RANT: STRAITEN UP AND FLY RIGHT, AMERICA!

   

Hotel Burgenstock Luceren, Switzerland

YOU KNOW HOW IT IS when you think—watching Trump’s clown car of state beetling off a cliff—you say, heck, I could run the U.S. better than the incompetent current occupant of the White House. In fact, I offer my services—free of charge—to our great neighbour to the south, hoping my lack of citizenship and experience managing anything larger than my pocketbook will be overlooked. So, we’ll see how that goes.

BUT ON AN EVEN MORE RIDICULOUS NOTE, President Trump has once more claimed a peace deal with Iran is imminent, with just some final touches to be ironed out. Great! The price of oil falls and the stock market rises with news of an end to hostilities and a promised return to business as usual. Again. Dear reader, if Trump’s latest pronouncement gives you whiplash and a case of déjà vu, join the crowd. We’ve heard all this from the American president before, thirty-eight times before, as a matter of fact, since the Iran war reignited on February 28, this year. Only scammers and leeches on Wall Street pay any attention to The Donald’s divinations; they know it’s a con and they do their damndest to profit from the presidential pearls of wisdom as they ride to riches on the stock market’s up and down fluctuations. Moneymoneymoney! Most normal people ignore Trumpian proclamations like elevator music or those squeegee-wielding pedlars patrolling our summertime crosswalks and stoplights.

👉BUT what a difference these last few days make! Peace talks in Islamabad between the Americans and Iranians have borne fruit with the June 17 signing of an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) initiating the start of peace talks to resolve the American/Israeli-Iranian War. We must remember that an MoU is not a treaty, nor is it a ceasefire. It is a diplomatic note allowing a respite from attacks by either side for a sixty-day period while the hard work of finalizing a “deal” the Americans can live with, without having to eat too much crow, and one that the Iranians can trust. Not an easy bridge to build, I must say.

There are fourteen points to the document, with particularly thorny issues to be resolved that include the closing American bases in the Gulf states fronting Iran across the Persian Gulf (most were evacuated and subsequently destroyed by Iranian missiles in the early weeks of the war following the February 28 launch of hostilities by U.S. and Israeli forces). There are negotiations around compensation to Iran for damages it incurred during the 110 days of the conflict as well as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. Iran will end its blockade* in tandem with America removing its blockade of Iranian shipping. Point One of the MoU is the most difficult needle to thread, namely Iran’s insistence that cessation of hostilities "on all fronts” including Lebanon.

RECALL that Israel has been waging an illegal war of aggression against Hezbollah, the chief militia in Lebanon challenging Israeli aggression that seeks to absorb about one-fifth of the country into “Greater Israel”. Hezbollah acts to defend Lebanese territory because the Lebanese army and government have been mostly neutered by Israel and the United States. Hezbollah is an Iranian ally and the MoU, signed “remotely” on Wednesday by the American and Iranian presidents, stipulates Israel must cease and desist and withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. President Trump had digitally inked his approval (pending final negotiations) that is diametrically opposed by Israel that wishes to continue its conquest of southern Lebanon unabated. Iran has stated continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah means the slow-walk of peace talks convening in Switzerland and the closing of the Straits of Hormuz.¹  

Israel does not want there to be a successful treaty ending hostilities between the United States and Iran, that much is obvious by Friday’s bombing of Lebanon which claimed almost thirty lives. Israel will do its best to wreck the talks and force the Americans to restart the war. I was surprised by the welcome news of serious negotiations (the U.S. State Department has sent 300 diplomats, intelligence officials, and technical experts to talks scheduled to begin on Friday.² Iran will send seventy. Point being, that all the necessary personnel will be available to craft the MoU’s goals into a working treaty. Vice President Vance will head up the American delegation.

👉Trump, for his part, must put pressure on the Netanyahu government to stand down. We’ll see who blinks first in their pissing contest. If Trump does not get a deal and the Straits remain hopelessly choked off, Americans will see dramatic price rises in gasoline and other goods. The pain caused by a shuttered Hormuz Strait will trigger a global recession, possibly even a depression along the lines of the one experienced during the 1930s. Will Trump grow a pair and use the very real influence he has over Israel—withholding financial, military and diplomatic supports without which Israel could not conduct its wars of aggression—and curb the pariah state’s  military adventures in the Levant? Israel is the wild card in all this. Note that the MoU is between the United States and Iran. Not Israel. There is some suggestion that Netanyahu was caught flat-footed by the MoU’s fourteen-point proposed treaty plan and Trump signing off on it. Thus far Israel does not seem inclined to stop its aggression in Lebanon and elsewhere. But, we’ll see what the next few days will bring.

 

THIS IS INTERESTING: Recall two, three months ago the major talking points of mainstream pundits and from the Trump administration was of Iran signing onto a new nuclear deal, giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium and cancelling its nuclear programs, both civilian and military. Or else! Next in line was limits on Iran’s missile holdings. They must comply! Lots of strum und drang around these two.  Now, the focus is on reopening the Straits of Hormuz and getting oil and other commodities to market a.s.a.p. Because of its blockade, Iran has found the leverage to take the Americans down a peg or two and compel the superpower to reach a negotiated settlement, one that Iran can live with. Seemingly, Iran’s blockade of the Straits, with its global ramifications looming ever-larger “concentrates the mind” of the American president, “wonderfully.”     

👉ON Thursday, complying with the MoU, the American blockade of Iranian shipping was lifted.

👉ON Friday Iran announced it would lift fees for ships passing through the Straits for the duration of the 60-day negotiation cycle which was due to start on Friday.³

  

👉[UPDATE: As of this writing the initial meeting between American and Iranian delegates has taken place on Sunday in Lucerne, Switzerland. The American delegation was headed by VP Vance, but for some reason the dynamic duo of Kushner and Witkoff were included as part of the U.S. team. These two bozos have failed at every diplomatic mission they've been on, and the Iranians don't trust them--recall last June how the "Twelve Day War" was launched just as peace negotiations with Witkoff and Kushner were taking place in a transparent bid to 'sucker punch' the Iranians. 

ADDITIONALLY, there is some confusion as to whether the Hormuz Strait is open or not. They were closed, apparently by Iran, as a consequence of Israel's continuing bombardments in Lebanon. Will Israeli war-making scuttle the talks? After all, Iran has demanded Israel cease and desist it's aggressions against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia as well as against the Iranian homeland. Of course, Trump tweets his usual threats, blahblahblah, so we'll wait and see if round two of the talks will continue as scheduled.]

  

👉IT'S not yet time for popping champagne corks, not by a long shot. Let’s hope all this dancing around the negotiating table is just political jitters and doesn’t turn into a zero-sum game of musical chairs. Buckle the fuck up, people!

 

 

FROM THE FILES OF "CARNIVAL TIMES"--

THE EVER-P0PULAR COLUMN “I DON’T BELIEVE

WHAT I JUST READ!”👇

 

HERE’S SOMETHING that should give all of us pause: Recent statements by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:

“With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn,” he wrote.

“Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration,” he added.

Ben-Gvir noted he had conveyed his position directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep.”

Calling for a harsher attack, he added that in the Middle East it was necessary to “go berserk. To obliterate. To crush the terror.”

Another extremist minister, Bezalel Smotrich, wrote on X, “A tough morning... Time to speak with fire. To open the gates of hell.”

 

THE ABOVE ARE MEMBERS of the Israeli government. Their language is beyond the pale of reasoned, political discourse and is immersed in the language, tropes and emotionalism of fascism. One could easily imagine such words atop the gates at Auschwitz. They are part of the Israeli cabinet which leads a government whose military possesses nuclear weapons. With such statesmen at the helm, what could possibly go wrong?

 

CHEERS, JAKE. __________________________ 

* THERE ARE numerous states that have already negotiated (i.e. paid Iran toll fees to use the Strait; still, there is a major backlog of ships yet to transit the vital chokepoint.

1. Point One of the MoU presumes America will curb its ‘attack dog’ in West Asia (Middle East) and bring Israel to heel. It remains to be seen whether Trump has the cojones to stand up to Netanyahu and the Israeli lobby in the United States (and perhaps the threat of incriminating Epstein files being released which may be in the possession of Israel’s Mossad or deep state operators in the U.S.).

2. I told you so, I told you so… The Swiss talks have been postponed ostensively due to scheduling issues with VP Vance but more likely because of Israel’s continued bombing of southern Lebanon after Wednesday’s digital inking of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by President Trump and Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Netanyahu, for his part, refuses to pull his troops out of Lebanon and vows to continue what critics are calling his ‘Gazafication’ of Lebanese villages south of the Litani River. Iran postponed sending its delegation to Switzerland, likely in response to the on-going aggression perpetuated by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force).  As stated in the above👆 UPDATE, the opening session of peace talks in Switzerland were held on Sunday.       

3. Personally, I think Iran is lifting its foot off the American neck prematurely. A growing oil-shortage crisis that will become obvious even to the most oblivious Western government, including the United States, will be hitting hard this fall. NatGas shortages, high prices at the pump, lower farm yields (from a lack of fossil fuel feedstocks for fertilizers and pesticides), issues with computer chip manufacturing because of a lack of Persian Gulf helium (Helium!? Who knew?) along with global manufacturing, shipping, and supply chains that will all be affected by the outcome of the Swiss talks. The looming crises may encourage the American president to make a deal with Iran, pronto. How long the talks will take, is anyone’s guess. 

 

 

 

RANT: LET ME GET THIS STRAIT..OR PERHAPS NOT

  

IS IT JUST ME or are things getting a little harry out there on the knife’s edge of international relations? Is reasoned, reality-based decision-making now old-fashioned and sooo last century? Maybe. But when billionaire real-estate sharks mascarade as diplomats, like  the dynamic duo of Witkoff & Kushner, you would think the Trump administration would get the memo that the whole world is laughing at them and sees them for what they are—unserious people acting in positions of great importance and caught butt-naked in their ineptness as the curtain rises and the klieg lights highlight every naughty bit and unmentionable. Let those two go to Abu Dhabi* and build another condo tower or something and get out of the way for real diplomats [do the Americans have any? Ed.] to handle the politics and brokering of peace deals, trade deals and other treaty initiatives.

As I write this (Thursday, May 20), we’re still in a waiting game following Trump’s less than triumphant visit to China, with little results coming from the get-together even with the string of billionaires Trump had in his entourage. Meanwhile, a second attack on Iran is highly probable, and we could see missiles flying by the weekend. 

Trump has painted himself into a corner by going along with the Israeli scheme of regime change in Iran. (Actually the Israelis would prefer to see Iran balkanized like Syria and made impotent with internal conflict.) It didn’t work the first two times: in the “Twelve-Day War” last June, or the rematch of February 28 to the April 7 ceasefire. Heck! Go for it, Mister President! After all, three times’s a charm, isn't it?

Trump doesn’t want to be involved in a protracted war in the Middle East, yet he doesn’t know how to get out the mess he’s made. He might do what he did in the Twelve-Day War—make a big strike somewhere, declare victory and go home. Or he could double down on stupid and continue fighting an Iranian foe that’s holding most of the cards. In the first scenario he’d have to eat a lot of crow pulling his forces out of the region with none of the mission objectives achieved, no matter how they spin the PR. The second scenario is fraught with dangers and a high probability of not achieving anything like a military victory, just like the first two times Israel and the United States attacked Iran. A third possibility is for Trump to admit he's made a mistake and to go home, withdrawing American forces from West Asia (Middle East) altogether. 

👉That’s the best solution, and one that saves lives and billions in treasure the United States can no longer afford to squander on overseas military adventures. How likely is #3 do you think? For someone like Trump, to admit he was wrong and had been led around by the nose by Israel that is desperate to wreck Iran so it can emerge as the preeminent power in the region. Some sort of explosion is likely in the cards. Stay turned.¹

 

 

CHEERS, JAKE.

_____________________________________

 

* Perhaps the UAE might not be such a good place to broaden your real estate portfolio just now. The Gulf state is a signatory to the Abraham Accords which was a 2020 initiative by the Americans to bring Gulf Arab and neighbouring Arab states into a formal treaty normalizing relations with the state of Israel. Had a state like Saudi Arabia become a signatory to the agreement, others would follow and the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a homeland would be in jeopardy. The October 7 attacks in 2023 put an end to that possibility. SIGNING the Accords, while Israel killed thousands of their fellow Arabs, would have been politically impossible for leaders wary of their restive populations who watch, with growing anger, Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and its assaults on the West Bank and Lebanon.

👉My point is that the UAE may have made a big mistake signing onto the Accords with Israel: If the Americans and Israelis renew their attacks, an Iranian retaliation would surely result in the destruction critical infrastructure throughout the UAE, along with any nation, Gulf or otherwise, that assisted in the assault on Iran.

 
1. AS OF THIS WRITING, the Hormuz Strait is still controlled by Iran. It's been eleven weeks since the blockade began, following the February 28 attacks by Israel and America. The American blockade of Iranian shipping is also still in force. Now, a trickle of shipping passes through the straits each day compared to pre-war traffic of 120 to 140 ships. Oil tankers bound for China are the exception. Others may have to pay a toll or make some arrangements with Iran for safe passage.

Meanwhile, as the ceasefire of hostilities holds, each side is locked in an economic war to see how long their economies can hold out with global shipments of nearly 20% of the world's oil and derivatives now delayed, and fuel shortages begin wrecking economies without petroleum supplies incoming from the Persian Gulf. 

👉Any re-starting of hostilities might mean the straits will be closed altogether, along with the potential wreckage of Gulf states' oil infrastructures—a catastrophic outcome, I'm sure you'll agree. 

👉Hold onto yer hats! This ain't over yet. And don't forget, there's still Ukraine!

 

 

 Time for Lunch

 

 

 

 

QUOTES: YVGENY PRIMAKOV

  

“Much has already been said about the crisis of the UN system and international law. Yes, we have no alternative framework through which states recognize each other’s interests in preserving peace. And no, another system is unlikely to emerge under current conditions – unless some catastrophic global crisis, akin to a third world war, forces a reset. The present aggression against Iran may well mark the final point: the old UN-centered system is now definitively a thing of the past, shattered along with the Charter-based legal order that underpinned it. Should we contribute to that destruction by withdrawing from the UN? I see no sense in it. Perhaps one day a third world war will restore the alliance’s functionality. For now, Trump has effectively buried it.”

—Yevgeny Primakov (Former Russian Prime Minister, RT February 28)

 

CRINGE PIC: ARMAGEDDON CALLING

   

I DON’T KNOW about you, but this cringe-worthy pic of the American president surrounded by evangelical ministers in the Oval Office in early March gives me the willies and makes my tummy hurt. Apparently, this laying-on-of-hands prayer-o-rama happens during the Trump Dynasty on an ad hoc basis, when there are periods of conflict, or national tensions, or before major legislative initiatives and the like. No doubt President Tee will be wanting to hold several such ceremonies before the congressional midterms this November when his party (Republicans) is set to be crucified by an electorate all to ready to lay a (decidedly temporal) smack-down on the laggards and lay-abouts in both houses of congress.

👉I wonder how many of these Holy Joe carpetbaggers will be there praying for the president to get the memo from on high, watching askance while he punches in the nuclear codes during a sundowner moment and ushers in Armageddon? I suspect most would be high-tailing it a.s.a.p.

👉I GUESS I prefer my political elites to have both feet planted squarely on the ground, something that should remind them they’re on the same planet as the rest of us, even during those elevated moments when they imagine they can walk on water. Feet of clay, Mister Trump. Feet of clay.

 

SIDEBAR: The wonderfully ornate desk Trump is seated at is called the “Resolute Desk”. It was a gift from Queen Victoria in 1880 and was built from timbers of the British vessel HMS Resolute that had gone in search of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition.* In 1854 Resolute became trapped in ice and had to be abandoned. Subsequently, a whaling ship recovered it and towed it to safe harbour. [The Resolute looks like she'll float. I wonder if Trump would want to follow in Franklin's footsteps? Just sayin'. Ed.]

BTW, my new desk is called “Woo-Woo! Lets Get the Party Started!”

 

CHEERS, JAKE.

 

1.   FRANKLIN'S TWO SHIPS, the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus became icebound and were abandoned in 1848 when 105 officers and crew made their fateful journey on foot to reach the Canadian mainland. None survived. All 129 crew members perished (24 had died previously). In 2014, a “Victoria Strait Expedition” research vessel discovered the wreck of HMS Erebus. Two years later, an "Arctic Research Foundation" vessel discovered the wreck of HMS Terror. 

 

 

RANT: LEAVING ON A JET PLANE, DON’T KNOW WHEN I’LL BE BACK AGAIN…

 

RECALL THE PROVERB about the hole in the bucket—you know, the one where the farmer goes to the well to draw water, but no matter what he does the hole determines the carrying capacity of his water bucket. He will need to make more trips to collect the same amount he previously collected, costing him time, energy, and ultimately money. Or he will make do with less. Yes, he could repair the bucket but that's beside the point: In systems theory, there is the principle that an organism or an organization is only as strong, as viable, as its weakest link:

 

“The principle that "a system is only as strong as its weakest link" means a system's overall performance is limited by its most vulnerable component. [Italics mine] In system theory, this bottleneck or constraint—whether a person, process, or technology—determines the maximum capacity and failure point of the entire system. Strengthening the weakest part yields the highest improvements.” (Google AI)

 

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ is the ‘weak link’ in the system of transporting crude oil and distillates from the Persian Gulf to the world. Functionally, it hadn’t been one before February 28 when Israel and the United States decided to once more attack Iran in round two of their illegal war of aggression against the Persian state. Prior to that, the Strait had been open and freely navigated by all. Iran closed the Strait (the sovereignty of which it shares with Oman), to vessels from nations hostile to it and those aiding and abetting their activities. Most Gulf oil goes to Asian markets (80 to 90%), with China receiving over one-third of all deliveries. Over 50% of China’s oil comes from the Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz, while ninety-eight percent of Filipino oil and nearly 90% of Japan’s crude oil comes from the Gulf. These countries and others (Italy, Greece, Poland, Spain, Malasia, India and Pakistan) have negotiated deals with Iran and now pay it toll fees, some as much as two-million dollars per tanker, for safe passage through the Strait. That amounts to billions per year in increased revenue which will go towards rebuilding Iran’s infrastructure damaged during the United States/Israel-Iran war begun in June of last year and reprised on February 28. There has been a tenuous ceasefire since April 7.

 

Note: Dissatisfied with the pace of peace negotiations brokered by the Pakistanis in Islamabad, on April 13 the United States imposed its own blockade (a blockade of a blockade!), denying passage for ships bound for, or leaving from, Iranian ports. This was done to pressure Iran to open the Straits to all maritime traffic free of charge, as it was before the war.* [Surely, war planers in the Pentagon considered closing of the Strait was something Iran would probably do once the shooting started? Now the mess created by the U.S. and Israel has spread, with ramifications for the entire globe. Nice job, guys! Ed.] Over three-quarters of Iran’s oil shipments have, thus far, been confiscated by Trump’s illegal blockade. But with millions of barrels of oil already in tankers at sea and in its shadow fleet ships, with pipelines to Turkey and the Caspian Sea, and with higher crude oil prices due to market unease over how the war is gaming out, all these mean that Iran can sell its oil at premium prices, resulting in an overall increase¹  in state revenues. 

STILL, there's the problem of Iran’s oil storage capacity being nearly full, which means oil wells must be capped, until their flow can be restarted at a future date (not an easy process.) And, don't forget the same problem exists for the rest of the Gulf States with uncapped oil wells filling up storage capacity, necessitating more and more wells be temporarily shuttered, adding to the time it will take to restart them and ramp up production after the war ends. 

👉That's unless Trump does something really stupid like starting the bombing campaign again. Which would trigger Iran to respond with a massive missile attack, decimating the Gulf states (and Israel, and American bases in the Middle East) and their oil infrastructure, taking offline 20% of the globe's oil supply. The resulting damage to economies throughout the world in the wake of such a clusterfuck would be incalculable.

 

MEANWHILE, in early May as I write this, countries around the world are beginning to feel pressure points in their economies as looming shortfalls in crude oil supplies are ‘baked-in’ and all but inevitable, with the resulting supply-chain disruptions already being felt in Asian countries, especially those with inadequate strategic petroleum reserves, or ones that are hard-pressed to pay for more expensive petroleum products. By now, most tankers that exited the Straits prior to February 28 have reached their destinations and have discharged their cargoes. Once that is used up, there will be a 20% shortfall in available crude until production levels once more meet the demand. Unless something is done to bring this war to an end real soon, some commentators predict a global recession by the summer and the possibility of a serious depression this autumn—one that could be on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s—unless crude oil and petroleum distillates are flowing full-throttle within the next few weeks. 

The American ‘counter-blockade’ against Iran must be lifted before the Iranians will even consider talks on opening the Hormuz Strait to pre-war traffic levels. Gulf states that aided Israeli and American attacks are not allowed to use the Straits at present. Global shortfalls in crude oil will mean shortages in dozens upon dozens of plastic products made from oil, including distillates like diesel and jet fuels.

 

Other Gulf exports like LNG, urea and ammonia (used in fertilizers), aluminum, as well as helium used in the manufacture of computer chips, will soon be in short supply. 

And a shortage of certain pigments made with petroleum distalates, along with an accompaning price hike in the available stocks, has led one Japanese (potato) chip manufacturer to print their bags in black and white [The Horror! The Horror! Ed.] 

👉ALREADY, farmers here in Canada are predicting lower crop yields later this year and next summer, due to increased cost of fertilizers, herbicides, diesel fuel, etc. Canada uses approximately 2.4-million bpd of oil, including nearly 900,000 bpd that is imported and sold primarily to eastern Canada. In an oil crunch, I guess Canada could export less to fulfill the country's needs or access the nearly limitless Alberta oil sands. Problem there is getting the oil from the west to the east coast. There are no east-west pipelines for a variety of reasons, and so Canadians should not be too sanguine about easily accessing oil diverted from exports or topping up our tanks with oil sands bitumen in a pinch. All may not go according to plan. And it's interesting to note that Canada is the only member of the G-7 countries that does not have a federally-controled strategic oil reserve, relying, instead, on the vast bitumen deposits in the west. Hmmm...

 

AIR LINES were the first headline grabbers, with an insecure supply chain for jet fuel causing the immediate cancellation of flights or the elimination of air travel routes altogether. (Who wants to buy a return flight ticket when jet fuel might be in short supply at the other end.)

IN EARLY APRIL, farmers in Ireland protested the rising costs of diesel by creating roadblocks with their tractors and other forms of peaceful demonstrations. FOLKS, THE PAIN WILL COME HERE in the next few weeks with the fuel price rise (despite the Liberal government temporarily removing the federal sales tax on gasoline). Expect scarcity of some food products and consumer goods along with price increases. 

 

👉As long as the Straits of Hormuz remains closed, things will only get worse. A note, passed from the Iranian delegation to Pakistani mediators listed five prerequisites that the Americans and Israelis must accept before negotiations over Hormuz could be discussed. These ‘givens’ to any future treaty run headlong into America’s maximal demands of "zero enrichment" of nuclear fuels and limits on Iranian missile forces; etc.. It’s hard to see where a deal can be made, especially given the abysmal track record of Trump’s negotiating team of Mutt and Jeff Kushner and Witkoff; the continued use of those two suggests to all and sundry that the Americans are not interested in genuine peace negotiations. If they were, they would not send these two unserious people to do the hard work of negotiating on behalf of the American government.

 

IT'S a knock-em, smack-em, drag-out match to see who will groan first--Trump or Iran. It's about who can withstand the pain the longest as world markets crash and economies slide into Recession, and even into that razorback-filled pit of Depression, as supply chains crack and crumble. The United States started this thing, with Zionists at home and abroad aiding and abetting, and arm-twisting the American president into yet another foolish and costly escapade in the Middle East. It's not just Epstein's ghost that haunts the sleep of President Trump, it's also the Three Ghosts of Modernity: Hubris, Indifference and Envy.

 

👉I THOUGHT I would get back in writing mode now that Trump’s gone to China and all of us can take a breather and walk through sunlit fields far from The Donald's rollercoaster ride to Hell. Perhaps the Chinese will keep him. Wouldn’t that be nice?     

 

CHEERS, JAKE. _____________________________________

 

* AS I UNDERSTAND IT, Iran’s blockade is legal because the Strait of Hormuz waters lay within its (and shared with Oman’s) maritime territorial waters. The United States is in breech of international law because it has no jurisdiction to seize Iranian ships in the Gulf of Oman’s waters. Iran’s blockade of this vital ‘choke point’ in the maritime supply chain for oil may set a precedent for other such bodies of water throughout the globe. 

 

1. Recall that the United States originally allowed Iranian oil shipments (and Russian oil which remains tariff free) to reach their destinations, thus keeping the international price of oil from climbing too quickly. They subsequently placed sanctions on any country buying Iranian oil. Perhaps the most important aspect in this whole kerfuffle is the willingness on the part of more and more buyers to purchase Iranian oil using local currencies, chiefly the Chinese Renminbi (RBM) instead of U.S. dollars, thus avoiding American scrutiny of their dollar-trade activities. Not using the USD or “petro dollar”, is a sign of the weakening hegemonic power America exerts over global financial markets, with more dominoes set to fall in the coming months and years. 

Stay tuned!