REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Khamenei, One of Most Evil People in History, is Dead

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Monday, March 16, 2026 18:29
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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 8:13 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I think Trump has gotten himself into a situation he can't get out of. He made the fatal mistake of listening to Netanyahu and was convinced that killing Khamenie would collapse Iran like a house of cards.

Aside from the fact that it didn't work, he failed to realize that if Iran survived it had the strategic advantage: Iran's hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones far exceed our and Israel's air defenses. Iran can shut off oil flow, and the surrounding nations are fragile, target-rich environments with depleted defenses. And Trump killed the one man in Iran who was preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Now consider that the man who succeeded Khamenei, his son, had his father, wife, and infant son killed by America.

Trump may want to back out, but I think Iran has now committed itself to a fight to the end. In other words, the war ends when IRAN ends it, not when Trump wants to quit. (the above video makes that point)

When will Iran stop? What are its strategic goals?

When Israel's military and economy is destroyed?
When the Gulf states kick out American embassies and bases?
When sanctions are lifted or the Gulf States do business with Iran in something other than the dollar?
When Iran builds nuclear weapons?
More?

We face not one but TWO strategic defeats, one in Ukraine that could break NATO, and one in the Mideast that could destroy Israel and break the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Both wars started on the flawed premise that the targets of our aggression would collapse the moment maximum pressure was applied. This clusterfuck has been a bipartisan project started by vastly ignorant administrations that lacked competent leadership.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 10:52 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


A mega-deal to end the war

by Dan Perry, opinion contributor - 03/11/26 7:30 AM ET

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5776617-a-mega-deal-to-e
nd-the-war/

Much attention has focused on how the current war with Iran began — not so well argued, not necessarily so legal. But the real question is how it ends.

Although President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do not inspire much confidence about their intentions, there is an achievable blueprint for an outcome that could leave the world a far better place.

Unless the conflict produces a strategic outcome that actually solves the underlying problem, it will merely be remembered as another costly episode in the long and destabilizing history of Middle Eastern chaos.

And there is a whopper of an underlying problem here. For decades, Iran has built a system designed to spread revolution across the Middle East while maintaining a theocratic police state at home. It pursued nuclear capabilities, developed increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles, and armed a network of proxy militias from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen. This has kept the region on tenterhooks and occasionally in flames. Without Iran, there would probably have been no Oct. 7.

The Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal attempted to constrain Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic relief, but it did little to address the broader architecture of missiles, militias and revolutionary ideology. Trump walked away from that deal in 2018 — a foolish move which, coupled with no other effective measures, enabled Iran to resume enrichment.

The result is the situation today: a confrontation that many observers fear could spiral into an ever-wider war, but that also presents a rare opportunity to permanently dismantle the threat Iran’s regime poses to the region and to its own people.

That objective should be uncompromising: Iran must permanently abandon the pursuit of nuclear weapons, dismantle its long-range missile program and end the financing and arming of militias across the region.

The goal should not be Iran’s humiliation or destruction as a nation. The Islamic Republic may even survive in some form. What should not survive is the system that allows it to continue causing such harm.

A settlement that includes carrots should therefore also require an end to clerical vetting of presidential candidates and a restoration of genuine authority to Iran’s elected institutions, above all the presidency and parliament.

This need not mean total regime overhaul, such as the immediate abolition of the office of supreme leader. In fact, when Ali Khamenei was elevated in 1989, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani helped shape a constitutional order that strengthened the presidency which he then assumed. He appears to have imagined a system in which elected institutions would wield the main governing power while the supreme leader would stand more as a symbolic or balancing figure.

That is not how things ultimately evolved — Khamenei instead became one of modern history’s most diabolical despots. But the precedent shows that a more republican version of the system would not be completely alien to Iran’s own political history.

These reforms should be part of a package presented by the broadest possible international coalition. And it should be paired with a powerful set of incentives. It should be a “deal” — the kind of thing Trump appreciates. In exchange for Iran’s acquiescence, the world should offer something transformative and generous.

All sanctions should be lifted. Iran should be welcomed into regional trade arrangements with Gulf economies and possibly others. The country should have full access to global markets, capital and technology.

Diplomatic relations should normalize. Formal peace treaties, if Iran wishes, would be on offer.

More controversially, the leadership of the current regime should be offered a form of political amnesty, allowed to keep their wealth and step aside without fear of international prosecution. In authoritarian systems, that kind of “golden bridge” has often been the only way to facilitate meaningful change.

Such an approach may seem generous toward a regime responsible for decades of repression at home and violence abroad. But the objective of strategy is not justice or moral satisfaction — it is a better future and an end to violence.

There is an appetite for change. Freedom House ranks Iran among the most politically restrictive states in the world, comparable to countries like North Korea and Syria in the bottom tier of the index. Its GDP per capita is only about $4,000 to $6,000, far below most of its Gulf neighbors, about one-tenth of Israel’s, and well below the global average. Living standards have been heavily eroded by persistent economic instability. Inflation has regularly hovered in the range of 30 to 50 percent in recent years — among the highest in the world.

But under better circumstances, Iran’s vast oil and natural gas reserves — among the largest in the world — could attract large-scale investment and joint energy projects with Gulf partners. Current trade between Iran and Gulf states is roughly $25 billion annually, much of it indirect or routed through intermediaries. Under open conditions, that could plausibly double or triple.

For the Iranian people, the improvement would be spectacular. One path leads to continued isolation, economic stagnation and endless confrontation with the outside world. The other leads to reintegration into the global economy and the possibility of normal political and economic life after decades of revolutionary isolation. The protests that have shaken Iran in recent years suggest that many citizens are already keenly aware of that choice.

Would the remnants of the regime agree? Few would predict it, but with almost their entire leadership gone, the skies controlled by enemies, their navy sunk, their people despising them, they are not in the strongest bargaining position. More violence may be needed to convince them, but an offer should be made.

For the U.S. and its allies, the logic is equally clear. If the war fails to produce such a transformation, it will only have reinforced the cycle of hostility that has defined relations with Iran for 47 years. Israel has also seen its standing badly undermined not only in Europe but also in U.S. public opinion. It must shift back toward a paradigm of peace.

Indeed, a peace treaty between Israel and a new Iran would be an excellent goal to strive for. It is a vision for the future, to be sure — but if the international community plays its cards right, that future could be years away rather than decades. Trump has a chance to do something truly great.

___________________

Dan Perry is the former Cairo-based Middle East editor and London-based Europe-Africa editor of the Associated Press, the former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, and the author of two books.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 11:23 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


We're 1,476 days into your war on Russia, faggot.

Shut the fuck up, and stop sucking Iranian dick.

--------------------------------------------------

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 11:35 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


What the Critics Have Wrong About the Iran Conflict

https://www.newsweek.com/what-the-critics-have-wrong-about-the-iran-co
nflict-opinion-11651484

Quote:
Perhaps the only thing more remarkable than the joint U.S.-Israeli decapitation strike against the Iranian regime on February 28 is the nature of the criticism of the action. Nearly all opponents claim support for the demise of the bloody-handed Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while simultaneously expressing outrage that the operation itself has supposedly violated a litany of laws, norms and other requirements that were necessary to proceed.

The most prominent objections are that President Donald Trump acted without first explaining his objectives; that he failed to secure Congressional authorization or the support of America’s international allies; and that he refused to exhaust diplomacy before choosing military options.

Aggressively questioning the use of military force by any government is healthy and, in a democracy, necessary. And there are always legitimate concerns about the course of any military conflict. But when opposition is more about obfuscating than informing, the process of deliberation and debate becomes tainted by unnecessary partisanship. Indeed, the thinness of the core objections to the Iran operation indicates that the Trump administration is on rather firm ground.

First, the primary objectives of the operation are obvious and reasonable. For nearly 50 years, the Iranian regime has been at war against America and its interests in the region, and over the past decade it had been escalating dramatically. Not only was Tehran moving ahead full steam toward a nuclear weapons capability, it radically increased its support for terror proxies in the region, culminating with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in Israel. Even after its nuclear and ballistic missile programs were severely degraded by U.S. and Israeli strikes in June, the regime remained intent on rebuilding all of its bases of power including its nuclear capabilities.

Repeated criticism that the Trump administration hasn’t yet offered a specific “endgame” for the operation misses the point entirely—the only requirement is an Iran no longer able to threaten the region, or beyond. The type of regime that next governs, for example, is of lesser concern.

Second, the notion that the action is “unconstitutional” or “unlawful” betrays a misunderstanding of both the Constitution and historic practice. The original text of the Constitution granted Congress sole power “to make war,” but the final draft replaced "make" with "declare," recognizing the unique prerogatives of the president (“commander-in-chief”) on national security. Ever since Thomas Jefferson waged “undeclared” war against North African pirates in the Mediterranean, all presidents have claimed such authority. And while the 1973 War Powers Act tried to curb its excesses, the Trump administration met the letter of that law by informing Congressional leaders prior to the strike, and now has 60 days to garner formal approvals.

Third, America’s international allies were by no means neglected. The initial military operation aimed at taking out Khamenei and his inner circle, if it was to have any chance of success, required extreme secrecy. Select allies in the region were notified in advance, and many more, including NATO members, are now offering support for the longer-term mission of ensuring the Iranian regime remains defanged. Attempting to form an international coalition in advance—while the regime in Tehran prepared for war—would have been impractical and unwise.

Finally, the charge that the Trump administration ignored the possibility that diplomacy could achieve better outcomes than military action belies reality. White House envoys made several attempts at “coercive diplomacy,” but the barriers between the two sides—mostly centered on eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats—were all but unbreachable. This should come as no surprise: The last time comprehensive diplomacy was attempted, in the form of the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran refused to give up its ability to enrich uranium all the way up to bomb-grade, curtail its ballistic missile programs or reduce support for its regional terror proxies. Diplomacy with this regime had been a dead end for decades.

It is certainly understandable that critics and concerned citizens alike would worry that the Iran mission could lead to another “endless war” in the Middle East. But this was not a specific “regime change” operation requiring a direct U.S. long-term commitment. It was a rare opportunity to eliminate a decades-old security threat to the region and the world, and offer the possibility of a better future for the Iranian people. We can all join in wishing for its success.


--------------------------------------------------

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 12:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
In other words, the war ends when IRAN ends it


The war ends when we say it ends.

Khamenei will meet his father, wife and son in hell soon enough.

--------------------------------------------------

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 1:12 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SIX, I say this as a friend: Time for a mental/ emotional/ moral course correction.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 4:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


That's how you maintain the status quo.

Nah. We're good.


--------------------------------------------------

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 5:51 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's how you maintain the status quo.

Nah. We're good.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century

By Charles Walldorf, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University

Published: March 10, 2026 1:48pm EDT

https://theconversation.com/trumps-war-against-iran-is-uniquely-unpopu
lar-among-us-military-actions-of-the-past-century-277586

It’s clear that regime change is among the biggest objectives of the U.S. war in Iran.

“I have to be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader, President Donald Trump said on March 5, 2026.

Trump has also said he might put U.S. boots on the ground to get the job done.

Trump now joins a long list of modern U.S. presidents – from Franklin Roosevelt to Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – who started wars to either overthrow hostile regimes or support embattled friendly governments abroad.

For all the parallels to history, though, Trump’s Iran war is historically unique in one critically important way: In its early stages, the war is not popular with the American public.

A recent CNN poll found that 59% of Americans oppose the war – a trend found in poll after poll since the war began.

As an expert on U.S. foreign policy and regime change wars, my research shows that what’s likely generating public opposition to the Iran war today is the absence of a big story with a grand purpose that has bolstered public support for just about every major U.S.-promoted regime change war since 1900. These broad, purpose-filled narratives generate public buy-in to support the costs of war, which are often high in terms of money spent and lives lost when regime change is at stake.

Two historical examples

In the 1930s and ’40s, a widely accepted – and largely true – story about the dangers of fascism spreading and democracies falling galvanized national support in the United States to enter and then take on the high costs of fighting in World War II.

Likewise, in the 2000s a dominant narrative about preventing a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and stopping terrorism brought strong initial public support for the war in Afghanistan, with 88% support in 2001, and the war in Iraq, with 70% support in 2003.

With no comparable narrative around Iran today, Trump and Republicans could face big problems, especially as costs continue to rise.

No anti-Iran narrative

Iran has been a thorn in the side of many American presidents for a long time. So, what’s missing? Why no grand-purpose narrative at the start of this war?

Two things.

First, grand-purpose narratives are rooted in major geopolitical gains by a rival regime – the danger to the U.S. For the anti-fascism narrative, those events were German troops plowing across Europe and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For the anti-terrorism narrative, it was planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Gains like these by rivals prove traumatic to the nation. They also dislodge the status quo and provide the opportunity for new grand-purpose narratives with new policy directions to emerge.

Today, most Americans see no existential danger around Iran. A Marist poll from March 3, 2026, found that 55% of Americans view Iran as a minor threat or no threat at all. And the number who see Iran as a major threat, 44%, is down from 48% in July 2025.

By contrast, 64% of Americans saw Iraq as a “considerable threat” prior to the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq.

The poll numbers on Iran aren’t surprising. Iran is far from a geopolitical menace to the United States today. To the contrary, it’s been in geopolitical retreat in the Middle East in recent years.

In the summer of 2025, Iran’s nuclear nuclear enrichment facilities were significantly damaged – “completely and totally obliterated,” according to Trump, though there is no confirmation of that claim – during the 12-Day war between Iran and Israel.

And in recent years, Tehran has lost a major ally in Syria and witnessed its proxy network all but collapse. Iran has also faced crippling economic conditions and historic protests at home.

As the polls show, none of that has sparked a grand-purpose narrative.

Missing a good story

The second missing factor for narrative formation today is any strong messaging from the White House.

In the months prior to World War II, Roosevelt used his position of authority as president to give speech after speech, setting the context of the traumatic events of the 1930s, explaining the dangers at hand and outlining a course going forward. Though less truthful in its content, Bush did the same for nearly two years before the Iraq War.

Trump did almost none of this storytelling leading up to the Iran war. Five days before the war started, the president devoted three minutes to Iran in a nearly two-hour State of the Union Address.

Prior to that, he made a comment here and there to the press about Iran, but no storytelling preparing the nation for war. Likewise, since the war began, the administration’s stated reasons for military action keep shifting.

No wonder 54% of Americans polled disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran and 60% of Americans say Trump has no clear plan for Iran. Also, 60% disapprove of Trump’s handling of foreign policy in general.

By comparison, Americans approved of Bush’s handling of foreign policy by 63% in early 2003.

Absent a cohesive, unifying story, it’s also no surprise there is lots of political fracturing today.

Partisan divides run deep – Democrats and independent voters strongly oppose the war. But Trump’s MAGA coalition is cracking too, with people like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene sharply criticizing the war.

The way out

If he opts for it, there is an off-ramp for Trump from the Iran war. It’s one he knows well.

When U.S. leaders get caught up in costly regime change wars that outrun national support, they tend to back down, often with far fewer political costs than if they’d continued their unpopular war.

When the disaster referred to as Black Hawk Down hit in Somalia in 1993, killing 18 U.S. Marines, President Bill Clinton opted to end the mission to topple the warlords that ruled the country. Troops came home six months later.

Likewise, after the Benghazi attack killed four Americans in Libya in 2012, Obama pulled out all U.S. personnel working in Libya on nation-building operations.

And just last year, when Trump realized that U.S. ground troops would be necessary to topple the Houthi militant group in Yemen, he negotiated a ceasefire and ended his air war in that country with no significant political fallout.

With Trump’s Iran war, gas prices keep rising, more soldiers are likely to die, and stocks are highly volatile.

Backing down makes a lot of sense. History confirms that.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 9:27 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's how you maintain the status quo.

Nah. We're good.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century

By Charles Walldorf, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University

Published: March 10, 2026 1:48pm EDT

https://theconversation.com/trumps-war-against-iran-is-uniquely-unpopu
lar-among-us-military-actions-of-the-past-century-277586

It’s clear that regime change is among the biggest objectives of the U.S. war in Iran.

“I have to be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader, President Donald Trump said on March 5, 2026.

Trump has also said he might put U.S. boots on the ground to get the job done.

Trump now joins a long list of modern U.S. presidents – from Franklin Roosevelt to Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – who started wars to either overthrow hostile regimes or support embattled friendly governments abroad.

For all the parallels to history, though, Trump’s Iran war is historically unique in one critically important way: In its early stages, the war is not popular with the American public.


Well... just wait until more sleeper cells activate, they don't flub their attacks like they just did in NYC, Americans start dying by the dozens or even hundreds at a time and the Legacy Media can't run cover for them anymore.

This isn't a fucking game dude.

You have no idea the peril that your party and ideology put us in.

You will though.

You will.

--------------------------------------------------

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 9:51 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's how you maintain the status quo.

Nah. We're good.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

You seem to think that change .. ANY change ... is good.

But there are good changes and bad changes.

You don't Make America Great Again by leaving behind everything that made us great in the first place. Starting with our Constitution.


-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 10:00 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
That's how you maintain the status quo.
Nah. We're good.

SECOND:
Trump’s war against Iran is uniquely unpopular among US military actions of the past century

By Charles Walldorf, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University

Published: March 10, 2026 1:48pm EDT

https://theconversation.com/trumps-war-against-iran-is-uniquely-unpopu
lar-among-us-military-actions-of-the-past-century-277586

It’s clear that regime change is among the biggest objectives of the U.S. war in Iran.

“I have to be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader, President Donald Trump said on March 5, 2026.

Trump has also said he might put U.S. boots on the ground to get the job done.

Trump now joins a long list of modern U.S. presidents – from Franklin Roosevelt to Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – who started wars to either overthrow hostile regimes or support embattled friendly governments abroad.

For all the parallels to history, though, Trump’s Iran war is historically unique in one critically important way: In its early stages, the war is not popular with the American public.

SIX:
Well... just wait until more sleeper cells activate, they don't flub their attacks like they just did in NYC, Americans start dying by the dozens or even hundreds at a time and the Legacy Media can't run cover for them anymore.

This isn't a fucking game dude.
You have no idea the peril that your party and ideology put us in.
You will though.
You will.


I read your posts, SIX, and they're head- bangingly stupid. You're the poster child of dumb fucks.

IRAN wasn't sending terrorists around the world, that was our “Arab ally in the Mideast“, Saudi Fucking Arabia.

Iran isn't even Arab. They're Persian. And it wasn't the Dems who just turned Iran into an implacable enemy, it was Dumb Fuck Trump, Fearless Leader of the Dumb Fucks.




-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026 10:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Uh huh.

Just like your picture of so-called Iranian women showing off their legs in what looks to be 1960's fashion garb.

Meanwhile, any pictures we've seen of Iranian women out on the streets marching with pictures of the Ayatollah are covered head to toe with no makeup and no skin showing except for their faces.

Right.


--------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 4:59 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Uh huh.

Just like your picture of so-called Iranian women showing off their legs in what looks to be 1960's fashion garb.

Meanwhile, any pictures we've seen of Iranian women out on the streets marching with pictures of the Ayatollah are covered head to toe with no makeup and no skin showing except for their faces.

Right.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.


But did you get to the part where the literacy rate among Iranian women is better than the USA's? Where most of the STEM students are women, and women are engineers and doctors and lawyers? Iran isn't Afghanistan where women are practically chained in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.

Did you get to the part where women drive, shop, and work, without being accompanied by a male relative? This isn't Saudi Arabia, where women are still fighting for the right to drive.

It says something about Iran that the thing that women complain about is the dress code, because if that's their biggest problem....
-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 5:46 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Uh huh.

Just like your picture of so-called Iranian women showing off their legs in what looks to be 1960's fashion garb.

Meanwhile, any pictures we've seen of Iranian women out on the streets marching with pictures of the Ayatollah are covered head to toe with no makeup and no skin showing except for their faces.

Right.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.


But did you get to the part where the literacy rate among Iranian women is better than the USA's? Where most of the STEM students are women, and women are engineers and doctors and lawyers? Iran isn't Afghanistan where women are practically chained in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.

Did you get to the part where women drive, shop, and work, without being accompanied by a male relative? This isn't Saudi Arabia, where women are still fighting for the right to drive.

It says something about Iran that the thing that women complain about is the dress code, because if that's their biggest problem....


Says who? Why would I believe any of that any more than I believe that we bombed and killed 175 school girls the other day?

I don't believe it, and I have zero reason to.

And with zero resistance just now, you just totally backed off on your claim that this ridiculous picture you posted a week ago has any basis in reality after calling me stupid.



I don't know where (or when) the fuck you got that picture from, but it in no way was Iran today or at any point in time during my life.

And you know it.

And if you don't know it, than you're the one who's stupid. Or you're a liar.


And women in any other country other than America having higher test scores than women here doesn't impress me either. Our school systems suck. Students are passed along to college that can't even read at a 5th grade level or do basic math. And American women are the most entitled and pampered class of human beings in the history of the world. And they still have the gall to complain every single day about how oppressed they are. It would not surprise me if American women were the lowest performing group of women in the entire developed world when it comes to intelligence and knowledge. They don't do STEM here because they're too stupid and uneducated to do STEM. They all go to college for Liberal Arts majors with an emphasis on gender studies and CRT and they get their heads filled with a bunch of Marxist brainwashing and bullshit so they hate themselves and their country and make reliable Democrat Party voters for the rest of their lives.


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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


As it controls the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is now exporting more oil than it was before the war

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Iran is exporting more oil through the Strait of Hormuz than before the war, showing it is in control of a strategic waterway that it has closed off to the rest of the region’s oil producers.

As Gulf Arab oil producers from Saudi Arabia to Iraq cut production and scramble for new routes that bypass the strait, Iran is conducting business as usual, according to data from tanker-tracking firm Kpler, throwing a financial lifeline to Tehran as it comes under blistering attack from the U.S. and Israel.

Since the war started on Feb. 28, seven tankers have loaded oil off the Iranian coast, according to Kpler. At least two of the most recent loadings are out of the Persian Gulf, Kpler said. Over the past six days, tankers have loaded a daily average of 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil, higher than the 2 million barrels a day Iran exported in February, according to Kpler.

Iran’s export levels can vary week to week, but the recent increase shows that, unlike other producers, their shipments are unimpeded and that China hasn’t lost its appetite for Tehran’s crude.

https://attentiontotheunseen.com/2026/03/11/as-it-controls-the-strait-
of-hormuz-iran-is-now-exporting-more-oil-than-it-was-before-the-war/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 10:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Well... looks like it's time to park an aircraft carrier or two over there.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 11:28 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Well... looks like it's time to park an aircraft carrier or two over there.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Actually, it looks like it is time for Trump to declare victory and leave. The Iranians will go back to normal. Ship traffic will go back to normal from two weeks ago, before Trump started killing Iranians. But Trump wants "Unconditional Surrender," meaning nothing will be normal until Trump orders the US military to go home because Iran will NOT surrender. Other Presidents have declared victory and left when the enemy would not surrender. Nixon and Vietnam, for example.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 11:29 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump Isn’t Even Trying to Sell This War. Has the salesman in chief gotten rusty?

By Jonathan Lemire | March 12, 2026, 5 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/trump-iran-gas-prices-eco
nomy/686337/

A year ago yesterday, President Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom to try to boost the slumping sales of his then-pal Elon Musk’s electric-car company. A few months ago, Trump declared from behind the Resolute Desk that he was Boeing’s “salesman of the year,” claiming to have helped facilitate the purchase of hundreds of aircraft. And long before he entered politics, Trump slapped his name on just about anything—apartment buildings, steaks, even a dubious for-profit university—to market it to the masses. Trump will sell anything.

He has now made one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency: launching a war against Iran. The conflict, which is well into its second week, has widened throughout the Middle East, sent oil prices skyrocketing, and caused tumult in the financial markets. Yet Trump has not sold the war. In many ways, he hasn’t even tried.

The absence of a sales strategy is all the more confounding when you consider the political stakes. The upcoming midterm elections were supposed to be about the economy. That was perhaps Trump’s most effective issue in the 2024 presidential campaign, as voters grew frustrated with the stubborn inflation that permeated Joe Biden’s presidency. Trump vowed to fix it, but his record over the past 15 months is inconsistent: Yes, inflation has cooled some, but last month’s jobs report was brutal; the president’s tariffs have created confusion and kept costs high; and the economy is starkly stratified—the rich are doing great, and everyone else is decidedly less so. Republicans have been on a losing streak in a series of elections, and poll after poll reveals a clear disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy.

But there were some real silver linings. Chief among them: gas prices. Ron Klain, who was Biden’s first White House chief of staff, told me a few years ago that the first thing he did each morning while in that role—even before seeing if the president had called—was check the price of a gallon of gas. Bill Clinton was equally obsessed, realizing that gas-station signs were billboards for the nation’s economy. Trump made the low cost of gas a staple in his stump speech and gave it a central spot in his State of the Union address a few weeks ago. It was key in White House talking points for Republicans pitching voters to keep them in power: See, things are getting better. Give us time to finish the job.

That pitch just got harder to make. Even before the war began, most Republicans privately acknowledged that keeping the House would be challenging. Now they will be forced to defend a war that, polls show, Americans didn’t want. Already, seven U.S. soldiers have died, and approximately 140 more have been injured. Tens of thousands of Americans were stranded in the Middle East after the Trump administration did not facilitate their departure—or evacuate government outposts—before Iran retaliated. And, of course, there is the price of gas. The average cost of a gallon has jumped by more than 50 cents since the conflict began. This spike has been the subject of relentless news coverage and, yes, has been splashed across those gas-station billboards. Even for voters who rarely care about foreign policy, the rising cost of filling up their tank has been unavoidable. And more price hikes are likely coming to airfare, shipping, and groceries, just to name a few.

Elections are in many cases won or lost on economic issues. But there are moments when Americans are willing to endure fiscal hardship or accept that the nation will make sacrifices for a greater good. Presidents of the past have made a point of convincing Americans that it was worth it. Franklin D. Roosevelt famously made the case for World War II, and his nation endured years of rations while sending a generation of young men off to battle. George H. W. Bush built an international coalition and sold the public on the need to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. And although the public would eventually sour on his son’s own war in Iraq the following decade, George W. Bush made the case for the conflict.

Trump has done none of this. He faced his biggest audience of the year just three weeks ago during the State of the Union address, in which he gave Iran only a passing mention: a few lines near the end of a 108-minute speech. Trump that night declared Iran the “world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror” and warned its leaders against developing a nuclear program. He didn’t prime the public, and his administration barely briefed Congress. (Aides later claimed that he did so to maintain the element of surprise, a perplexing notion considering the unmissable size of the U.S. armada parked in the waters off Iran.) When Trump eventually announced the conflict, he did not do so with a major speech or a prime-time address from the Oval Office. Instead, news of the war came via a social-media video filmed at his Mar-a-Lago estate and released in the middle of the night. Trump, wearing a baseball cap but not a tie, did not offer a clear rationale.

Since then, the explanations that the president and his team have offered for the invasion have grown only more muddled. As documented by my colleagues Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Isabel Ruehl, the reasons have shifted from Iran was posing an imminent threat, to Israel made me do it, to We’re doing it for the grandkids. Trump has also taken to briefly answering dozens of reporters’ phone calls in the first weeks of war, and offers a variety of explanations for the invasion (without providing much opportunity for follow-up questions). His administration’s goals for the war have been equally opaque. Only on Tuesday did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, clearly lay out three primary objectives: Destroy Iran’s missiles and its ability to make them; cripple its navy; and permanently end its nuclear program. But Trump himself continues to step on that, musing about the possible need for regime change in Tehran and how he wants to be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iran’s initial response was a strong no: It empowered the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, who is viewed by many as more militant and is likely embittered toward a United States that was involved in killing his father, mother, wife, and son.

A few people close to Trump believe that his lack of clarity comes from a confidence that he doesn’t need to be clear. He’s gotten rusty, perhaps, in convincing anyone of anything. The GOP-controlled Congress has been compliant, his staff is almost exclusively populated by true believers, and although he takes plenty of reporters’ questions, a healthy percentage of them are from journalists who work at sympathetic, right-leaning outlets. Over the past year, the president has fallen in love with overwhelming, one-and-done demonstrations of force, like the kind he ordered in Venezuela, in Nigeria, and last summer in Iran. He appeared confident that a quick strike would suffice this time too. The United States’ and Israel’s military’s performances have been impressive, but Tehran has been resilient—and the Trump administration now expects the conflict to drag on for weeks, not days.

Trump, though quick to extol the damage that the military is inflicting on Iran, has still not laid out what goals would have to be accomplished to declare victory and end the American air campaign. One of his closest allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Iran hawk, made his views clear yesterday, saying, “There’s no way you can say you won this war with an ayatollah in charge.” (Graham and a few other pro-war Republican senators have privately indicated that the conflict’s political consequences are overrated, because they believe the GOP was going to lose the House anyway, a person familiar with the conversations told me.) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also has advocated for the permanent elimination of Iran’s regime. But that goal will be difficult—verging on unattainable—and would likely require a lengthy military commitment. Experts also note that achieving the Pentagon’s goal of ensuring that Iran can never build a nuclear weapon would be more or less impossible; even if the current facilities were destroyed and its scientists killed, another effort could be mounted in the years ahead.

The lack of clear objectives complicates Trump’s ability to find an off-ramp from the war. Iran has continued to pummel its oil-producing neighbors and has threatened to menace the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s petroleum normally travels. Tehran has already struck more than a dozen vessels there, including at least three yesterday, despite Trump’s warnings. Officials said that the U.S. has destroyed at least 16 minelayers, and Trump is considering dispatching naval vessels to act as escorts to the oil tankers. But even state-of-the-art battleships could be vulnerable to Iranian drone and speedboat attacks.

A senior administration official downplayed to me the extent of America’s economic punishment, declaring it “short-term pain; long-term gain.” Yet the price of gas seems likely to keep rising, which alarms Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters this week that “the price of gas is always kind of a benchmark” and is “something obviously we’ve got to pay attention to.” Senator Rand Paul added that the war could lead to “disastrous” midterms for Republicans.

The White House disputed that Trump has been muddled on the war’s goals, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told me in a statement that “the military objectives of Operation Epic Fury have been clearly outlined by the President” since “the very first strikes.” Yet Trump, even as the bombing raged, told reporters at the White House yesterday, “Let me tell you. We’ve won. You know, you never liked to say too early you won. But we won.”

There are some influential MAGA voices—Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly—who believe that the Iran attack conflicts with Trump’s “America First” agenda, and his 2016 campaign commitments to end the forever wars of Iraq and Afghanistan while avoiding new Middle East entanglements. A few elected Republicans, such as Representative Thomas Massie, also oppose the war. But Republicans largely continue to back Trump, making it easy for Democrats to tie them to the unpopular war. A new poll conducted just before the conflict by Navigator, posted yesterday, shows that Trump and his fellow Republicans were perceived as caring far too much about foreign conflicts (as well as immigration), as opposed to caring about the economy. The Democrats have also seized upon Trump’s lack of clarity about the war’s motivations and its endgame. After a briefing from administration officials, Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters that he was “dissatisfied and angry,” and his colleague Senator Chris Murphy alleged on social media that “all the briefings are closed, because Trump can’t defend this war in public.”

Trump, of course, has no shortage of opportunities to change the war’s narrative. He traveled yesterday to Cincinnati and northern Kentucky for a series of events. And in a lengthy Truth Social post that he unleashed while en route, Trump laid out a case for why he believed that drastic action is needed to remove a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER” from power—just not the one in Tehran.

“Thomas Massie,” Trump wrote, “is disloyal to the United States of America! He is a MISFIT, who should be voted out of Office, ASAP.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 11:33 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Well... looks like it's time to park an aircraft carrier or two over there.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
About the picture: I grabbed it from an "Iran today" search without looking too closely what it said. So, you're right, this isn't Tehran today. There's an enforced dress code that women and store owners (by serving women without the hijab) violate, at their risk.

The laws on women took a step backward in 2024, when a series of restrictions were clarified or codified by the old Khamenei. Nonetheless, Iran isn't Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or the rest of the Gulf monarchies. It's not India, where women are theoretically protected by law but are dirt poor, can't read, and still suffer from widespread sexual violence and discrimination. Iranian women are educated and work as engineers, lawyers, doctors, and other serious professions.

Iran doesn't behead babies or cut women in half. I dont know where Trump gets his delusions from. Probably Netanyahu. It's not a terrorist state, and I'll bet you can't name a single act of Iranian "terror".

It's not ... or at least, it wasn't ... a threat to the USA. It is now, tho, thanks to Trump starting a war with them and assasinating their religious leader. So if Iran assassinated our President, well, wasn't Trump the one who started down that path first?

No, I'm not a huge fan of Iran's internal laws. But what it looks like to me is that Iran is struggling to develop despite sanctions, and to raise the standard of living for everyone. So, Iran's not perfect ... neither are we ... but that doesn't give us the right to attack and cause widespread death and destruction, and to act like the terrorist state that we are. If we were REALLY concerned about Iranian women, we'd trade with them on terms that would bring their standard of living up.

Oh, and do you know what naval analysts call aircraft carriers, in this day of long range anti ship missiles?

Floating targets.


-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 1:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party and the Lying Legacy Media, the support of the action against Iran continues to increase.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/approval/donald-trump/issues/mi
litary-action-iran

Up to 44.3% now.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 2:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
About the picture: I grabbed it from an "Iran today" search without looking too closely what it said. So, you're right, this isn't Tehran today. There's an enforced dress code that women and store owners (by serving women without the hijab) violate, at their risk.

The laws on women took a step backward in 2024, when a series of restrictions were clarified or codified by the old Khamenei. Nonetheless, Iran isn't Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or the rest of the Gulf monarchies. It's not India, where women are theoretically protected by law but are dirt poor, can't read, and still suffer from widespread sexual violence and discrimination. Iranian women are educated and work as engineers, lawyers, doctors, and other serious professions.


See... you say all of that, and I hear just the opposite elsewhere. I don't live there. I don't know. Neither do you or anybody else who doesn't. And the media is not to be trusted. Depending on which source you're listening to, you're going to get an entirely different story. And both "sides" of the media have proven to us over the years that they don't deserve any of our trust.

But what you did just do is post a picture from the 1960s that may or may not even have been taken in Iran and tried passing it off as what life is like for women in Iran today without doing any followup on it like Ted or Second would because it served to bolster your argument against me. Meanwhile, the only two types of pictures I've seen of women in Iran today were either head-to-toe coverings marching in the street in praise of the Ayatollah, or women refusing to wear the hajib while smoking cigarettes and burning pictures of the Ayatollah.

Quote:
Iran doesn't behead babies or cut women in half. I dont know where Trump gets his delusions from. Probably Netanyahu. It's not a terrorist state, and I'll bet you can't name a single act of Iranian "terror".


Well I guess that all depends on whether or not you believe that over 33,000 protestors were just murdered at the hands of the Ayatollah little more than a month ago or not. If you do believe that, is it not terror if it's done against your own citizens? Would it not be terror if Trump ordered the military to murder 33,000 US Citizens and they followed through on those orders, just because he was doing it to his own people and not to anyone abroad?

And as far as I'm concerned, Iran has been funding terror all over the world. Maybe you don't believe that either. But paying other people to do your dirty work and funding terror by proxy is very much enacting terrorist activities and is no different than doing it yourself.

Quote:
It's not ... or at least, it wasn't ... a threat to the USA.


You say that. And the only other people that say that in America are the Lying Legacy Media, Democratic Politicians and the 11% of crazy always-protesting leftists who hate our country. I'm not sure why you're in alignment with them on this issue, but again, I'm going to look at who's saying what and you're not with good company right now.

Quote:
It is now, tho, thanks to Trump starting a war with them and assasinating their religious leader. So if Iran assassinated our President, well, wasn't Trump the one who started down that path first?


No. Because of all the reasons stated above.

Quote:
No, I'm not a huge fan of Iran's internal laws. But what it looks like to me is that Iran is struggling to develop despite sanctions, and to raise the standard of living for everyone. So, Iran's not perfect ... neither are we ... but that doesn't give us the right to attack and cause widespread death and destruction, and to act like the terrorist state that we are. If we were REALLY concerned about Iranian women, we'd trade with them on terms that would bring their standard of living up.


If everything you said above were true, I'd be in agreement with you. But I do not believe that anything you said above about Iran is true, for the reasons I've stated above. I doubt very much that either of us will change each other's minds about that, so I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

And at the end of the day, nothing you or I do or say is going to change the outcome of anything, so once again, we're just going to have to sit back and watch how this all plays out. I think the one thing that we can both agree on is that nobody in power on any side of this equation in the world gives a single fuck about either of our opinions.

Quote:
Oh, and do you know what naval analysts call aircraft carriers, in this day of long range anti ship missiles?

Floating targets.


I would certainly hope not, considering that building a new aircraft carrier costs more than $13 BILLION and the daily operation and maintenance costs come out to around $8 Million per day, per carrier.

We don't need to park our boats right up their asses. I don't think it would be a wise idea to park a $13 BILLION craft right in the center of the Persian Gulf where it's 98% landlocked except for the 21 mile wide Straight of Homruz, especially not when its top speed is only 35mph in good weather conditions. But that doesn't mean we can't have several of them lined up towards the north end of the Arabian Sea near the Gulf of Oman. THIS is what the aircraft carriers are for. Not to be right in the middle of all of the action, but to allow a moving city of a home base for personnel and aircraft. That's 6,000 or so people on each craft and around 90 fighter jets per carrier, and a powerful arsenal that can protect smaller boats and submarines that can go deep into territory that it otherwise couldn't safely reach without that base to go back to for refueling, personnel swapping and resupplying of food, drinkable water and any other necessities.

If we did that, we wouldn't even necessarily have to initiate any attacks at all. But we could make sure that if Iran wasn't going to allow anybody US-friendly to us to use the Hormuz Strait, we could make sure that nobody was able to use it at all and let the chips fall where they may. We would certainly be able to outlast anyone in the region if it came down to a stalemate.

In the meantime, if oil prices were to legitimately rise (not the daily see-sawing we're seeing now), it would only serve to seriously speed up the will and desire to get our own oil production back up to 100% after Joe Biden* destroyed our output with his "green" initiatives, as well as getting Venezuela's oil pumping at full capacity by making it a lucrative proposition to the companies who would be involved in building that infrastructure and hasten our own hemisphere's ability to pump what we need (which would be great for everyone here in both the long-term as well as the short term).

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 2:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Well... looks like it's time to park an aircraft carrier or two over there.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Actually, it looks like it is time for Trump to declare victory and leave. The Iranians will go back to normal. Ship traffic will go back to normal from two weeks ago, before Trump started killing Iranians. But Trump wants "Unconditional Surrender," meaning nothing will be normal until Trump orders the US military to go home because Iran will NOT surrender. Other Presidents have declared victory and left when the enemy would not surrender. Nixon and Vietnam, for example.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two



And how well has any of that worked out for us in the long-run, you fool?

Your suggestion to just be a pussy and continue on with the status-quo and continue the managed decline of Western civilization is not an acceptable option, and anyone who still has a few neurons firing and isn't a dopamine addicted fucktard who is unable to look even 15 minutes into the future rejects your proposal outright.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 4:52 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
About the picture: I grabbed it from an "Iran today" search without looking too closely what it said. So, you're right, this isn't Tehran today. There's an enforced dress code that women and store owners (by serving women without the hijab) violate, at their risk.

The laws on women took a step backward in 2024, when a series of restrictions were clarified or codified by the old Khamenei. Nonetheless, Iran isn't Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or the rest of the Gulf monarchies. It's not India, where women are theoretically protected by law but are dirt poor, can't read, and still suffer from widespread sexual violence and discrimination. Iranian women are educated and work as engineers, lawyers, doctors, and other serious professions.

SIX:
See... you say all of that, and I hear just the opposite elsewhere.

Where?

Quote:
SIX:
I don't live there. I don't know. Neither do you or anybody else who doesn't. And the media is not to be trusted. Depending on which source you're listening to, you're going to get an entirely different story. And both "sides" of the media have proven to us over the years that they don't deserve any of our trust.

UNLIKE YOU I actually listen to a lot of different "sides" bc, believe it or not, there are more than just anti- and pro-Trump outlets.

One person is Dialogue Works host Nima, an Iranian engineer who lives in Brazil. He's a balanced interviewer on geopolitics, and he was in Iran during the protests. One of his guests turned the tables and interviewed HIM. I learned that the people he was with were getting their 'news' from Farsi- language broadcasts from Britain, which I found odd. Another is Scott Ritter, former Marine Intelligence who did weapons inspections in Russia for our “trust but verify" nuclear treaties, and the other was targeting during our war in Iraq, and then became a UN weapons inspector in Iraq. So he has spent a great deal of time in the mideast. He has many insightful things to say about Iranian politics, Iranian foreign policy and so forth. He's the source of stats on women's education in Iran. Which BTW is bolstered by the various State Dept/ CIA hand- wringing NGOs, which- for all their complaints about women's rights in Iran, acknowledge that women in Iran are well educated and economically as well off as can be in that sanctioned nation. Foreign-based women's rights groups. Pepe Escobar, Brazilian-born reporter who literally travels the non western world, and has been there recently.
Prof Marandi, Iranian in Iran. The Duran. Larry Johnson, former CIA. Too many others to name.
If I had to pick out the most eye-opening interview tho, it would be Scott Ritter's. I hope you work around that broken link, it's really worth a listen.

Just bc I grab headlines from ZeroHedge bc they're convenient doesn't mean that's where I get my info.

Quote:
But what you did just do is post a picture from the 1960s that may or may not even have been taken in Iran and tried passing it off as what life is like for women in Iran today without doing any followup on it like Ted or Second would because it served to bolster your argument against me. Meanwhile, the only two types of pictures I've seen of women in Iran today were either head-to-toe coverings marching in the street in praise of the Ayatollah, or women refusing to wear the hajib while smoking cigarettes and burning pictures of the Ayatollah.

They're in the streets, SIX. You won't see that in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. And if their biggest complaint is the hijab, they don't have much to complain about. Compare and contrast to the Gulf monarchies, India, or most African nations.

Quote:
Iran doesn't behead babies or cut women in half. I dont know where Trump gets his delusions from. Probably Netanyahu. It's not a terrorist state, and I'll bet you can't name a single act of Iranian "terror".

SIX:
Well I guess that all depends on whether or not you believe that over 33,000 protestors were just murdered at the hands of the Ayatollah little more than a month ago or not. If you do believe that, is it not terror if it's done against your own citizens? Would it not be terror if Trump ordered the military to murder 33,000 US Citizens and they followed through on those orders, just because he was doing it to his own people and not to anyone abroad?
I don't have to "believe". Finding out the truth and believing are the exact opposite. I listen to people who were there, acknowledgements by our State Dept and Treasury that we crashed the rial and instructed violence from abroad via smuggled in Starlink terminals.

Now, the fact that the rial could be crashed, that it affected the merchant class by causing import prices to skyrocket means that, despite sanctions there is trade going on, that there is dollar trade and dollar to rial exchange means that regional banks (Gulf monarchy banks, well noted for money laundering) are handling that.

SIX, I'm not trying to hang on to a narrative. Sizeable Iranian bank accounts in Gulf monarchy banks indicate that some Iranian clergy and businesses are running shell companies (Escobar, Ritter) so not everything in Iran is on the up-and-up.

Quote:
And as far as I'm concerned, Iran has been funding terror all over the world.
Well, your opinion doesn't count. Iran can't "pay" because they don't have a lot of money to splash around. You know who does?
Yep, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the CIA.

Quote:
SIX:
Maybe you don't believe that either. But paying other people to do your dirty work and funding terror by proxy is very much enacting terrorist activities and is no different than doing it yourself.

Oh, I agree. I think we should hold our CIA accountable, don't you?

Quote:
It's not ... or at least, it wasn't ... a threat to the USA.

SIX:
You say that. And the only other people that say that in America are the Lying Legacy Media, Democratic Politicians and the 11% of crazy always-protesting leftists who hate our country. I'm not sure why you're in alignment with them on this issue, but again, I'm going to look at who's saying what and you're not with good company right now.

I say that for the same reason I said that about Saddam: They're way over there, and we're way over here, and they don't have the missiles to reach us.

And, unlike OUR terrorist proxies, the Iranians, and their regional partners fight their enemies straight up. No bomb vests. No assassinations. No terror cells. THEY DON'T TARGET ORDINARY CIVILIANS.

Quote:
It is now, tho, thanks to Trump starting a war with them and assasinating their religious leader. So if Iran assassinated our President, well, wasn't Trump the one who started down that path first?

SIX:
No. Because of all the reasons stated above.
You don't have "reasons", SIX, bc you don't have information. You have suspicions, beliefs, and reflexive opposition to what "they" say. If you want to be taken seriously become informed.

Quote:
No, I'm not a huge fan of Iran's internal laws. But what it looks like to me is that Iran is struggling to develop despite sanctions, and to raise the standard of living for everyone. So, Iran's not perfect ... neither are we ... but that doesn't give us the right to attack and cause widespread death and destruction, and to act like the terrorist state that we are. If we were REALLY concerned about Iranian women, we'd trade with them on terms that would bring their standard of living up.

SIX:
If everything you said above were true, I'd be in agreement with you. But I do not believe that anything you said above about Iran is true, for the reasons I've stated above. I doubt very much that either of us will change each other's minds about that, so I guess we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

And at the end of the day, nothing you or I do or say is going to change the outcome of anything, so once again, we're just going to have to sit back and watch how this all plays out. I think the one thing that we can both agree on is that nobody in power on any side of this equation in the world gives a single fuck about either of our opinions.

SIX, just look at the # of times you used the word "believe". Don't "believe" anything. But don't "disbelieve" either, especially when you find it convenient to maintain your narrative .

Would you just grab the first video on software development and run with it? Or do you keep your eyes open for more info? Try different things to see what works? Try to fit new info into old, or expand your "library" as necessary?

The world is like that. Politics is like that. All of our knowledge is provisional, but that doesn't absolve us from trying to learn what's really happening. Finding relevant sources of info, and knowing their POV. If you haven't changed your mind then you're not learning.

I have beliefs, but they are about morals ... questions of right and wrong.

AFA our opinion not making a difference... Trump DOES pay attention to the polls. That's why you keep referring to them. If he thought he was losing his base over this, he'd quit.


Quote:
Oh, and do you know what naval analysts call aircraft carriers, in this day of long range anti ship missiles?
Floating targets.


I would certainly hope not, considering that building a new aircraft carrier costs more than $13 BILLION and the daily operation and maintenance costs come out to around $8 Million per day, per carrier.

We don't need to park our boats right up their asses. I don't think it would be a wise idea to park a $13 BILLION craft right in the center of the Persian Gulf where it's 98% landlocked except for the 21 mile wide Straight of Homruz, especially not when its top speed is only 35mph in good weather conditions. But that doesn't mean we can't have several of them lined up towards the north end of the Arabian Sea near the Gulf of Oman. THIS is what the aircraft carriers are for. Not to be right in the middle of all of the action, but to allow a moving city of a home base for personnel and aircraft. That's 6,000 or so people on each craft and around 90 fighter jets per carrier, and a powerful arsenal that can protect smaller boats and submarines that can go deep into territory that it otherwise couldn't safely reach without that base to go back to for refueling, personnel swapping and resupplying of food, drinkable water and any other necessities.

If we did that, we wouldn't even necessarily have to initiate any attacks at all. But we could make sure that if Iran wasn't going to allow anybody US-friendly to us to use the Hormuz Strait, we could make sure that nobody was able to use it at all and let the chips fall where they may. We would certainly be able to outlast anyone in the region if it came down to a stalemate.

In the meantime, if oil prices were to legitimately rise (not the daily see-sawing we're seeing now), it would only serve to seriously speed up the will and desire to get our own oil production back up to 100% after Joe Biden* destroyed our output with his "green" initiatives, as well as getting Venezuela's oil pumping at full capacity by making it a lucrative proposition to the companies who would be involved in building that infrastructure and hasten our own hemisphere's ability to pump what we need (which would be great for everyone here in both the long-term as well as the short term).


As to where to "park" a carrier battle group: it's a question of whose munitions outrange whose.

That's a long technical discussion and I've already spent too much time on this.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 5:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Well I don't like arguing with you, personally, and I don't want to do it anymore. Like I said, there's nothing we could do about it anyhow, and I don't trust anybody on any side saying anything. And I don't believe there's any point in trying to figure out "the truth" because I don't believe that anybody opening their big fucking mouth about what's happening from any point on the political spectrum really has a fucking clue about what is really going on.

We're almost 1,500 fucking days into the Ukraine/Russia thing, and the Lying Legacy Media and Democrat Party are trying to use 2 weeks of the Iranian conflict to split everyone else into factions.

And it's not working.

The support for the actions against Iran have increased over 3% in the polls over the last week and show no signs of slowing down.

If those assholes with IEDs in NYC were actually successful with their bombs the other day, support for the actions against Iran would have jumped 20% in the same time period. We're only 1 major successful terrorist attack stateside from having near GWB approval ratings for the actions against Iran, and it won't require any grand happening like 9/11. Doesn't even matter if Iran were responsible for it or not, because you know as well as I do that most people are fucking idiots and major events like this shift public perception to the extremes really quick.

--------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:11 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Oh, one more thing: Biden didn't destroy our oil production. All oil fields have a limit of economically recoverable oil, and fracked oil fields are more limited than others.

IIRC (from my job. We have a lot of old oil fields around here so I had to research this) the difference is that fracked oil is "tight" oil. Instead of oil flowing in-between sand grains, the oil is held in deposits of harder, more compressed/ consolidated rock like shale. In order to recover the oil the rocks literally need to be exploded (yeah, like with dynamite) and a proprietary mixture of water, sand, surfactant, and antimicrobials are injected under pressure to keep the rock fragments apart so oil can flow.

Then the recovered oil and fracking fluid need to be separated. Each well needs to be regularly "stimulated" or oil flow stops. Its a relatively expensive operation. Not as expensive as tar sands but not cheap, especially when you've more or less tapped that area.

What limits oil production is high interest rates.



-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:20 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Well I don't like arguing with you, personally, and I don't want to do it anymore. Like I said, there's nothing we could do about it anyhow, and I don't trust anybody on any side saying anything. And I don't believe there's any point in trying to figure out "the truth" because I don't believe that anybody opening their big fucking mouth about what's happening from any point on the political spectrum really has a fucking clue about what is really going on.

We're almost 1,500 fucking days into the Ukraine/Russia thing, and the Lying Legacy Media and Democrat Party are trying to use 2 weeks of the Iranian conflict to split everyone else into factions.

And it's not working.

The support for the actions against Iran have increased over 3% in the polls over the last week and show no signs of slowing down.

If those assholes with IEDs in NYC were actually successful with their bombs the other day, support for the actions against Iran would have jumped 20% in the same time period. We're only 1 major successful terrorist attack stateside from having near GWB approval ratings for the actions against Iran, and it won't require any grand happening like 9/11. Doesn't even matter if Iran were responsible for it or not, because you know as well as I do that most people are fucking idiots and major events like this shift public perception to the extremes really quick.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
Then don't be one of the fucking idiots whose mind is made up by memes and psyops.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:46 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Muslims are pure trash, plain and simple, Sigs.

My mind is made up about that because it is the truth.

I am 100% behind anybody who is for removing all of them from the US borders and eradicating that evil cult worldwide.

We don't have to agree on anything, so I'm just going to ignore anything you post to me regarding this issue from now on because I like you and I don't like shit talking you.

--------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


More Muslim terror....

Old Dominion Shooting Suspect Previously Convicted for Role in Terrorist Plot

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/one-dead-two-injured-in-shooting-at-old-do
minion-university-ac1d336c?st=9pkwWv

Get these Muslim motherfuckers out of my country NOW, Trump.

Before we start doing it for you.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 6:53 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Was this one another Muslim, or an American-Hating, white, college "educated" brainwashed leftist who hates Jews?

Suspect Who Rammed Vehicle Into Michigan Synagogue Is Dead

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/michigan-synagogue-shooting-03cb1023?st=3k
vg9G


They're fucking dead, so good news there. Nobody was killed too, so even better news.


How many times do you think they're going to miss the target or throw IEDs into crowds that don't go off until they're successful?


Get all these fuckers out of our country before we find out the answer to that.

--------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 8:32 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Muslims are pure trash, plain and simple, Sigs.

My mind is made up about that because it is the truth.


SOME Muslims are trash, SIX.

Apparently you follow the rule "simple rules for simple people".

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 8:41 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Muslims are pure trash, plain and simple, Sigs.

My mind is made up about that because it is the truth.


SOME Muslims are trash, SIX.

Apparently you follow the rule "simple rules for simple people".


All Muslims are trash.

None of them belong here.

--------------------------------------------------

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Thursday, March 12, 2026 9:58 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
In other words, the war ends when IRAN ends it


The war ends when we say it ends.

Khamenei will meet his father, wife and son in hell soon enough.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.


Why on earth would they televise a reading of his written word, voiced by somebody who was not him, as his first message to the Iranian people and the world?

That literally goes against everything we've been told by the Legacy Media about how strong the Iranian leadership are. Even if he were in hiding, which I wouldn't blame him for, we all have 4k recording devices called smart phones in 2026, and we couldn't even get some grainy ass Bigfoot footage or even a cheap attempt at an AI voiceover?

I'm 99.9% sure Mojtaba Khamenei is already dead, and has been for days if not weeks already.


--------------------------------------------------

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Friday, March 13, 2026 2:38 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Muslims are pure trash, plain and simple, Sigs.

My mind is made up about that because it is the truth.


SOME Muslims are trash, SIX.

Apparently you follow the rule "simple rules for simple people".


All Muslims are trash.

None of them belong here.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.
SIX, you're a smart guy but your hormones are stupid. Tell your hormones to STFU, SIX.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, March 13, 2026 4:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


All Muslims are trash.

None of them belong here.

--------------------------------------------------

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Friday, March 13, 2026 12:19 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The US may move some of its anti-missile system - and it's sparking unease in South Korea

By Yvette Tan | March 13, 2026

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgmlk8dlekgo

The US is relocating parts of a missile defence system installed in South Korea to the Middle East, according to officials cited by the Washington Post and South Korean news outlets.

The reported move comes 12 days into the US-Israeli war against Iran, and follows reports suggesting Iran had destroyed a key radar used by the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, system in Jordan.

Thaad was first deployed to South Korea in 2017 to protect against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

The move was met with anger and protests from South Koreans who feared it made them a bigger target, while China warned it could destabilise the region.

A single system, or battery as it's known, costs roughly $1bn (£766m) and requires a crew of about 100 personnel to operate. The US operates just eight of them globally, two of which are in the Middle East - in Jordan and Israel. The UAE and Saudi Arabia together own three more.

The potential redeployment from South Korea was a "precautionary measure", a US official told the Washington Post, but other analysts see a system stretched thin.

The move would strongly suggest "the need for the US to compensate for its heavy use of existing missile defence capabilities in the Middle East", Prof John Nilsson-Wright of Cambridge University told the BBC.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 13, 2026 12:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'm sure that dildo from Cambridge knows what he's talking about.



--------------------------------------------------

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Friday, March 13, 2026 3:44 PM

JAYNEZTOWN


Virginia Mosque Memorial: Alarming Loyalty to Foreign Adversaries

https://redstateobserver.com/article.asp?id=243761



As Khamenei son takes over, Nigerian Shias mourn Iran’s old supreme leader

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/khamenei-son-takes-over-nigerian-1
24043018.html



US Mosque Honors Ayatollah Khamenei, Trashes America Days After Iran War Began

https://ijr.com/us-mosque-honors-ayatollah-khamenei-trashes-america-da
ys-after-iran-war-began/

A mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, held a service honoring Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

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Friday, March 13, 2026 3:55 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Iran supposedly has a huge inventory of missiles, drones, and launchers all hidden in underground bunkers and caverns. The USA and Israel are exchanging body blows with Iran.

And altho Iran, USA bases, and Israel are taking plenty of hits (A sideways note: Israel's damage is never shown. Israel censors its news effectively.) it turns out that Iran's most potent weapon is the one our intelligence discounted: blocking the Straits of Hormuz.

25% of the world's oil and 20% of seaborne LNG flow thru it. The world, especially Europe, Japan, and S Korea, really don't have alternative supplies. The prices of oil and gas jumped by about 50%.

There really doesn't seem to be any way for the USA to militarily break the blockade. Escorting tankers with USA destroyers would simply be sending both thru a shooting gallery. Attempting a marine invasion ... ditto. Nuking Iran's coastline sounds like the only option, but that would uncork so much blowback it would be national suicide for Israel and cripple the USA politically. Still, if Netanyahu and Trump are desperate enough and feel they have enough support from nations in extremism [at the point of death] it may seem like a gamble worth taking.

On top of that, the USA killed the top leader who forbade nuclear weapons on religious grounds. (OUR religion doesn't do that, does it, SIX?)

So while Scott Bessent is "allowing" the sale of Russian oil in international waters, Zelensky is doing his best to damage Russian oil and gas shipping.

The beneficiaries are American and Russian oil and gas producers, but everyone else is ... er ... over a barrel.







-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, March 13, 2026 8:19 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm sure that dildo from Cambridge knows what he's talking about.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Here’s what a Princeton Middle East expert says is the likeliest outcome in Iran

Story by Jennifer Graham

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/here-s-what-a-princeton-middle-ea
st-expert-says-is-the-likeliest-outcome-in-iran/ar-AA1Yw4xp

Deseret News: You told Mishal Husain that you saw three potential ways for this to end. Can you talk about those three scenarios and why you believe one is more likely?

Bernard Haykel: The three scenarios are, the Iran regime survives and hardens, which is what we’ve seen — we don’t see any division in the security forces of the regime. The others are that the regime survives but moderates, you get new leadership that’s more willing to cut deals with the Americans and give up on some of its revolutionary ideology — that we have not seen, although there are elements of the regime that have those views, like the president of Iran, for example, who is inside the system, not a powerful person; he’s a nonentity because the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps makes the decisions and the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

And the third scenario is that the regime falls, that we see a toppling of the regime. And I don’t think that’s going to happen because the regime has all the weapons, and it still has a sufficient number of supporters in the country, and the opposition is extremely divided and unarmed, and without an inspirational leader. So what I see is the regime hardening and surviving, which is what we’ve seen in the last few days.

DN: What do you see as the best-case and worst-case scenarios from here?

BH: The best is for us to reach an immediate ceasefire with the regime so this war ends, and the attacks on oil and other energy installations end and the regime is somehow contained because of this intense activity that has cost them so much. And then it gets busy internally, getting on with the internal affairs of trying to keep the population from rebelling against it.

The worst is that this thing escalates and we move from attacking tankers to attacking desalination plants. These are the plants that produce fresh water from seawater and if those plants get attacked, then we have large cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Riyadh and elsewhere where life would be unsustainable because they depend on the fresh water of the desalination plants. So yes, it could get much, much worse, and we could be looking at an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 4:45 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm sure that dildo from Cambridge knows what he's talking about.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Here’s what a Princeton Middle East expert says is the likeliest outcome in Iran


What the hell is a Middle East "expert"?

If somebody called themselves a "North American Expert", would you take them seriously?

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 7:51 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

What the hell is a Middle East "expert"?

If somebody called themselves a "North American Expert", would you take them seriously?

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz

By Zachary Cohen, Phil Mattingly, Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood

March 13, 2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/hormuz-trump-administration-un
derestimated-iran

The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump’s national security team failed to fully account for the potential consequences of what some officials have described as a worst-case scenario now facing the administration, the sources said.

While key officials from the Departments of Energy and Treasury were present for some of the official planning meetings about the operation before it started, sources said, the agency analysis and forecasts that would be integral elements of the decision-making process in past administrations were secondary considerations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have been key players throughout the planning and execution stages of the conflict, the sources acknowledged. But Trump’s preference of leaning on a tight circle of close advisers in his national security decision making had the effect of sidelining interagency debate over the potential economic fallout if Iran were to respond to US-Israeli strikes by closing the strait.

And now it may be weeks before the administration’s efforts to alleviate the intensifying economic fallout take hold, officials said Thursday, including high-risk naval escorts of oil tankers through the strait that the Pentagon believes are currently too dangerous to conduct. The president, meanwhile, has continued to downplay the tumult in energy markets and the danger. He told Fox News that oil tanker crews should “show some guts” and go through the strait.

The reality in the strait has left diplomatic counterparts, former US economic and energy officials and industry executives who spoke with CNN in a state of confusion and disbelief.

“Planning around preventing this exact scenario — impossible as it has long seemed — has been a bedrock principle of US national security policy for decades,” a former US official who served in Republican and Democratic administrations said. “I’m dumbfounded.”

Shipping industry executives have made regular requests to the US Navy for military escorts, all of which have been rebuffed. In regular briefings for industry participants in the region, US military officials have repeatedly made clear they have not received orders to begin any escort operation and the risks to US assets remained extremely high, according to two executives with knowledge of the matter.

Bessent told Sky News’ Wilfred Frost on Thursday that those escorts would begin “as soon as it is militarily possible.”

“That was always in our planning, that there’s a chance that US Navy, or perhaps an international coalition, will be escorting oil tankers through,” he said.

But the path to this point, sources said, appears to mark the complex convergence of geopolitical assumptions, energy market forecasts and cross-cutting strategic priorities.

Lawmakers pressed top Trump administration officials during a recent classified briefing about the lack of an operational plan to re-open the strait as the conflict continued, according to multiple sources familiar with the closed-door session. An administration official disputed that there were no plans, noting that the US military has long planned and trained to address a major disruption to the critical thoroughfare for global commerce.

But there was no indication that there were any near-term solutions to the problem that threatened to consume the international economy given the scale of the threat still posed by Iranian assets in and around the strait, the sources familiar said.

The reason the administration underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the strait, multiple sources said, was officials believed their doing so would hurt Iran more than the US — a view that was bolstered by Iran’s empty threats to act in the strait after US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last summer.

The White House touted the administration’s planning in a statement on Thursday.

“Through a detailed planning process, the entire administration is and was prepared for any potential action taken by the terrorist Iranian regime,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, while touting the US military’s success.

“President Trump has been clear that any disruptions to energy are temporary and will result in a massive benefit to our country and the global economy in the long-term,” she added.

After this story published, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X on Friday that Trump was “fully briefed” on planning for the possibility of Iran closing the strait.

During a press briefing Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the idea that officials underestimated the war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz is “patently ridiculous.”

“Of course, for decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” Hegseth told reporters. “This is always what they do hold the Strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report.”

CNN had reached out to the Pentagon for comment prior to publication.

Multiple current and former US officials told CNN that plans for any military action against Iran would account for the possibility of Iran closing the waterway. The US military has long maintained and updated plans to address Iranian military action in the critical corridor.

But at a moment where global oil and LNG supplies were plentiful, US oil production sat at record highs and Trump officials were basking in a pliant Venezuelan government and the potential for rapid expansion of new production from a former foe, the global scale of the downside risks was not viewed as a major consideration.

Even in weighing the potential for disruption in the strait, the administration has been far more focused on its overwhelmingly positive — if still aspirational — view of how markets would respond to eliminating the threat of Iranian disruptions entirely.

“To win in life, you’ve got to suffer short-term pain for the long-term gain, and that’s what we’re in the middle of doing right now,” Wright said in a Wednesday interview on NewsNation. “I think the American people will be thrilled with a peaceful world on the other side and more secure supplies of energy for decades to come.”

On Thursday, in his first public comments since being elevated, new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the strait would remain closed as a “tool of pressure,” according to a statement read on his behalf on Iranian state TV.

That leaves the US with few options.

Energy executives have conveyed to administration officials they want an early end to the war, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions. For now, they are wary of putting their assets and people at risk by running tankers through the strait and do not foresee that changing until the kinetic nature of the war slows dramatically, sources said.

Military officials have been holding daily calls and briefings with energy industry representatives for the last several days, according to sources familiar.

But from nearly the start of the conflict, US officials have told energy company representatives it was not safe enough for the Navy to conduct the escorts in the war’s early days.

A US military official told CNN that Iranian drones and missiles, followed by mines, are the chief threat facing vessels trying to cross the strait. In wargaming a possible conflict with Iran in recent years, one of the biggest risks to the US military was ships being packed tightly into the waterways in the strait, Bab-el-Mandeb and Red Sea, vulnerable to attack by Iranian missiles and drones, another source said.

Nate Swanson, a former career State Department official focused on Iran, noted that there had been military escorts of oil tankers through the strait in the 1980s, but Iran’s use of drones this time around makes it a very different situation.

Military officials have also indicated to energy industry representatives they can’t spare Navy vessels anyway, since they’re already engaged in offensive operations elsewhere. As of Wednesday, there was no precise timeline on when escorts would be available.

Wright said Thursday the Navy is unable to escort commercial vessels through the strait, though he suggested that capability could be in place later this month.

“It’ll happen relatively soon, but it can’t happen now. We’re simply not ready,” he said on CNBC. “All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities,” he added.

Pressed on whether it’d be possible by the end of the month, he said, “I think that is quite likely the case.”

It wasn’t clear how aware Trump was of the limitations on naval escorts when he first raised the idea in a post on Truth Social on March 3. He has downplayed the risk to tankers trying to transit the strait, even though Iran has begun attacking ships in the waterway.

And while many Republicans are eager for him to refocus on domestic issues ahead of the midterms — and acknowledge Americans’ cost-of-living struggles — he struck a different tone on Thursday, suggesting there could be a benefit to higher oil prices.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” he wrote on Truth Social, without explaining who he meant by “we.”

He added that his military aims against Iran were more consequential than shifts in global energy costs.

“Of far greater interest and importance to me, as President, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World,” Trump wrote.

Administration officials tasked with helping alleviate the energy crisis are eager for tankers to be escorted as quickly as possible, but for now, they’re more or less on the same page about managing the crisis in phases, according to a US official and other people familiar with the matter.

Bessent announced Thursday that the Treasury Department is temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea.

And earlier in the day, the White House said it is considering easing restrictions under the Jones Act, the century-old maritime law that requires goods transported between US ports to be carried on American ships, as part of an effort that might slow the rise in gas prices.

“In the interest of national defense, the White House is considering waiving the Jones Act for a limited period of time to ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement. “This action has not been finalized.”

There are a wide range of other moves that the administration could take — likely in the form of an executive order — in an effort to ease the rising prices at the pumps.

One step being considered is waiving production requirements for gasoline producers during the warm months to reduce air pollution, the sources said. (The evaporation of gasoline into the air is greater in the summer, which is why there are strict requirements then to prevent high greenhouse gas emissions.)

An executive order to reduce regulatory burdens on US gasoline producers could help to somewhat lower costs, even in the weeks after the crisis ends, sources said.

Yet the effects of such a move are unlikely to stunt the price increases in a major way, experts said.

“I think that it would be a very small potential offset compared to the factor that’s driving gasoline prices higher, which is concerns for the physical supply of refined products around the world, and also crude oil,” said Clayton Seigle, an energy expert at CSIS.

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect additional developments and clarify that top Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers on long-standing military plans to address a major disruption to the Strait, according to one official, but that multiple sources familiar with the session said there was no indication there were any near-term solutions.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 8:10 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


American military bombed potential military locations on Kharg Island, Iran's oil export terminal, threatening Iran with its complete destruction unless Hormuz is opened.

Iran, in turn, threatened to destroy ALL oil facilities on the Persian Gulf cpast if Kharf Island is destroyed. The Gulf regimes should be learning by now that the USA can't defend them from Iran.

Iran also offered to open the Strait for ships whose nations kicked Israeli embassies out of their countries or, in the case the Gulf monarchies, kicked American bases off their territory. Doing that splits nations from each other, allowing Iran to deal with them individually instead of as a bloc.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 9:20 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Iran's bankruptcy is its best weapon against the wealthy Gulf states

By bne IntelliNews | March 13, 2026

https://www.intellinews.com/comment-iran-s-bankruptcy-is-its-best-weap
on-against-the-wealthy-gulf-states-431376/?source=bahrain

There is an old saying, attributed to the British Foreign Office in colonial days: "Keep the Persians hungry, and the Arabs fat." Washington appears to have taken that advice to heart. The trouble is, when the hungry finally have nothing left to lose, it is the fat who pay the price.

There is something darkly rational about Iran’s approach to this war. The Islamic Republic entered the conflict already ruined. Inflation was running above 48% in December 2025. The rial had crossed one million to the dollar in March 2025 and hit 1.75mn by December, making it the least valuable currency on earth. The IMF projected real GDP growth of just 0.3% for 2025, revised down from 3% only two years earlier. The government’s own budget commission put the deficit at 1,800 trillion toman. Seven million Iranians were going hungry. Meat had become a luxury. Half the country’s industry had stopped because of rolling blackouts.

You cannot bankrupt a country that is already bankrupt. That is the perverse advantage Tehran holds.

US sanctions had already severed Iran from the global financial system long before the first cruise missile hit. Oil exports, which the budget assumed at 1.85mn barrels per day at $67 a barrel, were running closer to 1.1mn bpd according to IMF estimates. Capital flight reached $14bn in the last nine months of 2024 alone, on top of $20bn the year before. The central bank reported a net capital account of negative $21.7bn for the last fiscal year – the worst on record. The IMF calculated that Iran would need oil at $163 a barrel just to balance its 2025 budget. That figure belongs in the realm of fantasy.

So when US-Israeli strikes hit on February 28, Iran’s economy was already in what the Clingendael Institute called a position approaching the precipice. The war made things worse, but not in the way wars normally do. Iran was not knocked off a ledge. It was already at the bottom. The country’s nominal GDP had dropped below $400bn. Sanctions, corruption, energy shortages and decades of mismanagement had already done the damage. Analysts at Eye for Iran noted that Tehran exited 2025 “battered yet still standing”, interpreting survival as grounds for taking greater risks in 2026.

The Persian Gulf Arab states, by contrast, entered this war from a position of apparent strength – and that is precisely their vulnerability.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund held $941bn in assets. The UAE’s sovereign wealth funds collectively managed over $1.5 trillion. Qatar had spent decades building itself into the world’s largest LNG exporter. Dubai International Airport handled 95.2mn passengers in 2025. These economies were wired into every artery of global finance: US Treasury bonds, Silicon Valley venture capital, London real estate, European football clubs. Gulf sovereign wealth funds collectively held over $2 trillion in US assets alone.

That connectivity is now their Achilles heel.

When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and launched retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, it did not just damage military targets. It severed the export routes on which these economies depend for their survival. Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar ship between 87% and 95% of their hydrocarbon exports through the strait. Fitch estimated that each week of closure reduces hydrocarbon export revenues for those four countries by 0.4% of GDP. JP Morgan cut its non-oil growth forecast across the entire GCC by 1.2 percentage points, with the UAE suffering the steepest revision at 2.3 points. Iraq has already cut production by 1.5mn bpd as storage fills. Saudi Arabia holds 66 days of supply, the UAE 22, Kuwait 18, and Iraq just six.

The damage extends well beyond oil. Over 21,300 flights were cancelled at seven major Gulf airports in the first four days. Emirates flights collapsed from 527 on February 24 to 309 by March 10. Etihad went from 325 to 56. Qatar Airways fell from 563 to 66. Tourism Economics projects that inbound travel to the Middle East could drop between 11% and 27% in 2026, representing 23mn to 38mn fewer visitors and $34bn to $56bn in lost spending. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimated the region’s tourism sector was losing €515mn every day. The Burj Al Arab caught fire from drone debris. Missile fragments rained on the Palm Jumeirah. Dubai’s entire tourism brand – built over decades – took a direct hit in the space of a weekend.

Saudi Arabia was already running budget deficits since 2022. The kingdom needs oil at $92 a barrel according to the IMF just to balance its books, and $111 if you include PIF domestic spending according to Bloomberg Economics. Brent was sitting around $71 before the conflict. Goldman Sachs had projected the 2026 deficit at 6.6% of GDP. The kingdom had already become one of the largest emerging-market sovereign borrowers, raising nearly $20bn in international debt through 2025. The PIF had quietly cut some project budgets by 60%. Neom’s initial phase was scaled back from 170km to five.

Three of the four largest Gulf economies – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar – initiated internal reviews of existing contracts and future US investment commitments, according to the Financial Times. The investment pledges made during Trump’s 2025 regional tour, presented at the time as a major economic victory, are now under review as governments face what one Gulf official described as four simultaneous budget pressures: reduced energy income, declining tourism and aviation revenue, spiking defence costs, and disrupted supply chains.

Iran has no sovereign wealth fund to lose. It has no tourism sector to collapse. It has no hub airline network to ground. It has no $2 trillion in US assets that could be frozen, no Eurobond issuance schedule that could be disrupted, no Vision 2030 mega-projects that could be mothballed. Its economy was already contracting. Its currency was already worthless. Its people were already hungry. The war simply confirmed what sanctions had already accomplished.

For the Persian Gulf Arab states, the calculus is entirely different. Their wealth is real, liquid, and exposed. It sits in New York property portfolios and London bank accounts and Asian LNG contracts and European football clubs. It depends on open sea lanes, open airspace, and the confidence of international investors and tourists. Every day the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, every drone that hits a terminal, every flight that gets cancelled, chips away at something Iran never had to begin with.

That is why Tehran can afford to play the long game. And it is why Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha cannot.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 12:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I asked you a question, son. Don't quote reply me unless you're going to answer it.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm sure that dildo from Cambridge knows what he's talking about.



--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Here’s what a Princeton Middle East expert says is the likeliest outcome in Iran


What the hell is a Middle East "expert"?

If somebody called themselves a "North American Expert", would you take them seriously?

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 12:26 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
In other words, the war ends when IRAN ends it


The war ends when we say it ends.

Khamenei will meet his father, wife and son in hell soon enough.

--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.


Why on earth would they televise a reading of his written word, voiced by somebody who was not him, as his first message to the Iranian people and the world?

That literally goes against everything we've been told by the Legacy Media about how strong the Iranian leadership are. Even if he were in hiding, which I wouldn't blame him for, we all have 4k recording devices called smart phones in 2026, and we couldn't even get some grainy ass Bigfoot footage or even a cheap attempt at an AI voiceover?

I'm 99.9% sure Mojtaba Khamenei is already dead, and has been for days if not weeks already.


--------------------------------------------------

Be Nice. Don't be a dick.




BBC: Iranians react to new supreme leader's first address

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj1z0enk70o

Quote:
"I don't even think it was his message," an Iranian woman in her 40s told the BBC after her country's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first official address in the form of a statement read out on state TV.

Having not seen him since he was named leader, some are now casting doubts on who is running the country.

"I feel like control of the country is in the hands of the IRGC [Islamic Revolution Guard Corps]," the woman, from Tehran, said.

Khamenei, through the conduit of a TV presenter, vowed in his statement on Thursday that Iran would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed to international shipping - choking the supply of a fifth of the world's oil.

He also said that his government would "not forgo avenging the blood" of citizens killed since the war with the US and Israel began, saying retaliation so far represented only "a limited portion" of what was to come. He said he had been made aware of his appointment as supreme leader via state TV.

But Khamenei has yet to be seen in-person - nor filmed or photographed - since being named as his father's successor.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said, without providing evidence, that Khamenei had been "wounded and likely disfigured" in one of the first air strikes on Tehran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with his wife and other son.

His lack of visibility was brought up by some of those who spoke to BBC Persian following the broadcast.

"It was surprising that he did not issue even a voice memo and raised doubts about his condition," one Tehran resident, in his 30s, said.

"To me this message raised more doubts than bringing any clarity about his condition," he added.

Another man from Tehran, in his 20s, said: "I still haven't seen him to have an opinion about him. To be honest, we don't know much about him."

A third man remarked that he was "not even convinced that he [Mojtaba Khamenei] has written the message himself".

Meanwhile, a woman in her 20s from Rasht, in northern Iran, observed acerbically: "Wow, very heartwarming that he didn't even appear on state TV to issue the message."

It is still very difficult to contact people inside Iran due to a government-imposed internet blackout, but some are able to connect briefly to the outside world through satellite uplinks.

Many of those who do tend to be anti-regime. We have anonymised their comments for their safety.

Despite dissent towards the Islamic regime that has run Iran since 1979 being writ large in mass demonstrations that engulfed the country earlier this year, it still has its fervent supporters.

Crowds took to the streets of central Tehran on Friday for pro-establishment rallies to mark Quds Day - an annual event established by the Islamic regime to demonstrate support for the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel. Many of those on the streets held photos of Mojtaba Khamenei.

Iranian outlets have since published several photos and videos of officials who appeared among them, including Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani.

Khamenei's message on Thursday also called on Iranians to participate in rallies to help "confront the enemy".

BBC Persian and BBC Verify have verified footage showing an explosion in the Iranian capital near the crowd. The Israeli military had earlier issued an evacuation warning for an area close to where rallies were taking place in Tehran.

In one video, Mohseni Ejei is seen as giving an interview to state TV when a blast happens nearby, with the crowd chanting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest").

Others who spoke to the BBC felt Khamenei's message meant very little was likely to change in the war that has seen near-constant waves of air strikes.

Iran's UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said on Tuesday that thousands of civilian sites had been destroyed by the strikes, including schools and housing. The US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) group says nearly 1,800 people have been killed in the conflict, around two-thirds of whom were civilians.

"The message was very radical. I think it shows that nothing can be changed from within," a man in his 30s in Tehran said.

"I think it was a message that proved in many ways that the Islamic Republic, no matter who its leader is, will always stick to its own beliefs," a man in his 30s in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran.

"So the world should know that it cannot deal with this regime."

Another Karaj resident said pointedly: "He's even more worthless than his father."



I'm honestly shocked that the BBC of all outfits would report this.

But I'm not surprised to hear that the people of Iran don't believe that the message was written by Mojtaba Khamenei, and that some even theorize that he's no longer alive.

I feel bad for the Iranian people, and can empathize deeply with them now. It's not cool wondering who the hell is running your country. We went through that for 4 years while Joe Biden* was President*.

--------------------------------------------------

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Saturday, March 14, 2026 7:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Ain't it funny how nobody works on the weekends?

I mean, it's 3:15 AM right now in Tehran, so lucky for our journalists in the Legacy Media that most people over there are probably sleeping and they could take the afternoon off on a Saturday, but nobody over there works the night shift? Nobody in our military works the night shift?

I just find it amusing that this big, huge, MAJOR WAR that some are hyperbolically referring to as WWIII takes the same weekends off that the regular news cycle does every weekend.

We'll get about 3 hours of stories tomorrow morning and they'll be done reporting by noon.


It's just silly...

--------------------------------------------------

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Monday, March 16, 2026 2:48 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Ain't it funny how nobody works on the weekends?

It's just silly...

--------------------------------------------------

Be Evil. Be a dick.
Ain't it funny how nobody learns from history?

We don’t learn from history; we don’t even learn from current affairs

The West’s actions against Iran are repeating recent historical events that have only caused more chaos in the Middle East, says Clive Stafford Smith

Sunday 15 March 2026 17:35 GMT

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/history-iran-trump-war-middle-eas
t-b2938895.html

The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. You’ve probably heard that before, and it’s a phrase I overuse. It must be modified for the situation in the Middle East: we don’t even learn from recent affairs.

I have spent a lot of time in Afghanistan recently, where the “war on terror” led to the longest ever American war. Estimates of the money spent on 21 years of Afghan carnage range up to $6 trillion (£4.5 trillion), and it caused tens of thousands of deaths. The result? Nothing achieved. The Taliban are back in power, running a state increasingly premised on gender apartheid, alienated from the Western world.

Our interventions in the region since the new millennium reflect a clear pattern: the US, the UK and their allies decrying evil governments, firing their Hellfire missiles from their Predator drones, and creating even greater chaos. We eventually leave, and bemoan the failure of each country in turn to metamorphosise into a democratic nirvana.

Always we had our excuses for dropping our bombs: in Afghanistan, it was September 11, though there was precious little evidence that Afghans had anything to do with it. In Syria, it was Isis. Apparently, we were on the verge of global destruction because of Iran. But these excuses – generally vastly overplayed – do not mask the theme that runs consistently through every one of these dreadful conflicts: in the words of singer Michael Franti, “You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace.”

Sadly, but not totally surprisingly, catastrophe lingers over Iran. The only certainty there is that many people will suffer from the Trump-Netanyahu war.

Where are the plans? Nobody in the Trump administration mentions who might take over from the current regime in an imagined uprising. (Would anyone resort to the Shah’s son? If so, would he resuscitate SAVAK, the notorious security police?)

For now, assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei has been replaced by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei. Surprisingly, Iran did not seek Trump’s advice in selecting a new leader.

Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, does not have much of a plan for his “Operation Epic Fury” either, beyond bombs and more bombs that will apparently ensure Iran cannot make nuclear weapons. “We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated,” he warned.

Worryingly, his back-up plan seems to be for his team to encourage American soldiers that their labour may usher in the “End of Days” and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (part of a strange Christian nationalist theory that I have often heard voiced in the US).

Some may hold out little hope for Trump, who believes that most rules do not apply to him. But here in the UK, Keir Starmer is proving to be a much greater disappointment. It is one thing to make a U-turn on the winter fuel allowance or the farmers’ inheritance tax, but surely he should be a little more careful on war.

He began (reasonably enough) by refusing to support this deranged conflict, but then rapidly rowed back once Trump said he was “not Winston Churchill”. Well, he didn’t need to be. Hitler was not at the Channel waiting to invade.

Starmer was once a human rights lawyer. He needs a plan and he needs to remember his principles, keeping his head when some across the parliamentary benches are losing theirs.

He needs to remember that there is not a Nobel War Prize. History can remind him that Harold Wilson refused to let the UK get involved in Vietnam, in retrospect a wise decision.

He should recall the Marshall Plan. Its precursor, the 1944 Morgenthau Plan, would have dismantled all of German industry, sent Germans to labour camps as “reparations”, and (according to Herbert Hoover) caused some 25 million deaths from starvation.

Instead, the Marshall Plan invested $150bn (around £113bn) in today’s money into Europe, allowing West Germany’s economy to expand without pause over a quarter-century, rendering it a stable country and a force for peace in Europe.

In 2001, had the US invested a fraction of the $6 trillion it spent bombing Afghanistan in developing it, that sum would have helped to turn a nation that had already been ravaged by war since 1979 into a modern and prosperous country. Thousands would not have died.

Yet here we are again, with history repeating itself, ignored by those who should know better. There is no plan. The dogs of war are unleashed.

It is time for another million-person march against a Middle East war. If, that is, such good sense is not immediately equated with terrorism.

Clive Stafford Smith OBE is a human rights lawyer and Gresham College professor of law who will be giving a free lecture at the college on recent Middle Eastern wars on Thursday 19 March at 6pm

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 16, 2026 2:53 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Tucker Carlson on Trump's Iran War: "I Can't Believe He Did This To Us"

Tucker Carlson argued that many of the nontraditional voters who helped elect Donald Trump feel deeply betrayed by the war.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/03/13/tucker_carlson_on_t
rumps_iran_war_i_cant_believe_he_did_this_to_us.html

TUCKER CARLSON: The only people who support this war are those born between 1946 and 1964 who watch a lot of Fox News. That's it. I'm not attacking them, by the way. They're Americans. They're my equals as Americans. I love a lot of them. But their perspective on the US and the world is very different from everyone else's very, very different. And so they're not the ones who got Donald Trump elected.

Actually, the people who got Donald Trump elected are the people who hadn't voted for Republicans before or even voted at all before. And they're like Joe Rogan listeners or people who use nicotine pouches. They're not. They're Hispanic voters.

They're young black men. They're non-traditional Republican voters who voted for Trump because he promised not to keep doing the same thing. And one of the things he promised not to do again was to hand operational authority over to Benjamin Netanyahu, as other presidents have. We don't want any more of that. Why would we? And we're not going to like make Mark Levin or Ben Shapiro, who have almost no organic support in the media world, like no one really watches them.

We're not going to hand control of our foreign policy over to people like that who don't know anything and who don't have America's interests at heart or even in mind. So breaking faith with those people, those voters, the ones who actually got Trump elected and whose coalition promised a new day in American politics. That's a big deal.

It's a betrayal on the level that I don't think people who aren't in those groups can understand. Like this is this is heartbreaking. And by the way, a lot of people really like Trump. They like his style. They think he's hilarious. He's brave. You know, he's just like they like him. And to see this is oh, it's so wounding. It just it hurts. I you know, I talked to I've got a bunch who work for me. I'm related to some, you know, they're all Trump voters. And I talked to them in the last 24 hours.

Boy, they're upset. They're not just mad like I hate Israel. That's not that's not the impulse. They're definitely starting to hate Israel. Why wouldn't they? Our relationship with Israel is hurting us gravely. It's getting Americans killed. So they're mad, but it's more than mad. I can't believe he did this to us. You know, I feel just so depressed about it.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 16, 2026 3:19 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Grow up.

--------------------------------------------------

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Monday, March 16, 2026 3:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


WSJ: Trump’s Energy Triumph
He prepared the U.S. and its allies for the current troubles in the Persian Gulf.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-energy-triumph-82e4b953?st=MyHbWz

Quote:
The Democratic-media complex seems determined to get everything wrong about Iran, though few efforts compare with this week’s work to tag the Trump administration with a global energy crisis. Not only is this uninformed and overdone, the sudden concern over energy security comes about three years late.

The undermine-America crowd describes Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as an “oil shock” that is “spiraling,” “chaotic” and the “worst in history.” It seems to have evaded this crew that Iran’s bombardment of peaceful trading vessels is yet more justification of U.S. strikes. Iran’s been using energy threats to manipulate geopolitics for decades and won’t stop until it is fully defanged.

They are blaming the administration, in particular Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whom Politico described as the “vaunted” team “in danger of fumbling the biggest energy crisis” of Donald Trump’s second term. The go-to quote comes from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who ranted that “on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN. . . . Which is unforgiveable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.”

Let’s talk about plans. That the U.S. was finally in a position to disarm Iran is largely thanks to a plan Mr. Trump initiated in his first term—to gain energy independence, which his team is now turning into energy dominance. Trump policies turbocharged a shale revolution that made the U.S. a net exporter of petroleum products and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Alongside was Mr. Trump’s plan to foster economic and security ties in the region against shared threats like Iran via deals like the Abraham Accords.

We are no longer hostage to Middle East fossil-fuel threats, which gives us room to weather temporary Hormuz disruptions. Domestic gasoline prices have spiked but are still notably below their highs during Joe Biden’s term. Thanks to growing U.S. exports, our allies are better positioned against fallout. And Gulf actors are working alongside the U.S. to mitigate Iran’s blockade. Some of us remember “OPEC embargo” days. No more.

The biggest threat to this plan was always the Biden administration, which halted liquefied natural-gas exports, shuttered Alaskan and Gulf drilling, snubbed Middle East partners, pressed investors to abandon fossil-fuel projects, and dispatched John Kerry to kill energy deals. All in the name of climate change. These would also be the folks who sold off the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to win an election. Want to send real fear through energy markets? Two words: Jennifer Granholm, the energy secretary who dedicated four years to ensuring your washing machine used fewer BTUs.

Speaking of secretaries, it might surprise the press to discover that the heads of Energy and Interior aren’t tasked with countering Iranian mines. That’s the Pentagon’s job. Their job is to mitigate fallout from temporary supply disruptions—which, yes, were expected. Thanks to the energy-dominance policy, and a year of building real relationships with real energy players, they have more levers to pull.

Mr. Wright has been on the phone daily with Middle East energy ministers, ties possible thanks to early travel to the region, including five days he spent with Saudi energy chief Abdulaziz bin Salman (with whom he struck a landmark civil nuclear-energy deal). That allowed the U.S. to position regional players for a possible conflict. That beats an awkward Biden fist bump.

The International Energy Agency announced it is releasing the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in history—400 million barrels—after Mr. Wright rallied member nations to the need. Mr. Wright has been pressing the IEA for a year to drop its climate obsessions and get serious about its fossil-fuel mandate. That work is paying off.

The U.S. has been refilling the SPR with money earmarked in last year’s reconciliation bill. A plan! It will now release 172 million barrels, and here’s a fun aside: Rather than sell it straight (as the Biden team did), Mr. Wright is exchanging it on the market for futures contracts (which are currently betting prices will fall). This means the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will get back 200 million barrels for the price of its 172 million. How refreshing: An energy secretary who understands energy markets.

Mr. Burgum—fresh off expanding a Venezuela-U.S. energy partnership—is flying to Japan to reassure Pacific allies that American export capacity is expanding dramatically. He’s keeping the machinery running to follow through on his promises. Interior this week announced $47 million in bids from a second Gulf of Mexico lease sale. It has issued 6,000 permits for oil and gas leasing in the past year alone—more than the Biden administration did in four years.

Hormuz is causing disruptions, but those are likely to be short-lived. As the U.S. gains ground against Iran’s offensive capabilities, it can devote more assets to restoring shipping lanes. Mr. Wright on Thursday explained it as “short-term pain for the long-term gain” of denying Iran the ability “to hold the world hostage whenever it wants.” Indeed. The ability to do it at all—and weather the short term—will be thanks to a Trump team that had a clear-eyed, multifaceted, fossil-fuel energy plan.


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