"People Reveal What Is Really Happening In Iran’s Drone War"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 3/17/26

"People Reveal What Is 

Really Happening In Iran’s Drone War"

"The numbers don't lie. Iran builds drones for $20,000. America shoots them down with $2,000,000 missiles. Every single time. And Iran has hundreds of thousands of them. While Washington tells you we're winning, our own military analysts are warning we could run out of interceptor missiles within weeks. A billion dollars a day is being spent on this war, with no congressional approval, no vote, and no plan. Meanwhile, a sitting congressman was caught buying defense stocks the same week the Pentagon announced a 300,000 drone purchase. Eleven billion dollars in six days. Enough to fund healthcare for millions. Instead it's gone. And the casualty numbers? The government is lying about those too. A deleted job posting at Dover Air Force Base tells you everything you need to know. Veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now watch this unfold are speaking out. Korea. Vietnam. Afghanistan. Iraq. Zero victories. And now Iran. When does it stop?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Col. Douglas Macgregor, 'Now There’s No Way Out.' 45,000 Iranian Missiles Ready"

World Conflict Analysis, 3/17/26

"Col. Douglas Macgregor: 

'Now There’s No Way Out.' 45,000 Iranian Missiles Ready"

"Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor warns that the confrontation between the United States, Iran, and Israel may have reached a point where de-escalation is becoming increasingly difficult. According to Macgregor, the scale of Iran’s missile arsenal is one of the most underestimated factors shaping the conflict. He points to claims that Iran and its regional partners could have access to tens of thousands of missiles and rockets, forming a layered deterrence system capable of striking military bases, cities, and strategic infrastructure across the region. This includes not only Iran’s domestic arsenal but also capabilities distributed among allied groups, creating a multi-front threat environment.

Macgregor argues that such a buildup changes the nature of the war. Instead of a short, decisive campaign, any conflict could turn into a prolonged exchange of strikes, where even advanced air defense systems struggle to intercept large volumes of incoming missiles. He also emphasizes that once both sides are committed and heavily armed, political leaders may find themselves with limited exit options. Each new strike increases pressure to respond, creating a cycle that is difficult to break without appearing to concede. Another concern is the broader regional impact. Large-scale missile exchanges could disrupt critical infrastructure and energy routes - especially near key chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz - with consequences for global markets and security.

Macgregor’s warning is stark: when military capabilities reach this scale and escalation is already underway, conflicts can become self-sustaining, driven more by momentum than by clear strategic goals."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

OPTM, 3/17/26

"Iran Just Struck Knesset Building 

Filled With Israeli Government Ministers"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

(With U.S. debt now at $38.9 trillion, the cost of the interest bill

alone on all that borrowing is about $3 billion a day. A quick calculation:

the USA is paying out over a trillion in interest this year.)

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Car Market Is Collapsing"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 3/17/26

"The Car Market Is Collapsing"

"The automotive industry is facing serious problems in today’s economy, and consumers are paying the price. In this video, I break down shocking reports of deceptive car dealership practices, hidden fees, false advertising, and the recent crackdown involving dozens of dealerships. From misleading pricing to forced add-ons and financing traps, buying a car has become more complicated—and risky—than ever before. We also dive into the bigger economic picture, including delays in online car sales platforms, rising business costs, layoffs, and what’s really happening with electric vehicle inventory. If you're thinking about buying a car, investing in a business, or trying to protect your money in this unstable economy, this is information you need to know right now."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"China Eyes Taiwan as U.S. Far East Missile Defense Relocated to Mid-East"

"China Eyes Taiwan as U.S. Far East

 Missile Defense Relocated to Mid-East"

by Benjamin Bartee

"I predicted long before the Iran war kicked off in March that 2026 would be the year the CCP pulls the trigger on its long-awaited incursion across the Taiwan Strait to reclaim what it views as its wayward island redoubt. Among other reasons for my crystal-ball prophecy, Xi Jinping himself essentially declared the conquest as a Chinese New Year’s Resolution of sorts, describing the forced “reunification” of Taiwan with China as “unstoppable.”

Full screen recommended.

I can find no indication that my prediction was flawed, and I stand behind it. In the CCP’s eyes, the unfolding geopolitical crisis in Iran may provide a golden opportunity to initiate hostilities while the United States military is distracted and stretched thin. No matter how massive the superpower, fighting a three-front war in far-off regions is usually a recipe for disaster.

In the event of such an invasion, Taiwan’s ostensible regional allies in the neoliberal fold likely wouldn’t be willing or able to do much to thwart China either. Via Asia Times: “If the Iran conflict continues for an extended period, lasting months rather than weeks, while casualties mount and the US appears bogged down, Chinese President Xi Jinping might be tempted to finally make good on his threat to move against Taiwan, a “reunification” he recently characterized as “unstoppable.”

China might assess that its military overmatch around Taiwan is such that the US can’t amass enough force to forestall or respond to a Chinese assault without suffering heavy losses. And if the Americans don’t take the lead, no other regional nation will, not even nearby Japan. Despite impressive niche capabilities, the Japan Self Defense Force can’t fight a major war on its own…

The Iran conflict compounds the distraction and resource drain. Whatever the US does in Iran or provides to Ukraine is not available for a fight in the Western Pacific, and the US military may eventually need to draw on stocks allocated for an Asia-Pacific contingency… But maybe US allies can make up the difference? Unlikely. Japan is remilitarizing, but has a long way to go. South Korea is a huge arms producer but focuses on North Korea, and it’s questionable what Seoul would do in the event of a Taiwan conflict.

Leftist President Lee Jae-myung and his administration are reluctant to anger China. And President Lee himself said, while a candidate, that what China did to Taiwan was not South Korea’s business.” Reports over the past week indicate the recent movement of Patriot missiles and other munitions out of South Korea to fortify the U.S. posture in the Persian Gulf.

Via Reuters:“South Korea can deter any threats from North Korea even ​if Washington redeploys weapons stationed in the country, President Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday, after reports that U.S. missile defense systems were ‌being sent to the Middle East. Reports on shifting key U.S. military assets have sparked concern in Asia about the potential gaps in regional defences if Washington diverts ships and missiles used to deter military flexing by China and North Korea to other theaters.

“It appears that there is controversy recently over U.S. Forces in Korea shipping some weapons, such as artillery batteries and air-defense weapons, out ​of the country,” Lee said in a cabinet meeting, noting that while Seoul had expressed opposition, it was not in a position to make ​demands. Lee said the removal of some U.S. weapons from the country “does not hinder deterrence strategy towards North Korea,” noting South Korea’s defense spending ⁠and conventional capabilities far exceeded those of North Korea.

South Korea hosts a major U.S. military presence in combined defense against nuclear-armed North Korea, with about 28,500 troops ​and surface-to-air defense systems... South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Friday that U.S. and South Korean militaries were discussing the possible redeployment of some U.S. Patriot ​missile defense systems to the conflict in the Middle East. South Korean media reported some missile batteries had been shipped out of Osan Air Base and were likely to be redeployed to U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, though South Korean authorities have not confirmed these reports.”

Reporting over the weekend indicates recently increased Chinese aerial activity near Taiwan, likely to probe defenses and gauge the diplomatic response from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, et al., and possibly to flex some muscle ahead of Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing. Via Politico: “Taiwan saw a surge of Chinese military planes near the island, its defense ministry said Sunday, after a sharp drop in flights over the past two weeks had sparked discussions among observers. The ministry detected 26 Chinese military aircraft around the island on Saturday, with 16 of them entering its northern, central and southwestern Air Defense Identification Zone. Seven naval ships were spotted around the island, it reported.” A few considerations should China pull the trigger:

• Could the United States and its allies realistically fight a three-front war in Eurasia, the Middle East, and the Orient?

• Could American allies, which have long neglected their own defense spending as they have enjoyed the warm embrace of the American “security umbrella,” as it’s known, pull their own weight in each theater?

• Does the global oil squeeze help or hurt China’s military capacity, given that almost all of its oil supplies come through the Strait of Hormuz?

• In the event of escalation, should the U.S. et al. rush to defend Taiwan, would Chinese allies like North Korea and Pakistan, also both nuclear powers, join in?"

- https://armageddonprose.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "War at the Improv"

"War at the Improv"

by Bill Bonner

"Oil is to the real economy what credit is to Wall Street."

- Tom Dyson (or words to that effect)

Youghal, Ireland - "Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday here in Ireland. A time for the ‘wearing of the green.’ Many downtown areas will be closed off for parades. But here at Bonner Private Research, our dot-connecting mission continues as usual. And...whoa...what a show. We are looking at some marvelous, exploding dots...like fireworks thrown up into the air, bursting into hundreds of sparkling cinders before they fall to the ground. And any one of them could fall into a tank of jet fuel. What an exciting time! And in this incendiary illumination we see the outlines of several great questions.

If Tom is right, we will soon get to see what effect a sudden uptick in oil prices will actually have. Will it send modern economies into recession? And when investors see it depressing corporate earnings, will it mean a crash in the stock market?

But that’s not all. There are also the strategic questions. Can Iran  actually control the Strait of Hormuz? Could its rockets and drones sink a US Navy warship? And what happens to modern civilization when its most precious commodity - its lifeblood - is suddenly much harder to get? Governments go broke? People go hungry? Riots? Revolutions?

MN Gordon adds ominous background music: "Skyrocketing oil prices are a noted precursor to declining economic activity. Higher gas prices are not just an inconvenient market fluctuation. They act as a regressive tax on every single human being who eats, moves, or buys things. When the price of gas spikes and the pumps run dry, the very foundation of the global economy crumbles."

The US strategic plan has still not been revealed. For many years, America’s generals warned against attacking Iran. It could control the Strait of Hormuz, they pointed out...which could have devastating consequences. As if to confirm our hypothesis - that Donald Trump’s historic mission (not his intention) is to isolate and weaken the US empire - POTUS rushed boldly in where others feared to tread.

And now, surprise! The Strait of Hormuz is closed to the US and Israel. And surprise again. Business Insider: "Sky-high gas prices are already hitting the economy. “When gas prices spike, commuting effectively becomes a pay cut,” one chief operating officer told us."

While a few employers say they’re softening their RTO stances amid rising gas prices, the vast majority are unlikely to change their in-office requirements, particularly in a cooling job market where many workers lack the leverage to push back. The latest increase is a reminder of how quickly surging gas prices can ripple through the economy. So what happens next?

Team Trump could announce victory...bring the troops home and stage a parade down 5th avenue. After all, they deserve to celebrate; they’ve ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capacity twice! Trouble is, as long as Iran still blocks the Strait of Hormuz, it will be a fake triumph. Already, the attack on Iran looks like an improv war…where the main protagonist makes it up as he goes along. And now, he can either end the war in what will look like another failure. Or, he can expand it (with footsoldiers, for example). Either way, it will probably hurt Republican chances in November elections.

Note that Iran doesn’t have to block all traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to succeed. The plausible threat of destroying a tanker or two is enough to greatly reduce ready supplies of oil...and greatly increase fuel and fertilizer prices.

A further note: the idea of using US Navy escorts to free up shipping seems cockamamie. Ships are drone magnets. The Iranians might be able to destroy a US ship of the line, as well as the commercial traffic it is protecting. And even if the escort plan succeeded, there aren’t enough ships in the US Navy to uncork the bottleneck. Trump tried to solve this problem by inviting other nations to join in. But alienating friends and allies comes at a cost. So far, Italy, Spain, France, Norway, Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany have all wisely said ‘no’...other nations simply haven’t answered.

So, we may be looking at more than just a contest between Israel and the US on one side and Iran and its proxies on the other. We might also be looking at a major test for Team Trump and for the US empire…or even a major test for oil-fired civilization itself. Can it avoid a war that might cut it off from the very thing it needs most? More to come..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Scott Ritter, "Nuclear War is Coming, Brace Yourself"

A Must-View!

Global War Analysis, 3/17/26

Scott Ritter, 3/17/26

"Nuclear War is Coming, Brace Yourself"

"Former UN weapons inspector and military analyst Scott Ritter warns that the confrontation involving Iran, the United States, and Israel may be entering a far more intense and unpredictable phase. According to Ritter, recent developments suggest that what lies ahead could be more severe than anything seen so far in the conflict.

Ritter argues that Iran’s strategy is built around long-term endurance and escalation control, meaning it does not need a quick victory to achieve its objectives. Instead, by sustaining pressure through missile strikes, drones, and regional operations, Iran can gradually increase the cost for its adversaries over time. He also highlights the risk of multi-front escalation. The conflict could expand beyond a single battlefield, involving different regions across the Middle East and increasing the likelihood of miscalculation between multiple actors. Another key concern is the global impact. If tensions escalate further - especially around critical energy routes like the Strait of Hormuz - the consequences could extend beyond the region, affecting oil markets, global trade, and international security.

Ritter’s central message is a warning: wars often reach tipping points where events accelerate rapidly and unpredictably. If escalation continues, the conflict could shift into a phase where control becomes much harder and the risks much higher."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How the War With Iran Will Trigger a Global Financial Crisis (w/Yanis Varoufakis)"

"How the War With Iran Will Trigger a 

Global Financial Crisis (w/Yanis Varoufakis)"

The Chris Hedges Report, 3/17/26

"Alongside the death and destruction occurring all throughout the Middle East as the war in Iran rages on, the rest of the world is experiencing the economic blowback of the conflict. Oil and natural gas prices are skyrocketing in the West as well as the Global South following the closing of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yanis Varoufakis, economist and former Greek finance minister, joins The Chris Hedges Report to explain how the war will continue to mangle the global economy and what countries can expect in the coming months. “The vast majority of the very people, the blue collar workers that voted Trump in, are suffering exorbitant increases in their transport costs. Let’s not forget that the average MAGA supporter, voter, travels 100 miles a day in very thirsty SUVs, cars, and that… increase in the gas price goes straight into their family budget,” Varoufakis explains.

“Europe is in an awful situation,” Varoufakis says. “I was looking at electricity prices today across Europe and I saw that in Spain, a kilowatt hour was worth 35 euros, something like 40 bucks. In Germany, it was 98. And in my godforsaken country, Greece, it was 144 euros. So it is not just that a wave has hit us in Europe from this recessionary tsunami. It has hit us asymmetrically. And the asymmetries are due to the relative power of the local oligarchies.”

- https://chrishedges.substack.com/

"Bombing Japan, A Retrospective and the Implications for Iran"

Click image for larger size.

Destruction of the American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

 radar systems in early March 2026, stationed in the UAE, at Al Ruwais

"Bombing Japan, A Retrospective 

and the Implications for Iran"

by Larry C. Johnson

"Anyone who thinks a massive bombing campaign will compel the Iranians to surrender and dump the mullahs, does not know the history of Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union in 1945. The US bombing of Japan started in earnest in March 1945 and continued through August 8, 1945. The conventional bombing killed an estimated 500,000 Japanese - mostly civilians. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August added as many as 226,000 to that macabre sum. Yet, it was not the bombings alone that prodded Japan to surrender… It was the Soviet entry into the war that forced Japan to surrender.

In doing this comparison, consider this: Iran is almost 5 times the geographic size of Japan, and Iran has 91 million people compared to Japan’s population in January 1945, which was an estimated 72 million.

Below is a chronological list of major US bombing raids on Japan during 1945, focusing on the strategic air campaign conducted by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), primarily using B-29 Superfortress bombers. This includes both conventional firebombing raids (incendiary attacks on urban areas) and the atomic bombings. The list is derived from historical records and focuses on raids with documented impacts; smaller or reconnaissance missions are omitted. Estimated killed figures refer to civilian and military deaths directly from the raids (immediate and short-term from injuries/fire/radiation), often including ranges due to varying historical assessments. Many estimates are approximate because of the destruction of records, population displacement, and challenges in post-war accounting. Where specific figures are unavailable, I’ve noted “not specified” or provided context from aggregated data:

March 9-10, 1945: Tokyo (Operation Meetinghouse, firebombing). Estimated killed: 80,000–100,000.

March 11, 1945: Nagoya (firebombing). Estimated killed: Minimal (fewer than 200; raid was ineffective due to high winds dispersing incendiaries).

March 13-14, 1945: Osaka (firebombing). Estimated killed: 3,000–4,000.

March 16-17, 1945: Kobe (firebombing). Estimated killed: 8,000–8,841.

March 18-19, 1945: Nagoya (firebombing). Estimated killed: 1,000–2,000.

April 13, 1945: Tokyo arsenal district (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (raid targeted industrial areas; casualties lower than major urban raids, likely hundreds).

April 15, 1945: Tokyo region, including Kawasaki and Yokohama (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (industrial focus; estimated hundreds to low thousands).

May 13, 1945: Nagoya (daylight incendiary). Estimated killed: 3,866.

May 16-17, 1945: Nagoya (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (follow-up raid; likely hundreds).

May 23, 1945: Southern Tokyo (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (urban raid; estimates around 500–1,000).

May 25, 1945: Central Tokyo, including Tokyo Imperial Palace area (firebombing). Estimated killed: 3,000–4,000.

May 29, 1945: Yokohama (daylight incendiary). Estimated killed: Over 1,000 (up to 2,600).

June 1, 1945: Osaka (daylight incendiary). Estimated killed: 3,960.

June 5, 1945: Kobe (daylight incendiary). Estimated killed: Not specified (follow-up; likely 1,000–2,000).

June 7, 1945: Osaka (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (likely hundreds).

June 15, 1945: Osaka and Amagasaki (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (combined; around 500–1,000).

June 17, 1945: Hamamatsu, Kagoshima, Ōmuta, Yokkaichi (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (dispersed; low hundreds per city).

June 19, 1945: Fukuoka, Shizuoka, Toyohashi (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified (similar to above).

June 28, 1945: Moji, Nobeoka, Okayama, Sasebo (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 1, 1945: Kumamoto, Kure, Shimonoseki, Ube (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 3, 1945: Himeji, Kōchi, Takamatsu, Tokushima (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 6, 1945: Akashi, Chiba, Kōfu, Shimizu (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 9, 1945: Gifu, Sakai, Sendai, Wakayama (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 12, 1945: Ichinomiya, Tsuruga, Utsunomiya, Uwajima (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 16, 1945: Hiratsuka, Kuwana, Numazu, Ōita (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 19, 1945: Chōshi, Fukui, Hitachi, Okazaki (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 26, 1945: Matsuyama, Ōmuta, Tokuyama (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

July 28, 1945: Aomori, Ichinomiya, Tsu, Uji-Yamada, Ōgaki, Uwajima (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

August 1, 1945: Hachiōji, Mito, Nagaoka, Toyama (firebombing). Estimated killed: 1,000–2,000 (Toyama had highest destruction; around 1,500 killed there alone).

August 5, 1945: Imabari, Maebashi, Nishinomiya, Saga (firebombing). Estimated killed: Not specified.

August 6, 1945: Hiroshima (atomic bombing). Estimated killed: 70,000–146,000 (including later deaths from radiation by end of 1945).

August 9, 1945: Nagasaki (atomic bombing). Estimated killed: 40,000–80,000 (including later deaths from radiation by end of 1945).

The good news for Iran - if you dare to call it good news - is that the daily bombings by Israel and the United States have caused only a fraction of the fatalities Japan experience during a six-month bombing campaign.

Russia’s (Soviet Union’s) entry into the Pacific theater of the war was a critical factor in Japan’s surrender, eroding any remaining hope for negotiation and exposing military vulnerabilities. While intertwined with the atomic bombings, it likely accelerated the decision by making total defeat inevitable. In the final months of World War II, Japan was facing mounting defeats in the Pacific, with US forces closing in and a devastating strategic bombing campaign underway. By mid-1945, Japanese leaders were seeking ways to end the war on terms short of unconditional surrender, as outlined in the Potsdam Declaration (July 26, 1945). A key part of this strategy involved approaching the Soviet Union - then neutral under the 1941 Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact - to act as a mediator with the Allies. However, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin had secretly agreed with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to enter the war against Japan within three months of Germany’s surrender (which occurred on May 8, 1945).

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed tens of thousands and shocked Japan’s leadership, but it did not immediately prompt surrender. On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, abrogating the neutrality pact. The next day, August 9, over 1.5 million Soviet troops launched a massive invasion (Operation August Storm) into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and northern Korea. This assault overwhelmed the Japanese Kwantung Army, which numbered around 700,000 but was undermanned and poorly equipped. The Soviets advanced rapidly, capturing vast territories and inflicting heavy casualties - estimates suggest 84,000 Japanese killed and over 600,000 captured by the operation’s end. The same day as the invasion’s start, the US dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

The Soviet declaration of war and subsequent invasion played a significant role in Japan’s decision to surrender, often viewed as a “twin shock” alongside the atomic bombings. Japan had pinned its strategy on Soviet mediation to secure a conditional peace, preserving the emperor’s status and avoiding full occupation. Soviet entry into the war shattered this illusion, signaling that no neutral third party would intervene. As noted in declassified documents and historical analyses, Japan’s Supreme War Council was divided post-Hiroshima, with some hardliners still resisting surrender in hopes of Soviet assistance.

The invasion opened a new northern front, threatening Japan’s continental empire and homeland. The Kwantung Army’s rapid collapse - losing Manchuria (a key industrial and resource base) in days - was a psychological blow, demonstrating Japan’s inability to sustain a prolonged defense. This compounded the exhaustion from US island-hopping and bombing campaigns, making continued resistance futile. Soviet forces also seized Sakhalin and the Kurils, cutting off potential retreat routes and supply lines.

In Hirohito’s August 15 surrender broadcast (the “Jewel Voice Broadcast”), he cited the atomic bombs but also alluded to the “new and most cruel bomb” and the broader strategic situation, which implicitly included the Soviet threat. A subsequent message to the armed forces on August 17 explicitly referenced Soviet entry as a reason for surrender. Military leaders, fearing Soviet occupation of the home islands, saw it as a tipping point. Even after the emperor’s decision, a failed coup by hardline officers on August 14–15 aimed to continue the war, underscoring the internal resistance that Soviet actions helped overcome.

My point in revisiting Japan’s decision to end the war is to emphasize the limitations of achieving a surrender or a regime change via bombing alone. Even the use of two atomic bombs did not persuade the Japanese to surrender… The entrance of Russian troops into the fray tipped the scales in Japan’s decision to accept unconditional surrender. Compared to what the US did to Japan in 1945, the current attack on Iran represents a much smaller scale of destruction… Thank God for that.

Meanwhile, the comparison photos at the top of this article show that Iran is exacting a high price on US radars and air defense systems. Unlike Japan, who was bleeding out in the final year of the war, Iran continues to hit key US military installations in the Persian Gulf while pummeling Israel’s economic and military infrastructure. As long as Iran maintains control of the Persian Gulf, this war will go on for several months."

- https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/

"Alert! Fear Wave Imminent; Iran's Secret Weapon; 1,000 Drones Attack Moscow!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 3/17/26

"Alert! Fear Wave Imminent, Iran's Secret Weapon; 

1,000 Drones Attack Moscow!"

"Moscow was targeted by 1000 drones in 72 hours, Iran has threatened to unveil new weapons, middle east is in flames, China is making moves on Taiwan, UAE economy is collapsing, people are fleeing and using crypto to transfer money, Hormuz has likely been mined, meeting with Trump and XI postponed, major Russian oil depot has been destroyed and many other stories."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How Much Longer Can The US Economy Hang On? Oil Prices Will Rise Much Higher"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/16/26

"How Much Longer Can The US Economy Hang On?

 Oil Prices Will Rise Much Higher"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Scott Ritter: The Iran Strategy That’s Defeating America"

Dialogue Works, 3/16/26

"Scott Ritter:

The Iran Strategy That’s Defeating America"

"A discussion analyzing U.S. war objectives against Iran and the realities on the battlefield. The conversation argues that efforts to suppress Iran’s missile capabilities, neutralize its navy, and strike its military-industrial base are largely ineffective due to flawed intelligence, decoys, and dispersed infrastructure. It also examines Iran’s strategy of survival, economic pressure, and targeted strikes on critical systems rather than mass casualties. The interview explores how prolonged conflict, regional politics, and rising economic costs could shape public opinion and ultimately determine the outcome of the war."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Neil H, "Candlelight Dreams"

Neil H, "Candlelight Dreams"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.

In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."

- http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090130.html

Chet Raymo, "Free As A Bird"

“Free As A Bird”

by Chet Raymo

“All afternoon I have been watching a pair of hummingbirds play about our porch. They live somewhere nearby, though I haven’t found their nest. They are attracted to our hummingbird feeder, which we keep full of sugar water. What perfect little machines they are! No other bird can perform their tricks of flight – flying backwards, hovering in place. Zip. Zip. From perch to perch in a blur of iridescence. If you want a symbol of freedom, the hummingbird is it. Exuberant. Unpredictable. A streak of pure fun. It is the speed, of course, that gives the impression of perfect spontaneity. The bird can perform a dozen intricate maneuvers more quickly than I can turn my head.

Is the hummingbird’s apparent freedom illusory, a biochemically determined response to stimuli from the environment? Or is the hummingbird’s flight what it seems to be, willful and unpredictable? If I can answer that question, I will be learning as much about myself as about the hummingbird. So I watch. And I consider what I know of biochemistry. The hummingbird is awash in signals from its environment – visual, olfactory, auditory and tactile cues that it processes and responds to with lightning speed.

How does it do it? Proteins, mostly. Every cell of the hummingbird’s body is a buzzing conversation of proteins, each protein a chain of hundreds of amino acids folded into a complex shape like a piece of a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. Shapes as various as the words of a human vocabulary. An odor molecule from a blossom, for example, binds to a protein receptor on a cell membrane of the hummingbird’s olfactory organ – like a jigsaw-puzzle piece with its neighbor. This causes the receptor molecule to change that part of its shape that extends inside the cell. Another protein now binds with the new configuration of the receptor, and changes its own shape. And so on, in a sequence of shapeshifting and binding – called a signal-transduction cascade – until the hummingbird’s brain “experiences” the odor.

Now appropriate signals must be sent from the brain to the body – ion flows established along neural axons, synapses activated. Wing muscles must respond to direct the hummingbird to the source of nourishment. Tens of thousands of proteins in a myriad of cells talk to each other, each protein genetically prefigured by the hummingbird’s DNA to carry on its conversation in a particular part of the body. All of this happens continuously, and so quickly that to my eye the bird’s movements are a blur.

There is much left to learn, but this much is clear: There is no ghost in the machine, no hummingbird pilot making moment by moment decisions out of the whiffy stuff of spirit. Every detail of the hummingbird’s apparently willful flight is biochemistry. Between the hummingbird and myself there is a difference of complexity, but not of kind. If humans are the lords of terrestrial creation, it is because of the huge tangle of nerves that sits atop our spines.

So what does this mean about human freedom? If we are biochemical machines in interaction with our environments, in what sense can we be said to be free? What happens to “free will”? Perhaps the most satisfying place to look for free will is in what is sometimes called chaos theory. In sufficiently complex systems with many feedback loops – the global economy, the weather, the human nervous system – small perturbations can lead to unpredictable large-scale consequences, though every part of the system is individually deterministic. This has sometimes been called – somewhat facetiously – the butterfly effect: a butterfly flaps its wings in China and triggers a cascade of events that results in a snowstorm in Chicago. Chaos theory has taught us that determinism does not imply predictability. Of course, this is not what philosophers traditionally meant by free will, but it is indistinguishable from what philosophers traditionally meant by free will. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

I watch the hummingbirds at the feeder. Their hearts beat ten times faster than a human’s. They have the highest metabolic rate of any animal, a dozen times higher than a pigeon, a hundred times higher than an elephant. Hummingbirds live at the edge of what is biologically possible, and it’s that, the fierce intenseness of their aliveness, that makes them appear so exuberantly free. But there are no metaphysical pilots in these little flying machines. The machines are the pilots. You give me carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and a few billion years of evolution, and I’ll give you a bird that burns like a luminous flame. The hummingbird’s freedom was built into the universe from the first moment of creation.”

- http://www.sciencemusings.com/

'If You Are Alone..."

“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country – hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

- Mark Twain

"If..."

“If Man were relieved of all superstition, and all prejudice, and had replaced these with a keen sensitivity to his real environment, and moreover had achieved a level of communication so simplified that one syllable could express his every thought, then he would have achieved the level of intelligence already achieved by his dog.”

~ Robert Brault

"James Van Der Beek’s Message We All Need To Hear"

 

James Van Der Beek has passed,

but what he said before he did we all need to hear.

The Poet: Edward Hirsch, "I Was Never Able To Pray"

"I Was Never Able To Pray"

"Wheel me down to the shore

where the lighthouse was abandoned

and the moon tolls in the rafters.

Let me hear the wind paging through the trees

and see the stars flaring out, one by one,

like the forgotten faces of the dead.

I was never able to pray,

but let me inscribe my name

in the book of waves

and then stare into the dome

of a sky that never ends

and see my voice sail into the night."

- Edward Hirsch

"Some Oddities..."

"There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 93 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."

- Douglas Adams

"Now They Are Actually Telling Us That There Is A Massive "Gravity Hole" Underneath Antarctica?"

by Michael Snyder

"For decades, we were told to ignore any of the strange reports that we were hearing about Antarctica. Experts assured us that nothing unusual was going on and that there wasn’t anything to be concerned about. Of course we couldn’t go investigate for ourselves, because as you will see below, there are 72 areas of Antarctica that only those with a special permit are allowed to enter. And if you try to fly to Antarctica without authorization, you will get into all sorts of trouble. So why all the secrecy? What are they trying to hide from all the rest of us?

One thing that scientists are admitting about Antarctica is that it sits directly above the strongest “gravity hole” on the entire planet…Earth may look like a smooth “blue marble” from space, but it’s better to imagine it as a slightly gnarled orange, with an inside that’s firm in parts, but squishier in others. Since the planet isn’t a perfect sphere and its internal density varies across the globe, gravitational pull changes from place to place. Where there’s less mass in the underlying geology, gravity is weaker, and vice versa.

These dips in the gravitational field are formally known as gravity anomalies, but they’re more commonly called “gravity holes”. The largest is found in the middle of the Indian Ocean, spanning over 3 million square kilometers (roughly 1,100,000 square miles), while the strongest is found in Antarctica.

Isn’t that interesting? It turns out that there is a gigantic “hole” under Antarctica after all. But the experts are insisting that there really isn’t anything particularly special about it. In fact, they try to make it sound as boring as possible… A “gravity hole” beneath Antarctica sounds like the plot to a bad sci-fi movie, but it’s a very real situation deep beneath the Earth’s surface stretching back tens of millions of years. The phenomenon thankfully isn’t as apocalyptic as it sounds, either. In fact, researchers say these complex interactions between rock densities, gravitational pull, and sea levels are actually helping them understand how the southernmost continent’s ice sheets evolved, and what their influences mean for the planet’s climate.

Yawn. That does sound pretty boring. But could it be possible that there is a lot more to this than we are being told? It is being reported that the team of researchers that mapped the colossal gravity hole directly under Antarctica was able to use a combination of methods to actually “reconstruct the three-dimensional structure” that exists underneath the continent…

In the study, published recently in Scientific Reports, Forte and Petar Glišović, Ph.D., of the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, mapped the Antarctic gravity hole and revealed how it developed over millions of years. They relied on an Earth-spanning scientific project that combined global earthquake recordings with physics-based modeling to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure inside Earth. “Imagine doing a CT scan of the whole Earth, but we don’t have X-rays like we do in a medical office. We have earthquakes. Earthquake waves provide the ‘light’ that illuminates the interior of the planet,” Forte said.

It certainly appears that something is down there. Could some of the reports that we have heard over the years actually be true? I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for the truth to come out. Much of the continent is strictly off limits unless you have a special permit. In fact, according to Wikipedia there are 72 sites that have been designated as Antarctic Specially Protected Areas…

"An Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) is an area on the continent of Antarctica, or on nearby islands, which is protected by scientists and several different international bodies. The protected areas were established in 1961 under the Antarctic Treaty System, which governs all the land and water south of 60 latitude and protects against human development.[1] A permit is required for entry into any ASPA site.[2] The ASPA sites are protected by the governments of Australia, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, Chile, France, Argentina, Poland, Russia, Norway, Japan, India, Italy, and Republic of Korea. There are currently 72 sites."

They take security in Antarctica quite seriously. When a 19-year-old American named Ethan Guo decided that he would fly down there without permission, he was immediately arrested…"A teenage pilot, who is attempting to fly all seven continents solo, hit a patch of rough air this weekend when Chilean authorities detained him for changing his flight plan without their permission and landing in Antarctica.

Chilean prosecutors say American influencer Ethan Guo, 19, broke “multiple national and international regulations” by changing his flight plans without prior notice, landing on a part of Antarctica where the South American country maintains a territorial claim. CNN requested a comment from Guo, whose lawyer on Sunday said the young pilot had experienced “complications” while flying."

Yes, tourists can visit Antarctica. But you must carefully obey the rules, and you must not wander away from the very limited areas that tourists are allowed to see. Of course most of the good stuff is in areas where tourists are never allowed, and that includes the colossal pyramid that appears to have been man-made…

I have to admit, the symmetry of that structure is quite striking. But even though it looks like an ancient Egyptian pyramid, the official story is that this is simply a naturally-occurring structure that was shaped by erosion…

"In the vast, icy expanse of Antarctica, lies a mountain that, from an aerial view, resembles an ancient Egyptian pyramid. This striking formation, nestled in a sea of snow, has captured the imagination of internet users since it went viral in 2016. However, this pyramid-like mountain is no work of human or alien architects; it’s a product of nature’s slow and relentless erosion.

This unnamed mountain stands about 4,150 feet tall. It’s located in the southern part of the Ellsworth Mountains, a rugged range first glimpsed by American aviator Lincoln Ellsworth in 1935. The mountain’s pyramid shape is particularly notable because it has four steep sides, a feature that isn’t common among mountains." I wish that I could go see it for myself. But that certainly isn’t going to happen any time soon.

Interestingly, a “ring of fire” solar eclipse was visible in Antarctica on Tuesday…"A magnificent annular solar eclipse just swept over Antarctica, putting on an impressive display of orbital mechanics as the moon passed in front of the sun at the perfect distance from Earth to create a fiery halo in a darkened sky  -  at least for the few souls lucky enough to be in a position to see it.

Feb. 17’s annular solar eclipse occurred as the lunar disk slipped between the sun and Earth during its new moon phase. The alignment occurred as the moon travelled through a distant point in its elliptical orbit, making it appear smaller than usual in Earth’s sky.

Today’s eclipse got underway at 4:56 a.m. EST (0956 GMT), as the moon took an ever greater bite out of the solar disk, transforming its burning orb into a glowing crescent, before finally diving entirely within its fiery expanse. The moon - appearing fractionally smaller than usual - was unable to cover the entirety of the sun’s disk, leaving a thin sliver of its outer edge visible to surround Earth’s natural satellite to create a ring in the skies over Antarctica.

So many unusual things are happening in the heavens this year. Next month there will be a spectacular blood moon eclipse, and the month after that an absolutely enormous comet may be visible to the naked eye during the daytime as it travels very close to the Sun. We live in such interesting times, and I have a feeling that they will become even more interesting during the months ahead."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Regensburg, Bayern, Germany. Thanks for stopping by!

Travelling With Russell, "Russian Typical (Luxury) Apartment: Could You Live There?"

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 3/15/26

"Russian Typical (Luxury) Apartment: 

Could You Live There?"

"What is it like to live in a Russian Typical Luxury Apartment in the Ramenskoye region of Moscow, Russia? Join me on a tour of a fully furnished 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom brand-new apartment in Moscow, Russia. The apartment is listed for sale and ready for a new owner."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 3/15/26

"Russian Typical (American Style) Supermarket:

 O'Key"

"What does a Russian Hypermarket look like inside? Join me at O'Key Hypermarket, a former Luxembourg-owned hypermarket chain, which is now owned by a local Russian group. How has this chained fiared in the last 4 years in the face of Sanctions imposed on Russia?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Millions Warned: Gas Prices May Surge Again"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 3/16/26

"Millions Warned: Gas Prices May Surge Again"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The New American Dream - People Are Going Off Grid"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 3/16/26

"The New American Dream -

 People Are Going Off Grid"

"Housing prices are spiraling out of control across the United States, with the average home now costing over $400,000 and rents hitting record highs. At the Overland Expo, I take you inside a growing movement of people turning to off-grid living, camper life, and overlanding as alternatives to traditional housing. From affordable trailers to extreme $500,000 expedition vehicles with solar power, water systems, and full off-grid capabilities, this event shows how Americans are rethinking the way they live as the housing crisis continues to worsen.

More people are exploring van life, tiny homes, and camper living as a way to escape rising rent, mortgage payments, and the financial pressure of today’s economy. With stories about skyrocketing home prices, extreme housing shortages, and people packing multiple families into small apartments, the question becomes clear: is off-grid living becoming the new American dream? Let me know what you think in the comments and share what housing prices look like in your area."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

 

National debt clock, real time:
- https://www.usdebtclock.org/

Bill Bonner, "Courting Disaster"

"Courting Disaster"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "The most remarkable thing about the bombing of Iran is the premise behind it. We’ll come back to that in a minute. First, the economic news, from the Washington Post: "The Commerce Department downwardly revised its estimate of economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year, saying that gross domestic product expanded at just 0.7 percent annual rate in the final three months of 2025, much smaller than the 1.4 percent pace the department had reported in an “advance” estimate last month.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, rose 2.8 percent over the prior year, a slight decline from December but still well above the Fed’s 2 percent target. More concerning to some economists, so-called core PCE inflation - which strips out volatile food and energy prices and is closely watched as a measure of underlying price trends - ticked up to 3.1 percent in January from 3.0 percent in December."

Low growth? Higher prices? Sounds like stagflation. Whatever it is, the attack on Iran makes it worse. The firepower industry gets richer. Everyone else gets poorer. And now that Kristi Noem is gone, Pete Hegseth must be the most embarrassing member of America’s presidential cabinet. He thinks you win a war by blowing things up. But what is the point of it? So far, the only explanation that makes sense comes from Mr. Hegseth, who suggests that the goal was to take out Iran’s defenses...so we could bomb it some more. The Wall Street Journal: "Hegseth Says U.S. and Israel Are Winning."

“The United States is decimating the radical Iranian regime’s military, in a way the world has never seen before,” he said during a Pentagon news conference Friday. “Never before has a modern, capable military, which Iran used to have, been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective, devastated. We said it would not be a fair fight, and it has not been.” What hallucinatory drugs is this idiot on? - CP)

They are ‘bad people,’ says POTUS. Maybe bombing them will turn them into good people? As near as we can tell, the underlying motive for both the attack on Iraq and the attack on Iran were the same - to make these countries more fetching to US eyes...and more compliant with its policies. That is, we aimed to turn these bad people into our friends and allies. But the idea of bombing a country to make it a friend...is a little like assaulting a woman to win her affection. She won’t cooperate? Give her the ol’ bitchslap.

This is something both Hegseth and Trump are reputed to have personal experience with, so we will defer to their judgement. But we imagine that it only works on a very unique woman. Iran may not be that gal. That Wall Street Journal: "Oil market’s new reality: The Gulf disruption isn’t going to end soon. When the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran, some traders initially expected days of disorder. Now they are expecting the turmoil to last weeks or even months. On Thursday, Brent crude shot back above $100 a barrel amid growing concerns about a protracted period of disruption to the oil markets. Futures settled at $100.46, up more than 9% for the day."

Iraq turned out not to be that kind of woman either. Even after $5 trillion spent to impress her...she’s still not cooperating. In the Iraqi Parliament, members chant “Death to America.” And out on the streets, Americans may get more than just smiles. The Financial Times: "Shia militias targeted a US diplomatic and logistics facility inside Baghdad’s airport complex with several drones on Tuesday night, said people familiar with the situation. All but one were intercepted. The people said retaliatory strikes were then launched on militia positions on Wednesday. The armed groups have also attacked oil installations, an airport and several hotels housing US citizens in Erbil and have claimed attacks on Jordan and Kuwait. An Italian military base in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was also struck."

The New York Times adds: "U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Targeted as Iraq Gets Drawn Deeper Into Regional War." Apparently, we didn’t bomb them enough."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com

"March, 15: Ides of Hormuz"

"March, 15: Ides of Hormuz"

By NO1

"A war without leaders The Ides of March. March 15. Despite numerous warnings, Caesar walked into a room full of friends and received twenty-three knives in return. No debate. No negotiation. No appeal. Just the sound of metal and surprise. Since that day, this date has carried one meaning: what happens when you ignore every sign that the people around you have already decided.

The United States asked every ally it has to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. China declined. France declined. Japan: “We make our own decisions and will not send ships to the Strait of Hormuz just because Trump asks us to”. Germany, Norway, Italy, Hungary - all declined. Switzerland refused two overflight requests. Iran received calls from thirty countries asking for bilateral passage agreements. The knives were diplomatic this time. But Caesar is just as alone.

Semafor broke the news Saturday evening. US officials confirming what the interceptor maths have been screaming since day one: Israel is critically low on ballistic missile interceptors. They entered the war already depleted from last year’s conflict. Not my math anymore. Officials this time, on the record, for publication. The cupboard isn’t running bare. It’s bare. And Iran knows it.

Wave 54 of True Promise brought the Sejjil-2 into combat for the first time. The solid-fuel ballistic missile I wrote about a few days ago. Mach 17 at its terminal phase. Solid-fuel means it rolls out of the underground city and fires. The interceptor meant to stop them are gone. The radar meant to track it was killed in week one. Iran spent two weeks stripping the armor. The Sejjil is what you needed the armor for.

At 02:24 on Sunday morning, a ballistic missile launched toward central Israel. Sirens sounded at 02:27. Three minutes. Whatever is left of the sensor network - and there isn’t much - bought three minutes. Standard warning time is fifteen. A later strike hit Tel Aviv with no warning at all. Cluster munitions scattered across Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva. Channel 12 reported significant destruction and fires at three locations. Dead and wounded pulled from a building in Bnei Brak.

A hundred and ninety-eight alerts in one salvo. A hundred and forty-three more an hour later.

Protests in Tel Aviv – fires set in the streets, crowds heading toward government buildings. Since the start of the war, Israel’s Compensation Fund has received 10,946 claims. Of these, 7,648 are for building damage, 1,179 for contents and equipment, 1,945 for vehicle damage, and 174 for other types of losses. The paperwork is outpacing the Pentagon’s casualty count by roughly a thousand to one. Someone’s numbers are wrong.

Netanyahu released a video. Drinking coffee. Showing five fingers, because the AI version from yesterday gave him six. The internet went forensic immediately. Coffee doesn’t spill. Level doesn’t change after he drinks. Some say AI. Some say actor. A Kuwaiti daily says he’s being treated in Moscow. Turkish TV says dead. A French colonel says the announcement comes “tomorrow”. Still no live appearance. No press conference. Absent from the military council for the first time in Israeli history. Yair – relentless tweeter – has been silent now for six days. The Air Force Chief, the Mossad Director, Ben Gvir… The list is getting longer. All missing from the public eye.

On Friday, CENTCOM’s line was careful: 90 military targets destroyed on Kharg island while “preserving the oil infrastructure”. Day 14 opened with the proof - two Iranian tankers loading. The oil wasn’t touched.

By Saturday night, the story had changed. Trump on NBC: the strikes “totally demolished” most of the island. Then, almost as an afterthought: “we may hit it a few more times just for fun”. Schrödinger’s island. Both demolished and intact…

Hours later, Iran’s Foreign Minister went on CBS Face the Nation. “There are people being killed only because President Trump wants to have fun”. Same word. Same day. One man using it about his bombing campaign. The other about his country’s dead. Araghchi in the same interview: “We never asked for a ceasefire or negotiations. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes until Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war”.

But he told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed something subtler the same day: “We welcome any regional initiative that leads to a fair end to the war”. First time Iran has used language that isn’t pure refusal. Not a ceasefire offer. But a door cracked open for regional mediation. The hardliners say fight forever. The diplomats leave a narrow lane. Maybe they’re reading from the same script. Probably.

US intelligence shared with Trump apparently shows the late Ayatollah had documented reservations about Mojtaba’s suitability. The IRGC installed him anyway. Al Jarida claims Mojtaba is in Moscow for medical treatment – flown out on a military plane. If true, Russia is physically hosting Iran’s Supreme Leader during an active war. That stops being an alliance signal and starts being the alliance itself. Neither leader – Israeli or Iranian – confirmed alive in person. Both countries are running this war on autopilot. No sign-off required.

Three million Iranians forcibly displaced. The IDF has shifted from chasing missile launchers to targeting Basij militia checkpoints – the neighborhood-level enforcers. The stated goal: clear the streets so civilians can protest against their own government. Quds Day marches happened under active bombing two days ago. Millions turned out. But remove a few checkpoints and the revolution starts. Any minute now. Just like the missiles that are running out any day now…

Goldman put the Hormuz numbers on paper. Flows collapsed from 19.5 million barrels per day to 0.5 million. Nearly all of that trickle is Chinese tankers, which have been sailing through since day one. Everyone else is at anchor. Jeff Currie – two decades on Goldman’s commodity desk, now at Carlyle – put the recovery timeline at 200 days. From a ceasefire that doesn’t exist. US Energy Secretary Wright says the Iran conflict will end in the “next few weeks,” with oil supplies rebounding and energy prices falling once the war concludes, per ABC News. This likely won’t be enough to calm oil markets. Energy Secretary Wright told Americans to wait “a few more weeks” for gas prices to come down. Currie counts in months. Wright counts in whatever unit makes the next press conference survivable.

If China and India formalize their passage arrangements, roughly 7 million barrels per day could be restored – about 39% of what’s offline. The Strait isn’t closed. It’s a yuan-denominated toll booth, and Iran is building the replacement maritime order one bilateral deal at a time. Hegseth’s contribution: “The Strait of Hormuz is open for business… it’s just Iran is shooting drones”. Just drones. Like Vesuvius was just a mountain. Those things are just sinking tankers, just destroying billions in radar infrastructure, and just taking tours of American bases (more on that later).

Hezbollah announces to have targeted Palmachim Air Base this morning (06h00) with a Ballistic Missile. Sirens sounded around 05h40 in the area.

Hezbollah hit Palmachim Air Base with a ballistic missile at six in the morning. Palmachim is where Israel tests Jericho nuclear-capable missiles. Where the Arrow interceptor batteries live. Hezbollah reached both, from Lebanon. The range of what’s coming out of the north stretches further every day, and the targets keep getting more sensitive.

Forty-two operations on Saturday alone. A Merkava burning in Taybeh. Bar Lev Industrial Area hit with Grad and Arash rockets. Hezbollah claims it killed General Omer Tischler at Shtula on the border – single source, unverified, but they also claim to be entering the town. Third position Israel would be losing on the northern line. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports 850 dead and 2,105 injured since the start of Israeli military operations on March 2. Twelve paramedics killed in a single IDF strike in the south. The people running toward the wounded became the dead.

Then Baghdad. Iraqi Resistance released FPV drone footage from inside the US Victoria Base. The base was handed back to Iraq in 2011 – so not really an achievement, but I want to point out that the FPV revolution just arrived in Mesopotamia after it was perfected in Ukraine. Missiles were also fired from Iraq at Tel Aviv for the first time. New launch axis. The country America spent twenty years and two trillion dollars rebuilding is now sending ordnance toward the country America is spending twelve billion defending.

Five European countries physically leaving Harir Airbase in Erbil. Syria’s army took the Rumeilan base north of Hasakah after the coalition withdrew. The vacuum is being filled, just not by anyone Washington invited.

Araghchi confirmed on camera that HIMARS were fired from UAE soil — Ras Al Khaimah — at Kharg and Abu Musa Islands. This one is different from the Bahrain HIMARS a week ago. The UAE is now named by Iran’s own foreign minister. On the record.

The US issued a $10 million bounty on Mojtaba Khamenei and Ali Larijani. Ten million for the Supreme Leader of a country whose military is currently winning a war of attrition against the combined air forces of America and Israel. Iran can’t find Mojtaba, Israel can’t find Netanyahu. Most expensive game of hide-and-seek. Ever.

SPR dump: 86 million barrels next week, via exchange program. Against a 17.2 million barrel per day disruption, that covers five days. Five.

Formula 1 cancelled the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix. $189 million in revenue, gone. Plenty of things still going fast in the Gulf. Just not on a track.

Hassett confirmed $12 billion spent on the war. The FT reported US oil companies earning an extra $63 billion this year from it. Five billion dollars this month alone. Twelve billion to fight it. Sixty-three billion to profit from it. Someone in that equation is having fun.

The US’ biggest export has been gold for three of the last four months. Only time that’s happened in at least twenty years. Probably ever. The reserve currency country settling its trade deficit in metal. I covered the structural shift in my previous “The Bretton Whoops” article. If this continues, we know it’s happening. Silver at $80-81. James Turk notes the $5,000/$80 floors are being tested with a liquidity crunch building that looks like 2008.

The lease rate hasn’t hit zero on a single day in the past year. The physical market was seizing before the first bomb fell.

COT data: crude net longs at 466,000 contracts, fifteen-month high. SPR covers five days. Gas at $3.70, up 28%.

Dubai’s real estate index dropped 30% in fourteen days. Emaar and Aldar both down 18%.

S&P 500 financials having their worst year since 2020. Ares and Blackstone each down 30% or more. The private credit cascade keeps going. Hartnett at BofA: “trading the 2008 analog”. Nasdaq breadth worst since April. The Fed meets Wednesday. Futures open tonight. The market hasn’t priced in any of this yet.

Tucker Carlson claims the CIA is preparing criminal charges linked to his pre-war communications with Iran. ABC and Reuters confirmed three Oval Office meetings in February, roughly ninety minutes each. A former CIA analyst said he’s “genuinely worried for Tucker’s safety.”

Two senior Iranian officials – Larijani and Marandi – issued separate warnings about a planned false flag attack. 9/11-style. Blame Iran. I’ve been tracking this pattern since day two. Loads of incidents by now. And now public warnings from the top of the security establishment. Either they have intelligence, or they’re building the counter-narrative in advance. Either way, it lands heavier than the missiles.

Caesar was warned. He walked in anyway. And the senate – every last one of them – already had their answer ready."

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/