I hope I'll be long dead before Jake Paul enters office.

3 hours ago, Gorth said:

You can almost visualize the phone conversations between Netanyahu, MBS and Trump played out.

While I know it's been extensively reported he was I'm less than convinced that MBS was pro war.

Very obviously risky for him and his country, and he had the experience of the Houthis embarrassing his army and air force- and hitting his oil facilities with cheap drones, and having difficulties sourcing patriots to defend from their sporadic attacks- for ten years to fall back on.

Being willing to allow the use of facilities when it's inevitable is a bit different to actually advocating for it as Netanyahu assuredly did.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5780543-us-oil-prices-trump/

A bold marketing ploy, it might work.

10 hours ago, Malcador said:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5780543-us-oil-prices-trump/

A bold marketing ploy, it might work.

Yeah, no

Oil companies will make great windfall profits but for everyone else cost of living and inflation goes up with sustained high oil prices

https://abcnews.com/Politics/hegseth-worry-strait-hormuz-us-time-counter-irans/story?id=131036790

"The only thing prohibiting transit in the strait right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that."

Still amazed this guy has a job.

https://newrepublic.com/post/207749/donald-trump-selling-national-security-briefing-details-fans

"In a fundraising email, a Donald Trump–affiliated super PAC offered the highest bidders “unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.”"

How can this even be real.

53 minutes ago, Lexx said:

https://newrepublic.com/post/207749/donald-trump-selling-national-security-briefing-details-fans

"In a fundraising email, a Donald Trump–affiliated super PAC offered the highest bidders “unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.”"

How can this even be real.

sound like a scam

right now gulf state might be the highest bidder

Almost definitely is a scam, at least insofar as you'd be getting anything that you couldn't get from the general internet or by asking chatgpt.

Shame you have to donate or you could have a lot of fun signing up for that under false names.

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

"The only thing prohibiting transit in the strait right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that."

Still amazed this guy has a job.

The ability to say that sort of thing with something approaching a straight face was probably why he got the job. Along with all the ruthless aggression fratboy posturing and possessing the demeanour/ intellect of a Fox & Friends presenter.

(Hardly an isolated sentiment/ incident though, no matter how awful Hegseth's presentation is to those cursed with woke DEI flaws like critical faculties. We got pro Russian shrubbery and Putin ordering troops to hold their ground to give the illusion they weren't retreating in Ukraine for example.

There's definitely a subset of people who will take that sort of thing at face value without the slightest thought given)

Seems the US has had a very bad time with their refueling aircraft. One crashed, another damaged over Iraq and according to the WSJ a further five (!) hit on the ground in Saudi*.

Iran/ pro Iran Iraqis had claimed the ones over Iraq, with a fair bit of (justified) skepticism being shown. Be a hell of a coincidence if the other hit was proven, though it's difficult to think of a plausible scenario unless the US has re-entered Al Asad in Iraq (which is close to where the one which crashed crashed, but the US is meant to have left and there's no information suggesting it's still in use). The one that landed in Israel looks eminently repairable in the mediumish term and supposedly the ones (supposedly) hit in Saudi are repairable, but given they are huge volatile fuel carriers that swap combustible for explosive when empty you would suspect that won't be true for all of them.

Not exactly crippling given the US still has about 150 in active service.

*Yes, that is the same Saudi that is definitely not involved in the strikes, and cannot understand why it's being targeted... though it was obvious from Trump's lack of outrage cf Britain and Spain that their facilities were being used, whatever they claimed.

kharg island hit with most likely 10 million barrel of oil on it

soon there will be burning oil well all around like kuwait

I have to admit there's a certain amount of grim amusement to be had from Trump now begging other countries to send warships to Hormuz.

The combination of the great unilateralist going cap in hand when the going gets tough asking those he's spent the last year insulting to bail him out and all his recent pronouncements about how great things are going- including telling Britain not to send ships as it would be ~"joining a conflict we've already won"- has slightly more than a scintilla of irony.

Also probably the closest we're going to get to an admission from Trump that if the USN actually does start trying to escort ships they're going to take losses. He would, of course, far prefer those losses to be from the countries he insulted the dead of less than two months ago.

propaganda gulf state put out to keep their tourism sector alive are absolutely hilarious

hope their keep it up

4 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

I have to admit there's a certain amount of grim amusement to be had from Trump now begging other countries to send warships to Hormuz.

Sadly, I can see Canada and UK saying yes.

Somehow I see barely any news about Iran. And if I see something on my feed, there's a high chance it's just fake news. Compared to other conflicts, the news / information flood feels... quite different this time.

Bunch of reasons for that. The EU has designated the IRGC+ as terrorists, so that takes out a lot of Iranian (and Lebanese) media- by design and intent. The US and Israel also systematically target media, of course. Iran has shut down the internet. There's a 12 day (lol) delay on getting updated satellite imagery (of targeted US/ Israeli assets; not Iranian of course, they're fair game for immediate dissemination) after those THAAD radars got hit and publicised. There's till about 4 days to go before you get new updates, and they will be +12 days out of date so not so interesting. The Gulf States are also arresting anyone taking video or photos of attacks and damage; and Israel requires everything to go through the Military Censor as well.

The great irony is that the place with the least filtered flow of primary source material involved in a major conflictat the moment is Russia, as every attack has someone videoing and uploading it. Just about everywhere else you'd end up in prison for it.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by Zoraptor

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

Somehow I see barely any news about Iran. And if I see something on my feed, there's a high chance it's just fake news. Compared to other conflicts, the news / information flood feels... quite different this time.

Every international news agency has a dedicated webpage page to the war in Iran and hourly updates on what is happening

Its also almost all they talk about on the likes of CNN and Al-Jazeera but its confirmed news

Im not sure where you get your information from but this war is been heavily discussed and reported on from the mainstream media and this includes daily attacks on Iran

Al Jazeera

Sirens blare across Israel; Trump says US not ready for a...

US President Donald Trump says allies who rely on Gulf oil must help keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

US-Israel war with Iran | Latest News and Updates | BBC News

Follow the latest news about the US-Israel war with Iran. Get expert analysis, reports from the ground, maps and verified videos from BBC journalists around the world

Wonder what was hit, or if it's ai.

I am HIGHLY disappoint about the lack of directed energy weapon usage. Especially microwave systems. 😿 (< haha I just found that one under "cry").

Strap one of these on the port and starboard deck of the tankers and lets cannonball run the straight and see what happens:

33 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

I am HIGHLY disappoint about the lack of directed energy weapon usage. Especially microwave systems. 😿 (< haha I just found that one under "cry").

Strap one of these on the port and starboard deck of the tankers and lets cannonball run the straight and see what happens:

Is this a real weapon, where are they used outside of potentially protecting ships?

5 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Is this a real weapon, where are they used outside of potentially protecting ships?

Yes, its a real platform: Epirus Leonidas High-Power Microwave: Directed Energy for cUAS, cUAS Swarms, Counter Electronics

Can defeat swarms, 2km range, 360 degree slew, pennies on the dollar to fire...there must be some fatal flaw that I dont understand yet or why else arent we pumping these out like the Model T?

3 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Yes, its a real platform: Epirus Leonidas High-Power Microwave: Directed Energy for cUAS, cUAS Swarms, Counter Electronics

Can defeat swarms, 2km range, 360 degree slew, pennies on the dollar to fire...there must be some fatal flaw that I dont understand yet or why else arent we pumping these out like the Model T?

Yes, I looked it up and one of its purposes is destroying drone swarms

So that would be effective at stopping drones attacking ships but not missiles or mines in the Straits?

I imagine its not widely used because most of these ships are private sector and or ships that belong to countries outside the US

So there would be cost involved and someone qualified needs to operate it

Its definitely a good idea, it just requires an additional level of resources that these shipping companies would have to absorb

48 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Yes, its a real platform: Epirus Leonidas High-Power Microwave: Directed Energy for cUAS, cUAS Swarms, Counter Electronics

Can defeat swarms, 2km range, 360 degree slew, pennies on the dollar to fire...there must be some fatal flaw that I dont understand yet or why else arent we pumping these out like the Model T?

The have build 4 land prototypes. They have had issues trying to integrate it to naval vessels electronic systems.

Its integration to US Army's system seem to have been delayed as 2024 they were excepting that integration is done in 2025, but it looks that project didn't go forward in 2025.

31 minutes ago, Elerond said:

The have build 4 land prototypes. They have had issues trying to integrate it to naval vessels electronic systems.

Its integration to US Army's system seem to have been delayed as 2024 they were excepting that integration is done in 2025, but it looks that project didn't go forward in 2025.

Can they be used on civilian ships or is it only for military use?