He will attack, sooner or later. Stronger and bigger.
He is Epsteined, he will follow Natanyahu orders.
Waiting for France, Britain and some other 50 countries from NATO and Japan, Korea, Philippines, Australia, Saudis, Emirates, even Ukraine and Armenia to attack Hormuz. Not all of them have large warships and not many of them, but together they do have a houndred strong flotilla, if they are pushed by the USA. The rest will play supportive role, even calling it "humanitarian aid" or anything similar - sharing intelligence, arms, ammunition, drones.
More states will be joining this coalition, as they are gradually pushed into taking sides. At some stage India will join them. Black and white total war logic of the West against the East. But also bribery, corruption of Western political elites, with outright blackmail by Epstein - all elites from around the world were on his island and are compromised.
Macron and Starmer initially refused to support the USA, closing airspace for bombers. Now their aircraft carrier and destroyers are nearing Gulf of Oman with Hormuz.
The most notable in opposition was Spanish prime minister, he was quickly sidelined. Trump said they should be removed from NATO. Spain joined French flotilla. So it all comes to theatre.
Same with Germany, they are also now actively participating after an initial objection. Trump withdrawing 5000 troops from Germany was good enough to bend them. But we have to remember their prime minister saying at the beginning "Israel is doing for us, Europe, what we suppose be doing to Iran".
France is saying they want to lead opening of Hormuz without NATO logistics. But the great majority of this 50 strong country coalition are NATO.
France is outside NATO Nuclear Planning Group. They can act independently, on a sole order of Macron - the Napoleon 5th. He is also Epsteined, as seen from files.
Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is nuclear capable, with up to 30 Rafale also able to carry 100-300k nukes. Whether they have them onboard or can be supplied fast through one of the French bases in the Middle East is an open question.
Trump is happy to wait as long as it takes, for the French/British/Italian/Danish flotilla to cross into the Gulf of Oman to be sunk by mines and missiles from Iran, to have a casus belli and return his 3 air crafts groups close to Hormuz. But also any of some 40 countries coalition can enter war directly, introduce conscription and send ground troops to Middle East.
Each of this flotilla has around 10 warships. So at some stage 40-60 strong group fully loaded with any weapons, including laser and the other newest experimental ones.
The Hormuz Alliance can have hundreds support boats from many countries.
None of them are gagging to throw themselves into Trump's fire. God knows why. The europeans play the same game as the US. Find some not-real people to do the blood, guts and glory stuff. The wheels seem to have come off that game.
Nobody wants to die in a nuclear fire I guess - the US does not have that much problems with bombing people into ash. Nobody touched its territory yet. The question is - what is the best path to avoid nuclear fire? When one side plays escalate to deescalate the other may habe no choice eventually.
I dunno. Seems like some of these Evangelical types think they're going to survive the nuclear apocalypse - or - that Jesus will descend from Heaven and take them with him. A lot of this hinges on "Israel" - I get your point, but just sayin....
You ran this simulation hogwash last week. It does not improve in credibility in the retelling, Spectre. But I love the idea of a european cavalry riding to the ailing US's aid.
All you doubters, just hang on for the real western forces to turn up and save the day!
I'm afraid to say your "simulation" is dead in the water, having in mind the fact that the Saudis have learnt to play the "double-dealing" hedging game and they don't appear to share UAE's death wish...
It's just another typical dream state scenario that commenters like to post as if it has meaning. Naturally, it too has starting a nuclear war as the punchline to demonstrate how achievable without any sacrifice, the vison is.
I. do not see any attack any time soon if ever ,but for some phony face saving attempt
and I doubt he intended the one he claims knowing full well this used excuse was always going to be available to him since this pressure has been ongoing since the so called cease fire.
Totally agree. It's almost every day the attack is just about to happen, but never does. They face a serious sunk cost zugswang and have been after the first week of war, having failed to dislodge the government. Seems a lot like the miscalculation vis a vis Russia and the sanctions from hell. Hubris is a dangerous strategy for Empire.
Overturning the governments used to be American recipe for ruling, but those days are over - not only that the countries today learned a lot from history, but USA is not what it used to be, and Iran is not my poor Serbia...
A socialist, successful Yugoslavia simply could not be allowed to exist after "the end of history" happened. Such a shame, and most Americans and westerners don't know the real story, as is the case with the vast majority of US/NATO regime change operations throughout and following Cold War 1.0.
I couldn't find the documentary I was looking for. A guy probably your age put together a really good 2hr long documentary using footage on the ground from the time of Tito. Of course YouTube/Google make it impossible to find. I did find this one, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm-lfVKMNxg
It's like World War III: nuclear fire, NATO and the EU rearming, Russia invading the EU, its economy collapsing, a million dead, etc., in the last four years. There are enough flaws in the EU to swallow it all, seed and all, every month.
My latest theory is that they're going to Kubrick a land assault. Probably use some remote location in one of the Arab/Gulf Monarchy satrapies and pull out all the stops, from AI enhancements to a massive media push. This is the meme and photo-op (and open corruption) presidential administration. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they tried some Hollywood approach and then denied the Iranians' denials after it hits the airwaves and cable TV.
A large and broad multi-national naval coalition coming together and attacking Iran is just not going to happen.
The leadership class of a lot of those nations you mentioned are pretty dumb, but they aren't THAT stupid.
If everything worked perfectly and all of them agreed to a common commander and plan, it would still take months for it to come together, cost billions directly and tens of billions more indirectly and risk massive losses in equipment and men.
All of which could be saved by shutting up and paying a transit toll of maybe 1~2% of the value of their cargo.
By going to war they would all be paying $10 for a roll of the dice that would pay out maybe $2 for the winner, crap out and you lose it all.
In general, I would tend to agree with you. However, our political class in the West is totally compromised courtesy of Epstein and Pedo Island. The US doesn't call the shots: Tel Aviv does.
It won't matter to Netanyahu that 10s of thousands of goyim are killed. Not a bit: we're cattle, after all. But for those in charge, (Macron, Starmer, et al) well, having your pecadillos with teenage boys and girls revealed to the world at large is a for worse option than seeing those same 10s of thousands of your fellow countrymen and women killed. Psychopaths and sociopaths don't care.
And if Joe Pleb gets antsy, well, they'll unleash all those Israeli-trained police to beat the shit out of them when they do. Or they'll threaten to take their children away as they're now doing in the Netherlands.
I'd like to believe that common sense night prevail somewhere, but common sense is the great oxymoron of our time, and apparently rarer than hens' teeth, so all bets are off.
No matter how important the Epstein network was, and is, I think you’re grossly overestimating the power of bribery and blackmail.
Motivations of carrot (positive reward) and stick (negative punishment) will always have logical and mathematical limits.
As I mentioned above, on the bribery/reward side of the equation, no one is going to burn $5 to gain $1, and anyone foolish enough to do so gets eliminated from the game and quickly replaced with someone smarter.
On the blackmail/extortion side of the equation, if the possible punishment threatened is not as bad as the definite fate in store, then the blackmail scheme collapses. You can’t demand that the mark kill himself to avoid bankruptcy or the like.
Sure, there will be some people foolish enough to do that, but again, they will be quickly eliminated from the game and replaced with harder‑nosed operators.
Any leader or commander who demands that their subordinates destroy themselves to cover up his own crimes will himself be destroyed by those subordinates.
You are getting very close to attributing super‑natural black magic powers to the “Epstein class”. Psychopaths or not, they are not magicians. Psychopaths lose. They consistently and inevitably lose because they lack the real human super‑power of mutual cooperation.
The ultimate lesson of Jeffrey Epstein is that he lost. However exactly he died, he died in prison with his name reviled around the world.
What was his legacy?
The liar, the flim‑flam artist, and the confidence trickster may appear to win, but anything they build will always collapse and fail.
It’s the difference between the man with the post‑dated check who promises to pay you tomorrow, and the man who has gold, silver, meat and bread right here right now.
It’s the difference between the man who threatens to kill you and the man who actually kills, kills often, and kills well.
What we are witnessing right now is not the triumph of the Epstein class but their failure.
I upvoted both your comment and Asgard2208's. His point about the ethics (well, lack thereof) of vile garbage like Macron and Starmer is valid. They would happily send 10,000 of their men to be slaughtered by the Iranians to keep lurid videos of their antics on Epstein Island off the internet.
I think you're correct though that ultimately they don't have the power to commit to policies that would essentially destroy the political parties they head up. Europe's "leaders" are just like ours here in the US. Most of them are little more than actors hired by the real ruling class to pander to various factions among the masses. In fact, to me at least, they seem even more insubstantial than our own clownish hucksters. They are all also very unpopular for their disastrous mass migration policies and antagonizing Russia.
Trump's war against Iran is unpopular enough here in the US but direct European involvement would see mass demonstrations in Europe on an unprecedented scale and could easily collapse some of the weaker governments.
If everything worked perfectly and all of them agreed on a common commander... It would be simple; the task would be assigned to London, which is experienced in finding commanders on social media. If we're talking about officers with warfare experience, perhaps we should launch a consultation across the galaxy.
So I am neutral to your predictions - I agree with the contours of them for sure, though I think you are a bit maximalist on others. That being said, I do think that the forces gathering in Djibouti are poised to take out the Houthis - a good silver medal for Trump and a great way to distract from Iran. I cannot think of any other reason why so much accumulation has occurred there except to attack them - certainly the massive flotilla you mention would be capable of weathering Ansarallah's anti-ship capabilities, which are much less than Iran.
Take them out how? They are millions. Saudi Arabia invaded and fought for years. France will fight Houthis when Saudis, Israel, US couldn't do a thing?
The Saudis are ragingly incompetent and that is evidenced by any combat video between SA and Ansarallah you find. America is much less so, and having millions of soldiers doesn't mean America cannot keep them tied down, or meaningfully degrade them with a ground invasion and mass bombing campaign. I also never said it was a great idea, only that it is the only thing that makes sense given where the accumulation happens.
There are about four thousand American troops, fifteen hundred French troops. Several countries have a few hundred or so each configured for maritime response to Somalia piracy issues.
The American force could host a command and control operation but the troop totals are irrelevant for combat ground operations.
Djibouti has about ten thousand troops of its own. I don't think they are interested in going to war with the Houthis.
Of course. This text from SImplicius is wishful thinking. Just read bellow. The whole collective west wants this war and even more wars. They see that Russia and China do not dare to challenge the Western hegemony. They see how the Russian population is against the war, how frightened they are while dreaming about status shopping in Rome or Paris.
France, Italy, Belgium, they all support Israel while their consents are just cosmetics. Not to mention Americans, how they like when sub humans are being bombed. Just watch MSM and you'll see how bombs and destruction of some nations over see are just technical question. Waging war from the side of the West is always moral and justified for 90% of the respective populations. They love to win, they want victories. Iran is a bit difficult, but Cuba is maybe easy. They'll soon return to Iran anyway. Then Russia and China.
I expect USA/Israel to use nuclear weapons soon. Even on Russia.
REUTERS
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly canceled a vote on Thursday on a resolution seeking to end the Iran war unless President Donald Trump obtains Congress' authorization, two days after a similar measure advanced in the U.S. Senate.
The entire Western world wants this war and even more wars. Certainly, but only if it's led by the US or others. Cowardice never dictates the direction of the battlefield. Gone are the days of kings and nobles leading armies into battle. Now we'd be dealing with monarchs more concerned with not getting their $10,000 shoes filthy.
Not sure of your timeline for kinetic action is Spectre but one element that needs serious consideration is that the Hajj pilgrimage begins this weekend and the forces of Western aggression would do well to respect that, lest they seriously p!ss off 2 billion Muslims around the World.
Don't make me laugh. The French military are a complete joke and dare not go through the Red Sea because of the Houthis never mind attack Iran. As for the Germans their military is even more weak and pathetic.
But French/British/Danish/Italian flotilla has passed the Red Sea already 2 weeks ago.
Just recently HSS Dragon has also passed it, under cover of French Rafale.
All of them in the Arabian Sea, heading Oman Gulf.
Since the beginning of March French aircraft group have passed the Red Sea several times, cruising between Cyprus and Djibouti for refuelling, but possible also bringing more armaments closer to Iran theatre.
French 290 nuclear bombs are not a joke, probably half of them for marine use.
For those interested, the release of the film "The Liberation of the Strait of Hormuz" scripted by Taco and Rutte associated, produced by MGM and Gaumont, made in the Hollywood studios, with Admiral Greengobelwin and General Petecaptainamerica, commander of the midget naval force, in the main roles, is scheduled to premiere in all theaters worldwide on June 19, 3162.
I predict a false flag attack at one of the North American FIFA World Corruption Cup game sites. Probably targeted at one or more of the (likely NATO) countries that Trump and the Zionist cabal want to sign onto the next phase in their war on Iran.
Trump is just playing mind games, likely to give some more time to position the traitors inside Iran for the final blow.
Iran blinked on April 8 and when they didn't do a serious, **physical** purge of Zarif and the rest, and Trump knew from that moment on that he has them defeated, it has only been a matter of time and putting the operation together properly.
They were right on the cusp of turning the attrition war in their favor and then agreed on a ceasefire, while betraying their allies (missiles should have been raining on Israel every single day if the commitment to Hezbollah was real; but they didn't fire a single one). And that's after the very strange "restrained" way the active phase of the war itself was fought (they struck much more decisively inside Israel during the 12-day war). Once such lack of resolve is demonstrated, things go only one way.
Iran *was* launching ongoing and surprisingly successful strikes against Israel
With that in mind, it is worth noting some things about the timing of the ceasefire:
It happened just as the US and GCC States were beginning to run low on interceptors, and had to actively triage which incoming missiles and drones to actively engage
It happened within (I think) 48 hours of Iran successfully striking close to Israel’s (unacknowledged) nuclear weapon storage site
The timing was was *also* at a time when all parties were prepared to escalate to unrestricted strikes on oil infrastructure across the entire region
My “take” on this is that everyone realized that things were about to go seriously pear-shaped, and actually listened to some of the relatively sane voices in the region
The US knows that Iran can and would knock out major production, storage, and port facilities in the GCC if their own infrastructure was targeted in any meaningful way. This would turn a temporary-but-still-painful supply disruption in flow into a multi-year supply *destruction*, with much deeper global consequences. In that event, most of the world would (mostly) not blame Iran - they’d blame the US for starting this whole mess
The ceasefire benefitted Iran by giving them time to reorganize and dig out
The net/net?
The ceasefire benefitted both the US and Iran, though Israel was not exactly thrilled
A settlement at this point allows both the US and Iran to declare victory and walk away for the moment (Trump is genuinely worried about his polling and the midterms - that’s *his* motivation. Iran is happy to take a settlement that gives them time and breathing room - that’s *their* motivation)
I believe that, in the far side of all this, we’ll get back to something close to the JCPOA. Trump will, well, *trumpet* this as a tremendous victory.
There will, likely, also be at least a nod to Gaza/Israel/Hamas somewhere in the mix, since without that Israel will be pushing for new attacks on Iran within months, and the US administration knows that a second kinetic war would be political suicide given the way this has played out for them
And of course a settlement here also frees up Trump to proceed with whatever he’s planning for Cuba (🤷♂️🤦♂️🤷♂️)
>My “take” on this is that everyone realized that things were about to go seriously pear-shaped, and actually listened to some of the relatively sane voices in the region
Yes, so Iran folded.
>The net/net?
The net/net is that Iran's obejctive when the war started should have been to kick the US completely out of the region, make sure no attacks on itself will ever be physically possible other than with ultra-long range missile, and that Israel is left stranded and with no logistical support from the US.
None of that was achieved. Instead the US further chipped away at Iran's military strength, eliminating more key figures in the political and military leadership, and establishing precisely the kind of normalized hit-and-run environment (we saw that a couple weeks ago with the limited strikes around Hormuz) that was their objective as the next step towards terminally weakening Iran. And precisely what was an absolute must for Iran to not allow.
>And of course a settlement here also frees up Trump to proceed with whatever he’s planning for Cuba
People are also conveniently ignoring the shocking economic damage iran is suffering. They post cufe social media videos and troll on X like champions but the reality is the US blockade is working, and they have lost Dubai as their export/financial laundromat. Things worked before Feb 27 because everyone had a lot to lose. Now everyone has a lot to gain by ending this, the iranians as much as anyone
People similarly ignored what was happening in Syria.
Which "won" its war (how do you win a war that ends with you losing control over half your country I never understood) but was hollowed out by sanctions that its "allies" did very little to break, and in the end it collapsed easily.
That is the plan for Iran too.
These people have shown they can wait.
They dealt a deadly blow to the USSR by throwing Hitler at it, then patiently waited 45 years for the effects to kill it. They waited 13 years for Syria. They can wait a decade for Iran to collapse too.
The Iranian economy was suffering before the war, Bash. Its currency is near extinct. So I agree about the shocking economic damage Iran is suffering, too.
So by that logic economic pressure on Iran should have no effect on their wartime decisions since peacetime also consists of crippling economic sanctions?
There is no good reason why economic pressure on Iran from the West should have absolutely any effect.
Russia-Iran-China and a few other countries are combined completely self-sufficient in everything they need and can just cut off the West (which is in fact not similarly self-sufficient), trade with each other and have no shortage of anything, grab some popcorn, and watch a snuff version of Mad Max in the West from a safe distance.
The catch is that the pro-Western local rapacious oligarchies in those countries will see their wealth and power diminished in the process.
That is, of course, not a good reason to enable the West to rape and pillage the whole world. What you do in such a situation is you line up the local rapacious oligarchies and bury them in unmarked mass graves, then seal yourself off from the West as I described. But you do that if you rule in the interest of the people, and clearly that is not the case.
I agree that they both heavily influenced that decision - whether you want to call that “diplomatic pressure” or “blackmail”, the net result is similar
I *also* think that Iran had at least some degree of self-interest.
While I believe that, if pressed, they were and remain willing to escalate all the way to the point of self-destruction if they thought that was the only remaining option (“nothing left to lose”), they’d rather not if other options remain viable
They know full well that Israel would not hesitate to go nuclear *in extremis*
Knowing this, I believe that *they* believe that there are other ways to achieve long-term goals without reaching that point
Interestingly, I think the US found itself in a similar situation, but primarily from the GCC states (alongside the rest of the world refusing to line up and support the US - “it’s your mess, you started it, you clean it up”)
My thinking (and some of Trump’s recent posts tend to confirm this) is that the GCC States warned both Trump and key voices in the administration that there’s a huge difference between supply disruption and supply *destruction*, and that the US really did not want to deal with *that* possibility
It hasn't been "Taken over" whatsoever. The leadership of Venezuela recognises the potential for 10s or 100s of thousands of civilian deaths, and are playing along until Trump gets kicked out, along with the low brow knuckleheads he's installed.
By which time the US will be on its knees internally, let alone internationally.
Maduro was no Chavez anyway, and while the people will fight to repel Yankee invaders, he wasn't popular enough personally to die for.
They could have "played along" without the public humiliations such as dancing and singing for the CIA director and without the ongoing purges of Maduro loyalists.
Also, the fact that Maduro felt the need to have **Cuban** soldiers guarding him and those actually fought and were slaughtered speaks volumes.
Of course it does - just like Zelensky has French and British personal guards.
Again, "singing and dancing" =/= the deaths of vast numbers of civilians.
The US Empire is going down, but as can be seen in the example of Ukraine - low level powers in the shadow of superpowers have to mind their manners, even if they don't want to.
And we 🇺🇸 backed off the flip- flop warriors..the Houthi ..last year.
Venezuela and Iran is like comparing apples and oranges.
And last I heard the Chavistas are still running Venezuela.
All us American taxpayers got was a lot of money and military resources
wasted so some oil baron billionaires could make big bucks off of captured oil. And now they want US taxpayers to subsidize the rebuilding of the oil infrastructure so They can make more money!
>And last I heard the Chavistas are still running Venezuela.
And Boris Yeltsin was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, Gaidar came from a family with as impeccable communist credentials as they can possibly get (google it), Kozyrev was a Soviet diplomat for 17 years prior to 1991, etc.
Yet what did those scumbags to do Russia in the 1990s?
Difference in this is that we American taxpayers are paying for the opportunity for the scumbags to make more money. Just thinking of the cost of the resources to capture Maduro is nauseating.
Yip Russia is now because of scarcity putting some washing machine chips in their Oreshniks and launching drones with Ukrainian leftovers from their drones that didn’t exploded.
Every one of their large-scale offensives achieved its real purpose, which had little to do with taking territory or defeating the Russian army and everything to do with shifting the "red lines" further into the previously unthinkable.
Russia is dwarfed conventionally by the West, which even Putin himself will readily acknowledge. And has openly acknowledged on many occasions publicly.
So a war in which the West gets to strike at Russia conventionally while not even being targeted in any way on its own territory will have only one winner.
Thus the only way out for Russia is nuclear strikes on Europe. Then the question of whether the Russian elite, with their yachts, mansions and children all in Europe, would have the integrity to defend the motherland that is not actually their real motherland, looms very large. If it doesn't, Russia will lose.
We already see it in practice. The front has reached a state where Russian advances are mostly offset by "Ukrainian" advances, and "Ukraine" is now firing more drones into Russia than Russia is firing into Ukraine, for two months in a row.
Ukraine and a large scale offensive on Russia do not compute. The zio-banderite junta has been in business of busification for obvious reasons. Any honest person knows that it is NATO that has been running the ongoing war on Russia.
The chosenites care not about western civilization and humanity at large. The judeo-Nazi collaboration in Ukraine will either have catastrophic consequences for the planet or will finally “illuminate” and destroy the reign of zionized banking dynasties/ mega war profiteers.
The Parasite needs a docile and obedient host-population. This kind of population can only be a result of a profound societal rot leading to inevitable crush and disintegration.
The malicious jewdaic power has reached its apex in the US. Next must be a worldwide ban on this supremacist infection.
That would depend on what their aims actually WERE when starting this conflict, which resulted in chaos and degradation of economies world wide (but slightly less so in the USA?). By now, most sane people have realized that neither Donald Trump nor Benjamin Netanyahu are addicted to telling actual truth when making public statements on social media?
They WANTED the Gulf oil, petrochemical, fixed nitrogen & LNG infrastructures destroyed, leaving no physical possibility for "peace to break out" and resumption of the previously normal trade in Persian Gulf resources (ie, trade with China & other Eurasian/global South economies we wish to degrade, strangle, subdue and control). "It's not personal, only business", as was said in The Godfather.
What was planned (and so far has been accomplished) by shutting down shipping of petrochemicals, fixed nitrogen and sulfur through the straits of Hormuz is quite different than the MSM based assumptions on what constitutes "winning" and "losing".
The USA threw a monkey wrench into several vital supply lines for 2/3 of the world's populations economies, drove up US crude oil price by 50% (so far), increased US LNG prices by 50% to 250% depending on markets, guaranteed the USA a seller's market for LNG, light crude oil, refined hydrocarbons & most staple agricultural products dependant on man made fixed nitrogen fertilizers, plus increased price for US sourced sulfur. They also drove a LOT of investments from the Gulf states to "safe" US Treasury bonds.
BlackRock, Cargill, Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies, Cheniere Energy and CF Industries Holdings are MASSIVELY profiting in a seller's market, stock values are all going up, up up. US Treasury can sell T bills to those pulling their money out of various degraded gulf states needing a "safer" venue for investments.
And wherever the war/blockade drove some (unconnected, non oligarch owned) business into bankruptcy with all of that, they made a tasty meal for our big investment bankers, buying up the failed “little people” owned concerns assets for pennies on the dollar and driving any remaining customer base towards their own businesses, concentrating wealth still further.
This isn't a crisis for billionaires, it's a great opportunity.
It wouldn't surprise me if the US backs away from Iran because it has nothing to gain and a lot to lose. The US economy can't afford the risk of a greater conflict with Iran. The cost-benefit doesn't fit. Trump has already practically destroyed himself in the midterms. He's on a tight leash politically. His allies in the Middle East are telling him to pull back at the risk of facing economic armageddon if the desalination plants and oil infrastructure are destroyed. Israel, on the other hand, wants to extend the war with Iran. I suspect Trump wants an exit plan despite the double-talk bravado he speaks.
There's too much at stake for the global economy to mess around with intensifying conflict in the Middle East. I think this conflict will de-escalate. If I'm wrong, well, here comes $200 or more per barrel of oil, the UAE uninhabitable, and shortages globally on a scale too deep to fathom.
Iran demonstrated that it doesn't need an atomic bomb to defend itself because it has enough missiles and drones to light up the entire Middle East. Either they all get along, or they all blow up together. A detente in the Middle East has been established.
That scenario will be tested severely when israel decides to attack on its own, hoping to force Trump to enter the war as well, despite its effects both on the American and global economy.
Personally, I believe Trump and Bibi have already designed and agreed a new attack. All this going on now is PR meant to distract.
Well, Victor. If Bibi causes a global crisis by attacking, I'm afraid Israel deserves to be taken off the map. It wouldn't take much, really. Israel has proven itself to be the most destructive virus on the face of this planet.
Zionism is a fairly recent phenomena compared to Judaism, having been created by Jews in the 19th century as a powerful political force not restricted to Jews alone but also non-Jews, having captured many Christians by funding the production of the Scofield Bible in the early 20th century after which the heresy of Christian Dispensationalism came to the front and grew powerfully alongside zionism. We blame zionists for for much of the turmoil in the world today and deservedly so, but we must remember that serious problems with the rabbinic-led Talmudic Jews have infected European and West Asian civilisations for thousands of years, their having to be thrown out of too many countries over that period to name. The funny thing is that they have never asked themselves why that was, always blaming others for their "misfortunes" and "persecutions" which they continue to do to this day.
I am not at all suggesting "all" are like that nor should they be blamed - Jewish leadership, as our leadership today in most Western countries, is at fault. This leadership has kept the ordinary Jewish people under the threat of great fear much as other religious leaders have been known to do - the tribal threat of being excluded from the rest is a powerful tool for the leadership to use against their own people.
I would encourage people who wish to know more about this to read books like, The Controversy of Zion by Douglas Reed, or Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years by Israel Shahak.
Zionists conflate Judaism and Zionism in their (successful) efforts to condemn criticism of Zionism with antisemitism, even though many Jews also condemn it. But Zionism is like any other political ism, be it socialism, fascism (the Zio's BFF), or any other ism, and it should be torched by virtue of what it is and what it does.
Unfortunately, our Pedo Class politicians are corrupt and have been captured by 10s of thousands of hours of video of them raping children. So Zionism will remain standing like a colossus over western culture and politics for the foreseeable future, whether we like it or not.
Tribal solidarity is to be expected, but banning a religion has always seemed a step too far for me. I'm a believer in courtesy and cordiality toward all on at least a superficial level, but as for anyone who "stands for Israel", I would remain courteous but shun them thereafter with a calm and polite simple declaration of the reason for it, making it plain that the discussion is closed. Happily, I haven't had to do it yet, but will do so in a NY minute if I encounter it.
Theirs is not just a religion - it is a supremacist manifesto infused with hatred and disrespect towards all "others"
A sample: Kol Nidrei
"All vows, prohibitions, oaths, bans, renunciations, penalties, or invocations of the divine by which we have vowed, sworn, renounced, or foresworn anything from this Yom Kippur to an auspicious next Yom Kippur, we repent of them all. We repudiate them. All of them are undone, abandoned, cancelled, null and void, not in force, and not in effect. Our vows are no longer vows, and our prohibitions are no longer prohibitions, and our oaths are no longer oaths." -- They learn this from childhood.
More: Psalm 137:9. "Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."
Another one: "The 188th mitzvah is that we are commanded to wipe out the descendants of Amalek, male and female, young and old."
-- See Gaza genocide and before that the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia
Their religious ideology is built on tribal hatred, disrespect, hypocrisy, and genocidal urges towards "others." This is why they were unable to build a stable civilization but always attach themselves to other peoples' cultural and technological developments.
--See the dishonorable aipac, Adelson, Kagans, Wexner...
I call it a cancer and should be taken of the map. Israel, created by violence, ended in violence. They clearly don’t deserve their own country. They have given an opportunity to, but fucked up completely
I left a similar comment. My reasoning for another attack is 2 fold: USrael’s long term dominance is in jeopardy and Trump should have shut up about and gone away already. Keeping this subject front and center is not doing much to help him.
Denis, you are a rational person, but those in charge are madmen. Trump seems to believe and so says that with enormously destructive chaos imposed on the world, the US (he and his rich buds) will come out on top—including nuclear.
Well, Tedder, the thing is with Trump is that he is a compulsive liar, a conman, a WWF actor and a pompous buffoon. I doubt Trump and friends would go nuclear because then their lives and those of their friends and their children would be ruined forever. No more Maralago, no more golf clubs, no more fancy restaurants, no more money, no more wealth, no more child predation (Einstein class). Nuclear is mutually assured destruction. They can talk about it all they want, but they won't risk it because it threatens the privileged life they live. They have more to lose than we do. Thanks.
I'm mildly surprised you don't know about that, Denis. It is the claim by the israelis that if their existence is truly threatened, they will unleash all their nukes to countries across the world employing a strategy that says if I go down the rest of the world will as well.
I've never been convinced that the israelis have all that many nukes (and perhaps this is actually a gigantic bluff as is common with those folks), but still there is enough ambiguity in their stance that people do not take the chance.
Samson was a biblical figure whose great strength was given by God only on the condition that he would never cut his hair. The temptress Delilah plotted against him and while he slept in her arms she cut his hair. He lost strength, was blinded and imprisoned by his enemies, and during that imprisonment he repented and begged God to allow him to strike vengeance against the Philistines. One day he was led into the arena to be mocked and chided by the Philistine population and their royalty. He was led to the arena by a young boy and entering asked the boy to place his hands so they would touch the two foundation pillars. He prayed to God to give him strength in his final hour. God did so and Samson forced the the two pillars apart, causing a chain reaction that brought the whole house down killing everyone (about 3000), including himself.
Thus, the Samson option was borne. Probably more than you even wanted to know, Denis...🙃
I forgot to mention that you were right about the overinflated death toll of protesters in Iran, Grr. Truth can be evasive when it's based on false reporting.
The rich who think they're safe underground might just be entombed by the survivors on the surface. Build a mountain of rock over them so they never get out. That's what I plan on doing anyway. lol
As the late Joe Louis (the boxer, not the Zionist Brit Joe Lewis who owns Lago Escondido--Hidden Lake--in Patagonia) once said: "You can run, but you can't hide".
All of the negatives you state may be on the horizon for many of them if they do nothing. Iran’s strategic victory is USrael ultimate demise. The money spending done over the last 15 years (at least) requires a constant source of collateralized resources. They had hoped to get Russia and later Iran’s.
That being said if Trump and his buddies start this up again and diesel goes to $10 people will lose their shit. And people like Trump will need to go to their bunkers. I suspect their security teams would wipe them pretty quick. Trump and his Epstein buddies become the most useless of eaters when the lights go out.
The amount of magical thinking prevailing in these comments is truly mind boggling these days. The alt community is drinking stronger kool aid than the mainstream media is. Reminiscent of the ghost dance cult developed by American Indians in the face of their genocide.
What Simplicius misses, ignore or flat out hides from the equation is Israel.
Kagan is writing down Trump because he is not doing things according to Bibis/israel wishes. Kagan is selling in that Iran WILL emerge to a bigger threat to the World & US.
And what you either ignore, dismiss, or flat out hide from is that Iran is no threat to anybody - even the disgusting jew, providing they are left alone.
The Iranians aren't stupid. They held back a lot of firepower as a deterrent against Israeli nukes. And I get the feeling the new Ayatollah has a different perspective than his father. When was the last time the Iranians categorically denied the nuclear business. Not like the old days at all.
And so tell us, what can Israel do to Iran? I'll tell you, sweet fuck all. If you think the US military has come out of this looking like a paper tiger, the Israelis look like a wet paper tiger.
Neither can do much to Iran in a conventional manner. But USrael long term dominance is in dire straits. It’s hard to rule anything out. Desperate times; desperate measures
"The cost-benefit doesn't fit. Trump has already practically destroyed himself in the midterms. He's on a tight leash politically."
Did you happen to notice that several of Trump's biggest political enemies just got primaried? (for those not familiar with US politics, "primaried" means beaten by a challenger of the same party, and I'm referring to the only decent politician in the country, Thomas Massie, and a few barely reasonable Republican voices of opposition). The idea that he is on a tight leash is pure delusion. He is serving the empire, and he will be allowed to continue to do that.
I have heard that the Massie vote may have been rigged, Elena.
US elections, like here in Canada, are meaningless.
It's all theatre to me as an outsider looking in.
Yes, Trump is the leashed dog who does as he's told.
Tight leash refers more to Trump's sensitivities about adversely affecting the stock markets. That's why he starts a conflict on a weekend and stops when the markets open.😂
I was shocked by the Massie vote and wouldn’t be surprised if it was rigged, but if so it was rigged to favor Trump. My point is that Trump is not being weakened or negated in any way, and there’s no chance he will be. Most of the alt press have no clue anymore.
Trump has the lowest rating of any President heading into the midterms now.
He has lost tremendous support, riding lower than Biden. I see that as weakened. He surely hasn't been strengthened in any way. I suspect our perceptions are different on this one.
They very obviously are, since all Trump's enemies are currently biting the dust and he's getting everything he wants whenever he wants it. If that's weakened, god save us all from "strengthened."
His wife, Melania, would support me in saying Trump doesn't get what he wants with her. lol She won't do it for him. lol There's a video of Trump trying to hold Melania's hand, and she pushed it away like he had a deadly virus. No one gets everything they want whenever they want. It just doesn't go that way.
The primaries could have been rigged and if so…it was in favor of Trump…really?
A just flat out denial it was rigged would have been much better.
Is it now acceptable Republicans may have rigged an election? Or, was it the Republicans plus a foreign country that proved to most people with more than two brain cells…THEY control the government of my country? The Massie loss has potential to boomerang badly on Republicans. It is like watching the self destruction of the Republican Party in slow motion. I voted for Trump three times. I now have TDS…Trump Disappointment Syndrome.
Just pointing out a stat, Feral. Elections are just a means for people to think they have a choice. I only voted once in my life. I picked Brian Mulroney of all people back in the eighties when I was young and naive.
Looks like the investigations into voting fraud allowed Trump to steal the method, so he can use it, rather than prosecute or even expose to daylight. His enemies can't really claim, "He's using our method to steal it for him!"
The Massie situation has literally made me sick to my stomach. This was as brazen of an attack on US Constitution that has ever been witnessed. It’s been a demonstration in raw power. I wasn’t even a huge Massie fan. I live 800 miles away and can’t vote in that district. But this “primary election “ became the most expensive election in history. Israel firsters openly bragged about unseating him. When Massie conceded he made a joke about tracking down his opponent in Tel Aviv. The faux outrage over what Massie said was hypocritical beyond words.
FYI—the removal of Massie had ZERO to do with how he voted. It had everything to do with Massie exposing the Zionist menace!!
Yep, Elena makes some great points. If this thing was going to end because Trump had seen the error of his ways he should have quietly stfu about it. But he’s done the complete opposite about it.
I am sure that the complete and unedited Jeffrey Epstein Home Video Library is safely in Tel Aviv somewhere, and that there is not a dull minute in it.
Denis, good points but realize Trump himself said he doesn’t care about what the war in middle east does to US gas prices or economy, and he certainly does not care about world economy. Trumps only concern is doing what the Zionist state and Epstein class wants him to do. The guy is 110% bought and paid for, to hell with us peasants. He is Israel and Epstein clienr list First.
Everything you say is accurate. In a world driven by logic and reason you are right on the money. Still there are a couple things that bother me.
USrael—basically the hegemony of both nations. This conflict has never been about nuclear weapons. It’s been to blunt Iran’s rise to becoming a dominant power. Particularly one outside the ZioBanker’s umbrella. It’s very dangerous for Western elites because more nations will follow Irans lead.
Also, Trump knows he is not getting a deal. Let me rephrase that; the people pulling Trump’s strings know there will be no deal. At least it’s very unlikely. Knowing this, as well as understanding USrael could not attack Iran I wonder why Trump didn’t go away quietly after the ceasefire. Americans would have conveniently forgot all about it; especially with elections looming. Yet that geriatric big mouth keeps the subject front and center.
Infiltrate hints at stealth, secrecy. The jews didn't infiltrate, the traitor Cromwell invited them in after them being persona non grata for centuries.
See: "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge"
Wars bankrupt empires and this one is no different. Iran's smartest move, and FedGov's dumbest, is the mutual blockade. Soaring gas prices are destroying family finances and in an economy which is around 70% consumption and heavily financialised that's slow-motion suicide.
Just look at US Treasury rates. The government can bomb military installations and kill soldiers but it is totally and pathetically helpless against the bond market.
The Iranians have mobilized the Bond Vigilantes to their advantage, which is an army that will completely defeat the US. They are completely merciless. Spiking interest rates will force the Fed into an apocalyptic level of printing and destroy the dollar, and with it the American economy.
The 30-year hit 5.19% last week, the highest since before 2008, so the bond market is already casting its vote. One quibble with the "Iran mobilized them" framing: the vigilante takes no orders and picks no side. It's a feedback loop that punishes deficits no matter who's bombing whom, which makes it more dangerous to Washington than any foreign army, not less. https://thesynthesisai.substack.com/p/the-vigilante gets at this.
Good summary of recent developments, but nothing really new and no mention of the real big... no, HUGE news item, with severe implications: Iran's promise to expand the war beyond the region and hit US bases in Europe, if attacked by USrael again: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/irgc-warns-usrael-that-a-new-war?r=25fc37
As it's been said, Iran so far has kept it's "true promises". Sure, I may have overemphasised the news item, but we shouldn't underestimateste it or ignoring it altogether.
And Iran will do it, no doubt. They've proven to actually carry out their threats. Everything Iran said they would do, if USA / Israel attacked it back in February / March, they did it...
Imagine if Russia did the same...Imagine if Russia actually enforced its red lines and followed through on their threats....Image if Russia had proper leadership....
Cause Russia doesn’t have the same leverage as Iran. Cause Russia is way stronger than Iran or they have hugely underestimated Iran. Iran took them by the balls. The Ukraine conflict, the attrition, made the west weaker, Russia stronger. There is absolutely no garantee that when Russia had done similar, that it would not have ended in nuclear exchange. The Americans don’t care when Europe and Russia obliterate eachother. That is part of empire mode of operation: weaken your oponents/competitors. Like the USA weakened Europe and the former empire in WW2. Like they destroyed the relation between Germany and Russia, a very strong economical power.
There is absolutely that guarantee. Going nuclear against Russia, means absolute eradication of european countries. Europeans are pussies, psychopathic but still pussies. Which is why they need proxies like Ukraine. And if Russia continues not responding, eventually Ukraine will get a nuclear weapon and will use it against Russia in a heartbeat. And Russia will again, do nothing against those that provided the nuclear weapon to Ukraine because of "reasons"....
Also your "idea" of what the USA cares or doesn't care, is wrong. Once nukes start flying, they fly all over the place. USA will not be left unscathed. Quite the contrary, since USA is the main target in case of a nuclear strike.
So we get back to the lack of response from Russia. Yesterday, the nazis / NATO attacked a school in the LPR. Why ? Because they know there will be no response. Because they know the russian leadership is their asset, they literally work for the nazis / NATO, when they prevent the nazi leadership and decision making centers, from being destroyed.
Stop pretending that reality is not really happening. The russian leadership is literally protecting the people killing russians, and yesterday, russian children. If Russia does not respond, they have no deterrence and will be bombed forever. Either russians remove Putin from power and all his cronies and replace him with a proper war time leader, or they better get used to being bombed on a daily basis forever.
I have to disagree. I go by the numbers. Retaliating may result in an escalation and a huge increase in the number of victims. You don’t want to retaliate 10 people at the expense of 10000 only satisfying the people that demand the Russian government to retaliate while they have no skin in the game.
Westerners really don’t care. They are sacrifying millions to bring democracy, freedom, civilization, women’s right, genders right, … to any country. The plebs applaud, not seeing the underlying agenda: subjugate the country and loot their resources in the name of the above
I don't think you realize the reality of the situation. Thanks to the lack of response from Russia, attacks on Russia and russians have tripled. Ever since the pathetic weak Putin claimed that Russia had to respond, if western missiles were used to strike deep into Russia and then Russia did not respond, that the number of strikes on russian territory and russian citizens, have intensified.
USA / NATO bombed Russia's strategic nuclear triad. It bombed Russia's nuclear power plants. It invaded Russia's Kursk region. It bombs russian civilians on a daily basis...the list goes on. Russia's response ? Nothing.
So in the end, the number of victims have increased (on the russian side), but nothing on the nazi / NATO side.
Escalation needs to be mutual, so that each side understands that they will suffer consequences if they continue the attacks. Right now, escalation is one sided, 100% done by the west, 0% done by Russia. Russia is literally the punching bag of the west and its leadership refuses to respond in any way. Meanwhile, the attacks on Russia and russians are more overt and more blatant. We are not too far from Ukraine receiving a nuclear weapon and killing hundreds of thousands of russians and the russian leadership is letting it get there. And when it gets there, there' no return from it.
Although to be honest, I'm not sure this russian leadership will do anything, even if it gets there. They have proven to be western assets time and time again. Russia and russian civilian interests are at the bottom of priorities for Putin and his ilk. So much so, that Witkoff and Kushner will visit Moscow again, soon and I'm sure Putin will greet them with the red carpet. He has no time for little things like russian civilians being bombed by the country of Witkoff and Kushner or russian children being murdered by the country of Witkoff and Kushner.
As of now Putin has given unequivocal proof that the lives of Ukrainian Nazis, never mind the Western oligarchy, are much more valuable to him than those of his own people.
Putin has gone out of his way to protect the Ukrainian Nazis. It's not just that he hasn't given the order to take them out, there is an explicit order not to touch them. We know that because Zelensky and other prominent figures have been within easy firing range of Russian troops many times for various propaganda stunts, Russian troops had the literal red dot on them and wanted to fire, but there was a strict order not to touch them. That order is still in place.
P.S. Why nobody has disregarded the order I don't understand, and it does not speak well of the low-level personnel in the Russian army. When Zelensky is in FPV range it should be trivial to take him out and not disclose who did it, and when Gerans get real-time visual guidance that range should be extended to Kiev and beyond. And then you force Putin's hand. But they haven't done it...
Apparently I have to repeat ad nausea that you do not deal with normal people here in the west! They don’t mind sacrificing their own population. The goal is cheap resources from Russia. Privatization of profits and socialization of costs
You go completely disproportionate in response to the slightest "provocation" in order to make sure there is no further sliding down the slippery slope of accepting the unacceptable.
The mansions in the hills above Silicon Valley and around NYC should have been hit by Russian missile strikes the moment the first US strikes on Russian troops and civilians were carried out in 2022, and dozens of tech and Wall Street billionaires should have been evaporated for every Russian dead.
Which is in fact what Putin promised on February 24 2022 when he threatened to hit "decision-making centers", isn't it?
Mr. Simple Man falling for imperial hype yet again...
The drone attack on UAE's Barakah Nuclear Powerplant was an apparent false flag attack executed by the Colonial Settler Entity, just like the previous drone attacks on Turkey and Cyprus.
Not sure why Simplicius gives Kagan the time of day. He, Vicky and the rest of the clan were Bush era Republicans of the "Never Trump" variety. They switched allegiance to Obama/Biden camp simply to be able to continue to influence US foreign policy.
He is positioning the family for a comeback after 2028. The portrayal of Trump, Rubio, Vance etc., as incompetent strategists is part of their game plan.
The “Clean Break” strategy portends something worse than dingy. Kagan-type despair allows him to tap into the most motivating holocaust folk-lore back at the drawing board. Unfortunately, manufacturing costs and the once ubiquitous peace dividend has already been utilized and squandered. All we’ve got is the hope that the public has been squirreling away enough so we have time to come up with another brilliant follow-up..
I think Brian Berletic's argument makes more sense every day. "The US isn't trying to open the Strait of Hormuz - it is literally blockading it and perpetuating a war that ensures insecurity around it indefinitely. The US is engaged in a controlled demolition of Middle East energy exports and a large part of the global economy. It is playing games to manage prices and markets as it does so - NOT trying to find a way "out" of consequences everyone in Washington knew about before launching the most recent war of aggression."
Check out Mario Nawfal's interview with Chris Martenson at the 41:37 min mark it show's a video of Elon Musk (when he was running DOGE) about the "magic money computers" he found.
According to Berletic there is really only one side and it is always winning whatever the actual facts on the ground. It is not possible to debate with these sorts of 'really the reptilians are running it all' arguments.
And yet this world is a world of duality, from atoms on up to empires. Seeing saints and avatars (Christ, Buddha, ...) existing in history completely devoted to goodness, I can imagine similarly powerful evil beings completely devoted to power and dominion, at any cost. From there it's only a short hop to imagine the beings benefiting from incinerating babies could be kindred or even one in the same as those pushing us simultaneously to AI Armageddon. No human being benefits from the worst case scenario, therefore to my mind it all only makes sense with some kind of otherworldly lens. Alien, demonic, or both. Struggling against angelic or superiorly evolved beings of some or several kinds.
Since so much of what we learned was lies, makes sense to me the truth must be beyond our accustomed imaginations.
Spot on! I think, if history is fair, that Brian will be seen as one of the best true journalists of the modern era. From my perspective, he reports from a position on what his research tells him is happening and not what he wants to happen. I can't think of many others who will laboriously study all the congressional and senatorial hearings, think tank papers, and the like the way BB does to get at what appears to be the truth. The Alaskan one he did as a 3 part series is a must. The powers that be understand that most people simply do not have the time or patience to do that and that's why they have no problem dropping the mask in those instances as they understand that, on the whole, only their fellow interested parties will pay attention to such things. He doesn't give the impression that Washington always wins and will continue to do so; rather, he tries to show the 'continuity of agenda' regardless of whatever supposedly different political operator is purportedly 'running the show' in the West at any given time. I think all this concentration on personalities distracts from the bigger picture which is part of the MSM's role. I mean, does anybody truly believe that an arrogant, ignorant, silver-spooned finance and property shyster like Trump is actually planning/running anything other than his insider trading scams? The fact that many of the officialdom, at one point or another, have come out in the MSM claiming that Israel is making them do it should give pause for thought. If Israel was controlling all, do you think they would allow the MSM to trumpet that? And by the way, that does not mean that Israel is not guilty of their crimes. They are as they are a more than willing proxy. To end my rant, I would also state my belief that the various 'alphabet soup' agencies would not just leave the alternative media alone to do its thing without trying to penetrate it with their own operatives and people need to keep that in mind when consuming info from one talking head or another. I don't consider you to be in that category Simplicius as I've always found loads of useful info in your writings.
Yes! One of BB’s strong points is that he always works starting from public available material. You don’t need to speculate or veer into far fetched conspiracies, you just need to read what think tankers and government agencies are discussing among each other!
I find it also very infuriating to see so many analysts falling into endless discussions of Trump’s shitposts. The man is obviously a front and is not the one making the decisions. In this respect he may be the most successful distraction operation in modern history!
Berletic's main flaw is that he makes continuity of agenda into a law of nature (it can't change, ever -- why not?) and seems to elide the fact that any large organization has different agendas. For example, the RAND Russia report that lays out a lot of what the US has done in Ukraine makes pains to say, "we could do these things, BUT IT WOULD BE A REALLY BAD IDEA." They actually went against the conclusions of the report.
Akshually, the Gringo Empire continuity of agenda is a powerful concept because it is easily proven.
The Ukraine project of using (former - ehem -) Western Ukrainian Nazis to hit Russia / the USSR has been going on since Project Aerodynamic.
Using Islamic radical proxies, form Afghanistan to ISIS, that funny enough, only slaughter Christians and Shia while leaving them Israelis alone.
Destroying any petrostate that tried to step out of the petrodollar system (Lybia, Irak).
Constricting Iran through sanctions and the nuclear deal, starting with Obama.
Building East Asians into Anti-China proxies (Philippines, Japan, Worst Korea, etc).
In the end, continuity of agenda is just plain Imperial policy. The Romans did the same. It didn’t matter if it was Late Republic or he Imperial era. Increasing and sustaining the Empire was the main goal.
>To end my rant, I would also state my belief that the various 'alphabet soup' agencies would not just leave the alternative media alone to do its thing without trying to penetrate it with their own operatives and people need to keep that in mind when consuming info from one talking head or another.
That is quite obvious when you stop and think about it and when you remember how many of the key figures are "former" intel operatives.
It's also not just a psyop directed against the "people" because those figures are also paraded as celebrities in Russia where they somehow always tell the people there how great of a genius Putin is.
I understand so many people treat brian like a prophet but he makes ALL of his videos and articles from US media sources. How can you read rags which have been proven false over and over. Of course the US is always too powerful, of course the US has always planned out everything when you rely on the US media to shape your opinion. He has found 2 policy papers that fit his narrative but do people understand the think tanks write literally thousands of policy papers every year?? That is what they do, write policy. Notice Brian never mentions 2 big policy papers from last year that talk about the US pulling back to only it's own sphere of influence. Brian will never mention those papers because they don't fit his narrative. Sure DC is evil and wants to dominate the world BUT it is not a well oiled machine, running in a single unified direction, the special interest oligarchs and Bankers hold power over certain parts of the Govt. and it is pulled in many directions at once, that is why it looks like what it is, an incompetent, Pentagon with more money than brains and yes men all over promising their masters they can do whatever you want.
"Notice Brian never mentions 2 big policy papers from last year that talk about the US pulling back to only it's own sphere of influence."
And yet, the US is embroiled in a war against Iran and is increasing its involvement in Ukrane. It's like the folks in charge ignored those policy papers.
There are actually many oligarch & corporate factions and blocs, which frequently contest with each other for power and profits- but they all agree on one thing: They are in charge and "our" financial systems political & military subsidiaries are run for THEIR benefit, not for some nebulous good of "little people". It's still a big club and we still ain't in it.
for whatever reasons Berletic's arguments, which I share, are not permeating the alternative geopolitical community. To their credit, there are no signs either in Russian, Chinese or Iranian media or actions which call a cat a cat. They also align with the US narrative and just try to catch up to the next Trump, who is greatly playing his role, "shocking stunt".
There are a handful of analysts that partially share BB’s views: Michael Hudson, Richard Medhurst, Catherine Austin Fitts, some of the folks at Naked Capitalism… but yeah, I find it extremely interesting and concerning that the great majority “alternatives” are parroting the exact same lines - “Iran has won, the US is on the ropes, Trump crazy, etc etc” while they are missing the bigger picture: that the US Empire cannot and will not back down and that it will drag the whole world down into a Global Depression rather than lose Hegemony - with the hope of coming out of it as the least damaged great power. Not very different from what it did in both World Wars.
Yep, I think that is the point here. They, i.e. corporate and financial powers in the West, set a trap for the rest of the world a long time ago but then walked right into it themselves. With all that 'end of history' arrogant nonsense they set about destroying the productive parts of their economies in favour of financialization as their hubris and arrogance told them that they had nearly total control of the planet. They wilfully destroyed their working classes and with them lost a lot of the technically and industrially educated part of the population. They ended up in the trap as Russia rose from the ashes when Putin and his allies cleared out most of the neoliberal traitors running Russia into the ground on behalf of the West, and China was not foolish and did not let Wall St and the City into their financial markets. Our Western contollers are too selfish, cruel, and insanely greedy to accept anyting other than total domination. The thrashing about of the current US administration gives the imperssion that the powers that be see that the window for their quest for permanent gloabal domination is rapidly closing, I personally think that window was shut years ago. Therfore, as long as they think they personally won't suffer, I wouldn't be surprised if they were fine with blowing up the planet, economically or literally, if they believe that they will come out on top in the long run and lord over what is left. Remember, these are the types that supported the Nazis back in their day. Their attitude has not changed, they just have better PR nowadays and have near total control of the MSM.
The problem with Empire destabilising the world economy hoping for some advantage is that it is a very poor strategy. The Chinese are showing how well prepared they were for such a scenario. They have firm control over many strategic resources, and with their all weather partner, Russia, that list becomes a ticket to economic dominance. The world is changing rapidly and trade is moving away from being USD centric. The financialised model is falling apart and when the leverage wall finally breaks the West will be caught without the one thing that keeps them in control. Financial firepower. The other team has the real wealth: commodities, industrial capacity and social/political cohesion. Once Iran proved the military option was not the magic pudding as advertised, the game flipped. Empire is in a disastrous situation as we saw in Beijing this week.
"China’s major industrial enterprises recorded total profits of 1.696 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2026, a solid 15.5% increase year-on-year and a modest acceleration from the January-February pace. High-tech manufacturing delivered a striking 47.4% surge, contributing nearly 8 percentage points to the overall gain. Equipment manufacturing rose 21%, adding 6.8 points, while private enterprises posted a robust 25.4% advance and share-holding firms grew 20.9%. Sub-sectors such as electronics (up 124.5%) and certain raw materials segments showed even sharper momentum. Conventional explanations — liquidity injections, cyclical recovery and targeted policy support — describe important surface forces. Yet they remain incomplete. They overlook the deeper systemic reconfiguration underway in the Chinese economy: the way production costs are advanced, price claims are asserted, and — decisively — those claims achieve closure through actual market sales."
I do agree with you! I think China has planned extensively for this and now it is probably able to survive such an scenario. I don’t think the US Empire has a good hand. My point is that even if the odds are not that good, the Empire will try anything that gives them a chance to prevail for a couple of decades more. Even if this entails wreaking the global economy.
After all the Imperial oligarchs in the West will in any case be insulated from the worst effects.
Not just insulated from what looks like worst effects to little people, profiting from them and further concentrating wealth and power up their food chain.
I agree mate, it is indeed a poor strategy. The problem is that our so-called 'elites' are utter dengenerates and are having another TINA moment here. Whilst it is the'last' thing they want to do as, even with their hubris they understand to a small extent that 'victory' through total destruction is not a given, it looks like they will proceed down this path as they have no other answer to dealing with the situation they themselves have created with the hocus pocus financial sector creating massive eye-watering unpayable debts with what can only been seen as a global pontzi scheme. Said scheme has only continued to prosper on the predication of being able to control, by local proxy traitorous toads or directly, the productive labour and resources of the planet. Even then, it would have collapsed later down the line as all financial scams do; however, they would have been able to ride it out themselves and start again so to speak if they managed to acheive total domination. Unfortunately for them, China and Russia had other ideas and put a spanner in those works. Do you think Hitler would have used nukes if he had possessed them at the time rather than accepting defeat? I think he would have and worry that the current crop who are no better will do so at the death so to speak rather than accepting reality. The obvious thing would be to have a good hard look at oneself and adapt to the times in a positive way. However, history shows us that people like this will not consider another way, other than another way of acheiving total dominance, even for a second.
Well put! The financial ponzi scheme is running on fumes. The tricks that helped them paper over previous crises are not working any more. The AI bubble could spiral into a financial supernova. The Western Oligarchs know they are running out of time. This is why things are accelerating.
It's particularly "funny" when they have him on The Duran and then the very next day Mercouris is back to his usual tropes, which go completely counter to what Berletic has explained very clearly and convincngly.
They WANTED the Gulf oil, petrochemical, fixed nitrogen & LNG infrastructures destroyed, leaving no physical possibility for "peace to break out" and resumption of the previously normal trade in Persian Gulf resources (ie, trade with China & other Eurasian/global South economies we wish to degrade, strangle, subdue and control). "It's not personal, only business", as was said in The Godfather.
What was planned (and so far has been accomplished) by shutting down shipping of petrochemicals, fixed nitrogen and sulfur through the straits of Hormuz is quite different than the MSM based assumptions on what constitutes "winning" and "losing".
The USA threw a monkey wrench into several vital supply lines for 2/3 of the world's populations economies, drove up US crude oil price by 50% (so far), increased US LNG prices by 50% to 250% depending on markets, guaranteed the USA a seller's market for LNG, light crude oil, refined hydrocarbons & most staple agricultural products dependant on man made fixed nitrogen fertilizers, plus increased price for US sourced sulfur. They also drove a LOT of investments from the Gulf states to "safe" US Treasury bonds.
BlackRock, Cargill, Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies, Cheniere Energy and CF Industries Holdings are MASSIVELY profiting in a seller's market, stock values are all going up, up up. US Treasury can sell T bills to those pulling their money out of various degraded gulf states needing a "safer" venue for investments.
And wherever the war/blockade drove some (unconnected, non oligarch owned) business into bankruptcy with all of that, they made a tasty meal for our big investment bankers, buying up the failed “little people” owned concerns assets for pennies on the dollar and driving any remaining customer base towards their own businesses, concentrating wealth still further.
This isn't a crisis for billionaires, it's a great opportunity.
This sounds like the tired old "4D Chess!" meme. If the ME oil market goes under, so does the petrodollar and the US economy. There is no Plan; it's just chaotic stupidity.
What magic money computers? All government/Central Bank/zero-reserve banks and "hedge" funds are mirages. It's just a series of interconnected electronic ledger sheets bound by interdependency. No Collateral to back most of it. "Full Faith and Credit", long ago lost its meaning.
"Too Big To Fail" debt owed mainly by the Zios, was paid by a US Government $700 billion dollar extortion of U.S. tax dollars and the US Fed printing money so that general inflation taxed the American "animals" who unwittingly, still believed their Government was of the people, by the people, for the people.
Without the "Modern" Economy of (pretend) growth, specific and general inflation, the entire Ponzi of spend now, repay later, collapses.
Trump, the manchild, is precisely the guy to finish the collapse of the system. And who is going to tell Trump the new Ball(s)room will never be finished.
Bigger, better, than the 2 craziest Roman Emperors, Trump cannot stop fiddling and his horse talks to him out of its ass.
I hope he will not have better luck in Cuba. The US is so cruel - it needs to be gone and done as any kind of a ' power ' it doesn't yield power in a human way. Not the way any of us want to go into the future. Is it the Jewish influence ? If zionism was outlawed and irradicated, which might not take long if you listen to Dr Shiva - https://youtu.be/h5y6ssGgY1U - ( Dr Shiva does not blame the Jews but Zionism ) would that be the end of war on Planet Earth ?
Hi Cotra. You speak the ultimate truth and maybe its the US not the Jews. They love easy victories. Are you from there ? But I hope that Russia and China help
Hello Ann, I am not from there. But I know their mentality due to working with them in the past. But if you watch MSM where different "experts" talk about this war you can see that they feel that they have right to kill and destroy. It is a kind of normal for them. A sense of superiority.
yes its true. And the British ( Europeans ) were like this also but in America is become so acute and if our faces with Trump. You are good with words -
About the purported 'invasion' or resumption of war, Colonel Larry Wilkerson on a podcast with Nima of Dialog Works related how such a military operation, whether air attacks or ground attacks, are immensely complex operations. Just readying them consumes resources and strains personnel. Imagine if you were such a soldier, all ginned up to conquer Iran, and the President calls off the mission. Even worse if the President orders you to stay at combat readiness for a 'go' order, and this for days and days. Of course, it is likely this never happened and the whole operation was a bluff of the 'paper tiger' variety.
The bully typically hunts around for a weaker victim to beat up, staging it all before a public audience, in order to take everyone's mind off its own very public defeat. Cuba looks like a tasty target. What could go wrong? We are all about to find out.
The Venezuelans were in disastrous economic straits, partly because of US sanctions and to a large extent from Maduro's crippling government corruption. The US basically said, give us Maduro (so we get a win) and we'll ease sanctions. Venezuela said good enough. I think Cuba is in a similar situation and it wouldn't surprise me if a similar scenario played out. Indeed, the recent indictment of Raul Castro sounds like a step in that direction -- the US doesn't hate the Cuban people, just a few corrupt officials at the top. Whether that corruption is real or a fantasy is not germane. The Cuban people had a taste of better relations with the US under Obama (one of the few things I think Obama did right) and might well go for a deal like that. Time will tell.
He will attack, sooner or later. Stronger and bigger.
He is Epsteined, he will follow Natanyahu orders.
Waiting for France, Britain and some other 50 countries from NATO and Japan, Korea, Philippines, Australia, Saudis, Emirates, even Ukraine and Armenia to attack Hormuz. Not all of them have large warships and not many of them, but together they do have a houndred strong flotilla, if they are pushed by the USA. The rest will play supportive role, even calling it "humanitarian aid" or anything similar - sharing intelligence, arms, ammunition, drones.
More states will be joining this coalition, as they are gradually pushed into taking sides. At some stage India will join them. Black and white total war logic of the West against the East. But also bribery, corruption of Western political elites, with outright blackmail by Epstein - all elites from around the world were on his island and are compromised.
Macron and Starmer initially refused to support the USA, closing airspace for bombers. Now their aircraft carrier and destroyers are nearing Gulf of Oman with Hormuz.
The most notable in opposition was Spanish prime minister, he was quickly sidelined. Trump said they should be removed from NATO. Spain joined French flotilla. So it all comes to theatre.
Same with Germany, they are also now actively participating after an initial objection. Trump withdrawing 5000 troops from Germany was good enough to bend them. But we have to remember their prime minister saying at the beginning "Israel is doing for us, Europe, what we suppose be doing to Iran".
France is saying they want to lead opening of Hormuz without NATO logistics. But the great majority of this 50 strong country coalition are NATO.
France is outside NATO Nuclear Planning Group. They can act independently, on a sole order of Macron - the Napoleon 5th. He is also Epsteined, as seen from files.
Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is nuclear capable, with up to 30 Rafale also able to carry 100-300k nukes. Whether they have them onboard or can be supplied fast through one of the French bases in the Middle East is an open question.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/france-rejects-nato-involvement-in-strait-of-hormuz-security/amp
The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
Let's begin with the CdG becoming a marine life sanctuary.
Iran even has the post- conflict tourist trade sewn up.
Trump is happy to wait as long as it takes, for the French/British/Italian/Danish flotilla to cross into the Gulf of Oman to be sunk by mines and missiles from Iran, to have a casus belli and return his 3 air crafts groups close to Hormuz. But also any of some 40 countries coalition can enter war directly, introduce conscription and send ground troops to Middle East.
Each of this flotilla has around 10 warships. So at some stage 40-60 strong group fully loaded with any weapons, including laser and the other newest experimental ones.
The Hormuz Alliance can have hundreds support boats from many countries.
https://www.euractiv.com/news/europeans-have-capabilities-the-us-lack-to-secure-hormuz-strait-rutte-says/
The desire for collective suicide must be very strong in those that the Force has abandoned.
None of them are gagging to throw themselves into Trump's fire. God knows why. The europeans play the same game as the US. Find some not-real people to do the blood, guts and glory stuff. The wheels seem to have come off that game.
It is a desire for victory. Iran, Russia or China do not dare to hurt any western nation.
Chickenshit Iran, Russia and China
paper tigers all
Nobody wants to die in a nuclear fire I guess - the US does not have that much problems with bombing people into ash. Nobody touched its territory yet. The question is - what is the best path to avoid nuclear fire? When one side plays escalate to deescalate the other may habe no choice eventually.
I dunno. Seems like some of these Evangelical types think they're going to survive the nuclear apocalypse - or - that Jesus will descend from Heaven and take them with him. A lot of this hinges on "Israel" - I get your point, but just sayin....
paper tigers
These countries stand up to the Hegemon, but have walked a careful path because it is irrational.
You ran this simulation hogwash last week. It does not improve in credibility in the retelling, Spectre. But I love the idea of a european cavalry riding to the ailing US's aid.
All you doubters, just hang on for the real western forces to turn up and save the day!
Yes, I run again what you think is AI simulation of 3 WW. Results are the same.
When they will change in the future, I will let you know under your comments.
I'm afraid to say your "simulation" is dead in the water, having in mind the fact that the Saudis have learnt to play the "double-dealing" hedging game and they don't appear to share UAE's death wish...
Your programme is hostage to its programmer.
Spectre. The USN is far far stronger than the rest of the World's navies combined (out with the PLAN).
The idea that the West, out with the USN, can produce a naval force to beat Iran is a pipe dream.
John Osman
It's just another typical dream state scenario that commenters like to post as if it has meaning. Naturally, it too has starting a nuclear war as the punchline to demonstrate how achievable without any sacrifice, the vison is.
Agreed Ron.
I've said it before, wake me up when they attempt the transit of the Straits. Viva la France!
I. do not see any attack any time soon if ever ,but for some phony face saving attempt
and I doubt he intended the one he claims knowing full well this used excuse was always going to be available to him since this pressure has been ongoing since the so called cease fire.
Totally agree. It's almost every day the attack is just about to happen, but never does. They face a serious sunk cost zugswang and have been after the first week of war, having failed to dislodge the government. Seems a lot like the miscalculation vis a vis Russia and the sanctions from hell. Hubris is a dangerous strategy for Empire.
Overturning the governments used to be American recipe for ruling, but those days are over - not only that the countries today learned a lot from history, but USA is not what it used to be, and Iran is not my poor Serbia...
True, Iran has proven a formidable opponent and are assisted by the Russians and Chinese.
Yougoslavia❤
Maria, you are COMPLETELY right, Yugoslavia, my beloved and never forgotten one... I am 61 so I KNOW what we had...
A socialist, successful Yugoslavia simply could not be allowed to exist after "the end of history" happened. Such a shame, and most Americans and westerners don't know the real story, as is the case with the vast majority of US/NATO regime change operations throughout and following Cold War 1.0.
I couldn't find the documentary I was looking for. A guy probably your age put together a really good 2hr long documentary using footage on the ground from the time of Tito. Of course YouTube/Google make it impossible to find. I did find this one, though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm-lfVKMNxg
Wow I found it. "The Weight of Chains" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1QN42jR7o
"But those days are over." I disagree with you; the US could overthrow all the EU leaders and the technocrats in Brussels in fews days.
Were it not for hubris, no "empire" would exist.
It's like World War III: nuclear fire, NATO and the EU rearming, Russia invading the EU, its economy collapsing, a million dead, etc., in the last four years. There are enough flaws in the EU to swallow it all, seed and all, every month.
My latest theory is that they're going to Kubrick a land assault. Probably use some remote location in one of the Arab/Gulf Monarchy satrapies and pull out all the stops, from AI enhancements to a massive media push. This is the meme and photo-op (and open corruption) presidential administration. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they tried some Hollywood approach and then denied the Iranians' denials after it hits the airwaves and cable TV.
A large and broad multi-national naval coalition coming together and attacking Iran is just not going to happen.
The leadership class of a lot of those nations you mentioned are pretty dumb, but they aren't THAT stupid.
If everything worked perfectly and all of them agreed to a common commander and plan, it would still take months for it to come together, cost billions directly and tens of billions more indirectly and risk massive losses in equipment and men.
All of which could be saved by shutting up and paying a transit toll of maybe 1~2% of the value of their cargo.
By going to war they would all be paying $10 for a roll of the dice that would pay out maybe $2 for the winner, crap out and you lose it all.
In general, I would tend to agree with you. However, our political class in the West is totally compromised courtesy of Epstein and Pedo Island. The US doesn't call the shots: Tel Aviv does.
It won't matter to Netanyahu that 10s of thousands of goyim are killed. Not a bit: we're cattle, after all. But for those in charge, (Macron, Starmer, et al) well, having your pecadillos with teenage boys and girls revealed to the world at large is a for worse option than seeing those same 10s of thousands of your fellow countrymen and women killed. Psychopaths and sociopaths don't care.
And if Joe Pleb gets antsy, well, they'll unleash all those Israeli-trained police to beat the shit out of them when they do. Or they'll threaten to take their children away as they're now doing in the Netherlands.
I'd like to believe that common sense night prevail somewhere, but common sense is the great oxymoron of our time, and apparently rarer than hens' teeth, so all bets are off.
Nailed it! Thanks...
No matter how important the Epstein network was, and is, I think you’re grossly overestimating the power of bribery and blackmail.
Motivations of carrot (positive reward) and stick (negative punishment) will always have logical and mathematical limits.
As I mentioned above, on the bribery/reward side of the equation, no one is going to burn $5 to gain $1, and anyone foolish enough to do so gets eliminated from the game and quickly replaced with someone smarter.
On the blackmail/extortion side of the equation, if the possible punishment threatened is not as bad as the definite fate in store, then the blackmail scheme collapses. You can’t demand that the mark kill himself to avoid bankruptcy or the like.
Sure, there will be some people foolish enough to do that, but again, they will be quickly eliminated from the game and replaced with harder‑nosed operators.
Any leader or commander who demands that their subordinates destroy themselves to cover up his own crimes will himself be destroyed by those subordinates.
You are getting very close to attributing super‑natural black magic powers to the “Epstein class”. Psychopaths or not, they are not magicians. Psychopaths lose. They consistently and inevitably lose because they lack the real human super‑power of mutual cooperation.
The ultimate lesson of Jeffrey Epstein is that he lost. However exactly he died, he died in prison with his name reviled around the world.
What was his legacy?
The liar, the flim‑flam artist, and the confidence trickster may appear to win, but anything they build will always collapse and fail.
It’s the difference between the man with the post‑dated check who promises to pay you tomorrow, and the man who has gold, silver, meat and bread right here right now.
It’s the difference between the man who threatens to kill you and the man who actually kills, kills often, and kills well.
What we are witnessing right now is not the triumph of the Epstein class but their failure.
The Devil is both a Liar and a Loser.
I upvoted both your comment and Asgard2208's. His point about the ethics (well, lack thereof) of vile garbage like Macron and Starmer is valid. They would happily send 10,000 of their men to be slaughtered by the Iranians to keep lurid videos of their antics on Epstein Island off the internet.
I think you're correct though that ultimately they don't have the power to commit to policies that would essentially destroy the political parties they head up. Europe's "leaders" are just like ours here in the US. Most of them are little more than actors hired by the real ruling class to pander to various factions among the masses. In fact, to me at least, they seem even more insubstantial than our own clownish hucksters. They are all also very unpopular for their disastrous mass migration policies and antagonizing Russia.
Trump's war against Iran is unpopular enough here in the US but direct European involvement would see mass demonstrations in Europe on an unprecedented scale and could easily collapse some of the weaker governments.
I do not think it matters to Netanyahu that Jews are killed or maimed, either. Typical elite.
He tried to relate to them once, how they are all in the same boat. People get killed, maimed, his son had to postpone his wedding two or three times.
Same, same. They all suffer.
If everything worked perfectly and all of them agreed on a common commander... It would be simple; the task would be assigned to London, which is experienced in finding commanders on social media. If we're talking about officers with warfare experience, perhaps we should launch a consultation across the galaxy.
So I am neutral to your predictions - I agree with the contours of them for sure, though I think you are a bit maximalist on others. That being said, I do think that the forces gathering in Djibouti are poised to take out the Houthis - a good silver medal for Trump and a great way to distract from Iran. I cannot think of any other reason why so much accumulation has occurred there except to attack them - certainly the massive flotilla you mention would be capable of weathering Ansarallah's anti-ship capabilities, which are much less than Iran.
Take them out how? They are millions. Saudi Arabia invaded and fought for years. France will fight Houthis when Saudis, Israel, US couldn't do a thing?
Vlad
Exactly
The Saudis are ragingly incompetent and that is evidenced by any combat video between SA and Ansarallah you find. America is much less so, and having millions of soldiers doesn't mean America cannot keep them tied down, or meaningfully degrade them with a ground invasion and mass bombing campaign. I also never said it was a great idea, only that it is the only thing that makes sense given where the accumulation happens.
There's no ground force accumulation in Djibouti.
Unless they all left without it making news, there have been in fact a large accumulation of troops and material to Djibouti, thanks.
J. Lashley
There are about four thousand American troops, fifteen hundred French troops. Several countries have a few hundred or so each configured for maritime response to Somalia piracy issues.
The American force could host a command and control operation but the troop totals are irrelevant for combat ground operations.
Djibouti has about ten thousand troops of its own. I don't think they are interested in going to war with the Houthis.
I am certain they’ll attack the Houthis. I am also certain they’ll lose.
Dropping a nuke will have irreversible repercussions..
What would Pakistan do ?
Once done and precedent set, why would Russia not take out Kiev ?
It not in NATO .
Would we sacrifice NYC for fn Ukraine ? I don’t think so .
Why wouldn’t Pakistan or Russia not give Iran a nuke warhead and take out Israel once and for all ?
I doubt a nuke would be used but …it is talked about .. Mearshimer does not give odds but “ the chances are quite real “
Especially since that Russian scholar told Glen Deisen ..I. Used to be an outside but now I am in the majority .
You are right ..we are moving toward something bigger than anyone imagines
Keep in mind , in 1914 the Brits that left on that train Told their loved ones “ be back in 6 weeks “ ..most never did come back
Of course. This text from SImplicius is wishful thinking. Just read bellow. The whole collective west wants this war and even more wars. They see that Russia and China do not dare to challenge the Western hegemony. They see how the Russian population is against the war, how frightened they are while dreaming about status shopping in Rome or Paris.
France, Italy, Belgium, they all support Israel while their consents are just cosmetics. Not to mention Americans, how they like when sub humans are being bombed. Just watch MSM and you'll see how bombs and destruction of some nations over see are just technical question. Waging war from the side of the West is always moral and justified for 90% of the respective populations. They love to win, they want victories. Iran is a bit difficult, but Cuba is maybe easy. They'll soon return to Iran anyway. Then Russia and China.
I expect USA/Israel to use nuclear weapons soon. Even on Russia.
REUTERS
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly canceled a vote on Thursday on a resolution seeking to end the Iran war unless President Donald Trump obtains Congress' authorization, two days after a similar measure advanced in the U.S. Senate.
Frightened Russians
FWIW, today on Fox News a retired Vice Admiral, one Robert Harward,
did mention the nuclear weapon option, while giving his opinion.
(his neck looks almost as if this man is wearing a mask - very strange)
https://t.co/HuYyXquSIW
I am not an admiral, but I have gotten my boots dirty in the field, unlike him, I can also give my opinion.
Take a chill pill
The entire Western world wants this war and even more wars. Certainly, but only if it's led by the US or others. Cowardice never dictates the direction of the battlefield. Gone are the days of kings and nobles leading armies into battle. Now we'd be dealing with monarchs more concerned with not getting their $10,000 shoes filthy.
The monarchs won't go there. Their shoes would remain clean.
Not sure of your timeline for kinetic action is Spectre but one element that needs serious consideration is that the Hajj pilgrimage begins this weekend and the forces of Western aggression would do well to respect that, lest they seriously p!ss off 2 billion Muslims around the World.
It's Nutty that worries me. He may see this as his big chance to go out in glory.
Don't make me laugh. The French military are a complete joke and dare not go through the Red Sea because of the Houthis never mind attack Iran. As for the Germans their military is even more weak and pathetic.
But French/British/Danish/Italian flotilla has passed the Red Sea already 2 weeks ago.
Just recently HSS Dragon has also passed it, under cover of French Rafale.
All of them in the Arabian Sea, heading Oman Gulf.
Since the beginning of March French aircraft group have passed the Red Sea several times, cruising between Cyprus and Djibouti for refuelling, but possible also bringing more armaments closer to Iran theatre.
French 290 nuclear bombs are not a joke, probably half of them for marine use.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2026/05/dragon-adds-more-air-defence-firepower-to-french-carrier-strike-group/
For those interested, the release of the film "The Liberation of the Strait of Hormuz" scripted by Taco and Rutte associated, produced by MGM and Gaumont, made in the Hollywood studios, with Admiral Greengobelwin and General Petecaptainamerica, commander of the midget naval force, in the main roles, is scheduled to premiere in all theaters worldwide on June 19, 3162.
I predict a false flag attack at one of the North American FIFA World Corruption Cup game sites. Probably targeted at one or more of the (likely NATO) countries that Trump and the Zionist cabal want to sign onto the next phase in their war on Iran.
Trump is just playing mind games, likely to give some more time to position the traitors inside Iran for the final blow.
Iran blinked on April 8 and when they didn't do a serious, **physical** purge of Zarif and the rest, and Trump knew from that moment on that he has them defeated, it has only been a matter of time and putting the operation together properly.
They were right on the cusp of turning the attrition war in their favor and then agreed on a ceasefire, while betraying their allies (missiles should have been raining on Israel every single day if the commitment to Hezbollah was real; but they didn't fire a single one). And that's after the very strange "restrained" way the active phase of the war itself was fought (they struck much more decisively inside Israel during the 12-day war). Once such lack of resolve is demonstrated, things go only one way.
Some thoughts on this…
Iran *was* launching ongoing and surprisingly successful strikes against Israel
With that in mind, it is worth noting some things about the timing of the ceasefire:
It happened just as the US and GCC States were beginning to run low on interceptors, and had to actively triage which incoming missiles and drones to actively engage
It happened within (I think) 48 hours of Iran successfully striking close to Israel’s (unacknowledged) nuclear weapon storage site
The timing was was *also* at a time when all parties were prepared to escalate to unrestricted strikes on oil infrastructure across the entire region
My “take” on this is that everyone realized that things were about to go seriously pear-shaped, and actually listened to some of the relatively sane voices in the region
The US knows that Iran can and would knock out major production, storage, and port facilities in the GCC if their own infrastructure was targeted in any meaningful way. This would turn a temporary-but-still-painful supply disruption in flow into a multi-year supply *destruction*, with much deeper global consequences. In that event, most of the world would (mostly) not blame Iran - they’d blame the US for starting this whole mess
The ceasefire benefitted Iran by giving them time to reorganize and dig out
The net/net?
The ceasefire benefitted both the US and Iran, though Israel was not exactly thrilled
A settlement at this point allows both the US and Iran to declare victory and walk away for the moment (Trump is genuinely worried about his polling and the midterms - that’s *his* motivation. Iran is happy to take a settlement that gives them time and breathing room - that’s *their* motivation)
I believe that, in the far side of all this, we’ll get back to something close to the JCPOA. Trump will, well, *trumpet* this as a tremendous victory.
There will, likely, also be at least a nod to Gaza/Israel/Hamas somewhere in the mix, since without that Israel will be pushing for new attacks on Iran within months, and the US administration knows that a second kinetic war would be political suicide given the way this has played out for them
And of course a settlement here also frees up Trump to proceed with whatever he’s planning for Cuba (🤷♂️🤦♂️🤷♂️)
>My “take” on this is that everyone realized that things were about to go seriously pear-shaped, and actually listened to some of the relatively sane voices in the region
Yes, so Iran folded.
>The net/net?
The net/net is that Iran's obejctive when the war started should have been to kick the US completely out of the region, make sure no attacks on itself will ever be physically possible other than with ultra-long range missile, and that Israel is left stranded and with no logistical support from the US.
None of that was achieved. Instead the US further chipped away at Iran's military strength, eliminating more key figures in the political and military leadership, and establishing precisely the kind of normalized hit-and-run environment (we saw that a couple weeks ago with the limited strikes around Hormuz) that was their objective as the next step towards terminally weakening Iran. And precisely what was an absolute must for Iran to not allow.
>And of course a settlement here also frees up Trump to proceed with whatever he’s planning for Cuba
Yes, so another L for the good guys.
To your points, this should be interesting reading:
https://kevorkalmassian.substack.com/p/how-is-iran-dismantling-the-empire?r=6krryk&utm_medium=ios
People are also conveniently ignoring the shocking economic damage iran is suffering. They post cufe social media videos and troll on X like champions but the reality is the US blockade is working, and they have lost Dubai as their export/financial laundromat. Things worked before Feb 27 because everyone had a lot to lose. Now everyone has a lot to gain by ending this, the iranians as much as anyone
People similarly ignored what was happening in Syria.
Which "won" its war (how do you win a war that ends with you losing control over half your country I never understood) but was hollowed out by sanctions that its "allies" did very little to break, and in the end it collapsed easily.
That is the plan for Iran too.
These people have shown they can wait.
They dealt a deadly blow to the USSR by throwing Hitler at it, then patiently waited 45 years for the effects to kill it. They waited 13 years for Syria. They can wait a decade for Iran to collapse too.
La pazienza è la virtù dei forti.
You nailed it down. Once you understand this aspect, you will understand why Persia will continue to exist. You can't defeat people with this mindset.
The Iranian economy was suffering before the war, Bash. Its currency is near extinct. So I agree about the shocking economic damage Iran is suffering, too.
Good point.
So by that logic economic pressure on Iran should have no effect on their wartime decisions since peacetime also consists of crippling economic sanctions?
There is no good reason why economic pressure on Iran from the West should have absolutely any effect.
Russia-Iran-China and a few other countries are combined completely self-sufficient in everything they need and can just cut off the West (which is in fact not similarly self-sufficient), trade with each other and have no shortage of anything, grab some popcorn, and watch a snuff version of Mad Max in the West from a safe distance.
The catch is that the pro-Western local rapacious oligarchies in those countries will see their wealth and power diminished in the process.
That is, of course, not a good reason to enable the West to rape and pillage the whole world. What you do in such a situation is you line up the local rapacious oligarchies and bury them in unmarked mass graves, then seal yourself off from the West as I described. But you do that if you rule in the interest of the people, and clearly that is not the case.
Iran was blackmailed by Russia and China to accept the ceasefire;
Blackmailed AF
I agree that they both heavily influenced that decision - whether you want to call that “diplomatic pressure” or “blackmail”, the net result is similar
I *also* think that Iran had at least some degree of self-interest.
While I believe that, if pressed, they were and remain willing to escalate all the way to the point of self-destruction if they thought that was the only remaining option (“nothing left to lose”), they’d rather not if other options remain viable
They know full well that Israel would not hesitate to go nuclear *in extremis*
Knowing this, I believe that *they* believe that there are other ways to achieve long-term goals without reaching that point
Interestingly, I think the US found itself in a similar situation, but primarily from the GCC states (alongside the rest of the world refusing to line up and support the US - “it’s your mess, you started it, you clean it up”)
My thinking (and some of Trump’s recent posts tend to confirm this) is that the GCC States warned both Trump and key voices in the administration that there’s a huge difference between supply disruption and supply *destruction*, and that the US really did not want to deal with *that* possibility
Note sure about Russia, but definitely by China.
Though would not at all be surprised if Russia did it too given that it played the exact same role in Syria -- the good cop to the US's bad cop.
except that the jew controls the USA and does not care about the economic damage to the typical american - as zion don has said himself now...
Trump putting together an operation properly? In what world are you living, Hollywood?
In the world in which Venezuela was taken over without barely a shot just five months ago by an operation that was clearly put together properly
You’re full of fun
Bribes do not work everywhere, but they work well with LA comprador elites. Always have.
It hasn't been "Taken over" whatsoever. The leadership of Venezuela recognises the potential for 10s or 100s of thousands of civilian deaths, and are playing along until Trump gets kicked out, along with the low brow knuckleheads he's installed.
By which time the US will be on its knees internally, let alone internationally.
Maduro was no Chavez anyway, and while the people will fight to repel Yankee invaders, he wasn't popular enough personally to die for.
Keep dreaming.
They could have "played along" without the public humiliations such as dancing and singing for the CIA director and without the ongoing purges of Maduro loyalists.
Also, the fact that Maduro felt the need to have **Cuban** soldiers guarding him and those actually fought and were slaughtered speaks volumes.
Of course it does - just like Zelensky has French and British personal guards.
Again, "singing and dancing" =/= the deaths of vast numbers of civilians.
The US Empire is going down, but as can be seen in the example of Ukraine - low level powers in the shadow of superpowers have to mind their manners, even if they don't want to.
That is just Realism.
He lives in a small room with 3 blow files who go round and round circles following the trajectory of his ynoughts
And we 🇺🇸 backed off the flip- flop warriors..the Houthi ..last year.
Venezuela and Iran is like comparing apples and oranges.
And last I heard the Chavistas are still running Venezuela.
All us American taxpayers got was a lot of money and military resources
wasted so some oil baron billionaires could make big bucks off of captured oil. And now they want US taxpayers to subsidize the rebuilding of the oil infrastructure so They can make more money!
Not something I am bragging about.
>And last I heard the Chavistas are still running Venezuela.
And Boris Yeltsin was the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, Gaidar came from a family with as impeccable communist credentials as they can possibly get (google it), Kozyrev was a Soviet diplomat for 17 years prior to 1991, etc.
Yet what did those scumbags to do Russia in the 1990s?
Same scumbags.
Difference in this is that we American taxpayers are paying for the opportunity for the scumbags to make more money. Just thinking of the cost of the resources to capture Maduro is nauseating.
Flip flopping like a half dead fish on the sand is your idea of “mind games” ? Given the idiocy of your usual drivel, not surprising to anyone.
And John Mearsheimer has said we have already lost the war…
He said the same about Ukraine.
Meanwhile Ukraine is preparing a large-scale offensive while Russia is barely able to keep the lines where they are.
You really should get rid of your crack pipe!
Yip Russia is now because of scarcity putting some washing machine chips in their Oreshniks and launching drones with Ukrainian leftovers from their drones that didn’t exploded.
You're not following the events on the ground
No im waiting for the sky to fall down on…EU, Kiev, NATO, France, GB, Düsseldorf, Rammstein and also on your head.
I follow the events on the ground and the line of contact moves steadily from the east toward the west. Ukraine loses ground every day of the week.
Doubtless it will be as effective as all their other large scale offensives.
MI6 seem reluctant to learn from experience.
Every one of their large-scale offensives achieved its real purpose, which had little to do with taking territory or defeating the Russian army and everything to do with shifting the "red lines" further into the previously unthinkable.
Prolongation of the war seems to be the only credible explanation for these offensives, but the outcome is never in doubt.
It very much is.
Russia is dwarfed conventionally by the West, which even Putin himself will readily acknowledge. And has openly acknowledged on many occasions publicly.
So a war in which the West gets to strike at Russia conventionally while not even being targeted in any way on its own territory will have only one winner.
Thus the only way out for Russia is nuclear strikes on Europe. Then the question of whether the Russian elite, with their yachts, mansions and children all in Europe, would have the integrity to defend the motherland that is not actually their real motherland, looms very large. If it doesn't, Russia will lose.
We already see it in practice. The front has reached a state where Russian advances are mostly offset by "Ukrainian" advances, and "Ukraine" is now firing more drones into Russia than Russia is firing into Ukraine, for two months in a row.
Dude Ukrainian advances are in the fields around Stepnogorsk and Volcha.
Advanced km or whatever there is not like advanced km In Kostantinovka.
Disingeneous.
Ukraine is striking Rus with drones, that is way off some serious conventional weapons.
to what end
They do not have to, it is the beauty of disposable cannon fodder.
Ukraine and a large scale offensive on Russia do not compute. The zio-banderite junta has been in business of busification for obvious reasons. Any honest person knows that it is NATO that has been running the ongoing war on Russia.
The chosenites care not about western civilization and humanity at large. The judeo-Nazi collaboration in Ukraine will either have catastrophic consequences for the planet or will finally “illuminate” and destroy the reign of zionized banking dynasties/ mega war profiteers.
The Parasite needs a docile and obedient host-population. This kind of population can only be a result of a profound societal rot leading to inevitable crush and disintegration.
The malicious jewdaic power has reached its apex in the US. Next must be a worldwide ban on this supremacist infection.
Remember this discussion, we will return to it in a couple months
@Uncle Juan
"Lost the war"?
That would depend on what their aims actually WERE when starting this conflict, which resulted in chaos and degradation of economies world wide (but slightly less so in the USA?). By now, most sane people have realized that neither Donald Trump nor Benjamin Netanyahu are addicted to telling actual truth when making public statements on social media?
They WANTED the Gulf oil, petrochemical, fixed nitrogen & LNG infrastructures destroyed, leaving no physical possibility for "peace to break out" and resumption of the previously normal trade in Persian Gulf resources (ie, trade with China & other Eurasian/global South economies we wish to degrade, strangle, subdue and control). "It's not personal, only business", as was said in The Godfather.
What was planned (and so far has been accomplished) by shutting down shipping of petrochemicals, fixed nitrogen and sulfur through the straits of Hormuz is quite different than the MSM based assumptions on what constitutes "winning" and "losing".
The USA threw a monkey wrench into several vital supply lines for 2/3 of the world's populations economies, drove up US crude oil price by 50% (so far), increased US LNG prices by 50% to 250% depending on markets, guaranteed the USA a seller's market for LNG, light crude oil, refined hydrocarbons & most staple agricultural products dependant on man made fixed nitrogen fertilizers, plus increased price for US sourced sulfur. They also drove a LOT of investments from the Gulf states to "safe" US Treasury bonds.
BlackRock, Cargill, Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies, Cheniere Energy and CF Industries Holdings are MASSIVELY profiting in a seller's market, stock values are all going up, up up. US Treasury can sell T bills to those pulling their money out of various degraded gulf states needing a "safer" venue for investments.
And wherever the war/blockade drove some (unconnected, non oligarch owned) business into bankruptcy with all of that, they made a tasty meal for our big investment bankers, buying up the failed “little people” owned concerns assets for pennies on the dollar and driving any remaining customer base towards their own businesses, concentrating wealth still further.
This isn't a crisis for billionaires, it's a great opportunity.
It wouldn't surprise me if the US backs away from Iran because it has nothing to gain and a lot to lose. The US economy can't afford the risk of a greater conflict with Iran. The cost-benefit doesn't fit. Trump has already practically destroyed himself in the midterms. He's on a tight leash politically. His allies in the Middle East are telling him to pull back at the risk of facing economic armageddon if the desalination plants and oil infrastructure are destroyed. Israel, on the other hand, wants to extend the war with Iran. I suspect Trump wants an exit plan despite the double-talk bravado he speaks.
There's too much at stake for the global economy to mess around with intensifying conflict in the Middle East. I think this conflict will de-escalate. If I'm wrong, well, here comes $200 or more per barrel of oil, the UAE uninhabitable, and shortages globally on a scale too deep to fathom.
Iran demonstrated that it doesn't need an atomic bomb to defend itself because it has enough missiles and drones to light up the entire Middle East. Either they all get along, or they all blow up together. A detente in the Middle East has been established.
That scenario will be tested severely when israel decides to attack on its own, hoping to force Trump to enter the war as well, despite its effects both on the American and global economy.
Personally, I believe Trump and Bibi have already designed and agreed a new attack. All this going on now is PR meant to distract.
Well, Victor. If Bibi causes a global crisis by attacking, I'm afraid Israel deserves to be taken off the map. It wouldn't take much, really. Israel has proven itself to be the most destructive virus on the face of this planet.
90% global Jewry “stands with Israel.”
To stop the malicious infection, any sane society must ban Judaism and Zionism; the latter is an organic fascist expression of Judaism.
Thanks for that valuable insight, Anna.
The virus is global.
Zionism is a fairly recent phenomena compared to Judaism, having been created by Jews in the 19th century as a powerful political force not restricted to Jews alone but also non-Jews, having captured many Christians by funding the production of the Scofield Bible in the early 20th century after which the heresy of Christian Dispensationalism came to the front and grew powerfully alongside zionism. We blame zionists for for much of the turmoil in the world today and deservedly so, but we must remember that serious problems with the rabbinic-led Talmudic Jews have infected European and West Asian civilisations for thousands of years, their having to be thrown out of too many countries over that period to name. The funny thing is that they have never asked themselves why that was, always blaming others for their "misfortunes" and "persecutions" which they continue to do to this day.
I am not at all suggesting "all" are like that nor should they be blamed - Jewish leadership, as our leadership today in most Western countries, is at fault. This leadership has kept the ordinary Jewish people under the threat of great fear much as other religious leaders have been known to do - the tribal threat of being excluded from the rest is a powerful tool for the leadership to use against their own people.
I would encourage people who wish to know more about this to read books like, The Controversy of Zion by Douglas Reed, or Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years by Israel Shahak.
Controversy of Zion is excellent book!
Zionists conflate Judaism and Zionism in their (successful) efforts to condemn criticism of Zionism with antisemitism, even though many Jews also condemn it. But Zionism is like any other political ism, be it socialism, fascism (the Zio's BFF), or any other ism, and it should be torched by virtue of what it is and what it does.
Unfortunately, our Pedo Class politicians are corrupt and have been captured by 10s of thousands of hours of video of them raping children. So Zionism will remain standing like a colossus over western culture and politics for the foreseeable future, whether we like it or not.
"the ordinary Jewish people" are just as much the problem by definition - a jew considers itself gods chosen and all else to be goyim
Tribal solidarity is to be expected, but banning a religion has always seemed a step too far for me. I'm a believer in courtesy and cordiality toward all on at least a superficial level, but as for anyone who "stands for Israel", I would remain courteous but shun them thereafter with a calm and polite simple declaration of the reason for it, making it plain that the discussion is closed. Happily, I haven't had to do it yet, but will do so in a NY minute if I encounter it.
Theirs is not just a religion - it is a supremacist manifesto infused with hatred and disrespect towards all "others"
A sample: Kol Nidrei
"All vows, prohibitions, oaths, bans, renunciations, penalties, or invocations of the divine by which we have vowed, sworn, renounced, or foresworn anything from this Yom Kippur to an auspicious next Yom Kippur, we repent of them all. We repudiate them. All of them are undone, abandoned, cancelled, null and void, not in force, and not in effect. Our vows are no longer vows, and our prohibitions are no longer prohibitions, and our oaths are no longer oaths." -- They learn this from childhood.
More: Psalm 137:9. "Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."
Another one: "The 188th mitzvah is that we are commanded to wipe out the descendants of Amalek, male and female, young and old."
-- See Gaza genocide and before that the horrors of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia
Their religious ideology is built on tribal hatred, disrespect, hypocrisy, and genocidal urges towards "others." This is why they were unable to build a stable civilization but always attach themselves to other peoples' cultural and technological developments.
--See the dishonorable aipac, Adelson, Kagans, Wexner...
judaism is not a religion - it is an ethnographic criminal enterprise.
all jews need to be reeducated and prevented from having any organization or power whatsoever.
I call it a cancer and should be taken of the map. Israel, created by violence, ended in violence. They clearly don’t deserve their own country. They have given an opportunity to, but fucked up completely
I left a similar comment. My reasoning for another attack is 2 fold: USrael’s long term dominance is in jeopardy and Trump should have shut up about and gone away already. Keeping this subject front and center is not doing much to help him.
Denis, you are a rational person, but those in charge are madmen. Trump seems to believe and so says that with enormously destructive chaos imposed on the world, the US (he and his rich buds) will come out on top—including nuclear.
Well, Tedder, the thing is with Trump is that he is a compulsive liar, a conman, a WWF actor and a pompous buffoon. I doubt Trump and friends would go nuclear because then their lives and those of their friends and their children would be ruined forever. No more Maralago, no more golf clubs, no more fancy restaurants, no more money, no more wealth, no more child predation (Einstein class). Nuclear is mutually assured destruction. They can talk about it all they want, but they won't risk it because it threatens the privileged life they live. They have more to lose than we do. Thanks.
You are forgetting the crazed sub-human animals and their Samson option.
I'm going to read up more about this Samson option.
Are you talking about the Israeli Samson Option, Grr?
I'm mildly surprised you don't know about that, Denis. It is the claim by the israelis that if their existence is truly threatened, they will unleash all their nukes to countries across the world employing a strategy that says if I go down the rest of the world will as well.
I've never been convinced that the israelis have all that many nukes (and perhaps this is actually a gigantic bluff as is common with those folks), but still there is enough ambiguity in their stance that people do not take the chance.
Samson was a biblical figure whose great strength was given by God only on the condition that he would never cut his hair. The temptress Delilah plotted against him and while he slept in her arms she cut his hair. He lost strength, was blinded and imprisoned by his enemies, and during that imprisonment he repented and begged God to allow him to strike vengeance against the Philistines. One day he was led into the arena to be mocked and chided by the Philistine population and their royalty. He was led to the arena by a young boy and entering asked the boy to place his hands so they would touch the two foundation pillars. He prayed to God to give him strength in his final hour. God did so and Samson forced the the two pillars apart, causing a chain reaction that brought the whole house down killing everyone (about 3000), including himself.
Thus, the Samson option was borne. Probably more than you even wanted to know, Denis...🙃
Thanks, Victor.
I do know about it, Victor.
But I wanted to make sure of the details. I forgot.
Thanks for the details.
funny how all the jew stories are about genodice and mass murder of the amalek.
Yes. The sub-human animal's Samson Option.
They are better off choosing the Samsonite option
Norwegian. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏. Chapeau!
hahaha
It will almost certainly be the option chosen, but the "chosen" may quickly discover that their new neighbors have a different choice in mind.
we all are - hit any negro infested "western: city and the country improves....
I forgot to mention that you were right about the overinflated death toll of protesters in Iran, Grr. Truth can be evasive when it's based on false reporting.
At the moment they think they can win a nuclear confrontation. The rich already have their hideouts in new zealand, argentina
Here's the catch.
The rich who think they're safe underground might just be entombed by the survivors on the surface. Build a mountain of rock over them so they never get out. That's what I plan on doing anyway. lol
Leverage😀
Yep. Bury them for eternity.
I suspect that you will have many more pressing things to worry about than seeking revenge.
Besides, it's not like the Adelson Bunker will be neatly marked out on Google Maps.
Bunkers are everywhere. It wouldn't be revenge but fun,
Feral. Bury the escape hatch and air supply, wait a year, unbury, take all the food and gold, then leave. hahaha.
And then think about all the servants they will want in their tech-utopia. At a certain point, will the servants eat the masters?
Better to make the masters servants and get more value out of them by putting them to work. lol
As the late Joe Louis (the boxer, not the Zionist Brit Joe Lewis who owns Lago Escondido--Hidden Lake--in Patagonia) once said: "You can run, but you can't hide".
And Russia and China know exactly where they are. That's what the Oreshniks are for.
All of the negatives you state may be on the horizon for many of them if they do nothing. Iran’s strategic victory is USrael ultimate demise. The money spending done over the last 15 years (at least) requires a constant source of collateralized resources. They had hoped to get Russia and later Iran’s.
That being said if Trump and his buddies start this up again and diesel goes to $10 people will lose their shit. And people like Trump will need to go to their bunkers. I suspect their security teams would wipe them pretty quick. Trump and his Epstein buddies become the most useless of eaters when the lights go out.
As long as Trump himself does not personally suffer, he could not care less.
Which is why he's deeply selfish, spoilt and stupid. His family and grandchildren will be lepers. He's blown their futures as well as his own.
No, his children and grandchildren will do fine, the way children of royalty usually do.
The amount of magical thinking prevailing in these comments is truly mind boggling these days. The alt community is drinking stronger kool aid than the mainstream media is. Reminiscent of the ghost dance cult developed by American Indians in the face of their genocide.
What Simplicius misses, ignore or flat out hides from the equation is Israel.
Kagan is writing down Trump because he is not doing things according to Bibis/israel wishes. Kagan is selling in that Iran WILL emerge to a bigger threat to the World & US.
Therefore Israel has to do their own thing soon.
And what you either ignore, dismiss, or flat out hide from is that Iran is no threat to anybody - even the disgusting jew, providing they are left alone.
You misread a lot, Tim.
How so, Mikey? Iran, Russia and China, Cuba and Venezuela are the same. They would love to ignore the Colossus/Hegemon, but it keeps attacking them.
Oh, gawd. Dddh has another account!
@steghorn….. you literally made me spit my Coca Cola out of my mouth. 😂😂😂
thanks for the compliment - we are everywhere...
the truth is the truth and once the jew is seen the problem starts to be solved.
Like that Iranian dude said: We are a superpower as well.
Already now. Israel can only use nukes now. Will they?
The Iranians aren't stupid. They held back a lot of firepower as a deterrent against Israeli nukes. And I get the feeling the new Ayatollah has a different perspective than his father. When was the last time the Iranians categorically denied the nuclear business. Not like the old days at all.
I see Israel as the source of most evil, particularly those in power. The world would be a lot more peaceful without it.
And so tell us, what can Israel do to Iran? I'll tell you, sweet fuck all. If you think the US military has come out of this looking like a paper tiger, the Israelis look like a wet paper tiger.
The Resistance seems to have come out of all this pretty well, minus Assad's ignominious retreat.
Neither can do much to Iran in a conventional manner. But USrael long term dominance is in dire straits. It’s hard to rule anything out. Desperate times; desperate measures
And hopefully will result in their complete demise
Pretty sure that if the satanic empire had nukes, they would have used them.
Iran has prevailed, for the good of all of us, jews excepted.
But they aren't us anyway, they are the tares in the field of wheat - satan's offspring, not Adam's.
"The cost-benefit doesn't fit. Trump has already practically destroyed himself in the midterms. He's on a tight leash politically."
Did you happen to notice that several of Trump's biggest political enemies just got primaried? (for those not familiar with US politics, "primaried" means beaten by a challenger of the same party, and I'm referring to the only decent politician in the country, Thomas Massie, and a few barely reasonable Republican voices of opposition). The idea that he is on a tight leash is pure delusion. He is serving the empire, and he will be allowed to continue to do that.
I have heard that the Massie vote may have been rigged, Elena.
US elections, like here in Canada, are meaningless.
It's all theatre to me as an outsider looking in.
Yes, Trump is the leashed dog who does as he's told.
Tight leash refers more to Trump's sensitivities about adversely affecting the stock markets. That's why he starts a conflict on a weekend and stops when the markets open.😂
I was shocked by the Massie vote and wouldn’t be surprised if it was rigged, but if so it was rigged to favor Trump. My point is that Trump is not being weakened or negated in any way, and there’s no chance he will be. Most of the alt press have no clue anymore.
Trump has the lowest rating of any President heading into the midterms now.
He has lost tremendous support, riding lower than Biden. I see that as weakened. He surely hasn't been strengthened in any way. I suspect our perceptions are different on this one.
They very obviously are, since all Trump's enemies are currently biting the dust and he's getting everything he wants whenever he wants it. If that's weakened, god save us all from "strengthened."
His wife, Melania, would support me in saying Trump doesn't get what he wants with her. lol She won't do it for him. lol There's a video of Trump trying to hold Melania's hand, and she pushed it away like he had a deadly virus. No one gets everything they want whenever they want. It just doesn't go that way.
The primaries could have been rigged and if so…it was in favor of Trump…really?
A just flat out denial it was rigged would have been much better.
Is it now acceptable Republicans may have rigged an election? Or, was it the Republicans plus a foreign country that proved to most people with more than two brain cells…THEY control the government of my country? The Massie loss has potential to boomerang badly on Republicans. It is like watching the self destruction of the Republican Party in slow motion. I voted for Trump three times. I now have TDS…Trump Disappointment Syndrome.
Don't think of Trump the person, think of the US corporate elites benefiting from what he does as a "collective Trump"
Elections in the US are almost completely irrelevant to domestic policy and 100% irrelevant to foreign policy.
He still rules. That is the only think that matters.
"Trump has the lowest rating of any President heading into the midterms now."
So what? His orders still have the force of law.
Just pointing out a stat, Feral. Elections are just a means for people to think they have a choice. I only voted once in my life. I picked Brian Mulroney of all people back in the eighties when I was young and naive.
Looks like the investigations into voting fraud allowed Trump to steal the method, so he can use it, rather than prosecute or even expose to daylight. His enemies can't really claim, "He's using our method to steal it for him!"
You mean 10,800 mailed in ballots.
The Massie situation has literally made me sick to my stomach. This was as brazen of an attack on US Constitution that has ever been witnessed. It’s been a demonstration in raw power. I wasn’t even a huge Massie fan. I live 800 miles away and can’t vote in that district. But this “primary election “ became the most expensive election in history. Israel firsters openly bragged about unseating him. When Massie conceded he made a joke about tracking down his opponent in Tel Aviv. The faux outrage over what Massie said was hypocritical beyond words.
FYI—the removal of Massie had ZERO to do with how he voted. It had everything to do with Massie exposing the Zionist menace!!
"I have heard that the Massie vote may have been rigged, Elena."
Even if that were proven fact, so what?
It worked.
Yep, Elena makes some great points. If this thing was going to end because Trump had seen the error of his ways he should have quietly stfu about it. But he’s done the complete opposite about it.
All depends on what Netanyahu has on Trump and whether Trump has the balls to tell the Zionist psycho to shove it.
I am sure that the complete and unedited Jeffrey Epstein Home Video Library is safely in Tel Aviv somewhere, and that there is not a dull minute in it.
Denis, good points but realize Trump himself said he doesn’t care about what the war in middle east does to US gas prices or economy, and he certainly does not care about world economy. Trumps only concern is doing what the Zionist state and Epstein class wants him to do. The guy is 110% bought and paid for, to hell with us peasants. He is Israel and Epstein clienr list First.
Please, don't tell GM that the USA might have lost this round.
Everything you say is accurate. In a world driven by logic and reason you are right on the money. Still there are a couple things that bother me.
USrael—basically the hegemony of both nations. This conflict has never been about nuclear weapons. It’s been to blunt Iran’s rise to becoming a dominant power. Particularly one outside the ZioBanker’s umbrella. It’s very dangerous for Western elites because more nations will follow Irans lead.
Also, Trump knows he is not getting a deal. Let me rephrase that; the people pulling Trump’s strings know there will be no deal. At least it’s very unlikely. Knowing this, as well as understanding USrael could not attack Iran I wonder why Trump didn’t go away quietly after the ceasefire. Americans would have conveniently forgot all about it; especially with elections looming. Yet that geriatric big mouth keeps the subject front and center.
Jeffrey Epstein's Ghost has entered the chat.
Francis Bacon wanted forever wars
Usa=British empire 2.0
Of its ie usa’s 250 years existence 220 have been in some war.
The isolationists failed the last 100 years and now nukes are more visible on the horizon.
In the usa they are mostly doped up on pharmaceuticals or some other shit hence the grand
Absurdity called the white house
The British empire didn't exist before the jews infiltrated the kingdom in Cromwell's time
They then spread their satanic influence to the US, hence that nation's jew-driven policies today.
Cherchez le juif.
Infiltrate hints at stealth, secrecy. The jews didn't infiltrate, the traitor Cromwell invited them in after them being persona non grata for centuries.
See: "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge"
de Edward Kritzler (Autor)
"Francis Bacon wanted forever wars"
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) the English Elizabethan philosopher, statesman, essayist and pioneer of the Scientific Method?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
That dude?
Are we now living out the plan of an English philosopher from 400 years ago?
I have to say I doubt it. No matter how influential he was he didn't invent power politics, intrigue, conspiracy and greed.
@Jack Dee
Beat me to it...
Wars bankrupt empires and this one is no different. Iran's smartest move, and FedGov's dumbest, is the mutual blockade. Soaring gas prices are destroying family finances and in an economy which is around 70% consumption and heavily financialised that's slow-motion suicide.
Just look at US Treasury rates. The government can bomb military installations and kill soldiers but it is totally and pathetically helpless against the bond market.
The Iranians have mobilized the Bond Vigilantes to their advantage, which is an army that will completely defeat the US. They are completely merciless. Spiking interest rates will force the Fed into an apocalyptic level of printing and destroy the dollar, and with it the American economy.
But American families can also live with more expensive fuel.
There are no shortages, they all have jobs.
Everything works perfect in USA and EU.
And then there are the Japanese...
The 30-year hit 5.19% last week, the highest since before 2008, so the bond market is already casting its vote. One quibble with the "Iran mobilized them" framing: the vigilante takes no orders and picks no side. It's a feedback loop that punishes deficits no matter who's bombing whom, which makes it more dangerous to Washington than any foreign army, not less. https://thesynthesisai.substack.com/p/the-vigilante gets at this.
Good summary of recent developments, but nothing really new and no mention of the real big... no, HUGE news item, with severe implications: Iran's promise to expand the war beyond the region and hit US bases in Europe, if attacked by USrael again: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/irgc-warns-usrael-that-a-new-war?r=25fc37
...as confirmed here yesterday as well: https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/32265
You are hyperventilating, slow down , breathe deeply. You might get more clicks.
I am not hyperventilating. There is an official IRGC statement about it. All my articles have always references.
References and hyperventilation are not mutually exclusive, its the tone.
Constant crisis “HUGE” etc, has the opposite effect you think it does.
Have you never heard the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, or the story of Chicken Little.
As it's been said, Iran so far has kept it's "true promises". Sure, I may have overemphasised the news item, but we shouldn't underestimateste it or ignoring it altogether.
And Iran will do it, no doubt. They've proven to actually carry out their threats. Everything Iran said they would do, if USA / Israel attacked it back in February / March, they did it...
Imagine if Russia did the same...Imagine if Russia actually enforced its red lines and followed through on their threats....Image if Russia had proper leadership....
Exactly! Iran keeps its "True Promises".
And doesn't draw retractable red lines in chalk.
Cause Russia doesn’t have the same leverage as Iran. Cause Russia is way stronger than Iran or they have hugely underestimated Iran. Iran took them by the balls. The Ukraine conflict, the attrition, made the west weaker, Russia stronger. There is absolutely no garantee that when Russia had done similar, that it would not have ended in nuclear exchange. The Americans don’t care when Europe and Russia obliterate eachother. That is part of empire mode of operation: weaken your oponents/competitors. Like the USA weakened Europe and the former empire in WW2. Like they destroyed the relation between Germany and Russia, a very strong economical power.
There is absolutely that guarantee. Going nuclear against Russia, means absolute eradication of european countries. Europeans are pussies, psychopathic but still pussies. Which is why they need proxies like Ukraine. And if Russia continues not responding, eventually Ukraine will get a nuclear weapon and will use it against Russia in a heartbeat. And Russia will again, do nothing against those that provided the nuclear weapon to Ukraine because of "reasons"....
Also your "idea" of what the USA cares or doesn't care, is wrong. Once nukes start flying, they fly all over the place. USA will not be left unscathed. Quite the contrary, since USA is the main target in case of a nuclear strike.
So we get back to the lack of response from Russia. Yesterday, the nazis / NATO attacked a school in the LPR. Why ? Because they know there will be no response. Because they know the russian leadership is their asset, they literally work for the nazis / NATO, when they prevent the nazi leadership and decision making centers, from being destroyed.
Stop pretending that reality is not really happening. The russian leadership is literally protecting the people killing russians, and yesterday, russian children. If Russia does not respond, they have no deterrence and will be bombed forever. Either russians remove Putin from power and all his cronies and replace him with a proper war time leader, or they better get used to being bombed on a daily basis forever.
I have to disagree. I go by the numbers. Retaliating may result in an escalation and a huge increase in the number of victims. You don’t want to retaliate 10 people at the expense of 10000 only satisfying the people that demand the Russian government to retaliate while they have no skin in the game.
Westerners really don’t care. They are sacrifying millions to bring democracy, freedom, civilization, women’s right, genders right, … to any country. The plebs applaud, not seeing the underlying agenda: subjugate the country and loot their resources in the name of the above
I don't think you realize the reality of the situation. Thanks to the lack of response from Russia, attacks on Russia and russians have tripled. Ever since the pathetic weak Putin claimed that Russia had to respond, if western missiles were used to strike deep into Russia and then Russia did not respond, that the number of strikes on russian territory and russian citizens, have intensified.
USA / NATO bombed Russia's strategic nuclear triad. It bombed Russia's nuclear power plants. It invaded Russia's Kursk region. It bombs russian civilians on a daily basis...the list goes on. Russia's response ? Nothing.
So in the end, the number of victims have increased (on the russian side), but nothing on the nazi / NATO side.
Escalation needs to be mutual, so that each side understands that they will suffer consequences if they continue the attacks. Right now, escalation is one sided, 100% done by the west, 0% done by Russia. Russia is literally the punching bag of the west and its leadership refuses to respond in any way. Meanwhile, the attacks on Russia and russians are more overt and more blatant. We are not too far from Ukraine receiving a nuclear weapon and killing hundreds of thousands of russians and the russian leadership is letting it get there. And when it gets there, there' no return from it.
Although to be honest, I'm not sure this russian leadership will do anything, even if it gets there. They have proven to be western assets time and time again. Russia and russian civilian interests are at the bottom of priorities for Putin and his ilk. So much so, that Witkoff and Kushner will visit Moscow again, soon and I'm sure Putin will greet them with the red carpet. He has no time for little things like russian civilians being bombed by the country of Witkoff and Kushner or russian children being murdered by the country of Witkoff and Kushner.
As of now Putin has given unequivocal proof that the lives of Ukrainian Nazis, never mind the Western oligarchy, are much more valuable to him than those of his own people.
Putin has gone out of his way to protect the Ukrainian Nazis. It's not just that he hasn't given the order to take them out, there is an explicit order not to touch them. We know that because Zelensky and other prominent figures have been within easy firing range of Russian troops many times for various propaganda stunts, Russian troops had the literal red dot on them and wanted to fire, but there was a strict order not to touch them. That order is still in place.
P.S. Why nobody has disregarded the order I don't understand, and it does not speak well of the low-level personnel in the Russian army. When Zelensky is in FPV range it should be trivial to take him out and not disclose who did it, and when Gerans get real-time visual guidance that range should be extended to Kiev and beyond. And then you force Putin's hand. But they haven't done it...
Apparently I have to repeat ad nausea that you do not deal with normal people here in the west! They don’t mind sacrificing their own population. The goal is cheap resources from Russia. Privatization of profits and socialization of costs
Right. Maddening.
Īt works exactly the opposite way.
You go completely disproportionate in response to the slightest "provocation" in order to make sure there is no further sliding down the slippery slope of accepting the unacceptable.
The mansions in the hills above Silicon Valley and around NYC should have been hit by Russian missile strikes the moment the first US strikes on Russian troops and civilians were carried out in 2022, and dozens of tech and Wall Street billionaires should have been evaporated for every Russian dead.
Which is in fact what Putin promised on February 24 2022 when he threatened to hit "decision-making centers", isn't it?
Right. And they better get used to being bombed on a daily basis forever. They already are used to it, apparently.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharin' all the world
Yoo, hoo, oo-oo
There’s no doubt that this is an historic victory for Iran, and a humiliating defeat for the Epstein Alliance.
Mr. Simple Man falling for imperial hype yet again...
The drone attack on UAE's Barakah Nuclear Powerplant was an apparent false flag attack executed by the Colonial Settler Entity, just like the previous drone attacks on Turkey and Cyprus.
IRGC has denied any responsibility https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iran-denies-involvement-in-drone-incident-near-uae-nuclear-p
Yup. Came from another "Secret Israeli/American Base" the Iraqis found. Thank God they didn't shoot another shephard.
Kagan - the jew behind it all, as his whore is behind the Ukrainian debacle
Not sure why Simplicius gives Kagan the time of day. He, Vicky and the rest of the clan were Bush era Republicans of the "Never Trump" variety. They switched allegiance to Obama/Biden camp simply to be able to continue to influence US foreign policy.
He is positioning the family for a comeback after 2028. The portrayal of Trump, Rubio, Vance etc., as incompetent strategists is part of their game plan.
The “Clean Break” strategy portends something worse than dingy. Kagan-type despair allows him to tap into the most motivating holocaust folk-lore back at the drawing board. Unfortunately, manufacturing costs and the once ubiquitous peace dividend has already been utilized and squandered. All we’ve got is the hope that the public has been squirreling away enough so we have time to come up with another brilliant follow-up..
I think Brian Berletic's argument makes more sense every day. "The US isn't trying to open the Strait of Hormuz - it is literally blockading it and perpetuating a war that ensures insecurity around it indefinitely. The US is engaged in a controlled demolition of Middle East energy exports and a large part of the global economy. It is playing games to manage prices and markets as it does so - NOT trying to find a way "out" of consequences everyone in Washington knew about before launching the most recent war of aggression."
Check out Mario Nawfal's interview with Chris Martenson at the 41:37 min mark it show's a video of Elon Musk (when he was running DOGE) about the "magic money computers" he found.
According to Berletic there is really only one side and it is always winning whatever the actual facts on the ground. It is not possible to debate with these sorts of 'really the reptilians are running it all' arguments.
And yet this world is a world of duality, from atoms on up to empires. Seeing saints and avatars (Christ, Buddha, ...) existing in history completely devoted to goodness, I can imagine similarly powerful evil beings completely devoted to power and dominion, at any cost. From there it's only a short hop to imagine the beings benefiting from incinerating babies could be kindred or even one in the same as those pushing us simultaneously to AI Armageddon. No human being benefits from the worst case scenario, therefore to my mind it all only makes sense with some kind of otherworldly lens. Alien, demonic, or both. Struggling against angelic or superiorly evolved beings of some or several kinds.
Since so much of what we learned was lies, makes sense to me the truth must be beyond our accustomed imaginations.
Huh?!? What is this nonsense? Have you ever listened to BB?? His thesis is as far as possible form far fetched conspiracies!
Spot on! I think, if history is fair, that Brian will be seen as one of the best true journalists of the modern era. From my perspective, he reports from a position on what his research tells him is happening and not what he wants to happen. I can't think of many others who will laboriously study all the congressional and senatorial hearings, think tank papers, and the like the way BB does to get at what appears to be the truth. The Alaskan one he did as a 3 part series is a must. The powers that be understand that most people simply do not have the time or patience to do that and that's why they have no problem dropping the mask in those instances as they understand that, on the whole, only their fellow interested parties will pay attention to such things. He doesn't give the impression that Washington always wins and will continue to do so; rather, he tries to show the 'continuity of agenda' regardless of whatever supposedly different political operator is purportedly 'running the show' in the West at any given time. I think all this concentration on personalities distracts from the bigger picture which is part of the MSM's role. I mean, does anybody truly believe that an arrogant, ignorant, silver-spooned finance and property shyster like Trump is actually planning/running anything other than his insider trading scams? The fact that many of the officialdom, at one point or another, have come out in the MSM claiming that Israel is making them do it should give pause for thought. If Israel was controlling all, do you think they would allow the MSM to trumpet that? And by the way, that does not mean that Israel is not guilty of their crimes. They are as they are a more than willing proxy. To end my rant, I would also state my belief that the various 'alphabet soup' agencies would not just leave the alternative media alone to do its thing without trying to penetrate it with their own operatives and people need to keep that in mind when consuming info from one talking head or another. I don't consider you to be in that category Simplicius as I've always found loads of useful info in your writings.
Yes! One of BB’s strong points is that he always works starting from public available material. You don’t need to speculate or veer into far fetched conspiracies, you just need to read what think tankers and government agencies are discussing among each other!
I find it also very infuriating to see so many analysts falling into endless discussions of Trump’s shitposts. The man is obviously a front and is not the one making the decisions. In this respect he may be the most successful distraction operation in modern history!
Berletic's main flaw is that he makes continuity of agenda into a law of nature (it can't change, ever -- why not?) and seems to elide the fact that any large organization has different agendas. For example, the RAND Russia report that lays out a lot of what the US has done in Ukraine makes pains to say, "we could do these things, BUT IT WOULD BE A REALLY BAD IDEA." They actually went against the conclusions of the report.
Akshually, the Gringo Empire continuity of agenda is a powerful concept because it is easily proven.
The Ukraine project of using (former - ehem -) Western Ukrainian Nazis to hit Russia / the USSR has been going on since Project Aerodynamic.
Using Islamic radical proxies, form Afghanistan to ISIS, that funny enough, only slaughter Christians and Shia while leaving them Israelis alone.
Destroying any petrostate that tried to step out of the petrodollar system (Lybia, Irak).
Constricting Iran through sanctions and the nuclear deal, starting with Obama.
Building East Asians into Anti-China proxies (Philippines, Japan, Worst Korea, etc).
In the end, continuity of agenda is just plain Imperial policy. The Romans did the same. It didn’t matter if it was Late Republic or he Imperial era. Increasing and sustaining the Empire was the main goal.
Sort of like how a Mafia boss was only speaking hypothetically, of course, when he mentioned that you might be fitted for a pair of cement overshoes.
>To end my rant, I would also state my belief that the various 'alphabet soup' agencies would not just leave the alternative media alone to do its thing without trying to penetrate it with their own operatives and people need to keep that in mind when consuming info from one talking head or another.
That is quite obvious when you stop and think about it and when you remember how many of the key figures are "former" intel operatives.
It's also not just a psyop directed against the "people" because those figures are also paraded as celebrities in Russia where they somehow always tell the people there how great of a genius Putin is.
Really ? No wonder Brian has no hair left on his head !
lol
I understand so many people treat brian like a prophet but he makes ALL of his videos and articles from US media sources. How can you read rags which have been proven false over and over. Of course the US is always too powerful, of course the US has always planned out everything when you rely on the US media to shape your opinion. He has found 2 policy papers that fit his narrative but do people understand the think tanks write literally thousands of policy papers every year?? That is what they do, write policy. Notice Brian never mentions 2 big policy papers from last year that talk about the US pulling back to only it's own sphere of influence. Brian will never mention those papers because they don't fit his narrative. Sure DC is evil and wants to dominate the world BUT it is not a well oiled machine, running in a single unified direction, the special interest oligarchs and Bankers hold power over certain parts of the Govt. and it is pulled in many directions at once, that is why it looks like what it is, an incompetent, Pentagon with more money than brains and yes men all over promising their masters they can do whatever you want.
Do you know the names of these two policy papers?
One is the 2025 national security strategy.
"Notice Brian never mentions 2 big policy papers from last year that talk about the US pulling back to only it's own sphere of influence."
And yet, the US is embroiled in a war against Iran and is increasing its involvement in Ukrane. It's like the folks in charge ignored those policy papers.
Perhaps international banking cartels are more palatable?
@Jullianne
There are actually many oligarch & corporate factions and blocs, which frequently contest with each other for power and profits- but they all agree on one thing: They are in charge and "our" financial systems political & military subsidiaries are run for THEIR benefit, not for some nebulous good of "little people". It's still a big club and we still ain't in it.
In the end they follow the money and there are many factors pushing that around.
for whatever reasons Berletic's arguments, which I share, are not permeating the alternative geopolitical community. To their credit, there are no signs either in Russian, Chinese or Iranian media or actions which call a cat a cat. They also align with the US narrative and just try to catch up to the next Trump, who is greatly playing his role, "shocking stunt".
There are a handful of analysts that partially share BB’s views: Michael Hudson, Richard Medhurst, Catherine Austin Fitts, some of the folks at Naked Capitalism… but yeah, I find it extremely interesting and concerning that the great majority “alternatives” are parroting the exact same lines - “Iran has won, the US is on the ropes, Trump crazy, etc etc” while they are missing the bigger picture: that the US Empire cannot and will not back down and that it will drag the whole world down into a Global Depression rather than lose Hegemony - with the hope of coming out of it as the least damaged great power. Not very different from what it did in both World Wars.
See also: "Chokepoint Visa: The New Order of the Oceans"
When Freedom of Navigation Yields to Whitelist Permission
ChinArb
May 20, 2026
Thanks, David. Some really deep analysis from Chinar.
Link:
https://chinarbitrageur.substack.com/p/chokepoint-visa-the-new-order-of?triedRedirect=true
Yep, I think that is the point here. They, i.e. corporate and financial powers in the West, set a trap for the rest of the world a long time ago but then walked right into it themselves. With all that 'end of history' arrogant nonsense they set about destroying the productive parts of their economies in favour of financialization as their hubris and arrogance told them that they had nearly total control of the planet. They wilfully destroyed their working classes and with them lost a lot of the technically and industrially educated part of the population. They ended up in the trap as Russia rose from the ashes when Putin and his allies cleared out most of the neoliberal traitors running Russia into the ground on behalf of the West, and China was not foolish and did not let Wall St and the City into their financial markets. Our Western contollers are too selfish, cruel, and insanely greedy to accept anyting other than total domination. The thrashing about of the current US administration gives the imperssion that the powers that be see that the window for their quest for permanent gloabal domination is rapidly closing, I personally think that window was shut years ago. Therfore, as long as they think they personally won't suffer, I wouldn't be surprised if they were fine with blowing up the planet, economically or literally, if they believe that they will come out on top in the long run and lord over what is left. Remember, these are the types that supported the Nazis back in their day. Their attitude has not changed, they just have better PR nowadays and have near total control of the MSM.
The problem with Empire destabilising the world economy hoping for some advantage is that it is a very poor strategy. The Chinese are showing how well prepared they were for such a scenario. They have firm control over many strategic resources, and with their all weather partner, Russia, that list becomes a ticket to economic dominance. The world is changing rapidly and trade is moving away from being USD centric. The financialised model is falling apart and when the leverage wall finally breaks the West will be caught without the one thing that keeps them in control. Financial firepower. The other team has the real wealth: commodities, industrial capacity and social/political cohesion. Once Iran proved the military option was not the magic pudding as advertised, the game flipped. Empire is in a disastrous situation as we saw in Beijing this week.
Warwick Powell
"China’s major industrial enterprises recorded total profits of 1.696 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2026, a solid 15.5% increase year-on-year and a modest acceleration from the January-February pace. High-tech manufacturing delivered a striking 47.4% surge, contributing nearly 8 percentage points to the overall gain. Equipment manufacturing rose 21%, adding 6.8 points, while private enterprises posted a robust 25.4% advance and share-holding firms grew 20.9%. Sub-sectors such as electronics (up 124.5%) and certain raw materials segments showed even sharper momentum. Conventional explanations — liquidity injections, cyclical recovery and targeted policy support — describe important surface forces. Yet they remain incomplete. They overlook the deeper systemic reconfiguration underway in the Chinese economy: the way production costs are advanced, price claims are asserted, and — decisively — those claims achieve closure through actual market sales."
I do agree with you! I think China has planned extensively for this and now it is probably able to survive such an scenario. I don’t think the US Empire has a good hand. My point is that even if the odds are not that good, the Empire will try anything that gives them a chance to prevail for a couple of decades more. Even if this entails wreaking the global economy.
After all the Imperial oligarchs in the West will in any case be insulated from the worst effects.
"After all the Imperial oligarchs in the West will in any case be insulated from the worst effects"
There in lies the problem.
@abcdefg
Not just insulated from what looks like worst effects to little people, profiting from them and further concentrating wealth and power up their food chain.
I agree mate, it is indeed a poor strategy. The problem is that our so-called 'elites' are utter dengenerates and are having another TINA moment here. Whilst it is the'last' thing they want to do as, even with their hubris they understand to a small extent that 'victory' through total destruction is not a given, it looks like they will proceed down this path as they have no other answer to dealing with the situation they themselves have created with the hocus pocus financial sector creating massive eye-watering unpayable debts with what can only been seen as a global pontzi scheme. Said scheme has only continued to prosper on the predication of being able to control, by local proxy traitorous toads or directly, the productive labour and resources of the planet. Even then, it would have collapsed later down the line as all financial scams do; however, they would have been able to ride it out themselves and start again so to speak if they managed to acheive total domination. Unfortunately for them, China and Russia had other ideas and put a spanner in those works. Do you think Hitler would have used nukes if he had possessed them at the time rather than accepting defeat? I think he would have and worry that the current crop who are no better will do so at the death so to speak rather than accepting reality. The obvious thing would be to have a good hard look at oneself and adapt to the times in a positive way. However, history shows us that people like this will not consider another way, other than another way of acheiving total dominance, even for a second.
Well put! The financial ponzi scheme is running on fumes. The tricks that helped them paper over previous crises are not working any more. The AI bubble could spiral into a financial supernova. The Western Oligarchs know they are running out of time. This is why things are accelerating.
Nah, the US has a history of FUPs and walking (or even running) away.
It's particularly "funny" when they have him on The Duran and then the very next day Mercouris is back to his usual tropes, which go completely counter to what Berletic has explained very clearly and convincngly.
I would take B B over Mr.Mercouris every day of the week.
I no longer waste time on Mercouris. His endless droning and useless arguments just got to be too much.
Oh, I have not listened to him since 2022. I was referring to when the two of them are discussing things with others
Mercouris lives in a fantasy world.
They WANTED the Gulf oil, petrochemical, fixed nitrogen & LNG infrastructures destroyed, leaving no physical possibility for "peace to break out" and resumption of the previously normal trade in Persian Gulf resources (ie, trade with China & other Eurasian/global South economies we wish to degrade, strangle, subdue and control). "It's not personal, only business", as was said in The Godfather.
What was planned (and so far has been accomplished) by shutting down shipping of petrochemicals, fixed nitrogen and sulfur through the straits of Hormuz is quite different than the MSM based assumptions on what constitutes "winning" and "losing".
The USA threw a monkey wrench into several vital supply lines for 2/3 of the world's populations economies, drove up US crude oil price by 50% (so far), increased US LNG prices by 50% to 250% depending on markets, guaranteed the USA a seller's market for LNG, light crude oil, refined hydrocarbons & most staple agricultural products dependant on man made fixed nitrogen fertilizers, plus increased price for US sourced sulfur. They also drove a LOT of investments from the Gulf states to "safe" US Treasury bonds.
BlackRock, Cargill, Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies, Cheniere Energy and CF Industries Holdings are MASSIVELY profiting in a seller's market, stock values are all going up, up up. US Treasury can sell T bills to those pulling their money out of various degraded gulf states needing a "safer" venue for investments.
And wherever the war/blockade drove some (unconnected, non oligarch owned) business into bankruptcy with all of that, they made a tasty meal for our big investment bankers, buying up the failed “little people” owned concerns assets for pennies on the dollar and driving any remaining customer base towards their own businesses, concentrating wealth still further.
This isn't a crisis for billionaires, it's a great opportunity.
Exactly.
Unfortunately too true. And a few around Trump making a nice trade or two on the side.
@abcdefg
“And a few around Trump making a nice trade or two on the side.”
A swamp-y version of "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain" (Deuteronomy 25:4).
So the war was waged against we the people as usual.
EverySingleTime
@Chevrus
Since they don't produce, they always steal.
Thus the Parasite Class…complete with Usury
He's been right straight down the line.
This sounds like the tired old "4D Chess!" meme. If the ME oil market goes under, so does the petrodollar and the US economy. There is no Plan; it's just chaotic stupidity.
What magic money computers? All government/Central Bank/zero-reserve banks and "hedge" funds are mirages. It's just a series of interconnected electronic ledger sheets bound by interdependency. No Collateral to back most of it. "Full Faith and Credit", long ago lost its meaning.
"Too Big To Fail" debt owed mainly by the Zios, was paid by a US Government $700 billion dollar extortion of U.S. tax dollars and the US Fed printing money so that general inflation taxed the American "animals" who unwittingly, still believed their Government was of the people, by the people, for the people.
Without the "Modern" Economy of (pretend) growth, specific and general inflation, the entire Ponzi of spend now, repay later, collapses.
Trump, the manchild, is precisely the guy to finish the collapse of the system. And who is going to tell Trump the new Ball(s)room will never be finished.
Bigger, better, than the 2 craziest Roman Emperors, Trump cannot stop fiddling and his horse talks to him out of its ass.
berletic is a paid jew shill - he thinks the US controls the jew and gets upset when called out - he is also a race mixing sex tourist...
I hope he will not have better luck in Cuba. The US is so cruel - it needs to be gone and done as any kind of a ' power ' it doesn't yield power in a human way. Not the way any of us want to go into the future. Is it the Jewish influence ? If zionism was outlawed and irradicated, which might not take long if you listen to Dr Shiva - https://youtu.be/h5y6ssGgY1U - ( Dr Shiva does not blame the Jews but Zionism ) would that be the end of war on Planet Earth ?
It's not the Jews. It's the Zionists.
https://sinfest.xyz/view.php?date=2025-10-29
It’s the Jews. 82% of them support the Gaza genocide
yeah - https://rumble.com/v5ep9i5-jews-are-the-problem-ayo-kimathi.html
Jews in Israel, yes. But not all Jews are Israel.
82% of all Jews everywhere
Zionism was borne out of Judaism, it is a Jewish supremacist ideology.
Zionism is colonialism and racial superiority. It's disgraceful.
Most Jews are Zionists, but most Zionists aren't Jews. Let'snot forget that.
Not all Jews are Zionists. Many hate what is being done in their name by the maniacs in Tel Aviv. Now cue the rant from Dddh.
True dat, not all. I'd wager a majority are.
They are going to crush Cuba.
American people love easy victories.
Quagmire Casserole?
Hi Cotra. You speak the ultimate truth and maybe its the US not the Jews. They love easy victories. Are you from there ? But I hope that Russia and China help
Hello Ann, I am not from there. But I know their mentality due to working with them in the past. But if you watch MSM where different "experts" talk about this war you can see that they feel that they have right to kill and destroy. It is a kind of normal for them. A sense of superiority.
yes its true. And the British ( Europeans ) were like this also but in America is become so acute and if our faces with Trump. You are good with words -
Eua perdem Taiwan e ganham Cuba
EUA perdem o oriente médio e ganham Venezuela.
Realmente um pessimo negócio.
Es un peor negocio para los países de Iberoamérica.
Sim 😥
About the purported 'invasion' or resumption of war, Colonel Larry Wilkerson on a podcast with Nima of Dialog Works related how such a military operation, whether air attacks or ground attacks, are immensely complex operations. Just readying them consumes resources and strains personnel. Imagine if you were such a soldier, all ginned up to conquer Iran, and the President calls off the mission. Even worse if the President orders you to stay at combat readiness for a 'go' order, and this for days and days. Of course, it is likely this never happened and the whole operation was a bluff of the 'paper tiger' variety.
Yes and I think the armchair rookies are simply ignorant of logistics and general fatigue.
It’s not a game of fuggin Risk, there are actual resources involved.
Martyanov posted a funny exchange couple of days ago.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/05/semantics.html?m=1
The bully typically hunts around for a weaker victim to beat up, staging it all before a public audience, in order to take everyone's mind off its own very public defeat. Cuba looks like a tasty target. What could go wrong? We are all about to find out.
Cuba is mountainous, so hopefully those mountains are hiding MANPADS and other AD weapons. Wouldn't that be a nice surprise.
Bay Of Pigs II.
True, but I'm old enough to remember all the talking heads saying that the Venezuelans would rise up against El Gringo.
The Venezuelans were in disastrous economic straits, partly because of US sanctions and to a large extent from Maduro's crippling government corruption. The US basically said, give us Maduro (so we get a win) and we'll ease sanctions. Venezuela said good enough. I think Cuba is in a similar situation and it wouldn't surprise me if a similar scenario played out. Indeed, the recent indictment of Raul Castro sounds like a step in that direction -- the US doesn't hate the Cuban people, just a few corrupt officials at the top. Whether that corruption is real or a fantasy is not germane. The Cuban people had a taste of better relations with the US under Obama (one of the few things I think Obama did right) and might well go for a deal like that. Time will tell.
Keeping in mind that VZ was getting the biznuss end of shadow war for over 25 years now…