Tanker Attacks: War to Follow?

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The late Washington-state Senator Henry M. Jackson told me – in about 1970 or 71 “Keep your eye on the Straight of Hormuz.”

When it closes, the world will get involved in a Middle East war that could quickly escalate to global and nuclear.

Fast forward to overnight:

“Two oil tankers struck in suspected attacks in Gulf of Oman – shipping firms.”  And on the al Jazeera website, we learn that “One ship ablaze, all crew members rescued after presumed attacks on vessels near the Iranian coastline.”

Some analysis by military affairs contributor warhammer:

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass . . . “ ~ Matthew 24:6 KJV”

Military.com coverage here adds details.

Iran apparently has figured out one viable way to push the price of crude higher.   Whether by torpedo or mine, the gauntlet has been thrown by the Islamic Republic.

Consider this – if Iran behaves this way using conventional weapons against Western shipping interest in and around the Straits of Hormuz  to make a diplomatic statement, what can we expect if/when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei oversees a shelf of nuclear warheads?  Not just the Persian Gulf, but the entire Middle East and large swaths of North Africa, Central SW Asia and Southern Europe could he held hostage.

I fully expect Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu to team with U.S. President Trump, possibly with some others thrown in the mix, to send a clear message to Iran’s leaders.  Then we sit back and wait for Russia and China to support the Mullahs bad behavior until Iran puts the finishing touches on a line of ‘canned sunshine.‘

And yes, Israel is rumored to have several hundred nukes in its secret arsenal.  But it has never used them or threatened to use them.  Its enemies strongly suspect that the nation has them and, if they have them, they will employ them only to insure the survival of the Jewish state.  Were Iran to engage in a treaty with Israel, publicly declaring they will ‘never’ use nukes first should they ever develop them, that might be a suitable first step.  But Iran’s current bad behavior is a troubling sign regarding such hopes.

I’d wager the Doomsday Clock is moving a tad closer toward midnight.

“I can tell you one thing, Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons today than it was a week ago, or a month ago, or a year ago.  It is just moving on with its efforts.”  ~ Benjamin Netanyahu”

Word of the attack sent the price of oil and the futures market up more than four percent.

The Iranian news agency is linking this to a foreign head-of-state visit:

“Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM @AbeShinzo was meeting with Ayatollah @khamenei_ir for extensive and friendly talks,” Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

He added: “Suspicious doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning.”

No doubt Iranian based forces are suspect.  And, depending on what satellite recon from the area shows, we might see a Western response as a result.

Small-time traders, who follow the news closely, will have a marvelous chance today to watch market information asymmetry at work:  While the price of certain levered ETF products jumped in the extended-hours market to the upside, the futures were showing the Dow with increasing gains and a prediction +84 open with an hour and 20 minutes to the open.

Tangentially Related?

A very good interview by Sputnik News offers this from Pakistan’s prime minister Inran Khan:

Sputnik: Has there been any progress on the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project? Are you planning to completely suspend the project due to the US sanctions?

Imran Khan: You see, at the moment there has not been much progress, and that is because of the sanctions put on Iran by the United States.

The reason we pay attention to the Pakistan – Iran oil pipeline is that in our 72-year war cycle, Pakistan “goes hot” in a couple of months – due for a major war with India.  (Won’t happen until after the sports showdown this weekend, but keep a weather eye on that, too, as a possible source of a “cause”…)

Ex-Im Prices Tumble

Is Deflation returning due to trade dust-ups?  Just out are import/export prices.  News release on that begins like this:

“Prices for U.S. imports declined 0.3 percent in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today,
following an increase of 0.1 percent the previous month. Lower fuel and nonfuel prices contributed to the
May decline in import prices. U.S. export prices fell 0.2 percent in May, after advancing 0.1 percent in
April, 0.8 percent in March, and 0.6 percent in February.

Imports

U.S. Import prices fell 0.3 percent in May, the first monthly decline since a 1.4-percent drop in December.
Import prices advanced 1.8 percent from December to April before the downturn in May. The price index
for overall imports decreased 1.5 percent over the past 12 months, matching the drop in January. These were
the largest over-the-year declines since the index fell 2.2 percent in August 2016.

Exports

Prices for U.S. exports declined 0.2 percent in May, the first monthly drop since the index fell 0.6 percent in
January. Lower prices for both agricultural and nonagricultural exports contributed to the May decline.
Export prices decreased 0.7 percent over the past 12 months, the largest over-the-year decline since the
index fell 1.1 percent in October 2016

It will be one hell of an interesting day for markets!

Meet the “Heel and Toe” Economy  (Invisible Depression)

Maybe you haven’t been through a real race driving school like Skip Barber or Bob Bondurant,so it’s totally understandable that you may have missed the experience of downshifting (heel & toe) into turns 7, 8, and 8a (“the corkscrew“), but heel and toe downshifting is pretty neat stuff – especially when initiated from the triple digits of speed…

“Heel-and-toe shifting is an advanced driving technique used mostly in performance driving with a manual gearbox, although some drivers use it on the road in everyday conditions in the interest of effectiveness. It involves operating the throttle and brake pedals simultaneously with the right foot, while facilitating normal activation of the clutch with the left foot. It is used when braking and downshifting simultaneously (prior to entering a turn), and allows the driver to “blip” the throttle to raise the engine speed and smoothly engage the lower gear.”

The rest of the Wikipedia article is here, or you can just pop for a copy of ”

Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving” at the Zon and read to your heart’s content.  (Remember, Jackie Stewart “champagne slalom” courses in empty parking lots only!)
About here, you may pointedly ask “What the hell could this have to do with the economy???“
We were just getting to that; hold Ure horses.
The concept of heel and toe is at the heart of a theory my consigliere and I worked almost 20 years back.  In a nutshell, it goes something like this:
In a “normal Depression” the economy “breaks” one of two ways:  It can end with a massive deflationary depression when “real” money dries up.  OR, it can end with the Weimar/Zimbabwe-style hyper-inflation.
So the theory looks at these two “typical outcomes” and asks the question:  Is there some other combination of events that could “cover-up a Great Depression while still maintaining the illusion of normalcy?
Certainly, and of course.
There are exactly three ways this could be done.
  1. One way would be to all the economy to deflate and then bring along lots of inflation.
  2. A second path would be inflate like crazy and then bring on deflation.
  3. And the third path is what the Fed seems to be trying on this near-brush with financial implosion:  Heel and toeing through the worst of it.

In fairness,   my consigliere’s version may have been more elegant, but visually, it offers limited demographic appeal.  Paraphrasing, it went something like this.  (My memory from 2002 is not as crisp as I’d like…)

“Suppose you had a train and the tracks end right at the edge of a steep canyon.  The Grand Canyon will due.  You run the train as fast as you can off the edge of the canyon and then have some workers (perhaps on speed or meth) who are building the bridge under the train as fast as they can to get it to the other side…”

When looked at from the macro economist’s perspective, one can almost make out the Fed creating an inflationary bubble to provide “artificial growth” to the US economy that peaked in 2007-2008.  As we rolled into 2009, we experienced massive deflation as the housing bubble unwound.

Now, thanks to the work of Dr. Ben Bernanke (of late at the Brookings Institution) calling in some ideas from the sidelines, as in the Bernanke, Kiley, and Roberts paper “Monetary Policy Strategies for a Low-Rate Environment” which you can read over here.

As I explained a few days back, most people seem to be seriously misunderstanding the Fed.

The task of the Fed, here at the end of the Juglar cycle distance from the last 11-year bubble popping, is to “heel and toe” through the “corkscrew” if we can use the Turn 7, 8, and 8a analogy from Laguna Seca.

We’re how the course is laid out in detail:

Donald Trump is trying to get the Fed to lower rates.  There’s a (we think misguided) sense that would be good for the economy.  Such is Donald Trumps position.

On the other hand, the democrats would love nothing more than a mild recession and end of the Trump-Bump so that two things can happen:  Agenda 1 is to sour the economy enough so a democrat can waltz into the Oval in 2021. Agenda 2 is to take back the US Senate.  With some Béarnaise being building their margin in the House.  The radical wing of the “demoncrats” is actually pretty crafty so far out.  The move the middle and “pander-tuning” will be honed before the CONvention.  But, I digress.

We’re just trying to help you contextualize two stories in the snooze today:

“Federal Spending Tops $3 Trillion Through May for First Time; Deficit Hits $738 Billion.”  And stories like “May deficit surges to $208 billion, 42% higher than last year.”

A Few Short Takes

Stupid is in the House as House will hold two cabinet members in contempt over 2020 census citizenship question.  What we can’t figure is how when it’s the job of Census to count Americans, how these lefty POS’s can do that without asking “Are you a citizen?”  Boggles the mind!!!

The object of Census is tally the US population, not the 15-million people who’ve slid in under the radar, so to speak.  Go save us from the House!  From  the Oval Trump slams contempt vote against Cabinet officials, says Dems have gone ‘Loco’.

Fitting the House is looking at “deepfake” though in House holds hearing on “deepfakes” and artificial intelligence – live stream.

Political Correctness becomes International Stupid as Mexico accuses Carolina Herrera fashion house of cultural appropriation.  WTF is “cultural appropriation?”  You mean like building aircraft in Mexico?  Or how many other auto and manufacturered things?  Is Mexico sure they wanna go there?

New Gold Rush? Public companies target private firms for cannabis M&A.  Click to smoke out the details…

 

 

47 thoughts on “Tanker Attacks: War to Follow?”

  1. Who said it was Iran? Who gains the most from such an attack? With West Texas in the low $50’s that is nothing but a death knell for the Miracle of Shale oil production …. and if depletion never sleeps – do not the Saudi’s gain from such an attack ……. come on pull my finger….

    • Yes, Clawsy, everyone gains but Iran. We have seen this kind of “GAIN” before. Cui Bono?
      Weapons of Mass Destruction; everyone gained but Saddam Hussein. Afghanistan? Everyone gained but that country even though bribes just cause money to exchange hands at a faster and faster rate. Hillary and Obummer taking out Libya; everyone gained but Libya. Syria, American, Israel, France, Germany, and UK paid for and backed ISIS/ISIL Al Qaeda terrorists to take out the Sovereign nation of SYRIA; how Syria has lasted this long is surely a uranium tipped nuke under all of their asses. Cui Bono? 911 attack on America; Cui Bono?

  3. Now George i’m ashamed of you for spreading little more than propaganda, repeating nonsense put out by the leader of Israel,for after all I’ll take the word of all those inspectors that moniter Irans nuclear sites . Does the Bay of Tonkin ring any memories,the one that gave the war mongers the excuse to attack Vietnam,now we are already waging an economic war against Iran (barring them from shipping any oil,so how does that benefit Iran ), and Israel wants to escalate it into a hot war using using the bodies of American troops, and seeing we are Israel’s bit*h why my bet would be its the terrorist we fund in the Mid-East that are behind it.

    Now I care little for the so called stock market where value has been replace by Q.E,where so called stock prices move more by the words of the Fed. then any realistic value of the stocks themselves, so I fully expect capitalism to share the same fate as communism,its just the bump itself that bothers me as it hits the bottom and some new world order takes its place..!!

  4. Israhell has not used nukes – AYFKM?

    U been living under rock Ur whole life?
    I guess that was not a nuke device planted on top of A/C unit in twin towers basement – how else do U stovepipe a highrise and MELT Granite and blow OUT car radiators for blocks around at the same time – reprocessed Davey Crocket cores stolen out of facility in Texas during Bush admin.

    Israhell sub launches a missile at Pentagon on 9/11 and hits exact location of Able Danger team meeting that day in Pentagon. AirForce General in charge of group, mysteriously missed the meeting that day – coinkydink?

    Tell the Syrians/Palestinians/Balinese/Indonesians and Iranians that the Israhell is not using very low yield nukes right now today.

    The real question is Why r politicians around the world desperately trying to save the Iran Nuke Deal?

    Billions in cash – pallets full delivered to Iran – paid for with US Tax dollars ?

    Likely caused T. May to resign..more Euro’s to follow soonly.
    Word on street has it that Obummer and She Who Shall Not Be Mentioned set up massive Bribery schemes 1st term w/ChiCOms – tech transfer, Russians – U1, & the mullahs – Nuke Deal.
    The morons then were BLACKMAILED in 2nd term..”give us tech or we expose”

    Had the Hilde Beast won – nobody would have known..Singapore bank accounts with names like Pelosi, Schiff, Obama, Kerry, Biden..rutrow

    Israhell wants WAR – they are going soak the sand with more American blood and $$

    wash,rinse,dry,repeat

      • Theory – of course..Egyptian security agent Mo Atta then w/Saud intel was being surveilled in Apt in Fort Lee,NJ – nearby safehouse with several teams Isrealis being surveilled.
        Nukes came thru Teterboro Airport- according to DOE report. Able Danger investigators tracked it all – records seized- M. Chertoff (duel Israhell citizen) – dept Homeland Sec – held for release in 50 years.
        Bld 7 nukes – installed in recently upgraded Fire Supression system- 100 lb Halon Tanks..same DOE report.
        See Pantex Corp, Amarillo, TX – Secret 9/11 Houston Grand Jury -they dont want any word of US govt. complicity getting out,ever.

        Red Mercury – what ever that is, Particle Beams ??

        Thats how U feel and think about the lives & freedom lost that day, The Radiation ONLY Cancers of 1st Responders at higher rate than Chernobyl.

        Merits of Virtue seem to be piling up with Ur Conspiracy Theorys..

      • Its a lot simpler than that.

        https://youtu.be/eAV_BUQoGBw

        There is only one thing that can turn the steel and concrete in a building to dust. And to turn to dust one corner of the Library building across the street from building 7.

        There is nobody that worked on the site for more than a couple of days that does not have cancer, respiratory disease or a decimated immune system.

      • The debris should be about 13 stories high for a 110 story building, also the seismic data should be around 3.8 for the towers, they were only 2.3.

        Look it up for yourself.

    • East Coast….right with ya; can follow the war crumbs….just like it has been for the last 17.5 years since 911. Just like it always has been for the last few hundred years in this country (wars for profit). More American boys and girls will die for a country that doesn’t care about American boys and girls. A country that has us sewed up lock, stock, and barrel. A country that cannot be criticized, a country so well embedded in our own country’s structure and leadership that we no longer make our own decisions, a country that comes before our country, a country that we fund to the tune of 36 billion dollars a year AND lots more that is under the table. Yah, well, this has all been predicted not only by the bible, although, there is plenty of fodder there, but by newer prophets than the ones of old.

      George, who used to post here who advised everyone to get a Honda90 that gets 100 mpg? He was a blarney kinda guy, chatty, and substantial in his info inputs.

      You know the needle inserted into the vein of Amerika, to drain it, is coming, right?

    • Lol and just where have you been that you didn’t know that the other side is no better,take our good congress critter Mr. Collins mighty fine republican, indited for insider stock trading fraud and God only knows what else but still the brain dead people elected him back to office again.And as for those pallets of cash that went to Iran they were nothing more then the billions we stole from Iran when they kicked out the Shah,if fact even Chase got a slice of the Shahs money due its stupid investments.!!

  5. Interesting concept, if a major war breaks out in the ME with Iran and the sleeper cells here in the US attack major infrastructure (bridges, schools, hospitals, etc.) what will the dem’s do? They back the illegals (they want the votes), but would the dem’s then support Trump and the country or as usual look after themselves to stay in office and still back the illegals, Muslims?

  6. Quit defending and making excuses for the Orange Clown! It’s getting so old. He is a feverish blister on the integrity and viability of this nation. Dumbest Man on Planet Earth. STOP now or forever lose your sanity.

    • I went back and looked carefully for the incident of Trump defense which you alluded to, but didn’t see it. The only editorial remarks which accompanied the “Trump” name appeared to look more like subdued skepticism than defense to me. Maybe if you could elaborate on your conspiracy theory it would enlighten us. Or, maybe if you can’t respond to a reasonable request for clarification with anything but a canned propaganda diatribe, then the other readers will stop believing in you, and you will evaporate the way Debate Mike seems to have. Just because an automaton has a well crafted public biography or even presence doesn’t mean it’s real. This would be the “American Gods” applied mythology and “Person of Interest” conspiracy theory fusion option. Wait, are you and Debate Mike related?

      • Oh boy, here it comes. This should be a fun exchange between you two to watch. Lemme get some popcorn.

      • Just ignore him. He craves attention and thinks he’s posting on the Huffington Post.

      • The point I was trying to make was any reference whether complimentary or not about Trump having any responsibility for any policy at all . The reference was Trump trying to influence the Fed rates… which George thinks is unwise… but the point is… Nobody actually listens to a damn thing Trump says… except to make fun of him when he talks…We need to stop giving him any credit on any policy. He has zero clue what he is doing. It’s not the Trump Administration…it’s the corporate, Mnuchin, Pompeo, etc Administration. For once I would like someone to ask him in his pressers a simple question like…what’s the Capital of Delaware…or a trick question like name the 4 Branches of Government and laugh while he dances around while not acknowledging that there are only 3. He is a huge brainless disaster that needs to step down and allow a competent Republican take the reins and steer us back to respectability. He is the epitome of a spoiled, entitled rich punk that never had to work or study a day in his life…Where I originally come from in the Midwest, a guy like this would have beat up, spit out and thrown in the stockade decades ago.

        Funny my Republican midwestern friends feel the exact same way now. They, like me did not want Hillary. I voted for Kasich which was stupid but I hated my choices. My friends now realize that they threw it away on Trump. More and more Republicans are starting to get tired of the same ol’ schtick from this goon. It’s time for a new, sane, day educational reality series based on a leader that actually has more than a 43 word vocabulary.

      • Thank you for the detailed clarification. I’m still waiting to hear which of the candidates you are climbing on the band wagon for in 2020, and why.

        At the rate the situation is deteriorating in the middle east, Trump’s foreign policy may be more of a factor in the 2020 election than was planned by his handlers. or then again, sadly, maybe it is planned. And then there’s Stu’s neocon meltdown scenario.

        The sheer number of D candidates gives a hint as to the number of leftist vultures that are circling the field. In a presidential election, the strength of the opposition isn’t really gauged by the volume of pretenders.

        The only way I can see that the D’s can throw away their margin in the House in 2020 is to vote for impeachment, and the sheer volume of meglomaniac leftist buzzards looking for attention there may make that happen.

    • If you even pay attention to anything Trump or any other politician say you are wasting your time. Its just diversion for those who need an excuse to hope for something better. They are all pathological liars saying one thing one week and another the next. They don’t seem to grasp that what they said or did in the past is still there. But then nobody every failed by underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

      Eight years ago George said he was going to stay in the USA and vote these problems away.

      My advice was to vote early, vote long, and vote hard. Unfortunately, only the Democrats listened. If the votes were honestly counted in California Trump would have won the state.

      On the other hand, if the Democrats in Texas had gotten out just 3.7% more of the democratic voters Clinton would now be president. All five of the largest cities in Texas went Blue, and in the next election the urban voters will outnumber the rural. They just didn’t use enough electronic voting machines in Texas. They won’t make that mistake again.

      You can be a prepper in Texas, but with the californians and the illegals voting in the next election, they can destroy your life from the statehouse in Austin with the stroke of a pen. But then that is true in most any state.

      Gotta go, need to get my Social Security check from yesterday into silver. For my wife and I, one check covers our monthly expenses, and the other goes into metal. Then there’s that darned rental income to deal with.

  7. George

    “And yes, Israel is rumored to have several hundred nukes in its secret arsenal.”

    A long time ago in another mode of life a little bird wearing Captains bars whispered into my ear that Israel had developed an Atomic bomb.

    Since then several sources have come into public view that confirmed this in an indirect way.

    I have NO doubt that they have many hundred nuclear weapons and will use them if their back is to the wall.

    In 1973 I was surprised that Cairo didn’t burn in nuclear hell fire!

    Pray that cooler head prevail in Iran!!!

    • They were on the verge of a launch, when the tide of the war suddenly and rather inexplicably turned in their favor…

    • This is all a BS game in the middle east. All Iran has to do is to simply say, we will submit to anything you want, inspections, etc. as long as Israel submits to the same.

      Then just repeat, repeat, repeat, until the morons of the world who live life looking in the rear view mirror get it.

      But sadly they won’t.

  8. Wow, I just went to the above mentioned article @ The age of desolation (I’ve been there before cause George mentioned it and I am into Nostradamus), that was quite enlightening to me including the quatrains and the bible quotes and all the links to relevant news past and present. I am not into Trump, but I truly think Mr. Stewart is a genius and seems to have sussed out most of the information we need for this time in history. We all need to pay attention to him he’s got it…………

  9. Back in the ’80’s, I would imagine that the torpedoing of two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz would have caused a serious hit to the DOW – not this market, though. The stock market has become nothing more than a ‘policy tool’ today, used by our overlords to give an ‘all is well’ signal to the masses. Working ahead, I have always contended that a nuclear conflagration would be good for at least 10-20K DOW points! What a mess our markets and economy have become…

    • Simple, there are no markets, they are all computer against computer for more than 80% of all trades and there is no economic system, once interest rates go negative the laws of economics no longer apply.

      If you cannot grasp this, my only comment is what is your point?

    • And BTW, Americans, you no longer have a functioning Federal Government.

      The organizational dynamics of what is happening in Washington is that of a couple of warring mafia families after the family in control changes.

      Once you get this, everything you see going on makes sense from that perspective, and it is a perspective that does not have the interests of the citizenry at heart.

    • I don’t think politicos necessarily lie all the time.

      When leaders of the big nations use the words, they mean something. The reason why the U.S. hasn’t had a recession in over 10 years:

      “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system” – George W. Bush

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmi8cJG0BJo

  10. Most people who follow what is ‘really’ going on around the world …have a ‘gut’ feeling the CIA is behind the Oil Tanker event….as they have been involved in ALL the events leading up to conflicts involving this country….the DS at its best….WAR without your consent …Just a BOHICA…..business as usual

    • If you have any awareness at all, the fact that the USA blamed Iran is all the proof you need that it was not Iran.

      The Federal government pathologically cannot tell the truth about anything. And I literally mean this.

      Every bit of information coming from the Federal government is twisted, omitted or propagandized for some purpose. Get over it, Americans. I have been watching this for the last 10 years, and I can see this because I have nothing invested in not seeing this, because if you do see it you either have to do something, or go into denial which is a valid psychological diagnosis of mental illness.

      Write when you find something from the federal government that is true.

    • The room containing the chess board is too foggy. No way to tell if this a N->KB7 or a P->Q3. It feels like it is floating some kind of flag, I just can’t yet tell which. PM Abe was in Tehran because Iran and Japan are not on the best of terms and he was playing JAPANESE Diplomat, yet the wire blather today is all about the purpose of his visit being to bridge a peace between the U.S. and Iran (which was NOT on his agenda when he left Japan.)

      There’s 7-8 players in the ME including Iran, which might benefit from a conflagration. Then there’s China, the U.S., and especially Russia, and about 40 “lateral” nations whose benefit would be substantial, but peripheral or understated. I don’t see it as either a CIA or Mossad op (too obvious), because that’s the direction conspiranut fingers naturally point, but anything’s possible. Limpet mines are easy to make, and there’s many thousands of underemployed mercs floating around…

      When playing this particular info game, I try to eliminate potential players via a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning, then when “unlikelies” begin to drop out, inject money into the equation. It’s always about wealth, power, or information. Ego can be a motivator, but it’s almost always just a tool of influence, to be played by the power in the shadows…

    • This is exactly what I’m worried about. George, Warhammer – how can we tell if this isn’t the next “Gulf of Tonkin” the neocons have been breathlessly waiting for? Wait for any results of an investigation? One television news report said it looked like a torpedo attack.

    • “I’d wager the Doomsday Clock is moving a tad closer toward midnight”

      Exactly D……..

      It always seems that anytime wars rumors of wars is involved.. there’s usually an ulterior motive by a source below the surfice.. always looking for control of something or somebody..

      I am curious what this is truly about..

  11. Worry about the ME and refuse to mention or consider the OPEN Borders of this country and the ten’s of millions of illegals ‘occupying ‘ it today….and the ‘others’ that have infiltrated into our cities with the support of the Dems…..Many inside this country that consider themselves Americans that do not want to become ‘democratic socialist’….will to a man /woman protect their families,property and self….and in doing so do not need any permission from our ‘old relic’….as many on the left THINK…as they assault it on a daily basis….Semper Fi

  13. I doubt we’ve seen such intrigue about the pond since witches were being burned at the stake in the 17th century.

    Although Mr. Johnson took first place by a wide margin in the first round of voting by parliament for UK PM, two candidates will eventually stand when the wider Party membership makes the final choice. So one imagines that bettors will remain close to their preferred bookie for inspiration, as the Anglo-Islamic fifth place contender signed extradition papers today, that should the Court agree tomorrow, would bring a certain Mr. Assange one step closer to being esconced in secure USA accomodation.

    Oh dear, Chelsea Manning is back in prison too? I don’t know; build a wall around the contiguous lower 48, throw away the key and be done with it! And to think some folks are clamouring at the gates to get into Fortress America…

    It’s all become an absolute OUTRAGE !!! Sane people please form an orderly line in preparation for drawbridge retraction sequence! The train is leaving the station!

    • Spot on mate. You got it right on every single count. As for the naysayers, either they continue to stay deluded or in line with the moar war crowd. As an add on, Boris is one of those everything’s about Putin, so with Jeremy Hunt in tow you guys should see a lot of “it’s Russia” everytime someone sneezes. As for your 5th contender, no different from the 1st or the last, sell outs all of them. Prime qualification to sit in office.

  14. On the Census question of race,I’m going to put down Native American as I was born in Newark.

  15. Every oil producer in OPEC wants higher prices. US fracking producers need higher prices. The two tankers hit were carrying cargo related to Japanese industry. Japan PM Abe was in meetings with Iran at the time of the strikes. John Bolton is a shill for the MIC (military industrial complex). How many permutations can we come up with for a false flag ‘attack’ on tanker vessels in the Strait of Hormuz?
    I would put my money on Saudi Arabia conducting the operation with the support and blessing of US interests. It was a very ‘sanitary’ strike, just meant to create fear and panic while benefitting the oil producers (who are the whole reason for us being there, contrary to the altruistic bs of political/religious charlatans).
    In our calloused world, this will only affect oil prices for a short while, then situation normal AFU. If true, look for an escalated version within a month, too many oil interests suffering at these price levels. Iran is just the best scapegoat in the area at this time.

  16. I was in NYC the night of Sept 11, 2001 and did my best to be helpful. It was amazing how much that was NOT appreciated. It took passing five roadblocks to even get to the site. Perhaps I should be grateful since at the time I had no suspicion of the real toxicity of the area. I just knew that there was another agenda and that those who were quickly excavating and removing debris were selected people and were following explicit orders. The entire operation was entirely too well choreographed.

    Likewise, there were four tankers off a Saudi port attacked with “bombs” of some sort a month ago and now two more in the Strait of Hormuz. How convenient that they were “attacked” by parties unknown at a location that could compromise the entire world’s oil supply. A rush to judgement against Iran is so similar to the rush to judgement against Osama Bin Ladin. OBL was a CIA stooge/puppet – at least he was before the incident. No reason to believe that changed. It triggered wars against Afghanistan, , and ultimately Iraq. To this day I don’t understand the Iraqi connection, other than we wanted to shut in all that oil and wreck the country.

    I’m generally against war and especially so when there’s a rush to judgement. From history(back to Archduke Ferdinand and beyond), I’d put my money on the FF probability rather than random “enemies”. There’s no money in simple attacks like that – it didn’t even close the strait. The only advantage is to someone who wishes to precipitate war. I don’t see Iran doing that. There are two or three candidates, known to act in concert. I won’t mention names since the jury is out. It would seem that Andy probably knows and is keeping it to himself. I understand why.

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