What a catastrophe.

Hormuz in the News Scuttlebutt

Thoughts from Hong Kong…

The toll idea is spreading…
Indonesia’s finance minister suggests imposing levy on ships transiting Malacca Strait - CNA

i saw a list of Jones Act waiver voyages a few days ago. It’s only something like 10 domestic voyages with relatively small volumes of oil.

Not enough to have any impact on prices at the pump or tanker / Tank barge day rates.

if Trump wanted to reduce prices at the pump, that would be simple to do with price controls. Cap the domestic oil price at $80 per barrel, cap diesel and gas prices at $3, and put a limit on crude and product export volumes.

There is no good reason why Americans should be paying the oil companies international prices with windfall profits when we have plenty of domestic oil production.

It’s shocking to see some people here claim that the USA is just as much of an evil terror regime as Iran.

I assume you’re referring to me and what I posted in another thread. Why didn’t you just respond to my post in the other thread, instead of jumping to this one and complaining about it?

It shouldn’t surprise you that the USA has had its hands in some very dirty business, which could be compared to the “state sponsored terrorism” that the current regime in Iran has engaged in. Are you aware of the similar activity the US (and middle eastern allies) has funded and supported over the years in pursuit of our interets? Let me give a few examples:

Nicaragua Contras

Operation Cyclone in Afghanistan

UNITA in Angola

El Salvadoran death squads

Chechen rebels in Russia

Kurds in Syria

Israel in Lebanon and Palestine, anyone?

Etc etc

"State sponsored terrorism* is a nebulous term, politically charged and debatable, depending on which side of things you happen to stand on. It has been hauled out to do the heavy lifting for vilification and justification. My point is not to condone or justify violent actions performed by groups like Hamas or Hezbollah, but to show that the USA has engaged in the same or similar behavior. Calling Iran “evil” is too simplistic, especially when our own country has perpetrated similarly evil acts.

I support Western liberalism and believe that these ideals should win out over authoritarianism, religious fanaticism, fundamentalism, and the like. But that doesn’t give us the right to bomb other countries into the ground for engaging in the same kinds of geopolitics. Call it what it is, an exercise of power, but don’t pretend we have the moral high ground. We are not the good guys when we blow up schools of girls and rock the stability of the world economic system instead of pursuing peaceful negotiation. Trump has done these things for no good reason and the whole world suffers as a result.

11,600 cruise tourists in Ålesund

However, even more passengers are expected in just one month.

Source: 11.600 cruise­turister i Ålesund - smp.no

There, fixed it for the author. It’s about as close to done as “Mission Accomplished” was for W.

tugsailor:

It’s shocking to see some people here claim that the USA is just as much of an evil terror regime as Iran.

Your interpretation of posts here is very different than mine. I’ve not seen one person suggest that the USA is just as much of an evil terror regime as Iran. What I have seen people post are some known examples of the USA interfering with Iran in many different ways over decades, unfortunately often in ways that result in dead Iranians, and often simply to protect the USA’s economic or strategic interests rather than acting with the best interest or wishes of the Iranian people.

I don’t know of anyone who isn’t concerned about Iranian developing nuclear weapons. Myself, I am VERY concerned. I am also very concerned about the nuclear weapons already possessed by Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea, Russia, UK, France, China, and the US. If I was not a US citizen I would likely be even more suspicious of US motivations given the US has one of the largest nuclear stock piles, while the US also takes great strides to ensure that other nations don’t acquire nuclear weapons, and the US is the only country in the history of the world to use such weapons aggressively and in that case it was on civilian targets.

I wholeheartedly agree that the current Iranian regime is horrible, and the sooner they are relegated to the dustbin of history the better. However bombing, or even worse, invading Iran is a horrible mistake that accomplishes nothing other than demonstrating our inability to negotiate from a position of strength (we are the most powerful nation in the history of the world and have been for decades) and instead demonstrating our all too frequent impulse to resort to violence, which is the very nature that we ascribe to the Iranian regime as such a negative.

If we as a nation expect other nations to uphold the ideals of peace, freedom, international cooperation, and respect for human rights, we need to be willing to adhere to those same ideals ourselves, even when it isn’t easy.

It’s shocking to see how many people are completely unconcerned about the Iranian terror regime developing nuclear weapons and missiles.

The UN, NATO, and the rest of the world order, have never done anything, unless the US did it for them and paid for it

It’s always surprising and disheartening to see how little most of the world appreciates American generosity. That makes neo-isolationism, a small home defense only military, no foreign aid, let Americans and American companies overseas fend for themselves, and much lower taxes look pretty good.

At least until an Iranian nuke goes off in an American city, or the US gets dragged into World Wars again by its fair weather friends and feckless “allies.”

It also makes “let’s declare victory in Iran’” pack up and go home, and let the countries that need the Strait of Hormuz solve that problem themselves, look pretty good.

Where were ICE when they were needed?

Plenty of examples of the USA being a “state sponsor of terror” in recent history. The stance that we are justified in bombing a country “back to the stone ages” on that basis is hypocritical and evil. It’s propaganda and you are eating it by the spoonful.

This research paper examines the question in detail.

Iran: Is it really the leading state-sponsor of terrorism?

Jughead:

secret space program

I can’t tell if you’re serious or not…

Rock_Hill:

Developing more robust alternative energy production and diverse energy infrastructure is a matter of national security,

I’ve heard USA and others already have alternative energy systems derived largely from its secret space program. You may be hearing more soon because Trump has indicated that he will declassify information regarding this (ie UFO/UAPs, ETs etc) and has spoken about it. Various politicians and government officials have also recently spoken on the record about such matters, so it seems we are being prepared for further revelations.

All of this is on the public record and openly available on the internet.

Rock_Hill:

Developing more robust alternative energy production and diverse energy infrastructure is a matter of national security, but certain people continue to view it as some sort of threat or plot by the deep state or the woke elite.

Quite the contrary it is the deep state financial interests that thwart any move that would provide a more diverse energy infrastructure.

However just imagine how more impotent Iran would be if the U.S. also pursued alternative (green) energy like we did the moon shot. Unfortunately certain politicians and segments of society see alternative energy as a threat to more traditional hydrocarbons, rather than part of a pathway to more energy, economic, and environmental resilience; insulation from whatever geopolitical madness is happening in other parts of the world. Developing more robust alternative energy production and diverse energy infrastructure is a matter of national security, but certain people continue to view it as some sort of threat or plot by the deep state or the woke elite.

tengineer1:

Also, deflects from further release of Trump’s involvement with deep state operative Epstein.

You get that in the TDS daily newsletter?
Its a common thread from the tds sufferers.
All the hidden secrets the Dems wouldnt publish about their arch enemy?

“The higher rank of commodore is permanently reserved for the reincarnation of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology.”

Yes, Trump is deranged. WTF aids an ally of an enemy you are fighting?

His blockade strangles several enemies in the one action. Iran loses the greater proportion of its exports whilst the blockade persists. Iran sells oil at a considerable discount (Ca $10-11 per barrel) to its monopsony buyer, China, which thus has to pay more on the open market which strangles the Chinese economy, and the deep state bankers who were rolling in Oil money from Iran are strangled as well.

The ultimate victory will be the exploding heads of all those TDS sufferers when they wake up and find out.

More detailed economic argument here.

Kennebec_Captain:

numerous sources

Splash and AlJazeera had this too

ombugge:

IMO moves to tighten ship registration rules amid surge in flag fraud - Splash247

It will be interesting to see how they manage ‘50 shades of grey’ in -
… offshoring & fiscal cherry-picking vs fraud & criminality…
… flag of convenience : fraudulent flag : false flag : dark fleet etc.

coindesk.com

Bitcoin, USDT ‘safe passage’ scam hits Hormuz as one ship reportedly duped...

A shipping risk firm reported fake ‘safe passage’ offers demanding crypto payments as tensions choke traffic through the strait.

Being reported from numerous sources. Maybe why ships expecting safe passage are being fired upon

World’s first DP pipelay vessel. This unique ship still continues to lead the offshore industry. On her anniversary we will launch our book ‘Lorelay 40, an inside story’. The book is the result of two years of intense collaboration with my co-authors Anne de Groot and Remko Luyten. Many contributions from Lorelay engineers and crew have been incorporated in this exceptional project. Wencke Boerrigter of Polestar Publishing has completed printing and binding. The iconic 1987 Lorelay photo on a mirror-like North Sea pond adorns the back cover.

Freewinds - Wikipedia

I’m honestly still in shock. This young guy, probably around 17 years old, has no idea I took his picture while sitting here in the laundromat:

Source: https://qr.ae/pFNjY1

We have had many off ramps over the years, but it was Reagan, Bush, and now Trump who have taken that choice off the table. It’s no wonder they have called America the “Great Satan”. In this context, it’s easy to characterize the actions of the USA and our state sponsored terror as evil

You are so full of it to sit behind your keyboard and wax about how there is “no other choice” but to bomb them back to the stone ages. Countless people have worked hard to walk this animosity back over years and years, only to have various presidents throw that hard work into the fire for political expediency. Now, “our president” has started another war to distract from his involvement with heinous acts of corruption, rape and pedophilia.

Get your butt out there on the front lines, sir. Do what needs to be done.