The IAEA's Grossi says neither Israel nor the United States has obliterated Iran's capacity to make war

 

Obliteration schmobliteration

 

Ceasefire schmeesefire

 

Iran is now but a shadow of its former self

 Iran's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

This report sounds like there's wiggle room for Israel to take out Iran's Supreme Leader after missile strike on Israeli hospital

 Dozens of Iranian missiles strike major Israeli hospital and residential buildings — as Israel hits nuclear sites 

... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to hit back even harder at Iran following the strike.

“We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran,” he vowed in an X post.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, backed up Netanyahu’s threat.

“These are war crimes of the most serious kind — and [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes,” he tweeted.

“The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran in order to remove threats to the State of Israel and undermine the ayatollahs’ regime.” ...          

And there it is:

 

 

Real Clear Politics runs post by a comedian telling us Iran never invaded anybody and Donald Trump would ruin his presidency by starting a war against it

 In Rob Schneider's world Iran never funded Hamas which invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, never built and launched wave after wave of ballistic missiles at Israeli civilians, never enriched enough uranium to build over a dozen nuclear weapons, never promised over and over again death to Israel and death to America. 

Truly hilarious.

 

 

Death toll from Iranian ballistic missile attacks in Israel rises to 24, reinforced safe room bunkers in the centers of high rises all across the country prove vulnerable to direct hits

An Emad missile on a launcher at a parade in Tehran, 2019

 

 Bunker-busting missile strike shakes Israelis’ faith in their safety 

... Rather than detonating its roughly 700kg warhead on the external walls of the residential block, the Iranian ballistic missile travelled right into the heart of the structure.

It exploded only when it struck the reinforced bunker nestling in the core of the building.

Four people were killed, two of them inside the shelter. ...

Following the tragedy in Petah Tikva, the Home Front Command was forced to state that the reinforced concrete shelters were not designed to withstand “direct hits”, after conceding that the Iranian missile “breached” the structure, causing it to collapse. ...

 

Meanwhile Sean Davis' The Federalist is ground zero for the anti-war right, still ignoring what der Führer says

There isn't a single story on the front page right now at The Federalist about the Israeli-Iranian conflict, like it's not even news.

Americans Are Done With the Deep State's Forever Wars

Sean Davis, X

 

I search for "Iran" and get stuff like this:

 

‘Preventative War’ Against Iran Would Be Foolhardy And Unpopular With Americans

 

Why Conflict With Iran Over Iraq Can’t End Until America Withdraws

Israel states that one third of Iran's ballistic missile launch capability has been destroyed

 It took Israel just two days to get control of the skies over Western Iran. With that accomplished, destroying the rest of the launchers should come more easily.

 

 

 

Iran's last gasp, ship signals in the Strait of Hormuz jammed from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas

Bloomberg reports: 

Ship Signal Jamming in Persian Gulf Worsens as Conflict Widens

 Navigation signals from more than 900 vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf went awry over the weekend, creating confusion in the shipping chokepoint as the fighting between Iran and Israel intensified. ... The Joint Maritime Information Center, an international naval task force monitoring the area, warned on Sunday that there are instances of “extreme jamming” of signals from the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. ...

 

 Update:

Two oil tankers collide, catch fire near Strait of Hormuz...

 

Two oil tankers collided and caught fire on Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz, where electronic interference has surged during conflict between Iran and Israel, but there were no injuries to crew or spillage reported.

With Iran and Israel firing missiles at each other since Friday, interference has disrupted navigation systems near the vital sea route between Iran and Oman which handles about a fifth of the world's oil. ...

 

Much of Trump's support comes from people with a libertarian habit of mind which insists that what is politically possible and what is perfect must be enemies of each other

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course he isn't going full TACO, just half TACO with a twist.

Chinese students in America number under 300k annually. Communist Party membership/support will receive more scrutiny.

And helping Israel beat Iran doesn't mean being neck-deep in war.

But this gets traffic, which is the point for social media parasites. 

Ah, so Trump is The Decider now lol, becomes more like George W. Bush every day

 

Trump Says He Decides What ‘America First’ Means

Michael Scherer, The Atlantic

 

... “America First” means whatever he says it does.

 

“Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that,” Trump told me. ...

 

Still an ignoramus after all these years, but he's still right about Iran, contra Tucker Carlson:

 

“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.” ... 

“Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, very simple. Regardless—Israel or not Israel—Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb,” Trump told me. ...            

And that makes him exactly like old Georgie:

“Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations,” the president said. “For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

 

 

 

Israel has started attacking Iran's oil sector in Bushehr Province this morning, which will concern China since it imports 16% of its oil from Iran, buying 90% of Iranian oil exports

 The cash China provides Iran in this transaction funds the ballistic missiles raining down on Tel Aviv this week.

 

 

 

Israel makes sausage of Salami

 Israel attacks Iran, airstrikes kill Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami

... Iranian state media reported that Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] was killed in a strike. ... 

Beyond Tehran, Iranian news channel IRINN reports that there were airstrikes on the city of Natanz, which is home to a key nuclear facility. Also hit were targets in the city of Khandab, where a heavy water nuclear reactor is located, and Khoramabad, the site of a ballistic missile base. ...

 

Mark Levin is urging Donald Trump to join Israel in a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities

 Mark Levin is up against many individuals in the Trump administration who are anti-war, including J. D. Vance in particular, and Tulsi Gabbard.

Former national security adviser Mike Waltz was of the same mind as Mark Levin.

Inside the MAGA vs. hawk battle to sway Trump on bombing Iran

Gabbard warns of ‘nuclear holocaust’ in ominous social media video

 

The funniest thing that's happening to Donald Trump right now is that while he tries to intimidate the Fed to reduce interest rates and they do nothing, yields are soaring all by themselves

 The bond market is issuing a vote of no confidence in our elected leadership.

One branch of Republican government thinks this is the 19th century with a robust manufacturing base it needs to protect with crazy wild tariffs, and another branch of Republican government thinks it's just fine to go on spending like drunken sailors and not raise taxes to pay for any of it.

Interest payments alone on the national debt in fiscal year 2024 soared to $1.1 trillion against revenues of $4.9 trillion.

Meanwhile the most powerful military in the world can't stop a bunch of rag-headed heathen bastards from launching missiles at Israel.

These people are crackerdog.

US Treasury yields are now up a net 2.37% across the curve since last Friday.

 

Long duration is very unhappy: 10Y at 4.53 at the close yesterday, 20Y at 5.00, 30Y at 4.97.

 

VUSTX ytd total return: -0.53%.

 

 

A week before the 60-day War Powers Act deadline, the Houthis conveniently cry uncle and pledge to halt attacks on US naval forces and Red Sea shipping

 

Israel wipes out the Houthi airport, fuel supplies, and concrete factory and then they finally cry uncle? 

Something doesn't add up here.

Trump announces US will stop bombing Houthis 

... Trump, ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, said the halt would start immediately. The Houthis approached the administration on Monday night indicating “they want to stop the fighting,” he said. ...

Israel escalated strikes against the Houthis on Monday night with 20 fighter jets bombing the rebel-held port city of Hodeidah. Israeli forces were responding to a ballistic missile strike against the Jerusalem airport by the group. The Trump administration also labeled the Houthis a terror group in March, changing a Biden-era policy. ... Houthi strikes against the waterway have declined significantly in recent months, and the group hasn’t targeted a commercial vessel since late December. ... 

Israel's military says it has fully disabled Yemen's main airport with strikes... 

... “We indirectly informed the Americans that the continued escalation will affect the criminal Trump’s visit to the region, and we have not informed them of anything else,” said Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi’s supreme political council, in a statement carried by the rebel-controlled SABA news agency early Wednesday. Trump is due to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week. ...

The War Powers clock is ticking: The US military has been bombing Yemeni Houthis since March 15 but the Houthis can still strike Israel

 

A missile from Yemen halts flights in Israel hours before top officials vote on plans for Gaza war 

... Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport. ...

The US depression in road travel from COVID-19 ended in 2024 and lasted five years

 The 3.257 trillion miles of 2019 was exceeded in 2024 by 5 billion miles, on an average annual basis.

The depression in road travel from the Great Financial Crisis lasted eight years, from 2007 to 2015.

Previous to that we had similar, but smaller contractions in US road travel, from 1979 to 1982, three years, and from 1973 to 1975, two years, precipitated by the oil trade shocks of the Iranian Revolution and the Yom Kippur War respectively.

You are now free to move about the country.

 

Paper tiger misses deadline, tells Hamas he really means it this time as he gives billions to Israel but hangs Ukraine out to dry

 

... Last month Trump called on Hamas to release the hostages by Feb. 15 or "all hell is going to breakout." That deadline came and went. This time, Trump is describing his ultimatum as the "last warning!" ...

“I have just met with your former hostages whose lives you have destroyed," Trump added. "This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.” ...

The Trump Administration has already approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, according to the State Department’s website. ...

Hamas still is holding 59 hostages in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead. ...

More.