Rubio might as well be Pilate washing his hands and saying he is innocent of the Persian Gulf debacle

 Rubio: "It Is Not The United States' Job To Protect Shipping For The Entire Planet, Forever"

 

 

The whole world is laughing at Trump's stupid Strait of Hormuz toll proposal, especially Iran

A 20% charge on a fully loaded VLCC is $30 million. Iran is widely believed to be charging less than 2%.

Trump is a buffoon.

 

Global shipping industry sounds the alarm over Trump’s Hormuz toll plan 

... Shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd has said it is “fundamentally wrong” to charge tolls for passage through international waters, regardless of the country in charge. 

“Tolls for infrastructure such as the Suez Canal or Panama Canal are different, because they reflect major infrastructure investments,” the firm said in a statement. “That is not the case in the Strait of Hormuz.” ...

Trump's protection racket in the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockades the good guys, violates international law same as Iran

 UN maritime agency opposes Hormuz transit fees after Trump demands protection money

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, said Monday that it opposes transit fees in the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump demanded that ships pay protection money.

“We have always been consistent on our stance on fees – IMO stands firmly against charging fees for passage through straits used for international navigation,” a spokesperson said.

“There is no legal basis through which to introduce mandatory tolls simply to transit through a strait,” the spokesperson said.

... Tolls to transit Hormuz are against international law, said James Kraska, an expert on international maritime law at the U.S. Naval War College. The world has an unimpeded right to transit Hormuz, Kraska said. ...  

Incompetent organized crime boss imposes protection fees on Strait of Hormuz cargo which he will also blockade

 

 The tyrant is the real slave. He is mastered by a whole host of conflicting desires, none of which he is therefore able to in any way satisfy.  

Trump proposes 20% toll on cargo through Strait of Hormuz; restarts Iran blockade

President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. will impose fees in the Strait of Hormuz “at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped,” after declaring America’s role as the “guardian” of the major oil-shipping route. ...  Trump’s post asserts that commercial vessels attempting the transit must now pay protection money to the U.S. ... 

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’” he claimed. “But as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”

“The process and formation will begin immediately,” he added. ... 

 

 

Trump's war in the Persian Gulf will have permanent negative consequences for freedom of the seas, just like in the Red Sea

 

Trump cares as little for freedom in Taiwan as he does in Ukraine

 Trump told Xi ‘I don’t talk about’ whether U.S. would defend Taiwan from China

Biden meanwhile publicly committed to the defense of Taiwan right out of the gate in 2021 after a U.S. freedom of navigation exercise in the South China Sea by the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group in late January, and multiple times thereafter in 2021, 2022, and 2024.

Trump is truly disgraceful.

Barron's/AFP, Feb 5, 2021:

... The new US administration has said its commitment to Taiwan is "rock-solid," with officials in Washington signalling that they will not tolerate any expansionist moves by Beijing. ...

 

Some 230 tankers are loaded with oil and waiting to sail out of the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, but they can't

 The Strait of Hormuz is not open as Iran controls access after ceasefire, UAE oil CEO says

... “This moment requires clarity,” said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber in a social media post. “So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open. Access is being restricted, conditioned and controlled.”

Iran has made clear that ships must obtain its permission to pass through the strait, Al Jaber said. “That is not freedom of navigation. That is coercion,” the ADNOC chief said. ...

 

America is no longer a world superpower because it doesn't have a Navy capable of maintaining freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, let alone in the West Philippine Sea or the Taiwan Strait

But we can still put people in a tin can and send them around the moon like we did already in 1968.

We also don't have a military capable of stopping Russian aggression in Europe, because we're too tired after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Put up or shut up, Ben. 

This Is What a World Superpower Looks Like

Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire

Trump gaslights America about affordability in last night's speech, says it only became an issue during the Biden administration

 I've been talking about affordability until I'm blue in the face right here ever since the Great Recession wrecked America and Obama did nothing about it.

There's even a label for it, with over 120 posts about it going all the way back to the beginning.

Affordability has become an even bigger problem because of the recent episode of inflation, no question about it.  

For example in 2025 the average sales price of a single family home in my county has been $433k, 87% higher than it was in 2019.

For that to be affordable, an income of $166.5k is necessary (2.6x = 433,000), but 94% of individual wage earners didn't make that much in 2023.

But in Trump's America in 2019, when the average sales price of a single family home in my county was only $232k, 85% couldn't afford it because they didn't make the necessary $89.2k a year.

Same shit, different day. Illegal aliens weren't to blame in 2019 any more than they are in 2025. 

Millions of Americans lost their jobs in 2009 and never got them back. Many of them lost their homes, too, and much else. Zero interest rate policy for a subsequent decade is what made housing unaffordable then, and Trump is calling for more of the same now.

People like me voted for Trump in 2016 because we thought that finally we had someone who meant business about stuff like that, but his failure to prioritize illegal immigration in 2017, his signature campaign issue, indicated that he wasn't a serious person, and the rest of his tenure proved it.

And he still isn't serious. 

He's wasting billions of dollars rounding up illegals whom he now laughably says number 25 million when he should be rounding up their employers and passing legislation which puts the screws to THEM instead of to some grandma with a sign at a protest rally.

He's also wasting billions going after Venezuela, which hasn't paid ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips about $10 billion for expropriating their oil assets in 2007. Fighting this small potatoes matter is also costing us a fortune.

He also wasted $9-$12 billion in the Red Sea trying to stop the Houthis, but cut and ran when it got too expensive, leaving shipping the sitting duck it was in the first place, so it still goes around Africa instead. Transits through the Suez are down 50% and tonnage is down 66% compared with 2023.

America is no longer the guarantor of freedom of navigation on the seas. It doesn't care about freedom in Ukraine, and it certainly doesn't care about economic freedom at home. If it did it wouldn't spend the country into oblivion, and would tax the bejeebers out of the billionaires and leave the rest of us alone. 

We do not have a serious president.

It's all theatre.  

As Mad King Ludwig speeds a carrier strike group from the Med to the Caribbean, American failure to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea is highlighted by the latest Suez Canal navigation report for 3Q2025

 It's a picture of dismal failure.

The U.S. Navy has not made the Red Sea safe for free trade.

The Houthis remain a potent threat to shipping. 

3Q2025 statistics compared with 3Q2023 show the number of ships transiting the Suez Canal down 49.8%.

Net tons passing through is down 65.8%.

 

 

Donald Trump utterly failed to restore freedom of navigation through the Suez Canal: In 2Q2025 the number of ships passing through is down 55.2% and total net tons passing through is down 69.9% compared with 2Q2023

 

Compared to the first quarter of 2023, total ships passing through the Suez Canal is down 52.7% in 1Q2025, and total net tons passing through is down 68.4%

 Freedom of the seas not restored.

 

Traffic through the Suez Canal to and from the Red Sea remains down 60%, Egypt is losing billions of dollars on transits still rerouted around the southern tip of Africa

 The New York Times reports here:

... The cease-fire, which began May 6, ended a U.S. campaign that involved over 1,100 strikes against the Houthis in Yemen and became a source of embarrassment for the Trump administration after group chats about the strikes inadvertently became public. The Pentagon had planned on a monthslong bombardment, but President Trump ended it after about 50 days.

“If the intention was to restore freedom of navigation, which is what they stated it was, then the results speak for themselves: The shipping industry has not gone back,” said Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd’s List, a shipping publication. ...

 

American inability to guarantee freedom of the seas is a serious turning point for the world.

Hooah: France and Britain announce freedom of navigation exercises in South China Sea

It's about time.

The story is here.

China is so full of crap, says US freedom of navigation patrols constitute "militarization" of South China Sea

Here:

Senior Col. Zhao Xiaozhou, of the People’s Liberation Army’s Academy of Military Sciences, suggested in a question to Mr. Mattis that the U.S. Navy’s maneuvers near the islands could also be called militarization.

Like the US, China is free to conduct freedom of navigation patrols same as the US. That isn't good enough for China. It lays claim, illegally, to the whole area, and seeks to prohibit freedom of navigation in the area to everyone else. Building islands out of reefs and occupying them illegally and then militarizing them is proof enough of that.

Military confrontation is inevitable.