quote:

With most high level meetings, things are agreed to ahead of time.

Yes, usually that's true.
But there's no trust here. And before the meeting this past weekend, there hasn't been a high level meeting between the two countries in 50 years.

So, I understand a federal judge has released Courtney Williams to home detention. Full article in the Epoch Times (which I don't have a subscription to), but the headline says all you really need to know.

Unbelievable. Betray your country and get sent home.

Maybe we should just come out and say we mined Iran's side of the strait. Maybe we can't remember where they are. Let them deal with it.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

Tehran would continue to enforce its own rules governing passage through the Strait of Hormuz

I didn't know Iran 'owned' the Strait.

The Strait is between Oman and Iran.
The territorial 12 mile line of both "overlap", so the strait is territorial waters for both Oman and Iran.

It is not "international waters".

There are various rules, protocols and what not (it is a lot of information to process) in the "day to day" and issues with economics, shipping as well as sovereign and other issues.

But Iran (believes and acts) in their world view that "military aggression" provides them standing in how they deal with any and all traffic through the strait, be it overflights, surface, and sub surface, economic, pleasure, civilian, military and all other vessels.

It's like a "3 Body Problem". It's not complicated, but it most certainly is complex.

https://www.newsmax.com/world/...dkt_nbr=0101028yv2lh

Sources: US, Iran May Resume Peace Talks This Week

Negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week, five sources said on Tuesday, days after the highest-level talks between the two ‌countries in decades ended without a breakthrough.

A source involved in the talks said ​a date was not yet decided, but both countries could return as early as the end of this week.

"No firm date has been set, ⁠with the delegations keeping Friday through Sunday open," a senior Iranian source said.

The weekend ​meeting in Pakistan's capital to resolve the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, held four ⁠days after last Tuesday's ceasefire announcement, was the first direct encounter between U.S. and Iranian officials in more than a decade, and the most senior engagement since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A proposal has been shared with both ‌the U.S. and Iran to resend their delegates to resume the talks, the ​first source said.

Two Pakistani ‌sources with knowledge of the talks said Islamabad was communicating with the two sides about the timing of the next round ‌and the meeting would likely take place on the weekend.

"We have reached out to Iran and we got a positive response that they will be open to a second ⁠round of talks," a senior Pakistani government ‌official said.

Pakistan's foreign ministry, military ⁠and prime minister's office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. The White House also did not immediately ⁠respond ⁠to a request for comment.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf led their respective delegations in ‌the last round of talks to work out a slew of issues, including the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit point for global energy supplies that Iran has effectively blocked but the U.S. ‌has vowed to ​reopen, as well as Iran's ‌nuclear program and international sanctions on Tehran.

Vance told reporters after the talks ended that "We leave here with a very simple proposal, a method of understanding that is our ​final and best offer."

"We'll see if the Iranians accept it."

They've got the entire monkey think tank working overtime.

https://x.com/Megatron_ron/status/2044026047109443710

Doctor it hurts when I raise my hand above my head!

So don’t raise your hand!

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
"Have you ever heard of a wish sandwich?
A wish sandwich is the kind of a sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Wish you had some meat

Bow, bow, bow"

Damnit! now that's going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day!

What da ya want for nothing? ...
a rubber biscuit?

Perfect solution .

At some point these people will be drug out to the street and beat to death on camera for the whole world to see over there.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
They've got the entire monkey think tank working overtime.

https://x.com/Megatron_ron/status/2044026047109443710

Maybe they should turn off the room lights and her microphone, that would save some energy.
Might as well, she has nothing useful to say anyway.

quote:

Maybe they should turn off the room lights and her microphone, that would save some energy.
Might as well, she has nothing useful to say anyway.

Figure out a way to bottle her hot air and that’ll power Europe for a year at least.

Trump flips the script!

Donald Trump Pulls The Wabbit Season Trick On the Iranian Regime

Almost 40 years ago, one of the great buddy cop franchises was born. Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, hit the screens for the first time. It made a whole bunch of money and spawned three sequels over the next dozen years.

In one early scene, Gibson's character, a L.A. cop going through an immense amount of personal and mental grief and trauma, is up on a roof with a potentially suicidal jumper. The conventional wisdom, of course, is to talk to him, keep talking, and wear him down by talking until he gives up and lets himself be taken away in a rubber truck. Gibson's Martin Riggs read the situation, improvised, and came up with a better and more expedient game plan.



That's pretty much what Donald Trump just did to the Iranian regime after ceasefire talks broke down in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday. The regime elements, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, went back home believing their strategy of holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage for $2 million dollars a ship for safe passage is a winner.

What is silly about that claim, obviously, is that while talks were ongoing, the United States Navy had traversed the Strait twice, deployed unmanned underwater drones seeking mines the regime claims they forgot where they dropped due to the fog of war, and began plotting a safe route of passage for oil tankers and cargo container ships.

But after the talks broke off, the ripples of which we'll cover in the course of this column, President Donald Trump, a proven master at the art of unpredictability, flipped the script 180 degrees on its head. He all but slapped the cuffs on, looked the Iranians in the eyes, and said, "Do you really want to close the Strait? Do you wanna? Okay. Let's close the Strait. Let's do it."

Before the air strikes by United States and Israeli forces began on February 28th, a little over a week before, in fact, Rich Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies posted this on X while the world was speculating on when, or if, kinetic war was finally going to come to Iran.

It turns out that this option has moved up to take its rightful place at center stage.

For weeks leading up to the Caracas incursion by Delta Force and the Night Stalkers of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment on January 3rd, Donald Trump used our naval assets, forward staged in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, to play pirate - interdicting and capturing oil tankers illegally exporting Venezuelan crude in violation of international sanctions.

By announcing the Strait is closed for real this time to Iranian-related commercial traffic, and the United States having an actual naval presence to enforce it, Kharg Island has become the loneliest Route 66 gas station after the interstate came to steer people away from it.

Iran already has no money. Their currency is far less valuable than the paper on which it is printed, and they have no meaningful access to the international banking system. Their economy is currently suffering 71% inflation due to the conflict. Now, it cannot export oil, which is 90% of the revenue, into the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it can no longer charge its fantasy toll on Larak Island for any other ship going through the hairpin curve.

https://hotair.com/generalissi...e-democrats-n3813827

If we are energy, independent, and all these oil tankers are lined up to buy fuel from us, I wonder why my gas prices keep increasing? I think Potos should come out and give us a reason for this….midterms are coming and people are wondering. GOP is not getting the message out.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Trump flips the script!

The entire article is a great read. Down right inspiring.

Thanks for posting it.

quote:

Originally posted by Articwolf59:
If we are energy, independent, and all these oil tankers are lined up to buy fuel from us, I wonder why my gas prices keep increasing? I think Potos should come out and give us a reason for this….midterms are coming and people are wondering. GOP is not getting the message out.

Dude, really? Oil prices are based entirely on speculation, and any turmoil in the supply chain jacks the prices up. Nobody needs to explain it, because anybody with 2 brain cells to rub together already knows how it works.

@rainmaker5505

You can lead a horse to water, but he's gonna stand there and piss in it.

In 1945 after the defeat of Germany in World War II, a diplomat by the name of Morgenthau proposed a plan to completely de-industrialize the country. His plan was rejected then, but fast-forward 81 years and Germany is doing it to themselves.

quote:

Ursula von der Leyen regarding the energy crises in Europe:

“The cheapest energy is the one you don't use. Stay home, don't drive, don't use electricity.”