I’ve decided to become independently wealthy and live as a rich layabout traveling from rich house to rich house like the characters (often called “Major” or “Colonel” whether they were or not) in Agatha Christie’s novels.
Can anyone front me the 20 million Euros or so I’ll need to pull it off? Need to get the name of a good bespoke tailor, too.
James Whitlock
1 month ago
Good read, if you have the time.
Iran spent 47 years digging the hole. Trump sprinted into it with his eyes open, his own War Secretary confirmed the excavation on camera, and there is now a 9 month gap between the day America runs out of oil and the day anyone expects the Strait to reopen.
There is a bug called an antlion. Ugly little bastard, about the size of your fingernail, looks like something that crawled out of a servo dunny. It digs a cone in loose sand, buries itself at the bottom with just the jaws showing, and waits. Sometimes for months. It does not chase anything. It does not need to.
The genius is in the physics. An ant that wanders over the lip does not get eaten on the way down. It gets eaten because every single step it takes to climb back out collapses the wall behind it. The hole does not kill the ant. The climb does.
That is the Strait of Hormuz. That has always been the Strait of Hormuz. And on 25 July 2026, 5 months into a war that started on 27 February, we are all sitting in the sand watching Attila the Hun-gry thrash his legs while the world’s last barrels drain out around his ankles and Fox runs a chyron reading STRENGTH RETURNS TO THE GULF.
Four experts this week, from four completely different directions, all landed on the same conclusion. A war modeller who has advised every White House since 9/11. A commodity research director on CNBC. A wealth management analyst reading inventory charts. And, best of all, the President and his Secretary of War, who convicted themselves on camera in under 60 seconds and did not appear to notice. WHY THE TRAP WORKS
Iran tried fighting the United States Navy conventionally. Once. On 18 April 1988, after the USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine, the Americans ran Operation Praying Mantis, and it went about as well for Tehran as picking a blue with a bus. In a single day the US Navy sank the frigate Sahand, crippled the Sabalan, put the Joshan on the bottom, and converted a decent slab of Iran’s surface fleet into artificial reef and future snorkelling content. Largest American surface engagement since the Second World War. Took roughly 8 hours. Tehran copped the full curriculum, sat the exam and got its results back before lunch.
They learned it that afternoon and have not forgotten a syllable of it in 38 years: never, ever fucking line up.
Everything since has been the funnel. Thousands of naval mines, including rocket-propelled pricks that squat on the seabed for years and then launch straight up into a hull like a mousetrap with ambitions and a grudge. Midget submarines lurking in the thermal layers of a shallow, noisy, cluttered waterway that is a sonar operator’s version of trying to pick out one mozzie at the Big Day Out. Truck-mounted anti-ship missiles that shoot and piss off into the mountains before the smoke clears. Small boat swarm doctrine, which is a polite academic phrase for 40 blokes in tinnies doing something extremely rude to a billion dollar destroyer. Proxies parked on the Bab el-Mandeb like a second set of jaws. And 55,000 Shahed 136 drones a year, per Pentagon estimates leaked back in April, a number already so stale it has a beard.
“Four experts this week, from four completely different directions, all landed on the same conclusion.”
Did you learn nothing from covid?
There are all sorts of “experts” and you can find ones with the opinions you want. If they don’t already have them, money or attention will change that.
The weakness of the OMG Iran is Vietnam But Worse argument is that nobody can really define why the current situation is bad.
It is actually pretty brilliant.
– all the shìtbag Arab nations are getting blasted by Persians
– nobody is selling much oil while American refineries run at 100% capacity
– America is not running out of oil or bombs (the entire system is designed to fight two major wars at the same time)
– the handful of America war deaths that everyone frets about have been offset by fewer training accidents… so Trump saves lives
– the Straits of Hormuz are not America’s problem but America can help supply what it cannot
– global economic hardship is exactly what the world needs to burn away nonsense like global warming and black lives matter
– like after WW2, America will emerge faster and stronger than the competition
– training along with weapons and tactics improvements are making America stronger
– the entire operation is relatively cheap (especially compared to Iraq and Afghanistan)
– reducing Iran’s destabilizing terrorist influence and stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon are worth the price of admission and should have been done long ago
Iran isn’t going to give in. Trump isnt going to quit unless forced to by anti-America factions in the government and courts.
Either the Iranian people will rise up like in 1979 or Iran will become Cuba.
Good luck, whiners.
Liz
1 month ago
From the article:
“For 80 years American deterrence rested on adversaries being kept apart. Deal with them one at a time, keep them competing, never let them pool”
That’s obviously false. Until the early 90s the world was pretty much divided up into western and Soviet satellite countries. Iraq for example was a soviet satellite. Easy to follow by which countries bought weapons from the Warsaw pact group or the NATO group.
setnaffa
1 month ago
Both CH and Liz are on target today (as usual but more so).
China is recycling the fertilizer agitprop so fast it still smells of 1000 year old eggs.
Trump is making a complete laughingstock out of all who criticize him; and like dogs returning to their own vomit, they keep slobbering back for more.
That joke about CBS was funnier than it had a right to be; but it was what was needed.
setnaffa
1 month ago
By the way, I have access to 12 experts and a retired poolshark who say Democrats are all victims of monkeypox… /sarc
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Is monkeypox still a thing?
It really had everything stacked against it from the start to be a good fear miltiplyer.
It came from Africa and leftists quickly noticed that black people vaguely resemble monkeys. This caused a lot of pearl clutching until the name was changed to Mpox.
Then everyone begin to notice that it wasn’t really much of a danger to straight people doing straight things but gay men were getting pox around all the favorite holes gay men prefer to use.
Then, entirely coincidently no doubt, a few boys in close proximity to gay men got the pox and it begin to fade from the news when people started to question how that could be considering the level of contact it took for transmission to occur. Many of the gayer members of the media and their libtard allies prefer a reduced level of self awareness.
The final straw was when it was found that dogs owned by gay men were getting the pox. Every dog is a service dog if you have enough peanut butter but it clearly does not have anti-viral properties.
And that was that.
We survived the Great Monkeypox Outbreak without masks and lockdowns by simply relying on social distancing in the gay bar bathroom.
Hopefully, the CDC applies this model in their fight against HIV and anàl gonorrhea.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Don’t let the opposition against the Iran war fool you.
The Left is not anti-war.
They Stand with Ukraine.
How can this situation be managed?
How can we possibly merge these wars so the Lefties have to decide to Stand with Ukraine or Stand with Iran, but not both…
…much in the way the Lefties had to decide to stand with the repression of men for the advancement of women… or stand for the repression of women for the advancement of men wearing women’s costumes.
Protip: If betting, always bet the left will choose the weirdest, dumbest, and most perverse option.
Anyway, my strategy would be to somehow merge these two wars so the left would be forced to abandon one position. The best way would be to…
…wait… something is coming in over the wire…
“The Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea drew condemnation from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, which stated that the explosion killed one sailor and injured another.”
Ok. That problem is solved.
Next is to tell Trump not to bomb any long range missiles pointing north.
Next issue.
Too many women are voting…
ChickenHead
1 month ago
In today’s unsurprising development of But Illegal Aliens Don’t Vote.
Governors of New Jersey when asked if she would turn over the identities of 6600 illegal aliens and the 400 who did:
“I have said, I am not in the habit of turning over private, identifying information of the citizens of New Jersey.
This federal government is weaponizing the government against individuals that diagree with them…I am working to protect people and their private data here in New Jersey.”
Good to know.
Will the New Jersey government be weaponized against me because I disagree with their prohibition on lynching?
You think the story end here.
The software company responsible for yet another glitch that doesn’t really make sense from a programming perspective and always favors Democrats said:
“Hold on a minute. The records are clear. The aliens all checked that they were not citizens and they all checked they wanted to vote.”
Protip:
if not citizen_checkbox:
deactivate_vote_checkbox()
Developing:
– it seems more than “400” non citizens actually voted. Verification is being tied up. If it gets exposed in the years to come after working its way through the courts, it will be yet another glitch
– why did the software allow non citizens to vote when that can be solved with one line of code… word on the street it this was not a glitch… it was a feature
Bonus: A pretty credible analysis of the New York City election of the anti-American communist Muslim found more non citizens voted than his margin of victory. If you assume non-Americans vote for parasitic selfish interests rather than American interests, it makes a good case he didn’t win the election at all.
If he did win, “Never Forget” has been forgotten.
It might be time to call Israel and order another incident in New York to get them back loving America and Jews instead of Muslims.
America has moved from tragedy to farce.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Has anybody been following the demonstration of white power at Osan Airbase?
It had those Asians running… which shows they may be inferior and unable to stand up to it but at least they aren’t stupid.
Osan will likely apologize, but the fact remains that the US Air Force doesn’t just encourage it but actively seeks it out, finances it, and gives it an official place on Osan Air Base.
I tend to agree, as this type of white power is a force multiplier.
Johnnyboy
1 month ago
I had to look it up but I was wrong. I had assumed NYC allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Of course they tried, but were struck down by state courts as it was ruled to violate the state’s constitution.
That said, in a city with single party rule I would find it more surprising if they didn’t find ways to allow noncitizens to cast votes en masse.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Anybody following this Fauci thing?
…leaked diary, internal correspondence, destroyed records, natural origin because he funded the gain of function corona virus in Wuhan… etc.
Every year, it gets increasingly clear a lot of people owe me an apology.
Some people might.
Most people are simply too stupid and will make the same mistakes and wrong conclusions all over again as they repeat whatever AI told them and accuse others of not understanding the science.
I think this is why so many people are poor.
They deserve it.
Johnnyboy
1 month ago
The events of the covid years were a terrible thing to witness, but it served as a wake up call for a lot of people.
Most of us probably don’t consciously think about it as much in daily life as we should but I believe anyone with decent critical thinking who isn’t totally captured by partisan politics has it baked into their decision making matrix without even realizing it.
Some personal examples:
My employer considered making the vaccine mandatory. A colleague who I suspect was sent around to feel everyone out approached me. I politely but forcefully let him know I loved my job and the people I work for but I would respectfully decline and find other employment if that were the case.
The whole thing forced me to assess my priorities and what I will tolerate. It was like crossing the Rubicon.
I will do dangerous, dirty, thankless jobs to feed my family but medical experimentation isn’t something I will choose to participate in.
I may regret it at some point but going to the doctor for regular checkups isn’t on my list of things to do any more.
I try to search out ulterior motives in policy decisions especially in regards to health.
I’m sure you all have your own realizations and adjustments.
The other side of the coin is there is a certain portion of the population that will go along with whatever the current line of BS is no matter what. Even after having the chance to see the people casting the shadows on the cavern wall.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Johnnyboy, I think you are optimistic.
I think covid showed us about 80% of the population are fùcktards and all subsequent evidence shows us about 80% of the population are still fùcktards.
Not one person has apologized to me for calling me a conspiracy theorist or a racist, claiming I just didn’t understand the science or was even a science denier, or was endangering them for not being vaccinated against something they were 100% Safe & Effective against.
Nobody will engage in an after-action discussion to codify lessons learned. Nobody wants to talk about the biggest social and economic disaster in modern history.
At ROKDrop: you, me, Setnaffa and the other 80% of fùcktards who don’t add their voice to society to remind everyone we didn’t forget and we will respond more harshly.
Those in power believe silence and acceptance are equivalent. They are right.
(Korea Thing will yap about it if prompted but his attitude is still summer of 2020 so his extreme fùcktardism cancels out the guy building bombs in his cabin to keep the Sino-Judeo-Reticulan pandemic conspiracy from happening again.)
Pretty much novody lives their life as if it modified their behavior. They just try to get by and pretend nothing happened and they are OK.
The people who didn’t fall for the insanity are the same. The people who fell for it last time are also the same… and clearly falling for new insanity… last time, it was fear the virus… now it is fear ICE.
And society is not identifying the people and organizations who caused all this and extracting retribution at a level so high it acts as discouragement to a few generations of people who would promote the same evil. In fact, there are actually supporters of all this going, “yeah, but…”
And the vaccine is still being given out and everyone is still paying for it and nobody complains.
So, I think nothing changed.
The 80% of people on the wrong side of the Bell curve are just as stupid coming out as they were going in.
When the next madness happens, they will again fall for it, unable to recognize second order patterns¹, and chaos will come again.
I am not optimistic.
¹ “This is the same as covid.”
“No it’s not. Covid was a virus. These are far-right racist MAGA insurrectionists. That’s why you are only safe if you stay home, wear you mask so they can’t recognize you, and take the new broad spectrum vaccine so they can’t do any bio terror. The internet shutdown was so they couldn’t spread their message of hate. Why are you such a sociology denier?”
GrayBlack
1 month ago
@chickenhead
I remember seeing polling on the vax skepticism at the time showing it was mostly those above the average and those below the average that were most likely against the shot. It was the middle that trusted “the science” and went with the flow.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
“I remember seeing polling on the vax skepticism at the time showing it was mostly those above the average and those below the average that were most likely against the shot. It was the middle that trusted “the science” and went with the flow.”
Hahaha! 100%
The right of the Bell curve: “An experimental vaccine made with experimental technology? Nawww. I daresay that needs at least 5 years of testing in Africa before use in the civilized world.”
The left of the Bell curve: “They ain’t gonna pump that 5G self-assembling nanoparticle goo into me, no sir!”
Black people had it right: “Shiiiiit, not today, white devil,” as they remembered 70 years of syphilis experiments disguised as medical treatments…
…which should be a lesson for white people in our inverse-fascist¹ world where all races are a near-equal commodity for exploitation and extraction.
Maybe 80% fùcktardism is too high. Maybe 70%?
The people at the bottom don’t count to me though, as the same idea is good but the same reasons are necessary.
However I will file that away for next time, as I can see how the smart people can use them as expendable tools next time… much the smart lefties use BLM, Antifa, campus socialists, and other dummies as their tools.
¹inverse-fascist: A political concept describing a system that uses totalitarian or corporate-state control methods but inverts traditional fascist values, relying on public political apathy and corporate dominance rather than emotional mass mobilization.
In this case, Big Pharma tells government to buy their product at inflated prices, distribute it to the population, sanction those who refuse, and work with media to spread supporting propaganda.
setnaffa
1 month ago
CH, I was one of the blessed. My medical oncologists, when asked which vax to get, said “Any one you can—and quickly!” My surgeon. OTOH, said “Don’t get any. They’re not safe, and you’re still healing.”
I had to get a letter signed by him to avoid the vax or be fired.
And now we see that some saw the whole truth even before Saint Fauci’s Diary was released.
Johnnyboy
1 month ago
Chickenhead,
You are probably correct in your estimation of the eternally ignorant. The rest of us got a peek behind the curtain on how far the people in charge would try to push things and the methods they will use.
Not sure which side of the curve we are on but at the time most of my blue collar contemporaries felt the same as I did.
It was a mixture of conspiracy theories and distrust of the official narrative and the abandonment of normal trials and approvals for something that shouldn’t have been that scary to the majority of the population if you just looked at the numbers a little bit.
I have noticed people that perform machine work tend to be a bit more analytical and cautious than average. Probably from always trying to think a few steps ahead to avoid crashing tools or ruining parts.
These principles can often be applied to daily life with reasonably successful outcomes. I suspect most of you here have similar outlooks.
I never want to be the first guy to run a new program or part that someone just wrote/designed and may or may not have dry run.
I never want to drive the first model year of a car that’s been redesigned especially if it has an “improved” or “more efficient” drivetrain when the older model has a reputation as being a bulletproof workhorse.
I never want to take a drug that just came out after it bypassed all standard fda testing to get to market.
Trying to explain this attitude to otherwise intelligent people who were living in fear was almost impossible.
Johnnyboy
1 month ago
Setnaffa,
I’m thankful you had someone in your corner.
I have shared this before but I believe many older family and friends developed new cancer or had existing/in remission cancer come back or progress ahead of schedule.
It’s hard to prove or disprove this notion, especially when the people who have the data have a vested interest in one conclusion over the other.
James Whitlock
1 month ago
Not one person has apologized to me for calling me a conspiracy theorist or a racist, claiming I just didn’t understand the science or was even a science denier, or was endangering them for not being vaccinated against something they were 100% Safe & Effective against.
Why should anyone apologize to you? You ARE a conspiracy theorist and a racist. I guess the overfilled ER and ICU rooms were all a hoax, eh? And the ~2 million that died world-wide of covid just in 2020 is another hoax, just like that “rigged” election.
I know I know, “but but but the laptop”…LOL
Let’s be honest: The “communism” scare (I mean, come on, how 1960s is that?) isn’t working so they manufactured the next big outrage/scare, which is a sad attempt to vilify Dr. Fauci. Pretty pathetic.
James Whitlock
1 month ago
“You’ve probably seen Anthony Fauci in the news this week. He sat alone at a Senate witness table while Republican senators cursed at him, mocked him and threatened to put him in jail. Watching it, I thought back to my exchange with him during COVID, when I was in Congress.
I questioned Anthony Fauci under oath at the height of the pandemic on June 23, 2020. I said we needed to learn more about what the Chinese Communist Party knew, what it withheld and how that affected our ability to respond. Then I asked Fauci how antibody testing could improve our understanding of asymptomatic infections and help identify populations at risk.
Fauci answered my questions responsibly, explaining why surveillance studies mattered and what scientists were learning about transmission by people without symptoms. The exchange was calm and technical. I wasn’t trying to produce a viral moment, though you can watch the exchange below. I simply wanted to understand how the virus was spreading. Six years after my exchange with Fauci, Republicans brought him back before Congress to berate him. Rand Paul, who had already said that Fauci “should go to prison,” subpoenaed an 85-year-old retired scientist and demanded answers that could expose him to prosecution. When Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment, Paul announced plans for a contempt vote. Josh Hawley asked him what day it was and what color his tie and the carpet were. Bernie Moreno told him, “Who the fuck do you think you were for doing that?” When Fauci’s lawyer tried to object, Paul had him removed from the room.
I sat through plenty of partisan hearings, but I never saw a chairman call for a witness to be jailed, force him to testify and then condemn him for using his right not to incriminate himself. It made me angry, but mostly it made me sad.
Call me naive, but I thought the purpose of a congressional hearing was to get answers and hold officials accountable. But Republicans held this one to humiliate an 85-year-old man in front of the entire country. Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times in a single deposition in 2022, and Republicans defended him for doing so. At Fauci’s hearing, they scolded Fauci for doing the same thing. Watching it reminded me of how much the Republican Party has changed for the worse.
Paul had spent years saying Fauci should be prosecuted. Then, when Fauci was finally under oath, Paul acted as if Fauci’s non-answers were proof of his guilt. It was the same trap used in the anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s: answer and give prosecutors something they might use against you, or stay silent and be branded guilty. Paul spent years promising that Fauci would end up behind bars, released 1,141 pages of his unredacted diary and then summoned him under oath to see whether he might say something that could land him in jail.
The diary entries are embarrassing in places. Fauci plainly enjoyed some of the attention he received. But some entries that Paul presented as evidence of a cover-up were consistent with what Fauci said publicly at the time. Paul released the diaries to embarrass Fauci. The hearing spent more time on Fauci’s vanity and famous acquaintances than on anything that would better prepare us for the next pandemic. The Republicans got the dopamine hits and viral video clips they wanted. But what did the country learn? Very little.
I don’t believe the average person was at risk of dying from covid which was what we were led to believe at the time and the premise that seemed to drive most of the decision-makers.
I think a lot of deaths were attributed to covid that were actually complications from other issues like heart disease and diabetes while testing positive for covid.
I also believe many deaths were from overuse of ventilators which have a mortality rate of anywhere from 30 to 60 percent depending on conditions. It’s likely that many people went to the hospital out of fear when they didn’t need to and were aggressively treated for covid and died from lung infections caused by being placed on a ventilator and then attributed to covid. I may be wrong but I suspect this is the case.
I don’t believe the mass vaccination program prevented deaths or illness in the vast majority of the people who partook in it. I think there is a good chance it actually harmed more people than it helped in the way of proven increases in blood clots and heart problems in young people, and potentially uptick in cancer rates.
Chickenhead may be asking for apologies from people he knows personally but I think he is more likely seeking an apology from the wider systems of governance and health policymakers who made terrible mistakes and as of yet haven’t owned up to them.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
“Why should anyone apologize to you?”
They were wrong and I was right.
“You ARE a conspiracy theorist”
No. I recognize patterns in life and history while you make the same mistakes over and over.
“and a racist.”
I talk some racist smack but i am really a culturalist.
“I guess the overfilled ER and ICU rooms were all a hoax, eh?”
That’s why all the nurses had time for TikTok dances. That was a myth. You are a sucker who fell for it.
“And the ~2 million that died world-wide of covid just in 2020 is another hoax, just like that “rigged” election.”
Every single one has more than one health issue… from 90 year old diabetics to 300 pound “healthy teenagers”.
“I know I know, “but but but the laptop”…LOL”
Not sure what that means. Probably nothing.
“Let’s be honest: The “communism” scare (I mean, come on, how 1960s is that?) isn’t working”
Commies are scarey. History clearly shows that.
“so they manufactured the next big outrage/scare, which is a sad attempt to vilify Dr. Fauci. Pretty pathetic.”
There is clear evidence he is evil.
He wrote it himself.
setnaffa
1 month ago
Thank you @Johnnyboy and @ChickenHead. You are speaking truth to people who can hear and understand; but psychologically refuse because they are like the “good Germans” who lived a mile from Auschwitz-Birkenau and claimed they “never knew”.
They convinced themselves by following the so-called “experts” like Saint Fauci that they were the good guys. It would destroy them to admit the truth that they were the 21st Century Nazis. Thus, many if not most, still get the shots, test weekly, and wear the chinesium masks.
I no longer even have contempt for them. If one came into my house, I’d open the windows in rooms they visited, maybe spray air-freshener if they didn’t get the hint. My wife knows and limits which friends from church come to the house.
There’s no way out for them. Fauci’s Diary, an official government document, seals the last door. Much as the records the SS kept of their abuse of the tens of millions they tortured, mutilated, and murdered.
God will judge them, so we don’t need to do a thing. In fact, all we can do is give them the Gospel so they can either (a) repent or (b) suffer worse punishment.
God may cast wicked men into Hell at any given moment.
The wicked deserve to be cast into Hell. Divine justice does not prevent God from destroying the wicked at any moment.
The wicked, at this moment, suffer under God’s condemnation to Hell.
The wicked, on earth—at this very moment—suffer a sample of the torments of Hell. The wicked must not think, simply because they are not physically in Hell, that God (in whose hand the wicked now reside) is not—at this very moment—as angry with them as he is with those he is now tormenting in Hell, and who—at this very moment—feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath.
At any moment God shall permit him, Satan stands ready to fall upon the wicked and seize them as his own.
If it were not for God’s restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
Simply because there are not visible means of death before them at any given moment, the wicked should not feel secure.
Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think that others may care for them, men should not think themselves safe from God’s wrath.
All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell’s pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
God has never promised to save mankind from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.
ChickenHead
1 month ago
Setnaffa, I appreciate your faith but neither government nor God has done anything to these shìtbags.
Two broken institutions outperformed by a black rifle and a guy who no longer gives a fuck.
I’ve decided to become independently wealthy and live as a rich layabout traveling from rich house to rich house like the characters (often called “Major” or “Colonel” whether they were or not) in Agatha Christie’s novels.
Can anyone front me the 20 million Euros or so I’ll need to pull it off? Need to get the name of a good bespoke tailor, too.
Good read, if you have the time.
Iran spent 47 years digging the hole. Trump sprinted into it with his eyes open, his own War Secretary confirmed the excavation on camera, and there is now a 9 month gap between the day America runs out of oil and the day anyone expects the Strait to reopen.
There is a bug called an antlion. Ugly little bastard, about the size of your fingernail, looks like something that crawled out of a servo dunny. It digs a cone in loose sand, buries itself at the bottom with just the jaws showing, and waits. Sometimes for months. It does not chase anything. It does not need to.
The genius is in the physics. An ant that wanders over the lip does not get eaten on the way down. It gets eaten because every single step it takes to climb back out collapses the wall behind it. The hole does not kill the ant. The climb does.
That is the Strait of Hormuz. That has always been the Strait of Hormuz. And on 25 July 2026, 5 months into a war that started on 27 February, we are all sitting in the sand watching Attila the Hun-gry thrash his legs while the world’s last barrels drain out around his ankles and Fox runs a chyron reading STRENGTH RETURNS TO THE GULF.
Four experts this week, from four completely different directions, all landed on the same conclusion. A war modeller who has advised every White House since 9/11. A commodity research director on CNBC. A wealth management analyst reading inventory charts. And, best of all, the President and his Secretary of War, who convicted themselves on camera in under 60 seconds and did not appear to notice.
WHY THE TRAP WORKS
Iran tried fighting the United States Navy conventionally. Once. On 18 April 1988, after the USS Samuel B. Roberts hit an Iranian mine, the Americans ran Operation Praying Mantis, and it went about as well for Tehran as picking a blue with a bus. In a single day the US Navy sank the frigate Sahand, crippled the Sabalan, put the Joshan on the bottom, and converted a decent slab of Iran’s surface fleet into artificial reef and future snorkelling content. Largest American surface engagement since the Second World War. Took roughly 8 hours. Tehran copped the full curriculum, sat the exam and got its results back before lunch.
They learned it that afternoon and have not forgotten a syllable of it in 38 years: never, ever fucking line up.
Everything since has been the funnel. Thousands of naval mines, including rocket-propelled pricks that squat on the seabed for years and then launch straight up into a hull like a mousetrap with ambitions and a grudge. Midget submarines lurking in the thermal layers of a shallow, noisy, cluttered waterway that is a sonar operator’s version of trying to pick out one mozzie at the Big Day Out. Truck-mounted anti-ship missiles that shoot and piss off into the mountains before the smoke clears. Small boat swarm doctrine, which is a polite academic phrase for 40 blokes in tinnies doing something extremely rude to a billion dollar destroyer. Proxies parked on the Bab el-Mandeb like a second set of jaws. And 55,000 Shahed 136 drones a year, per Pentagon estimates leaked back in April, a number already so stale it has a beard.
https://ifloz.substack.com/p/irans-about-to-send-trump-to-platform
“Four experts this week, from four completely different directions, all landed on the same conclusion.”
Did you learn nothing from covid?
There are all sorts of “experts” and you can find ones with the opinions you want. If they don’t already have them, money or attention will change that.
The weakness of the OMG Iran is Vietnam But Worse argument is that nobody can really define why the current situation is bad.
It is actually pretty brilliant.
– all the shìtbag Arab nations are getting blasted by Persians
– nobody is selling much oil while American refineries run at 100% capacity
– America is not running out of oil or bombs (the entire system is designed to fight two major wars at the same time)
– the handful of America war deaths that everyone frets about have been offset by fewer training accidents… so Trump saves lives
– the Straits of Hormuz are not America’s problem but America can help supply what it cannot
– global economic hardship is exactly what the world needs to burn away nonsense like global warming and black lives matter
– like after WW2, America will emerge faster and stronger than the competition
– training along with weapons and tactics improvements are making America stronger
– the entire operation is relatively cheap (especially compared to Iraq and Afghanistan)
– reducing Iran’s destabilizing terrorist influence and stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon are worth the price of admission and should have been done long ago
Iran isn’t going to give in. Trump isnt going to quit unless forced to by anti-America factions in the government and courts.
Either the Iranian people will rise up like in 1979 or Iran will become Cuba.
Good luck, whiners.
From the article:
“For 80 years American deterrence rested on adversaries being kept apart. Deal with them one at a time, keep them competing, never let them pool”
That’s obviously false. Until the early 90s the world was pretty much divided up into western and Soviet satellite countries. Iraq for example was a soviet satellite. Easy to follow by which countries bought weapons from the Warsaw pact group or the NATO group.
Both CH and Liz are on target today (as usual but more so).
China is recycling the fertilizer agitprop so fast it still smells of 1000 year old eggs.
Trump is making a complete laughingstock out of all who criticize him; and like dogs returning to their own vomit, they keep slobbering back for more.
That joke about CBS was funnier than it had a right to be; but it was what was needed.
By the way, I have access to 12 experts and a retired poolshark who say Democrats are all victims of monkeypox… /sarc
Is monkeypox still a thing?
It really had everything stacked against it from the start to be a good fear miltiplyer.
It came from Africa and leftists quickly noticed that black people vaguely resemble monkeys. This caused a lot of pearl clutching until the name was changed to Mpox.
Then everyone begin to notice that it wasn’t really much of a danger to straight people doing straight things but gay men were getting pox around all the favorite holes gay men prefer to use.
Then, entirely coincidently no doubt, a few boys in close proximity to gay men got the pox and it begin to fade from the news when people started to question how that could be considering the level of contact it took for transmission to occur. Many of the gayer members of the media and their libtard allies prefer a reduced level of self awareness.
The final straw was when it was found that dogs owned by gay men were getting the pox. Every dog is a service dog if you have enough peanut butter but it clearly does not have anti-viral properties.
And that was that.
We survived the Great Monkeypox Outbreak without masks and lockdowns by simply relying on social distancing in the gay bar bathroom.
Hopefully, the CDC applies this model in their fight against HIV and anàl gonorrhea.
Don’t let the opposition against the Iran war fool you.
The Left is not anti-war.
They Stand with Ukraine.
How can this situation be managed?
How can we possibly merge these wars so the Lefties have to decide to Stand with Ukraine or Stand with Iran, but not both…
…much in the way the Lefties had to decide to stand with the repression of men for the advancement of women… or stand for the repression of women for the advancement of men wearing women’s costumes.
Protip: If betting, always bet the left will choose the weirdest, dumbest, and most perverse option.
Anyway, my strategy would be to somehow merge these two wars so the left would be forced to abandon one position. The best way would be to…
…wait… something is coming in over the wire…
“The Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea drew condemnation from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, which stated that the explosion killed one sailor and injured another.”
Ok. That problem is solved.
Next is to tell Trump not to bomb any long range missiles pointing north.
Next issue.
Too many women are voting…
In today’s unsurprising development of But Illegal Aliens Don’t Vote.
Governors of New Jersey when asked if she would turn over the identities of 6600 illegal aliens and the 400 who did:
“I have said, I am not in the habit of turning over private, identifying information of the citizens of New Jersey.
This federal government is weaponizing the government against individuals that diagree with them…I am working to protect people and their private data here in New Jersey.”
Good to know.
Will the New Jersey government be weaponized against me because I disagree with their prohibition on lynching?
You think the story end here.
The software company responsible for yet another glitch that doesn’t really make sense from a programming perspective and always favors Democrats said:
“Hold on a minute. The records are clear. The aliens all checked that they were not citizens and they all checked they wanted to vote.”
Protip:
if not citizen_checkbox:
deactivate_vote_checkbox()
Developing:
– it seems more than “400” non citizens actually voted. Verification is being tied up. If it gets exposed in the years to come after working its way through the courts, it will be yet another glitch
– why did the software allow non citizens to vote when that can be solved with one line of code… word on the street it this was not a glitch… it was a feature
Bonus: A pretty credible analysis of the New York City election of the anti-American communist Muslim found more non citizens voted than his margin of victory. If you assume non-Americans vote for parasitic selfish interests rather than American interests, it makes a good case he didn’t win the election at all.
If he did win, “Never Forget” has been forgotten.
It might be time to call Israel and order another incident in New York to get them back loving America and Jews instead of Muslims.
America has moved from tragedy to farce.
Has anybody been following the demonstration of white power at Osan Airbase?
It had those Asians running… which shows they may be inferior and unable to stand up to it but at least they aren’t stupid.
Osan will likely apologize, but the fact remains that the US Air Force doesn’t just encourage it but actively seeks it out, finances it, and gives it an official place on Osan Air Base.
I tend to agree, as this type of white power is a force multiplier.
I had to look it up but I was wrong. I had assumed NYC allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Of course they tried, but were struck down by state courts as it was ruled to violate the state’s constitution.
That said, in a city with single party rule I would find it more surprising if they didn’t find ways to allow noncitizens to cast votes en masse.
Anybody following this Fauci thing?
…leaked diary, internal correspondence, destroyed records, natural origin because he funded the gain of function corona virus in Wuhan… etc.
Every year, it gets increasingly clear a lot of people owe me an apology.
Some people might.
Most people are simply too stupid and will make the same mistakes and wrong conclusions all over again as they repeat whatever AI told them and accuse others of not understanding the science.
I think this is why so many people are poor.
They deserve it.
The events of the covid years were a terrible thing to witness, but it served as a wake up call for a lot of people.
Most of us probably don’t consciously think about it as much in daily life as we should but I believe anyone with decent critical thinking who isn’t totally captured by partisan politics has it baked into their decision making matrix without even realizing it.
Some personal examples:
My employer considered making the vaccine mandatory. A colleague who I suspect was sent around to feel everyone out approached me. I politely but forcefully let him know I loved my job and the people I work for but I would respectfully decline and find other employment if that were the case.
The whole thing forced me to assess my priorities and what I will tolerate. It was like crossing the Rubicon.
I will do dangerous, dirty, thankless jobs to feed my family but medical experimentation isn’t something I will choose to participate in.
I may regret it at some point but going to the doctor for regular checkups isn’t on my list of things to do any more.
I try to search out ulterior motives in policy decisions especially in regards to health.
I’m sure you all have your own realizations and adjustments.
The other side of the coin is there is a certain portion of the population that will go along with whatever the current line of BS is no matter what. Even after having the chance to see the people casting the shadows on the cavern wall.
Johnnyboy, I think you are optimistic.
I think covid showed us about 80% of the population are fùcktards and all subsequent evidence shows us about 80% of the population are still fùcktards.
Not one person has apologized to me for calling me a conspiracy theorist or a racist, claiming I just didn’t understand the science or was even a science denier, or was endangering them for not being vaccinated against something they were 100% Safe & Effective against.
Nobody will engage in an after-action discussion to codify lessons learned. Nobody wants to talk about the biggest social and economic disaster in modern history.
At ROKDrop: you, me, Setnaffa and the other 80% of fùcktards who don’t add their voice to society to remind everyone we didn’t forget and we will respond more harshly.
Those in power believe silence and acceptance are equivalent. They are right.
(Korea Thing will yap about it if prompted but his attitude is still summer of 2020 so his extreme fùcktardism cancels out the guy building bombs in his cabin to keep the Sino-Judeo-Reticulan pandemic conspiracy from happening again.)
Pretty much novody lives their life as if it modified their behavior. They just try to get by and pretend nothing happened and they are OK.
The people who didn’t fall for the insanity are the same. The people who fell for it last time are also the same… and clearly falling for new insanity… last time, it was fear the virus… now it is fear ICE.
And society is not identifying the people and organizations who caused all this and extracting retribution at a level so high it acts as discouragement to a few generations of people who would promote the same evil. In fact, there are actually supporters of all this going, “yeah, but…”
And the vaccine is still being given out and everyone is still paying for it and nobody complains.
So, I think nothing changed.
The 80% of people on the wrong side of the Bell curve are just as stupid coming out as they were going in.
When the next madness happens, they will again fall for it, unable to recognize second order patterns¹, and chaos will come again.
I am not optimistic.
¹ “This is the same as covid.”
“No it’s not. Covid was a virus. These are far-right racist MAGA insurrectionists. That’s why you are only safe if you stay home, wear you mask so they can’t recognize you, and take the new broad spectrum vaccine so they can’t do any bio terror. The internet shutdown was so they couldn’t spread their message of hate. Why are you such a sociology denier?”
@chickenhead
I remember seeing polling on the vax skepticism at the time showing it was mostly those above the average and those below the average that were most likely against the shot. It was the middle that trusted “the science” and went with the flow.
“I remember seeing polling on the vax skepticism at the time showing it was mostly those above the average and those below the average that were most likely against the shot. It was the middle that trusted “the science” and went with the flow.”
Hahaha! 100%
The right of the Bell curve: “An experimental vaccine made with experimental technology? Nawww. I daresay that needs at least 5 years of testing in Africa before use in the civilized world.”
The left of the Bell curve: “They ain’t gonna pump that 5G self-assembling nanoparticle goo into me, no sir!”
Black people had it right: “Shiiiiit, not today, white devil,” as they remembered 70 years of syphilis experiments disguised as medical treatments…
…which should be a lesson for white people in our inverse-fascist¹ world where all races are a near-equal commodity for exploitation and extraction.
Maybe 80% fùcktardism is too high. Maybe 70%?
The people at the bottom don’t count to me though, as the same idea is good but the same reasons are necessary.
However I will file that away for next time, as I can see how the smart people can use them as expendable tools next time… much the smart lefties use BLM, Antifa, campus socialists, and other dummies as their tools.
¹inverse-fascist: A political concept describing a system that uses totalitarian or corporate-state control methods but inverts traditional fascist values, relying on public political apathy and corporate dominance rather than emotional mass mobilization.
In this case, Big Pharma tells government to buy their product at inflated prices, distribute it to the population, sanction those who refuse, and work with media to spread supporting propaganda.
CH, I was one of the blessed. My medical oncologists, when asked which vax to get, said “Any one you can—and quickly!” My surgeon. OTOH, said “Don’t get any. They’re not safe, and you’re still healing.”
I had to get a letter signed by him to avoid the vax or be fired.
And now we see that some saw the whole truth even before Saint Fauci’s Diary was released.
Chickenhead,
You are probably correct in your estimation of the eternally ignorant. The rest of us got a peek behind the curtain on how far the people in charge would try to push things and the methods they will use.
Not sure which side of the curve we are on but at the time most of my blue collar contemporaries felt the same as I did.
It was a mixture of conspiracy theories and distrust of the official narrative and the abandonment of normal trials and approvals for something that shouldn’t have been that scary to the majority of the population if you just looked at the numbers a little bit.
I have noticed people that perform machine work tend to be a bit more analytical and cautious than average. Probably from always trying to think a few steps ahead to avoid crashing tools or ruining parts.
These principles can often be applied to daily life with reasonably successful outcomes. I suspect most of you here have similar outlooks.
I never want to be the first guy to run a new program or part that someone just wrote/designed and may or may not have dry run.
I never want to drive the first model year of a car that’s been redesigned especially if it has an “improved” or “more efficient” drivetrain when the older model has a reputation as being a bulletproof workhorse.
I never want to take a drug that just came out after it bypassed all standard fda testing to get to market.
Trying to explain this attitude to otherwise intelligent people who were living in fear was almost impossible.
Setnaffa,
I’m thankful you had someone in your corner.
I have shared this before but I believe many older family and friends developed new cancer or had existing/in remission cancer come back or progress ahead of schedule.
It’s hard to prove or disprove this notion, especially when the people who have the data have a vested interest in one conclusion over the other.
Why should anyone apologize to you? You ARE a conspiracy theorist and a racist.
I guess the overfilled ER and ICU rooms were all a hoax, eh? And the ~2 million that died world-wide of covid just in 2020 is another hoax, just like that “rigged” election.
I know I know, “but but but the laptop”…LOL
Let’s be honest: The “communism” scare (I mean, come on, how 1960s is that?) isn’t working so they manufactured the next big outrage/scare, which is a sad attempt to vilify Dr. Fauci. Pretty pathetic.
“You’ve probably seen Anthony Fauci in the news this week. He sat alone at a Senate witness table while Republican senators cursed at him, mocked him and threatened to put him in jail. Watching it, I thought back to my exchange with him during COVID, when I was in Congress.
I questioned Anthony Fauci under oath at the height of the pandemic on June 23, 2020. I said we needed to learn more about what the Chinese Communist Party knew, what it withheld and how that affected our ability to respond. Then I asked Fauci how antibody testing could improve our understanding of asymptomatic infections and help identify populations at risk.
Fauci answered my questions responsibly, explaining why surveillance studies mattered and what scientists were learning about transmission by people without symptoms. The exchange was calm and technical. I wasn’t trying to produce a viral moment, though you can watch the exchange below. I simply wanted to understand how the virus was spreading.
Six years after my exchange with Fauci, Republicans brought him back before Congress to berate him. Rand Paul, who had already said that Fauci “should go to prison,” subpoenaed an 85-year-old retired scientist and demanded answers that could expose him to prosecution. When Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment, Paul announced plans for a contempt vote. Josh Hawley asked him what day it was and what color his tie and the carpet were. Bernie Moreno told him, “Who the fuck do you think you were for doing that?” When Fauci’s lawyer tried to object, Paul had him removed from the room.
I sat through plenty of partisan hearings, but I never saw a chairman call for a witness to be jailed, force him to testify and then condemn him for using his right not to incriminate himself. It made me angry, but mostly it made me sad.
Call me naive, but I thought the purpose of a congressional hearing was to get answers and hold officials accountable. But Republicans held this one to humiliate an 85-year-old man in front of the entire country. Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times in a single deposition in 2022, and Republicans defended him for doing so. At Fauci’s hearing, they scolded Fauci for doing the same thing. Watching it reminded me of how much the Republican Party has changed for the worse.
Paul had spent years saying Fauci should be prosecuted. Then, when Fauci was finally under oath, Paul acted as if Fauci’s non-answers were proof of his guilt. It was the same trap used in the anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s: answer and give prosecutors something they might use against you, or stay silent and be branded guilty. Paul spent years promising that Fauci would end up behind bars, released 1,141 pages of his unredacted diary and then summoned him under oath to see whether he might say something that could land him in jail.
The diary entries are embarrassing in places. Fauci plainly enjoyed some of the attention he received. But some entries that Paul presented as evidence of a cover-up were consistent with what Fauci said publicly at the time. Paul released the diaries to embarrass Fauci. The hearing spent more time on Fauci’s vanity and famous acquaintances than on anything that would better prepare us for the next pandemic. The Republicans got the dopamine hits and viral video clips they wanted. But what did the country learn? Very little.
https://www.adamkinzinger.com/p/i-questioned-anthony-fauci-during
James,
I don’t believe the average person was at risk of dying from covid which was what we were led to believe at the time and the premise that seemed to drive most of the decision-makers.
I think a lot of deaths were attributed to covid that were actually complications from other issues like heart disease and diabetes while testing positive for covid.
I also believe many deaths were from overuse of ventilators which have a mortality rate of anywhere from 30 to 60 percent depending on conditions. It’s likely that many people went to the hospital out of fear when they didn’t need to and were aggressively treated for covid and died from lung infections caused by being placed on a ventilator and then attributed to covid. I may be wrong but I suspect this is the case.
I don’t believe the mass vaccination program prevented deaths or illness in the vast majority of the people who partook in it. I think there is a good chance it actually harmed more people than it helped in the way of proven increases in blood clots and heart problems in young people, and potentially uptick in cancer rates.
Chickenhead may be asking for apologies from people he knows personally but I think he is more likely seeking an apology from the wider systems of governance and health policymakers who made terrible mistakes and as of yet haven’t owned up to them.
“Why should anyone apologize to you?”
They were wrong and I was right.
“You ARE a conspiracy theorist”
No. I recognize patterns in life and history while you make the same mistakes over and over.
“and a racist.”
I talk some racist smack but i am really a culturalist.
“I guess the overfilled ER and ICU rooms were all a hoax, eh?”
That’s why all the nurses had time for TikTok dances. That was a myth. You are a sucker who fell for it.
“And the ~2 million that died world-wide of covid just in 2020 is another hoax, just like that “rigged” election.”
Every single one has more than one health issue… from 90 year old diabetics to 300 pound “healthy teenagers”.
“I know I know, “but but but the laptop”…LOL”
Not sure what that means. Probably nothing.
“Let’s be honest: The “communism” scare (I mean, come on, how 1960s is that?) isn’t working”
Commies are scarey. History clearly shows that.
“so they manufactured the next big outrage/scare, which is a sad attempt to vilify Dr. Fauci. Pretty pathetic.”
There is clear evidence he is evil.
He wrote it himself.
Thank you @Johnnyboy and @ChickenHead. You are speaking truth to people who can hear and understand; but psychologically refuse because they are like the “good Germans” who lived a mile from Auschwitz-Birkenau and claimed they “never knew”.
They convinced themselves by following the so-called “experts” like Saint Fauci that they were the good guys. It would destroy them to admit the truth that they were the 21st Century Nazis. Thus, many if not most, still get the shots, test weekly, and wear the chinesium masks.
I no longer even have contempt for them. If one came into my house, I’d open the windows in rooms they visited, maybe spray air-freshener if they didn’t get the hint. My wife knows and limits which friends from church come to the house.
There’s no way out for them. Fauci’s Diary, an official government document, seals the last door. Much as the records the SS kept of their abuse of the tens of millions they tortured, mutilated, and murdered.
God will judge them, so we don’t need to do a thing. In fact, all we can do is give them the Gospel so they can either (a) repent or (b) suffer worse punishment.
Setnaffa, I appreciate your faith but neither government nor God has done anything to these shìtbags.
Two broken institutions outperformed by a black rifle and a guy who no longer gives a fuck.