RANT: BIRDS OF A FEATHER

THE OTHER DAY, I WAS IN A COFFEE SHOP waiting for my car to be repaired, and as I sat mulling over how much the brake job would cost me, I became aware of a conversation between two men at a nearby table. One came across to me as some kind of social worker or a self-help coach, or psychologist, judging by the language he used. The other man seemed to have had some trauma in his life, recent or long ago I never learned. At one point he said he was “stuck”, unable to move on and finish with whatever it was binding him to the past. The other man would try to guide the conversation along more optimistic views of the future. He spoke about acceptance and gently (it seemed to me) tried to guide the other man in this direction. He gave the example of being in the downtown branch of our public library and sitting in a different section from the one he normally chose. There he noticed how interesting and ‘new’ the library seemed, and all because of one small change in his routine. The conversation continued until the man who was ‘stuck’ said: “I want to tell my story, but I want it to have a beginning and an end.” I think many of us wish the same when we read what’s happening in the news lately. We want to ‘bookend’ events in Ukraine and Gaza, Iran, etc., and let them fade in the rearview mirror. Dear readers, would we be so lucky!

 

RECALL that “technical” discussions with Iran were to have taken place in Geneva, if memory serves, on Monday, March 2 of this year. But (surprise, surprise) on February 28, the U.S. and Israel, under the cover of upcoming negotiations, began air assaults once more in Iran. This time the Islamic Republic was better prepared than it was for the June 2025 attacks, when Israel launched a similar attack, also under cover of pending negotiations. At that time, Israel took a pummeling from Iranian drones and missiles until an all-too-possible scenario—a threat by PM Netanyahu that he will use nuclear weapons to defeat Iran. To avoid this terrifying possibility, Trump* authorized the United States military to launch an attack against several Iranian nuclear research facilities, neatly ‘book-ending’ June’s “Twelve-Day War.”That was last year. Let's see what this year brings to the Middle East.

FUN TIMES have begun in the fin de siècle of the American empire.

 

I APOLOGIZE for not having written as much in the past few weeks. Every time I’d write something in this digital journal of mine, events would overtake things, and in a generally disheartening manner. We are living in perilous times, folks. SO, it’s time to prime the pump and hop to it!

 

    Hormuz Strait before 28 Feb 2026

👉THE WORLD AWAITS the outcome of the latest ultimatum, as per President Trump’s Truth Social screed, where he gives Iran a few days’ grace to 'come to its senses' and sign onto a fifteen-point peace plan that includes opening the Straits of Hormuz. On Thursday Trump announced a further extension by ten days for peace talks to continue. BTW Iran’s Foreign Minister disavows the very existence of talks and says Iran will continue its missile barrages of Israel and several of the Gulf States that allow over-flights of their territories by American and Israeli war planes or assist in logistics and so on. As it stands, this key “chokepoint” in the world’s supply chain at the neck of the Persian Gulf, where over 20% of the world’s oil and petroleum distillates passes each day, remains virtually closed, save for the Chinese tanker fleet, and fleets from states not involved in supporting the American attack, and—YCMTSU—Iranian oil exports! The Chinese (and other nations, particular BRIC nations), may simply ignore Trump’s tariff regime imposed on any nation that trades with Iran. Their ships pass through the strait after paying a new transit 'fee' to Iran. But ships aligned with Israel or the United States are blocked. There remains the complex and complicating matrix of Western financial networks of insurance, international payments and banking arrangements that the U.S. uses as a cudgel against countries that can't punch back. But times are changing.

 

 

Hormuz Strait after 28 Feb 2026

👉One way to lessen the exposure to dollar-based transactions is to trade in local currencies, like the  Chinese Renminbi (RMB), and evade being tied to the global financial system that has the USD as its reserve currency (for now). One would have thought Iranian oil would be top of the list in the American oil sanctions scheme. So, why has the U.S., in the last few days, lifted its sanctions on Iranian oil? The answer is the knock-on effect of the Islamic Republic closing the Hormuz strait, something Iran said it would do if its own oil and electrical grid were targeted by Israeli and American bombs and missiles. THEY WERE TARGETED in the weeks following the 28 February 2026 resumption of hostilities. 

And here we are FAFO, with oil prices per barrel up about 30%, which, of course, means the price of just about everything can be expected to rise in tandem with the world’s most important natural resource. [I’d pick potable water as number one, but that’s just me. Ed.]

Trump lifted his tariff regime on Iranian oil In order to keep the price of oil on world markets as low as possible. He's also, more quietly, lifted tarriff restrictions on Russian oil in tankers at sea, allowing them to deliver their oil without additional costs for the importing country being incurred via the American tarriff regime [About which Jake says his head hurts trying to understand how the Americans have gotten away for so long with a scheme that looks a lot like like an extortion racket! Ed.]  And if Iran is successful in ‘pinching off’ Gulf oil exports, analysts predict the price of oil could skyrocket to over $200 per barrel, tanking economies that are used to a bbl price of between $60-80. So, no doubt thinking of the midterm House and Senate elections this November, Trump wants to keep the sticker-price shock for Americans to a minimum when they fill their gas tanks this fall. Ergo, lift sanctions and bring more oil onto world markets, thus lowering the price at the pumps. So let's see..no let's hope for a peaceful resoultion to the conflict and that the assholes in charge don't blow up the planet. 😆

 

👉FUN FACT—In Gaza a few days ago as of this posting, troops from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) stand accused of “torturing” an eighteen-month-old toddler “to exert pressure on the father during questioning.” Jawad was detained by the IDF for ten hours before being released into the care of the Red Crescent Society. His father, Karim Abu Nassar, remains in custody. (Don't these jihadi terrorists know they're not supposed to take children under two years of age with them on missions; that's what terrorist daycare centres are for!)

 

The Israeli soldiers are accused of using a nail to puncture a hole in one of Jawad’s legs and burning his other leg with a lit cigarette. Unfortunately, “[t]he ICRC has not issued a statement regarding the matter and rarely does so absent an investigation,” (Common Dreams), so we can’t confirm the health status of the child when he was brought into Red Cresent care, though an “unspecified medical authority” confirmed the wounds are genuine. Also, Palestinians at the nearby the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza witnessed some of the abuse.

 

👉AMID the many war crimes Israel has commited since 7 October 2023, and continues to inflict in Gaza (and the West Bank and elsewhere) despite a so-called ‘ceasefire’ that’s supposed to be in place since October of last year, but instead comes with over 600 killed and 1600 wounded, all military operations, of course, conducted with the frenzy and mayhem we’ve come to expect from IDF storm troopers forces—nevertheless those pieces of shit still surprise me with the level of cruelty they are capable of exhibiting. How low can they go? It's not a limbo dance, after all.

 

👉FUN FACT: One guaranteed to slap your face with a wet fish comes in a recent judicial decision made in Israel. Recall in 2024 when five israeli military prison guards were charged with abusing a Palestinian prisoner, sodomising him with foreign objects to such an extent that he cannot walk due to the internal damage his body was subjected to by guards who would have come in handy shovelling bodies into ovens at Auschitz. All charges, including rape, which normally carries a hefty sentence, were dropped by the Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Itai Ofir. Sweet. What a 😒 surprise. 

But not to worry, someone was charged in the gang rape at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel, in 2024, namely  Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the former Military Advocate General of the Israeli Defense Forces. She's been charged, and could face significant jail time, for leaking the video of the incident, acting as a whistle blower and hanging out for all to see the dirty laundry of the self-proclaimed "world's most moral army".  YCMTSU!😂

 

KARMA will be a bitch in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned.

 

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________________________ 

 

P.S. Just so you know, several countries are facing oil shortages as a result of the blockade. India has less than two weeks supply of oil in its strategic reserves, for example. And other critical supplies like fertilizers need petroleum feed stocks. In the Northern Hemisphere it's planting season and farmer organizations predict lower yields across the board, even if oil shipments returned to normal. (If ever.)

 

* Who knows, it may be the Epstein files and the threat of exposure that forced the U.S. president to send high-altitude stealth bombers to Iran at the end of June last year. There may be similar threats this time as well to force Trump to stike out in full force against Iran to win the war for Israel. But don't hold your breath. Iran is a formitable opponent with lots of fight left. Let's all wait for the other shoe to drop.