Home/BlogOne or two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz were hit by torpedoes or mines this morning. I checked the NASA Worldview website to see if NASA’s MODIS imager on the Terra satellite picked it up. I had to enhance the image to bring out the dark smoke against the dark ocean background:
I suspect gasoline prices are about to rise.
“I suspect gasoline prices are about to rise.” Nailed it, Doc.
Actually Brent Crude closed lower today on the NYE Exchange than did was last Friday….
https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CO1:COM
Brent futures rose slightly on June 14th – futures are a better indicator than spot prices for gauging where the market things oil prices are going. The increase isn’t large enough to read too much into.
The world oil market seems to be very good at absorbing disruptions. If you recall the first gulf war, oil rose noticeably during the beginning stages, but it took a lot of large scale disruptions (like full scale war and burning oil wells) to cause even a modest increase in oil price. During the second gulf war, the price of oil didn’t move much at all – I think the markets weren’t taken by surprise.
Low missile attack hull scorch marks (?):
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-48619771
https://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-tanker-evacuation/tanker-attacks-in-gulf-of-oman-fuel-security-oil-supply-fears-idINKCN1TE0PT
From the BBC link:
“Countries like France and Germany are already urging caution and pressing for a de-escalation.
The EU countries can’t wait to capitulate. No wonder the Brexit movement exists.
Capitulate to whom?
Use your own gray matter. Why would Iran attack these ships? What would they have to gain?
This is most likely a false flag committed by the war mongers in the US in order to get the revenue train going again.
You appear to be in phase with the official Iranian position, even using the same phrase, “false flag”.
“The US and its regional allies must stop warmongering and put an end to mischievous plots and false flag operations in the region,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said.
What facts say it isn’t a false flag?
DA,
What facts say it is?
Cheers.
You can always tell when DA knows he is on the wrong side of an issue.
He brings out the one-line questions.
He’s been well indoctrinated….
Just answer the question, instead of stalling….
DA,
Oooooh!
Masterful! Virile! Forceful!
What will you do if he doesn’t comply?
Stamp your foot in petulant anger? Flap a piece of paper in his face, perhaps?
You are looking just a tad impotent, you know. Maybe you could take a teaspoon of cement, and harden up.
Cheers.
DA, you must have forgotten the rules:
* No one needs to respond to irresponsible questions.
* To expect answers, you might need some credibility.
You’re still evading the question. Why? Do you fear a truthful answer will expose something about you?
ibid.
You’re avoiding, not me. So typical for deniers of your ilk.
ibid.
(I wonder how many more times DA will try. He’s so obsessed….)
Too soon to call for us lowly civilians. Evidence is still being analyzed, released, and maybe even hidden.
I never understand what people like you are so afraid of, that you have to avoid answering direct questions and you have to hide your real names.
Begone, troll!
You’re so convincing….
Troll, begone!
: – )
swampgator says:
“This is most likely a false flag committed by the war mongers in the US in order to get the revenue train going again.”
Hmmmm, what is your explanation for the Iranian patrol craft on the scene?
Um, because it was just off Iran’s coastline?
David Appell says:
“Um, because it was just off Iran’s coastline?”
Just off? They were 25 miles to sea more than double international water boundaries. A small patrol vessel just happens to be working on the side of the tanker when a drone spots them. Just happened to be there? You believe that?
My guess is that Ger*an/Huffman won’t be volunteering to go fight a war in Iran. We’ll see.
DA, you continue to dazzle us with your irrelevant desperation.
You probably wouldn’t be so desperate if you had a job, huh?
Begone, pointlessly ad homming troll!
Yep! I wonder if David ever put his own precious ass on the line for anything? Have you served David? Been shot at, received artillery fire or lived with the threat of snipers and IEDs?
No evidence of a false flag or that we’re about to go to war. No prepositioning or even hint of deployment of anything remotely close to the air, sea, and land forces required for such an action or of the huge mobilization and logistic efforts that would be required to conduct such an operation.
However I did notice that this claim of “false flag” attacks seemed to surface loud and strong very quickly after these latest incidents and that is indicative of Iranian tactics. What is very obvious is that in Iran the controlling Mullahs have been getting ever more desperate and President Trump has no intention of letting up but is not staging for a shooting war. Unlike Obama and the majority of the left in this country and others, this administration knows that kowtowing to nuclear blackmail is actually the most dangerous policy in the long run. To mitigate that threat this president, assisted by his very able economic team, is conducting the type of warfare he knows best. Economic warfare! And so far they’re winning so why go to a shooting war unless there is irrefutable evidence that Iran is about to become a nuclear power?
https://www.strategypage.com/qnd/iran/articles/20190611.aspx
No, I never was in the military. But then, there’s been no reason to in my lifetime, as all US wars since WW2 have been wars of aggression, not defensive wars.
Poor DA. He doesn’t believe oppresor dictators are aggressors.
In his upside down reality, good is bad, and bad is good.
Nothing new.
Wars of US aggression.
The attack on Afghanistan was in self defense, sort of.
Svante says:
The attack on Afghanistan was in self defense, sort of.
How so?
Al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center and the Talibans gave them sanctuary.
Eh, maybe.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11451718
Al Queda is gone. So why are we still fighting the Taliban?
This doesn’t justify an 18-yr war that the US clearly isn’t winning and can’t win, in an region where no one has won a war since…how long?
It’s another war of US aggression. And now Bolton and Trump are laying the foundations for another one, with Iran, truth or lies be damned, just in time for Nov 2020!
David Appell says:
June 14, 2019 at 1:45 PM
“No, I never was in the military. But then, there’s been no reason to in my lifetime, as all US wars since WW2 have been wars of aggression, not defensive wars.”
So the Marines at Beirut International were committing acts of aggression?
Kicking Saddam’s thugs out of Kuwait was an act of US Aggression?
Kicking Castro’s troops out of Granada and liberating the small island nation was an act of US aggression?
All of those actions (and several others) occurred while I was serving though I was only directly deployed in one of them. The rest of the time I was targeted to places in Europe that would have most likely been a one way trip if the Soviets had decided to try their luck in Western Europe. Or training troops in places like Liberia and Nigeria and when the situation allowed, using my medical training to help the indigenous people. I never thought any of it was a waste of time or effort. Thought it was quit important actually.
rah, the Marines at Beirut International had no business being there in the first place.
Would you be OK with Saudi troops stationed at JFK?
“Kicking Saddams thugs out of Kuwait was an act of US Aggression?”
Certainly. Conservatives once said the US should not be the world’s policeman. We went to Kuwait out of pure self-interest, nothing else.
Remember when Rumsfeld shook hands with Saddam Hussein? It wasn’t much before Kuwait. Then the Admin saw him as useful to us.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saddam_rumsfeld.jpg
DA,
I suppose you are trying to make a point, but you are being a bit obscure.
Or are you just trolling?
The world wonders.
Cheers.
“David Appell says:
June 14, 2019 at 6:22 PM
rah, the Marines at Beirut International had no business being there in the first place.
Would you be OK with Saudi troops stationed at JFK?”
the Marines at Beirut International were part of a UN multinational defense force there at the behest of the legitimate elected government of Lebanon. Had to dodge the question of aggression of course didn’t you! Hell the reason they got blown up was because the guards were ordered not to have their weapons locked and loaded. Quite aggressive eh?
BTW David there are units and individuals from other countries located in the US constantly for training or joint exercises.
———————————————————-
“David Appell says:
Kicking Saddams thugs out of Kuwait was an act of US Aggression?
Certainly. Conservatives once said the US should not be the worlds policeman. We went to Kuwait out of pure self-interest, nothing else.
Remember when Rumsfeld shook hands with Saddam Hussein? It wasnt much before Kuwait. Then the Admin saw him as useful to us.
So thanks for making it clear you don’t have a bit of understanding about diplomacy concerning Rumsfeld shaking Saddam hand back when Iraq was considered the counterbalance to Iran. Heck we went to the beaches of Normandy and beyond for reasons of self interest and nothing else by your definition. I mean we had a whole ocean between us and them. No reason to support Britain and get involved eh? Even if Hitler declared war on us.
—————————————
Still waiting for your take on our “aggression” in Granada. I mean after all you said ALL of our wars were acts of aggression since WW II.
And BTW ‘Just Cause’ was most definitely a defensive action also. Location and Panama canal you know.
BTW I was involved in ‘Provide Comfort’ also. Quite an act of aggression saving Kurds lives.
David Appell says “Al Queda is gone.”
Not yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda#Involvement_in_military_conflicts
rah, on what legal basis did the US invade Grenada? To protect a few medical students?!
So the Marines at Beirut International were committing acts of aggression?
Yes. Absolutely. They had no business being there, sans oil.
“David Appell says:
June 16, 2019 at 4:27 PM
rah, on what legal basis did the US invade Grenada? To protect a few medical students?!”
Those few medical students that were US Citizens you mean? They, the students, considered it “a rescue mission”. It was of course more than that. Cuba was the antagonist invader, trying to expand it’s influence and power in the Caribbean by military force. The 600 Cuban “construction workers” were armed to the teeth and knew how to use those weapons including having antiaircraft artillery (ZSU-23-2) covering the airfield and many of them fought to the death. It was the Cuban “construction workers” that fired on the aircraft carrying the Rangers there by forcing them to jump in instead of land as planned.
So you don’t think it is in the national interest as a matter of defense of the United States or in the interest of humanity in general to prevent a communist neighboring nation and Cold war proxy of the Warsaw Pact from taking over any of the various small democratic states in the Caribbean?
It was not the moral thing to do to ensure the security of American lives and restore democracy to a very small country that was falling under a brutal dictatorship there by serving notice to that dictatorship or any other, that the US will not stand by and watch them gobble up their generally defenseless neighboring island states there by making them proxy states hostile to the US and any other nations of the region.
First you said you did not serve because you saw no threat to the security or defense of the United States that required ANY of the various military actions our nation has taken part in since WW II. Now you demand some legal justification. It seems that there is no circumstance other than possibly a direct invasion of our shores that would justify to you military action by the US or your participation in military action. Thomas Jefferson with his vision of an agrarian nation had that same opinion until he was POTUS and then changed his mind when confronted with the reality of the realpolitik ways of the real world and ordered Marines and Sailors to the shores of Tripoli without the prior authorization of Congress.
David Appell says: “My guess is that Ger*an/Huffman won’t be volunteering to go fight a war in Iran. We’ll see.”
You might, just might, earn a little more respect if you offer up what you would do David instead of questioning the patriotism of others. You saying what you think others might do says in spades what you would do.
How is it “patriotic” to advocate for war without being willing to go fight in it?
Anyway patriotism isn’t something I aspire to.
David Appell says:
“Anyway patriotism isnt something I aspire to.”
I wouldn’t have guessed! [/s]
The only person I hear suggesting they are too chicken to fight is you David.
On what basis is that the “most likely” explanation, (ruling out for the sake of discussion an ad hominem hunch)?
(That was to swampgator, BTW.)
The quality of reporting from the BBC news is suspect, to say the least. In text at the beginning of the report, the Kokuka Courageous has 23 crew members, Graphic of the Kokuka Courageous has 21 crew members, and further on, it seems that the USS Bainbridge rescued 29 of the 21 or 23 crew members of the Kokuka Courageous!
In the piece, an analyst asks “What is the US intelligence?”
I might cynically respond – something greatly to be desired. At present, more of an oxymoron than a useful reality. Something like the factual accuracy of BBC news reports.
Cheers.
You were right Doc.
A few weeks ago For the first time in over a decade this truck driver got put on a team load to California. Down to San Antonio to pick up a trailer from the Toyota Facility there bound for Hayward, CA ESE of San Francisco. Then down to San Diego to a brokers warehouse within 1/2 a block of the Mexican border and from there back to Toyota in San Antonio and then back to where we started in Anderson, IN.
Topped off the fuel in Arizona on I-10 about 15 miles from the California line to avoid their oppressive fuel prices and managed to not spend a dime on anything while in that state.
Took I-8 out of California from San Diego and finally got a chance to check out the dunes which was something I have missed in the past because I was either asleep or driving through at night.
China would be interested in distracting attention from South China Sea. Why not pay off a group of jihadis who would do it for free but for the lack of weapons …
Hey, it worked last time. China was left to its own devices for more than a decade while USA pottered about in Iraq and Afghanistan
Is there even a one epsilon’s worth of evidence to back up your cockamie conspiracy theory?
(Remember, epsilon -> 0)
DA,
Does pointless trolling come easily, or do you have to work really hard at it?
Cheers.
You’re a wannabee bully who doesn’t have what it takes to pull it off.
You’re weak.
Oooooh! How manly! How assertive!
I suppose I should be scared, but I can’t raise my care factor quite that high.
Thanks for your interest.
Cheers.
Mike Flynn
“Does pointless trolling come easily, or do you have to work really hard at it?”
You should know. You do more pointless trolling than anyone else on the site.
E-man, you’ve got your “facts” messed up, again.
DA comments far more than Mike, yet never makes a point, i.e., his comments are usually pointless.
As a climate skeptic of the first order I find it very very hard to agree with DA but generally speaking he is correct. The thing is there has always been a dominate power in the world and its foreign policy driven by self interest. In our world who else would you want to running things.
Regards
Harry
OK. But I’m not a skeptic, so I don’t see how we could agree.
Harry…”The thing is there has always been a dominate power in the world and its foreign policy driven by self interest”.
When it comes to Iran and their Draconian regime, I don’t care if the US is grandstanding. It’s time we out a stop to this idiotic regime.
Gordon, will you be volunteering to put your own a** on the front lines?
I”m sure you won’t be.
https://nsidXXXc.org/greenland-today/
Hmmm.
(Remove the XXX before opening the link)
Yes E-man, when it snows a lot, it melts a lot.
Hopefully.
You wouldn’t want the snow to build up so high the island becomes top heavy and tips over, would you?
Now we’re going to pretend that Greenland isn’t melting?
DA,
Why are you pretending that Greenland isn’t melting? Is it some sort of secret game, or can anybody play?
Next, you could pretend that Greenland IS melting (a bit silly – countries don’t generally melt, but why ruin a good game of pretending with inconvenient fact?). Or pretend that Michael Mann has a Nobel Prize, or that Gavin Schmidt is a world famous climate scientist!
There you go. You and your fellow cultists can pretend anything you want, as usual.
Cheers,
Next?
As a third country observer it is difficult to be sure what is happening.
We have a choice between two countries with long records of lying to the rest of us.
E-man, your problem is you can’t accept reality.
Ever heard of the “University of East Anglia, Climate Research Unit”?
What’s the “record of lying” at that institution?
JDHuffman
Stop changing the subject. The question is how to choose between the Iranian and US versions of how the Gulf tankers came to be damaged, when both countries are habitual liars.
Nothing to do with climate change.
E-man, I wasn’t changing the subject. I was pointing out your inability to face reality. UEA-CRU was just an example.
If you want to only consider who is the most believable, between US and Iran, just compare human-rights violations, as verified by other nations.
Or better still, go to Tehran and start claiming Islam is a false religion.
Reality is a bitch, huh?
You obviously tried to change the subject.
In the US we now have a president who lies as easily as he breathes, an administration already shown to be full of corruption, and ample precedent from the previous Republican administration who baldfaced lied their way into a war.
DA, you appear to be as passionate about perverting reality as you are about avoiding work.
Do you suppose there is some connection?
By now everyone is well aware that Trump lies.
Don’t pretend he doesn’t.
DA, in your perverted worldview, do you know of any politicians that haven’t been called “liars”?
Did Obama ever lie? Clinton? Gore? Biden?
No president has ever lied as much, as often, or as shamelessly as has Trump.
WaPo finds Trump has lied 10,796 times in 869 days:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.a331902ff061
It is impossible to believe any word Trump says.
DA, how many times has WaPo lied?
Show me the list of WaPo lies.
Mean time, I’ll take it that you can’t dispute their list of Trump lies.
DA,
You wrote –
“It is impossible to believe any word Trump says.”
Don’t believe him, then. Why waste your time listening to someone if you are not going to believe anything they say?
Have you a deep seated masochistic streak, perhaps? Maybe you could imitate Diogenes, live in a tub, and wander round during daylight hours with a lamp, seeking an honest man, and crapping where you will.
Don’t forget the old saying –
“How do you know if a politician is lying?”
“His lips are moving.”
Good luck with your search.
Cheers,
You didn’t show me the list of WaPo lies.
A dab of reality for you, DA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/19/obamas-biggest-whoppers/?utm_term=.e1ac3ea5c2c3
> 10 lies/day?
No, I didn’t think so.
Here’s a good example:
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
Reminiscent of this one from the 70’s:
“The oil crisis is a hoax by the plastic number salesmen – to sell more numbers”.
entropic…”We have a choice between two countries with long records of lying to the rest of us”.
I have not seen women executed in the US for what they wear in public. I have not seen the US suppressing freedoms over religious beliefs from Medieval times.
It’s time for the world to step in an straighten out Iran.
In the US several states now threaten to imprison women for daring to insist on their own bodily integrity.
DA, obviously you are alluding to abortion.
And, as usual, you believe you are the moral authority. There are many people wanting to play God.
Get in line….
It’s up to the woman — not you, not me.
Make your own hard decisions instead of looking to the state to make them for you.
There you go playing God, again.
Why does the woman get to decide? Who is standing up for the baby?
The scenario I like is the one where four tokens are placed in a hat. One for the woman, one for the baby, one for the father, and one for the doctor.
The token that is drawn is the one that gets to die.
If someone has to die, at least give the baby a sporting chance.
It’s not a “baby,” it’s a fetus.
And it’s part of the woman’s biology. So it’s her decision.
Butt out.
There you go playing God, again.
Something tells me that will not work for you.
You want to coerce all women into doing what you insist.
I want them to be able to decide for themselves.
It’s their body, not yours.
I respect that. You don’t.
DA,
You wrote –
“I respect that”
Good for you! Have you thought of getting enough crowd funding to get to make a phone call to someone who cares what you think?
You might even respect bumbling buffoons like Schmidt, Mann and Trenberth. If that’s the case, then your respect is not worth the letters it’s made from.
Respect away!
Cheers.
Wrong DA, I’m not coercing anyone. As usual, you can’t wait to start the false accusations.
Parenting is a huge burden, responsibility, and hardship. I would not force that on anyone that is not willing to take it on. It’s all work and little play, for years, and years, and years.
But, the rewards are incredible. Not only do the dedicated parents learn about life, but they benefit from the acquisition of wisdom, otherwise unavailable.
People that are not parents have missed out.
So the simple solution, for a mother that does not want the baby, is to put it up for adoption. There are thousands of responsible people that would love to be parents. It’s a win-win.
But, Leftists do not like such a solution, because it does not involve death.
It doesn’t matter, one iota, what you claim the rewards of parenting are.
It’s the woman’s choice whether she will carry to term. Not your’s, in any way whatsoever.
Mind your own business, and butt out of her business.
Oh I never thought, for even a millisecond, that I could open your mind, DA.
My only interest here was to show that the “high-road”, you believe you are on, is really the “low-road”.
Nothing new.
You never gave a single argument for why I should change my mind.
So it was very easy to ignore you.
DA, you weren’t ignoring me. Your numerous comments above were the opposite of ignoring. I would be delighted if you would ignore me.
What you were ignoring was reality.
Nothing new.
You never gave a single argument for why I should change my mind.
DA, you stated I was “easy to ignore”. Then you responded in 4 minutes!
Were you:
a) lying?
b) incompetent?
c) obsessed?
d) desperate?
e) All of the above?
Still nothing that changes
my mind.
Then, are you:
a) Too programmed to be de-programmed?
b) Closed-minded?
c) Aggressively dogmatic?
d) Content with your ignorance?
e) All of the above?
JDHuffman
On this issue I find myself in agreement with you and I did like your take on parenting.
The fetus is not the “woman’s body”. It is a unique separate living system with its own unique DNA. The woman contributed some of the genetic material but it is NOT her body.
It would be like with an egg from a chicken. In this case nobody would think the egg is part of the hen. She keeps it warm to help the growing chicken incubate. A woman feeds the growing human but it is not a part of her body. Parts of a woman’s body have the same DNA as all other parts. Scientifically David Appell is incorrect. On this issue he is using his emotional perspective rather than his scientific mind.
I would be against punishing Doctors or Woman for having abortions. I do not think this is the correct way to reach a satisfactory solution to this contentious issue. I would just hope that all people can think abortion is a bad thing, a product of our inability to control our own desires, a weakness. I don’t like making it into some kind of good thing that we should all support.
I think it should be a last option when nothing else seems to work. I totally support that if possible, a woman should consider going to term and giving up the baby for adoption. But I have seen how hard pregnancy can be for a woman so sometimes that is not something they are willing to do.
Gordon Robertson
Children kept in cages on the Mexican border.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/17/separation-border-children-cages-south-texas-warehouse-holding-facility
Executions of innocent people condemned by biased juries.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/death-penalty-study-4-percent-defendants-innocent
The poor dying because patient-blocking hospitals refuse to admit them without proof that they can pay.
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/refusal-emergency-care-and-patient-dumping/2009-01
Iraq destroyed in air raids and then abandoned to warlords because George Bush hat to be seen to do something after 9/11.
Unarmed blacks shot and beaten by policeman.
An Iranian airliner shot down by a US ship.
And a president who lies the way most of us breathe.
You should clean your own pot before you complain about Iran’s kettle.
It was very kind of the POTUS to take time out of his busy golfing schedule to express his concern about the high murder rate in London, 132 in 2018.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48651131
Perhaps he will now express similar concern to Bill de Blasio for the 292 murders on his patch in 2018.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-citys-murder-rate-hit-new-low-in-2018-11546559793
Don’t hold your breath.
PS: Good catch.
Point is those tankers were not flying American flags so who cares .
مهمترین ویژگی های این سوئیت های اختصاصی در مجموعه هتل ساحل سرخ چیست؟
1- وجود جای تمیز و نوساز با امکانات کامل و امنیت زیاد در قلب جزیره هرمز در محیط شهری و نزدیکی به مراکز خرید، نانوایی و رستوران در هرمز
2- محوطه شیک و مجلل با اقامتگاه در هرمز
کامل برای شب نشینی در جزیره هرمز
3- رستوران با منوی غذای متنوع و خوش مزه تر کافه در هرمز
از هر جای دیگه ای در هرمز که می تونین در فضای باز یا در تور جزیره هرمز
رستوران میل کنین. قیمت غذاهای ما از همه جا مناسب تره تور هرمز
4- مجموعه تفریحی هتل ساحل سرخ یک سری امکانات عالی به شما هتل در هرمز
میده مثلا شستشوی لباس ها، سشوار، اتو و .
5- می تونین ماشین خود مجموعه تفریحی هتل ساحل سرخ رو برای هرمز گردی کرایه کنین و ازش استفاده کنین.