worse and get’s one seriously killed or something just as unpleasant, and even less workable.
The Empire’s strategy of doubling down on the evil is not pragmatic. The Empire is losing ground, treasure and friends faster than a rattlesnake ina buffalo stampede. Time to re-think the genocidally rapacious colonialism strategy, maybe, while we’ve still got a home to scuttle back to and defend. Bad time to double down the dirty deeds. Good time to bargain in good faith instead of the old S.O.P. of betraying suckers because not only have the suckers wised up, they’ve ganged up, and are literally kicking our ass.
Perspective. As a freshout infantry officer, I had one troop in my command that participated in My Lai. I beg you to take a quick look.
@ charles my hope and prayer is that you are whole. I know some who are not. Here in NW Florida the excursion into southeast asia still has not ended.
Did Anyone Notice?
Yesterday, there was a report that Germany was now the largest financial supporter of Ukraine.
So, it isn’t the US anymore!
So, Trump has successfully shifted the Ukrainian war costs back on Europeans.
Those Texas Cadillacs:
Just west of Amarillo, Texas, is Cadillac Ranch, where 10 vintage Cadillac cars are vertically planted nose down into the ground, ass end up.
This is Amarillo’s most famous landmark!I remember the times I drove by these 10 famously planted Cadillacs on the interstate, while driving to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on my way to the coal mines on the Navajo Reservation, in Window Rock, Arizona (were Dr. John, once practiced).
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