Thursday, March 19, 2026

Piggy Piggy (from Susan)...





 

10 comments:

  1. I bought this book in Trump's first term. That's why Sarah Huckabee Sanders is there in the green dress. He didn't have Karoline LyingLips Levitt then. This book shows we already knew all the bad stuff about him then, but stupid people put him back in office again. Susan.

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  2. From Meanwhile in Canada:

    An important consequence from Trump's Iran war that not enough people understand. Explanation by Jonathan Last:

    Iran and China might reach an agreement to allow oil transport in the Hormuz Strait under condition of a switch from the US dollar to the yuan.

    The condition, if formalised, would represent the most significant challenge to the petrodollar system in its fifty-two-year history, striking at the financial architecture that underpins American global power rather than at US military assets. . . .

    To understand why the yuan condition matters, it is necessary to understand what the petrodollar system actually is. Born from the Nixon shock of 1971 and formalised in 1974, the arrangement under which Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf agreed to denominate all oil sales in US dollars created a self-reinforcing loop that has governed global finance ever since. Because oil—the world’s most traded commodity—must be purchased in dollars, every nation that imports energy must first acquire dollars. Every central bank holds dollar reserves for precisely this reason. The US dollar’s status as the world’s primary reserve currency is not an abstract achievement; it flows directly and mechanically from oil. . . .

    Iran is proposing that access to the world’s most critical energy chokepoint be conditional on currency denomination.

    The practical consequence, if even partially adopted, would be a bifurcated global oil market: yuan-denominated barrels flowing through Hormuz for those willing to pay in China’s currency, US dollar-denominated barrels rerouted at significant additional cost and time for those who are not. The war premium that Western energy importers are already absorbing would become structural rather than temporary.

    I don’t know how to make people care about this except to say that if Iran and China made this deal it would absolutely be the beginning of the end of the US dollar backstopping the global financial order. The long-term cost to the USA would be incalculable.

    The fact that Iran is making this overture ought to scare the crap out of Americans because it’s another sign that the USA's political leadership is completely out-classed. They have an illiterate madman tweeting contradictory bullshit every ten minutes. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is calmly and methodically probing the structural weaknesses of the American-dominated global financial order.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, but Trump is such a clever businessman. :P

      It's been just over a year, and he has already managed to destroy just about everything it took this country two hundred and fifty years to build. I'm sorry if it goes against everything my faith teaches, I want that man dead! And, I want every last member of his regime in prison. Not that it will help a whole lot...

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  3. Smirk of the day:

    What's the difference between Iran and Vietnam?

    Trump had a plan for getting out of Vietnam.

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  4. Maybe if Trump released the unredacted Epstein Files we'd forget about his screw-up in Iran. Susan

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    Replies
    1. LOL You know among some the Iran war is known as Operation Epstein Fury. Most apt IMO.

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    2. It's gone way too far for forgetting this to be possible. He has done so much damage that Americans will not be safe from terrorism for generations to come. Let us never forget, so we don't have to repeat this kind of insanity ever again!

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  5. From WCAX ~ Burlington VT

    F-35 in Iranian operation makes emergency landing; Vt. crews accounted for

    An F-35 made an emergency landing in the Middle East after it was hit by what is believed to be Iranian fire.

    The pilot landed at a U.S. air base safely and is in stable condition.

    It would be the first time Iran has hit a U.S. aircraft since the war started in late February.

    A Vermont Air National Guard spokesperson said all Vermont military members are accounted for, but couldn’t confirm whether the F-35 hit was from Vermont.

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